IRTheoryNerd

Hahaha they took that post down very quick. Oh boredom at work... (not that I officially claim any responsibility)

I absolutely agree. I was advised by a director of graduate admissions to start the SOP by talking about your research interests and plans. Let this take up about half of your statement and only then devolve into a discussion of how you got to have this interests. It struck me as somewhat anachronistic, but I think it made me a stronger applicant. If you'd like to discuss SOP drafts with more specificity, I'd be happy to chat via PM.

:-D
 
Well, yea. I saw that average time to completion issue as well. It's less than encouraging, but I resolve to be on the sooner end of that distribution. Depends a lot on how long the dissertation drags on, and I hope by that point I can get my butt in gear and not make it last too long.
 
I also posted this to someone via PM so I figured I'd share it with all of you as well:
 

Honestly, in the US, it#s highly unlikely that a department doing critical work will rank very highly. Similarly, job prospects in mainstream PoliSci departments won't be as good as if you were doing more standard US political science. I actually think NW's ranking and placement are really good, considering its strengths, and that its view of the discipline is very different from recent developments (as someone who didn't apply to NW, because it was too critical/constructivist to me).

Guys… don't panic if you haven't heard from Yale yet. Some professors will contact accepted students today, but most profs are just enjoying their weekend/do not read their mails. You'll probably get the official decision very soon!
 
Congrats to those who have already received their acceptances!

It's not a turtle!
 
It's a duck-rabbit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit%E2%80%93duck_illusion 
 
It's my tip of the hat to Wittgenstein. ;-) 

I have found that although anxiety about preparedness strikes before a new phase begins, somehow, when you get there, you find yourself ready. Don't worry. Have confidence in yourself. Work hard. Be nice. And the rest will come. 
 

Does karma work in an anachornistic fashion? The rejection itself would suggest yes, but the "Harvard / top 5 program / blah blah blah" would suggest no...  
 
edit: words is hard.

rude. 
 

 
;-)

Is he DGS at SFS rather than Gov. or did they just fail to update his faculty page?

Delaware's application was due on February 1, 2014. It took them 19 days to make a decision. *applause*
 
Yale, et al. may get a larger number of applications but still... c'monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...
 

 

Personal email from departments.

I guess I am just frustrated when people on the board post a rejection with something like "haha got into a better school anyway." My thoughts on this are: ok, good for you, you've made it. Now what is the point of your comment?
Are you arrogant enough to think that if you got into "a better school" you also automatically should be accepted everywhere?
Are you frustrated with this rejection—why would you be if you already got good options? So why being bitter/condescending? 
 
P.S. unless the comment is a joke. Jokes. I get those.
 
 
Edit: grammar

Yes, some of them are really mean spirited too. "What!??! This is a joke, right? That's okay I'm going to f*#$ing Harvard!" 
 
So what do we get out of this? You weren't going to attend anyway, apparently. And now you're demeaning what might be someone else's only choice? 

Well, a really quiet day... What big ones are still out there? Harvard, Yale, JHU, Penn, and then some of the more specialty programs and those doing rolling admission... I don't know about you all, but I'm ready for this process to start coming to a close. My days will be much more productive when this is all finished shaking out...

Hmm, I read it as a non-minority making a glib comment that they should have identified as a minority in order to get whatever supposed benefit that would yield w/r/t admissions.  Maybe I'm just jumping to the more cynical conclusion at this point.  Your reading is certainly giving the poster the benefit of the doubt.  

Poorly worded on his/her part perhaps, but I don't think it's terribly inappropriate for someone to regret not having highlighted structural obstacles that a person may have had to work especially hard to overcome. That would not have guaranteed admission --- we all know that, including the person who wrote that. But it might have shed light on why that person seeks to study political science. Having omitted that from a personal statement could be a very fair mistake. I spent a lot of time contemplating whether to state in my SOP that I identify as a minority in terms of sexual orientation. In the end I decided to include it because I felt it was relevant to my desire to study invisible power. So in that sense, I can relate to whomever made the post in question. I doubt it did anything except perhaps tie together my SOP in a manner that showed readers that there is a reason that I seek to do what I seek to do. 

Poorly worded on his/her part perhaps, but I don't think it's terribly inappropriate for someone to regret not having highlighted structural obstacles that a person may have had to work especially hard to overcome. That would not have guaranteed admission --- we all know that, including the person who wrote that. But it might have shed light on why that person seeks to study political science. Having omitted that from a personal statement could be a very fair mistake. I spent a lot of time contemplating whether to state in my SOP that I identify as a minority in terms of sexual orientation. In the end I decided to include it because I felt it was relevant to my desire to study invisible power. So in that sense, I can relate to whomever made the post in question. I doubt it did anything except perhaps tie together my SOP in a manner that showed readers that there is a reason that I seek to do what I seek to do. 

Poorly worded on his/her part perhaps, but I don't think it's terribly inappropriate for someone to regret not having highlighted structural obstacles that a person may have had to work especially hard to overcome. That would not have guaranteed admission --- we all know that, including the person who wrote that. But it might have shed light on why that person seeks to study political science. Having omitted that from a personal statement could be a very fair mistake. I spent a lot of time contemplating whether to state in my SOP that I identify as a minority in terms of sexual orientation. In the end I decided to include it because I felt it was relevant to my desire to study invisible power. So in that sense, I can relate to whomever made the post in question. I doubt it did anything except perhaps tie together my SOP in a manner that showed readers that there is a reason that I seek to do what I seek to do. 

Hey, congrats to the Delaware admit! Is that you, IRTheoryNerd?