Applying from Britain for Pol Sci PhD

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>My question seems fairly obvious for such a diverse forum, but I've struggled to find a solid answer for it. Apologies if I am just covering old ground...</p>

<p>I'm British (and studying in Britain) and I'm intending to apply for a place on a Political Science PhD program (2010) in the USA.</p>

<p>Can anybody give me some advise about how my degree classification is likely to be received? I appreciate that there is no 'set formula' for converting our grades to GPA, but if there is anyone with experience of the process I would be very grateful.</p>

<p>I am at Cambridge University, and my grade here is right on the border of 'Upper Second' and 'First'. Numerically my average is a 69 out of 80. I am considering applications to some very competitive schools (Harvard, Princeton, Stanford amongst others) and I'm trying to find out whether my grade will exclude me from genuine consideration? I know that 69/80 is mathematically the same as 3.45 GPA, but it is from Cambridge and our mark scheme is slanted so that only a small proportion get a 'First' (above 70/80) and only a tiny number of people get more than about 74.</p>

<p>I have a 1570 on the GRE, and of course I hope to impress with my personal statement/writing sample/LORs, but I am keen to find out whether my grade average will stop the top Universities from looking at me seriously.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>I’ve seen a few people recommending that you ask the office sending the transcripts to attach a note about your approximate ranking within your class. People here understand that it’s not the score number that counts, but how that places you within your class, and against what competition you’ve earned it.</p>

3

<p>that GRE alone would make adcoms do a double take and read the rest of your application</p>

<p>it’s hard to miss</p>

4

<p>Admissions are quite different at the graduate level—it’s the department to which you are applying that ultimately decides. What is perhaps more important than nitpicking over GPAs and GREs (assuming you have decent grades, test scores, LORs, etc.), is whether your qualifications are of interest to a particular faculty member, whose research interests you share. What specific areas of research interest you? Are there faculty members who also research those topics in the departments to which you will apply? Have you read their research? Have you communicated with them about it?</p>