PhD Profile Evaluation - IR/Comparative, some top 15 schools

[megabee]

First of all, this forum has been an absolute lifesaver during the applications process. However, some of the programs I'm applying to are top 15, so I'm a little concerned. Any input on my school list or how I should frame myself would be greatly appreciated.

BA (12/2017): Political Science, History Minor. The degree is from a large, public university in Texas (not UT). My main worry here is the lack of prestige factor. 

No MA.

GPA: 4.0 

GRE: 161V 158Q 4.5A

LOR: All professors from undergraduate institution. One from my undergraduate research advisor, one from the head of a multi-school data collection project which I was an RA for,  one from a  professor who knows me only from class but knows how I can participate in a seminar-style setting. All of them know me extremely well (meetings once per week for two years on the first two), so I at least expect the letters to (hopefully) be honest and not very cut-and-paste.

Research:

• Worked as an RA and a coder for a nationally known dataset involving conflict studies. My name is credited on the dataset as an RA.
• One quantitative research study on ethnic insurgency, unpublished.
• Another study (IR related and quantitative) is my undergraduate thesis and my WS. 
• A third qualitative study (comparative-ish) is published in an online journal for research conducted while studying abroad. I worry about it being more qualitative when I really want to get into quant stuff. It's searchable on a few academic search engines, though.
• I've presented a few times, though all have been at my home institution (which is the host of a national undergraduate research conference that I've presented at) because funding is tight.

Focus: Conflict studies - specifically civil conflict and ethnic insurgency.

I also have (paid) teaching experience in political science. It was three world politics classes for high school students, but the classes are supposed to closely emulate college courses to help first generation/low income/underrepresented groups prepare for undergraduate education. I don't know if this will actually help my application, but I've included it on my SoP and CV.

Schools: Stanford, UCSD, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and UNC Chapel Hill are the ones I'm worried about. After that, I have Arizona State, Penn State, and Michigan State. 

Thanks for any feedback.

[dagnabbit]

I'm a little confused about the big gap between the first four programs you named and the last three. If you want to do civil conflict stuff, why not Penn (Sambanis, one of the top civil war guys) or UCLA (Michael Ross) or even UT (Michael Findley)? Your profile looks good (GRE scores are a little low, but not too low), and you do have a shot at top places, but I think you'd benefit from applying to 2 or 3 other programs ranked 10-20. Brief anecdote: my rejection e-mail from Michigan last year claimed that they'd received 400 applications. That's nuts. With that kind of application to open slot ratio, even the most qualified applicants could be rejected for idiosyncratic reasons. I would at least urge you to consider applying to Penn - the department is definitely on the rise, and Sambanis would be a fantastic advisor for what you want to do.

[megabee]

On 12/2/2017 at 8:33 PM, dagnabbit said:

I'm a little confused about the big gap between the first four programs you named and the last three. If you want to do civil conflict stuff, why not Penn (Sambanis, one of the top civil war guys) or UCLA (Michael Ross) or even UT (Michael Findley)? Your profile looks good (GRE scores are a little low, but not too low), and you do have a shot at top places, but I think you'd benefit from applying to 2 or 3 other programs ranked 10-20. Brief anecdote: my rejection e-mail from Michigan last year claimed that they'd received 400 applications. That's nuts. With that kind of application to open slot ratio, even the most qualified applicants could be rejected for idiosyncratic reasons. I would at least urge you to consider applying to Penn - the department is definitely on the rise, and Sambanis would be a fantastic advisor for what you want to do.

Thank you for your suggestions, I've now also submitted applications to UPenn and UCLA. Those numbers for Michigan are actually wild? I submitted the Michigan application awhile back, though, so now it's out of my hands!