Probably the three most important parts of your application are the statement of purpose, writing samples, and your past grades. Your grades can get your application through the first cut, then it comes down to your own writing. Yes, letters of reference are important too, but they tend to be hard to differentiate between.
For my original application I used a paper I wrote for a comparative politics course and a policy memo I wrote during an internship. This time I'm using the two top papers I did at Oxford for the course options. This way I know what the Oxford grading system likes. I spent several hours going back over the papers, incorporating the instructor comments where feasible. I also made sure to introduce each author cited with their first name and added a works cited list (remember the people at Oxford won't know who was on your reading list). The application wants these writing samples to be under 2000 words.
22 December 2009
15 December 2009
Even more on picking a college: process of elimination
Over the past three days I've probably spent over ten hours researching Oxford colleges for my alternate slot. After my last experience, I don't want to leave anything to chance. Before I started this blog, I made a list of what I thought went right at Oxford and what went wrong. One of the main things that went wrong for me was my college. It had good accommodation, but just didn't 'fit' me. I spent literally five minutes picking my colleges the first time, which I now regret.
Ever since I started seriously considering returning to Oxford, I had one college in mind for my first choice. It doesn't take GGD students so no need to suggest it here.
But this is what I was looking for this time:
-- Mix of undergrad and postgrad students
-- Strong sense of community and social involvement
-- Evidence the college supported their students
-- Ideological diversity and political moderation
-- Good accommodation at the main college site
-- A semi-link to my department through fellows, but largely separate from my programme (St Antony's would be just too insular for me, but I didn't go there last time)
I'm actually really happy with my first pick, beside the issue of distance from the department and centre of town. The more I researched it, this college came up as fitting what I was looking for.
But, I still need a second choice. I took the two which Oxford colleges is for you quizzes. Read the Oxford colleges wiki on TSR and the Oxford pros and cons.
Oxford has about 40 colleges and PPHs. After eliminating half of them, I was left with: Balliol, Christ Church, Corpus Christi, St Anne's, University, New, Jesus, Exeter, St Catherine's, Queens, St Peter's, St Edmund's, Keble, Magdalen, Merton, Lincoln, Trinity, Lady Margaret Hall, Pembroke, Worcester, Wadham, and Brasenose. Then after more research, I'm now down to University, New, St Catherine's and Trinity for my alternate slot. I have five weeks...
UPDATE: Now down to New, Univ, and Trinity
UPDATE 2: Univ has won out and will be my number two choice
Ever since I started seriously considering returning to Oxford, I had one college in mind for my first choice. It doesn't take GGD students so no need to suggest it here.
But this is what I was looking for this time:
-- Mix of undergrad and postgrad students
-- Strong sense of community and social involvement
-- Evidence the college supported their students
-- Ideological diversity and political moderation
-- Good accommodation at the main college site
-- A semi-link to my department through fellows, but largely separate from my programme (St Antony's would be just too insular for me, but I didn't go there last time)
I'm actually really happy with my first pick, beside the issue of distance from the department and centre of town. The more I researched it, this college came up as fitting what I was looking for.
But, I still need a second choice. I took the two which Oxford colleges is for you quizzes. Read the Oxford colleges wiki on TSR and the Oxford pros and cons.
Oxford has about 40 colleges and PPHs. After eliminating half of them, I was left with: Balliol, Christ Church, Corpus Christi, St Anne's, University, New, Jesus, Exeter, St Catherine's, Queens, St Peter's, St Edmund's, Keble, Magdalen, Merton, Lincoln, Trinity, Lady Margaret Hall, Pembroke, Worcester, Wadham, and Brasenose. Then after more research, I'm now down to University, New, St Catherine's and Trinity for my alternate slot. I have five weeks...
UPDATE: Now down to New, Univ, and Trinity
UPDATE 2: Univ has won out and will be my number two choice
14 December 2009
Some new thoughts on the application process
After being "one the beach" job wise for about a month (which can be nice since I live 20 minutes from the beach...), I've started to really focus on my grad school applications. I've narrowed down the schools I will be applying to three (you should apply to a lot more than that, but I'm in somewhat of an outlier situation).
The Oxford deadline is in five weeks. All of my letters of recommendation came in within a week of my requesting them. I've also gone through and slightly revised my writing samples after digging out my Oxford box from the closet, incorporating the teacher comments, and adding a works cited section to each.
Now I'm narrowing down my choice for an alternate college (already picked my first choice) and researching exactly who would be involved in my new programme and who is in my research area. This will then lead into my statement of purpose. After that I just need to scan a transcript, pay the 25 pounds, and wait for an answer.
The Oxford deadline is in five weeks. All of my letters of recommendation came in within a week of my requesting them. I've also gone through and slightly revised my writing samples after digging out my Oxford box from the closet, incorporating the teacher comments, and adding a works cited section to each.
Now I'm narrowing down my choice for an alternate college (already picked my first choice) and researching exactly who would be involved in my new programme and who is in my research area. This will then lead into my statement of purpose. After that I just need to scan a transcript, pay the 25 pounds, and wait for an answer.
19 November 2009
Choosing which masters programmes to apply for
Applying for grad school is like a game. Don't get emotionally invested in it. Everyone is different, and every programme has different requirements. Your job is to find a top programme that fits you, that you can get into, and you can beat out a lot of other people to get in the front door.
People applying to programmes at elite universities like Oxford are largely a self selecting group. Once you get past the people who probably had no business applying in the first place due to very low grades or lacking English skills, everyone else probably would succeed given a chance. But there are far more people applying for each programme than there are spaces available, which requires rationing and the process of elimination.
Each programme obviously looks at your statement of purpose and writing samples, which are extremely important. But once you have say 80 people but can only make offers to 40 people, you need to find some way to narrow the list down. GGD and most other Oxford programmes do this based on grades.
Other programmes do things differently. I honestly would have no chance getting into Georgetown, Columbia, or Stanford. Yet people who visited this blog last year got into those institutions, but not GGD. Why? Different people survive the process of elimination at different institutions.
Here are the admissions statistics for the Georgetown Master's of Science Degree in Foreign Service:
Standardized test and GPA statistics for the admitted class of 2009:
GPA:
3.6
GRE:
631 Verbal
701 Quantitative
4.9 AWR
Plus foreign language proficiency.
I simply would not get into Georgetown. No point for me to even apply.
Now, let's look at the US News rankings of American Political Science Departments. The last ranked programmes are tied at number 51. I'll pick UC Riverside out of the hat.
This is what their basic requirements are to even get out of the automatic rejection pile:
GRADUATE ADMISSION STANDARDS & CRITERIA
Standard UCR graduate admission guidelines are as follows:
• Grade Point Average: 3.20 or above (calculated from last two years of coursework only)
• GRE general test: combined verbal + quantitative scores of 1200 or above
Score not older than 5 years old
Subject test is not required by the Department of Political Science
I wouldn't even get into UC Riverside.
But I got into Oxford. There is a much stronger chance I could get a doctorate from Oxford than UC Riverside. Why? The universities just have different admissions requirements and end up with different students in their process of elimination. Is that fair? Probably not. But that's the way the system works. There are just too many people trying to get in, so it becomes a cold numbers game. Just learn how to play the admissions system and you should be able to get into a good place somewhere. I can get into Oxford and LSE but can't get into Columbia/Georgetown/SAIS. For you it may be the opposite.
People applying to programmes at elite universities like Oxford are largely a self selecting group. Once you get past the people who probably had no business applying in the first place due to very low grades or lacking English skills, everyone else probably would succeed given a chance. But there are far more people applying for each programme than there are spaces available, which requires rationing and the process of elimination.
Each programme obviously looks at your statement of purpose and writing samples, which are extremely important. But once you have say 80 people but can only make offers to 40 people, you need to find some way to narrow the list down. GGD and most other Oxford programmes do this based on grades.
Other programmes do things differently. I honestly would have no chance getting into Georgetown, Columbia, or Stanford. Yet people who visited this blog last year got into those institutions, but not GGD. Why? Different people survive the process of elimination at different institutions.
Here are the admissions statistics for the Georgetown Master's of Science Degree in Foreign Service:
Standardized test and GPA statistics for the admitted class of 2009:
GPA:
3.6
GRE:
631 Verbal
701 Quantitative
4.9 AWR
Plus foreign language proficiency.
I simply would not get into Georgetown. No point for me to even apply.
Now, let's look at the US News rankings of American Political Science Departments. The last ranked programmes are tied at number 51. I'll pick UC Riverside out of the hat.
This is what their basic requirements are to even get out of the automatic rejection pile:
GRADUATE ADMISSION STANDARDS & CRITERIA
Standard UCR graduate admission guidelines are as follows:
• Grade Point Average: 3.20 or above (calculated from last two years of coursework only)
• GRE general test: combined verbal + quantitative scores of 1200 or above
Score not older than 5 years old
Subject test is not required by the Department of Political Science
I wouldn't even get into UC Riverside.
But I got into Oxford. There is a much stronger chance I could get a doctorate from Oxford than UC Riverside. Why? The universities just have different admissions requirements and end up with different students in their process of elimination. Is that fair? Probably not. But that's the way the system works. There are just too many people trying to get in, so it becomes a cold numbers game. Just learn how to play the admissions system and you should be able to get into a good place somewhere. I can get into Oxford and LSE but can't get into Columbia/Georgetown/SAIS. For you it may be the opposite.
16 November 2009
What course options are on offer for 2009?
Dr Matthew Eagleton-Pierce, standing in for Rodney Bruce Hall, is teaching the foundation course on Global Governance, the option on International Relations of the Developing World, and the option on Global Financial Governance.
Dr Jörg Friedrichs is teaching the option on Multi-level Governance and Regional Integration, the option on Politics of NGOs, and Research Methods in the Social Sciences (Qualitative).
Dr Xiaolan Fu is teaching Research Methods for the Social Sciences (Quantitative), assisted by Dr Markus Eberhardt.
Dr Roya Ghafele is teaching the option on International Economic Integration, the option on Global Governance of Innovation, and the option on Politics of Intellectual Property.
Alan Hunt is teaching the foundation course on Diplomatic Practice.
Dr Deborah Goodwin from Sandhurst is offering the option on International Diplomacy. This is considered an external option, so you can't take this with one of the classes from below:
History and Politics of South Asia (Dr. N Gooptu)
Migration and Development (Prof. R Cohen)
Power and Punishment: Creating Social Order in Africa (Prof. J Alexander)
Rural Societies and Politics (Dr. R Mustafa)
The Political Economy of Institutions for Development (Dr. A Malik)
Dr Jörg Friedrichs is teaching the option on Multi-level Governance and Regional Integration, the option on Politics of NGOs, and Research Methods in the Social Sciences (Qualitative).
Dr Xiaolan Fu is teaching Research Methods for the Social Sciences (Quantitative), assisted by Dr Markus Eberhardt.
Dr Roya Ghafele is teaching the option on International Economic Integration, the option on Global Governance of Innovation, and the option on Politics of Intellectual Property.
Alan Hunt is teaching the foundation course on Diplomatic Practice.
Dr Deborah Goodwin from Sandhurst is offering the option on International Diplomacy. This is considered an external option, so you can't take this with one of the classes from below:
History and Politics of South Asia (Dr. N Gooptu)
Migration and Development (Prof. R Cohen)
Power and Punishment: Creating Social Order in Africa (Prof. J Alexander)
Rural Societies and Politics (Dr. R Mustafa)
The Political Economy of Institutions for Development (Dr. A Malik)
Some current news on GGD since I left
Joerg Friedrichs is now the Programme Director of GGD.
Rodney Bruce Hall is on sabbatical but will be returning for the 2010-11 class.
Alan Hunt will be retiring next year.
Xiaolan Fu is still teaching statistics.
Rodney Bruce Hall is on sabbatical but will be returning for the 2010-11 class.
Alan Hunt will be retiring next year.
Xiaolan Fu is still teaching statistics.
The admissions numbers game
One thing everyone thinks about when working on an application is what their odds are of getting the job or getting in. Luckily, you have much greater chance of getting into Oxford than getting an average job you'd apply for without inside connections.
In 2006, 124 people applied for GGD. 25 were offered admission. 16 said yes.
In 2007, 165 people applied. 21 people arrived for the first day of class.
In 2008, 204 people applied. 40 people were offered admission. 25 said yes.
In 2009, 286 people applied. 50 people were offered admission. 24 said yes.
Hmm, I wonder if I would even get in this year with those odds...
In 2006, 124 people applied for GGD. 25 were offered admission. 16 said yes.
In 2007, 165 people applied. 21 people arrived for the first day of class.
In 2008, 204 people applied. 40 people were offered admission. 25 said yes.
In 2009, 286 people applied. 50 people were offered admission. 24 said yes.
Hmm, I wonder if I would even get in this year with those odds...
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