Fall 2011 applications!

[slacktivist]

I am a college senior who posted over at Poli Sci Job Rumors yesterday about my graduate prospects:

I'm finishing with my undergraduate in December and am looking at PhD programs with quantitative and American emphases. Specifically, I am interested in studying urban voting behavior and how it is explained by various contextual factors (which can be diversified on my statement to demostrate research interests in urban politics, voting behavior and quantitative methods). My academic profile is as follows:

Grades: 3.35 from a CSU, 3.80 in the major (CC transfer student and will finish with a 3.95 overall at the CSU)

GRE: Have only taken a couple of practice tests and not yet studied in earnest, but am around 730 V, 650 Q. I'm aware I need to boost the Q score to be especially competitive. (For the purpose of my questions , let's say I can reach 700-720 on Quantitative. Also, I have always been a strong writer and expect to score 5.5-6 on the writing portion.)

Extras: Working as a research assistant (for academic credit) with a professor on an article he's revising and resubmitting to JOP. Planning to create special study to write a senior thesis, which is not offered by my program. Also planning to take a graduate seminar and have that paper, which can also serve as a writing sample.

LORs: Will have letters from department chair, professor I'm assisting, and another from an urban politics professor who is also president of a CC. Obviously, these aren't the likes of Gary King, but it's the best I can do.

Weaknesses: Weak reputation of undergraduate school and low overall GPA, current quant score, no classes in calculus, economics and econometrics. (Not flying totally blind: I did ace a research methods course, and wrote a term paper for another course based on my own work collecting data and conducting a multivariate regression analysis to test a hypothesis.)

Context: The first school I transferred to from CC, I was feckless, working 50 hours a week, partying and flunked out in one semester. I can (and will) write strongly about how I learned from that experience, but it sticks out on my record (and knocks my GPA down by 0.25). The light didn't turn on until transferring to my current school, where, concurrently, I have been working full-time in a salaried position at a non-profit (not related to politics).

Application Objectives: I am looking to prepare myself for a top 25 program, and have an interest in being placed at a teaching institution after a doctorate. There are certain programs outside of the top 25 that I am looking at (UC Davis, Illinois, USC POIR, UC Irvine). Are there any programs outside of the top 25 that are particularly strong in my research interests?

My downside bet is to apply to MA programs (currently thinking of continuing at my current CSU, Cal Poly MPP program, Virginia Tech, Villanova). Which MA programs have both a strong quantitative focus and a good record of placing their MAs into top 25 PhD programs?

[Scalia]

I am a college senior who posted over at Poli Sci Job Rumors yesterday about my graduate prospects:

I'm finishing with my undergraduate in December and am looking at PhD programs with quantitative and American emphases. Specifically, I am interested in studying urban voting behavior and how it is explained by various contextual factors (which can be diversified on my statement to demostrate research interests in urban politics, voting behavior and quantitative methods). My academic profile is as follows:

Grades: 3.35 from a CSU, 3.80 in the major (CC transfer student and will finish with a 3.95 overall at the CSU)

GRE: Have only taken a couple of practice tests and not yet studied in earnest, but am around 730 V, 650 Q. I'm aware I need to boost the Q score to be especially competitive. (For the purpose of my questions , let's say I can reach 700-720 on Quantitative. Also, I have always been a strong writer and expect to score 5.5-6 on the writing portion.)

Extras: Working as a research assistant (for academic credit) with a professor on an article he's revising and resubmitting to JOP. Planning to create special study to write a senior thesis, which is not offered by my program. Also planning to take a graduate seminar and have that paper, which can also serve as a writing sample.

LORs: Will have letters from department chair, professor I'm assisting, and another from an urban politics professor who is also president of a CC. Obviously, these aren't the likes of Gary King, but it's the best I can do.

Weaknesses: Weak reputation of undergraduate school and low overall GPA, current quant score, no classes in calculus, economics and econometrics. (Not flying totally blind: I did ace a research methods course, and wrote a term paper for another course based on my own work collecting data and conducting a multivariate regression analysis to test a hypothesis.)

Context: The first school I transferred to from CC, I was feckless, working 50 hours a week, partying and flunked out in one semester. I can (and will) write strongly about how I learned from that experience, but it sticks out on my record (and knocks my GPA down by 0.25). The light didn't turn on until transferring to my current school, where, concurrently, I have been working full-time in a salaried position at a non-profit (not related to politics).

Application Objectives: I am looking to prepare myself for a top 25 program, and have an interest in being placed at a teaching institution after a doctorate. There are certain programs outside of the top 25 that I am looking at (UC Davis, Illinois, USC POIR, UC Irvine). Are there any programs outside of the top 25 that are particularly strong in my research interests?

My downside bet is to apply to MA programs (currently thinking of continuing at my current CSU, Cal Poly MPP program, Virginia Tech, Villanova). Which MA programs have both a strong quantitative focus and a good record of placing their MAs into top 25 PhD programs?

It looks like we'll be competing this fall. Just a little about myself... I'm interested in American and Methods. As far as grades, my gpa is near a 4.0 but like you, I'm at a mediocre school. I'm also doing a math minor so I'll have completed Calculus II, Statistical Methods, and be enrolled in political science research methods class by the time I apply. I'm anticipating good gre scores, probably higher on the math section. I'm hoping to make it into a top 25 program too, and I want let you know that trying to find FUNDED MA programs might be difficult, and there are quite a few schools that don't accept the work done in a masters program in its entirety. You'll likely end up repeating some coursework.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Scalia

[SuddenlyParanoid]

Given your interests, I suggest FSU and MSU. They're not top 25 but they're pretty decent.

[slacktivist]

First, I realized I probably shouldn't have posted a topic title that freaks out the 2011 cohort of applicants! My brain just short-circuited when trying to think of a catchy one.

Michigan State does well on the Schmidt/Chingos ranking; especially so, relative to their US News ranking. However, their recent placement record looks lacking.

On the other hand, there are some terminal MA programs (Villanova, Virginia Tech and North Texas) that offer tuition remission and stipends to their best incoming students. I wonder if that would be a better means of getting into a top-25 program.

[tomorrows verse]

Not sure how active he still is, but Martin Shefter at Cornell has done some interesting work on urban politics, and Michael Jones-Correa does REP work and urban politics to a certain extent.