veritaserum

Massive congratulations to all the admits today! Super well deserved Everyone else, hang in there! So gauging from previous years' results (based on first acceptance reported on GC): 2013: Monday, February 4th (5th Monday of term, but technically 6th week, because Winter quarter started Wednesday, January 2nd) 2012: Monday, January 30th (4th Monday of term, but technically 5th week, because Winter quarter started Wednesday, January 4th) 2011: Monday, January 31st (5th Monday of term; Winter quarter started January 3rd) There seems to be a general trend of starting notifications on Mondays at UCLA. And hearkening back to advice earlier in the thread about checking start-of-term dates, UCLA started on Thursday, January 2nd this year. If they stick to the pattern, Monday, February 3rd will probably be the day they start. On that note - I wonder if any of the other schools have such a set date/pattern too...

Congratulations to all the recent admits! Well done I'm like...95% sure UCLA will start notifying on Monday, February 3rd. (Although there is a miniscule chance, I suppose, that they're on an earlier schedule this year and start notifying today.)

Book Depository (a UK company) has really good pricing as well (although it's gone up a bit in recent years) and free worldwide shipping. I've ordered a couple of textbooks from them as well.

I think it makes sense to aim for the 'reach' schools, and that line of thinking definitely is very logical. At this point, there's nothing you can really change about your odds or your application strategy for this cycle, so try not to be too hard on yourself! But I do want to say this: gauging from the last couple of posts you've made in this thread, the amount of passion for, and desire to pursue, such a degree in academia/Political Science, that you have is really conveyed through your words. I'm sure this probably shone through in your personal statement as well. And with attrition rates being what they are, demonstrating a strong commitment and conviction to follow this path would definitely be a boost. Best of luck! (And if you don't mind my asking, are you Chinese yourself, or just interested in it?)

Hypothetical question: if you guys got into your dream school or one of your top choices, how are you planning on celebrating or rewarding yourself? And for those who've already received acceptances, how are you celebrating the fact (or are you?)?

Congratulations, Davis admits! (Pretty hardcore that the website was updated/e-mail notifications were set to go out on a Sunday, for sure) Wonder if any of the other UCs will follow suit this upcoming week...

And...I just realized my logic fail there. If they're sending out e-mails recruiting potential applicants, it wouldn't make sense to send that to people who technically already are applicants (or may be, depending on how the PhD application pans out, for some). The only defense I can really come up with is that it's 2 in the morning Eastern time...

Congratulations also to all the recent admits! Looks like some celebrations are in order for you guys this weekend!

Did you select to allow schools to contact you when you were taking the GREs though? It could also be just that Edited to add: (Ack, many pages behind after not checking in all day, didn't see that there were subsequent responses at first) I checked yes on my application, didn't receive the e-mail. Would be inclined to think they are going off the ETS databases then. (But if they are...that's slightly worrisome. I'd thought my quant score was pretty decent D: Guess not?)

Congratulations to all the recent acceptances!!

21 users reading this topic - looks like things are heating up!

I totally read that and thought immediately of Harry Potter/Chamber of Secrets first lol. Are you German, IRToni? There definitely seems to be an increase in [human] movement between Germany and China in recent years...

Gauging from the results page for past years, it looks like they notify applicants via a mix of e-mail, phone and snail mail. (Rejections seem to arrive universally via e-mail though.) But yeah, their application form was very straightforward HTML as well!

Currently single, so re-locating isn't really a big concern at the moment. But this reminds me of a piece that Drezner wrote on whether women should get PhDs in IR awhile ago, that touched upon the whole relationship thing. (Less so in relation to starting grad school per se, but more regarding finishing it.) Here's a small snippet:

Hope everything works out, IR IR IR PhD! Anyone else find it ironic that MIT, a school with such a strong tech focus, is going so old school with snail mail?

This thread's been moving pretty quickly recently! Just for reference, I checked last year's thread - on they were already on January 31st. We're only at January 16th and we've already hit 39 pages lol.

I've heard of the site, but am not super familiar with it. Is it basically just like LinkedIn specifically for academia? In any case, definitely sounds like a good sign if you're looking to find out more about you! Congrats also to the recent admits!!

That's actually a fantastic idea. Definitely planning on working out lots over the next couple of months. Oh well, even if I get rejected across the board, at least I'll have the consolation of being in great shape!

Oh, ouch!

Looks like I spoke too soon anyway - a couple more interviews with OSU got logged on the Results page, and someone just put up an acceptance for Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Congrats!!)

Business hours are over on both the East and West coast now... guess there's about to be a couple hours reprieve for the evening before anyone else hears anything. Man, this kind of makes me think of the Hunger Games, with the firing canons and whatnot. Although I suppose that'll be more apt once the decisions start rolling out in earnest...

Happy birthday, IRToni! Germany is super awesome~ Very excited for FIFA! That is kind of amazing. I actually LOLed.

If you're into science fiction, Orphan Black is a fantastic show. There's only one season out so far (10 episodes), so you have plenty of time to get caught up before the second season debuts on April 19th. It's about clones, and the lead actress, Tatiana Maslany, is incredible! Have heard enormous amounts of praise for Sherlock as well, although I haven't watched it personally.

How many programs/schools did you guys end up applying to, anyway?

That's very fast; a week and a day. Following polisci12345's suggestion above, I just checked Michigan State's start of term. It was this Monday (January 6). Which would mean that the decision was made in under a week...