Note: This was written before COVID-19; the market and funding have fundamentally shifted in ways that are still unfolding. If you can, I strongly advise waiting to attend graduate school to see how things play out. You can find coverage of graduate school issues in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, among other sources. Here’s one article looking at graduate students in the time of COVID 19.

ETA 2: Joshua Kertzer has put together a wonderful list of resources on applying to graduate school in Political Science and related fields. Check it out here.

ETA 3: Are you thinking about a Master’s Program? Here’s some food for thought and a link to the WSJ article she references. You can find a discussion about policy oriented MAs here from Nuno Monteiro.

  1. Make sure you understand what academic research looks like. Thinking like a Political Scientist is a great book for this. You can also look for jobs in research labs- if you are BSU student, lots of the research universities in Boston do hire research assistants to help manage research projects or grants. You can also look for jobs at university grant offices, IRBs and other research adjacent offices to see what this looks like.
    • Part of this is realizing that math will be required and you should brush up on OLS. Take a course online via Coursera or EDX, because trust me, it will make your life so much easier your first term in grad school. And yes, you will have to use quantitative methods if you get a political science doctorate. You may avoid it if you go for political theory, but, uh, there are like 5 jobs in political theory each year.
  2. Know the job market and know that there are plenty of jobs you can do that don’t require a PhD. Here are some realities of the job market in Political Science right now:
    • We had 200 people apply for a position in International Relations at BSU in Fall 2019, and the top 50 candidates were all solid, good candidates, with interesting research and ideas.
    • I know people that have published in top journals not get jobs, and other people have had to move around several times before finding permanent positions. Those odds get smaller and smaller the less willing you are to move.
  3. Here are some practical things to think about if you still think you need a doctorate:
    • Do you have a partner? Kids? How do they feel about moving across the country 3 times in 3 years?
      • Academia was set up so one spouse went to graduate school while one worked. Once the graduate spouse had the tenure track job, the working spouse stayed at home and acted as an unpaid research assistant. While society and academia has changed, this blueprint hasn’t. If this won’t work for you (and trust me, even if your spouse does the above, it is very unlikely that they will ever act as your RA in this day and age), how will your relationship work in graduate school and beyond, especially when graduate school is seen as more flexible than the partner’s “real job”?
      • No matter how egalitarian your relationship, ladies, beware. The cultural conditioning is strong here, and this will probably appear as an issue in your relationship in grad school and beyond, unless you get a stay at home husband.
    • If you would like to have kids, does your graduate school offer maternity leave?
    • How will you pay for graduate school? How will you pay for living expenses while in graduate school?
    • How will you deal with not having insurance during the summer? How will you pay for dental care?
    • What is your exit plan?
      • Have an exit plan for after comps, after the defense, after graduation, etc. You will eventually succumb to the brainwashing and decide that, no, I really do want an academic job. Having an exit plan will make that brainwashing take hold a little less firmly and help you feel less trapped.
  4. If you’ve thought about the practical questions above, then read up on issues in graduate school. There’s mental health issues, sexism, racism, classism, ableism, poverty, gender issues, etc.- basically all the things that you can face in the “real world”, but in a very closed environment with individuals that can basically determine if you get to graduate or not.
    • I promise you, graduate school is just a giant ball of uncertainty. You don’t know how you are doing 99% of the time. You won’t know where you will end up. You don’t know if you will have funding next year. How will you handle that uncertainty?
    •  You can read people’s responses to the mental health article mentioned in point 4. This uncertainty gets to most grad students.
  5. If you’d like to hear another perspective Here’s another take on tips for applying to graduate school and if it’s a good fit.

I promise, I am not telling you all of this to simply discourage you or talk you out of getting a doctorate, even though it may seem that way. If you want to be a professor, well, the only way to do that is to get a doctorate. And yes, being a professor is not a bad gig! I do enjoy what I do a lot, and if I knew I would end up with a tenure track job, I would gladly do it again. But there are fewer and fewer professor slots out here and more and more applicants each year. There are options and other opportunities for research out there.

Basically, I want you to make sure this is what you need to do to get what you want and that you are going in with your eyes open. Always have that goal in mind and always have a backup plan! I want you to go into this prepared as you can be and ready to deal with these issues so you can achieve your goals.

If you do go- pay attention to the things I said above in point #1. You may also find this link useful about applying to graduate school, as well as these books: A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum by Jessica McCrory Calarco and Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills  by Zachary Shore.