Politics PhD Chances (Quant)

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi, I'm applying to Politics graduate programs next year (2010). I'm interested in political methodology and formal modeling. Could anyone who has been through this process before give me some recommendations on schools that I should apply to? Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Politics Major, Poli. Econ Minor
*completed all coursework for an economics degree</p>

<p>Departmental honors (from Harvard/Princeton/Stanford)*, either cum laude or magna cum laude (depending on my thesis grades)</p>

<p>Writing thesis mixing IR and game theory (relatively unexplored area in applied game theory)</p>

<p>GRE: Don't know, but I'll have a year to study pretty hard for it</p>

<p>Recs: Three from politics department, all from profs in pol. methodology, well-known in field</p>

<p>Potential schools:
1. Rochester
2. Stanford GSB
3. Harvard
4. Princeton
5. Cal Tech
6. NYU
7. U Mich
8. Columbia</p>

<p>Concerns:
-GPA high enough for top choices?
-No publications
-No proof-based math</p>

<p>Questions:
-Should I consider more safeties?<br>
-Anything I can do to improve my app?<br>
-Any other schools I should apply to in general?
-In polisci community, any downsides to going to schools that are great in poli methods subfield (like Rochester) but not as well rounded?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>This is a good list of schools, though you're missing Yale, and perhaps Berkeley (Brady, Sekhon, etc.). Your qualifications, as described above and pending the GRE score, are good enough to get you in the mix at these places, but there is no guarantee when admissions rates are under 10% as they are at some of the schools you listed.</p>

<p>Particularly in methods, there is no downside to going to a specialty place - in addition to Rochester, Stanford GSB qualifies as an example. Good people from these places do quite well on the job market, and face no disadvantages as a result. Just be SURE that methods is what you want to do...</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>