TheGnome

I would say b > a > c b --> I am guessing a significant number of admits will already be students (undergrad or grad). Taking time off is usually a lot easier for students, so you waive that problem for a chunk of the admit population. While taking more time off may be problematic for people who are working, if they have another admit weekend at the same week (which is plausible), taking that time off to attend 2 events in the same week may be easier and preferable than taking time off in different weeks. a > c --> if you think c will just not be a very nice time to give a good impression to the admits, then going with the flow and holding the admit weekend at its regular time might be better than having a bad admit weekend. A thought: Since your deadline is one of the earliest, and since you notify people pretty early too, why not hold a poll among the admitted students and decide based on the results?

I think coach was indulging in some good old self-deprecating humor

Are you a conflict person then? If so, I heard Powell does not take students anymore at Berkeley. So if he was the reason why you considered applying to Berkeley, you are probably better off keeping that application fee in your pocket. Also I thought UCSD did not provide funding to internationals at all! I am positive this was the case last year. Did they change their funding policies?

NOOOOOO. Don't be tempted ducky! Don't you know that he (curiously it is almost always a he) will persuade you to switch to the dark side?

I appreciate the sincere response, and thanks to all the people putting the effort for us. If I am lucky enough to be at the admit weekend in March, I will make sure to remember the flowers.

Welcome cautiously_optimistic! +1 for the name

I guess this is what I wanted to hear. Thanks a bunch RWBG Did anyone ask about your pseudonym before? What is RWBG, if you don't mind me asking?

that made me giggle

Okay, I know I am engaging in some serious thread necromancy here but I am curious - plus other users can see what was said before about the topic. RWBG, since you are now a student at Michigan, I was wondering if you have any additional insights about the personal statement essay. I have been trying to do my best so far to come up with a good SOP, but this 2 statement policy is throwing me a bit off balance Thanks!

I am not worried about the letters, the issue is having to prepare a file a lot earlier than most of the other deadlines. Because of that time gap, one is bound to discover errors and ways to improve the application in the meanwhile. This is just annoying when it happens, but I guess it is bad to let such small things get to you if we are to survive this process with our sanity intact. Anyway, thanks though. Oh I see. Northwestern is a pretty pretty pretty good program in theory from what I hear. I myself am an IR person. On that note, I just submitted another application! Although I submitted quite a number of applications in the past, I can never not get anxious/excited when I click the submit button..

Wow we have a lot of people trying their luck at Northwestern. Best of luck to you all, it is a great program. What are your fields? I already sent out the first few apps a while ago because of recommendation letter policies...

IRpolisci, I think you (and by extension other people here as well) are confusing two very different types of programs. When you say "IR PhD" here in the political science forum, what people understand is the academic study of IR that is being done under political science departments. To gain admission to these programs, you absolutely do not need any work experience. A polisci PhD (whether your primary subfield is IR or something else) first and foremost prepares you for an academic career, and is aimed at producing scholars who will ideally secure tenure track jobs at other universities. At the government affairs forum, what people understand from "IR" or "international affairs" is different. There, people are applying to policy oriented master's programs -and occasionally PhDs- that are catering to a different audience. Examples to these programs include Johns Hopkins SAIS MA/PhD, Georgetown's myriad SFS master's programs (NOT Georgetown PhD in Government), and Tufts-Fletcher MA/PhD. These programs typically place their students at think-tanks, non-profits, government jobs, various private sector jobs and only occasionally in academia. It is generally not advisable to get a PhD in one of these programs if your goal is to became an IR scholar in the former, more traditional, sense. Given their professional emphasis, these programs often highly recommend, if not require, their applicants to have relevant work experience at the time of their application. I hope this sheds some light on the confusion. Good luck!

Dear Prof BFB, Why does the OSU application system require us to complete the whole application before sending rec. letter requests to our recommenders? This effectively drags your already pretty early deadline (30 Nov) to an even earlier date (at least early Nov or late Sep), since we want to give some space to our letter writers. Because most of the other applications are not due until mid-December, this means that there is almost a month and a half gap between the OSU deadline and the others. There are a few other schools which handle the process this way as well. I am just curious if there is a rationale for this policy - or is it just whatever graduate school decided to do back in the day for no specific reason? Thanks for all the help you provided to all of us in this forum! (big fan of the OUP book btw, will cite it in the first opportunity I get ).

You sir, are a shameless Michigan booster

I think the most important thing is to be consistent, as long as you are not being outright disrespectful, which does not seem to be the case. I personally like the sound of Professor X better, but this really is a cosmetic choice. I am curious though, what is the recommendation of the American professor?

You are more than welcome JoeW92. That said, I don't want to overextend myself. I am in this process with you and others as well. So please take what I say with a grain of salt. Regarding mixed methods - It seems to me that "mixed methods" is being thrown around as some sort of panacea that everyone should seek, especially in this forum. I have issues with that. First, it is not obvious what mixed methods entail; it can mean many things. Second, I believe the focus should be on the puzzles we seek to investigate. Methods, though absolutely crucial, are secondary to the theories we use and the questions we ask. Selection of methods should depend on the puzzle at hand. Third, using fitting methods and paying attention to executing them properly is far more important than going after mixed methods just because it sounds cool. Fourth, if using mixed methods means sacrificing sophistication (should not necessarily be that way), I don't think its usefulness is very obvious. In short, I am not at all against mixed methods per se, I am against the cult of mixed methods, so to speak. Also, none of this is directed at you Joe, you just gave me an excuse to ventilate Edit: I don't know English

Polisci PhD applicants are not expected to have any math background. If you are planning to do high-end statistical work, or want to become a sophisticated formal theorist (or both), a good math background can help a great deal. Though it is not really a requirement even in that case, since you can pick it up once you start anyway. If by "mixed methods" you mean some sort of qualitative research combined with quantitative work, then taking extra math courses is probably not worth the trouble - especially considering you already have some under your belt. Though I guess that would somewhat depend on how far you'd like to go in the statistical side of things. You can produce good work in the general area of economy/conflict using almost any method (e.g.Will Reno and James Morrow). Thus you can devise a good number of combinations that could be counted as "mixed methods." In an unrelated note, I don't think mixed methods really is as magical of a thing as most people make it out to be. A scholarly work is not automatically better just because it involves mixed methods. I am a believer of good/bad use of methods - not mixed/non-mixed(?) methods.

I always assumed that SoPs are expected to be single spaced, and writing samples double spaced.

I am 95% confident that your profile will be competitive everywhere

Imagining that upon receipt of your FULL application? No, you are not delusional. I started having those thoughts the moment I created a username in applyweb!!!

That sounds to me like a certain big-ten school that have the awesomest faculty in the world

Welcome! The more the merrier I would encourage other lurkers to come out of the shadows as well. Anxiety is so much more tolerable when you have people to share it with.

I am happy for you Loric, congratulations. I hope those acceptances worked out for you very well. As for your advice - I do not think it is as sound as you think it is. Don't get me wrong though, nobody's advice is the gold standard. The process has a colossal stochastic component to it, therefore your advice would be absolutely reliable only if you were in the admissions committee of every single polisci department. Further, the admission process can vary dramatically from school to school for the same field - so I am not even commenting on the additional error introduced by comparing across fields. This should ideally have a bit of a humbling effect on the participants of this forum, and we should be more used to speaking in probabilistic terms. This is missing the main point though. I imagine both gradcafe26 and others, including me and TMCB, welcome your advice. Please do not feel discouraged to share with us what you know and think. However, it is very important to sustain a friendly and helpful conversation for this forum to work the way it did in the past -I don't know how many- years. People who are applying to graduate schools are adults, whether they are applying straight from undergrad or not. There is a normative expectation that we treat each other as friends and peers. Therefore, condescending and patronizing attitudes are not very productive. An example to that is this: Obviously, if you want to continue this attitude, there are other, more fitting venues for you in our discipline as well. I would especially recommend this website: http://www.poliscirumors.com/

I did not mean it to be taken too seriously, but I guess my point was to give a sample of schools that you are applying to - one or two higher ranked, X, and one or two lower ranked. Loric, cut people some slack will you. No offense, but your tone sounds a bit accusatory. Anyone can have any set of reasons to consider which schools to apply, and can rank them in any way they like in their minds. If you have a suggestion for our friend here, I believe there are more amicable ways to drop your nuggets of wisdom. Also, this issue is not nearly as important as much of the comments on this thread suggest.