APGradApplicant

Soooo...I'm thinking it makes sense at this point to edit my signature and place UMN in the rejections...

Jud M- My apologies. As is probably apparent from this forum, all of us are a little bit stressed out and on edge as we reach the end of what for many of us has been a long process. I assumed that once the quoted e-mail ended with your closing, people would know that I was then shifting to my own commentary, stating that I'd be a little stressed out this weekend waiting for a decision from UMN. The joke I was making wasn't even supposed to be imitating you- rather, it was me expressing to the others who have applied to UMN that we'll probably be anxious this weekend. And even more importantly, I was certainly not trying to fabricate or alter what you had written. Once again, my apologies.

So I thought since we had a lot of time to kill while all of us wait for those hold-out schools that apparently think they're too important to notify before March, I was just kind of curious with regards to taking the political temperature of American students (meaning citizenship, not the subfield) who are planning to attend graduate programs in political science. I made the poll private so that those who choose not to make their views known publicly do not have to. Like I said, more just for fun, although there has of course been somewhat of an ongoing debate about whether the fact that academia (especially in social sciences) tends to be dominated by the Left is good/bad/doesn't matter. I don't want to get into that so much here. Like I said, more just curious about where people fall on the spectrum. Again, nobody even needs to identify on the boards unless they want to.

Natofone- If you don't mind my asking, what are your current acceptances again? As I remember they're Maryland and UIUC, but maybe I'm wrong...What school are you leaning towards now in this pre-UMN phase?

Good question about Columbia, fromark. What I'm wondering is how someone who refers to a "potentiol" adviser got accepted to a Columbia PhD program...

Congrats!

The other option is that there are some lower-ranked (but still decent) schools that do MA admissions w/ spring deadlines. If you're eager to get to grad school now, then you can always do the MA one place and then prove yourself and transfer somewhere better...just a thought

I doubt it only because if you look above, their DGS seems to be well aware of the way that Grad Cafe works, per her comments. That makes me think that when she says that everyone will be notified at once, that literally means everyone, similar to the way UCSD and UT-Austin went about doing their notifications.

I know, right?! A Thur or Fri rejection would do a heck of a lot less damage to my weekend than spending the whole time biting my nails in suspense will.

OK, here's the info I obtained from UMN from Judith: Hello, We're still finalizing the admit decisions, but we expect to be able to notify everyone by Monday. Judith Have a fun weekend, applicants! I know I will

PS- Although there's no specific reference to it in the e-mail, you can tell from its content that Dr. Miller no doubt knows about Grad Cafe

Annoying to hear it might not be until next week, but thanks for the info.

If I don't hear anyting from UMN by noon central time, I'm gonna call after lunch! Haha, or someone else can, but I'm 99% sure that decisions have been made at this point, so I really don't see the harm (basing my guess on the fact that Judith M told me that it was likely we'd hear end of the week, and who the hell would tell people on a Friday?!)

Good memory, Concentration! Far worse! Let's hope that's compensated for with better results!

We better hear from UMN today! The uncertaintly has been killing me...the last few days I've been on a steady diet of Marlboro Lights and Starbucks. So yeah, if I'm not dead from cardiac arrest by the end of the day, I really hope that it caps off this stressful process!

Congrats!! Don't forget to update your signature!

I think this is accurate. I didn't apply to Columbia, but I had this issue with UT-Austin (in fact I just logged in and it still says I'm "incomplete" despite being accepted!). Back in early December I e-mailed Meagan Mulligan, the Grad Sec'y there, and she sent back the following reply: Hi (my name), Sadly, even if I were to work 24/7 for the next several weeks, I would still be unable to update the online status to show that your supplemental materials have been received by the department. If you did receive an e-mail confirmation from me, then, rest assured, your stuff is in and you are “golden”! Meagan

No FedEx letter from MIT today, but also not the least bit surprising given the competition within the applicant pool. My guess is that some us will hear from Minnesota tomorrow (well, at least those of us who get good news, I'm not so sure I'm going to be one of those people). I guess Cornell is finished, although I'm a little surprised we haven't had more people claiming acceptances (then again, look at how tough a cycle it has been for admissions!). Good luck to my fellow Minnesota applicants and whomever else is waiting to hear! Finally, does someone want to claim the Harvard wait list that went up in the results database, or is this just another troll trying to have some fun with all the Harvard applicants who are dejected over not hearing news Monday?

Nobody has reported anything...I think yesterday must have been the day. Wondering about UMN. No news on that front to report since bsquar?

Nice! Very happy for you

Nobody claimed the latest one but I can attest to the fact that UNC-CH has been sending out rejections this week. I opened mine in the mail yesterday.

Thanks, bsquar. Didn't want to quote the whole thing, but I think that's very helpful to current and future applicants to see that there is more than one way to go about the "Statement of purpose" or "statement of goals". I actually had a friend who went this route and got into OSU and Rochester using it (this was in a previous admissions cycle).

Totally understood. As you probably see in my post above, I specifically mention that I thought you were very respectful in your feedback and that none of what I was saying referred to you. You weren't the one who in so many words said it was "unprofessional" to do what I, curiousgeorge, SuddenlyParanoid, and applying12010 decided to do.

Thank you! Very much agreed. Like I said before, let's take a look at the track records of people who have put some "personality" into their SOPs. I'm glad Suddenly Paranoid chimed in with it. Enough said there. It definitely didn't seem to hurt anybody here. And natofone, I'm not referring to you because you offered the feedback in a very respectful way. Regarding another individual here though, I really try to be as tolerant and understanding of everybody here as I can, but I must say that when I see one person who continues to write posts with a "know it all" tone and an aura of authority that only seems to increase by the day (even towards people who have had the same mixed results in the process- or worse- people who have experienced much better results), it is really frustrating and off-putting. Anyhow, like I said, people here know that I definitely am rooting for everybody here and rarely have much to complain about in terms of other posters, but I thought I'd just make my thoughts known on this matter.

I really don't think that's correct (and this is coming from someone who's on a wait list at a great school right now, so believe me when I say I wish it was). Schools absolutely do not accept the number of people that compose a cohort- ever. All the professors I've talked to at WashU, many of whom have been in this business for a long time, have told me that programs will admit a certain number based on projected yield rates. For HYP and those top UC schools, they usually anticipate a pretty high yield (somewhere in the upper 60's or low 70's), so it definitely doesn't hurt to be on the wait list there. But you're most definitely mistaken if you think that a wait list works in such a way that the first person to decline an acceptance means that whomever is first on the wait list is in.