mseph

Congratulations! This is a great news! I did not reach out to you in private but was secretly hoping that you would come back when I noticed that you became a bit quiet in this forum. I am glad you came back, but not only so but with a great news of acceptances. I am truly excited for you and my fingers are also crossed for your Chicago's Masters program. Hope the odds are in your favor. Congrats! Knew you could do it, it just took a bit of time. EDIT: I also applied to CGU but silence on my end. I guess that's a rejection for me.

I haven't heard such thing for GRE, but heard about SAT. For SAT, it was multiple choice C. My teacher said, even with the guessing penalty that SAT has, it is usually better to guess, and if you have no idea which choice you should go with, pick C. That was his advice. Of course, I did not take this fully and sometimes left it blank because SAT takes 1/4 points off for wrong answers. (Do they still do this? It's been a very long time...lol) But if that is the same case with GRE but for A, I don't see a reason why not? GRE does not take points off for wrong answers, and by trying to maximize your score, you should guess no matter what. And if you have no idea, then perhaps it is the best strategy to choose A. But I would make sure that it's choice A that is the most common in GRE first though. Just my two cents.

I received an admission email from Pitt on Feb. 9th (with letter attached). According to the Results Search, it seems Pitt officially notifies their waitlisters rather than silently waitlisting applicants. So I am not sure what they'll do with those who haven't heard yet. But it's a bit odd for Pitt this year though, because it seems they notified rejections pretty soon after notifying acceptances and waitlists in recent years. Maybe they are still deciding? Not sure, and who knows...

I actually have a question about rankings, and I thought it may be relevant to this thread--since it comes into play when we choose programs. I noticed that different rankings sometimes rank schools differently, and I am sure I am not the only one who noticed it. US News may rank Program A higher than Program B, but NRC may rank it the otherwise. For example, US News ranks UPenn at 28 and Pitt at 40. But the NRC ranks Pitt significantly higher than UPenn. If you also look at the placement ranking, the study done (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~gillum/rankings_paper.pdf), Wisconsin is ranked relatively lower than its actual ranking and prestige, and USC is right after Wisconsin. These two programs are very far separated in the US News rankings. Well, these are just examples I am listing, there are quite many other programs ranked differently under different rankings. So my question is, what would be your advice, then, when there are discrepancies between the rankings of programs we are considering? I hope those who are more experienced and knowledgeable can shed me some light and help me in making an important decision in my life. Thanks in advance-

What's up with all the ads about skin products in these forums..? I simply ignored them until now, but it's becoming more prevalent that it's getting a little annoying...

Right? Even a slight imagination of them changing their decision is a nightmare--but I've been doing this over and over.. The letter has information about recruitment, funding I will get, and I've been communicating with the staff at the department to arrange my travel to the recruitment events. Also, my POI emailed me saying congratulations. But still... what if it's the university says a "no" to all this...?

So far I received 3 acceptance letters from the departments. All three letters are something along the line of "Congrats, the department recommended you for admission." Based on browsing and researching the GradCafe, my understanding is that once the department recommends you for admission, it's unlikely that the university will disapprove. For various reasons, such as department being aware of the minimum standards of the university and wanting the best candidates they want to work with...etc. However, there seems to be cases where it can happen. So now I am a bit worried as I was very excited to get into one of my top choice schools. So now I am wondering, when are the official decisions sent out, with the approval of the university? And... after the university approves, do they ever revert their decision?

To be honest, I am not sure how to deal with it. When my POI emailed me something along the line of "Congratulations, your application is impressive, you have great records..." I literally went back to my submitted application to check that the scanned copies of my transcripts are legible and self-reported GPA without any typo.

And I hope it won't happen in the future either. I particularly wish its neighbor (cough cough Pitt) did not make this mistake.. It would break my heart.

I am bumping up this thread! Hoping that there are others heading to Pittsburgh this fall and/or those who are already familiar with the city. My main question is, how is it to live in Pittsburgh without a car? I am from the West, where car is essential, so I am a bit worried about not having a car for grad school. But given that the East Coast is better in its transportation, is it possible live in Pittsburgh for 5 to 7 years without a car? I am planning to get an apartment around UPitt, so I can just walk or take a bus (based on reading some posts here from past years). But I could not find information in general about living in the city without a car. Can someone share his/her experience?

Just got curious, what is the likelihood of getting an acceptance email by mistake?

I am sorry for your rejection. But you are wrong about the last part--you are not a loser!

Saw USC postings on results page.. Should I presume the silence on my end a rejection? I try not to panic as many said in this forum, and many of you posted very comforting posts, which helped me tremendously through my first cycle. But still, this is difficult.. Well, I still hope to hear from some schools I applied but seem did not announce their decisions yet. Good luck everyone.

I believe the C is for Cal. UC Berkeley.. Am I correct?

Well, I think it's very difficult for anyone to tell whether you would get in or should apply to more schools.. Since there are many factors playing at admissions process, it's just unclear to tell. But if your goal is to teach after getting a Masters degree, why not look at the placement history of some of the programs? Masters programs have placement histories too, such as how many percent end up at PhD, how many go into working in government sector, how many start teaching at community colleges...etc. This might work as a good indicator for you on where to apply. If they do not have any information on their website, you can simply email the department to figure out. And is there a reason why you need to stay in that area of CA? There are many other CSUs with good political science programs... While how many schools you want to apply is completely up to you, if I were in your situation though, I would apply to couple more to have more options available (and be more safe ). About your comment on GRE, there are more Masters programs that require GRE scores than those who don't. So my another question is, why not take it? Taking GRE would mean you can apply to more programs, which again could mean more chances and options at the end. These are just my thoughts, whether you take it or reject it is completely up to you. Good luck! =)

I did not get any of the decisions yet, and couple applications are yet to be submitted, but all the letters are submitted now. Hence I am planning to write a thank you note to them soon (and another one when all the decisions are out, of course. Maybe with a small gift then?). But then, I noticed that the content of the thank-you note will be pretty much the same for all three.. I am really really really grateful for what they have done for me, but pretty much for the same thing and for the same reason. So the message will be very similar, if not same word for word. Is it a bad to do this? The reason why I am worried is that all my three letter writers were the professors in the same department. I know it's very unlikely, but what if they end up finding out that I wrote pretty much the same thing to them? Would they find it offensive? Please feel free to give me any feedback on this, whether it's based on what you are planning to do in the future or on past experience!

Checked mine after reading this post and mine still says "pending." I am assuming that this pretty much means a rejection by now for UW-Madison... By the way, congratulations PrincipalAgent and everyone who got in!

Just found a minor grammatical error in my sop I already submitted. The application isn't due until next week, but I submitted it a couple days ago, thinking that there won't be anything to change. Now I want to go back in time and smack myself at the head before hitting the submit button. I don't know if I should freak out or just console myself by saying, "I didn't want to live in that state anyway..." LOL

Hi youngcharlie101, I am not sure if you resolved this issue yet, but I thought recent discussions in the political science forum might be helpful. The recent posts in the "Welcome to the 2014-15 cycle" talk about letters being late. But many point out that it should be fine, most ad comms do not gather until January, usually. Here is the link: I hope this helps you. I would suggest you to take a moment and breathe! This isn't the end of the world, even though these applications are our lives these days. I am in the same boat as you as an applicant, so I completely understand. But you should really see it as only part of your life, not the whole thing! And since you have remaining schools to apply, I don't think it's too late to think about what you can do for the rest of the applications. Maybe try to have a 4th letter writer, if possible? If I were in your situation, I would politely ask the current writer if s/he is dealing with many things so cannot commit to writing letters anymore. And if s/he says no, then I will say that I understand, and still thank him/her for the willingness to support my further education. And I'd try to look for another writer. But this is just what I would do. I hope it gets resolved soon!

So one of the programs is actually asking a separate abstract, but not with the writing sample but only the abstract. And they say they will ask for the actual writing sample when they are interested. Did anyone have a similar experience? Did you submit just the abstract? I am very tempted to attach the abstract (4-5pgs) as part of my whole writing sample (before my intro, of course) and just submit them as part of my application. That way, it's easier for them and they don't have to ask another request in the future. But I am worried that they might judge me as someone who does not strictly follow the rules? Any thoughts?

I usually ended my statement with what I will do after graduating from the program. It was rather vague, but I think the conclusions of statement of purposes are relatively vague compared to the body paragraphs--where we discuss our preparation and plan for the next five years. So my conclusions sounded something like this: "I am prepared as a PhD student because blah blah blah.. After graduating from PhD program at the X University, I pursue blah blah..." I hope this gives you some ideas how to end it!

I am applying to around 10 schools, which is pretty a lot. But they are pretty much dispersed in terms of deadlines. Does anyone have an insight on what is general preference of recommenders in terms of when they receive the emails from these schools? Do they usually prefer receiving all the emails at once or somewhat separately? Since deadlines for the schools I am applying to are pretty dispersed, I was originally planning to send them separately--two weeks before each deadline. And this is what I've been doing. But came into realization that it might be better if I just send them all and they can finish whenever they want to? I know that it would be the best to ask my recommenders directly, but I feel like I am already bothering them so much by applying to this many schools. So I decided to post here first for an insight. Please advise! And everyone good luck this year!

I am pretty sure majority of us, if not all, who are still working on applications for this season are still working and revising SOPs to polish it as much as possible. This is my case as well, I keep reading and reading my SOP (and writing samples) to polish it as best as I can. I asked four professors to read them--two gave me general feedback and the other two revised/edited very closely. My friends who are good at writing and editing also helped me. I am going to the writing center at my school every other day for SOP/CV/writing sample. The last time I went to the writing center, the tutor found only couple things and suggestions to my SOP, and said, "This seems a strong statement. Good job and good luck." And that's when I realized that any further trips to the writing center would not necessarily improve my current SOP. But I still feel not very sure about this.. It's annoying and I even thought of using online editing service, which I feel a bit uncomfortable (any chance of plagiarism?). When do you know it's really done? Can anyone give me insight on any other possible ways of getting feedback/editing on SOP?

Thanks a lot, this is actually encouraging. But for some reason, I thought they send scores in mail, but I guess not? Does ETS send it electronically? So once it's processed, the schools should receive it pretty soon? I'll probably call them tomorrow. THANK YOU!