Cicero

I'm also in at Berkeley. This is my second time around applying, and I'm so happy to be accepted at one of my top choices! Subfield: comparative

There is a post on the main results page saying that Duke will be sending out more acceptances next week. Does anyone have anymore information about this? (This posting won't appear if you are just looking under political science on the results because political science is misspelled).

No problem, no word on the cohort size, or any info on the number of applications. Just an expected time line for acceptance notifications.

For anyone waiting for a response from Columbia, I heard from an inside source there that decisions are expected to be sent out on Feb. 19.

Congrats cpaige, and to all the Wisconsin admits! Hopefully we will all be posting good news here soon!

I agree with cpaige about being suspicious about the Cal Berkeley acceptances purely because of logic/circumstance not arrogance. For another example, Brown acceptances were posted even before the deadline for the PhD application (Feb 1) and nothing I saw on the website indicated that they have rolling admissions. I think when people post questions here regarding what appears on the general results page, they are just looking for more information on what is going on; this is an anxious time for everyone and the process isn't always clear.

Does anyone know anything about the Political Science acceptance from Brown that was posted on the results page? I'm just a little curious since their application still isn't due for another week (Feb 1). According to the results page, Brown usually notifies in late Feb. They did just send out one of those mass emails basically stating that applications will be reviewed soon. Are we going to write this one off as likely false as well, like we did with the ones from Cal Berkeley? **ah the above post was not there when I starting writing this**

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson should be on the list. The title is appropriate I think.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Berkeley results. I think the general consensus is that they are most likely fake. At least that is what those of us who have applied keep telling ourselves. At any rate, based on what happened last year, the Berkeley results were posted far too early to appear legitimate. Also, based on what I know of last year's cycle, people are usually pretty good about coming forward and attesting to an acceptance that has been posted on the results page, especially when people start asking questions about it. The waiting has been driving me crazy too, February can't seem to get here fast enough.

One could also note that the letters "e" and "s" are near each other on the keyboard. It is quite likely that the typist's finger slipped when writing the email. I don't think there is any reason to think any less of a person or question their intelligence because of a minor spelling error. Typos happen.

Ditto on the near heart attack. I still got really anxious/excited even though I know (based on past results postings) not to expect anything decision related from Yale until early to mid February. I think these subject headings should include a disclaimer ie "Warning! Admission decision not included" That's a curious spelling of "frequently". Good spotting lev calderon!

I agree with letter writers being able to attest to your writing ability; I figured that LORs are where programs who don't ask for the writing sample look to find an evaluation of an applicant's academic writing, outside of what they may infer from course grades. I just thought it was interesting that some programs neglect to ask for a writing sample. While the SOP does provide a general idea of an applicant's writing ability, I do not think it speaks to how well someone can write academically. Poor writing in a SOP might suggest something about the applicant's ability (or potential) to write well academically. However I don't think just because someone's SOP is well written that it necessarily follows that their academic writing is of the same quality. Although I am sure that it is often true that most people who write good personal statements also write well academically. I just don't think the SOP is the best measure of someone's ability to write academically, which I guess is why some programs ask for a writing sample. Perhaps it is just as you said, the schools that don't ask for them don't find them helpful

Just wondering, but does anyone have any thoughts regarding why Harvard's Government department does not require a writing sample from applicants, and in fact specifically requests that applicants do not submit one? "Applicants are requested not to submit writing samples." http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/programs_of_study/government.php My initial thought was, since they are a top rated program and probably get tons of applicants, they don't want all the extra paper to sift through, but then again, other top-tier schools, who I'm sure also get many applicants, such as Berkeley, Chicago, Princeton etc do ask applicants to submit an academic writing sample.

I'm also skeptical about believing these. Based on people I know who applied last year, all the admits were contacted via email en masse, and a bunch of acceptances were posted on the results page here at once, not a slow trickle like this. I don't expect to hear anything from Berkeley until early Feb. Although, if they want to contact me early to accept me, I won't mind.

I hope things work out better for you this time around. I understand why last year was bad (because of the economy), but I'm just wondering what makes you think this year will be worse?

Thanks! I hope we all get results that make us happy. My quant score was pathetically low, waaaaay lower than yours, which is quite good I think- it shouldn't cause you a problem. A lot of people would be very happy to have a score like yours or mine, and even so, I too still worry about my score not being "good enough", everyone does I think, at least a little bit. I'd rather not say what mine old score was exactly, because I'm embarrassed by it, but I'll just sum it up to say that my old score was far far lower than your current score, and my new score is over 100 points better than the old one. I studied really hard this past summer... I've heard such varied things about quant scores that I really don't know what to think anymore. When I asked my advisor, he basically just said do your very best, get the highest score you can, and then don't worry about it anymore. I've heard the 700 thing from some profs, I've also heard that's not necessarily true that you need to be at or over 700. I'm especially skeptical of the 700 bar when I see that top tier programs like Chicago (I think) have quant averages below 700. I just keep reminding myself that even people with very high and even perfect quant scores get rejected. I think the quant gre, and overall gre is important but not decisive (or only decisive if its reaaaly bad). From what I've gathered GREs really only move your app into the "read pile". I guess there is a lot of variance from program to program, and committee member to committee member regarding what sort of quant GRE score they like to see. Just more evidence as to how random this process is.

I think what hurt me last time was my GRE scores, especially the Quant score: waaay too low. I've always had a hard time with math, and didn't give the quant portion enough attention when I was reviewing From talking with my advisors, we figured that my quant score was too low to get my application looked at, despite schools claiming to have no cutoff. I worked hard over the summer to improve my scores, both the Verbal and the Quant, and each are now just a bit over 700. Last year I was applying during my senior year, so I couldn't include anything about finishing my thesis, winning an award for it and getting an article published. I also found out (this year) when contacting schools with early December deadlines about needing to send in some updated material, that it is quite possible that they never even looked at my grades from the fall semester of my senior year when evaluating my application last year. They told me that because the committee starts meeting in late December that those mid term grades do not typically arrive in time for them to be added to the files for consideration, so its quite possible that last year my application was evaluated on my transcript through the spring semester of my junior year. This is quite frustrating given the time and hassle it is to arrange to have updated transcripts sent out. This is even more frustrating for those who have to pay to send transcripts. At least my undergrad institution does not charge for sending transcripts. Of course, I know people applying to these schools who got in straight out of undergrad, so the transcript thing may not be a big deal; in my case I'm fairly certain the bad quant score is what did me in. I'm trying to keep my hopes up that things will go better this time, but it's hard, especially knowing how painful the rejections can be, and especially when (in my case) you know that your application was quite possibly not even looked at last time. I just keep reminding myself, as it has been said on this board and by many others, that the process is in many cases a crap shoot. I also try not to let the lack of transparency with this process get to me as well. Natofone-- are you re-applying as well? How about you, what do you think you did wrong last time, and what did you do to improve this time?

Nope, just a BA

Hello Everyone I've been reading here long enough that I though I might as well introduce myself. Here are my general stats: GREs both just Q and V just above 700 BA from a top 20 institution Senior thesis with awards several citations in academic publications 1 publication in a peer reviewed journal I'm applying to all PhD programs with an intention to focus on Comparative Politics. I'm applying to quite a few programs, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, Michigan, Duke, WashU, Columbia This is my second go-round, so, I'm hoping my improved scores and new accomplishments will help. Regarding the Berkeley thing, my impression, and my hope, is that its false. I know people who were accepted last year, and they were contacted en masse in Feb. Also, for what it is worth, poli sci grad students I know who attend Berkeley and are there now, say the campus is pretty dead. I'm also suspicious of the result since the Berkeley app indicated there would be no contact or application processing until Jan 7.