thunderchunky

As far as I know it means you have met the minimum requirements and the department will eventually decide whether or not to recommend you for admission. Mine went through the following sequence: January 31: Preliminary review required February 14: Review in progress by department February 28-ish: Recommended for assessment March 18: Received email from department informing me of unofficial acceptance, status remained at "recommended for assessment" March 22: Review in progress by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs March 25: Decision made by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs: Application Approved

21 days from the date of the letter.

Yay!

I got my official offer today! Super chuffed!

It's probably worthwhile to review the concepts anyway. Presumably you'll need that knowledge to get through your grad econ course.

Sounds like a great sign to me!

Does that mean they're making you take it again?

empty promise

To me it sounds like you know what you want to do.

Hang in there!

I've had some crazy dreams throughout this process. I don't really see it as a sign, just a manifestation of anxiety.

five alive

So what's the deal with the new clusters?

Kdav, did you get an email too? My status hasn't changed yet. I really hope they get to it today so I don't have another torturous weekend of waiting.

Yes, but the idea is that you establish the relationship beforehand so that you can speak about it in your statement of interest. If you can say in your statment that you spoke to Dr. So-and-so and that s/he has expressed interest in supervising your graduate research, this can work in your favour when it comes time for admission. I would think that contacting them after the application deadline would have significantly less impact. I think this practice is less prevalent for professional programs than for academic ones. I know many people have been admitted to NPSIA and GSPIA without making prior contact with faculty. At the same time, whatever you can do to help your cause is worthwhile, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm still "recommended for assessment" with no specialization or cluster mentioned on my page. I keep going back and reading the email I got on Monday to make sure I didn't just imagine it!

Coooool! Sciences Po! I will be pm'ing you shortly!

Thank you! What about international exchanges? Any feedback on those? How is the availability of study space on campus? Do you spend most of your time on campus or do you only come in for classes? I heard that there would be a new graduate student study area in the library this year? How is that coming along? Skip, what is your cluster again? I would love some feedback specifically on the political economy cluster.

Just now got this email from GSPIA:

I would love to know more about co-op. I heard that admission to GSPIA's co-op program is based solely on undergrad GPA. Is this the case at NPSIA? How competitive is it to the get into the co-op program? What do you have to do to stay in once you get in? Are job placements relatively easy to get?

I don't know... you can't very well change your statement of interest at this point. Are you attending the open house tomorrow?

third wheel

Anyone heard from the University of Ottawa? Anyone?.... Bueller?

I was wondering this as well. I know someone who accepted two offers (MA programs) and plans to back out of one before the fall. My first reaction was that this is bad etiquette, but is it standard practice?

Do you have work experience? 2nd or foreign languages? What's your desired area of study? Did you make contact with any profs before applying?