Azruel

Thank you so much for the advice! Yeah, I know most everyone in the department personally (and some affiliated faculty outside of the department), so the shift should not be too difficult. As for fit, there are more faculty interested in the research I wish to do at UCSB (and funny enough, even more people at UCSD... but that is really not a realistic option at all). There are some people at UCR (both in and outside the department) who fit my research interests, but the dilemma is in fact that fit ranking is the inverse of funding in my case. I will likely accept UCR's offer and attempt to make connections across schools for co-publishing opportunities. I just need to think about things for a bit longer. Thank you for your help!

I only have 1 fully-funded offer... so I am really debating what to do. UC Riverside (PhD, fully-funded) UC Santa Barbara (PhD, first-year no funding, TA/GSRships years 2+) UC San Diego (MPIA, no funding) Usually it'd be a no brainer, right? But I received my BA from UCR. I'm thinking of jobs afterward, so getting all my degrees from the same school may not be ideal. I do love the school though, and the faculty are all great. It's just job prospects afterward that bother me. Anyone have any feedback/advise on the matter? As of right now, unless something changes in the coming weeks, I'm going to follow the money to UCR.

Nice, congratulations! It's a very exciting thing in my opinion.

To answer your questions: I am neither an active duty service member, nor a veteran (although I highly respect all applicants who are and keep us safe; honestly, so much respect). I will likely be declining my offer this week due to lack of funding if that helps those waitlisted. I will know almost certainly by Wednesday about this as I am waiting on a few contacts to return my messages. As for specialization... I didn't really pick one... I transferred my app from PhD to MPIA so my application materials just transferred. I am certain they assumed Latin America or China, since I am fluent in Spanish and French (there is no Western Europe emphasis) and I am interested in doing research on Chinese politics comparatively with the U.S. and Western Europe.

For anyone still waiting on UC Riverside, offers are being made this week. I just received my offer earlier today. I think those are all the UCs now right?

Just received an emailing directing to the website Messages tab with funding decisions. No funding sadly. :/

I just received my official admission email from OGS a few minutes ago. As it has been a few days now since anyone has posted here, has anyone received funding information yet? Being admitted before the 25th gives us a deadline of April 15th... possibly referring to the CGS funding agreeements, so I'm hoping merit-aid information is coming soon. Congrats to those admitted! To those still waiting, don't give up! It seems notifications are on the slow-side.

Yeah, it's really just a question of knowing yourself and your interests, then knowing the field you want to go into (content-wise), and knowing whether the careers within that field (or at least those than can be extrapolated from an advanced degree in that field) are something you would pursue. If you get a "green light" on each of those in that order, then it may be a good idea to go for it. Otherwise, go back one or two steps and try again. Also, there are always interdisciplinary programs if you find yourself on the edge of more than one area of interest. As long as you will enjoy what you do, you can not go wrong (and even if you find out you don't enjoy it, you can always try something else; it may just take some extra work to get into what you do want). Best of luck to you.

If I had to give any advice on the matter... it would be a series of questions. What do you want to do? What do you like to do? Why do you want to do what you think you want to do? Why do you like to do what you think you like to do? Does what you want to do and what you like to do overlap at all? If so, or if not, what are your goals for graduate school? And finally, is your alma mater your only option to achieve your academic or career goals? The answers you may generate to questions such as these will not always overlap with any form of consistency, but that's ok at the point before you actually consider applications to graduate school in any field. It's all about you when deciding after all, so you have to know yourself a bit before moving on.

They stated they would contact everyone by the end of the month, so a lot of people were probably notified of status today. If you don't want to wait until (possibly) Thursday, contact the graduate program assistant Karen Battin. Her information on this page: http://polisci.msu.edu/index.php/phd-program/application-process Also important to note: my rejection notice came from her, and I have contacted her in the past regarding applications. She is the most likely contact to obtain your application status. Congrats to all those admitted to MSU!

Same here. Congratulations to all Wash admits!

Congrats to NW and MSU admits! Still waiting on some reply from MSU, so I am sad. Still some chance since it's not the end of the month, so I'm crossing my legs, fingers, and anything else really...

Also, I hate to double post but I received a reply from NYU this morning. They are still looking at a few apps (possibly a second round of admissions or admissions into the MA for those who checked that option; they did not state specifically). So there is still some hope if you have not yet heard back from NYU.

Yep, I checked it just the other day when I posted here. I was still being reviewed and, when I asked him and he checked, he told me he had a denial letter. I took a look at it and offered to buy him a pizza to try to cheer him up. In the week prior I had contacted the department (I figured I had been rejected anyway) and was told basically that they have not started second round admissions yet; that would come after some people from the first round make decisions on whether or not to attend. They said that final decisions would be made, at the latest, by mid-March. So if we are still being reviewed, we are still on the wait-list until otherwise notified.

According to the email I received earlier last week when I inquired, that means we made the wait-list (and are presumably still on it until they finish making decisions; told that would be mid-March at latest).