macadamia tea

I was notified a few days ago that I had dropped off the JHU waitlist, so it looks like you guys still have a shot

Declined Cornell over the weekend, hope that helps someone Are we going to start sharing our decisions in this thread?

Congratulations! I know what you mean about wanting to be there already

I mentioned specific faculty members, but not at length. My statements were about equally balanced between research experience, substantive interests, methodological outlook & experience, and faculty. I only applied to places where I was sure I could pursue my research interests, but I felt like faculty didn't need to study the exact topics I am interested in, so long as there was enough substantive overlap that I could e.g. imagine coauthoring with them. I could have gone to greater lengths to adjust the interests and methodological bits to fit the places I applied, but found I couldn't really make a convincing case for an agenda very different to my actual interests. I think that was because I didn't feel confident/informed enough to do so. Instead, I used the faculty section to talk about specific elements of around 3 people's research that I thought had significant overlap with my interests. It looks like places with the biggest overlap - i.e. the closer my interests & methods sections were to past and current faculty research - were where I was admitted. I think that if I had taken the time to really tailor those sections to more places, I might have a few more offers, though obviously I can't know for sure. At least this way I won't be worrying about fit when I make my decision.

Looks like there are a few of us so I guess we should wait.

Anyone else not heard anything from NYU? I'm assuming rejection but I'd at least like to know!

Wow, that Columbia thing is horrific. Sympathy to those affected. On another note: is there a way to reply to people on the results board? Occasionally people post questions there ("anyone accepting/rejecting xyz?" "anyone heard about funding?") but I'm not sure how people are meant to respond.

All I can offer is that in my experience, fit is everything. I had read this many times on thegradcafe, and believed it to an extent, but it seems to have been absolutely the most important aspect of my applications. I have four offers from 'top-20s'. Rejected from four, waiting on a couple more. My GREs were fine but not exceptional, my letters of recommendation were from international professors in non-sociology disciplines. I did not network at all, I didn't even know that was a thing. I really don't know how to judge my writing sample but I'm convinced it wasn't crucial to any of the decisions. I got offers from the places where I was obviously a better fit, and all of the communications I have had with the schools since has emphasized my fit. Places where I had to stretch or tweak or otherwise try and fit my interests to slightly different faculty research, no offers. Professors from the programs I have gotten into are interested in talking about their research, and how my interests fit theirs. As far as I can tell, it really is all about fit.

Harvard has been "unable to take favourable action" on my application. Pretty weird, I just wanted them to assess it and let me know whether I got a place.

I just want to make sure you know 'top 20' and 'top 25' don't literally mean the top 20 in a particular ranking - it's shorthand for talking about perceived 'tiers'. There could be 24 top-20s, or 16 - there's nothing magic about multiples of 5. I think any difference between 'top 20' and 'top 25' is going to be slight, and subjective. Sorry if this comes across as patronizing or anything, just wanted to be extra sure you knew.

Thank you all! @puton Yes, it was an email with an attached pdf

Received a Cornell acceptance about half an hour ago, so there is still some hope

I had the same problem - use your username, not email, to log in.

Congratulations!

30 mins to an hour ago.