<p>Yeah, it’s another “rate my application” post! I know that there aren’t a lot of poli sci folks on these boards, but really any feedback would be really appreciated at this point.</p>
<p>I’m currently applying to Political Science PhDs, generally focusing on IR (I want to focus on war and conflict studies.)</p>
<p>GRE: 730/720/4.5
GPA: 3.63 cumulative, 3.73 major
BA in International Relations</p>
<p>I haven’t published during my undergrad, but I did an honors undergrad thesis and I’m using several parts of that for my writing sample.</p>
<p>I’m applying to (in order of preference / hopefulness):</p>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign</li>
<li>UC Davis</li>
<li>University of Iowa</li>
<li>Emory</li>
<li>Claremont Graduate School</li>
<li>University of North Texas</li>
</ol>
<p>So do I have any kind of a chance here? Again, any feedback would be great:)</p>
<p>I think you've got a decent shot at these schools, so long as you've got good letters of recommendation. It also looks like you've done your homework in terms of finding programs that specialize in your interest. I wonder, though, with the GRE scores, whether it might be worth taking a shot at some of the higher-ranked programs - where the test scores would get your application put into the pile that get looked at closely... of the top departments, my not very well informed sense is that Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are good places to work on the 'guns and bombs' side of IR, and maybe Columbia too?</p>
<p>With those scores and GPA, you should be able to get into any program you want, provided you can get letters of rec and write a decent statement of purpose. Columbia is the best conflict school in terms of name recognition. Most of the schools you have there aren't worth getting a Phd in IR in (but masters is fine), unless you are going getting compensated pretty well. Penn state is a great school, but not known for IR. Emory is solid. UC Davis is a positivist school, wouldn't recommend Iowa or Urbana Champaign as anything more than safety schools.</p>
<p>Yeah I have no idea either since I'm applying to programs right now, but I'm interested in the same area of PoliSci as the OP and I hadn't seen many of those schools come up as really hot places to study conflict. </p>
<p>Penn State actually has a really good terrorism program, I've heard good things about it and it looks like they're expanding it. I know a recent UC-Davis grad on a tenure-track job so the things I've heard from there are good too.</p>
<p>MIT's deadline isn't until the 31st too while a lot of other places have already passed too, so it might be worth it giving them a shot.</p>
<p>I'm happy to hear that my application package looks pretty good... hopefully the university folks think so too. To be honest, I'd never even really considered applying to any of the really big-name schools (Columbia, MIT, Harvard, etc)... who knows, could be worth a shot!</p>
<p>Regarding the list of schools - I know they're not big names, but I've heard really good things about individual faculty at each one. John Vasquez and Paul Diehl are both at UIUC, and Douglas Lemke is at Penn State (my top pick), which is also currently the host of the Correlates of War Project. I dunno. Maybe it's a mistake to pick schools based more on individual faculty than the school's overall reputation, but my thinking is that I'd rather have a good relationship with my advisor at a lesser-known school than be viewed as just another grad workhorse at a school with a better reputation. That could well end up happening anyway, though, so we'll see : /</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks again for the feedback - any other thoughts, feel free to fire away!</p>
<p>don't pick schools for individual faculty. it could work out for you, but the potential is too high for it not to. faculty could leave while you're there. they could be asses. they could never be available to grad students. all the above do happen. pick schools for their overall strengths ie apply to nyu, michigan, rochester if you're all about quant methods.</p>