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gradphil

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Everything posted by gradphil

  1. Agreed. This makes sense since GRE is not a requirement for admission at Hertie and not submitting scores should not militate against one's odds of acceptance and funding. But having reasonable GREs and submitting them for review might increase the chances of funding and be helpful for dual-degree option at a partner school in the U.S. as well. Only a speculation however. Not sure if it has any role and if yes how much.
  2. It took me around six weeks to find out that I was accepted into their relatively younger program: MIA. Applied in early January and got offer of a place in late February. Still however, waiting out for financial aid email which I was told will come on the heels of admission offer. Hoping to hear back in a week or two at the latest. To those accepted: had you sent your GRE scores along and how strong/weak they were? Just wondering if they had any bearing in financial aid consideration. Also who else has an offer in the MIA program?
  3. My reference is to terminal masters at other departments such as International policy studies. Following is the text from the online application that indicates such a possibility. But I don't know if the department refers it on it's own or will honor a request to this effect.
  4. I am wondering if Stanford (political Science Dept.) refers rejected applicants to its Master's programs as Chicago does since there was an option, I guess, in the application for such a consideration? If that's case, would it not be offensive to ask DGA to refer the file to a Master's program of one's liking if (s)he has not already done so or confirming for one if referred? Any thoughts!
  5. Mine is "C". Have you visited the website? Or waiting for the email? The latter might not come.
  6. Out at Stanford. It was probably the best fit in my estimation but my profile was not competitive enough to get an admit. Congratulations to all who made it.
  7. Neither have I heard so far and my concentration is IR as well. It's possible they have not notified the IR folks yet. But I tend to agree not hearing might equal to rejection. Nothing can be said with certitude unless an email reaches or status changes on the application page. Congrats to all admitted lately at Columbia, Princeton and elsewhere.
  8. Thank you for starting this long-overdue thread. Here go my stats: Education: Double Masters in Law and International Relations. GRE: 161 Q, 157 V, 4 AW Public Policy Programs: Pardee RAND (had interview in late January); UMD College Park; GSPIA Pittsburgh. Political Science Programs: GWU (Rejected); UVA (not heard yet, although decisions are rumored to be out); Duke (no word); USC POIR (pending); Stanford; Columbia; Cornell; John Hopkins All the very best to all awaiting to hear back from schools.
  9. On a phone call yesterday (Monday), the Graduate Advisor (Veri Chavarin) explained to me that those who had not heard on Friday last week (Feb. 5th) are probably on wait list or rejected. But as she explained, it will take further a week or two to actually notify applicants their true status. I am also in the same boat and my subfield is IR.
  10. IR Theory, nuclear proliferation/deterrence and democratization with special focus to South Asia.
  11. Congratulations on being able to get some good news. Best luck with the rest!
  12. Thank you for the prompt updates. Crossing fingers!
  13. Is anyone waiting out to hear from USC (POIR)? I am expecting their decisions to come out today.
  14. Attending in-person is ideal and should be preferred over Skype call unless of course one is an International student and Visa and transportation costs are real worries. Good luck with the conference and finally the odds of acceptance.
  15. Thank you and all the very best with rest of your applications (if any) and have a great year ahead. Perhaps the (expected) late response from Duke has to do with my late application completion. My last LOR was submitted on 21st Jan although the application and other supporting materials were submitted before Jan 12th deadline. Hoping to hear from both of them this week.
  16. Congratulations for the big news! Did you receive email or randomly logged in to view the decision?
  17. No status update on the self-service portal and no email from Duke. So goes at the UVA. Not sure what and when they are going to notify. That's the most stressful part of application cycle. Fingers crossed.
  18. I had two years ago but there was no writing assignment sort of requirement, as I recall. I don't know however, if they had different set of requirements for the in-person participants and those contacted via Skype. Or if they have changed that requirement altogether now. I was interviewed via Skype and the questions ranged from my interest in public service and relevant experience to career goals at the most. I clearly lacked in two three aspects and unsurprisingly received a rejection letter after a week or so following the interview. Applied again this year for MIA program and awaiting call for interview. Are you going to attend in person or doing it on Skype?
  19. And yes. CONGRATULATIONS for being among those 45 lucky ones.
  20. Thank you for the updates. Does that mean those who have not heard or whose status indicates no changes, will get rejects?
  21. Yup. I have noticed too at results search. No one from the admits has posted his/her results and those who have posted are either from rejects or waitlisted. But my online status remains unchanged, nor have I got email so far. Does the GWU release admissions in phases?
  22. Agreed to the extent that I had a problem with managing time--though I always met the deadlines. That said, it can be predicted that one will likely follow the pattern. I don't agree to that line of reasoning however. At my graduate school where I did LLM, I submitted all my coursework and research well before the deadlines and earned a decent score. However, things work differently across countries and cultures and it's possible one falters in a new environment but learns to adjust one's sails accordingly. I don't want to hide myself behind the excuses as other students with similar backgrounds and under similar circumstances have performed quite well but I want to emphasize future is not bound to follow the past--though in many circumstances it inevitably does. Can you suggest which other (lower ranking) schools should I aim for which are strong in nuclear security and democratization? Currently, I am considering Southern California, Virginia, Vanderbilt and may be Brown along with top-2-3 schools. Agreed. They are endogenous and of my own making. This year, I just want to send 6-7 applications to a range of programs (top and lower tier) where I feel have a strong fit and will certainly improve GREs to avail next session if got dinged from all. I am editing them for publication in line with the tutors' feedback but have not submitted for publication anywhere. If I apply again next year, I hope to have two journal articles along with 2-3 publications at different outlets on my CV.
  23. Apologies for cross posting. I have posted this somewhere on forum and thought to post it here as well for early response. I appreciate any candid comments from fellow applicants, seniors and faculty. Hi all! I am from Asia and nuclear security intrigues me the most. I have studied law and International relations--both at master's level and written two dissertations which focus on nuclear security--particularly the latest wave of nuclear proliferation and nuclear disarmament. In addition, I have spoken at three international conferences (Two at U.K universities and one at a top security think-tank in the U.S.). My MS. study was funded by the British government (tuition fees-stipend etc.) at a top-ranking university in the UK and I was also able to secure a bunch of travel grants from other organisations including the United Nations to participate in a couple of short courses on nuclear and cyber security. I know the theory, academics whose work inspire me and more importantly what I want to do. However, I am at a serious disadvantage when it comes to GRE scores (V-157; Q-161; AW-Awaiting) and less than appreciable grades in the MS. dissertation. These are the only Achilles heels which I feel will militate against my odds of acceptance at top and second tier programs in IR. GRE is very much a learn-able exam, at least this is what I have learnt from people and out of my own experience. But the only dilemma I had I did not have time beyond two weeks to prepare and take the exam given the little time I was left with after the submission of MS. Dissertation. Had I had invested a reasonable time— say a month or so — I believe, I would have fared far better in verbal than I currently have. Now the applications deadlines at my favorite programs are only one-two weeks away, and I am afraid retake is simply not possible or helpful in the current application cycle. A similar predicament goes with the dissertation. Though I started it much earlier, at least three months before the deadline but given the scope of the project--involving a set of histories and tedious fact checking-- and somewhat delay in feedback on research proposal, I almost ran out of time and had to submit the unedited and un-proofread draft which I later found out, and was rightly identified in the official feedback, had structural flaws—implicit and sometimes wanting argument. This inevitably led my otherwise distinction level score to much lower than what I had expected. I am wondering, against the backdrop of two inauspicious events, do I stand a chance to get admits from any of these programs — Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Georgetown, GW, Duke, Cornell, OSU and SAIS, John Hopkins — or should I go further down the ranking to consider lesser known programs to be on the safe side? For a more nuanced and deep insight a snapshot of my profile is listed below: Undergrad Institution: A lesser known institute in Asia but nonetheless reputable. Major: Law GPA: (3.4/4 as per WES) Grad Institution: Same as undergrad. Degree: LLM GPA: (4.00/4.00 as calculated by WES) Grad Institution: Top-10 in U.K and top-100 in the world. Major: International Relations GPA: (3.4/4.00 as per WES equivalence) GRE: V-157, Q-161, AW- Awaiting but I guess somewhere between 3.5 to 5.5 Quant Prep. Linear Algebra (A); Calculus up to multivariable (A), Statistics (A+) Macroeconomics (B+). Letter of Recommendation: All from Grad school. Hopefully positive J Research/related experience: LLM Thesis, 73% (70% is a 4.0 by conversion) and MS. Thesis Less than 60%. Teaching Experience: Teaching law at my grad institution to undergrad students. Research Interests: IR theory, democratization, civil-military relations and nuclear (in)security with regional focus on South Asia and Middle East. Publication: Co-authored one paper at an international publishing house. Master’s thesis along with couple of term papers are in line for publication.
  24. Hi all! I am from Asia and nuclear security intrigues me the most. I have studied law and International relations--both at master's level and written two dissertations which focus on nuclear security--particularly the latest wave of nuclear proliferation and nuclear disarmament. In addition, I have spoken at thee international conferences (Two at U.K universities and one at a top security think-tank in the U.S.). My MS. study was funded by the British government (tuition fees-stipend etc.) at a top-ranking university in the UK and I was also able to secure a bunch of travel grants from other organisations including the United Nations to participate in a couple of short courses on nuclear and cyber security. I know the theory, academics whose work inspire me and more importantly what I want to do. However, I am at a serious disadvantage when it comes to GRE scores (V-157; Q-161; AW-Awaiting) and less than appreciable grades in the MS. dissertation. These are the only Achilles heels which I feel will militate against my odds of acceptance at top and second tier programs in IR. GRE is very much a learn-able exam, at least this is what I have learnt from people and out of my own experience. But the only dilemma I had I did not have time beyond two weeks to prepare and take the exam given the little time I was left with after the submission of MS. Dissertation. Had I had invested a reasonable time— say a month or so — I believe, I would have fared far better in verbal than I currently have. Now the applications deadlines at my favorite programs are only one-two weeks away, and I am afraid retake is simply not possible or helpful in the current application cycle. A similar predicament goes with the dissertation. Though I started it much earlier, at least three months before the deadline but given the scope of the project--involving a set of histories and tedious fact checking-- and somewhat delay in feedback on research proposal, I almost ran out of time and had to submit the unedited and un-proofread draft which I later found out, and was rightly identified in the official feedback, had structural flaws—implicit and sometimes wanting argument. This inevitably led my otherwise distinction level score to much lower than what I had expected. I am wondering, against the backdrop of two inauspicious events, do I stand a chance to be on board at these program — Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Georgetown, GW, Duke, Cornell, OSU and SAIS, John Hopkins — or should I go further down the ranking to consider lesser known programs to be on safe side? For a more nuanced and deep insight a snapshot of my profile is listed below: Undergrad Institution: A lesser known institute in Asia but nonetheless reputable. Major: Law GPA: (3.4/4 as per WES) Grad Institution: Same as undergrad. Degree: LLM GPA: (4.00/4.00 as calculated by WES) Grad Institution: Top-10 in U.K and top-100 in the world. Major: International Relations GPA: (3.4/4.00 as per WES equivalence) GRE: V-157, Q-161, AW- Awaiting but I guess somewhere between 3.5 to 5.5 Quant Prep. Linear Algebra (A); Calculus up to multivariable (A), Statistics (A+) Macroeconomics (B+). Letter of Recommendation: All from Grad school. Hopefully positive J Research/related experience: LLM Thesis, 73% (70% is a 4.0 by conversion) and MS. Thesis Less than 60%. Teaching Experience: Teaching law at my grad institution to undergrad students. Research Interests: IR theory, democratization, civil-military relations and nuclear (in)security with regional focus on South Asia and Middle East. Publication: Co-authored one paper at an international publishing house. Master’s thesis along with couple of term papers are in line for publication.
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