Do I need an MA to get into a PoliSci PhD program?

[cpaige]

I have been browsing the CVs of current grad students at the top Political Science departments and have noticed that some held MAs before beginning the PhD program. How necessary is an MA in order to gain admission to a top program?

Here's a little bit more about me to give you some context:

Undergrad degree from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service
3.85 overall GPA; 3.94 major GPA
International Politics major; Russian and East European Studies minor
a few academic honors societies; an award senior year (not a thesis award, though )

Senior honors thesis on multiple political parties in states with little political pluralism; another senior thesis on the the role of the Russian people in Russia's sovereign democracy (I did well on both theses)

I should have very strong letters from my two thesis advisors as well as one from a professor whose seminar I took senior year

I want to study the effects of systemic regime failure (particularly the failure of Communism) on subsequent regime development (especially on political party formation, ideological rhetoric, and the dev. of legal infrastructure) and the state of individual/civil rights in post-Communist countries.

would an MA in Russian and East European Studies help me? i'm not particularly interested in using formal quantitative methods in my research, so I wouldn't be interested in an MA in statistics or any such discipline.

thanks for your help!

[Demisel]

No, an MA is certainly not needed. It probably doesn't help either. In my experience, the people who've already got MA degrees don't do any better than those who haven't.