How competitive am I for Ivy Grad Schools?

KayleeJH
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 21:22:40 +0000

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.)