gringazo

Anyone else admitted to University of Texas?

Check out Columbia and U Chicago. They both have good programs that are more focused on academics and have a good track record on getting people into PhD programs. Take a look at Tufts, too.

Glad I was not the only one. Thank you for commiserating with me. Just checked and it's up. Best of luck, y'all.

Forgive me for having this be a straight up complaint, but is anyone else planning on applying to Columbia for either MA or Ph.D.? As of today, about halfway through October, their website still says that the graduate application is unavailable. I realize that I am a worrier and am, accordingly, doing my best to get in all my applications by early November at the latest, but does it seem ridiculous to anyone else that the deadline is 2 months away and the application isn´t up?

Thanks for the response. I did frame the two issues in that light. I´m finally getting to the point where my statement of purpose seems solid. Here´s to hoping that the adcoms think the same. :-)

I'm thinking that I already know the answer to this question but figured I'd throw it out there to get some responses. How important is it that on your Statement of Purpose you only state one research interest? I'm really interested in two distinct topics, terrorism and nuclear arms/non-proliferation. More specifically I am interested in the effectiveness of terrorism in achieving its political aims and how to prevent/combat it. On the other hand, I'm very interested in nuclear weapons and non-proliferation and how proliferation might not be the great evil that everyone paints it as. In an ideal world, I'd focus on one in graduate school while still being able to research the other. My fear is that if I choose one, I'll be locked in to that and won't be able to do research in other areas. When looking at faculty, it seems normal for professors to be well-versed in a wide array of topics. However, in the case of a statement of purpose, I'm guessing that it's not advisable to have two different research interests because they'll think I'm just playing the field or don't have my mind made up. Thoughts/advice/expert opinions?