Direct Democracy Focus - Where Should I Apply?

[jnewcomb08]

1.  As the title states, I am graduating this December as a non-traditional student from University of Florida and I'm looking to apply this fall to a host of schools.  I'm interested in researching direct democracy, but am having trouble easily finding schools that would be a good fit for me to apply to.  I have tried finding most cited authors in relevant literature and then researching that school's faculty for graduate programs, but sometimes the person cited isn't listed as a teaching member of that program.  

2.  I should mention that I'm 38 and went back to school in 2015.  I just took my GRE's and got 160v/157q.  My upper level GPA is 3.9 since going back to school (26 A's and 1 B in 27 classes) after a dismal showing back in 1997-98 at a high ranked Boston university.  I'm really looking at Emory, Vanderbilt, Penn (reach), American, George Washington, University of Calif - Davis, University of Southern California, NYU (reach), Princeton (reach), University of Wisconsin - Mad (reach), and University of Florida as a backup school.  I was accepted into the honors program and am writing my senior thesis now on citizen initiatives that will contribute to the field.  My adviser is the head of the poli sci department here at UF, and he wrote one of the leading books on direct democracy out there.  He is going to write a letter of rec along with our graduate school coordinator who advised me last spring, and finally a tenure track professor is going to write the third letter.

What do you think of my odds of getting accepted somewhere because with my age, GRE scores, GPA, letters, and what I hope is a stellar SOP.....I have no idea, lol.

[Imperator Totius Hispaniae]

I'm not as experienced with the application process as some others on this forum, but as someone who is looking to apply in an application cycle or two, I have done a tremendous amount of research on the subject.  So take what I say with a grain of salt. Here is what I found that pertains to your current situation.

1.  In general, the higher ranked the department, the more variety of specialists in particular sub fields you will encounter.  For example, my research interests are in a particular sub, sub field of new institutionalism.  In my research, I've discovered that Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and Michigan have the most scholars studying in this niche sub, sub field, while others outside of the top 10 have very few scholars doing research in this particular area.  This is due to the fact that the top 5/10 schools get significantly more funding than other programs and therefore can afford to pay faculty to do research in very particular or niche sub fields.  Your best bet would be to try and get into the top programs.  However, this is not to say that schools outside of the top 10 or 20 programs won't have scholars researching direct democracy, it's just that you will probably find fewer of them.  Keep doing your research on which faculty research direct democracy.  Im assuming you have, but if you haven't already, ask your professor/s to see if they can point you in the right direction.    

2.  I think the fact that you were accepted into the honors program will send a good signal to admissions committees.  It also seems you have really good people writing your letters of rec.  I spoke to a stanford poli sci PhD student, and a great piece of advice she gave to me was that you need to make sure that all your letter writers ham it up in their letters--particularly if you're trying to get into places like Princeton.  She said if they can say something to the effect of "this is one of the best students i've ever had in the last 10 years", it would really help you be competitive, especially if you have any deficiencies in other areas of your application.  If you can, I would recommend trying to retake your GRE.  A 157q will probably keep you out of the top programs.  I would try to shoot for at least a 160q; a 165 would be even better.  I also don't think your age should be a problem.  And finally, make sure you get a lot of people to review your SOP.  

Hope this advice helps!

[jnewcomb08]

Thank you for taking the time to put that together for me.  I know that my GRE is low-ish, definitely on the quant side.  That was the second straight time I took it and got that 157, lol.  I raised the verbal from 158 to 160.  With my classes, senior thesis, and applications that need to get done, I just don't know if I have another GRE in me.  I'll have to do some real soul searching on that and if I should really give it another go.  Sigh...

As for the points you made in section 1, I hear what you are saying...which makes that 157 in quant that much more worrisome.  

[Imperator Totius Hispaniae]

2 hours ago, judenewcomb said:

Thank you for taking the time to put that together for me.  I know that my GRE is low-ish, definitely on the quant side.  That was the second straight time I took it and got that 157, lol.  I raised the verbal from 158 to 160.  With my classes, senior thesis, and applications that need to get done, I just don't know if I have another GRE in me.  I'll have to do some real soul searching on that and if I should really give it another go.  Sigh...

As for the points you made in section 1, I hear what you are saying...which makes that 157 in quant that much more worrisome.  

Hey it was no problem.  I've learned so much throughout this process, and I'm willing to help whomever I can.  A couple more points:

1.  Don't worry too much about your GRE score.  If you don't have another GRE in you, that's ok.  I don't know for certain whether or not the top 5/10 schools have scholars that research direct democracy; I was simply stating that in general, those types of schools tend to have scholars that do more research in niche areas.  I really encourage you, with the limited time you have, to do more research to see which scholars are doing the type of research you're interested in, especially in departments within and outside of the top 20.  

2.  With that being said, I think it's important you expand your research interests beyond direct democracy for a couple of reasons.  First, professors leave departments to go to other ones all the time, so if you find one professor at a school who does direct democracy and leaves, you need to have back up professors who would be able to help you as an advisor.  Second, from my understanding, people's research interests often end up changing once they get to grad school, so that could very well happen to you as well.  In that case, you need to make sure there are other professors in your department that research topics in your new area(s) of interest.  Thus, I would suggest you find at least one other area of interest and then search departments that have 3 or 4 professors who do research in that area.

Hope this helps!

Edited September 18, 2017 by Neo_Institutionalist