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zereg

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  • Application Season
    2018 Fall
  • Program
    Political Science

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  1. It's a letter so I would wait for a while and keep an eye on that inbox. Fingers crossed for everyone else here that applied as well, I'm wishing you all the best.
  2. I struck out up until this point, but claiming a UChicago acceptance. Don’t ever give up hope! Comprative subfield, received the notification via email. Beyond excited!
  3. Hey man I'm really sorry to hear you're feeling this way. Setting aside the applications for a moment (which I recognize is very hard to do), the way you are feeling right now merits seeking professional help. Have you ever seen a doctor about the way you're feeling? If you haven't, it can take a while to get that set up, so consider reaching out to the suicide hotline or using their free web chat. I'm going to quote @toad1's post from the other day, because I thought it was excellent: I've noticed that some people on this board have expressed some thoughts of depression after still not hearing back from any schools. Without sugarcoating anything, I'd like to remind you that it's not over until each school has rejected you. Each and every school reviews applicants with different eyes, and different eyes have a knack for seeing different things. Don't let one or even a few schools discourage your prospects at other places.But in the case you don't get into any schools, please acknowledge that in the grand scheme of life, your story is not over here--far from it. Where one door closes another opens, so make sure you're looking for that next door too or you could miss it. I can't even imagine how you're feeling right now, but please do not let this be the end of your story. The skills that you have earned, even if they may not have been recognized by some admissions committee somehwere (and let's take a moment to recognize the huge, huge levels of randomness that feed into all this) can be useful in so many different ways elsewhere in life and you still are a valuable member of our world. Perhaps your role to contribute is in a different way, and there's nothing wrong with that The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
  4. That does line up with how they've released results in the past (2/2 in 2017, 2/3 in 2016, 1/30 in 2015) so I could believe this. What seems odd to me is that I have a personal website where I showcase some research and it has analytics and I haven't had anyone view it from the Chicago area recently. Either they're very careful about hiding that, or not careful at all about going through the entire application, hahaha. Maybe both are encouraging to forum-goers Congrats on all the acceptances so far, everyone! Looking forward to joining the club (hopefully, knock on wood) in the next few weeks.
  5. Same boat here, though I wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. Now begins the wait. Happy 2018 everyone! May the year bring us all our ideal acceptances
  6. Hi all! I've always found this forum to be helpful for advice, hoping y'all can help me again. Last year I posted here because I was uncertain about taking a gap year. The gap year was recommended to me here and it was an EXCELLENT suggestion, but now I'm a year out of school and applying to comparative politics PhD programs for fall 2018. I'm feeling a bit discouraged because almost all the schools I'm applying to are within the top 10 and I feel like they might be out of my reach. Should I add or remove some? BA(07/2017): Top 15 U.S. private university, majored in Poli Sci, minored in Spanish and Marketing GPA: 3.77 / Poli Sci GPA: 3.9 Graduate studies: None, though I took a PhD level quantitative causal inference course and a masters' level quantitative marketing course (think like factor analysis, cluster analysis, etc.) and got an A- and an A respectively. GRE: V: 166; Q: 162; AW: (not sure, just took the GRE about a week ago, but I think I did well). LOR: one from renowned professor in the field I'm looking into (political violence -- he does civil wars specifically), one from a professor I RA'd for a year for though her research is slightly out of my field of interest (more IR focused), I alternate the last letter from my senior thesis advisor and one from a professor who I took two research seminars I did quite well in depending on the program. I'm confident they're all good but probably not super personalized. Research: Currently working at a non-profit social science research institute as an RA but doing pretty unrelated work (education research, some international development stuff which more closely matches with what I'm interested in). Undergraduate research grant -- independent project I made a poster for at my school's poster fair that I got an award at (there were several "first places" so not as impressive as it may seem) Research internship at a central bank of a Latin American country Fellowship for a funded an RA experience for about a year -- no author roles, but I did a lot of work and am acknowledged in several publications Honors thesis which an excerpt will serve as my writing sample Very experienced in STATA and R (I use those programs at work) Presentation at a political science research conference this coming January (not a super well-known one) No publications Universities I am considering: UChicago is my favorite option and I think most realistic top choice. Dream would be Stanford or MIT. Others I'm applying to: Columbia, Yale, Princeton and Georgetown. I don't mean to seem ungrateful or anything like that, I think I know I have a strong profile, but I'm just curious if you think the range of schools I'm applying to is good or too limited. I'm worried most about my GPA and quant GRE. I'm afraid 7 programs isn't enough and have been feeling really nervous about it as the deadlines get closer. Am I too late?
  7. Hey I'm applying this cycle so I can't really exactly give you advice on your chances but I did want to say two things: 1) Don't be discouraged! I think it's awesome that you spent a lot of time working professionally and are now considering graduate school. Use your statement of purpose or have your recommendation writers help explain this weakness in your application. Contextualizing it is the best thing you can do 2) That being said, do try and work on that! I know you mentioned you did Magoosh but have you considered retaking the test and doing a one or two month math-intensive study plan? That might be more helpful. Or since you have had a steady income for many years maybe take a GRE math class? I think getting your score up 10 points will really boost your chances and is definitely doable. All the best!
  8. Hi everyone, Hope you can help me. I'm currently a senior studying political science with minors in Spanish (did it for the language skills) and marketing (did it for the quantitative research skills). I want to get a PhD in political science eventually but want to spend (at least) a year working before applying to graduate school. I will likely apply this fall to PhD programs. I applied to several fellowships and was even made a finalist for a couple of them but nothing has panned out so far, I've applied to a couple of jobs and have also been rejected from all of them and I feel quite. I'm a first-gen college student, and only child, and my parents don't even speak English so that's no help. I just feel like there are no entry-level positions for me. I'm super interested in studying conflict and my research experience supports that but really I would take anything related to research or political science, at a think tank or something like that. I have a good GPA (slightly above 3.75), and quite frankly a lot of research (honors thesis, independent research grant on a separate topic, and I work as a research assistant; have taken two graduate-level courses in quantitative research, one in the poli sci department and one in the marketing department) and student leadership experience. I don't know where to continue searching, what to look for, or how to improve my luck. All of my friends have jobs and I feel very discouraged. Really any sort of advice would be helpful to me, I'm happy to share my resume or CV via PM. What should I be looking for in order to improve my profile? I hope this post is okay and I'm sorry if I haven't been more specific, but like I said even being pointed in a good direction would be so helpful for me. Please let me know if there is any other information I should provide on here and I will edit accordingly. Thank you in advance for the help!
  9. Hi everyone, Excited to join the community and (eventually) go through the application cycle--this is exactly what my question is about. I'm interested in applying to PhD programs in political science. Unfortunately, my parents didn't go to college and I don't have siblings so I really don't have a good frame of reference for admissions at all besides some conversations with professors and one of my best friends who graduated this past year (chemical engineering, he's getting his PhD at MIT starting this upcoming year--he's a genius!) In any case, I'm an incoming senior at a school consistently ranked around #15-ish in undergraduate rankings (side question: how much does this matter?) I have a decent, but not amazing cumulative GPA (3.73) and a great major GPA (3.9), although my GPA has consistently improved over time (my weakest point was freshman year). Not sure how I would do on the GREs, but I test well and am good at math. In terms of research experience, I received a grant to do my own project over the summer last year, which was great, not-publishable as it stands (working on improving it) but I got an award for the best social science poster in my school's undergraduate research fair which I guess is pretty cool. This summer, I'm working doing policy research at a central bank not in the US--I'm a dual citizen of a Latin American country and found a cool opportunity there (another side question--I speak fluent Spanish, does that help?). This upcoming year I received a fellowship to work as a research assistant over the course of the whole year with a faculty member here, and I'll be writing a (separate) honors thesis so those will be two other cool separate projects. I also have very strong leadership in extracurriculars at school. I've heard it doesn't matter much, which is understandable, but does it matter at all/should I talk about that in my statement of purpose? As it stands, I'm leaning toward taking a gap year for several reasons: 1) my letters of rec will probably be stronger after completing my research assistantship and my thesis. I have a great one from the professor who advised my independent project, but I was thinking my thesis advisor and the person who I'm helping research wise would be better than my other potential letters (a professor I took a research seminar and several other classes with and did well in those--completed a 20ish page research paper he liked). How valuable would a letter from my current employer be? 2) My GPA will probably be better by the end of the year, I'll be doing an independent study and my thesis seminar which *should* mean relatively easy A's 3) I'll have more time to focus on the GRE rather than studying for it after work hours this summer My biggest worry is that I have no idea what I would do over the course of the year while I wait to apply again. Any suggestions? Finally, any advice for schools to look at? I've already started a very cursory search. I'm interested in comparative politics. Specifically, I'm interested in intrastate conflict, corruption, and development and how these intersect. I know that's super broad haha! Wow, this post ended up being much longer than I intended over a relatively simple question, if you made it down here, thanks for putting up with that wall of text. Any and all advice would be so appreciated. Thanks so much in advance!
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