What's "in my league" in terms of grad school?

Graduate School
1

<p>First off, sorry for earlier thread erroneously placed in the undergrad forum - I found this site for the first time today, and I'm still getting used to the way the board is set up.</p>

<p>Anyway, to reiterate...I graduated from UC Davis with a 3.49 GPA and a degree in Political Science. I am now considering continuing my education, so I want to posit the following questions to those among you who will know better than I:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>With a 3.49 GPA, am I even in contention for a PhD program?</p></li>
<li><p>If I can compete for a PhD program, then which level am I looking at? I'm not interested in the Harvards, Columbias, or Berkeleys of the PhD world, but am I a decent candidate for a public university in the top 100?</p></li>
<li><p>If I'm not competitive to get into a PhD program, then how hard will it be to get into a program for a master's degree, and what caliber of school should I look at?</p></li>
</ol>

2

<p>Even if you had a 4.0: if all you have to show for your undergrad work is a GPA, you are NOT a contender for a Ph.D.</p>

<p>What is your research experience like? How strong are your letters of rec going to be? Why do you want a Ph.D.? What are your GRE scores?</p>

3

<p>Ok, I just took the GRE this morning. 710 quantitative, 740 verbal. Combined with a 3.49 GPA, what kind of school should I be looking at for poli sci?</p>

4

<p>PhD program applicant is selected based on four things:

  • GPA
  • GRE
  • Rec Letter
  • Experience (personal history/purpose statement is also here)
    Where experience and rec letter weigh significantly higher than the previous two.</p>

<p>For a top 50 school-not-considering-top-15 , GPA is 4/5, GRE is 5/5 (no 1 Harvard has 780Q, 600+V average)
If you have 0 experience (no research that’s related to PolSci, intern, etc) and 0 rec letter, then I’d say 3/5 you’ll be accepted. If you have good exp and good rec letter, you can apply anywhere in the top 15-50 and get accepted since your GRE is very high. With stellar rec and experience, and a better Q score (750+) you might have some chances in the top 15 school.</p>

5

<p>Let’s say I get three decent-to-good letters of rec, but no research experience - how good of a shot would I have in the bottom half of the top 100? I’m quite alright not being in the top 50.</p>

6

<p>I’d say very likely, since your GPA is decent, GRE is stellar, decent-to-good recs. </p>

<p>The reason I said experience matters is because I know a couple of students who graduated from top 5 schools, have >3.9 GPA, 750Q/700V GRE and decent letters from prof. in a top 5 school (in his/her field) but 0 research experience, and they didn’t get into top 10 PhD program (or waitlisted, and later he was accepted)</p>

<p>Instead, people who has 3.6 GPA from top 10 schools, 760Q/600V GRE, at least 1/3 decent letter, and at least 1 years were accepted in top 5 schools.</p>

<p>Therefore you should be aiming at 20-50, not bottom 100. Bottom half of 100 you’re like almost certainly accepted I guess.</p>

<p>But these people are in natural/formal sciences and not in social sciences. So in your case it’s probably different.</p>

7

<p>Ok - thanks! My strategy, then, will be to target one school from 20-35, another from 36-50, and another school out of the top 50. I figure that this way, I have a good shot at getting into an awesome school, and I maximize my chances of getting into some school.</p>