polisciphd

Confirming what was speculated earlier, Tina Slater responded to my email inquiry saying that all acceptances have been contacted. She did say that she put the rejection letters in the mail today. I am really bummed, Cornell was my #1 pick, and thought that I was a perfect fit for their program. Guess I was wrong.

Bumping this thread. Anyone else heading to Champaign in the fall? My wife and I are visiting the week after next and are going to try to figure out where we should live. Heard campustown is infested with undergrads, although the proximity to campus is appealing...

I hope you guys get in to GW and really consider it. I absolutely loved it there. The profs I had (in the Elliott School, Poly Sci phds take alot of their classes there) were tremendous, and really cared about their students. Henry Nau who does IR is great, as is Martha Finnemore...

between 10-15 when I was there four years ago...

I think that you are overlooking a rather important point. For a lot of people, I would say an overwhelming majority, a good placement record is that a school is able to place most of their students in tt jobs in a year or two after graduation. If a school has a 95-100% employment rate, that is a damn good placement record. The point is that there are only so many openings at the top 15 schools every year, so even those grads may have to look further down the list for employment, and many people wouldn't want the stress and political bs that comes with taking a job at a top 15 school. And if you are concerned with money, many schools in the top 20 pay the same or less than the so-called "lower" schools. In my mind, it comes down to ego. If you are only going to be happy teaching at Columbia, or Yale, or Princeton, then more power to you, you have probably wanted that for a long time and have taken the steps to get there and I commend you for it. I on the other hand have taken a long time to figure out what it is I want to do. And I am willing to bust my butt at my lowly 22nd ranked school to prove that I am just as intelligent, capable, and driven as anyone else. And you know what, Harvard and Yale and Princeton would be damn lucky to employ me after I get done, but knowing how biased they are after going through this process, I don't know if I would even want to work at any of those places...

I disagree with that, Lieberthal is at Michigan, which would make them #1 in most circles...

I'd like to contribute to the above discussion about qualifications and name of school. When I applied to college as a high school senior, I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to be. I had tremendous qualifications, 34 on the ACT, 3.87 gpa, national merit semifinalist. I applied to Columbia, MIT, Georgia Tech, and because it was closer to home and I had relatives who went there and loved it, Alabama. I was accepted to Columbia and Georgia Tech, as well as Bama. When my parents told me that they were in no position to help me financially, and my scholarships and loans wouldn't cover the cost of living in either Atlanta or New York, I enrolled at Bama. For three years I studied a subject that I hated, just because I thought it would be easy to get a job after (not poly sci), and did terribly. Had a miserably low gpa. It took me that long to figure out that I should pursue something that actually interested me, and switched majors. For the next 5 years of school, including my masters degree from a top 10 IR school, I had two b's and the rest A's. I was able to increase my gpa to above a 3.0 for my undergraduate, but the damage had been done. Even though I kicked butt in my eventual major, my poor performance in a subject that has absolutely no relevance to my eventual decision to pursue a phd in poly sci has made it damn near impossible for me to get accepted at a top 10 school. Now, i feel fortunate that UIUC has looked past that stupid number, but there is a hefty bias in my opinion, not only against undergrad names, but also against people who take a while to figure out what they want to do when they grow up. Forgive me if I didn't take that offer of admission to Columbia, immediately enroll in poly sci and multiple different languages, travel abroad extensively, have great internships and research projects with the giants in my field, study for two years for the gre, and have nobel laureates edit my SOP, I am just not that lucky...

The one thing that I was really worried about when applying to Cornell and Michigan to do East Asia Security stuff is that they are widely regarded as places where you will learn to espouse grand rhetoric but without much in the way of empirical training, let alone practical application. My background, on the other hand, is entirely practical, with very little in terms of "theory" per se. I went to the Elliott School for my masters in Security Studies, focused on East Asia, which is much more "policy" focused than theoretical. So I didn't know if I would be a good fit at either place, both in terms of them liking me or me liking them...

What part of IR are you interested in? IPE, security? I was applying to work with Katzenstein and Carlson on east asian security stuff myself...

anav or spin, would you mind sharing your stats with me, I am just curious as to how far off my application was from getting consideration there...

Nothing personal, I just find it very hard to believe a program like Cornell would only have a 3% acceptance rate. That is CRAZY if that is actually the case. Again, I wonder if something is going on with that program, lack of funds, professors bailing, whatever, that would cause such low numbers...

So I am then assuming that the whole only 12 people out of 350 thing was bogus...

Would you mind, then, providing the contents of the letter you received on this forum, if only to confirm the admission statistics that were offered earlier?

Congrats on GW, I love it there. Make sure to try the club sandwich at the GW deli, best on the planet. Also go to El Burro, in 2000 Penn, absolutely amazing food for really, really cheap...

17. You have a least five screens open on your computer at any given time: one for your personal email, one for the results page of gradcafe, one for the poly sci forum page of grad cafe, one for the results page for yuster, and one for your work email (which is there only for you to click on really fast when your boss walks by).

Nope, which pretty much ends my waiting game. Unofficially went 1 for 7, guess my decision is made for me...

That's great news. Congrats!

I know, I am beginning to think that the cold has gotten to their collective heads.

Wow, that is only a 3% acceptance rate. I wonder if something has happened that is forcing them to reduce the number of students in this particular cohort?

I lived in the D.C. area for four years so if you have any questions I might be able to help...

Congratulations on JHU, it is a great school and Baltimore is a very cool place to live. You can get housing at some pretty amazing prices, especially when compared to the surrounding area. And D.C. is only 50 minutes away...

I know that there have been several wait listed posts on the results page, but has anyone been accepted? For those who have been waitlisted, would you mind sharing the contents of the notification you received? Cornell is my remaining number 1 school, would love to work with Katzentsein and Carlson...

Since lenin isn't online right now, I'll answer New School for Social Research http://www.newschool.edu/gf/

From what I remember, funding levels are different for each individual based on the numerical rank of their application package, ie most highly qualified gets the most money, least qualified but still accepted might not get anything, or maybe just a tuition waiver. It also changes based on the yearly budget of the dept.

Congrats! Hook 'em horns!