Ph.D. in IR with China focus - where to apply?

Graduate School
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<p>Hello there,</p>

<p>I hope some of you can help me to get a better idea about the graduate/Ph.D. International Relations programs in the U.S. when it comes to Chinese foreign relations.</p>

<p>I'm from Germany and am currently reading a double masters degree at the University of Warwick (M.A. International Relations) in the UK and RSIS at Nanyang Technological University (M.Sc. International Political Economy) in Singapore. I studied economics before.</p>

<p>I have been focusing on China's foreign relations with the West so far and am seriously considering to do a Ph.D. in this field. The obvious question is where to do so.</p>

<p>In the UK, this seems to be rather clear to me, with Oxford and Warwick (and, to an extent, LSE) being the obvious choices.</p>

<p>It has been not that easy to get a decent insight in the U.S. higher education sector, though - especially with regard to my interest. Many universities have 'China centers' nowadays but few focus on China's foreign policies.</p>

<p>So far I've come up with GWU, Denver, San Diego and maybe Virginia and Hawaii (it seems their IR department isn't exactly their flagship department, though). I haven't researched it yet but I expect Johns Hopkins, Berkley and Tufts to be options, also.</p>

<p>While I wouldn't rule out working in Washington later on, I am more interested in a global/international organisation/academic perspective when it comes to reputation as well as departmental attitude. Hence, it's not a must to go to the east coast. Costs/funding will eventually be crucial but is not of my main concern at the current stage.</p>

<p>Last but not least: my Bachelor grade was rather bad (GPA 3.1 or so - I got into the Masters due to some decent work experience and determination for the topic, I suppose) - do you think this would have a major impact if I got a GPA of ~3.7+ in each of my masters?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot for any insights you might have!</p>

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<p>definitely apply to JHU SAIS for the Chinese PHD program, the head of the department David Lampton is the foremost expert on Chinese foreign policy in the world (they just take 1-2 phd students a year so its super competitive but if you have Lampton as your advisor you are basically set for life in any China related field). How is your chinese level? I’ve looked into the same thing myself and usually the better programs such as Columbia Harvard SAIS all require high fluency in chinese. Have you published any articles?? Have you presented at any conference. Remember China studies is the “hot topic” and you will have a lot of competition. Have you lived in China before? Have you been involved with think tanks or policy makers? For phD programs its not just grades that matter, its the commitment to what you want to study. Have you thought of an exact topic you want to research? Does it fit with your advisor’s interests? High grades will of course help but you will also have to study the GRE and have extremely good LOR. ALso LSE is much better for this then Warwick when it comes to Chinese IR, Christopher Hughes is a world leader in Chinese foreign policy and nationalism studies. He isn’t a David Lampton (no one is, have you read the three faces of chinese power?? Lampton is a god!) But he is right beneath him when it comes to China IR, I just finished reading his Chinese nationalism in the global era and it made me even more excited to study under him. Oxford has Rosemary Foot and she tends to focus on CHinese-US relations as well as more conceptual regionalism aspects and less Chinese foreign policy. I’d suggest trying to publish some papers, spend some time in China, perhaps get an internship at a think tank or a government entity involved someway with China. Also learn to read extremely well in Chinese.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your message!</p>

<p>No, I haven’t published anything or have attended any relevant conferences so far. I agree that China has become important in the last years in IR, but there are still only relatively few who deal with it, it seems (there’s lots about domestic politics, about their economy and so on - but little about their diplomatic foreign relations). I do think I can make a case for my commitment, I’ve studied at SOAS before where I started to get interested in China and have pretty much focused on it ever since. My plan is to take the HSK 2 in summer this year and pass HSK 3 before I graduate next year. Thus, I’m (very) far from being fluent, but I have plenty of time during my Ph.D. to master the (written part of the) language… </p>

<p>Yes, I do have two or three ideas about Ph.D. topics and yes, I’ve started to have a look at certain potential supervisors. The problem with Rosemary Foot is that she apparently doesn’t take any new Ph.D. students anymore. Hughes would be the person to go to at LSE, but he’s basically alone there. LSE certainly is very strong in the ‘West’ part, but I fear that I’m missing out on the ‘Chinese’ part if I’d go there. The reason I went to Warwick in the first place was Shaun Breslin, who is, from my point of view, on par with Hughes when it comes to quality and also international reputation (maybe with Hughes having a small edge due to him being at LSE). I also expect him to write a decent LOR for me.</p>

<p>As for Columbia: maybe I’ve missed it, but SIPA isn’t really into China in IR?!</p>

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<p>Not IR school the poli sci department itself. its not just Hughes though there are 4 people in the IR department that work with East Asia. Usually if you want a phD in IR you don’t go to the IR schools you apply to the poli sci department. HSK 3 is not going to cut it, not by far, usually language training starts at least from higher intermediate (lots of phd students are at IUP here in tsinghua). Breslin is a good guy, but just to tell you, usually schools only have one or 2 at most experts on Chinese foreign policy. Your undergrad gpa won’t help but if you do very well in your masters it will show growth. The one thing is that you really need to do well on the GRE and you need a very very good recommendation from Braun, not just a decent one. A lukewarm recommendation from a big name won’t do any good just cause its a name professor. You really need to show this guy you know your stuff. Where did you do your undergrad???</p>

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<p>Thanks. I was quite surprised when I was looking for a politics department at Columbia but didn’t find it - it seems I really missed it.</p>

<p>Regarding the language, well, it will not be enough for reading material in Chinese, of course, but it’s a start and I’d expect language learning to be a significant part of my Ph.D. in the first years (especially in the U.S.). E.g. Denver has recently established a centre with Peking University which would make it even easier…</p>

<p>I agree with you that many schools, especially in Europe, have only one or two experts in this field. This doesn’t make it easier… Furthermore, all the advice from the faculty here at Warwick pointed to the direction to only do a Ph.D. if you get a reputable supervisor who really knows what he’s talking about. Else it would just be a waste of time and money. This, however, excludes quite a few options…</p>

<p>Besides my proposal the LORs are probably the most important part… I’ve got two lecturers here at hand I consider being helpful due to their reputation and idea about me. Breslin basically offered me to do my Ph.D. with him so I expect his reference to be ‘sufficient’ for most other places/people.</p>

<p>The GRE… well, yes. It is very important for the U.S. and while I don’t really have time, I will have to take the preparation seriously… A 670/720/5.1 average score at GWU looks a bit frightening, especially as Shambaugh would be one of my favourite supervisors. Oh, I did my Bachelor at SOAS and LSE.</p>

<p>Would you mind telling me what you’re doing? It sounded like you’re a current/future/potential Ph.D. candidate under Hughes? The summer IUP course seems to be an option between my Masters degrees and a Ph.D. next year…</p>

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<p>I’m doing the LSE Peking University double masters program next 2 years then applying for phd for Chinese foreign policy I met lampton when he came to visit the Beijing alumni club and told him I want to study china japan relations and china east Asian relations he seemed interested and suggested I contact him before I start applying. I don’t plan to do my phD with Hughes. I am applying after my masters to sais Columbia Stanford harvard ucla Yale Georgetown Hawaii Cornell washington in Seattle and possibly duke and American. I’ve contacted some potential advisors and some gave good feedback others were like w/e wish you good luck. I do hope hughes will write a strong rec for me.</p>

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<p>I’m a bit sad I didn’t apply for the double degree last year but was at that point still thinking about China-EU relations mainly… Then I got more into EU politics and quickly decided that this is not something I’d want to focus on too much… too upsetting.</p>

<p>Hm, you’ve already contacted potential Ph.D. supervisors even though you will not applying to them in the next year?</p>

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<p>I was really active in Asian studies related stuff in my undergrad so many of the people in CHinese foreign relations I have already met and established links with. So when I sent an email a few of them remembered me and gave me some really positive responses.</p>

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<p>Hello guys,</p>

<p>I just got accepted for the LSE Peking Univ double degree in Public Administration. Do you have any idea about the reputation of the programme ? I heard its fairly new and there havent been any comments or feedback from alumni ? Whats the stake there ?</p>

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<p>Why not learn it from the horse’s mouth? Go to BeiDa or Qinghua for the Ph.D. Program?</p>

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<p>One of the parents mentioned Tufts as having a good IR dept, for an undergrad student. I dont know much about Tufts personally.</p>

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<p>Harvard and Stanford are just as good.</p>

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<p>I am guessing they are probably better than most if one can get in.</p>

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<p>The Public Administration one is not IR at all, it is exactly as it says public administration. Its in its first year so you will have no alumni basis. If you are really concerned about that I am going to post you what the LSE famous asianist Christopher Hughes told me about the LSeE-PKU programs</p>

<p>Dear —, this is a familiar problem. One thing you should consider is
whether you will have to do a historical dissertation on the double
degree, given that it is located in Int History. Every year I get
students complaining to me that they want to write about contemporary
issues but are told they have to work on a historical dissertation. I am
not sure what the double degree expects on that front, so better check
with them.</p>

<p>More generally, I think in academic terms it is better to be based in
the IR Dept if possible. The double degree is in effect two separate
degrees. So you could always do a one year masters degree at a Chinese
university if you wanted to go there and study. That would also give you
more latitude on decidign which Chinese university to go to. Although
PKU is very prestigious, the teaching at master’s level may not be as
good as somewhere like Fudan in Shanghai.</p>

<p>As for IDEAS/Millennium etc, they are lined to the IR dept, so no
problem there. In general I think the IRD programme is better because it
has been up an running for so long. But the double degree gives you the
opportunity to go to China. But that is not hard to arrange anyway these
days.</p>

<p>It was very disheartening to here this because I had thought getting into LSE-PKU was my ticket to getting into a China related phD. I did research for a year at PKU and the moment I got into the IR program my advisor took me by the side and said to drop the LSE-PKU program. He is a professor at the SIS and told me that all of PKU’s english programs are cash cows and that the professors in general really don’t care as much about their english students compared to the chinese language taught ones. I don’t know about the public administration but from talking with alumni, employers, and scholars in both America, the UK, and China I realized that I would get no advantage by doing the double degree. Because its first year the program will be very disorganized and be like a beta year so just be warned. The same thing happened with the LSE-PKU IA degree. At the last minute I was able to switch to my second choice IR due to the recent additions of another China related class at the LSE IR department that is also taught by Hughes. So taking 2 courses taught by the same guy for a full year who is considered one of the foremost experts of chinese-east asian affairs is a boon. Moral of the story I learned is stick with the well known established programs. Really know your stuff. Grtgrt did Econ at SOAS and is trying to get into a phD program after going to not well known IR program that one real asian module but trying to boost that with a degree from singapore. The kids he will be competing with will have much higher stats due to experiences which count much more with relevant degrees.</p>

<p>Also if you have to start learning Chinese during a phD you will NOT get into a top phD program in any China related field. Period. Top programs expect at least high proficiency in Chinese now if you want to study Chinese politics in any form. </p>

<p>Stanford - Is weak for CHinese politics in general
Harvard has the committee but only has one professor in the Gov department that does East asia related stuff and he is more on east asian regionalism that could be your advisor if I remember correctly.</p>

<p>Tufts is not strong for ASIA!</p>

<p>Cornell’s gov department has one of the current leading western scholars on the development of Chinese foreign policy.</p>

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<p>Thanks BlueJayBJ for your advice and posting Christopher’s Hughes’ comment on the programme. </p>

<p>Hughes is probably right that going into PKU for the first year of such dual degree might not be the best way to get into a prestigious PhD in IR with China focus. However, I am not aiming for a PhD later on and am not willing to pursue a career in academia. I have already graduated from a French University with a Masters in Public Adminsitration and am seeking to broaden my understanding of public affairs and administration in a comparative perspective (franco-sino-british) so as to apply for international and regional organizations. </p>

<p>So I was wondering the extent to which such degree, and especially the year in China, would be a boost for job hunting in the field of intl organizations/regional organizations and diplomatic jobs…</p>

<p>I take it that you are not going to Beida in September eventually? :)</p>

<p>Thanks again for your advices</p>

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<p>Question --what distinguishes a PhD degree in International Relations from say Political Science or Economics? </p>

<p>Also, a bit of background:</p>

<p>After doing quite poorly in my overall undergrad gpa, I got accepted to a non-competitive MA/Int’l Affairs program at a well-respected university. So far, I’ve managed to keep a pretty high GPA (3.88), and in addition to completing an internship in DC, am working on my M.A thesis. In short, I made a turnaround as a student. </p>

<p>However, I realize that my past is like my shadow --it will follow me around on transcripts wherever I venture. The goal is to gain acceptance to a respected PhD program --but my question is: will my undergraduate blunders distract from my MA glory?</p>