David Clarke, PhD

Yale’s Political Science program taught me two things: how to argue like hell for your ideas, and how to do it with enough charm that people actually listen. Those skills have served me well in eight years of helping students wrestle their research into submission.

My academic background spans Political Science, Public Policy, International Relations, and Economics. After finishing my PhD in Comparative Politics, I spent three years as a policy researcher before transitioning full-time to academic coaching. Real-world experience matters – it helps me connect theoretical frameworks to actual policy implications.

I’ve worked with 420+ students across all academic levels, from senior thesis projects to full dissertations. My specialty is helping students who have tons of great ideas but struggle to organize them into coherent arguments. If you’re drowning in data or can’t figure out why your advisor keeps asking for “more analysis,” I can probably help.

Research methods are my bread and butter – qualitative, quantitative, and mixed approaches. I’m fluent in SPSS, Stata, and NVivo, and I can walk you through everything from survey design to regression analysis without making your brain hurt. Chicago, APA, and APSA citation styles are muscle memory at this point.

My students consistently hit their deadlines and defend successfully (97% success rate), but what I’m most proud of is helping reduce the anxiety that comes with major research projects. Academia has enough stress built in – your writing process doesn’t need to add more.

The best part of my job is that “aha!” moment when everything clicks for a student. Whether we’re restructuring a literature review or crafting policy recommendations, there’s always that point where they realize they actually do know what they’re talking about.

Outside academia, I’m a decent tennis player, an enthusiastic but terrible cook, and I volunteer with voter registration drives. I also have an embarrassing number of houseplants that somehow stay alive despite my travel schedule.