MissingVandyCandy

Yes, if you make your advisor Cornell Clayton in law and courts you can overcome the lesser name brand of WSU and still find a good shot at tenure track. That said, he is a Law and Courts guy (Americanist) but I don't know if Law and Courts is your area. In any event, he's by far their biggest name there and he can place you within the Law and Courts niche.

My plan B: Culinary School @ Le Cordon Blue Never sell out for the 9-5! Resist on all counts.

yeah, havent heard anything.

I know I know, but I just can't see how I would be any different of an applicant next year. I was a better applicant this year and could go 0-8. The year I was less experienced and without a sexy Brookings like name on my application I went 1-2. That my friend is the definition of a crapshoot. LOL

Well BC is actually my top choice.

Oh and for the record, I did seek a deferral last year just to be safe. It was not allowed.

Sure happy to. Basically, I got caught between a job offer in policy that my undergrad thesis advisor wanted me to take and the application season itself. As a result I had only gotten 2 applications out the door in September of 2006 and my advisor said he didn't want to recommend me until after some work experience at this research tank. So basically I ended up getting into 1 of the 2 places I applied.

Both UMNdude and I were rejected.

Hemlock. That simple.

Rollinson you are truly a gentleman and a scholar. Wise beyond your years sir. I give your post a triple recommendation and anoint you chair of freshman advising.

What can I say, I aim high? Though Posner is probably a bad example for me to have used. He works far too hard and is such a productive writer. I'd be happier being Christopher Hitchens, though he doesn't have a PhD, Posner is half as self-righteous as "The Hitch."

"Marx famously said that our job is not to interpret the world, but to change it. In the academy, however, it is exactly the reverse: Our job is not to change the world, but to interpret it." -Bruce Robbins -Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2007

I'll attempt to give a brief response that sums up why I'll be crushed if I don't get into a program that can place me in a TT position. But let me also preface this with saying that I don't want to become an obscure professor. I'm looking to launch a career as a public intellectual (e.g. Posner, Alan Wolfe, Mansfield) I seek the PhD in Political Science because I can't envision a life--or at least a career--that is not tied to the pursuit of knowledge for no other purpose than expanding my own mental capacity. 99 percent of jobs outside of being a professor have a purpose that does not complement that description and instead are based on expanding someone else's wealth, corporate profits, or what not. Don't get me wrong, I also want to be a professor because I love passing knowledge on to hungry minds and think that developing relationships with students and inspiring them to see value in the academic career would be rewarding. Bottom line: I can't compartmentalize my career from my passion for reading and writing. Instead of reading the Atlantic Monthly, American Prospect or New Republic imagine being a contributor from Academia.... perhaps even getting reviewed in the London Times Book Review. It truly is the luxury profession. A bitch to get there (tenure) but laid back once you are.

The PhD may have no "value" for most of society. But the idea of escaping the 9-5 workday and living a unique life through a "luxury" profession is for me, PRICELESS.

Someone on Yuster posted an acceptance via mail on 2-14-08... I haven't heard anything but had my application complete there since September 5th. Has anyone else heard anything.

Two responses: 1) That is worse than Zimbardo's prison if true. 2) Is there a web site where we can check our status for UT?

For what it's worth I got an e-mail, as I'm sure you did too, from the department saying they will let us know the committee's decision in late February. That might mean they will let us know their recommendation to the larger GS. But usually those are formalities. In any event, we were promised (I was) to hear something by late Feb.

Where are those Texas letters? Argh. The bastards. I was so complimentary to their Admissions team for being fairly quick after promising e-mails on Monday. Now they are appearing slower than Rosaenne in the 100x dash. I want some Austin love damnit! Anyone else finding their slowness odd given the promises?

Classics, very cool. I was a Classics major until my GPA started to sink during that 4th semester of college latin and I realized I still needed grades to apply to grad school. I would def. be interested in hearing more about your areas of interest on a future thread/discussion, but sadly this PhD wannabe has a day job and must get some shut eye. Goodluck, of course let us know if you get any word tomorrow.......

What are you applying for, who are you waiting to hear from???

A Neuroscientist that drinks wine while writing a paper... look Dionysus didn't have the advantage of reading Mark. F Bear's primer on the brain, but you did. What's your excuse for mixing writing and wine - wait as a Hitchensphile I really can't say that can I? Paper on anything interesting? What program are you aiming for? And the number 1 question I ask all neuroscience geeks.... how full of shit is Noam Chomsky?

Who here pulled one too many all-nighters in undergrad and now remains in a perpetual state of activity late into the night? Anyone? Anyone? I hope I'm not so pathetic that I'm the only one lurking looking to glean even the most trivial factoid about applications late into the night. If you're awake and equally bored/anxious PM me SWM, 6' 185 dashingly handsome, though fervently opposed to rear entry (see signature)... ok all that was a joke, but if you're on pins and needles looking to commiserate with a fellow applicant say hi.

I'm just repeating what the Hitch said. Who am I take to take issue with England's most lettered public intellectual? I know he's had a lot more romps than me; however once I complete my PhD I know all the coeds will be flinging themselves at me. Something about antebellum American Political Development that really arouses the ladies, no? Perhaps another Hitchens quote will be more to your liking... Upon being interrupted while talking about Marx and Orwell Hitchens replied: "Please don't stop me now as I begin to talk about the dialectic, I

For those who read the Political Science board you may have noticed several Wisconsin rejections were received today. The following is my whining attempt at some humor to satiate those dinged (myself included) What UW-Madison letter actually said: Our admissions committee has now completed its work for the 2008 entering class. We faced many difficult choices blah blah blah yawn. Rejected. What they ought to have said (would have been much funnier). Dear MVC, We at the University of Wisconsin find your dislike of picnics and rampant sexism evidenced by the nostalgia in your user name for Tri Delt coeds abhorrent. In Madison, your Hitchens pandering neo-conservative war mongering will be about as welcome here as in Berkeley sans warm weather. We of course know why you applied to Wisconsin. We're one of the nation's oldest most prestigious Political Science programs, and from your avatar on thegradecafe we knew the only thing that gets you off is exclusivity. Well enjoy teaching at a community college without tenure for the rest of your career muhahaha. This is of course always a painstaking process for us. We have to read through your manure of an essay and the 40 pages you pdf'd that you call a writing sample that had the methodological gravity of Jon Stewart's hard-hitting political analysis. You think you have it bad? Please. The departmental secretary's typewriter had a malfunction worse than Janet Jackson's bustier which caused us to have to make a run to kinkos to make sure your rejection prose was centered on only the finest grad laboratory scratch paper. We digress. You truly want to know the reason you were not admitted? Do you really? Can you handle the truth? Ok, the truth is soldier this entire game's a crapshoot. No not some porno fetish for pooping ala Team America World Police. Get your mind out of the gutter you pervert. By crapshoot I mean that the state legislature just defunded the shit out of the law and courts faculty. We lost Bert Kritzer to retirement. There simply aren't enough historical law and courts faculty for you to get excited about enough to take your trousers off and we wouldn't be able to get our requisite amount of slavery er service out of you with such a lack of alignment. Them's the brakes kid. Just remember, we'd be happy to take your 70 bucks again next year, so long as you get it to us by November and we'll be sure to get that one paragraph rejection back to you with "all deliberate speed." In fact, I just asked our secretary to save your letter as MVCRejection 2009. We'll be sure to be more prompt next year. Yours, Barry "Heavy" Burden Associate Chair Director of Graduate Studies P.S. Do you remember that scene in Caddyshack when Judge Smails' nephew Chuck Shick asks protagonist Danny Noonan, "Are you going to Haaarvard too." You like Danny will now be able to reply in kind, "Um no no, actually St. Copias of Northern," umm "Where..."

What UW-Madison letter actually said: Our admissions committee has now completed its work for the 2008 entering class. We faced many difficult choices blah blah blah yawn. Rejected. What they ought to have said (would have been much funnier). Dear. MVC, We at the University of Wisconsin find your dislike of picnics and rampant sexism evidenced by the nostalgia in your user name for Tri Delts and long coed legs abhorrent. In Madison, your Hitchens pandering neo-conservative war mongering will be about as welcome here as in Berkeley sans warm weather. We of course know why you applied to Wisconsin. We're one of the nation's oldest most prestigious Political Science programs, and from your avatar on thegradecafe we knew the only thing that gets you off is exclusivity. And while we have plenty of that we don't have the Vanderbilt Co-eds to truly make youhappy. Sweat pants and unshaven legs (among other things that our crunchy female crowd adores) probably just won't give you much of a social life. This is of course always a painstaking process for us. We have to read through your manure of an essay and the 40 pages you pdf'd that you call a writing sample that had the methodological gravity of Jon Stewart's hard-hitting political analysis. You think you have it bad? Please. The departmental secretary's typewriter had a malfunction worse than Janet Jackson's bustier which caused us to have to make a run to kinkos to make sure your rejection prose was centered on only the finest grad laboratory scratch paper. We digress. You truly want to know the reason you were not admitted? Do you really? Can you handle the truth? Ok, the truth is soldier this entire game's a crapshoot. No not some porno fetish for pooping ala Team America World Police. Get your mind out of the gutter you pervert. By crapshoot I mean that the state legislature just defunded the shit out of the law and courts faculty. We lost Bert Kritzer to retirement. There simply aren't enough historical law and courts faculty for you to get excited about enough to take your trousers off and we wouldn't be able to get our requisite amount of slavery er service out of you with such a lack of alignment. Them's the brakes kid. Just remember, we'd be happy to take your 70 bucks again next year, so long as you get it to us by November and we'll be sure to get that one paragraph rejection back to you with "all deliberate speed." In fact, I just asked our secretary to save your letter as MVCRejection 2009. We'll be sure to be more prompt next year. Yours, Barry "Heavy" Burden Associate Chair Director of Graduate Studies P.S. Do you remember that scene in Caddyshack when Judge Smails' nephew Chuck Shick asks protagonist Danny Noonan, "Are you going to Haaarvard too." You like Danny will now be able to reply in kind, "Um no no, actually St. Copias of Northern," umm "Where..."