silver_lining

I know someone who was in a similar situation, but in a different field. Half accepted the updated CV, the other half said it would be an unfair advantage to accept anything updated after the due date. I would try to update it if I were you. However, don't be surprised if you are turned down. Probably best to email the grad secretary/coordinator. 

I appreciate all the advice given. I actually honestly need the toughness because I am tough too and I don't backdown easily. I totally understood where Joeyboy was coming from because my dream was/is to have that 1950s lifestyle so I got what he was saying and I need a guys opinion. I don't have a lot (any) male friends to tell this stuff to so being able to come here and get all kinds of opinions is great.


As far as guys lol I don't want someone who doesn't want to work but I just hate when guys prioritize work over a relationship, like why be on a dating website looking for a relationship if you would just throw away a person who is good for you so you can work all the time. I need to date someone older who has an established career. I'm only going like 30 and up and those older guys probably want marriage and a family sooner.

I don't know what I need to do, I didn't pressure this guy or talk about a relationship or even do anything wrong. I actually thought the whole thing was moving too fast which I was going to bring up next time we hung out. I just feel so annoyed! I was so close to a relationship. I don't even know if I liked him that much but still

So the guy I WAS talking to just told me he is too busy with work to maintain a relationship... Literally people care so much about working! if you care about someone you should make time for that. It's total crap. 

One last question, how lenient are you in terms of standards and looks (this has nothing to do with the convo but I need it for my own personal reassurance)? Would you consider yourself shallow? I met a guy problem is he lives in PA with his 3 kids (he was married and then got divorced all his kids are the product of that and I can't be upset about that's he's older than me by a lot so it is to be expected) I thought that fact that he lived in PA was a problem, turns out its like 1 and a half hours away which is good and if I go to school there who knows? We could like get a place and live with his kids and stuff! Anyways one of my biggest peeves is teeth I'm so weird about them well he has never shown me himself smiling. I have a million smile pics because I have a huge smile lol I'm scared he jas bad teeth but other than that he's great. But I can't like date someone who isn't somewhat attractive, you know? Idk I'm scared. I also met a great perfect guy in KY (the reason I want to go to UK so badly) but he wants to meet soon and I can't just go there I'm scared even though I trust him kind of I mean he doesn't seem crazy and he has a daughter so he can't be that bad of a person you know?

I know it seems insane but you honestly don't get it I'm so serious. I want a relationship I will pretty much do anything to be in one so no... Not a joke I mean I have some standards though I guess. It's a complicated situation

Think before you post.
 
You have identified your location, your discipline, and your preferred schools. You have indicated that you'd consider physical relationships with undergraduates because of their age.
 
Do you think that your frame of mind (joking or serious) makes you a stronger candidate for admission than an applicant who demonstrates a different set of sensibilites towards graduate school? (Or, at least, has the good sense to keep his/her mouth shut on the topic?)
 
Here's the thing. What goes on inside a department is a black box to those who aren't in it (and then there are black boxes within black boxes). Scandals happen and then departments can become hyper sensitive to anything that might reopen that wound.
 
You and other applicants have worked so very hard to get to this point. Why take unnecessary risks now?

Pinsker, if you were my friend or family member, I'd want to come right over there (wherever you are) and personally knock some sense into you. Two things.
 
First, you CANNOT force a relationship, no matter how much you want it. It's just not how things work. Vetting every person you meet once for whether you want to marry them and have their children is NOT going to get you into a relationship any sooner. It's going to scare anybody with half their wits about them the hell away. You're moving at an unreasonable pace even for people who are also looking for someone to settle down with relatively soon. You're not using the early stages of dating for the right things - just getting to know the other person and finding out if you're in principle compatible. Slow down, there's a lot to learn about another person who you are considering having a committed relationship with, and as someone who wants a traditional family and marriage, you want to make sure you get this right.
 
Second, and more importantly -- you are putting yourself in all kinds of danger by signaling so openly that you are so desperate. People WILL take advantage of that, and it will NOT work out well. You sound alarmingly trusting (parents can't be bad people, seriously??) and/or willing to take unreasonable risks for some imagined reward that is just NOT there in the way that you think it is. Snap out of it, things will happen when you least expect it, once you calm down and stop with this manhunt. Focus on just being with yourself and getting to know YOU and what you want in life, and I promise it'll lead to a better ability to be part of a couple down the line.

Have read the original post and responses pretty thoroughly (had insomnia last night). While I was suspicious that Pinkster12 was a troll, I'm pretty confident that's the case, given her most recent posts here.
 
They've taken ridiculous to a new level - - worried about the current online potential husband not having teeth, worried that she would be inappropriately jealous if faced with counseling a pregnant teen, worried she couldn't provide understanding or support to a married woman who might be depressed. We're being phished folks! As a matter of fact, her grammar and syntax changed in her last few posts from her previous style. I suspect there are two people playing us in this absurd thing, and they just ractcheted it up a notch.
 
 
 
 
       

A couple of thoughts on the rarity of European PhDs in teaching posts in American universities. This is a general statement that should be read as a description of reality that is neither an endorsement, nor without exceptions.
 
There are few recent PhDs from non-US schools teaching at US universities. Of those, the vast majority come from Canada and England. This is largely a result of the fact that American political science is quite different from political science in Europe. Different research questions, different standards for qhat makes good research, different emphases of methods, etc. The result is the emergence of two largely separate communities. These overlap to some extent in studies of European politics, and in some parts of the political theory subfield, but otherwise they largely exist independently of one another. US universities tend not to consider hiring European PhDs partly because of the lack of network connections between the two, but largely because they are concerned that PhDs trained in Europe are not equipped to teach classes or train graduate students in ways that reflect the American version of the political science discipline.
 
I have co-chaired a dissertation with someone at a prominent university in a non-England European country, and discovered that we had completely different expectations, not only in terms of the formal dissertation requirements but in terms of what constituted good research. These are the sorts of bridges that are hard to cross. And that, in my view, is why doing a PhD in most places in Europe, in most areas of study within political science, will limit your access to jobs in the US.

it's sure not a good thing, sicko

You sir, are a troll. 

Is this a spoof of Pinkster's thread? 
 
I like it. 

Sounds fine, but you're sure to get a better evaluation and advice from the government affairs section of Grad Cafe. This part of the forum is mostly interested in academic political science (Ph.D.s and research). For what it's worth, you sound like you're in good shape. Study for the GREs. Maybe start learning another language (if European, German, but otherwise consider Turkish, Arabic, Chinese, etc.).

I was rejected from every school, fellowship, internship for two years.  My best advice (and advice that I keep telling myself every day) is to keep going.  If you are genuinely interested in the subject and you want to understand it on a deeper level, then simply reapply next year.  Do everything you can to find out how to improve your application and gain experience.  For me, my failures became a sort of focused anger which drove me to keep going.  I finally got admitted to a school (and a few others) with a fellowship.

The majority of my apps are finally done, except for Harvard Kennedy, Rochester and FSU. While some important apps (Rochester!) are still left, I just wanted to mark this occasion and thank you guys for your help! Good luck to everyone!

I agree that tests like the GRE are really more about knowing how to take the test than necessarily knowing the material. But the method to best "crack" the test is probably very person-dependent, so I wouldn't advocate for any particular method. However, I do enjoy reading other methods.
 
I like your method of going through all of the questions and rating them based on difficulty. One alternative to what you did would be to start with the easiest questions. In each individual section, all of the questions are worth the same amount of points, so why not work your way from the easiest up? Getting 5 easy questions right will do the same to your score as getting 5 hard questions right, provided that all of the questions were in the same section. I also agree that leaving the reading comp. questions until the end is the best idea, because they take the longest! I wish that I was able to skip these questions and go back to them when I was taking the old GRE test. 
 
When I took the old GRE test, we were much more restricted so I don't think any of the time management strategies from pre-August-2012 would really apply to the Revised GRE test! 

The same goes for answering questions about Rochester---and lots of good luck to all.

Decease instead of disease - in two SOPs of my apps. And that was after proofreading by three academic people. 

I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. The collegiality among graduate students and the availability of the faculty are some of the things that have stood out to me (it did so during the visit as well). Even though all students are assigned two first-year advisors, you are still able to approach any member of the faculty to ask questions/discuss research/etc. Last weekend I walked into the office of our acting head and got stuck there for 45 minutes and ended up walking out with two books...
 
Due to timing of when I entered the program my first year is mostly spent on methods (depending on whether you want to consider 'formal theory' to be methods or not). Unless they have neglected to share with those of us currently in the program, I don't believe that an official methods subfield is opening up. However, all students are required to take a substantial amount of methods courses and almost everyone takes more than the required amount. We have at least one advanced student who is specializing in methods as a compliment to their primary subfield.
 
If anyone has specific questions about Illinois, or general questions about this wonderful process, I'm happy to reply via PM or here in the thread! Good luck to all of you!

Although I mentioned my teaching experience and interest in all my SOPs, I emphasized it as a particular fit with programs that mention teacher training in their statements of department philosophy. And although I didn't mention this, I have to add here that if not for having great teachers as an undergraduate, I wouldn't be applying to grad programs at all.

The implicit question here is whether we use GRE or GPA scores to whittle things down to a manageable number. We do not; a holistic review of each application is used from the very beginning. I don't feel it's my place to go much further in discussing the details than that, but as a general thing, I think people going into the admissions process are under the impression that there's a greater degree of regularity to this process than there appears to be. Committee members often have a lot of discretion to evaluate applications whichever way they want, which can vary substantially from committee member to committee member.

Wishing everyone heartfelt luck as we approach the second "major" deadline!

Not to be rude, but it is really quite pathetic that this question is even being asked.  You are not going to be held to a lesser standard because you are a woman, and why would you want to be?

Correct. I've never been or seen a grad student on a grad admissions committee, fwiw.
 
 
 
Nor do we, except with time off.