How to Craft a Compelling Application for Ph.D. Study

7/31/2019 How to Craft a Compelling Application for Ph.D. Study

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How to Craft a Compelling Application for Ph.D. Study

The Statement of Purpose

Once you have a solid transcript, a polished M.A. thesis, anddetailed letters of recommendation, the statement of purpose iswhat will push you over the top for admission. The whole thing,start to finish, should not exceed 2-3 pages. I'd recommendstructuring it in line with the three sections below.

If you can keep the first section to a single page, the second to 2/3of a page, and the third to 1/2 of a page, youre on the right track.Each section does independent work in determining if youll beadmitted and if so with what funding. If a program wants you to

compress everything into 500 words, it would still be wise to breakthat into three paragraphs, tracking the three sections below.

Section I: Research Proposal

The main thing is to spell out a specific research question thatcommunicates your familiarity with the existing literatures and adesire to push an existing conversation in new directions. In otherwords, your statement should provide good answers to the

following questions:

1. What's your question, puzzle, or problem?

2. Who are the 2-3 most recent and influential scholars whohave examined this question, and what have they suggested?

3. What is your hypothesis or provisional answer to be explored,and how does it differ from the writers in #2?

4. Suppose your hypothesis or provisional answer is confirmed.Why should anyone care? (The "so what?" question.)

5. How, in the course of your doctoral research, might youpursue that argument or test that hypothesis? What methods willyou employ?


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Section II: Previous Training

Your next step is to lay out exactly how your previous studieshave prepared you to pursue these questions further (the related

problems you addressed in your M.A.; the preliminary findingsyou've established; the particular methodological courses you'vehad; the seminars you've taken on related literatures).

In short, this is your opportunity to lay out how your year inMAPSS has prepared you to do first-class Ph.D. work. If you had adistinguished college record/B.A. thesis, you should certainlymention it. By far the greater emphasis, however, should go to yourgraduate training at Chicago.

Any relevant language or work experience can be noted here aswell - but emphasize their relevance, and do NOT lay out a college-application intellectual biography.

Section III: Why Youre A Good Fit for the Department

Finally, to cap off the discussion, you need to lay out exactly howPh.D. study at that particular institution would give you the furthertraining you need to do professional-caliber work - the two (and no

more than two) faculty you'd like to work with, the specific coursesyou'd like to take (including methods), the ways you'd like toexplore this faculty member's work to see if their important insightson X are applicable to Y or if their findings on A are relevant for B.

Be sure, in discussing those 2 faculty members, that they arealive, teaching, and not both on leave the year you would join thedepartment (check online). Also, a good strategy is to mention ONEbook or article by each and explain exactly how it transformed yourthinking about your topic. Do not try to summarize what they

wrote, and eliminate the general bromides. You're applying to workwith that person, and you need to prove why they're a good fit foryour research.

Here, as elsewhere, the key is to be specific. If you hazard anygeneral comments on the department (its pioneering work in areaX, etc.) you'll need to make 100% sure that the characteristic you


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describe remains true of the department today, and that youestablish its relevance for your research.

The Writing Sample

The writing sample you include should not exceed 35-45double-spaced pages in 12 pt. font. (Even if the length isn'tspecified, that's what you should aim for.) Why 35 pages? Becausethat is the gold standard for article-length writing, and thedisciplinary expectation in Political Science and many other fields.Tinkering with the font, spacing, or margins won't help you,because the people reading your work will recognize that tinkeringat a glance. The reason it's so important to get everything out in 35

pages is that your reader wants to see whether you can putpowerful arguments together within these disciplinary constraints.

Be sure that the first 5 pages of your sample frontloads yourconclusions, and addresses all 5 of the questions outlined inSection I above. Otherwise, it's very unlikely that anyone will botherreading to page 6.

Finally, there is a strong likelihood in Political Science that thefirst reader of your application will NOT be a specialist in your

subfield. For that reason, it's extremely important that your projectbe as accessible as possible. Would an I.R. or Comparative Politicsor American Politics scholar understand the importance of yourresearch?

Emphasizing the 'so-whatness' of your interests - in both thesample and your statement - will go a long way in this regard.

Letters of Recommendation

The ONLY letters that help are those written by Ph.D. academicswho are able to discuss your scholarship in detail. You want tomake things as easy as possible for them to do so. The expectationis that all of your letters will come from Chicago faculty. Your M.A.advisor's will likely receive the most attention.


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Be sure to ask if there are any materials your recommenderswould like to see before writing their letters. At a minimum, you'llwant to provide them with a polished draft of your statement ofpurpose, a cover letter explaining exactly where you intend toapply, and concrete directions outlining where the letters should be

sent and by what date (use INTERFOLIO). Give your readers at leastone month to write the letters, and longer if possible.

In addition, I would recommend enclosing a copy of the bestseminar paper you wrote for that faculty member (preferably withtheir comments still on it); a revised copy of your M.A. thesis (with acover sheet explaining exactly what revisions you've made since thefinal draft); and a one-paragraph reminder of what you've been upto since that faculty member saw you last.

Speaking just for myself, I would advise against securing morethan the minimum number of letters. The risk is that the fourthperson won't know you as well. If three letter writers say you'reoutstanding, one of the best they've ever seen, etc., and the fourthsays you were an average student in her graduate seminar, aselection committee will discount what the first three said.

Common Mistakes that Students Make in Applying to Ph.D.

Programs

These are, in my experience, the most common mistakes thatstudents make. Of course, the competition being what it is, even aflawless applicant can run into trouble. Even so, everyone shouldstrive to avoid the following in their applications and statements ofpurpose:

(a) not having a clear research program

(b) not showing a solid grasp of relevant literatures for theirresearch question

(c) not identifying two faculty in that department they would workwith


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(d) not discussing the impact those faculty have had on theirresearch with the necessary detail and textual reference

(e) not having a transcript that shows evidence of solid exposureto the discipline

(f) not having the grades, GRE scores, or detailed letters ofrecommendation about their scholarship that will meet the veryhigh standards of competition at elite programs (typically, just 30offers from 500 applicants, with an expected yield of 18-19)

(g) not realizing that certain professional subfields (say Americanpolitics in Political Science) are extremely quantitative, and requireevidence of strong math ability, no matter the specific project thestudent articulates (simply to read the other literatures in that field)

(h) applying to different disciplines (say Sociology and PoliticalScience), which the departments will know from where the GREscores are sent. Departments are unlikely to make 4-6 yearfinancial offers to students who haven't decided how they want tospend the next 4-6 years of their lives. Getting a Ph.D. involvesmore than just dissertation writing, which typically doesn't startuntil three years of coursework and qualifying exams in differentsubfields have been completed.

(i) not knowing anything about the specific character of adepartment, or its fit for the student's research. For example, somePolitical Science departments - like Washington University in St.Louis - are entirely devoted to formal modeling, game theory, andrational choice approaches to politics, and accept only 7 graduatestudents per year. If the student isn't working in that area, anddoesn't show a strong desire to develop skills in that area, theapplication is a waste of time.

(j) having a research program that requires language ability or

fluency, which the student has not yet mastered. With very fewexceptions (rare, exotic, or dead languages), most Ph.D. programswill deny admission until that language ability has been attained.After all, they say, we do many things well, but teachingFrench/Spanish/Russian/German, etc. is not one of them. And youwon't have time, as a student, to do everything else you need to dowhile taking slow and ineffective language classes in a lab. Far


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better to spend a year abroad, or at least an intensive summer inMiddlebury's language program, and come back to us when you'reready.

Competition for Ph.D. admission is so ferocious that the guiding

criterion for applications should be: If this program paid me tospend 5-6 years earning a Ph.D., would I be happy to go?

Even the best students should avoid applying only to the very topprograms. Nathan Tarcov had a student who won a RhodesScholarship, for example, one of the best students he'd ever had,who was nonetheless denied admission to the top 5 Ph.D. programsin Political Theory. The numbers being what they are, these thingshappen. Ideally, students should aim for 10 programs, specificallytailor their statements of purpose for each, and be sure to include

at least 3-4 very good (but not ultra-competitive) programs thathave top-notch faculty for their research interests.

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How to Craft a Compelling Application for Ph.D. Study