giants1012

I'm with you on the undergrad grades - mine aren't as good as I would like, and I think it was a factor that eliminated me from a few schools. Best of luck to everyone who will be attending next year!

Yeah I'm still waiting to hear from CMU Heinz. I will definitely be very disappointed with a rejection, but I will also be relieved to finally have it all be over with.

Okay arki, so here is what just happened to me. Interested to see what happened to your application... After emailing admissions, she wrote back asking for my application ID number and date I applied. When I sent those, she wrote back and said THEY DIDN'T HAVE MY APP IN THEIR SYSTEM. She asked if I was positive that I had applied to the Public Policy Phd. I obviously was pretty worried that there is no way my application would get a fair assessment now, and a little bit miffed at the question if I knew which program I had applied to. I sent back a screenshot of my Berkeley Grad Application online profile that said "Public Policy PhD" on it and also sent the receipt for the $80 application fee showing it was received by the deadline. She then emails back saying sorry, they actually DO have my application, and what email should she send the decision letter to. About an hour later I get the form rejection letter from her email address, not from the online application system. Just checked the Berkeley Grad application system, and no decision is posted there. What do y'all think about all this? At best they aren't notifying people when they are rejected and are just kinda dealing with it as they get bothered. At worst they lost my application and when it became clear I was pretty pissed (and would probably ask for $80 back) they just sent a rejection.

Haha, I think we are living the same life right now. I saw that too and got instantly curious and started mulling over possibilities. I finally decided to just send an email to admissions because I would like to know, as you said above, either way - so I can start making my decision. Still waiting on their response, I'll keep you posted. No pun intended.

I see that someone heard on March 2; I know that some programs admit people and wait to send out rejections, so its probably not a good sign for us...

Yeah, I'm still waiting as well.

Polywonk - congrats on being decided! That's great news. Took y'alls advice and contacted Texas. They basically said that if I hadn't heard I'm probably on the waitlist. I don't know if they normally just don't tell people their status, or if my notification just fell through the cracks, but either way it's pretty off-putting. If anybody else still hasn't heard from Texas, call em! It's been a stressful two weeks! Good luck everybody, its almost over!

From what I've seen, admitting Master's first is pretty typical.

Oh I applied to Heinz! Sorry, guess my advice is no good! I'll send an email. I've checked the website compulsively but all it ever says is "Forwarded to Admissions Committee". Damn, I'll chock that up as a rejection I guess.

Has anyone heard from Texas LBJ? I saw two people on the results database heard on Feb 10 and 12 this year, and everyone in the database from last year heard in the middle of Feb. I feel like its getting really late for them now and I'm wondering if I should ask...

I don't think you should worry yet. I have also not heard from CMU and I emailed admissions with another question about 3 weeks ago and they hadn't even started reviewing files yet. As I recall, tmj was a bit of a special case with his proposed topic (am I right tmj?) and heard back even before my email. Hopefully they start coming out this week though!

Good luck on the waitlist at Cal! I got waitlisted there when applying for MPPs (almost) two years ago. I didn't end up getting in, but I heard that they let a good amount of people from the waitlist in so good luck. Just got the rejection for Michigan PP & Econ. Disappointed for sure. I've seen that Cal contacted some PhDs, but I haven't heard anything yet! Its making me really anxious.

I have also been checking Ford nonstop since I saw those PP&Soc results. I'm PP&Econ and haven't heard anything yet, but based on last year's results I'm hoping to hear any day now. I haven't heard anything from Texas or Harvard, and I've seen that accepted people have heard from both of those already I'm assuming that they are rejections. Especially since Texas made decisions a full month ago now... As far as choosing between places, I think that nothing beats going and meeting your potential faculty advisor. I recently did a school visit and met mine, and her enthusiasm for my potential topic really excited me for that program. I've heard a lot about how the course of your research is really dependent on the attention/criticism you can get from your advisor.

Had a double rejection morning! Emails from both Duke and LSE. Wasn't expecting offers from either of them though, so I wasn't pinning my hopes on it. Hope that the people who landed interviews with Duke got better news!

Yeah checking the results database has become a manic habit. But all that checking does allow me to see when people heard last year, so if anyone is applying to the same schools you might find this list helpful: WHEN PEOPLE GOT NOTIFICATION LAST YEAR: Duke: 2/9 (tomorrow!) Texas LBJ: 2/16 to 2/19 Michigan Ford: 2/20 Cal Goldman: early March (dates were pretty varied) CMU Heinz: 3/4 to 3/15 Chicago Harris: 3/10 to 3/13 Harvard: 3/12 (snail mail) Sorry Rand folks, I didn't check that one...

I'm not claiming it, but if they said interviews are all completed, I'll take that as a rejection as well since I haven't heard a thing from them. Also saw the LBJ rejection on here...I've heard absolutely nothing from them, so I don't know what to think...good or bad? I've been checking the FAQs for all the schools I applied to, a lot of them say they don't release results until mid-March...I don't know how I'll make it that long!

I think the one-on-one thing is pretty common, but usually more like five (students) to one (advisor/professor). I think it depends a lot on your advisor and how much of their research they want you to do, as opposed to doing more of your own thing. Definitely something to consider when choosing between programs! (knock on wood)

Congrats tmj! CMU is a great school. Their econ-pp dual degree had a similar confusing application, you could do it either through PP or the B-school...but the B-school charged money for the app...so it was just kind of strange. Did you apply to CMU for the December deadline or the January one?

That may have been me you saw with UNC, I got an email from (I think) my potential advisor saying that I was admitted! Very happy to hear from at least one. What interviews did you get? Congrats, that's great! I saw on the results database one Duke interview - which kind of worries me because I haven't heard anything from them yet...but I'm crossing my fingers that they are just doing it in batches.

Polywonk - thanks for starting the forum! I've been lurking around for awhile trying to find one. I'm applying to PhD Public Policy. Currently finishing my Masters in Public Policy, and just enjoyed the research that I got to do so much that I want to keep going. Applied to 8 schools for PhD Policy - Cal, Duke, UNC, Harvard, Chicago, CMU, Texas, Michigan - and 2 more (for good measure) in International Development - Oxford and LSE. Apps were pretty grueling but now that I'm done its just more waiting game... I'm interested in regional development policy, economic development, that kind of stuff. tmj - the science focus sounds like a really good one. I'm doing a little bit of that in my MPP studies. Seems like CMU would be a great place for that, yeah? Anyone heard anything yet? From what I've seen on similar forums from past years, Feb is the main month for decisions.