Phd in Political Science

JHS
Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:53:24 +0000

If what you want more than anything is to be accepted in a political science PhD program, of course you are an idiot for not applying to lesser tiered schools. You are probably a competitive candidate anywhere, but there is someone like you in terms of grades, coursework, and experience at practically every college in the U.S., and lots of people like you in terms of grades and coursework, or close, but with far more experience in research or practical political work. And you are young. And the six places to which you applied, combined, have, what?, 120 places? 130? 100? Not everyone like you is going to be accepted by one of them. Four of the places you applied are among the most competitive in any dimension. The other two are not clearly among the top programs, but one is highly competitive by virtue of its location, and the other is tiny.

Your faculty sponsors will have a lot to do with your success, but you don’t say what they advised you to do, or even whether you asked them what they thought. Or, most importantly, where they thought they could help most. And why those were the right programs for you.

So, does your list look like it is well thought through? No, it doesn’t. It looks like what mattered most to you was (a) undergraduate prestige (b) located on the Amtrak Northeast Corridor line (c) but not in New York. That’s not such a hot selection algorithm.