Competitiveness for Ph.D. Admissions--Political Science

Graduate School
1

<p>I have begun applying to Ph.D. programs, but have several questions regarding what I should reasonably expect regarding my chances. Allow me to begin with my history.</p>

<p>I attended community colleges part time over the course of 10+ years. It was only in the final year that I attended full time both semesters. Across the 4 schools I attended, I earned a gpa of 3.8.</p>

<p>I transfered into a top 20 political science department. I maintained full-time work and a full-time course load, and was able to graduate in 5 quarters with an overall gpa of 3.4, although my gpa at the top 20 was only a 3.15. </p>

<p>The semester after I earned my BA, I entered a terminal MA program at a tier 3 university, where I am currently. I have maintained a 4.0 throughout, and am on track to receive a 4.0 this semester as well, with only my final 3 thesis hours remaining for the upcoming spring semester.</p>

<p>I have presented papers at ISA and MPSA, and have been accepted to present at MPSA again in 2011. Although neither papers have led to submissions, I am using both, along with my forthcoming MA thesis, to carve out a very specific, but according to my advisor, a very important and not sufficiently examined niche for myself within the comparative field. </p>

<p>I have worked as a research assistant since beginning here. I have compiled the back matter for a forthcoming publication (credited), run statistical analyses for a second forthcoming publication (not credited), performed full French-English translation of a paper to be published as part of a series (credited), have performed copy editing for every issue of the journal for which one of my professors is Editor, and developed the curriculum and test questions for a freshman level class for a three week period following a heart attack suffered by one of my professors.</p>

<p>My GRE rankings are less than stellar. Although my verbal score and my writing score place me above the 90th percentile, my quant score places me only in the 58th percentile.</p>

<p>I have applied only to schools with three or more professors who actively teach and publish in areas relavent to what I see as my emerging agenda. However, because this is a specialized agenda, I was forced to seek only schools with larger faculties, and several of these schools are very highly ranked.</p>

<p>Here’s the list in working order of preference, based primarily on what I see as a fit to current faculty:</p>

<p>Emory
Michigan State
Northwestern
NYU
Illinois
Florida State
Notre Dame</p>

<p>Please help me to understand my chances. I am very nervous about the process, and wonder whether I should reconsider my list of schools to include more that may provide less of a substantive fit, but will be easier to me to gain admission.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>An MA, a few conference papers, and some strong letters are the makings of a competitive file; the rest is a crapshoot. Here’s a moderately informed guess about your chances: quant GRE scores will matter a lot at NYU and Florida State, which are very quant-heavy in training, so your low score there will cut your chances at those places (NYU in particular). You’ll have a better shot at the other options, though Northwestern is incredibly competitive for admissions these days I hear. </p>

<p>Limiting yourself to schools with 3 professors doing relevant research may be a bit too restrictive: if you have 1-2 people who really know the area of inquiry (substantive and/or regional) and 1-2 more who are smart people producing the kind of political science research you value, that should be sufficient. I would consider broadening your search for schools accordingly.</p>

3

<p>Thank you, porkypig.</p>

<p>The main problem that I am facing in finding Ph.D. programs that I can see myself fitting into is that the majority of comparativist programs place more emphasis on area studies than on substantive studies. I have begun to carve out an area focus through an independent study course, a term paper that I wrote for a graduate class, and a lecture I was invited to present based on these two projects, but for now, I see the focus of my work being on the substantive, and not on the regional. The substantive agenda I am forming has been almost exclusively treated by IR specialists. The contribution I make with my forthcoming MA thesis is a reorientation of the dialogue into the comparative arena. </p>

<p>I have researched every Ph.D. program in the country, and have come up with a very short list of schools with researchers doing large-n comparative studies. This list becomes even shorter when I narrow the list by considering also their regional, substantive, and methodological foci, and is reduced to only seven when I consider instruction in the language I will likely need in order to carry out the type of field work I intend to do. </p>

<p>There are several schools with one or two professors doing tangentially relavent research, but these are all very low-ranked schools. I do intend to apply to a couple of these as backups, but because their deadlines are not until much later, I am planning to put these applications off until after I have heard back from my top chioces.</p>

4

<p>To the OP: I have taught at two of the political science departments you’re aiming for, and I’m familiar with and know faculty members in all the others. The toughest admission on your list is likely to be NYU. You should have a shot at all of the others, though I can’t put precise odds on this.</p>

<p>Your GRE’s are not too low for polisci. If I translate your percentiles right, you got about a 650 on the quantitative and at least a 650 on the verbal. Higher scores would, of course, be better; but it is your professional commitment and experience that will make or break your application. If you can clearly articulate your theoretical/substantive interests as well as the relevance of your formal training and your research experience, you should get into at least two of those programs. If you have had any contact with faculty in the departments that you apply to, be sure to mention this in your application.</p>

<p>You are correct that in comparative politics these schools are not highly “area” oriented, though all have some faculty with regional expertise and interests. I hope you realize, however, that all of the better schools highly value quantitative research. You don’t have to be a great statistician, but the better you are at applied statistics and quantitative reasoning (including an aptitude for formal modeling, game theory, etc.), then the better your chances at admission and the better your chances of a successful placement once you earn your doctorate. </p>

<p>So I hope you can show through your coursework and grades in one or more stats courses that you have the aptitude to do quantitative work (the GRE is only one indictor of that aptitude).</p>

<p>Good luck to you. Maybe I’ll see you next year.</p>

5

<p>Thank you, mackinaw.</p>

<p>I am worried about having attended a top 20, and then going on to a tier 3 school for my MA. I definitely took several steps down. To what extent should I expect fot his to be a concern?</p>

<p>Also, I am curious about what a 4.0 graduate GPA really means–I know that graduate GPAs tend to run high. </p>

<p>I have no fear of quantitative methods or of formal modeling. I have written grad papers and conference papers using techniques I have had to teach myself, such as time series analysis and institution design theory. (My current department only offers one quant class, and the curriculum ends with logit regression. No faculty member here uses formal theory.) </p>

<p>I think I may just be worrying too much. However, I fear not being admitted anywhere, and therefore, not being able to pursue the agenda I have set out for myself.</p>

6

<p>To be honest, your MA doesn’t really matter much – that you have it, or where you are getting it. Your research and professional participation are far more of a potential plus factor than most applicants have – from whatever level of school they attended.</p>

<p>It’s easy to overestimate how important the quality or reputation of your undergraduate institution might be – or the relevance of an MA degree, given that when you enter most PhD programs you “start over.” You may be able to skip over or transfer credits for a couple of required courses in the PhD program, but basically you are starting out fresh. </p>

<p>You need to explain your career interests, your background and skills. There will be plenty of applicants to these programs that have humble education roots. They are often the comparatively odd student from an out-of-the-way place who for some reason aspires to earn a doctoral degree, and actually has the aptitude to do just that.</p>

<p>Don’t overthink this. Just put together a really good application, with an informative essay and some documentation of your research accomplishments.</p>

7

<p>Thank you again, mackinaw.</p>

<p>I have deliberately avoided contacting professors at the schools I am hoping to attend because I did not want to convey the impression that I was trying to sidestep admissions committees by making personal appeals to faculty members. After reading your post, I feel as though you think this may have been a bad decision. Because it is now late in the process for me (most applications have been submitted already), would the timing seem suspect if I were to contact the faculty members under whom I would most like to work now?</p>

<p>In two of my personal statements, I mentioned faculty authors whose work I have been following as primary reasons for aiming to attend these schools. Will this seem disingenuine in light of the fact that I have made no attempt to reach these professors? If so, is it too late for me to act to correct this?</p>

8

<p>As a faculty member in political science (though not at one of the departments listed) I have no interest in being contacted by prospective students. Nobody expects you to contact us, nobody puts any weight on that. On the other hand, if one of your advisors reaches out to me and says that you’re a great candidate who is a good fit for our program blah blah blah I might take that seriously and give your file an extra-careful look if I am on admissions, or pass that info along to someone on the admissions committee. Don’t waste time or energy contacting faculty; work instead on making your file as strong as possible.</p>

9

<p>Dear all,
I am also trying to figure out, wether I would be regarded as competitive, if applying to a top 20 Phd program in political science. If there is any chance you could give me some comments on my profile, I would be very thankful, for I am absolutely eager to go to the States for a Phd with focus on political theory/qualitative rather than quantitative. </p>

<p>I am studying at a pretty small - name public university in Europe and triple majoring in philosophy, laws and economics, aiming at receiving both a Magister’s degree (4 year - degree, little bit more credits than a bachelor’s) in laws and philosophy and a bachelor’s in economics. Information on GPA conversion let me know that I had a…
3,7 in philosophy
3,5 in economics
and 3,0 in laws.
Next academic year I will hopefully do a Msc. in public policy at University College London and then parallel to it in fall 2011, I would like to apply to Phd programs in the States for fall 2012 entry. </p>

<p>Besides studying, I am working as a research assistant for European legal history at my university and as a research assistant and project coordinator at a small think tank doing projects on politics and communication.
Furthermore, I did summer schools in econ at UCLA and LSE and interned with the trade commission in HongKong.
In case languages are important, I speek German, English, French and Spanish fluently and I have basic knowledge of Japanese. (however I have no certificates for French, Spanish and Japanese, but just grades from high school…)
I also don’t lack of extracurricular activities. </p>

<p>I will be 23 years old when applying/24 at potential enrollment. Given this profile and given that I will get a decent score on my GRE and good letters of rec (from internationally not too well known faculty, however) ,do you think I have a chance of getting into a top 20 program?</p>

<p>Biggest sources of concern seem to be my university’s lack of international reputation and my laws GPA… but also in general it would really be awesome if you could send me some comments on my profile. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

10

<p>Fhs, I’m another voice saying not to contact a professor unless you’ve been invited to. And I’d expect you to list one or two profs whose work interests you in virtually every personal statement, so nothing weird about not contacting them.</p>

11

<p>Thank you, TheDad.</p>

<p>There are two more (backup) programs I would like to apply to, but I have a problem. One of my recommenders was just denied tenure. Would it be better for me to solicit a third letter from another professor who does not know my work as well, but holds tenure? </p>

<p>Thank you</p>

12

<p>If the recommender denied tenure is at a top-20 or so institution, they are probably a known quantity in the field and a letter from them would still carry some weight. So I would keep that letter, especially since you asked that person for a letter (presumably) for a reason. If they were denied tenure at a 3rd tier MA department, that suggests that they have not published at all, have no record in the discipline, and a letter from them would not have helped you much anyway. Either way, at this late date, I would be cautious about second-guessing things in a frantic race to the application deadline.</p>

13

<p>I can give you the perspective of a former student who went through the admissions process and knew some of the people that sat on my department’s admissions committee. </p>

<p>In my experience, what they really wanted were people who they thought fit well within the department, and could handle the methodological rigors. Having some sort of connection to the program also seemed to help people’s chances (e.g. if you had a letter writer who was friendly with somebody in the department to which you were applying). I think they also wanted to find a cohort that had a diversity of interests–it probably helped my cause that I was interested in Religion and Politics, which isn’t the trendiest or most popular subject to note on a personal statement.</p>

<p>I spoke with another grad student who was the student rep on the admissions committee, and she felt that at a certain point, the applications start to look highly similar. Once you pull out an initial group of applications with obvious deficiencies, you’re still left with a large pot of applicants that all have good grades and good GREs, so the committee naturally tries to find candidates with some uniqueness to them. </p>

<p>One thing I learned from her that was rather interesting was how some quirky little things that you have no control over can derail your application. Case in point, there was one application from this guy who seemed very qualified, but one of his recommendation letters had this comment on it (I’m paraphrasing): “Student not suitable for an elite program, but would do fine in a department like yours.” The poor guy’s app all of a sudden had a rather negative association with it, and it got derailed through no fault of his own. He just made the mistake of getting a rec letter from a complete prick. </p>

<p>For what it’s worth, I can tell you my admissions profile and how I ended up doing. </p>

<p>I graduated summa cum laude with a double major from a decent but not great school–the kind you’d find in Princeton’s top 300 but far from an ivy league school. I think my GREs were 660V 770Q 6.0 writing. I felt like I got lucky on the quant score, I’ve always been pretty solid at math and I test well, but I don’t think I would consistently test that high. </p>

<p>I had no paper presentations, no publications, my research interests were only broadly defined, and my recommendation letters weren’t stellar. Two of the three weren’t even from poli sci professors, they were from philosophy profs (I just happened to feel more comfortable asking them).</p>

<p>Here’s how it shook out for me:</p>

<p>Berkeley - rejected
Wisconsin - rejected
Michigan - rejected
Princeton - rejected (actually they lost my application and never sent me an admissions decision. I still hold a grudge).
Notre Dame - wait listed
Washington - accepted
Texas - accepted
Florida - accepted
Maryland - accepted</p>

<p>The one poli sci professor that I did get a rec letter from had actually just assisted with some research being conducted by a prof that was at one of the schools I applied to. I think that helped grease the skids a little.</p>

<p>Anyhow, the moral of the story is that I’m certainly nothing special (trust me on that one), but even I had some choices. If you cast your net wide enough, and apply to schools of varying rank, you’ll have some options. I basically got rejected from the ones I thought I would get rejected to, and admitted to the ones I thought I had a decent shot at. Then you can look at the best school you got an offer from, and decide if that’s good enough for you. </p>

<p>Personally, I hated my time in the program and I left after my masters (which I earned in record time! :slight_smile: ), but I wish you the best of luck in your search and hope you get into a program you can be excited about.</p>

14

<p>Thanks to everyone who has tried to help me out.</p>

<p>I have received some very nice rejections to date. The best was a personal phone call I received from a professor who was on the Ph.D. admissions committee at a top program–he tried to push my application through, but was outvoted. He wants to get to know my work better so that he can possibly push harder for me next year.</p>

<p>However promising, all I have received so far are rejections.</p>

<p>Well, there is one exception. I did apply to a few safety programs, and have been offered admission to a program that is not well regarded (within a week of submitting my application). I do not want to go to this school for fear that I would not be competitive for hire with a Ph.D. from there.</p>

<p>Should I enroll at this school in hopes of moving up to a better school next year? I am defending my MA thesis next month, and certainly did not expect to be rejected by all of the schools I had seriously considered attending.</p>

15

<p>No. Transferring graduate programs is nothing at all like transferring for undergrads. If you don’t want a degree from somewhere, don’t enroll there.</p>