<p>I would like to apply for a PhD position at Harvard at the Department of Government and would like to know my chances. </p>
<p>I live in Germany and am currently studying political science (major), economics (minor), and international law (minor). I will be receiving my Magister Artium (which is a 9 semester-degree in Germany) next spring and have also studied in Paris for my year abroad. </p>
<p>We don't have GPAs here, so none of our grades count for the degree. The only ones that count are: thesis (on political science, about 80-100 pages), three oral exams (for each subject) and a written exam in political science. Would my other grades be important to enter Harvard? My problem is that, since I went to an international school in Germany, I had trouble with studying in German and this affected my grades accordingly. However, I am optimistic about my final grades, as I have overcome the language barrier. How important are the undergraduate grades for admission? </p>
<p>I also speak 5 languages (3 of them fluently/mother tongue level) and took up Russian this semester. After I finish my degree, I am planning on spending a year in a Russian-speaking country to teach at a university and improve my Russian knowledge. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I am interested in a region which is pretty neglected in academia, so this would be an asset I find. </p>
<p>What else would be important to raise my chances of getting admitted? </p>
<p>Harvard regularly accepts students with degrees from European universities. What matters are the usual things: letters from recommenders, your subject of interest and its fit with faculty (and with the admissions committee in particular, which makes things a bit idiosyncratic), and your GRE scores. They will want to see a list of courses that you took. The language knowledge and international experience will only matter if they have relevance to the material that you want to study, and even then will matter only on the margins.</p>
<p>Thank you porkypig. How would I know if my subject of interest would fit with the admissions committee? Is there a way to know who the admissions committee is? </p>
<p>So from what I understand, the undergraduate course grades can be balanced out if references, subject of interest and GRE scores are good?</p>
<p>There is no way to know who the admissions committee is, but the interests of admissions committees ustyually reflect the overall faculty interests fairly closely - otherwise the faculty as a whole would not delegate to them.</p>
<p>Grades matter. The department accepts 8% or less of applicants. But they're not the only thing that matters, nor the most important thing. The most important things are letters, personal statement, writing sample, and test scores.</p>
<p>its hard to predict this stuff. basically, if your research interests line up well with several faculty, AND those faculty are still doing that kind of work and working with new grad students (some places have certain faculty that don't really work with grad students at all), then that's a good fit. but, lots of conditionality here. harvard is one of the best places. you could be incredible and not get in. basically, if you have high GRE scores, strong grades, clearly-defined research interests that fit with what several people do there, and strong letters of rec from people who the faculty there know well (plus maybe any peer-reviewed publications or major conference paper presentations), you're probably in the running. but yeah, PhD programs in poli sci aren't really cut and dry in terms of admissions...its tough to guess who gets in where. all you can do is put your best foot forward, which means have all/most of the qualifications i listed above before applying.</p>