cupofnimbus

Carzola!
 
Remember the above from three weeks ago.  It feels so good to tell you; "I told you so"!  I am VERY happy for you!  Congratulations!
 
 
Never believe the "8ball"!  Lesson learned, I hope!
 
 
 
SUPER DELIGHTED FOR YOU!!!!  Wishing you much success!

UPVOTE UPVOTE UPVOTE
 
Congratulations!!!!!!

In at UPenn. I'm at a loss for words. I'm hoping everyone else who has been shut out so far receives some good news soon (hopefully a few more today who also get into Penn).

Congrats to everyone wrapping up their cycles and making choices! How exciting!
 
(And I just hope Penn sends their rejections shortly after the acceptances, this waiting game is killer.)

Awesome! That will be very helpful, especially since I don't want to bother people who have enough on their plate in transitioning!
 
And I'm certainly not despondent, or without hope! I'm disappointed that it looks to be going that way, of course. Of my remaining applications, one is a presumed rejection (Vanderbilt), one is a long-shot (UPenn), and the last is a wild card that has started distributing decisions (Maryland). I'm lucky that I'm in a good place in life right now, and maybe now isn't the right time for me! It'll happen, if it's going to happen for me, and when the time is right. I'm optimistic for the long-term.

Slowest day ever........

I don't think that's stupid! I think that, if you haven't had any contact with someone at the school, you can go ahead and fill out the form and leave it at that (unless you feel especially compelled to write to the DGS). If you have been talking to anyone in particular one-on-one, fill out the form and write a brief and gracious email thanking them for the offer and all their time/help, but you will be accepting an offer at [the school you are attending]. I don't think you even necessarily have to tell them where you're going to go, but that's the way I'd go about it.

It's quiet, and I think the waiting is getting to us.
 

 
At least, it's getting to me.

It's quiet, and I think the waiting is getting to us.
 

 
At least, it's getting to me.

It's quiet, and I think the waiting is getting to us.
 

 
At least, it's getting to me.

I would, but Harry Potter gets more acceptance letters than anyone, and he didn't even apply.

Noooooooo--wait.

My condolences  
 
Rejections aren't even logical--if they were, you could prepare for it. I was fine for my first two rejections, but the third one sent me into a six-hour fit of self-pity on the couch. Then the next two were okay, if a bit stinging! It is weird.

Aughhhh yes. Worst are the ones that come from universities, but the ones you didn't apply to that got your information from the GRE. 
 
Hate hate hate.

If you want to work in the US, go to a US program. While the top Canadian programs can be quite good, they aren't necessarily viewed the same way in the US as they are in Canada or in other countries. They also tend to have considerably less methods training than top 25 programs in the US, though that's often supplemented with summer schools and informal training through research assistantships.
 
If you want to work in Canada, it depends. If you want to get a job at McGill or UBC or some other top departments in Canada, you'd probably be better off going in the US, as well. A majority of tenure and tenure-track faculty at both places have PhDs from the U.S., at least as of last year. (McGill, in particular, has a predilection for hiring Princeton PhDs.) Otherwise, your best options are (depending on your interests) McGill, Montreal, Toronto, UBC and Queen's. Queen's probably won't be paid much attention to outside Canada but has historically done very well in placement with a small department. Montreal has very good faculty, but it's tended not to do particularly well in placement, save under certain advisors. Part of the issue may be that their language of instruction is French, which restricts the applicant pool and may attract students who want to say in Quebec and work in French, which would limit academic job prospects a fair bit. Toronto accounts for the largest share of tenure/tenure-track Canadian political science professors, but it also has the largest department, and once you adjust for department size other places, like McGill and UBC do better. It varies a bit across subfield, though. (There's also York, if you're into poststructuralist work. They have limited placement options in political science, since Canadian programs tend to be fairly/implicitly positivist, with some exceptions, so York tends to have a bit of an issue with hiring their own students.)
 
If you want to work outside both countries, a Canadian PhD can work, especially if your interest is in working in Australia or New Zealand.
My account may be slightly biased from using qualitative information obtained from people at the departments in Montreal, but I have a project in progress on where tenure and tenure-track Canadian political science professors obtain their PhDs, systematically collecting it from every Canadian university website, so this should be a fair description in quantitative terms.

One of my favorite days of the year—I get to play Santa Claus.
 
OSU funding letters are out. If you're expecting one and you don't see it, check alternative email accounts, spam folders, etc. If it's not there, email me or DM me.

In which case a UK PhD wouldn't be so bad, especially as the overwhelming majority of people are done within 3-4 years. 
 
I'm not sure when it comes to Canada. I think UBC, Toronto and McGill can place their students well, but others will be able to offer better advice. Generally though a US PhD is undoubtedly best for the US market..

Without knowing specifics, it's hard to make a call, except to say if you feel like you will do well at either school, then go for it. If the fit is good and you think you'll get the training you want and you'll get funded, then I don't see anything but grass-is-greener syndrome in your way. You can do a lot for yourself through networking, strong research, and self-promotion. Will you get a tenure-track position at Harvard right out of grad school? Um, probably not. (But who does?) Are you likely to get a tenure-track position at a lower-ranked school/liberal arts college, or a great post-doc, from such a program, especially if you put in the hard work necessary to do any graduate study? Likely, yes.

Never been to one, but I'm pretty sure this knowledge would immediately win him over to a Philly move.
 
EDIT: PARTNER. Will win over my PARTNER. Good grief.

For those of you waiting on Syracuse, enjoy =D 

http://www.weather.com/news/americas-25-snowiest-college-and-universities-20140225?pageno=26

Well, folks, 
Since the rejection from Yale was the last one of my most awaited rejections (Chicago, I've given up on you! I reject your rejection!), my cycle is now officially over. I am very happy with the options I have (and most grateful I do have options this year). I said it before and I'll say it again to everyone who anticipates having to apply for the second time: I've been there and it's surprisingly more doable than I would have believed. Even better: would I have acquired a place last year it certainly wouldn't be as good, as I am much more prepared this year, both in terms of my application and in terms of knowing where I want to go and what I want to do.
 
So good luck to everyone who's still waiting on more results to come, and best of luck to those who are preparing for the next cycle.
 
I'll stick around to see how you guys end up doing.  

Because, hey, your right to be catered to is more important than her right to carry on with department business, teaching, research, and maintaining a private life! Gross.

Ya, this is pretty much what I'm telling myself as well. Given the level of difficulty and randomness in the process, I feel a bit thick for having applied to only 7/8 programs. Anyway, I'll see you next year cupofnimbus! I only hope that we can emulate the 2nd/3rd cycle vets that had such success this year.  

Just throwing this one in here, too. This is another APSA report, addressing placement directly: http://www.apsanet.org/media/dsp/Snapshot%20Placement%202009%202012.UPDATED%2019%20JUNE.pdf
 
That is the short report from last year, though there is a longer version locked to APSA members.

What's your subfield, limitations, etc? (You don't have to answer in here, you can do a PM, if you're comfortable!)
 
I'm going to keep on with what I'm doing, reach out to some of my professors (I got my Master's from a school here in DC, so I'm still local) and ask if I can volunteer to do research assistant work, try to develop some research into a publishable article, and study like crazy for GRE Round II. 
 
Then I'll apply to a slightly different and larger pool of programs, including a bunch I didn't even think to apply to this year. I've already got the spreadsheet up and going.