<p>I want to do a PhD in Political Science (International Relations). I didn't get in anywhere last year, even though academically speaking, I did almost as well as it's possible to do. I wonder if it's hard for British students to sell themselves due to the nature of our system?</p>
<p>BA: 1st class (top 7%), Politics and Philosophy, Oxford University.
MSc: Distinction, International Relations, London School of Economics.</p>
<p>-I came top of the year at the LSE (which is one of the best Masters programmes for IR in the world) in exams out of 120 students, and also won the prize for the best dissertation.
-Coursework essays: scored 80 out of 80 for both coursework essays at LSE.</p>
<p>-GREs: 690/690, 6.0 writing.</p>
<p>-I've been out of school since 2005, and working since then, and want to do a PhD now.</p>
<p>I know the GREs are low for Harvard, Yale, Princeton et al. But frankly, they're ridiculous and I didn't have more than a few days to revise for them.</p>
<p>Was my application scuppered because my GREs start with a '6'?</p>
<p>It could be a question of fit, it could’ve been your statement of purpose, there’s really no way to say. You shouldn’t apply to a PhD program just because it’s at Harvard/Yale/Princeton, you should apply to a department you like to work with professors whose interests match yours. Pulling up your GRE scores wouldn’t hurt, but it sounds like it may have been a fit issue above all.</p>
<p>If they check out your interests in undergrad and during your masters and can tell from your SOP that your interests aren’t a focus of their department, they may not feel it is appropriate to take you.</p>
<p>As well, most schools ask what other schools you applied to. If you simply named top schools that may also not be the best fit for you, they would notice.</p>
<p>Adcoms can tell the difference between those who really have an interest in their program and those who simply applied to the best schools because the student had stellar stats.</p>
<p>However, this is all conjecture. We have no idea if this is the case for you.</p>
<p>Your GRE scores definitely don’t appear low either (unless of course IR schools want a high Quant score–which makes little sense anyways).</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it. To be honest, I applied to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton because they do have good IR programmes and they also happen to be three of the top Unis in the States. Maybe this time around I’ll try Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and a place like Cornell or Duke which isn’t as murderously difficult to get into. I’m encouraged to hear that you don’t think 690 is too low a GRE score. I had the impression that everyonoe had something in the mid 700s for Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to have a good IR program/be a top uni and quite another to have the best IR program/best environment overall for YOU specifically - your research interests, goals, aspirations, what you can contribute to the department, where you’d want to live for the next 5-7 years, etc. Once again, don’t just pick Cornell or Duke because they’re “not murderously difficult to get into” - clearly define what it is you want to study (IR is broad and most PhD programs in poli sci require 2 areas of concentration - what’s your second one?) and find professors/departments you want to work with/in based on that definition. Is it security? Theory? Behavior? Institutions? Comparative? How much/little quant do you want? Who are the authors whose research most shaped your interests? That’s where you should start. The top 3-5-10 programs will vary by subdiscipline within poli sci, so you shouldn’t approach this the way one would the undergrad admissions process.</p>