Suggestions for a linguist that's not great at math

[Internationalis]

Dear Forum Members,

I am approaching the forum members here as I am not sure who else I could anonymously ask questions to in regards to my eventual application. Some details about myself:

• I'm a mid-career individual with over 7 years of teaching experience (full-time)
• Speak, read, write English, Dutch, German, French and Italian
• Have lived over 22 years in various European nations and over 7 years in the US

So, I have taken the GRE 3 times now (the first time I was unreasonably sick). Regardless the best scores I got were 640V and 560Q. I know that the quantative side is in the lower portion, my strength has always been in linguistics, cultural and policy oriented work. Therefore, my PhD application will also focus on these areas. Anyway, my question to you is what type of options do I have in applying to political science PhD programs? I have read that you must have at least a 700Q in order for Ivy Leaguers to even contemplate your admittance and that most second tier universities will only accept you with a 600Q+ GRE results.

I have been looking mainly at 2nd tier universities, however, are there 1st tier universities that are known to be interested in a policy based PhD for someone with a lot of international exposure and linguistics experience (I also have a BA and BS with a combined GPA of 3.4 and MBA with a 3.75)?

Any suggestions would be very heavily appreciated.

Thanks

[Demisel]

Nowadays, a PhD in Political Science is not the best preparation for policy-oriented work anymore. Given your interest, you might wanna look into area studies PhD programs (e.g. East Asian Studies, Chinese Studies, Russian Studies, that sort of thing). While you're doing a PhD in one of those areas, you can take some courses from the Political Science Department, whichever ones you find useful. You may even obtain an MA in Poli Sci if you take enough courses.

[Internationalis]

Originally Posted by Demisel

Nowadays, a PhD in Political Science is not the best preparation for policy-oriented work anymore. Given your interest, you might wanna look into area studies PhD programs (e.g. East Asian Studies, Chinese Studies, Russian Studies, that sort of thing). While you're doing a PhD in one of those areas, you can take some courses from the Political Science Department, whichever ones you find useful. You may even obtain an MA in Poli Sci if you take enough courses.

Thank you for that message. I have been in contact with a number of professors from the Political Science department(s), specifically in the international relations sector. All seemed enthousiastic about a policy oriented research study. I wish they would have told me this information as well.

So, from what I'm gathering from your commments, if I wish to study an area (particularly security studies from a certain region), then I should go for an area studies program? If so, do you have any recommendations? I have only found master degrees for this area of study.

Thank you.