brouhaha

Oh, I didn't mean where you all live. I meant the area you study. >< I didn't apply to Stanford, but good luck to all of you who did!

IR buddy! What's your area? You seem to have both German and Japanese in your signature so I am guessing it is Axis powers?

Wow, congrats! It looks like you're going to have some seriously hard decisions to make- a great problem to have.

Oh wow, that's really awesome, especially about putting you in touch with some students! That's definitely sounding hopeful for you. My Yale e-mail sounded a bit more like your Harvard e-mail but it was from the DGS of PolSci so we're dealing with different people. Yale is also my dream school so it would be great if we ended up being classmates there! I will pass on any information I might find out to you.

Sorry to hear about Michigan. Your signature says you've been referred to two MAs. Was one of those Yale? I got referred to the East Asian Studies MA from Political Science. How much of a chance do you think we stand? I'd really really like to think they wouldn't do that to us if we weren't very competitive for it. So nervous. Good luck with the rest of your apps too!

cpaige, any idea when we're supposed to hear something official about the MAs? Ideally decisions will go out for everyone including those this week. I'm just so anxious and I don't want to start the "Yalebration" quite yet...

Yeah, I'd definitely say they're different master's programs. I really hope we get in, and yeah, the funding would be fantastic. Best of luck to you!

I am feeling amazing. I'm still an undergrad so I went around and told pretty much the whole political science department. They were all extremely happy for me and advised me to go for the master's unless I get a ridiculously good PhD offer from somewhere like Columbia, so basically what you're saying. I visited Yale this summer and absolutely fell in love with the place so it'll be really hard to convince me to take even a funded PhD with the prospect of going to Yale. I expected a rejection 100% so I'm just in giddy shock. I'm in East Asian Studies for what it's worth. I'm still really young as well so I'm not worried about taking the extra year- in fact it sounds smarter to me so I can better figure out what it is I'm doing with my life. I'm still open to plenty of options; I just know I love political science and I love East Asia, so really no harm can come out of this other than debt. My numbers are far from perfect and my research experience is rather lacking so this is completely unreal to me. I'm sure we'll end up making the right decisions though. I just hope I get some sort of formal acceptance from the master's soon. I'm scared this excitement will turn into a let-down, but I want to think Yale wouldn't lead us on, especially by the tone of the e-mail I got.

Hey! Master's buddy! Which MA program did they send you to? I didn't realize the FLAS made it free + stipend. Now I'll really have to look into that. Basically, should I consider you competition for my coveted master's spot? But I guess it really depends on how strongly you want to go into Madison, or any of the other programs that you could potentially get into. If you're happy with that and don't see the need to reapply then just take your PhD offer. If you want to try again next year go for the MA. That's basically how I'm going about it with mine. Good luck!!

I wanted to apply for a FLAS but you need a recommendation from a language professor who has had you, and I can't get in touch with mine. My school doesn't have a Chinese department so they just bring in a new grad student every year to teach it.

There's no need to get worried over Yale yet. As far as I know there haven't been any acceptances sent out, probably just decisions made. I'm sure some of you will hear delightful things in the upcoming week!

Crimson, I got this e-mail this morning at 10 EST. This is a one-year program and there are some tuition awards available which I could attempt to get, but really one year of paying tuition in exchange for a really amazing-sounding degree sounds reasonable to me. Of course I'll still wait to see what my other programs say but this is definitely very very close to the top of my list. I'm not considering it an acceptance but it sounds hopeful at least. I wouldn't worry too much anyway as long as you're not getting rejections. Curufinwe, I am indeed straight out of undergrad and I am madly in love with East Asia, so there is really no doubt as to whether or not I would love doing this. It doesn't even bother me to take the extra year to get a master's since I'm only 20, so I'm in no rush. We shall see! Good luck everyone!!!

Okay guys...tell me how safe you think I am. I initially applied for the PhD in political science but this program is honestly just as appealing to me. "I am writing with some mixed news. At this point the Political Science department at Yale has completed its initial vetting of our applicant pool and it seems unlikely that you will be offered a place in next year's PhD class. However, a number of the faculty on the admissions committee were interested in your application. We therefore ask if you would like to be considered for the Masters degree program in East Asian Studies at Yale. ...etc etc some other stuff The Council has some funds for partial tuition awards, for which you would be able to compete if you applied. We very much hope that you will allow us to consider you for admissions to this exciting masters degree program. Please reply at your earliest convenience and let us know if you agree to change your application to the East Asian Studies MA. You can reply to me and I will forward your reply to the Graduate Admissions office and to the appropriate faculty at the East Asian Studies MA program." Of course I went ahead and told him "yes please". I just don't know how much I can treat this as an acceptance. My adviser said he thinks they wouldn't send me something so nice-sounding if they weren't planning on taking me at all.

Yeah, that's pretty scary. Any idea how big their entering class usually is?

Subfield: IR Interests: Pacific Rim relations and US foreign policy pertaining to China, Japan, and SE Asia, security issues, feminism

I love both the Economist and Foreign Affairs! I am considering teaching English somewhere in Asia, probably China or Japan. The country doesn't really matter to me since I've been to most of them and I just love Asia. Alternatively, I could probably find a job at a DC think tank.

I'll be 20. Luckily I come off as a little bit older and won't tell anyone unless they ask. My professors don't seem to think it will be a problem though as they all enthusiastically encouraged me to go for a PhD.

I'm doing political science right now but if I had to start over and do something new, it would absolutely without a doubt be vertebrate paleontology. I love it probably as much as I do international politics.

My understanding is basically that GRE scores are not as important as we make them out to be. If you want to go to a tippy tip top place like Princeton then a 700 in each section would certainly be nice but I think at most places as long as you hit 1200 GRE is no longer an issue in your acceptance vs denial.

I don't think you guys are really helping or responding to the OP's actual question. No, you aren't wasting your time or money applying to those places if that's where you want to be, if the programs are a good fit, and it's financially feasible for you to go there. Just be happy. I understand the pressure to go to a top school completely- I went to a highly competitive high school where all of my friends are pretty much telling me if I'm not at a top tier school I'm inadequate, and now I go to a public university where nearly everyone stays in state and acts like I think I'm superior because of some of the places I'm applying. I'm very much stuck in the middle, which I'm convinced doesn't exist, so I have some idea what you're thinking. Just be happy. It's your future and your life, not everyone's in this forum. If those are places you think would be a good fit, then by all means apply and good luck to you.

Yeah, I made it fine with everything except UVA, actually...their letter to applicants said the due date was Monday, December 4, 2009 (wtf, it was a Friday), another part said the due date was the first Monday in December (the 7th), and I got everything in on the 4th...only to look at the main graduate website, which said the due date was the 1st. Bah. The link to contact information was also broken raaaaaaaaawr Love your Yellow Submarine avatar btw Hopefully we'll both get some good news from at least one school!

Some days I am a total pessimist and am convinced I'm wasting absurd amounts of money on these applications. On others I have a strange sense that I just might get in somewhere. Anyway, here are my predictions... Applied: 12 Rejects: 8 Waitlists: 2 Acceptances: 2 I really will be happy with one. Just one. Any of them. Please.

good grief way to make me feel insignificant

On a similar note, I took Calc 1 and 2 from the math department (meaning not applied or anything) and got Cs in both, just because I'd always wanted to take calc and thought it would be helpful. It certainly was and I learned, but do you think this will hurt me?

hello applying for international relations. hardly any work experience but I've lived abroad, speak Chinese, traveled all over Asia, and I'm president of Model UN. focusing on China, international relations theory, security, and maybe feminism/gender in IR. 3.68 overall GPA, 3.83 in my major. 700Q 620V. my list of schools is in my signature. there are some big reaches and some more reasonable places. hopefully at least one will take me in! good luck to everyone.