IR IR IR PhD

Wow! 12 out of 202... you should be! Epic win!

Congrats to the University of Washington admit!!! Enjoy your weekend!

Penn is generally UPenn. I feel you o.j... I'm also working with a presumed Cornell rejection and I too am surprised at how this one stings. I feel like after two early acceptances I started to totally over qualify my candidacy. Now I'm expecting a lot of rejections too. But hoping that of the 8 schools remaining, I can sneak into 1 or 2

Fu*k you spam folder. Where is my Cornell acceptance?

I feel like calling up PENN and reminding them they should be sending my acceptance letter today! Better give me some summer funding too!

There have definitely been some Rutgers admits from this cycle. A few came very early and a few more have trickled out recently. I know this news won't bring you much solace but as prospective doctoral students we can't believe that "ignorance is bliss"...

Dear DGS, I am an avid follower of gradcafe and just want to inform you that numerous trolls have already submitted fake "admissions" to your program. The best way to counter this dishonesty would be to provide me my offer in writing today. I do not accept faxes so please send a courier (however, a personal delivery seems more in order). Anyway, I can accept your offer in advance... but only if you will provide me the additional benefits that a scholar of my caliber deserves: car-service, personal chef and three personal research assistants from your "regular" applicant pool. I will also consider an honorary doctorate and an immediate appointment to a tenured-faculty position. However, as you can imagine, my schedule will only permit me to teach on Tuesday afternoons between 4:00-4:30pm. Sincerely, IR Theory Nerd

Annie's Mac was my childhood - and clearly still plays a major role in my life today! If you are an Annie's Mac virgin, start with the basics. Some of their more gourmet styles are great too! Get ready to have your mind blown! Let this be your first: http://www.annies.com/products/pastas/shells-real-aged-cheddar/

If anybody wants to come to my place and help me shovel a 350ft driveway because I'm too cheap to get a snowblower... I can promise you that you will forget about waiting on admissions decisions for a while. I can further compensate in hot chocolate, Annie's mac'n'cheese and outdated IR books. Deal? PS -- MEGA LIKE POINTS to the person who gets the post #2000!!!

God I hope so! But, I can tell you living in the vicinity, we've been absolutely destroyed by the snowpocalypse this year - another 6+ inches today alone. I wouldn't be surprised if they are behind the historical schedule.

To the most recent Penn State admit, CONGRATS! They seriously called you on Superbowl Sunday though?

HEY CONGRATS WUSTL ADMITS! My brother goes there and he absolutely loves it! Enjoy!

Ya I didn't want to use specifics because I don't have specifics yet. I don't think that many people do considering that so few schools have already reported decisions. I also think that layman name-brand, regardless of program rank, plays an important factor as well, i.e UPenn at 28, JHU at 40 and Brown at 45 (amongst many others). This is applicable not specifically for tenure-track jobs but for additional opportunities. I guess I'll use an example (I have not received a decision from this institution). I know that for what I want to study, Brandeis has more than a few incredible POIs and a recognized name but it is ranked 68 according to USN. From talking with people affiliated with the program, that has a lot to do with its incredibly small size and how the rankings are formulated. I can easily see myself thriving there over many other programs of significantly better rank. I know this is a totally theoretical problem... one I hope to have (and that we ALL HAVE) but probably won't... but I figure it is better for us all to remain positive while the new admissions are nonexistent.

Well absolutely NOTHING is happening with admissions... so I thought I'd ask the forum for their opinion on "ranking". So I might be totally wrong about this but the two major rankings systems I found for political science phd programs are: 1) http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/political-science-rankings 2) https://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124714/ Which one do people value more? I think one of the major theoretical questions I have related to ranking is personal fit v. rank through the prism of potential job opportunities after completion. If you get into a T20 program but your POI isn't as closely related to your interests as someone in a T60 program what do you do? Along the same lines, what if your POI in a T60 program is a field leader (a chaired full professor and/or department head) and your POI in the T20 program is an up and coming tenured professor (but still not a full professor)? Is anybody else thinking about this possibility or is it just brutally obvious that you choose the T20 program? Of course the assumption is that funding and cost of living is more or less the same at either institution.

Eye-opening honesty! Thanks! In your experience however do additional money requests ever get honored? Do you dare specifically leverage one program against the other?

I miss when the results search was all green... here is to real life. Shiiiiizzzzzz.

All Obama speeches are defined by their ambiguity. But your right about drones specifically being mentioned but glossed over... because I promise you he has no intention of changing drone policies. Some great debates in the IHL sphere regarding drone use recently. I've attached a particularly informative piece by Michael Schmitt. The guy ripped me a new one at a conference recently (I took a too abstract and humanitarian approach for him)... nonetheless he is still the king of IHL in my eyes. http://128.197.26.36/law/central/jd/organizations/journals/international/volume30n2/documents/symposium_schmitt.pdf

The State of the Union makes me soooo happy I'm studying IR! Also, I'm totally baffled by the little bit of foreign policy discussed. "If Kennedy can negotiate with the Soviet Union, why can't we negotiate with Iran... negotiations aren't based on trust..." (paraphrasing) Thoughts?

My close friend, completing his rotations at medical school, called me today. He congratulated me of course, but not for getting my first acceptance, rather, for using the term "cohort" to describe my future colleagues... thanks gradcafe.

Man I leave gradcafe for five minutes and... WTF! Can everyone just agree to refrain from the life advice tit-for-tat until late March when we'll all have to make critical life decisions? Can we all go back to the happy, supportive and insightful forum that literally saved me from going crazy a few times already this January?

Congrats!!! A question (and learning opportunity for a lot of us) if you don't mind... What was the biggest change in your applications this year? Did you retake the GRE... approach your SoP differently... add some new publications...?

I'm almost positive that it was always Feb. 1!

First of all congratulations about UNT! Second, there is no way you can be anything but happy and optimistic regarding that email. Third, I have a huge problem with the email they sent you. How can UMD's committee be meeting if they are still accepting applications until Feb 1? The deadline hasn't even passed yet! This is not the first time I have heard of this happening this cycle and though it isn't harmful to me personally, it seems entirely unfair to applicants that apply later but still on-time. This is additionally why you have to take their email with a grain of salt. Not every application has even been seen (unless they don't plan to look at new applications at all). This email may have been formulated as a result of your statistics (GPA + GRE = likely nomination if accepted).

What we keep hearing about the process is that these "cut-offs" aren't really used in the process unless you are egregiously subpar in a specific category. I think order of importance probably works like this: 1. SoP 2. Fit (can be helped by how you write your SoP or what writing sample you submit but largely out of your control) 2b.*** Intangibles (your fit might be great but your POI isn't taking new people or your subfield had absurd applicants) 3. GPA (grad GPA definitely trumps undergrad GPA in importance if you have one) 4. Reputation of your school(s)/program(s) 5. GRE (if you are within a 25-75% range it will probably not be a huge factor) 6. LoR (if they are amazing or a writer has sway with a POI this is probably way more important than I'm factoring it... also different programs feel very differently about the weight of LoRs) 7. Writing Sample Just some thoughts!

If I posted my undergrad GPA you'd probably laugh! That being said, I crushed it in my grad program... after I totally humiliated myself begging them to admit me. I'm pretty sure the grad coordinator knew she had to accept me or block my number and change her email address. She probably accepted me because it was easier.