slickj07

i didn't apply there for political science, but i see someone got into michigan. good deal.

it's interesting to compare this thread to the 2007 one. this one is 21 pages, and most people haven't heard from most of their schools yet. the one for all of 2007 is just 5 pages. i wonder what has caused this discrepancy. i definitely prefer this more active version, though.

sorry to hear that. sadly, we cannot win them all.

well, i guess i just meant where have you gotten in so far? but i'm most definitely going to the visit days. i was born in California but haven't been back since i was 5!

ah yeah, that is pretty interesting. unfortunately, it is an area i know very little about. i don't have great work history myself, although I've had a couple good internships (especially one last summer). still, i suspect the lack of experience is less of a problem for political science programs than for policy ones. but yeah, i'm interested in modeling bureaucratic behavior, and stuff like legislative-executive branch interactions. i'm also interested in analyzing domestic social policies, given my master's background, but i see myself moving more in the former direction as a PhD student.

congratulations! yeah, i'm guessing that's the case. ah well...

this is a good story, even though any kind of list is going to have major flaws. in any case, all 8 poli sci program i applied to are on there. i also like its bias toward formal theory, since that's what i'm focusing on (set in understanding american institutions) would you mind sharing the other schools that you're considering (besides Berkeley)?

are you an international policy person? the same happened to me, more or less (although I'm interested more in formal theory, bureaucracy and the American policy process). one of my recomenders (and coauthor of my writing sample) got his PhD at Harris, and he told me I should be looking more at Poli. Sci. programs.

yeah, waiting to hear from chicago... if i get in, could come down to a very difficult choice between there and berkeley

i see 2 people have gotten into the duke policy phd. one was econ, but i don't know what the other one was. i still haven't heard anything. i applied poli sci, so i suppose it has a lot to do with whether the department of the track you picked likes you. of course, i don't know that for sure, since they provide very little info. about their process or class averages.

gwu and american are both ranked a little higher than gtown. gtown is a fair amount harder to get into though. the rankings have little to do with difficulty. i have a fancy assistantship at georgia now (#3), but i was outright rejected by columbia, which is in the 20s. I got into gtown without aid. gtown is pretty stingy with most its admits. all of this was back in 2006. it really doesn't make a huge difference where you go, the point is to do well there.

5/5

I'm applying from a Master's program, although we don't do a thesis. We have a comprehensive exam (coming up next month for me). Almost nobody ever fails it, though. I still haven't written anything over 30 pages, haha.

congrats to NYU people. I was going to apply there, but then I saw they wanted a 35 page writing sample. I don't know how you people mustered that together.

thanks! but don't worry about duke...therein lies the point of this board. nobody's posted anything yet about duke policy for this yr, so i wouldn't sweat it. also, i don't have it up in front of me right now, but i don't think they had sent out anything until the equivalent of the end of this week or next week in previous years.

i applied to Harvard, Duke (poli sci focus), Michigan (poli sci focus), and Princeton (poli sci focus) im not optimisitc about them, haha. but at least i did get into berkeley poli sci.

I'm waiting to hear back from 4 policy PhD programs. I also applied to 8 poli sci programs, of which I've already heard back from 3 (2 good news, 1 no thanks). The policy schools I applied to are pretty big names, so I can't say I'm overly optimistic.

it has to be a good sign if you haven't heard yet.

Yeah, they're all about the mass email. I'm a little concerned about financial aid at Berkeley - upon rereading the website, it talks all about paying tuition and getting an out of state waiver after the first year. If I don't have a tuition waiver and a stipend, I simply cannot go. As for my stats, I have a 3.2 undergrad (from a top school), 4.0 grad in public admin. My GRE was pretty strong, 790m, 710 verbal, 6 writing. I think most of all, grad school helped me knock down nice recommendations (which I haven't read) and develop research interests. Plus it helped me get a good internship last summer.

Also, i feel the pain of the yale rejectees (having just got shot down at stanford myself). I didn't apply to Yale as I figured I wouldn't get in.

way to go!

hah, i only posted once with the "Yesss" the others were different notes, so they may not post in this thread. i received an email, which must have been sent about 10:30 pm west coast time. No word on funding yet, which I knew would be the case thanks to the boards. i wouldn't give up hope yet. I think it was either 2006 or last yr. where some more people got in a week after the first batch.

accepted to Berkeley.

yeah, good news from berkeley would lift our spirits

haha, shot down at stanford via email. it was a reach, anyway, so not too ridiculously surprising.