adaptations

I definitely felt that I had strong matches at Wisconsin. Given that I didn't get good news from them when everyone was accepted, this isn't too big of a surprise. That said, I thought Wisc. was a good match and a place I would have been happy, so I really thought I'd get in there. Jackassjim: Congrats on your acceptances. It looks like you have some fun choices to make. For the other poster: The letter was dated Feb. 10th and postmarked Feb 11th.

I think I got the first Friday the 13th rejection. I'm officialy not admitted to Wisconsin.

First, I have also heard about Northwestern having a patent that helps keep up their funding. As for Chicago, they presently have a policy of funding all admitted students, so that removes the flexibility of being able to admit students without full funding. And I was under the impression the average cohort at Chicago is about 16-18, so it is a big shift this year.

I know chicago made decisions over a week ago. I do not know when they plan on notifying. The word is that the enrolling class will be 6-9 students.

I just got an email from OSU with more details on lots of stuff. Most importantly funding. Here are the important exerpts: "We will know the results of the Graduate School [fellowship] competition the week of March 9 ... In addition, the Graduate School has increased the stipend packages for Political Science and other high quality doctoral programs, so that the stipends that we will be offering for the AU 2009 cohort will range from $18,000 to $24,600."

expatbayern: Thanks for the info. Way to clean up from the SLAC/CIR crew. Although I'm quite pleased with my results thus far, I hope I'll be getting some more love too. Congrats again!

Plisar, You're a rock star. Now seriously, I think UCSD is a great fit for me. I want in! Oh yeah, the weather would be a nice change from Chicago too. Plus I want to meet this "plisar" in person.

I am the one who posted (both) the results from U. Washington on the board this evening. My apologies for double submitting, but my internet was being weird and it wasn't displaying. The committee member said they would be meeting again tomorrow and that official notices should follow shortly.

It is nice to see the most active Poli Sci poster get an acceptance. Congrats! You deserve it!

My thoughts are that you are right in the hunt with everyone. Your SOP and LORs will probably be the make or break between where you get in. Without additional information, I would say you are competetive, but not guaranteed for a top program.

To those venting about a bias against real world experience, I would like to provide some counter points. First, I think such generalizations are quite hasty and generally exaggerated. Second, when you look at the average age of first year Ph.D. students in Poli. Sci. it is about 25-26. Based on the assumption that most people graduate undergrad around 22, the majority of people are entering doctoral programs have some work experience. In addition to general trends, I can provide my own experience, which included two years at a law firm before returning to graduate school. I certainly don't think work experience hurt my chances, and in fact quite the opposite. Regardless of your professional experience, the most important factors for ad coms (in my opinion) are your ability to succeed in academia, your commitment to academia, and of course your fit with the program. Those are my thoughts on this debate... Cheers,

I'll be honest, I have started loving and craving weekends! They are the only days of the week I am a functioning human being. Otherwise I feel like I am semi-attached to my computer just waiting for a notice. Weekends give me the freedom to do as I please. And since there is mail on Saturday, there is still hope, but at least it only consumes a few minutes of my day.

Adding to Plisar's post about possible schools next week. I would add Chicago as unlikely, but possible. I predict they will be notifying earlier than in previous years. That said, they have also drasstically cut back on the number of students they plan on enrolling, so I am not holding my breath.

For those of you accepted to OSU, specifically the person who said they are getting funding regardless ... can I assume we all got a letter saying, "While I cannot provide financial details until the results of the Fellowship competition are known, be assured that with this offer of admission we are committed to providing you a very competitive five year package of tuition and stipend support." I am just curious if anyone heard anything different, or if this is the standard. Thanks, and congrats to all. Oh yeah! First Ph.D. acceptance with (probable) funding in two years of applications - I'm happy

To the newbie asking about WUSTL: WUSTL is certainly a top program. In fact, you might say they are one of the most under-rated programs for who they have and their record. I say this because the reputation lingers that if you go there you are equally as likely to do policy as you are to likely to get an academic placement. I have two comments to this - first, their placement is great. Their placement in R1s and Liberal Arts Colleges are about equal (check their placement record to see if it meets your criteria). Secondly, many of their students are offered 6 figure incomes after they complete their Ph.D. Most of these offers come in policy consulting. Thus, some of their students choose to go into policy, but it is a voluntary choice with good payoffs. When it comes to faculty, I think they have a strong group. Just make sure they fit well with your research interests.

For all those waiting on WI, I wouldn't count yourself out of the first round acceptances yet (I'm not). Given that they use snail mail, I figure there is a couple day window of receiving first round notices. Best of luck,

Given that you already have an undergrad degree (or two?), I would recommend trying for an english M.A. If you could do this, and you pulled very good grades in grad school you will have a much better shot at the Ph.D.

I just checked the UCLA website. It looks like they made some new updates (other than just the consent form). That said, still no decision on my file yet. Congrats to the UVA admit!

Well, I made it further with Duke than I did last year. Last year I was in the very first batch of rejections. At least this year I lasted an extra day... hopefully more To those who have heard good news, congratulations and best of luck with the rest of the cycle. To those with no or negative news, keep your head high. The excitement has just begun.

Just to keep the info coming, my Ohio application changed from "evaluation" to "acadreview" this morning. I have to be honest, this is the first weekend I have actually been excited to get away from the application suspense. Next week should be interesting, but this weekend is all about getting work done and meeting immediate deadlines.

Last year my status was under review for about a month before I heard anything.

Very nice to see the acceptances starting to come in. Congrats to all of you!

In case anyone is interested I spoke with the admissions office at UCLA today. Their website was reporting that one required document had not been received. They informed me that all documents had been received, and that the committee is presently reviewing files. Nothing too suprising, but I just thought I would pass it along to the community.

Last year Stanford did a first set of rejections on the 6th and then had a smattering of acceptances from the 7th-9th (including acceptance phone calls on Saturdays). So, there is reason to believe they may send out their first wave next week, but obviously it could be later (I just can't resist the optimistic possibility that next week could be the week )

I have no idea what it means. Mine is still reporting "evaluation." Hopefully definitive results come out this afternoon or certainly next week. No matter what, I bet a number of schools (Ohio, WUSTL, Stanford, maybe even Duke) will start reporting first round results next week.