<p>I have seen a few posts on IR master's programs but very little on International Politics PhD programs. I am going to be in DC next year and I ao this fall i am applying to all the poly-sci schools inside the belt way (GT, SAIS, GW, AU, and UMD). i have seen the william and mary study that ranked gt and sais as one and two and gw and au in the top ten for ma programs, but they all sliped in the rankings when it came to phd programs. does anyone know why this is?
also...i did ba at UMD and majored in government and politics (gpa 3.82). i am now finishing my ma in middle east studies at tel aviv university. i speak hebrew and have a high-intermediate level of arabic. i am also a vet of the iraq war where i served in us naval intel (does this count for anything?) and have worked at DC area intel agencies (again does this count for any thing?) i am taking the gre in sep...does anyone know what type of score i would need to be in a good position to get into gt or sais? what else are they looking for? travel? research published? thanks in advance.</p>
<p>shimshon,
You have a very interesting background, combined with an excellent GPA. Why would you be interested in a Ph.D. rather than an MA? For example, my son will be starting a Ph.D. program in the fall in Poli. Sci./IR and he eventually wants to teach on the university level. My (very limited) understanding is that MA's from the excellent schools you have mentioned lead to policy careers, diplomacy, etc. You ask about travel and published research-he had none and was still accepted to 3 excellent Ph.D. programs, so that doesn't seem to be necessary. As for the GRE's, I don't know about the specific schools you mentioned, but I would have to think that a 600+ on each section would be helpful.</p>
<p>One of my son's undergraduate professors referred him to Foreign Policy magazine which recently had a ranking of graduate programs for both MA's and Ph.D.'s in IR. I agree that the schools which you have mentioned do not appear anywhere near the top of those rankings for Ph.D programs. I am sure that one of the knowledgeable posters on this board can provide a further explanation.</p>
<p>I am finishing an MA now, so i dont want to do another one if i do not have to. I am also interested in teaching at the University level one day, so thats why i am looking into PhD programs. thanks for the encouragement.</p>
<p>There are few IR PhD programs simply because most of the top PhD programs for "IR" are just political science departments. </p>
<p>Off the top of my head, the top places for IR right now are...</p>
<p>Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Columbia
Michigan
Berkeley
UCSD
Chicago</p>
<p>and maybe a few more.</p>