Angua

Because you are international, I think you have a lot more flexibility with respect to not attending. I think arranging a video conference makes perfect sense for someone in your position, and I doubt they would hold it against you (although there are some natural advantages to meeting people in person). I wouldn't tell them that you don't want to go because you are too busy -- just tell them that you regret that you will not be able to make it in from France for the visit weekend, but that you are very enthusiastic about the program and would love to schedule an interview by video or telephone. Good luck!

Yeah... The most frustrating part for me is that her "ranking" doesn't take into account: (1) How schools are actually ranked in my field; (2) The fact that all of the schools I applied to are pretty similar in terms of overall "prestige" (though they may not have been 20 years ago, when she was in academia); and (3) my decision's likely to be based on, you know, more than "prestige." Sigh.

I talked with a POI last week who told me that this year, more and more programs are doing staggered admits. Because applicants are applying so much more broadly, a program can no longer be sure how many of its admits will attend. As he explained it, when applicants were putting in 5 applications, you could figure they might get into about 2, so you have a 50% chance that they will accept your offer. Now, people are applying to 10-15 or more, and they might get into 4 or 5 (or more), so you have a 20-25% chance (give or take) that they will accept. If you only have space or funding for a few people, then it makes sense to admit a few, then wait and see what their interest level really is. So his program, for example, had rejected a lot of people, accepted 3-4, and then had 10-15 people that they were still considering. Some of those will be accepted before they hear from the "definite" admits, but most will have to wait. Bottom line: He said that if you haven't been rejected yet, it's a "cautiously good" sign. Don't give up hope yet! Also, my experience with interviews that are not part of a formal interview weekend has been that each POI gets around to interviewing people on their own time -- so definitely don't fret!

My aunt and uncle are retired professors/higher ed administrators (not in my field). Every time I tell my aunt about any good news from a program, she says "Oh, that's a very good school, but it's not as good as [Other school I haven't heard from yet]."

Yes, definitely wait until you have a formal offer - until then, operate as though you don't have an offer at all (because really, you don't). Once you have an offer and you know you want to accept, you can just call the contact person listed on the application and notify them that you've accepted an offer and want to withdraw your application. Congrats!

Just to add another consideration, I think it's worth keeping interviews unless you're pretty darn sure you wouldn't accept an offer (obviously, you shouldn't waste everyone's time). If you aren't 100%, I think even an interview somewhere you think can't beat your best offer could be worthwhile-- interviewing somewhere else will give you a different perspective, and it may help you think of things you want to ask/do/think about before accepting your awesome offer. Learning about a different program, talking to a different batch of students and professors, and just generally thinking about a different school could be very useful.

Interview Weekends ASU (Quant) : Feb 20-23 Davis (Quant): Feb 25ish Duke (Social): Jan 24-26 KU (Quant) : Jan 25 Lehigh University: February 15 Notre Dame (All): February 7-9, 2013 Stanford University (Social): February 14-16 UCLA (Social): January 10-12 
UNC (Quant): Feb 15
 UT Austin (Social): Feb 22-23 
UT Austin (HDFS): Jan 24-26
 UBC (Social): Feb 7-10 
USC (Social): January 24-25
 UC Irvine (Social): January 28-29 
UC San Diego (Social): February 7-8 Vanderbilt (Quant): Feb 14-16
 WUSTL (Social): Feb 21-23 Yale (Social): January 27-28 University of North Carolina (Social): February 7-9 University of Rochester (Social): February 1-3 UCSB Feb 22-23 Univ of Oregon February 1 - 3 University of Toledo (Exp-Social): Jan 25th or Feb 11th UC Berkeley (Social): February 11-12 American University (Social): February 11 IU-Bloomington (Social): Feb 15-16 Florida State (Social): Feb 21-24 Rutgers-Newark: February 15 OSU (Quant): February 15 Penn State: February 14-17 University of Alabama: January 27-20 Texas A & M University: February 28 - March 2 University of Michigan (unofficial): February 21-24 University of Chicago: February 16-18 University of Minnesota: March 1-2 University of Denver: February 21-24 Cornell: March 8-9

No idea!

Double posting to share another update -- Cornell sent out invitations to their interview weekend yesterday. No idea whether all of the invites are out. Good luck to everyone!

I applied. I heard through the grapevine yesterday that they are running way slow this year, so try not to worry too much yet!

I've been (mostly) lurking on this thread, but I had to chime in to say: Congrats, PhDreams and kyjin!!

Heh. I can see the headlines now. "Would-be psychologist arrested in flaming penguin incident: I did it for the interview!"

I had an informal interview with a POI at Cornell (Social). He said that they are usually very slow relative to other programs, and he had no good idea when decisions will be made. Apparently they have several faculty members on sabbatical and parental leave this semester, so the process may be even more slow than usual. Good luck to everyone!

Definitely good! Congrats!

I would -- why not? I'd put it right in line with your minor, too. University of Faketopia at Fakeville -- Aug 2008 - May 2012 B.A., Basketweaving - GPA: 3.02 Minor in History - GPA: 3.79 Or whatever.

I don't know if I agree completely. I talked about specific questions and ideas I have (at least as specific as "the arms trade" and "immigration law and diplomacy") in my SOP, and I've gotten some good feedback on it from POIs -- I was advised to approach it this way by my mentor, who also did so in her (very successful) SOP. Anecdata, to be sure, but I think being able to talk about semi-specific interests is important, and shows that you have developed your interests more thoroughly than "international law" or "political science." I think the best overall advice I got about this was: you want to convey that you have your own ideas, but you also want to convey that you are ready to get excited and enthusiastic about whatever your POI needs/wants you to work on. In other words, you need to be careful to avoid sounding like these are the only topics you could ever work on, but there's no need to pretend you don't have any research interests or research questions already floating around in your head. For your interests, I'm not sure that they are really that different from one another -- as wsc215 suggests, they seem to fit together kind of nicely. The "theme" is the flow of people and arms across borders, the regulation of that flow, and the underlying policies. You should be able to tie them together. You can also address each one separately -- for example, you could say, "In graduate school, I would like to explore the political and legal foundations of border policy. For example, I am very interested in the arms trade. [specific question about the arms trade]. I am also interested in the flow of people across borders and the ways in which immigration law is shaped by international diplomacy." Or, you know, something like that, but written in more than 30 seconds. I also found that talking about specific ideas gave me a nice way to incorporate the research being done by some of my POIs. While my skeleton SOP talked about the projects I am currently working on, and some ideas I have about how to build on them, I tailored some of the future questions to the POI's interests. For example, if you find that one of your POIs does a lot of work on the EU, you could mention that one possible avenue for your immigration interest is how EU member states deal with immigration (or, again, you know, something that is well-thought-out and coherent). As I said, though, there is definitely a risk. You want to avoid sounding like you are too caught up in your own ideas. Profs want to get someone who will have ideas, but they also need someone who will be an asset to the Prof's own current and future work.

I'd thank him for his time and for response. I tend to err on the side of not bothering people, but I think if you were willing to email your first choice, then why not try your second choice? Professor One's determination that he's not taking anyone this year isn't a reflection on your application, so I don't think there's any added harm in reaching out to the other professor you like. No need to even mention the other guy, as far as I'm concerned. Just send the same kind of email that you already sent to Professor One. Good luck!

Based on some of the emails I've gotten, it's clear that admissions folks are working evenings and weekends, so there's always the possibility that they'll update in those times.

Start by checking with the school, probably via the webpage- at many, students all have some kind of health benefits included with their fees. At least, this is the case with most larger schools. Of course, if your package includes assistantships, you may also qualify as an employee. If all else fails, definitely ask!

UPenn sent out invites this week. Dates are 2/22 and 3/1. I applied social, but the email was from the department head and looked like a group email. I have no idea if all invites are out already or if there will be more, but they were asking for responses by the end of this week. Hope that helps!

Columbus and Champaign-Urbana (locals call it Champaign-Urbana, or just Champaign or just Urbana- only the university really uses Urbana-Champaign) are both nice areas, as well. I can't speak to the quality of these programs, but I think the location that is best depends on what you want. Do you want a bigger city? Will you have a car, or will you need to rely on public transportation? Do you want to be somewhere that has a large international student population? How much can you afford in rent? These are the kinds of questions I would start with.

I caught the flu, so between fever dreams and Netflix, I've had nothing to do all week but check my email. You can guess how that's going...

My husband is doing this for me! He's so excited about getting out of our current town. :-\

Psych programs. I haven't heard a thing from any business programs yet! :-)

This is an especially good point. I always take a notepad into interviews with me, and although it can be hard to take good notes in an in-person interview, on the phone it is really helpful to take notes. Later, you will remember the adrenaline rush more than the actual information you may have learned, and it's great to be able to go back over it with a clearer head. Even at an in-person, jot down things when you can, but certainly take the first chance you have alone after the interview to make notes while everything is still fresh in your mind.