The Road to a PhD Program: Final Act

For personal reasons, I'd stopped commenting my road to a PhD program. The last post I wrote on the subject is now almost a year ago!

Some plans changed and I ended up applying to schools in England in the greater London area. The hardest part was writing the dissertation proposal, which I had to do really quickly while simultaneously rushing to finish my master's thesis. My topic is Terrorism and Deterrence, and I hope to find whether terrorism can/has ever been deterred. That'll be my course of study for the next three years.

So: I obviously got in somewhere! I've accepted an offer to study at King's College London in their War Studies Program, which I am very excited about! Now just to jump through numerous immigration hurdles (essentially technicalities, but still a toootal pain in the ass).

The next items I write on this subject will be the Road to a PhD (minus the program part), in which I'll talk about the trials and tribulations of actually doing the research and writing the damn thing. It will surely be a combination of enjoyment at involving myself in my own research, and horrible suffering ;-).

Stay tuned...

The Road to a PhD Program: One Step Forward...

I took the airport bus from Vienna Erdberg to Bratislava Airport (€20 round-trip) to take the GRE on Tuesday. The good news: the GRE is finally over. The bad news: my score was not what I'd hoped for. My verbal score had been much higher on the practice test I took, which lulled me into a false sense of security. Had it not been for that, maybe I would have studied more vocabulary and taken more time preparing. There's always more you can do and also more you can blame yourself for not having done.

There were also a couple of pleasant surprises, however. The first was that the experimental section of the GRE, which is usually hidden among the others, was stated explicitly and was optional. I found that fantastic. It came at the end, so I didn't have to worry about my score being dragged down by having the math section that counted come at the end of a three-hour test when I was worn out and ready to melt into the drain on the floor like that one Star Trek character from the show I obviously only watched once or twice. No really.

The other surprise was my math score: it was 90 points higher than on the practice test, which brought it up to where I thought I ought to be according to my own assessment of my math skills (nothing spectacular, but decent).

Overall, the total score was 20 points higher than the practice test score, but 450% of that gain was the math section. The actual verbal test seemed easier than the practice test, too! I was shocked when I saw the result.

For me, interested in a line of study/career that would involve a lot of analytical writing, the analytical writing section of the test is probably the most important. That has to be graded by a human, so I won't know about that score for another two weeks, probably. I am hoping essentially for a perfect score. That may be a little over-the-top, but that would save the rest of the GRE for me so... why not? I've aimed high and I'm hoping I've hit the target. If not, well, one of my favorite expressions is: "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." You can't control everything (but you are free to try as much as you like ;-) ).

The Road to a PhD Program: Update 1

All right, just a quick progress report: moving along on steps one and two. I've gotten the latest Cracking the GRE from the Princeton Review and have begun reading it. I also downloaded the program CueCard, which is a program that allows you to make computerized flash-cards. I'll be using it to study vocabulary, as that's a big part of the verbal test.

I took the online practice test today to get a baseline score, which I'm not going to share with you. Suffice it to say I didn't realize what I was supposed to be doing (the directions weren't displayed, which I think was a program error) and was trying to associate words rather than find their antonyms. First question (the most heavily weighted one) was therefore wrong! I also suck at basic math even though I can do calculus, apparently. So I'll be studying up on all that and now have minimum score goals in mind to work towards.

I've also already talked to a professor about Chicago. He suggested asking the admissions depts. there if there's a PhD student I could talk to. I should ask him/her about the experience there, then consider talking to my possible future professors as well. He also had some personal opinions about the schools, but I'll be keeping those to myself.

In sum: I've been making progress.

Next step: make an appointment to take the GRE in mid June.

Also: starting to fish around for a thesis adviser and make serious thoughts about my proposal, which must be turned in by July.

That's all for now. Glad to have a plan with goals and steps along the way!

Goodnight!

Soon to come: thinking about entries on Iran's nuclear program (already started a draft on that) and on East Jerusalem (Israel's facts on the ground). Stay tuned!

The Road to a PhD Program

Hi everybody (both of you). Today it's time for a "real issue" of a different variety: my real-life road to a PhD program. I'll be finishing up my coursework for my master's in international relations this spring, finishing the thesis this fall. In December, my applications for PhD programs are due. Even though that seems like a long way away, I'm still a bit overwhelmed. So I decided to start writing about the experience, because perhaps some others out there will find it beneficial (unlikely) and because it has a calming function for me to get this mapped out and "out there" (the real reason).

I'm looking at applying to PhD programs in political science at the University of Chicago and Northwestern, perhaps also at Illinois University at Chicago. I have a rather unusual restriction in that I'm not applying all over the place and then just going where I get in (which would be wise). Instead, because my partner and I are probably moving to Chicago next year, and because he has to go there because he'll have a visa to work for only that company, I'm applying only to schools in Chicago. That limits my options. Thank god for antacids and Valium, right? Just kidding. Fatty foods and alcohol suffice as well. JK again.

So here's my plan:

1. Start practicing for the GRE (it wasn't required for my master's program because this is Europe)
2. Talk to my professors here and ask them for advice and if they know anything about Chicago universities specifically (like, am I fooling myself thinking I can get in there?)
3. Take the GRE sometime this summer (there's a test center in Bratislava, apparently, which is a mere hour away by train).
4. Talk to program directors at the University of Chicago and Northwestern and ask them about the program and what they're looking for in a candidate. This seems like a suicide mission to me, but I think I read it was actually a good idea. It's probably true that having made contact with them, they might remember you when they look at your application, which might make them more likely to say yes. Unless or course you made a complete ass of yourself on the phone, in which case I heard that Wendy's is hiring -- in Canada.
5. Turn in my applications in December (U of Chicago is due on Dec. 28th, not sure about Northwestern).
6. Find religion.
7. Hopefully get accepted in the spring
8. Move to Chicago (one way or the other)
9. Hopefully start the grueling, several year task that is getting a PhD. Hopefully also transferring in as many classes from my master's as possible (the programs in Chicago are combined master/PhD programs).

So that's "it." Luckily, I've already ordered a GRE book from the Princeton Review on Amazon. Just 8 simple steps to go, on top of finishing my last master's class and writing my thesis.

Ahh, I feel more relaxed now, just as expected. No, wait, I feel worse...

To be continued...