[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

No, but my partner and I watched Revolution this afternoon, precisely because it's totally brainless. I would recommend a round of Angry Birds but...

I never used to watch mindless TV, but now I understand the comfort of watching a cartoon show after an awful day.

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

I heard that Stata vs R vs SAS is extremely irrelevant. What is relevant, from what I gather, however, is quant/qual/formal methods.

As grad students we love to debate the merits of R versus Stata (and it's quite fashionable to use R to "signal" how teched up you are), but it is a mostly pointless and nauseating discussion. If you have a clear hypothesis and you know how to properly specify and estimate a model of that hypothesis, that is what really matters. More importantly, BFB is right - you'll need to adopt whatever program(s) your various methods professors prefer anyway.

 

Just knowing what R is in the first place at least shows that you have a pretty good idea what grad school will be like. That's probably worth something.

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

Is there any reason to feverishly check email/websites over the weekend? Do any schools generate emails or update their websites on Saturday or Sunday? It's a gorgeous day for a hike here on the left side of the country.

 

(About to check AT&T's coverage map... maybe the trail has 4G and I don't have to choose!)

Although my application season was a few years ago, I remember getting admission decision emails from a few places on Saturdays. Even so, go out on the trail. Nothing you get via email today can't wait a few hours.

[Range of funding for PoliSci Programs]

In the last two years there has been a new trend of grad students here taking out loans to cover living expenses. That's worrying given our grim job prospects in academia, but it is increasingly common for our graduates to find careers in the private sector.

[Range of funding for PoliSci Programs]

Here's a summary of my 2013 offers:

 

Berkeley 25k + 3k for 4 summers

Columbia 24.5k + 3k for 4 summers

Stanford 29k + 3500 for 2 summers

Yale 28k + summer funding (I don't remember details)

Princeton 28k + 2k for working on a project of "mutual interest" for the first 2 years.

I would caution people that most Big 10 schools have much lower stipends than these (in the range of $13K to $18K). Midwestern schools also have much lower costs of living, but it can still be a challenge to make ends meet.