Quigley

Having been through this process two years ago -- I encourage all of you to hold off on this talk of "implicit rejections." Nothing is final until you hear from the school. Some schools (including the department I attend now) will release offers in waves. Even if the bulk of offers have gone out, it's very possible that you're really on more of an implicit wait list. I was rejected from 2 schools many weeks after the rest of the rejections went out. For many of you, the next month is going to be one of the most emotionally taxing times of your lives and a lot of your friends and family have no way to understand what you're going through. I know this is easier said than done, but do what you can to take a deep breath and relax. If you can, try to find some way to distract yourself. When I was going through this 2 years ago, there was a frequent user on here who had been rejected by every school that she applied to during the prior cycle, and she ended up at a top 5 program after re-applying the next year. If you don't make it this time, it's not the end of the road. That being said, I know exactly what it feels like to be in your place. Just hang in there a few more weeks. Best of luck to all of you.

It meant that they weren't sure who would be declining or accepting offers yet, but there was a small contingent of us on this board at the time who had not yet been rejected. Most of their department's offers had been posted on here many weeks prior. It wasn't a "waiting list" in any official way, but we were kept in purgatory in the event that their incoming cohort fell short. I wasn't informed of the UCLA rejection until after the 4/15 deadline had passed.

When I applied to UCLA 2 years ago, I was on an informal waiting list until after deadlines passed in April, at which point they rejected me. So just FYI, in the event that you hear nothing.

Early applications do not matter at the program that I attend.

Grad student here. I created a resume-style document when I applied. As applicants, you likely don't have the experience to really create a traditional CV. I would advise you to worry less about the actual formatting of the document and just make sure you get all of the necessary information across in a clear, concise, professional manner. To the original question -- I don't see why you wouldn't list all of the items you mention. Regarding the thesis question: you can certainly list information on your thesis under the education section, but unless you submit your thesis as your writing sample, it honestly probably doesn't hold much relevance in the scope of your overall application. Regarding work experience: I worked for 5 years between undergrad and grad school and asked this question back when I was applying. The only real reason to list work experience on your resume is to tell admissions committees what you've been doing since school. Unless your past work applies directly to performing academic research, it is highly unlikely to really matter when committees review your applications. Work experience prior to graduate school may guide your research interests, provide insight that helps you when teaching, and generally provide you with a stronger personal motivator for *why* you actually want to go to grad school, but admissions committees are more interested in about whether you have demonstrated your ability to succeed in an academic setting. I guess my point is that it's important to list these things, but I wouldn't get too hung up on the CV/resume. Your writing sample, personal statement, and letters of recommendation are far more important components of your application.

Your V and Q are strong enough to get your file considered at top programs. The writing portion isn't going to keep you out. You would be better off spending your time strengthening the rest of your materials versus taking the test again in hopes of bringing AW up (and potentially scoring lower on Q/V).

I agree that you should only apply to schools that you know you would genuinely be happy attending. But I will also add that it is important to be respectful if you are asking professors to submit 15+ letters of recommendation for you. Set up your online applications very early so that they have more than enough time to log in and take care of it at their own pace without feeling rushed.

Dragon fruit

plate glass

Rather than make assumptions based on the average current student, I would suggest that you contact professors within the PhD programs that interest you. Ask them these questions and seek their feedback on your compatibility in their departments. It has always been my impression that programs prefer cohorts to be heterogeneous -- you do much of your learning from the students around you and it's not particularly interesting to be in a program where everybody has the same background and perspectives. Some students do a terminal masters prior to entering a PhD program, but they do so for varying reasons. For some, it is a way to boost the viability of their application to compensate for another part of their file that may be lacking, such as a low undergraduate GPA. Oddly, I visited two programs last spring as an accepted student -- at the first, there were only about three of us (out of 15) that did not have a masters. At the second, higher-ranked program, it was the opposite -- only maybe three of the accepted students (out of about 15) were coming in with a masters degree. Anyways, for most people, a terminal masters prior to a PhD translates to a significant amount of debt and additional time to the overall duration of your schooling. If you would already be obtaining a masters through a funded PhD program, it really doesn't make financial sense for most people to take on that additional debt burden on a future academic's salary who has also delayed other obligations such as retirement savings. This seems especially true if you want an academic/research-oriented career and the MA programs you are looking at are professional in nature.

I didn't contact professors prior to submitting my applications. After reading on this site about others who had made contact with faculty, I sat down to draft something a few times. In the end, I never sent the e-mail to anyone because it always felt overly contrived -- due to the fact that I was writing the e-mail for the sake of e-mailing them and not because I had anything particularly important to ask or say to them at that point in the process. I believe a post from Penelope Higgens (above) in another thread is what led me to my final decision that e-mailing "POIs" in political science didn't really seem necessary. When talking with other applicants at the accepted students weekends in March, there seemed to be a pretty good mix of those who had e-mailed professors and those who had not. That being said, an important part of your Statement of Purpose will be to identify professors with whom your research interests align and explain why you believe that working with them would be beneficial to you as a graduate student. Among other things, this shows the admissions committee that you've given some consideration as to why you want to attend their program and why you would be a good fit in their department.

I think most (all?) admissions committees know that the writing a spontaneous essay in 30 minutes really doesn't provide an accurate indication of whether or not you can handle the rigor of a graduate program. Your statement of purpose, essays, and work sample all provide a better demonstration of your writing ability than your AW score would. Your Q/V scores are solid, as are your other credentials. You also run the risk of scoring worse on the other sections of the test, despite earning a higher AW score. Honestly, I would suggest using the time to work on more important areas of your application.

I think you are right that it will largely depend on the program and the makeup of the admissions committee. If you plan to contact professors that you are interested in working with (I didn't do this when I applied) then this is something you might be able to bring up with them. This process can be such a roll of the dice with so many applicants for a very small number of slots available. With that in mind, it could be entirely possible that your unique work experience may at the very least catch someone's eye enough that they give your file a second look and thereby saving it from the reject pile. It is my impression that having a single such advocate on the committee could make all the difference for you. When applying last year, I began with the thought that my professional experience after undergrad would boost the viability of my file. As I mentioned in my earlier post, members of admissions committees at 2 schools -- both of them are on the list of schools that you mentioned as ones you might apply to -- explicitly told me that my political work experience would not/did not help my application. They both stated that while the experience would probably give me a unique perspective among my cohort and would give me interesting anecdotes to enrich my teaching, the primary concern was whether I had the necessary skills to succeed within their program. That being said, your NGO work may have been more research-oriented than my own work experience, and if that is the case, you might be able to use that to your advantage when framing your SOP. Obviously I don't know much about you so I can't really say, but you might talk to your undergrad professors/letter writers more about this. I should add that when attending the visitation weekends for accepted students at two programs, I had several professors tell me that they definitely find a value in waiting at least a couple of years between undergrad and grad school. It helps you hone in on why you actually want to do this, gives you time to do something else for a while so that you might be less at risk for burning out, allows you to develop your perspectives outside of the classroom in a real-world setting, as well as just giving you important life experiences through the job market that you otherwise might not really have until you are almost 30. You already know all this, but the point I'm trying to make is that there are many profs at programs who will acknowledge the value in how you've spent the last few years. If you ever make a visit over to www.poliscirumors.com, you will often see threads where grad students are lamenting their 5-6 years in a PhD program as a "waste" of valuable years of their youth. As someone who spent 5 years of his 20s working 12 hour days on campaigns and in insipid 8-5 government office jobs, I take the opposite viewpoint. Spending your 20s chained to your windowless cubicle for 9+ consecutive hours, wearing a shirt and tie, and staring at the clock all day is not as glamorous as it sounds, however, I do feel that my experiences have been valuable and I see things a bit differently than when I was bright-eyed and fresh out of school. As it turns out, I will actually be attending one of the programs you listed in your earlier post. If you're looking for more detail or info than I've provided here, feel free send me a private message.

Good luck with your applications -- it is a long, stressful process and this community will be an excellent resource for you in the coming months. Also, be aware that members of admissions committees from many (most?) programs do frequent this site. Few post openly while most do not. Your post includes a lot of personal information and certainly enough to link your application file to your username. Some users are fine with this, others prefer to maintain their anonymity on this site. Edit: You are correct that a strong and compelling SOP will help balance out your GPA. I would add, however, that I was told by faculty at at least two programs that they were less interested in post-undergrad work experience unless it somehow demonstrates your ability to be successful in graduate school. Providing perspective and interesting life experience is nice, but it doesn't necessarily mean you will do well in academia. So, unless this is the case, I would suggest that you avoid dedicating too much space in your SOP to discussing your work experience.

I think I would feel even more guilty if I let the cheaters get away with it.