Provincial Cosmopolitan

It seems that every school is different. I was accepted to three different programs, and each had its own system. First school (first to accept me and my first choice): They sent me an informal email from the chair of the admissions committee with both an acceptance and funding information. Second school: They sent me an acceptance email and letter. The email said that they really like me, and that they were nominating me for an award of funding. However, the university makes that decision and the department is waiting to hear back. Third school: They are crazy. They sent me an acceptance with no word at all about funding. Then later a professor from the school emailed me asking me to get in touch with him to discuss funding. When I talked to him he said a TAship with a stipend was unlikely, but that I had a good chance of getting a full tuition scholarship. "Would that work for you?" he asked. I said no, that I need to eat and have a place to reside (in a much politer fashion than that, of course). He took offense, saying that the scholarship was an excellent deal, and that many students pay full price to come, even though they might have better offers elsewhere. I was rejected from some other schools and am waiting to hear back from others.

This has been a huge frustration of mine. One of the schools that actually rejected me told me after I emailed and called them in very polite ways. I mentioned that the school was a top choice (it wasn't really, but, like I said, I was being polite) and that I had other offers (that was true). Then I received an email saying, "Well, since you have other offers, we should tell you that you were not on the final recommendation list" or some thing of that sort. I didn't receive the official notification until much later on. tl;dr: I know for a fact that they wait a while even before letting people they've definitely rejected know.

Your info came first from financial aid and then the department notified you of acceptance into the program?! What?!

That really is awful skiby. I'm also incensed on your behalf! But thank you for the cautionary tail. With that in mind, I'm going to plan on giving CUNY another week, and then if they don't respond with some kind of decision, simply accept the offer at the other school that is currently tied for top choice. Or maybe this is a good thing: if the department is such an incredible mess that they can't make decisions by now - or maybe until May! - even though their deadline for applications was January 3, then it seems likely that the department might be a five-year nightmare if I do get in and accept. I mean, they also did tell me that the person to talk to is only in on Wednesdays! Do I really want to spend half a decade with these people?

Can anyone post a list of U.S. News and World Report's rankings for comparative programs beyond just the top 20? I saw someone do this for international. Thanks!

To all who said standardized applications and lower fees, I'd vote for you. And if not that, why not at least send an explanation of what your fee is actually paying for? Really, they're extremely variable: some of the top schools charge $50, one medium school to which I applied charged $125 - who sets these costs? It must be a big stream of funding for the department, though. One school told me they only accepted 10 percent of the applicant pool, which, judging by the response on here, must have been about 120 people (12 acceptances x 10 = 120 applicants). I think their fee was $50 at least, which comes to $6,000. Not that much, but still. My first change would be to hire a temp each year, maybe a work study undergrad, to keep in touch with all applicants about where they are in the process: didn't make the first cut? Let them know. Moving to a second round? Let them know right away. So much better than waiting with foolish hope that, even though you saw on here that 12 people were accepted weeks ago, you might somehow get accepted to the program. Of course, weeks later, that stupid hope is dashed by the rejection letter that could have gone out at the same time as people received their acceptances.

I actually did that, and that is how I found out that I was rejected at one of the universities I mentioned above. Why they couldn't have told me earlier, I don't know. He wrote something along the lines of, "Since you have other offers, I should let you know that the admissions committee at XXX University in Boston met and did not recommend you for admission." It was a good enough reason - the POI was leaving the faculty - but we could have been notified earlier. I understand this, but as another commenter noted, there are a variety of different paths by which admissions committees come to decisions. It would simply be so much easier if they sent out a form email letting people know where they are in the admissions process. And really, I think any time after April 15 is indefensible. Basically, what the school is saying is this: If you would like to come here, you have to let the opportunity at all the other schools that accepted you and offered you funding pass you by for the simple hope that we might accept you. If they are going to do that, they really should let the prospective student know what's going on.

Ha ha, yea, great minds! I called the political science department, and the person there told me that I should call admissions, and then admissions told me to talk to political science, and then back and forth. Finally, admissions told me that they usually don't send acceptances out until April or even May. The person in the department told me to talk to the program coordinator or some such, but "she's only in on Wednesdays." I didn't get a chance to call earlier today. Did they email you or send you a snail mail or...? I don't know how popular it is, actually. I've heard some people say it's bad, some say it's very good - hard to gauge, and their website is awful if you want to use it to actually find out anything about the department.

Okay: I understand that I'm not going to get into every school to which I apply, but it seems that many of the departments could be at least a little bit more courteous in the way they do things. For example, one department clearly made all their decisions in early February, going by the posts here. There were about 10-12 posts by people saying that they'd been accepted. This is a top department, and clearly they weren't going to take more than 10 people. I called the department and inquired about this, as I wanted to make sure they were done with decisions. They said, "Oh no, we're still in the process of deciding." Then, sure enough, just the other day I received a rejection letter - as did many other people. Why can't these schools, to whom we've paid at least $75 each to apply, at least give the courtesy of letting us know right away when they've rejected us, or keep us up to date on the process? A simple form email from an office intern would do the trick. Several schools have done this to so far. Another school says they won't make a decision until April, "May the latest." What? Everywhere else wants a decision by 4/15 "the latest." And this is a school that charged a $125 fee for applying. That's money out the window no matter what, because I have to decide against them if they wait that long to let me know what they're doing. With all the money that we have to pay for the application process, and given that the whole thing is quite important to us applicants, it would seem that these departments could make these few minor modifications to their process. Some departments have. I was rejected by a few schools in a very pleasant way. I'm not bitter or anything; I did get into a school that I find exciting and that is offering me funding. Still, I can't help but feel slightly resentful toward these other departments.

I'm 36. I dropped out of school a couple of times before going back for my BA and doing 60 credits in three semesters with a 4.0 GPA. Now I'm accepted to three places, rejected from four, and waiting to hear from a few others before making the decision.

Most of them used the ApplyYourself software, but there seem to be two different general versions of the software. Others universities had proprietary software, like Brown.

Are they crazy? They've been telling prospective students that they won't get a decision until April, or May "at the latest." What?! Every other school wants a decision from me, and I'm assuming everyone else, by tax day at the latest. Any ideas on what to do? Anyone have any experience with CUNY Grad Center?

After this discussion, and after some discussion with my professors at my undergrad institution, I'm definitely leaning heavily toward UMass. My guess is that the department's ranking will be higher after five years, when the full effect of all the new hires is felt.

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful answers. They helped out quite a bit!

Some questions here; I'm hoping others in the community could help me out. I've got offers from a few different schools so far, and I'm still waiting to hear back from others. However, I'm interested in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I really like the looks of it: the department has a lot of faculty that I'd be excited to work with, and it seems like a pretty large department. There looks like there is a lot of work being done there, and my professors at my current school actually know some UMass faculty that they speak highly of. My question: why does the university's political science program rank so low? I've heard from different sources that the university recently hired something like 15 professors. Is it likely that the department was small before but now resources are being invested, likely pushing up the rank in the future? I have some similar questions about another school that's offered funding (most likely), the University of Delaware. I like this interdisciplinary "global governance" them they have, as it fits well with what I'm looking to research. Also I would really like to work with a couple of professors there. What really do the low rankings mean? I know that they are related to job prospects in the future, but can a hard working student offset that by being published, working on enough projects, etc.? Some of the schools to which I've applied are much more highly ranked, but I'd be less excited to go to them because they don't seem to be as much of a fit.

I'm thinking specifically of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which is ranked 72. In every respect, it seems great. I love the professors, am impressed with the work they generate, and so on. I'm waiting to hear back from some other schools, but I really like UMass and am wondering if I'm just being foolish in wanting to go there and not a more highly ranked one. (72 in the U.S. News and World Report. The phds.org rankings, measured by the NRC, are 61-80 53-84.) I've also received acceptances from lower ranked schools, too, but have yet to hear from the "top" schools.

Thanks for the insight, everyone. I did look into the faculty and thought that a few were a good fit, but I didn't look as deeply as the first comment suggested I should do. At least I have a few schools to go to. Also, a question: what do people think is better? Going to a highly ranked school that seems like less of a fit, or a school that really seems great to me, with tons of professors that I like, that is lowly ranked, e.g. in the 70s?

Thank you all for the encouraging words! It really is too bad that so many professors do that. Writing and receiving recommendations is an important part of academia, not only for admissions, but for grants and other things. You'd think that people would be more responsible.

I applied to a million PhD programs in political science. I was accepted to a few, rejected from a couple at least, and am waiting to hear back from a few others. Johns Hopkins rejected me, but that was a long shot, given how prestigious they are and how many people want to go there. However, another school, in Boston, that is relatively lowly ranked also rejected me. They are in the "rank not published" category in U.S. News and World Report, and on the PhDs website, they do not have any rank listed either. I've been accepted to some schools that are relatively lowly ranked (unfairly, I think, given what I've seen) and one that is pretty respectable. I had a great deal of trouble when I first started college years ago, but finished up 60 credits in the past year and a half, with a 4.0 GPA in that. I was in the 96th percentile in the GRE verbal reasoning and analytical writing sections, and 52nd percentile in quantitative. Great letters of recommendation, too. I really liked this Boston school by which I was rejected, though it is quite lowly ranked. I really liked the faculty. The rejection threw me for a loop. I figured that it was sort of a cross between a school I really liked and a safety school. Now I feel as though I have no way of knowing who might or might not accept me. Anyone have any encouraging yet realistic words?

Hey all, I'm hoping you can help ease my mind; I'm a bit nervous. I've been applying to a number of schools for their PhD programs in political science at a number of schools. Some of the deadlines have passed already. The problem is that only one of my professors actually uploaded the letter on time (he is very punctual and a great guy). Another professor just did a bunch earlier today, but I think that is fine, because I called the departments in which the deadlines passed and they said not to worry. The third professor is the problem. All throughout the past semester, at least since October, we talked about him writing me a letter of recommendation, and he was very enthusiastic about doing it. I reminded him several times of the deadlines, but now he seems to have disappeared. I would have given it more time, except for a couple reasons: first, another student told me that he was supposed to write a recommendation letter for her and never did it. Secondly, I had an independent study with this professor, and I was supposed to go back and forth with him a couple times on a 30-page paper that I wrote. He said three drafts, but after I submitted the second draft - on time - he never responded, even though I emailed him a few times, politiely, about it. I don't know what happened. I know that yesterday he was at his computer, because he submitted the grades for a different class I took with him, but he did not respond to any of my emails (which I've been sending on a light and friendly basis since Dec.). I wrote to another professor and told her about the situation. She has been extremely helpful, and had a letter of recommendation written up for me by the end of the day yesterday. I only floated the idea with her slightly before. She is incredibly helpful: she called departments of admissions and found out how to send the letter, since I could not get back into some of the applications to send her the official request. She even said that she would email one of the letters to a local school, and got the chair of my school's political science department to hand deliver her letter of recommendation to the chair of the admissions committee at that school as well. All of this sounds very good, and I am unbelievably grateful to her (to her especially, I should say; I'm grateful to everyone who took their time to write a letter for me). However, I do tend to worry a bit. I'm worried that because of the need to either make special arrangements to get the letter there on time, or because I had to go back into the application to delete one professor and add another, I might look bad. Maybe it might seem that I am not well organized or that I somehow offended the professor who never wrote. Is this crazy or is this something worth worrying about (though, obviously, worrying is not so helpfuly anyway)? In any case, thanks in advance for any advice you all may have.