curufinwe

LOL. I would post mine if I was accepted anywhere. But I am afraid since I don't have any acceptances yet, I do not wanna post and become a cautionary tale.

Let's write to the relevant posts. When someone says "the other page has a lot of good students talking about whether they will have to go to Stanford or Wisconsin, people who have applied to non-top 50 schools should discuss here", it doesn't make sense to post under it "though you know it'll be really hard to get a job like that". I'm sure that person is aware of what to expect. I applied to Brandeis and was really hopeful about my chances... But now that I learned Chingo's article places them 24th, and that last year they did not fund anyone... it is time to freak out!

Hehe, is to think of A. Wendt when reading this post a sign of mental disorder?

Haha, seems like you guys were lucky. When I asked my professor as to where I should apply since I study this and that, "well, go and check the websites of the schools". Great help!

I do not really think it is due to updating. When you click "Downloadable Forms", it does give an error message every once in a while, and turns out it works OK in a few hours. Let's not get hopeful and excited. and paranoid maybe?

My system was the following: I have taken out the US News Ranking and separated it into 4 tiers: 1-12 as first tier, 13-25 as the second tier, 26-50 as the third tier and the 50+ as the last tier. I wanted to apply one from the first, three from the 2nd and 3rd and 2 from the last tier as a safety. -p.s.: do not use US News rankings. Use the Chingos article as a tier reference. I would have done that if I was aware of the fact that US News did reputational surveys as their methodology. Then, I checked every school according to their environment and their fit. For the location, I gave them a score over 5. (NYC got 5 whereas Indiana Bloomington got 1 because the city has 70.000 inhabitants whereas the school as 40.000 students!!!! I like big cities ) For the fit of the faculty to my research interests, I gave a score over 10. Then, after I was done, I eliminated schools that got below 5 from the "fit" and below 3 from the "location". Then the highest ranking schools from my tiers (according to the number I would choose) made it to my list of applications DO NOT just look at the website and choose your fit. Try to e-mail schools and the professors you choose about whether what you study is OK for them and if you should really apply. Sometimes, what is on that website is not the reflection of what is really going on there. Yeah, I had to invent a methodology to apply! Gotta remind you, been getting rejected one by one.

By the way, when I said I don't get any errors on Columbia's status check thingie, I meant the very page when you enter your pin and password. When I tried to click the "Application for Graduate Admission" and then "Downloadable Forms" and then "Application Status Form" as they tell you, I get the following message: "Automation error The specified module could not be found." Weird.

Haha, then first my status should be updated

If it works for SuddenlyParanoid, then no worries, no status updating But yeah, I can access without problems as well.

Thanks mate I really hope it does happen that way for me, too

LOL, true, forgot the funding issue. Besides, if you have taken enough courses and you want to leave the PhD in 2 years, they award you the master's degree, right?

After three rejections, I won't bother getting excited for Columbia. Will be a calm week for me. Unless we are expecting Georgetown this week too...? Or do you guys think it'll be the following week?

Lol, let the kids have fun. It's not like those votes mean anything to anyone besides the jealous people who like to satisfy themselves like that

Though schools give the BS in their rejection e-mails that they had a significant increase in the number of the applicants this year and had to reject many qualified applicants. I'm really curious... who applies to a political science phd when he cant find a job?! go for a masters degree, right??

Did any of you Northwestern rejects by Will Reno get the "we really considered your application seriously, you were really good, but the increase in applicants... I blame that" attitude e-mail?

re... (wait for it...) jected!

With 3 rejections from the three schools I thought I'd get in and would be fine, (considering I don't stand a chance for Columbia or Georgetown), there is nothing on earth including god himself that can distract me and keep my mind off of things these days

Great, 3rd rejection with Austin. This process is getting a lot more interesting than I assumed. Congrats for who got in.

Dammit, who claims the Texas Austin acceptance?? *heartbeat!!

Ah, weights are more fun for me Though I do run often during school, since I am always late for classes.

I find treadmill SOOO boring! I know I'm supposed to do some cardio, my fat ratio is over 10 % again, but I even tried reading articles on the treadmill like my professor does, but all that up and down motion makes me lose focus even music cant make it fun for me. Any suggestions?

My personal experience would be the fact that all my professors were like "The Realist" I do not mean to disparage anyone that studies one country. But my point is, if you study one country, or one region that speaks the same language, to learn that language is easy and can (and should) be done. But if you don't want to focus on one country or region, like me, to learn all the languages of the countries your studies will need would be painful tedious and hard to achieve. That is my claim

I did not mean to disparage you per se. All I said was "I am a Russia expert" is not what academia should be, according to my personal experiences. Do not simplify what I said. "I am a Russia expert" is one thing, "I study the effects of oil abundance on the development of political institutions" is another. And PLEASE do not include the "This guy I know does this, and I want to do that. Are you calling me this?!" to your messages It is really uncalled for

I have to disagree. I think the fact that GPA's cannot be compared creates the same sort of problem with the recommendation letters. I mean, my x.xx GPA from a Turkish university may not be compared to your (not 'you' per se ) y.yy GPA from a well-known American university. But, in reality, it can be compared. If your university is higher in the rankings, then your GPA is better. With the same logic, when you had the opportunity to work with the professors that the academy knows in the higher-ranked school, I did not. And that causes a handicap with the recommendation letters. So, I believe when adcomms are looking at applications, they do consider where that GPA was earned from. And that is the same source of leverage you 'could' have for your recommendation letters. "Where you went to school" matters significantly. And the fact that I wouldn't even have the opportunity to attend a top-25 program in the US for undergrad sucks, and puts me in a disadvantaged position.

But come on. What we do with political science is that we look for paradigms that can encompass as many peoples of the world as possible. If one chooses to focus on the dynamics of one country, or one region... that is also fine. But, for example personally, I intend to get out of my Middle East studies I have been doing so far and look into Latin America and compare it with the Middle Eastern structures of governance. This process would require me to learn all those languages I listed. And let's be gentle, that is a bit tough to achieve I am not underestimating the value knowing a language can add. I am merely stating that this is extremely and painfully tough to do so, to learn all those languages. And maybe my brain is looking for justifications that it is ok if I do not learn all those languages Want to give me some justifications for that?