Bubandis

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At this point, I think that you should reach out to UVA, especially since I know that the recruitment folks have sent wait list, acceptance, and rejection notifications. Perhaps some anomaly led to you not receiving an update of your application's status.

Political communication, like political psychology, is interdisciplinary in a certain sense. But, in another, pol psych and pol comm have been so fully integrated into the discipline, that I think fewer people are view it this way. At a very basic level, political science can be partitioned into two major parts, the study of political institutions on the one hand, and the study of (mass) political behavior on the other. Political psych, political communication, public opinion etc. all get lumped into the latter category. That said, if you would like to be placed in a political science department one day, you really ought to do you PhD in political science. And, while it may be possible to secure a polisci faculty position with a Comm PhD, you'd be better off generally with a polisci PhD. There are enough political science programs, spread across the rankings, at which to study political communication to where I don't think it is necessary to apply to comm programs. These include (but are not limited to): Stanford, Michigan, UPenn, Texas, Northwestern, UVa, Stony Brook, Louisiana State, Washington State (Ridout!)

correct, it is a TPB reference. Most of the time they call Randy (the character who is my avatar), "Bobandy" or "Randy Bobandy," but there is on instance wherein a drunken Jim Lahey calls him "Bubandis" while talking on the phone in the shower. Glad that some of you get a little amusement from the name We just wrapped up the UVA visiting event yesterday. Was fun. Good luck to everyone in making your decisions. And, to those still in limbo, I expect that there will be plenty of wait list activity in the latter half of next month, so don't lose hope!

@ezra123, no word yet (re: UVA waitlist), but will PM you if I do. Based on what I have heard from other regarding previous years though, it is likely that they will move on the waitlist at some point (just depends on how soon those admitted who they are matriculating elsewhere inform our admissions people of that). If you've any questions in the interim, feel free to direct message me.

So, I didn't get accepted at Duke. In fact, I didn't apply to places in the top 15 because, having read all of the exaggerations on this board regarding the GRE, I didn't think that I'd have any shot whatsoever. But, I did get into a top 20 (UT-Austin) and one the best programs in my subfield, Stony Brook, (both of which I applied to simply as "reach" programs--again, based on the misinformation spread on this site) which is known to be quite quantitative, with a Q score of ~150, so I'm really not that surprised that such a score could get an otherwise stellar candidate accepted at Duke. Congratulations, @Straightoutta, very happy for you!

For those of you that have not heard from Colorado-Boulder: I was waitlisted by them last year, and they were very slow is letting me know. I recall that a couple of weeks had passed since they notified the accepted applicants before they ever sent out the waitlist emails. And, @studugarte, don't worry yet regarding UVA. It is my sense that we have only contacted those who were also nominated for an additional fellowship. In other words, I don't believe all first-round acceptances have gone out yet. Though, I expect that they will go out this week or next at the latest. Sure there will be a wait list, too. Finally, as a general point, while I realize that looking at previous years' notification dates for programs can somewhat helpful in getting an idea of a general admissions timeframe, please keep in mind that there will be some variation due to shifting responsibilities within departments. For example, at UVA, we have a new admissions director this year who is going about the process is a slightly different way. There are likely to be other programs whose processes have changed somewhat this app season as well. In the meantime, don't let you anxiety get the better of you--you will know where you stand when the programs contact you and, until then, the rest is simply speculation.

And ultraultra wins the thread! Seriously, though, all of those points were terrific, and effectively inarguable based on my experience. The GRE, in its current form, ought to be tossed.

Congrats to the UVA admits! Again, if any of you have any questions regarding the program, please feel free to PM me.

I contacted the OP via private message. Turns out that I did in fact complete the same MA program that he is now undertaking. When he referred to the advisor, he was referring to the co-chair of the graduate program, who is the advisor of all incoming students during their first semester regardless of eventual substantive focus. The opinion within the department on whether or not to do the thesis is divided amongst the faculty members, and it seemed to me during my time there that those against the thesis option usually were against it for reasons that had to do more with themselves than the interests of the student (e.g., boosting completion rates looks good for the co-DGSs, laziness in not wanting to serve on committees in the case of some other faculty members). What OP also did not mention is that it is the norm in the program that those who choose to write three different papers tend to do so in three different subfields (e.g., 1 in IR, 1 in CP, 1 in AP). From a professional stand point, there is no reason to do this unless one is unsure of which subfield one would like to pursue at the doctoral level. Also, he will have to take comprehensive/field exams either way. And, having recently written a thesis there myself, I can confirm that any administrative hoops to jump through are quite minimal. Three other considerations follow: 1. As was mentioned above by someone else, writing a thesis is a norm across the discipline. Academia, whether good or bad, is full of "time honored traditions" that might not always make sense. But, going against these sorts of norms can make one stand out, perhaps not always in the best way. To see how this might be impactful, imagine a scenario where OP applies to 10 PhD programs, eight of which are comprised of admissions committees who may not care whether or not he completed a thesis during his MA program. But, I think it is totally plausible that one or two admission committees might view a MA program that doesn't require a thesis with some suspicion (whether justified or not). So, even if this is rare (and in truth, it probably is rarer than 10-20% of ad comms), the reverse discrimination--that is, an ad comm looking disfavorably upon someone who has written a MA thesis--is, I'd wager, completely unheard of. Moreover, when I visited places, I was asked about my thesis research. I still regularly am asked what I wrote my thesis on. In political science, writing a thesis is typically the requirement for attaining an MA. I am glad that my decision to write a master's thesis has ensured that I will never have to explain why I didn't actually write one, whether pressured by an advisor or not. 2. The thesis will help you to get to know a literature very well, as the lit review portion of a thesis is typically considerably more in depth than a journal length submission. All else equal, a more intimate knowledge of a literature could pay off in the admissions cycle, by both potentially improving your SOP and in informing your choice of programs to apply to. But, perhaps more importantly, managing a larger project is valuable experience for the dissertation that you eventually will have to write. The skills and workflow one develops in writing a MA thesis are different than those used when writing a journal length paper, and, furthermore, will more closely approximate an even larger project, such as a dissertation or book manuscript. 3. A subset of PhD programs will allow those who enter with a Polisci (or another academically focused social science master's degree) MA to waive the requirement of earning an(the PhD program's) MA in that program. UVA, my current institution, is among the programs that do not require incoming MA recipients to start from scratch and effectively earn an MA all over again. I have found this to be a major convenience in that it: A. cuts down on the number of courses that I am required to take here, and, B. means that I don't have to write an MA thesis now. So, if you are in a terminal MA program, and if chances are good that you are going to have to write a thesis at some point, I am of the mindset that it is better to get it done during the terminal MA stage. Doing so has allowed me to, in my current PhD program, focus more time on my methodological training, to pursue a number of smaller projects (in terms of scope) that I can present at conferences and/or submit for publication, and quicker time to ABD status which may also equate to a faster time to completion of the PhD itself. And, while I acknowledge that this may not be the same in every PhD program, those who enter our program with a professional degree (MPP, MBA, etc.) or with a non-thesis MA, will likely find themselves having to earn another MA degree, including completing a thesis here. So, while there are pros and cons either way (and no choice a damning one) given my own experience (in that program no less), I really do come down on the side of the thesis option.

For what it is worth, I was in a nearly identical situation three years ago...so much so that I wonder if I did my MA at the same place as you are now (seriously, every detail is the same, even the part about one of the co-chairs being female and pushing the 3 "professional papers" option). Anyway, for a multitude of reasons, you should really do the thesis option. I did, and I am happy to have done so. Best of luck!

Last year, Brown released admission decisions in the second half of February. As for funding, some departments list it on their websites, some do not. Generally , though, there are three tiers for publics: 13-15k, 17-18k, 20k or a little more. Private universities are typically offer more (substantially more at some places)

Well, first of all, I do hope that you applied to more than one university. Secondly, if you did, I hope that you applied to programs aside from those of the Ivies. Regarding your question, as you yourself note, your GRE scores are low and won't be doing you any favors. Some of the places that don't place a lot of emphasis on ensuring that all of their students have a solid quantitative background (e.g., Brown, Johns Hopkins, etc.) may be willing to consider your application despite your low scores. But, for any program, I think that you will need to make up for you low GRE scores with excellent letters of recommendation, a high quality personal letter that demonstrates good fit, and a writing sample that showcases a high command of the English language and strong analytical capabilities.

Congratulations to everyone on their early acceptances! Also, to those waitlisted, chances are reasonably good that you will get some action at some point--especially if you show your keen interest in their program over the coming weeks (in appropriate intervals, of course)--this is not the time to be coy in that regard, assuming the program is one you strongly desire to be apart of.

Nearly all will contact you via email--many of them before the admissions servers are updated. I do recommend that you periodically check your trash/junk folder, though, as there was one occasion for me where admission correspondence was filtered to the trash!