<p>I am a junior political science major who is thinking about studying in the United Kingdom for grad school. I have a 3.7 gpa and a 4.0 in my major. I will be interning this winter and spring in Washington D.C. I have been looking at schools such as Queens University in Belfast, St. Andrews, LSE, University of Glasgow. Are there any things I can do to make my resume for admission look better.</p>
<p>you’re going to have to be a little more specific on what your resume currently looks like if you want people to tell you how to improve it.</p>
<p>have you done stats classes? that’s a big part of poli sci. do you have any foreign languages? how fluent are you in each? another big part.</p>
<p>you should also keep in mind that american universities will fully fund (most, if not all) PhD students, whereas the UK programs don’t necessarily offer funding, or full funding, to all of their students.</p>
<p>And don’t forget the exchange rate risk! The dollar bounces around.</p>
<p>Another issue with a PhD in the UK is that US PhDs are based on including a masters and lots of teaching, if you are doing a UK PhD, you would be smart to get a US masters and lots of teaching or get your UK masters and then back to the US for a PhD, whatever you do, look for teaching experience along the way if you eventually want to work at a US university.</p>
<p>Check out the UK threads at the chronicle of higher education forums (Google it since we cannot post links here) Also, check out uk yankee dot com for info on the life there, not so much the admissions issues.</p>
<p>I am taking a stats class right now and should get an A in that course. I dont have any real foreign language skills although I have study abroad experience in China.</p>
<p>And thanks for the comment on getting a masters in the UK first than coming back to the states for my PhD. that was another option that I was thinking about.</p>
<p>the funding should be a real concern to you. for a humanities/social science degree, you should avoid taking on graduate debt at all costs, because the job you’ll get afterward will not bring in enough money to pay off your debt. if you’re really set on going to the UK and aren’t independently wealthy, look into external fellowships like a fulbright.</p>
<p>the languages will be a big deal. do you have reading knowledge of any language other than english? it’s usually required that you can read one, if not two, foreign languages. not having languages sinks most people’s grad applications.</p>
<p>and regarding teaching experience, you DO NOT need it. princeton doesn’t require their students to teach at all and they have no real difficulty finding positions as professors. it’s the myth of modern graduate education that teaching experience is somehow necessary for employment. it isn’t at all. universities just need to find a way to justify forcing graduate students to teach the courses their professors would have (and arguably, should have) been teaching instead. if anything, you want to AVOID teaching requirements at all costs so you can focus on your own research. teaching can be fun and rewarding and is often the most enjoyable part of the job, but if you actually want to finish your degree, the less you are required to teach, the better.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information</p>
<p>Your uni choices need refinements. Apply to Warwick, York and Oxford aside from LSE and St Andrews.</p>