agarwaen.mormegil

That's what I'm worried about. Most schools don't mention in their departmental websites that, say for instance, have a 3.5 cut-off but rather puts up the minimum 3.0 requirement. Demisel, could you shed some light which schools toss the applicant's file to the waste paper basket if they have GPA Also, would the above average GRE or any other parts of the application be a buffer against the We don't have a GPA system in our country so it makes even harder for me to evaluate things.

My GRE is 1400 (verbal: 630; quant.: 770). I guess it's above average for Poli.Science PhD admissions. I'm more worried about my undergrad university marks which on conversion to GPA would stand somewhere between 3.1 to 3.4. :(

OK, GRE and/or GPA scores don't make or break an application, although a higher score is always a plus. But, GRE: 1. How important is the GRE compared to LoRs, SOP and writing sample and grades in Poli. Science PhD admissions? Is it the same as in Economics PhD admissions? Also, I have read, maybe here in TM or somewhere (can't remember at the moment) that some schools place a LOT of weightage on the GRE. 2. Does anyone have any idea which schools below place such considerably larger weightage on the GRE score compared to other application materials, especially for international applicants? Applying to: Chicago, Emory, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Notre Dame, SUNY Buffalo, Brown, Princeton, Virginia, Texas A&M, Claremont Graduate, Cornell, Northwestern, Rice, Georgetown. GPA: 3. We don't have a GPA system in my university but when converted my GPA will probably only be between 3.1 to 3.4. Not good. :( So, which schools are not so "turned off" so to speak about below average GPA? For example, Virginia explicitly says on their departmental website that writing samples, SOP are far more important than GPA. I believe almost all the schools above have average GPA of admitted students between 3.5 to 3.8. Which means some admitted students have GPA below 3.5, right? Thank you. :)

I know. I fear it as well. But given the randomness of admissions the hope remains, right? To be safe, I'm applying to some terminal MA programs (which give funding) too (I might apply to Georgetown's terminal MA besides the two mentioned). I'm hoping with my profile I may just be able to get in at one of them with funding. What do you think?

Thanks a lot! Princeton, seriously? I thought Princeton was in the border between 'target' and 'off limits' for me. ;) (Honestly, thanks to TM, i have some idea about econ phd admissions but i don't know much about political science phd admissions.) Anyway, taking Math courses are compulsory for every Economics undergrad student in my university. Do you think they'd have a negative effect when it comes to Chicago as they're more qualititative oriented? I am not particularly quantitatively inclined. A few schools I'm applying to (read: Claremont, UW Milwaukee) are like 'safeties'. I'm not exactly sure my profile is Top 10 worthy. :D. Besides, as I said, my choices are heavily constrained due to grad school policies not accepting 3-year undergrad degrees from South Asia as equivalent to their 4-year undergrad degrees. But what the heck. I guess even in economics *good* placements are dominated by Top 10 schools. :hmm: Is it true that the SOP is given more weightage in polisci admissions compared to Economics PhD? Thanks again, Demisel, for being always for clueless PoliSci applicants here in TM.

I'm copy-pasting my profile (with few edits) from the Econ. PhD forum's thread. I was in a limbo that given my research interests whether to go for a Political Science PhD or one in Economics. Made up my mind. Chose the former. Do I really stand any chance at getting in at the places I'm applying to? Or am I being ambitious? Advice, please? Many thanks in advance. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: B.Sc. Economics (Honors), with Maths and Political Science as minors. Large, well known Indian university. Has long history of placing students at decent U.S. universities. Undergrad GPA: Waiting on that. Should be mid-to-high second class, roughly in the 3.0 to 3.5 range after conversion. The GPA is specific to my university. A caveat is that my university is infamous in India for grade deflation (as it is known in the US). GRE: 1440. Quant: 790. verbal: 650. AWA: 4.5 TOEFL: 111. Got 24 in the speaking. :eek: Economics courses: Micro, Macro, Statistics and Econometrics, Development, International Trade, Public Finance, mathematical Economics, Indian Economic History and Economic Policy Analysis. Math Courses: Everything. Modern Algebra, Linear Algebra, Calculus, Linear programming, 2D and 3D geometry, vector analysis, numerical analysis, Stats. Maths grades should be average. Political Science Courses: Indian constitution and politics, World constitutions (US, UK, China, Switzerland, France) and politics, Political Theories. Research Experience: Published papers in 2 national level conferences and at 2 international conference. Teaching Experience: none. Research Interests: political economy, comparative politics with focus on elections, South Asian politics, development and governance. LORS: Two from my college. One professor (from another college) with lots of national and international publications. He knows me very well and I've been with him to conferences. All 3 have PhD in Economics. Another nationally famous Sociology professor (PhD from Mcmaster) who knows me pretty well and was the track chair in one of the conferences I've been to. SOP: Just started working. Concerns: Endless. To be pithy, 1. (Potential) average GPA. International students especially from my country apply with much better GPAs. 2. I will be applying with only an undergrad degree. Almost all applicants from my country and I believe most international applicants apply with a graduate degree or they are already enrolled in a graduate program. But I will be in my final year of my undergrad program. I think this will be the biggest handicap to my profile and will heavily affect my chances. 3. Low GRE AWA score. Applying to: My choices were constrained as most US grad schools don't accept 3-year undergrad Honors degrees from South Asia. PhD: Chicago, Emory, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Notre Dame, SUNY Buffalo, Brown, Princeton, Virginia, Texas A&M, UW Milwaukee, Claremont Graduate. Contemplating (may add few from here): Cornell, Northwestern, Rice, Syracuse, Purdue. Terminal MA (just to be safe): Villanova, Marquette

Why don't you repost your questions to the econ phd forum? There be a lot of people to answer your questions. As an applicant to economics graduate schools with the chance of having a low GPA i'd say it just doesn't depend on your GPA. Weakness in one area of the application can be neutralized by strength in others. Like if your GRE score is good and your recommenders can vouche for you and account for your low GPA then you just might get in. The SOP is a factor as well. Since you're only applying for terminal masters, your low GPA might not be as much as a factor than a phd application. IMO, it's a good idea to keep a few safeties in lower ranked schools.

You have to retake your GRE. Your Verbal and AWA scores are too low for any decent econ. grad school. On the other hand, I think Lokayot and tennisboy85 are right. If you do your phd again, you have to do it in a different discipline. In which discipline are you doing your phd?

How is the academic job market for a Public Policy phd? Do they get hired in Econ. departments (which I believe is not an everyday phenomena)?

Isn't ol' uncle Anc going to ISI Bangalore? :D

I am in the same situation as well !! I am really really interested in political economy and I like interdisciplinary approaches and hence I'm having trouble choosing where to apply. I heard political economy phd from an economics department is currently not so hot in the economics academic job market. But Political Science departments offer Political Economy (PE) as a concentration as well and unlike economics departments where PE is not offered at many places, most Political Science departments offer PE as a concentration. So the job scenario is better there. So the idea of applying mostly to political science departments appears logical (as poli.science departments doesn't usually hire econ. phd folks). On the other hand, a Public Policy phd is highly interdisciplinary. So that's kinda attractive The dilemma is how many economics and Political Science departments and Public Policy schools would I have to apply to maximize my chances of admission given my profile is not stellar? I'm still figuring that out. :hmm: Any ideas? Please?

LSE is one of the top places for economics and political science programs and I don't see how it'd harm your chances to get into a top econ. school in the States. Interdisciplinary is always good. I think your comparative politics MA will be especially helpful if your research interest includes political economy as it will sync well with the LSE MA degree.

Here we go again. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad: B.Sc. Econ. (Honors), with maths and Political Science as minors. Large South Asian university. Has long history of placing students at decent U.S. universities. Used to be very reputed. Not so nowadays. Still fairly well known. Undergrad GPA: Waiting on that. Should be high second class, in the 3.2 to 3.7 range roughly after conversion. I know. I shouldn't convert percentages into gpa. GRE: 1440. Quant: 790. verbal: 650. AWA: 4.5 TOEFL: 111. Got 24 in the speaking. :crazy: Econ courses: Micro, Macro, Statistics and Econometrics, Development, International Trade, Public Finance, mathematical Economics, Indian Economic History and Economic Policy Analysis. Math Courses: Everything. Modern Algebra, Linear Algebra, Calculus, Linear programming, 2D and 3D geometry, vector analysis, numerical analysis, Stats. Maths grades should be average. Other Courses: Political science: Indian constitution and politics, World constitutions (US, UK, China, Switzerland, France) and politics, Political Theories. Research Experience: Published papers in 2 national level conferences and at one prestigious international conference. Working papers in 2 more national conferences and one international conference. Teaching Experience: none. Research Interests: Primary: political economy. Secondary: development econ. SOP: Will start work in August. Concerns: Endless. To be pithy, 1. Reputation of undergrad university. 2. (Potential) average GPA. International students especially from my country apply with much better GPAs. 3. Unknown LOR writers. 4. And most importantly, I will be applying with only an undergrad degree. Almost all applicants from my country and I believe most international applicants apply with a graduate degree or they are already enrolled in a graduate program. But I will be in my final year of my undergrad program. I think this will be the biggest handicap to my profile and will heavily affect my chances. Applying to: Haven't made final yet. Got a shortlist. Will be applying to several Canadian MA programs and few decent US ones to bolster my chances to get into a Top 40 program. Besides that, will be applying to places with strong Political Economy concentrations, rankings being all over the place. Will not apply to Top 10 schools as I have zero change of getting in. I am also considering applying to Political Science departments as they offer Political Economy as research concentration as well. Please give me suggestions on this matter.

Undergrad: Internationally unknown Indian university (which was even two decades back one of the most well known Asian universities) but with LOTS of undergrad alums placed in Top 20 US schools. Honors exams are in coming June. Will graduate in summer 2009. Grad: If i don't get in at at a Top 50 school (low expectations :D), i'll do 2 years of grad work in India and apply again. When will you apply: This winter for the Fall 2009 session. Research interests: Political Economy, especially elections, voting behavior, democracy etc etc., Development. Applying to: Got a preliminary list. Since most US schools still don't accept from 3-year undergrad Honors degrees from Asia, the list of schools ranges from Top 20 to Top 100. But i'm targeting Top 50. I'm thinking about applying to both Economics and Political Science departments (more on that below) but not sure where i should place more emphasis on. Is this your first time?: Yes. GRE & TOEFL: GRE: 1440 (V: 650, Q: 790; A: 4.5 :eek:), TOEFL iBT: 111/120. Econ courses: Majoring in Economics. Intermediate and advanced level Micro and Macro, Probability and Econometrics, Development, Trade, Public Finance, Mathematical Econ, whole bunch of Indian Economic History and Policies. Math courses: Maths Minor or what we call here it's "pass" subject. Everything really. Modern Algebra, Multivariate calculus, Real Analysis, 2D & 3D geometry, Vectors, Linear Programming. Teaching Experience: None. Research Experience: published papers in 2 national economics and social science conferences and 1 international conference. More upcoming. Goals: Academia. Universities and/or research institutes. IGOs ain't that bad a choice too. Concerns: Where should i start? My relatively unknown undergrad university. It used to be VERY well known Asian university once but the decline has been steady. I am not keen to do 2 years of grad work in India. But most foreign applicants and almost all phd applicants from India either already have a masters degree or already into a masters program. So the competition should be brutal and it's definitely a concern. And also i don't know any famous, well connected professors who can get me a stellar LOR. Advice I am looking for?: umm, not sure. Any comments on my profile would be welcome. Is it any good for a Top 25 school? Although I've discussed it in another thread, should i put emphasis on applying to political science departments more than than econ departments as i'm into Political Economy (i've been thinking about that). I'm asking since there was a thread discussing that job openings for Political Economy phds sucks in econ departments. Also would it be easier to get in at a Top 25 poli science phd program compared to a similar Top 25 econ phd program?

Thanks ekonomiks. That was a a real help. :) I will be applying to schools with strong focus on political economy but for the last few months i've been contemplating applying to poli. science deptts. as well along with the econ deptts. My main research interests are into IDE and IR and also heavily into the kind of research caltech does. Elections, democracy etc. etc. Political science departments with a quantitative focus might be a good fit for me. Anyway, what concerns me is the job market. do you have some data on the no. of job offers to poli econ phds? If you don't land up in a Top 30 econ deptt, is it better to go to a Top 30 poli science deptt. for poli econ research? Also, could anyone in the forum comment on decent poli econ deptts. outside the usual Top 30? (yeah, me ain't smart enough xD) @stuy, i'd include maitreesh ghatak in LSE poli econ among the other dignitaries. :2cents: