jeudepaume

Yeah, I watched google pictures of the hawaiian paradise that is the Manoa campus, and declined with sadness in my heart.

I declined UC-Irvine and UH-Manoa; political theory subfield.

Well, folks, Since the rejection from Yale was the last one of my most awaited rejections (Chicago, I've given up on you! I reject your rejection!), my cycle is now officially over. I am very happy with the options I have (and most grateful I do have options this year). I said it before and I'll say it again to everyone who anticipates having to apply for the second time: I've been there and it's surprisingly more doable than I would have believed. Even better: would I have acquired a place last year it certainly wouldn't be as good, as I am much more prepared this year, both in terms of my application and in terms of knowing where I want to go and what I want to do. So good luck to everyone who's still waiting on more results to come, and best of luck to those who are preparing for the next cycle. I'll stick around to see how you guys end up doing.

I liked it too )

'The transient academics' sounds like 'a traveling circus'. Anyway, whyyy, why are they so against those poor academics? P.S. I quite enjoyed the overarching discussion among "frequentists," "bayesians," "ontologists," and "deconstructionists" (with an occasional appearance of Derrida speaking from the Other Side) that followed the article.

I really hope it will be useful for someone here: I have just declined a CU-Boulder offer, Theory subfield. They asked me to inform them of my decision as soon as I know for sure, so hopefully they will be making this offer to someone on the waitlist very soon. I sincerely hope it means exciting news for someone. I discovered, it is pretty heartbreaking to have to decline a program you are really excited about.

Made me laugh. http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/humor/reject.html

Oh okay. Yeah, the British system involving two different processes for admission and for funding is a huge source of additional stress. Hopefully, you'll get one of those! I mean you already got into a pretty competitive school; a competitive scholarship should follow.

Wait you mean you don't wanna go to Cambridge?! :0

There is a pretty good chance that I will be attending, as I like the program and opportunities it offers a lot. I am, however, still deciding between Northwestern and another school. I wanted to ask if any of you guys are worried about the average time to degree at NW? It is 8 (!) years.

Me too. As for your earlier question, I won't be able to attend the weekend unfortunately, but I will be there 3-4 days later. If you are still in the Chicago area these days, I'd be glad to meet.

But I have to work tomorrow! I feel cheated. I mean I value that holiday so much, how can they deny me my day off.

Haha! Didn't it get cancelled? I thought they moved it to June. (I believe you do realize it is an exclusively Russian holiday)

oh YAAAAY!!! (I know how long you guys waited for that one!) Edit: grammar as always

(upvote) Yep. Childish, really.

I guess I am just frustrated when people on the board post a rejection with something like "haha got into a better school anyway." My thoughts on this are: ok, good for you, you've made it. Now what is the point of your comment? Are you arrogant enough to think that if you got into "a better school" you also automatically should be accepted everywhere? Are you frustrated with this rejection—why would you be if you already got good options? So why being bitter/condescending? P.S. unless the comment is a joke. Jokes. I get those. Edit: grammar

upvote (my way of upvoting in the absence of upvotes). My way of looking at it is similar: at a certain level it becomes somewhat a matter of chance. It doesn't deny the fact though that you have to get to this level first. And often it is a pretty darn high level.

green up green up!

Oh that's gonna be even more romantic!—to show a complete determination not to open your email for the entire night.

And I'll join you.

I've reached the green up-arrow quota again. Congratulations on your official end of the successful cycle. Good luck with your visit.

Exactly. There are lots of factors that define whether you will get in or not (which varies from year to year too), and the acceptance rate for good schools (e.g. 8-9% for Northwestern) is low enough to suggest that there may be plenty of other people who are just as qualified. Nothing nihilistic in believing that there are more than 5 people who are equally fit for admission. That said your fit with the department is a different story; I understand how that may be upsetting.

I don't understand why you guys are calling it paradoxes. All of those are good schools with lots of very qualified applicants. Somewhere you're picked, somewhere you're not; it seems to be an absolutely normal part of the process. Implying that it's impossible to be rejected from Northwestern (why, because it is a lower ranked school?) after being accepted to MIT doesn't seem right to me.

for real!

Well, I did the following. I talked at length about the question that I want to study (essentially briefly describing the state of the field, mentioning approaches that I am interested in (and specific names), and the general direction that I want to take). After that I simply threw a transition paragraph, talking about how this problem is multifaceted, and how I am open to changing it in the future, and even expect it, given that I am going to a PhD program exactly for the purpose of developing. After that I talked about what other research topics I worked on before and am still interested to work on (vaguely connected to my dissertation topic though). I am in theory though. I don't know how that approach would work with a quantitative proposal.