Evgeny55

If you want to try next cycle, shoot for higher quantitative scores on GRE. 160 is pretty decent, even a year ago I saw non-theory applicants with 160 (or 161) score who were admitted to top-10 programs. However, the higher the better, and score above 165 will bolster your chances significantly. Your M.A. in economics is an advantage, since modern political science is leaning more and more towards econ-fashioned research. Change your SOP. If your LORs were good, SOP was probably the main reason for rejection, which means you have to write a new one. From my experience (recent and not highly encouraging), you should avoid writing SOP with narrow focused research agenda. For instance, instead of writing "I want to study indiscriminate violence in civil wars" you should write "I want to study political economy of violence". Then you may write a little bit on research idea that you have in mind, again avoiding too narrow agenda. Personally. I think that admission committees should start to pay less attention to SOP, since there is always high risk that SOP will be misrepresented information. We all write how awesome we are, but credibility of this information is typically low. But it is the best poor admission system that we have at hand right now. I overstrategized my SOP and directed it to fulfil the goal of providing evidence that I really can think like scholar. Apparently, they were more interested in some general words about research, why do you want to study in this particular university etc. Tailing essay to university is apparently very important thing. You should write about fit of research agenda to what particular department is doing. Also, don't write famous names as POI inasmuch there is very high competition for working with them, and Ivy League graduates with 4.0 GPA will always have an edge in competition for work with top professors.

For those who is still waiting response from Harvard: contact Thom Wall. He responds fastly to messages.

For those who are still waiting response from UCLA, I was told they are still considering applications and they are likely to send more offers. I think this week they will send final wave of decisions.

Admission process is in many ways black box. You don't know who is on admission committee at prticular cycle, and thay may matter a great deal. That being said, I think you have a pretty decent chances to land your application at a reasonable good place. I am not sure about top-10 because they put significant value to the GPA. You can circumvent this by scoring in 90th percentiles in both V and Q sections of the GRE, good AW score also helps. UCSD is a great school, and your LOR would probably constitute one of the strongest parts of your application. Now couple of points. First, think throughly whether you want to be in academia. There are advantages of this type of career. You have to work a lot, but you will decide what is the topic that interests you. You can organize your time in a manner which is convenient for you (while in the office you typically have to work from time X to time Y 5 days a week). There are also disadvantages, academic job market being the major one. It is incredibly tough, though by no means impossible, to land your job application to research university from top-20 list. Second, you should think what kind of program do you want to apply to. My advice is to pick a program which is strong with methods, especially quantitative and formal methodology, since this is kind of skills that you can use in plenty of places (e.g. analyst positions). There is always a possibility that in the end you won't find academic job that is suitable for you. And while it is not preferable for vast majority of people who study at Ph.D. programs, you should consider working in the private or public sector as a possibility, and methods training will give you an edge in searching this kind of jobs. Third, if you choose between MA and Ph.D., go for Ph.D. MA costs money, and typically substantive amount of money, while Ph.D., if you get funding, will allow you to become financially independent (at least to a certain extent). However, you may consider receiving MA in a different discipline as a possible option. MA in economics with a good GPA from a good place will give you an edge in competition for Ph.D. admission. If you are able to get high GPA in econ MA program, you will be at the edge of competition at the best schools, given that your GREs after receiving MA in economics will be high. Good luck!

Dropped another message, this time directly to the Department coordinator of graduate admissions.

Weirdly enough, I still got no response from UCLA. Previous year they sent mass rejections on 26-27 of February. I dropped them couple of messages but did not get any response. This is a little annoying actually. I got rejected from Columbia, but I really appreciated that they sent notifications fast; same was true for UM at Ann Arbor, for instance. With UCLA, I just don't know what to think since they sent bunch of rejections earlier and I did not get any updates on the application status...

Yes. My situation is by no means grim, I am in a good position. But the reality of academic job market is tough. It is incredibly hard to find a job in top-20 research universities if you did not graduate from top-10 programs. There are, of cource, people who beat the odds but it is always better if you have odds in your favor ex ante. You may have, say, 2 publications and still loose the job to the Ivy League Ph.D. who does not have any papers published. Given the fact that I really want to be in academia and to get tenure track in one of top-20 research universities, I decided to make a shot. But if nothing works out, I will continue on my current track and hopefully will be able to make competitive profile by the end of the program. There is almost always more than one way to get what you want, certain ways just much harder than others:)

Well, I guess we will find out decisions on Friday. I start thinking that I misfired in my SOP. This is the only explanation that I have so far. I have decent GREs, not stellar, but 160+ in both sections, good (hopefully) LORs and couple relevant academic awards. So, if Yale sends rejection, it is misfire in SOP, for sure. Among all schools, Yale is actually the best research fit.

So, I think those who did not receive anything from Yale can presume rejection? I saw someone posted rejection by e-mail, but I did not receive anything...

Yale offers should be out today or tomorrow. I really want to get in: I think research fit is good. I did not receive anything from UCLA, though, perhaps I still have some chances at UCLA.

Folks, just to clarify for those who are nervous: Political Economy and Government and Government are two different beasts. In the PEG PhD program you should write a dissertation in political economy and have persons from both Econ and Government department on your committee. For Government PhD you will be Department of Government graduate student, and while you still can write dissertation in political economy, typically you won't have Econ professors on your guidance committee and will work with professors at Government department. Competition for admission to each program is separate competition.

Have you received e-mail couple of hours ago or just now? I saw bunch of rejections at results' page earlier, but did not hear anything from them so far.

I called them and they told that all acceptances will be e-mailed by the end of the week. Princeton has a large program, so this is probably one of the few remaining opportunities for me, given 7 rejections and the fact that remaining schools are extremely competitive.

Got rejections from NYU and UM at Ann Arbor. Only four schools left... Did not hear anything about Princeton so far, but I really hope for good news. I only have 4 schools left.