sundaymonday

I guess my only experience has been with more tightly-knit, smaller programs. The program I work for only accepts 10-12 students per year, and the program I'm entering into is the same way. Where I work, most of the students are in many of the same classes for two years. Sounds like you two are pretty mature and handled the situation well - and probably benefited from it being a larger (or at least more broadly oriented) department.

Be careful what you wish for, especially if she/he is in the same program. They could turn out to be a complete psycho, or break your heart, or do an impression of your O face for everyone in your seminar group. I know WAY too much about the sex lives of the graduate students in my office, and I'm sure they have no idea. Dating in the department is like dating people at your place of employment. Not ideal, for obvious reasons, but it happens anyway. Just remember that you're probably going to be stuck with them for the next 5 years.

Check out the "Poll of Polls" thread on the second page of the Poli Sci forum. There is a link to a 2006 peer-rated raking for IR that I thought was pretty interesting.

I also got into BU, but was offered no funding. 2-3 packages for 35 admitted applicants? Ridiculous.

So school X and Y are equally ranked...I'm assuming they have similar post-grad placement? I would go with school Y if they are offering you 5K more per year, unless the money isn't that big of an issue for you or you have a strong reason for being in the area where school X is located. I had a similar dilemma in choosing between two programs, but there were other issues at play aside from the funding package. School X and Y for me were also (somewhat) similarly ranked, had similar post-grad placement rankings, and school Y offered me 5K more per year too. Still, I solicited the advice of a few poli sci profs at different schools in the form of a friendly email, and they unanimously agreed that school X was the better program. Also, school Y didn't offer dependent health care coverage, my partner's aging father was within driving distance to school X, etc. I decided not to go with the money in the end. Regardless, I definitely think you should send an email to the DGS at school X and see if they can bump up your funding package. It's all part of the game. They expect it, and if anything, it makes you seems more desirable as long as you're tactful about it. I didn't have very much success on that front, but I think it had more to do with financial restrictions at school X than anything else.

$18,500K for five years plus $2,500 guaranteed summer funding for 3 years. I think the TAship is for three?

Oops! Sorry, GW, not Georgetown Anyway, I interpreted the above essentially as "Shoot for the stars, but have a backup plan in case it doesn't work out." I didn't really seem him equating getting a TT job with a 2nd tier PhD as the same thing as going from the South Bronx to the NBA.

To the OP - have you considered just getting the MA from Georgetown, and transferring out if they can't fund you? The worst that can happen is you've paid for the MA out of pocket - and that's pretty much what other people are suggesting at this point. Your prospects for getting into a higher ranked PhD program after completing the MA might be better having attended a second tier, rather than a fourth tier school. I can't imagine a reputable PhD program being surprised by or opposed to someone trying to transfer out because they're not funded by their current program. If they really like your work and want you to stay on, perhaps you can use it as leverage to get funding in year 2 or 3? Paper or plastic?

Congrats! Took them long enough!!!

I agree with this statement. Maybe top 40? But not in the top 20. I was rejected from Penn - didn't even get on the waitlist - which I thought was kind of surprising considering I'd had two (what I thought were) very good interviews with the DGS and another professor there. The DGS also had me meet some of the graduate students, and invited me to attend one of his classes later that afternoon. I wouldn't have chosen Penn over WUSTL, but I still feel that rejection a little more than the others. Ah, well. Anyway, inside info says that they're working hard to get their ranking up, so perhaps they've become increasingly more selective about admissions. Also, my impression was that professors who were not on the admissions committee had virtually no input as to who got in. I know some departments circulate apps to people who might be interested in working with a particular applicant, but that didn't seem to be the case at Penn. If I were to do it over, I might have made more of an effort to contact other people on the committee that year. Here are my UG stats: NYU: Major Politics/Minor Economics. GPA overall 3.75, major GPA 3.84 GREs: 1st time 630Q, 460V (????), 4.0 AW, 2nd time (one month later) 730Q, 650V, 5.0 AW 0 publications Dean's Scholarship, graduated w/ honors Some research experience: studied Arabic in Egypt and did field work in Dubai a year later Took 6-7 highers in Middle Eastern politics, IR, econ. One stellar LoR from a prof at Princeton.

Hi Noodlez - sent my acceptance letter in last week. I haven't applied to any other programs that I'd rather go to, and that haven't contacted me yet. Thanks for the placement info! Are you going to visit the campus?

Congrats!

ACK. Just got my acceptance package in the mail for MAPSS. I thought I had been rejected entirely. They're offering me 1/3 funding. Am I crazy for going to Hopkins with a full ride, and not taking this offer if what was said previously in this thread is true, and that I'd mostly likely get into their PhD program after a year? I'd be 30K in debt, and even if I was accepted into the UChicago PhD program, I suppose there's no guarantee of funding there either.

Lol. If I don't know if the people who were offered funding were contacted, why would I know if the other 25 who were not were? You should give her a call. She'll probably be able to answer these questions for you. Do you need a contact name? I can PM it to you.

I spoke with her on the phone directly. It's true that I was told this by the dept admin, but could she have been lying? I guess anything is possible. Feel free to give her a call. She said 25+ were accepted, that only 2 people per sub-discipline were offered funding, and that those people had already been chosen. I don't know if they were contacted, or whether or not they had accepted the offer. My thought is they have some kind of back-up ranked waitlist for those they'll offer funding to, should those other folks reject the acceptance offer.