curufinwe

I really find people who get dirty online weird. I mean, grow up! If you see a post that you dislike, just do not comment back. and I hoped normative discussions would not be on such boards but I guess my assumption is wrong. About cpaige, rossiya, whatevs... Frankly, I thought she could get into better programs as well. What is wrong if she thought that? (which she said she didn't imply anything like that). If she thought she deserved better and wanted to get into a better school, I think people should not conclude that she's an arrogant person. You know what the problem is? I think jealousy. People read too much into such things. And trust me, I got (de facto or officially) rejected by 6 schools with no acceptances and every time someone on the board gets into one of those schools, I get sad. But I do not watch their posts like a predator and try to make them look bad or anything. Instead, I try to compare and see why I did not get in. And oh btw, do you think your writing sample was too qualitative for American universities? (I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong and I remember reading ur personal statement) I wrote about political culture and democratization rather than the institutional approach and that only works with people such as larry diamond

Ok I'm gonna ask because I am too curious. Is she the one who posted personal info on there and got stalked and I think at some point there was a car accident?

Yeah I also heard they would accept 4 and expect a class of three (cozy ) How did you hear the adcomm would meet late feb/early march?

Did you try contacting them? I tried e-mailing but they did not say a word as to when the decisions would be out. I'm starting to get worried that they will pull the last year's prank on us again!

Brown was only one. Even though it is claimed, it is enough for me to assume I am rejected. I mean, fake Harvard posts might have been fun for the poster since there were many hoping to hear from them and they were really anxious about it. But faking a Gtown post is like going to a Clippers game at the last match of the season

Regarding Georgetown, I saw some funded acceptances and waitlisted-for-funding acceptances on results page. So I'm guessing they are done with acceptances.

oh well, then I am out :/ But congratz, must be awesome to hear positive things

Plus I am an international student with 7-hour time difference. Would they just call? I know a friend who first received an e-mail from Penn State, asking her to give them an appropriate time to call. She was all worried since she assumed it'd be an interview. But they were just going to inform that she got accepted. Was yours from a potential advisor?

Since I'm guessing the Brown acceptance on the results page was yours, was it via phone? and did the caller say they accepted 15 this year? (because it would mean those who are accepted are already determined and informed and I can swallow the bitter rejection )

I asked Brandeis when the committee would gather and how the results would be announced. But received a straight forward msg that they cannot let me know about the committee's schedule, and that they would pick the appropriate method of announcing the results. I felt like they meant "just shut up and wait!"

Actually, I told you before that, as long as the financial part is secured, you should take the MA. But you really need to consider if this insane application market will get any better in a year (I assume it was a one-year program). All the schools report unprecedented increase in the number of applicants and being aware of what is going on, you might want to just take Wisconsin-Madison's offer. I mean, it is no Harvard, but knowing how the market is, would you take the risk? What if things get worse next year? Sorry for sounding bitter. That's what happens when, at this time of the year, one doesn't have any acceptances

I was going to bring that "too young to vote" thing up, but I thought it would start a debate, so I didn't

Another quiet week for me. I'm betting on results from Brown and Georgetown next week And pray for me, those who have secured themselves... for I need positive energy, karma, luck, God's favor, whatever you call it...

With minimum wage $8.25 in DC, I think working at a coffee shop, making almost 700 a month (20 hours a week) (7200 annually, excluding summers) is not a sufficient number. I mean, stipends that allow people to 'survive' is around 1500 a month in that area.

I realized during this process that applying to Gtown is just ridiculous for someone who has academia in his mind as his priority and i,s right outta school instead of some policy work experience. But then again, it was a 'democratization' temple so I couldn't ignore them In my list, they have THE BEST fit for my interests (Middle East, democratization). It hurts to realize it is impossible to get in there with funding

Since we might start hearing from Georgetown next week, I wanna ask what you guys know about their funding. My professor told me that they always had very little funding since it was established by Jesuit priests and they did not go into any Wall Street method of increasing the funds. I found that explanation rather weird. The other speculation is that, I heard they fund very few people since a lot of professionals that have funding from their think tanks or organizations or basically people that have saved up a considerable amount of money while working apply there and that is why they don't offer much fudning. Though shouldn't it be otherwise? The fact that the people with fancy CVs with think tank and government experiences have funding and do not need Georgetown's funding would allow us right-outta-university people to have a better shot at funding? Thoughts?

Ouch, way to ruin the weekend

If we were to graph the 'time of acceptance' (x-axis) and 'number of students accepted' (y-axis), I am assuming we'd have a very low st.dev., which would mean it is a very low possibility to get an acceptance after that 'acceptance wave' period (which usually is an hour at most on this forum). Though that possibility exists, I am not sure how healthy it is to keep on hoping for that kinda low possibility. Of course I don't have the data to prove the odds. It is all observational data of the results page from this and last year But at least that is what I am thinking. Once I see people claiming acceptances on the forum, I give it half an hour to receive an e-mail. If nothing, I write that school off.

For those of you who are curious, I e-mailed Brandeis the following: "Hi, I am applying for a PhD in Politics for Fall 2010 and was curious as to when the admissions committee will start meeting. What will the means of announcing the results be? (e-mail, postal, phone etc.)" This is the answer: "We generally do not share our admissions committee's schedule with applicants. The mode of contact depends on the results of the individual case." So they like keeping us in the dark

When there is a 500-word limit, yeah, the personal life details are the first to sacrifice since their marginal utility can be the lowest. But if they let you write over 1000, I think writing short such as mine would in fact hurt your chances. That is of course only my opinion.

ah, I'll post mine as well It probably would make a good cautionary tale I am an M.A. degree candidate in Political Science at X University in Istanbul, Turkey. I am applying to the PhD program in Political Science at Z University. A few words about my academic background and training: after graduating from Z Lycee in Bursa, Turkey, I was accepted at Q University in Ankara on a full scholarship (I was in the top 0.01 percentile in the verbal part of the national university entrance exam which nearly 1,000,000 students take annually). During my junior year, I studied at the University of California, Riverside through a student exchange program. I graduated from Q as the valedictorian of my class with a GPA of 3.93. Since 2008, I have been enrolled in X University’s graduate program in Political Science on a full scholarship. Being exposed to four years of undergraduate and two years of graduate education taught in English, including one year at UC Riverside, I have an excellent command of both written and spoken English. The year which I spent in the United States also provided me with a good understanding of American higher education, society, and culture. In addition to language skills, I am also well-versed in quantitative methods and techniques: I have taken undergraduate courses in Calculus I and II, Introduction to Statistics I and II, Linear Algebra, and graduate courses in Research Methods; and I am currently taking Formal Modeling and Political Analysis also in graduate level. My main area of interest is Comparative Politics and I would like to continue in this field, with an emphasis on regime changes, authoritarianism, and democratization. Last semester, I wrote a research paper that focused on the impact of Islam on democracy in which I compared Iran, Egypt and Turkey. In addition to Comparative Politics, I am also interested in International Relations. Currently, I am working on a term paper on the dynamics of change in Turkish Foreign Policy by analyzing both domestic and systemic factors. Moreover, given my background in Business Administration in Q University, I have considerable knowledge of economics; I plan to expand that knowledge further by taking Political Economy courses before I complete my M.A. degree in June 2010. My goal is to become an active member of the academic world after completing my Ph.D. . After having been a teaching assistant for three semesters and having taught over 100 students, I know for a fact that I love teaching. I have also greatly enjoyed doing research for several term papers, and I believe that I have the potential and capability to continue to hone my research skills for future work in academia. I find teaching and the research process exciting, and I would like to do both in my professional career. After thoroughly researching the graduate programs in Political Science at various American universities on the Internet, I have decided that Z University offers one of the best programs for my academic interests. With scholars such as bla and bla among others, and with institutes such as blah blah, I believe that Z University is an ideal institution for me, and I would be honored to be part of its graduate student community.

Oh, we forgot the most important component. Luck

My friend wants to know the following: "Should I live on campus or off campus? (security, livelihood, financially)" "How is public transportation? Does one need a car?" "How is urban life in Columbus"

All I can see in your profile is that you lack the methodology side. I mean, I don't know if you have specified that you will do quantitative, but that seems like the way to go these days.

I've heard often that, as long as you are over 600 for verbal and over 700 for quantitative, you will be alright. Though if you will apply to the same schools in your signature again, then a verbal over 700 and quantitative over 750 would be the ideal, especially if your native language is English. I would suggest you to work on (and given my results, I will have to apply next year as well and will do the same) write a good writing sample. My writing sample was just one paper for one class. So it was superficial and weak. Plus, unless you are done with school as of now, try to take classes from nice people that you can impress so that you can ask for their rec. letters. Remember, they need to go on and on and on as to how great you are in their letters. If you assume your recommenders did not write more than half a page, this would be the smart thing to do.