gradster

As a current grad in a top 10 program, I want to echo that being in a top school matters a lot. I know many people think "the system is broken" but I was faced with the sad reality that it is not really as broken as it seems. Last year at Midwest, I went to several panels where students from non-top schools were presenting their work, and it was different from work others were doing. Consistently students from top programs were doing much better work. I think the reason this happens is that students at lowered ranked departments are not kept current. Those students often have no clue what the latest trends are or what is happening in their field. They often present papers engaging in debates that stopped 10 years ago, or make yet another criticism of an old theory or test someone else's theories. In top schools you are required to write every paper as a publishable quality paper, and you are surrounded by a cohort of incredible people who give you feedback, read your work, and challenge you. Faculty at top 25 schools are the editors and reviewers of top journals, so they know what is new and current, and they expect their students to be doing original work all the time. I'm sorry to say that if you don't go to a top school you just won't get the same type of training, and no matter how smart or hard you try, your work will most likely suffer for it. Yes, there are exceptions and yes there are some schools out there that are not in the top 25 and train their students well, but by and large that is not the case. And last, but certainly not least, even if you do go to a top school that is NOT a guarantee that you will get a good or tenure track job. So think long and hard about graduate school even if you did get into a top program. Academic careers demand so much from people. You have no clue going in what you are getting into. You will have to many sacrifices, you will have to ask your partner to make sacrifices, you will have to postpone/forgo certain life plans, you will work on weekends and permanent overtime (there is no 9-5 in academia), you will most likely live in a place you would rather not, etc etc. So think long and hard about going to graduate school and know it is one challenging career you are seeking.

It depends on the school, but at my school the department makes its own choices as to admissions, but once they have decided, they have to inform the head grad school offices of the outcome and the central office is in charge of the rejections. So the department has to send back all the files back to the graduate school and doesn't have anything more to do with the process. There are something like 600 rejections from my department, so even with the fancy schmancy online updating, it takes time to input the information. Why does it take a long time? Well, they have to have two people double check the list so they do not accidentally accept or reject someone by mistake. Moreover, the central office is processing rejections from other departments as well. So you see, there are thousands of files that have to be processed. These online systems are a little faster.....back in the day you had to wait until end of March or April for the snail mail rejection.

Just Political Science- each department does their own admissions.

I really wish it was not a fact, but it is. I am at Columbia and I asked a professor who told me that admitted students had been emailed. Sorry.

Admitted students have all been notified by email. Rejections are sent by mail and take long to process.....and hence these boards.

I'm a student in the program. They will finalize decisions this week. You will hear next week if you are admitted. Good luck.

Columbia will notify accepted students next week. Good luck everyone.