How competitive am I for Ivy Grad Schools?

Graduate School
1

Thank you for checking out this post! I’m currently a Political Science Major (female) with a minor in Russian at Oklahoma State University! It’s clear that the schools with the most resources/funding are the Ivies, and I’d be ecstatic to be accepted to any of them.

I’m currently a sophomore at OSU so I have some time to consider different programs, but I know for sure I’m interested in International Relations/Foreign Policy or Russian/Eastern European Studies. I obviously haven’t taken the GRE yet, but I’ll list my ‘stats’ below:

3.7 GPA (Should be able to achieve a 3.8 barring complications)
Honors College
Teaching Assistant Fundamentals of Political Science
Advisory Board of History Club
Wentz Community Council Senator
Residence Hall Association Senator

  • On External Funds Committee
    Founder of Central Asian Interest Group
    Model UN
    Humphreys Travel Grant Recipient (Spending 2 months abroad this summer in Kazakhstan to study Russian, History, Economics…)
    Russian Tutor
    Applying for Critical Language Scholarship this November 2019, very optimistic I’ll receive it!

I’ve got solid recommendations as I’m close with my Russian prof (a previous Rice professor), and also with one of the Chairs of the Global Studies Department as well as a couple of political science professors.

I’m not completely schooled on how GRE scoring works, but based upon my SAT/ACT scores and my newfound motivation I’d wager my GRE will be above average… doubtful it’d be anything crazy impressive, though.

I don’t have any research done or published - would that hinder me and should I look into finding those kinds of opportunities?

(I’m also quite interested in the University of Texas and Indiana University… just very curious as to whether I’d have any chance at all.)

2

Actually, the Ivies don’t necessarily have the best ‘IR’ program. (see Georgetown, Johns Hopkins-SAIS, and Tufts…)

MA or PhD? (If the latter, you will need to be involved in research for any top school.)

P.S. Why grad school? IR is the new ‘it’ major…so you’ll have lotsa competition.

3

MA! I want to do something within the Government, specifically the State Department or perhaps an intelligence agency with a need for Russian speakers who also have sufficient understanding of global policy. The Foreign Service is also appealing to me. (Although you don’t need a degree for the FSO career track, there is so much I want to know I can’t imagine feeling satisfied after four years.)

If anything I’m leaning towards Russian and East European studies.

In regards to Georgetown, Tufts, Hopkins, how much more do you think I’d need to achieve to be competitive? I know Georgetown is the “it” school for anything government, which leaves me feeling very intimidated…as I should be! Yikes.

Tysm.

4

errrr…no. As @bluebayou has pointed out, only 4 of the top 10 IR Masters programs are at “Ivy” league schools. Go spend some time learning about the various programs- they are more different than you might realize.

They also have some different requirements, so read up on those (for example, SFS wants Micro & Macro Econ before you start). Importantly, many of the good Masters in IR- type programs want you to have worked for a few years before you start, so think about what that job might be.

5

to be more competitive, take some quant classes: Calc, Stats, Econ

6

As others mentioned top grad programs in IR are in DC at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown. To be competitive, work on GPA, GMAT, languages, math/econ, international experience, work experience