PhDhopeful2013
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Posts posted by PhDhopeful2013
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In at UC Davis for IR.
Congrats!
Things are moving...
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Does anyone know if UNC always does interviews? Or have they done them in recent years?
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Thanks! I'm the Davis acceptance, American subfield. I'm so excited to have one acceptance before the weekend, I can't even describe the wave of emotion and relief that came over me when I opened the e-mail and read "Congratulations...". I hope everyone else gets good news soon!
Awesome! Congrats, Quigley! Now you can celebrate
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No, he just said that he wanted to schedule a Skype interview to learn more about my grad school plans. My subfield is comparative.and thanks!
Good luck!!
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Most of what's written in that post is exceedingly obvious to anyone serious about pursuing a Ph.D., so it's curious that the piece is written like it's saying something revelatory.
Agreed. If someone going into any field or any line of work has unrealistic expectations about it (i.e. "i'll be CEO by 25!"), then they will surely have a reality check to come to grips with. Similarly, if someone hasn't fully vetted the trade-offs and opportunity costs associated with his/her job or field of choice, then he/she may be surprised down the road. Also a person's interests and goals change over time and with experience, which adds to the complexity of finding a fulfilling livelihood balanced with personal and material contentment. All of this is part of maturing, becoming an adult, and getting to know oneself fully, and unfortunately handling some substantial disappointments and challenges along the way is necessary. the process is not unique to academia, IMHO.
- Two Espressos and misskira
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I'm dreading the thought of enduring another weekend without any news. Ugh.
On the bright side, starting next week repeated email and status checking will be fully justified!!
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Congrats to the latest admits!!
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You wont be academically homeless next year so you have less to worry about than others lol
yes! i would love to have an acceptance in hand right about now... it would reduce my stomach-churning anxiety down to a level more akin to intense curiosity.... but sincere congrats to everyone already accepted somewhere so far!! soon the results board will start heating up for all of us! gonna be fun....
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I had this happen with one school last year; some times it just takes them a little while to get a personalized letter written up, etc. Or in the case of one school, they actually forgot to send me the e-mail admitting me, so I only found out about being admitted when a POI e-mailed me to set up a phone conversation...
just curious about which school udated the website before sending the letter? (so i can direct my obsessive checking appropriately if i applied there!!)
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Congrats, alittlebitofluck!!
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I would like a healthier approach too, Quigley! I haven't gotten to the sleepless night phase, but i do check GradCafe and my email more often then i probably should... It's more during the workday for me because i am at the point where i am bored and really need a change. I'm just hoping to know what that change will actually look like soon (be it a phd program (yes!!) or a Plan B (meh... for now)). But life goes on either way, so I'm appreciating the positive vibe posts!! We might as well be optimistic at this point. It feels better than pessimism, and the admissions results are out of our control now! I bet some schools start releasing results by the end of next week (Michigan maybe?)... Any other guesses?
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Have Columbia's apps always been due Dec 1st? If the due date was earlier this year, then I could see results coming out earlier too. If not, then i think the posted results do seem a bit suspicious...
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well, i guess there will be difficulty sleeping this week.
So true.... And increased coffee intake!
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ONE DOWN! (Illinois)
I answered the phone without much interest since it woke me up. I was wide awake after she told me where she was calling from.
That's a pretty great wake up call! Congrats!!
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When do you think we should be realistically expecting responses? First week in February at the earliest?
Well i think most acceptances will be out over the first two weeks of Feb, based on the results board of last year. Seems as though most rejections come out later... end of Feb or early March. So I'm definitely hoping for at least some action in early Feb!!
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Well...another week down
Yes!! Haha kind of sad to be living this way - just waiting for the days and weeks to be over until "results time".... But we're almost there!
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I second everything that Takemycoffeeblack writes above.
Personally, I am in a job that is low-stress, easy, has incredible benefits, and I am making in the upper range of what I would make as a starting assistant professor 5 or 6 years from now. But it's also boring and unfulfilling. I'm turning 27 soon and have spent a lot of time thinking about what I want the rest of my life to look like. I know that it's never too late to change careers but I know that the longer I wait, the more difficult it becomes. I just don't want to spend the rest of my life staring at the clock from 8:00 to 5:00 every day and counting down the hours until the weekend because I loathe my job. The opportunity to spend your life doing what you love makes this whole thing worth it to me.
you read my mind. i'm in a very similar situation. the prospect of enjoying what i do during the majority of my waking hours for the next 40 years far outweighs the time and income trade-off required over the next 5 or 6 years....
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That would be me! Thanks MarketMan! I am excited to have been admitted to a great program. Best of luck to all of you -- I can tell you, the stress of waiting it out was worth it once I got the phone call from Illinois.
Congrats!
I have a question about phone call notifications... Are they usually just brief "You got in! Congrats! More info is on its way.." Or do the conversations get more detailed. For instance, does the caller want to get a feel for how likely the applicant is to accept the offer? Just curious... in case I'm lucky enough to receive one of these calls, I want to be prepared!
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i've had to get a few books via EZBorrow recently. the library sends an automated message at every step of the process for each book (order placed, order shipping, order received...) Every single time i see the auto-email come through my heart stops for a sec because I think it's an application-related auto-email... yes, i am in fact losing my mind!!
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Well I am officially having a panic attack.
I applied to 9 PhD programs for American politics and included a spectrum across the top 25 programs. This is my first cycle. I spent several weeks on my SOP and re-wrote it several times. I looked at a lot of samples and took my time figuring out what things I wanted to include in it. Going back and re-reading it after seeing your post, I think my SOP is pretty much what you describe it should look like for an MA program, with my study focuses definitely outlined more as two topics that I'd like to explore and why they interest me, as well as a short description of previous research I've done in those areas.
Am I completely screwed?
I'm terrified of the possibility of straight rejections. Not only for the obvious reasons such as, you know, fulfilling my dreams after having spent the last 2 years preparing for this. I also hate my insipid job with a passion and am counting the days until I can put in notice, and to top things off, desperately need to move away to school this summer and make a fresh start in a new place after a recently failed marriage. I would be completely and utterly crushed if I don't get accepted anywhere.
For what it's worth, the rest of my application includes a 3.8 from a respectable liberal arts school, 165V / 162Q / 5.5, strong statistical research paper for my writing sample that was my senior thesis, and (I assume) strong letters from profs that I knew very well. But if my SOP is garbage, none of this probably matters.
To echo what adaptations said - don't despair!! it souds like you have a great background and stats, so I'm sure your SOP is good. And worst case, you apply again next year with a whole new arsenal of experience. I too was rejected across the board a few years ago and lived to tell! hopefully I will have better results this time, but I definitely feel much more prepared to enter a PhD program now. Despite how crappy it felt to get rejected, I did take comfort in the fact that going through multiple application cycles is actually very common; plus my application is stronger this time around because I learned where my weaknesses were. If you are really worried, in addition to applying for jobs, you could apply for a few stand alone MA programs. Some actually do offer funding, so it's better to apply now when funding decisions are being made rather than waiting until after all of the phd decisions are final and MA funding (if any) has been allocated. Good luck to you!!
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Super cheesy romantic comedy about a PhD student at Harvard? Yes, please. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep and found it randomly on Netflix. Losing Control if you are wondering. It did make me smile. Awwww... and many pretty Harvard and Boston shots.
Will definitely be checking this one out!! thanks
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Yay!! Congrats, nohika
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No, I think that you are probably right about grad school for me, right now at least. School was always something that I was always really good at, so I think that since I am currently kind of lost, my mind immediately goes back there. It's funny that you mention Peace Corps/AmeriCorps/TFA - The PeaceCorps are basically my dream job, but unfortunately, I wouldn't qualify due to medical issues. I actually applied to an AmeriCorps program last year and was not selected for it (I think I managed to choose one of the more popular ones).
You know what, though? Just thinking about these programs made me light up in a way that researching graduate programs never did.
SInce you have a lot of work experience, another suggestion would be to look for admin jobs at nearby universities. Mostly all colleges and universities offer tuition benefits for staff. So you could take a few classes through the benefit and see if being back in the classroom is envigorating for you. Since your employer (the college/university) is paying for it, you won't have to worry about finances. Also, working at a college or university can give you some other great service and travel opportunities. If you work there, you could get involved with some service groups or even volunteer to chaperone some student trips. Even if your job is on the admin side, you'd get exposure to academia and see if it would be a good fit. I'd imagine working at a college would be more interesting than at a bank (only b/c you said you're bored there) at least while you figure out your next step, I'd echo the advice on here that going to grad school just to get out of an unfullfilling job and to "find yourself" is prob not the best way to go, financially or otherwise... Good Luck!!
Welcome to the 2012-2013 cycle
in Political Science Forum
Posted
You're on a roll!! Congratulations! Clearly your SOP was right on point
Did you get the UNC email from a prof, or was it an auto-email? (Im guessing it was from a prof, but just checking...)