Chances

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi all, I've already submitted my grad-school applications, but I'm curious as to what you think about my admissions prospects for Cambridge (MPhil in IR and Politics), LSE (MSc in Politics and Government of the EU), and Oxford (MPhil in Politics [European Politics & Society]). I'm an American/international student and don't know very much about the ins and outs of UK admissions. Thank you for any insight!</p>

<p>GPA: 3.932/4.0 (cumulative) at top-50 liberal-arts college; summa cum laude</p>

<p>Majors: German and political science</p>

<p>Languages: German (fluent), French (intermediate), Russian (beginner)</p>

<p>Studies Abroad: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland (2011); Czech Republic, Germany (2009)</p>

<p>Academic Fellowships/Work Experience: Fulbright Scholar (currently an ETA in Germany; also conducting original research); Humanity in Action (research on human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Denmark); Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton (legal intern); Research Fellow (political-science research at my university)</p>

<p>Publications: two publications in my university's humanities journal (the first focused on German literature and the second cross-cut history and political science; the first won my university's foreign language honor society essay competition)</p>

<p>Recommendations: should be stellar (all from political-science profs)</p>

<p>Awards: won top awards for both of my majors; selected for several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa; won several community-service awards (was founder and director of mentoring program for at-risk middle-school students in area around my university)</p>

<p>Conferences/Invited Talks: presented at Joint Conference of Political Studies Association Groups for Comparative, German, Greek, and Italian Politics in London; Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL; and South Carolina Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Clinton, SC</p>

<p>Other Activities: founder/director of mentoring program; president of my university's Model UN program</p>

2

<p>This probably goes without saying, but all three of the institutions you’ve listed are extremely competitive and receive far more applictions than they possibly have places for. </p>

<p>Your academic credentials are solid. So admission will depend mostly upon whether your requisite (for Oxbridge, not sure about LSE) research proposal catches the interest of a member of the faculty. More accurately put, it will depend upon whether a thesis supervisor decides your research proposal is more interesting/promising/feasible than those of your equally qualified competitors. </p>

<p>A potential spoiler for you could be getting out-competed by those with some practical experience in a career field related to IR. For example, I did a master’s in IR at Cambridge and in my cohort were international lawyers, military officers, journalists, etc. It would be difficult to out-compete such individuals on purely academic grounds.</p>

<p>The fact that you’re willing to pay overseas rates may be a plus for you depending upon how the admission process works. But this is, in my view, only a slight advantage. Will it buy your way into a program? No. Can it be a tie-breaker? My guess is yes.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your reply, orangelogic. I put a lot of time into developing my research proposal as well as briefly discussing it with faculty members in the departments, so here’s hoping that something will pan out in my favor. I didn’t know that practical IR experience could be a potential deal-breaker for schools in the UK (the most that I have in the way of post-undergrad experience is my current Fulbright Scholarship), but that’s now duly noted!</p>

4

<p>I don’t want to over-emphasize the point about practical experience. I was just saying that between candidates with equally solid academic backgrounds but where one has experience in a certain position, the practical experience could decide between the two. But for most programs there will still be lots of folks (probably the majority) who are traditional students with no experience (yet) outside academia.</p>

5

<p>Thanks again! Thoughts, anyone else?</p>

6

<p>You have solid academic credentials, so you are at least in the running. They’re not going to discard your application as soon as it gets there. But you are applying to the three most competitive schools in the UK, in some of their most competitive programs, so really there is no way of “chancing” you. You’ll be competing with other stellar applicants, including applicants who have comparable college records AND 3-5+ years in the IR field. I’m not familiar with those programs, but it may be worth it to check and see if they value practical experience. At many programs in the US, a student would have to be singularly exceptional to be admitted to an IR program without 3-5 years of experience, whereas at others, they are friendlier to undergrads. It depends on the culture of the programs to which you are applying, but I would say that is your only weakness.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for your insight, juillet. Fingers crossed!</p>

8

<p>Update: I received an unconditional offer from LSE! Waiting on Cambridge (should hear back by end of January?) and Oxford now.</p>

9

<p>Hi all, I’ve now received offers from both LSE (MSc in Politics and Government in the EU) and Cambridge (MPhil in International Relations and Politics) and am just waiting to hear back from Oxford (MPhil in European Politics and Society).</p>

<p>Right now, I’m having a bit of a problem choosing between LSE and Cambridge. After grad school I’d like to pursue more of the practitioner side of IR (working for a think tank or policy group in the UK or the US would be ideal), but I’m not sure which school would set me up better for that. Honestly, I’m really very attracted to the idea of studying at Cambridge or Oxford–two of the oldest, most revered universities in the world–though one can argue that LSE has a better reputation as far as IR goes. However, given that one can also argue that all three schools are within the same tier, how important is it for me to do one program over the others? In short, does it really matter?</p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>

10

<p>Bump. Anyone?</p>