ohhemingway

Bump.

Hi everyone! I know there is a thread on contacting individual students who are already attending through PM, but I thought it might be helpful to have a forum to discuss common questions that come up about top departments. Specifically, it would be good to know (because of guaranteed anonymity!) what the worst things are about your department -- i.e. what are the cons of going where you go? Quite often it's easy to hear about all the good stuff about a place, but very little of the bad stuff, which is strictly insider info. Even if you love where you go, there must be common refrains you hear from your colleagues about certain things. Is a particular professor not great to work with? Is the stipend not enough to live on comfortably? Does the department place a too-heavy emphasis on certain methodologies? Is the location of the department less than ideal? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Behavioral Science!

Wow! You live on a 15K stipend in Palo Alto?! That's amazing... How much do they take out each month in taxes, if you don't mind me asking? And no, tuition and health insurance and fees are paid for separately from the stipend.

I was.

Thanks! Very helpful stuff.

Thank you all for being so helpful!

Thanks! I got a call yes, and no I'm in the US. Official admission notices are being sent out only through postal service (fedex) but I haven't received mine yet.

Hi! I'm hoping to get information about what the cost of going to school in Stanford is. I've been offered a stipend of $30,000 for the academic year (summer is separate). I hear Palo Alto is incredibly expensive, though, so if anyone could break down costs it would be wonderful. I prefer sharing space with people and don't mind cooking for myself. My only concern is saving enough to take a $400 flight to see my SO every (other?) month. Would that be at all possible given how expensive Palo Alto is? Any advice is appreciated.

I'm an IR/SS admit to MIT.

Would anyone who has heard from them (I see a few interviews and acceptances on the results page) care to share details? What track did you apply for, and do you know if they have sent out all the interview calls?

MIT will not be sending out emails as far as I know, but will be notifying by phone and then postal service. Phone calls were not made at the same time though (some yesterday, some today) so there might still be time!

There's also a few there for Madison -- also seem pretty personalized -- and I wonder if we should expect any more of those.

Has anyone here applied to Michigan? There's a couple of acceptances up, but they seem more personalized. Any chance they've all been sent out?

Congrats to Michigan! I wonder if they also got an email/change in online application status?

Are you talking about the Fulbright? If so it is available to US students -- just for their international study (not study in the US). And if you're familiar with the US Fulbright process, it's extremely competitive and only available to a small number of people, which is also how it works for international students (I doubt the US is dishing out money to every other international applicant without putting them through a tough selection process). Also, there are several federal funding opportunities during graduate school (for research etc) that are only available to US citizens. That said (and I'm not an international student), I think this is a silly debate. There are low income students in the US as well for whom spending $1000 - 1500 on applications is a big worry. However, on average, many applicants from developing countries face a considerably higher cost (in terms of what they earn) than the average US applicant. I'm not sure why that's being questioned by political scientists, who should likely know more about the world than the average person.

Thanks guys!

I can claim one of the Berkeley acceptances. Very excited

Congrats on the waitlist! Do you mind telling us if it looked like a mass email, or was it personalized? (In other words, if one hasn't received it yet, is it time to give up hoping?)

Thanks! And nope! Just says submitted.

I would wait till at least the end of the day. Good luck!

I am! Looks like a mass email with personalized attached letter (as in, personalized just by name). I applied for the IR subfield.

It's me. Thank you guys