levoyous

What are your acceptances, Zephyr ? (If you don't mind, of course).

Sknma and Abetheh, did you post those on the results board, or no?

Sorry about that - here's a new link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqGB4iJQWjWbdC03WThhczY0aVdfeWdUYkZBa2xnb0E&usp=sharing

Here, because I'm a little nuts and like stats, is a more readable spreadsheet of the results so far, which I hope to be updating daily (last update date will appear at the top in the document title). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqGB4iJQWjWbdC03WThhczY0aVdfeWdUYkZBa2xnb0E&usp=sharing It incorporates all the info from the results board and the forum, though I'm sure there are oversights. Please post any corrections or omissions you see. Hopefully it'll encourage people to post further info, like things they were told about potential cohort sizes. EDIT: Jumped the gun a bit there - gotta work out some privacy settings, then will post a new link. Wanted to make sure people's Gmail accounts remained anonymous when viewing.

An NYU professor described the process to me about 6 months ago and it included the interview weekend, but it seems like they may have changed it. I hope so; every attending grad student I've told about it has been horrified.

I know from people in the NYU dept that they invite their preliminary candidates for a prospective student weekend in February. That's been the official policy, but I suppose always could have changed.

djp2 is exactly right re: Harvard. We got interview requests the same day, and both of them were clearly informal, ie, not part of the process the way they are at Penn. So I don't think that not being asked for an interview should be taken to indicate anything either way.

I think it starts on this page of the political science admissions thread: It didn't sound like it had negative results for these people, and I wouldn't be ashamed of being identified. Just a little awkward, especially if someone brought it up. There's some heavy adcom/grad student posting on the political science thread; I could see how some depts might find that inappropriate.

NEN, do you know how common it is for grad students and professors to poke around on here? Was just reading a somewhat alarming thread where several people were talking about being identified as posters by their adcoms.

I meant posting a date that hasn't arrived yet. Easy mistake to make, I guess.

Hm, Hopkins acceptance on January 27th, posted on the 26th. Fake? Mistake? International applicant?

I'm glad you brought up this last point, because the idea of cruising through to the end to collect trophies is definitely appealing. How horrible if that prevented someone else from getting in!

I think reduced from previous years, probably not from what you were told. If you talked to your POI(s) recently, I'm sure what they quoted was accurate.

A bit of news for UNC Chapel Hill people - I heard through a friend on the faculty there that they are planning to make offers in the next couple of weeks, and that they had dramatically reduced the number of students they're accepting because of budget cuts. Wish it were better news...

A question to perhaps distract us from waiting a bit: anyone who has done interviews or is preparing for them have any thoughts about what are good questions to ask POIs/interviewers in that context? Say you've read the website and graduate handbook 50 times, you know how the program is structured, have a good idea of its job placement, reputation, etc. I don't know about others, but I've at least once found myself at a loss about what a good question would be that isn't obvious and provokes an actually informative answer. Just thought I'd throw it out there, if anyone has advice.

This is my new favorite thread.

Sorry, should have realized you meant that! I'm sure really anything can happen - they do interviews, accept people, those people don't accept, whatever. If it gives any more info, I asked for a different day than they suggested since it conflicted with my work schedule, and the response was, no, we're only doing those two days, and that's the day your name fell on. So some sort of alphabetical sorting, it seemed?

It's extremely unlikely any school would interview all applicants, assuming there are several hundred, or even 100 qualified ones. It's probably a number larger than the acceptance pool, but not all.

The UPenn interview was me. The DGS said they are doing two days of interviews via Skype next week. Didn't say who it would be with.

I followed the general consensus on here that you shouldn't contact POIs after late October-early November, but I wonder if professors themselves see it that way. They aren't looking at applications until January in most cases, and some really seem to expect you to have gotten in touch in advance so that they remember to look for your application. (Most of my applications asked specifically which professors I had contacted.) I still think it feels weird to reach out after the app is submitted, but I wonder if there's some cases where you should still try to make contact if you haven't (ie, maybe, like me, you realized late in the game that a certain program would be a great fit, and really want to go there). PS. I still think it's really weird for an adcomm to wonder about your "seriousness" just because you didn't get in touch outside the application. What the hell?

From looking at the board and last year's thread, it seems that Harvard notifications didn't come this early before. A couple of us have been contacted by POIs, but as others have said, I think that varies widely by faculty member and just because you haven't been doesn't necessarily mean bad news.

Seems a little presumptuous to ask for Skype interviews. Maybe suggesting a phone call IF they have time is OK, but it's probably enough of a chore just to answer all the emails they get from prospective students.

I also got an email today from my Harvard POI and did a Skype interview this evening. I got the sense that it was "off the books," and was very informal. It was a very positive talk, but not an implied acceptance.

Just got an enthusiastic response from a POI I emailed months ago and heard nothing from. (They were on leave/traveling). So glad I went ahead and applied anyway.

Fitting faculty interests tends to be a strong factor in most departments' decision-making, at least from the tens of thousands of posts I've read on the subject. Also I have no idea, but having a 75-page writing sample might make you seem credible regardless of its merit otherwise (not that they'll read even 25 pages of it). I noticed you're from Jackson? I'm from Texas and my sister just moved to Jackson this year.