Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Accent

(Posted Feb. 25) I'm 2-4.

I've received offers from the University of Utah political science master's program and for the London School of Economics & Political Science MSc in International Political Economy (Research).

Funny, that. Rejections from all the "middle-range" schools so far -- Duke, Stanford, Ohio State, Wisconsin-Madison -- and offers from both the long-shot and the safety school.

Neither have offered any financial assistance (FYI, taking my family to live in London for a year and go to LSE would probably cost around $90K).

My advice at this point is to be sure you contact professors and especially students in the programs you're interested in beforehand. You'll get an inside look you can't really get any other way, and I've found professors and students to be pretty candid about how well the program might fit for your particular interests.

(Posted Jan. 4) Finished!

One final note on graduate school preparation -- continuing all the way to the end with good, relevant, challenging classes has been a boon in applications and I'm sure will be helpful in bridging my way to graduate school.

Check back in February/March for any updates on acceptance.

Thanks for reading.

(Posted Dec. 7) I'm halfway finished.

And that's a good thing with many of the deadlines only a week away.

Thanks to a variety of individuals looking over my statement, the disparate requirements for each application have been satisfied by tweaking the re-refined core document.

I think a key is there: a variety of individuals looking over the statement.

(Posted Nov. 30) Recommendations pouring in, personal statement under final review and GRE scores and transcripts sent -- I'm nearing the end. Of the beginning.

Or at least a nervous break.

There is one big thing I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving season: online applications. Having it done electronically is clean, fast, cheaper and so much quicker, and it seems all schools are plugged in -- at least in part -- to the new process.

(Posted Nov. 17) The list.

Stanford
UC - Davis
Duke
Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ohio State
UW Madison
Utah
Rochester
Washington in St. Louis
LSE

Wish me luck.

(Posted Nov. 9) The more I look at schools, the more it seems that my winnowing consists of a gut feeling or spiritual prompting. Through what information is provided -- and past the initial and obvious incongruities with my research interests -- I can get the feel, as nebulous as that sounds, of what the program has to offer.

This sensation is accompanied by the pleasant and slightly unnerving realization that there are a lot of places that could serve as the "right fit." There really isn't a soul mate graduate program out there for me, although it seems some are more prone to that destiny than others.

Actually, that will be for the admissions boards to decide.

As of now, my list of schools to apply to consists of the following:

• London School of Economics & Political Science
• University of Rochester
• University of California - Davis

(Posted Nov. 3) The jury is in -- the Marshall and Rhodes are out.

Of course, I knew all along it was a long shot. Logically I did. Emotionally, I felt that I could make it at least to the interview stage. Such was not the case.

However, I'm still glad that it helped motivate the gathering of the necessary materials in preparation for formal grad school applications.

(Posted Oct. 26) You can only tell so much about a prospective program by what is explained online.

The best idea is to ask questions, starting with the department secretary or admissions contact provided.

The American Political Science Association has provided a list of "graduate student questions to ask" and has made an agreement with many political science programs in the U.S. to participate and answer the questions openly. Taken from that list, I've adapted my own questions in judging programs and creating my ranking:

• Is the program a fit for my research interests?
• Is there a mentor available in my area of interest?
• Is the faculty publishing worthwhile research?
• How big is the program?
• Are teaching and research assistantships available?
• Does the program have a theoretical leaning?
• Are graduate students expected to participate with research institutes?
• What kind of support is given to graduate research?
• How well does the program place?
• What sort of career advisement and job market preparation is provided?
• How are professional ethics taught?

(Posted Oct. 12) As I look at various graduate school offerings of political science, one Ph.D. program keeps resurfacing.

The University of Rochester offers a Ph.D. in political SCIENCE. Every student is required to have an emphasis in either political methodology or formal modeling (or both!).

From my experience this last year with my added math minor, I really want to enter a program that can cater to my desire to have methodological expertise right alongside substantive knowledge. The University of Rochester is definitely toward the top of my developing list of U.S. schools.

(Posted Oct. 5) WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Here we are at the Hyatt Regency on Capital Hill for the Society of Professional Journalists' National Conference.

Today was the first big day of the conference, which included the national awards assembly and a session this afternoon about the First Amendment and current trends in the public's perception of a free press.

For example, a study was cited saying that 37 percent of the American public feel that the media report with a particular bias.

The speaker announced a collaborative effort to "rebuild the American press and its relationship to the American people." Its a two part process: ensure that the media is indeed acting ethically, and two, help the American people regain an understanding of the importance of the First Amendment, including freedom of the press.

It was a powerful presentation. My desires to go to graduate school in international relations are similar in principle to the first item of SPJ's Code of Ethics: Seek truth and report it.

Indeed, knowledge worth having is worth sharing.

Additionally, when I consider what freedoms are essential to a free, moral and prosperous society, I need look no further than the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and its delineation of freedom of religion, of assembly, of the press and of petitioning the government for a redress of grievances.

(Posted Oct. 1) I can breathe again -- and it feels good.

I took the GRE again Saturday and feel good about how I did. Now my attention turns to narrowing the graduate school search itself.

A nice tip I received from Kaplan is to determine the placement of each school on your list (whether its a "sure" school, a "long-shot," etc.) using your GPA and GRE score.

See -- quantitative skills are handy!

(Posted Sept. 21) It's off! I submitted my application for the Rhodes Scholarship -- now I just wait around for a month and see how well I Hail Mary.

I recognize the importance of reaching for the stars while still being firmly planted on the ground, hence taking the GRE one more time and conducting a realistic graduate school search.

One more week, and filling out applications for my selection of universities will seem like a cake walk.

(Posted Sept. 14) Its amazing how much time school, work and a baby requires.

I said it once and I'll say it again -- getting a good draft of all my application materials together over the summer, before the baby was born and the black hole of work and school sucked me back in, has been and will be a lifesaver.

The trick is properly balancing a variety of important responsibilities. As I learned years ago, the principle is to "be zealous, not frantic."

(Posted Sept. 7) Salient. My word-of-the-day widget reminds me that my vocabulary needs beefing.

Sept. 29 is when I take the GRE again. For the last time. I'm thankful that for the programs I'm interested in, this test doesn't mean everything, but I want to do well enough to at least be considered as something for those long-shot schools (which list I'm still compiling, by the way).

But as far as vocabulary is concerned, here's a great tip from Kaplan, my name-brand tutor: Want to expand your lexicon -- use a thesaurus instead of a dictionary.

(Posted Aug. 31) My wife and I just had our first baby boy, Joseph Marc, August 21. Mom and Joseph are doing wonderfully. In addition, school has started, I need to get ready for my second try at the GRE (in a month) and I'm still the University Journal Editor in Chief.

I really should know how to juggle, because that's what all of this really comes down to. Time management is something that will be essential to handling the multifaceted responsiblities that are bearing down on me. Time management ... and a lot of humor.

It begins in earnest. Stay tuned.

(Posted Aug. 4) There are so many variables to consider when looking for a graduation program to apply to. Thankfully I have help.

My wife found a site that allows you to create a ranking of graduate schools based on your criteria. It has, and will, help immensely as my search continues.

Check it out: http://graduate-school.phds.org.

(Posted July 11) The summer pushes on, classes come and go and we rapidly approach deadlines and the beginning of fall semester. Not to mention the birth of my firstborn.

Needless to say, time is short on a number of fronts and things will only become more complicated come the end of August.

I've finally started to narrow my list of graduate schools as my study proposal becomes clearer, thanks in large measure to the focus provided by preparing scholarship applications for Rhodes, Marshall and Fulbright.

If for nothing else, having to get the materials together for these awards will help my graduate applications be precise and prepared in time.

(Posted June 22) I find it paradoxical that part of my initial interest in international relations was being able to embrace, or at least recognize, the near-infinite variables effecting what was going on in the world, and now I find myself needing to become as specific as possible as far as research in that same field.

But it's true; so much of being prepared for graduate school is recognizing your research interests to make a solid proposal for scholarships and program applications. But again, I'm going to grad school to help clarify my interests, to gain more expertise. It's that catch-22, you have to start somewhere and simply do the best you can.

Something I've found to be of great use, and its not my advice but came out of a superb little text we used in the Political Science Senior Seminar, was to go back to your introductory texts, assuming you still have them, and remind yourself of what areas you have interest in and why.

When things get complicated, be sure you are still rooted in the basics. That may very well be true of everything in life.

(Posted June 12) The next few weeks will be filled with GRE practice tests. My exam, the basic graduate school admissions test, will be at the end of the month, but intermixed with those preparations are my continued search for specificity in preparing research proposals for scholarships and school admissions.

Whew.

To better tackle the summer o' prep, I've set apart specific time each day for what I lovingly refer to as my "hermitage." During that time I'll attend to the following things in this order: GRE, literature reviews, scholarships and the school search.

Divide and conquer. Wish me luck.

(Posted May 18) I finished it!

A paper I wrote for my political science seminar in Fall 2006 was accepted to The Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics out of Purdue University.

Part of the stipulation for publication was applying a list of wonderful, and fairly extensive, critiques.

The good news? Its finished and will be in their Spring 2007 journal.

This first, small taste of learning through research, together with the vindication of publication, furthers my appetite to dig deeper and accomplish more.

Just like failing miserably can do. Except this feels better. Much better.

(Posted May 11) By way of introduction, this is the summer before my senior year. I am a political science major with a double minor in communication and pure mathematics. And I want to be a professor/consultant/essayist in global politics (aka, international relations, depending on your choice of flavor) when I grow up.

The reality?

I'm a grown-up, or, at least, I need to start practicing.

This summer is my time to narrow my list of potential graduate programs, and, by association, my research interests so I can begin the application process that all needs to be wrapped up by deadline time at the beginning of 2008.

Welcome to my story.

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