Jump to content
Urch Forums

PhD Program Chances


Recommended Posts

Hello all,

 

I am wondering whether I might have a legitimate shot at top PhD programs concentrating in Political Theory. My top choices would be Chicago, Duke, and Harvard, but I lean toward Duke due to preferences in terms of geography. I am local to that area, so UNC-CH is also an option, though one that is less-than-desirable.

 

Understandably, PhD admissions are 90% fit-based (my interests lie in 17th and 18th century political thought), but just trying to get an idea of where I stand in terms of stats for some of these programs:

 

1. Top undergraduate Political Science degree (think Harvard, Chicago, Princeton, Columbia)

2. 3.82 overall GPA, 3.84 in Political Science (combination of IR and Theory)

3. Haven't taken GRE yet but scored 98-99th percentile on GMAT and ACT (back in the day) so I'm thinking 1430+ and certainly Verbal will be the stronger section

4. Recs should be good but not stellar as I have been out of school for a year now

5. Graduated in 3 years and DID NOT write a BA thesis (opted to write a senior thesis, which focused on IR...)

 

So I'm not interested in IR anymore -- I find it to be very limiting in terms of intellectual creativity and it's a field that is "solved" in a lot of ways, but I loved all of the Political Theory courses I took and hope to pursue these interest long-term through a PhD program.

 

My questions are:

1. Will not having a BA thesis hold me back?

1a. Will having an IR senior thesis hold me back?

2. How do these stats compare to students in Theory at Duke, Chicago, and Harvard?

3. How do you all view UNC-CH in terms of Theory? I know they're not even top 20, though the political science department is very good in other spheres -- what's up with that?

 

I don't plan on carpet-bombing top schools...I have specific faculty member interests at the 3 aforementioned programs and will 100% apply to those and maybe 1-2 more after I do my due diligence in terms of research.

 

Thanks much all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
  • 4 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...