interista

Just got an admit to Toronto; they may have a few more to send out.

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=%28politics|government|political%29+berkeley&t=a&pp=25 I count 5 acceptances from Berkeley, though only one in comparative

I was accepted to UVA at 1:03 am last Tuesday...

In at UVA and Berkeley, rejected at Michigan and Stanford Email telling me a decision had been made...logged on to application website...notification of acceptance with attached PDF from dean of the graduate division No. I'm guessing Berkeley gives full funding to all admits, but you never know with the whole budget situation in California

Theory

In at UC Berkeley

Email from the department. Called them today to confirm; they said they made three nominations to the Jefferson Scholars fellowship and I was one of them. I don't know when the remainder of the offers will be sent out. I think they just gave us early notice since they're putting us up in Charlottesville in a few weeks (we apparently have to give a presentation in front of a panel, after which they'll select the recipients of the scholarship).

Same here. Got into a solid program two years ago, turned it down because I wasn't sure if I wanted to do political science. Just got word as of 1:11 am that I'm in at UVa for political theory (I do the whole analytic liberal-democratic thing, so I'm pretty stoked...UVa is a great fit). I think they're gradually notifying admits; someone got in last week, and I think they'll be sending out more letters throughout the next several weeks.

does this happen to be an invitation from an uber-sketchy German publishing house? just checking (i got spammed by them a week ago)

Verbal score is very good; quant is probably too low to get into NW. I'd study up on the math and retake. Theory is competitive enough that a bad quantitative score could ruin your application (I do envy your grades)...definitely worth spending the extra $160 if you're planning on investing thousands in opportunity costs to attend a PhD program.

Definitely retake the GRE. I got a 1510 and didn't get funding at GTown (got rejected at WashU too). My grades weren't as good as yours but I had a strong app otherwise. I've heard that theory programs do take into account quant scores (as a supposed metric of analytic aptitude). Study up on the math and you'll be good to go.

Just my opinion. Top 5 vs Top 10, Top 10 vs Top 15: go to the higher ranked school Top 15 vs Top 20: toss-up Top 20 vs Top 25 on down: go to the better fit

http://www.calpoly.edu/~mmoore02/APSA%20Paper%20Conference%20Final%20%28D1%29.pdf go to page 13

Correction to earlier post: Just attended the open house on Friday, and they don't give any funding to non-fellowship students. How anyone could attend without funding is beyond me.

I wouldn't worry too much about the rest of the department; you'll be doing the vast majority of your graduate study within your subfield. On a different note, larger theory sections are generally better places to study theory. Which two schools are you considering? I think I have a decent gauge of the relative strength of theory programs - feel free to PM me. (edited for spelling)

This sounds exactly like the situation at Georgetown

Theory Don't think GTown gives stipends to MA students, but I think I heard on this forum that they cover tuition?

They rejected a few at 2:59 am EST last Friday, then some more at 2:59 am EST on Saturday (including me). Maybe they're rejecting as they accepted (by subfield).

Also - don't know how I forgot to mention this - one of my friends from undergrad is in his first year in IR at Cornell, and he was an East Asian Studies major as an undergrad. He also got into CIR and didn't think twice about turning down CIR for Cornell (incidentally, another one of my undergrad classmates was just accepted to Georgetown for IR).

I highly doubt that CIR will land you a much better offer next year than Georgetown and Cornell. Those are both top-20 programs in IR. If you excel at GTown or Cornell, you'll get solid placement, and you won't have to pay for a 2-year MA which, in all seriousness, exists for the purpose of funding PhD students (do they even place students at top PhD programs?). I got accepted to Chicago's MAPSS last year, as well as a mid-level PT program and declined both rather than use the MAPSS to boost my app for this year (where am I going to come up with $45,000?) I just got accepted to a much stronger PT program this week. Of course, this all depends on your own financial situation. But I don't see anything wrong with taking an offer from a 10-20 ranked program. Most applicants would love to be in your situation, choosing between GTown and Cornell. The competition for spots at PhD programs is unreal - I'd love to go back in time and change my GPA to a 3.9, but even then, I'm not sure if that would guarantee admittance to Harvard or Princeton. BTW, congrats on funding from GTown; they're real stingy with the cash down there (I'm waitlisted for funding in PT).

I was wait-listed for funding and invited to an open house with 23 other admitted students. I graduated last year and I saw my classmate's name on the email list, but I didn't ask him if he received funding. My guess is that 6-8 of the students have been offered funding (this is the number they cited on the website), and the rest of the admitted applicants have been wait-listed for funding, like myself. But there is a good chance that most, if not all, of those offered funding will turn down Georgetown in favor of Harvard, Princeton, etc (since they are the top 6-8 of 500-600 applicants). Then GTown will turn to the wait-list and offer funding until all funded spots have been filled. Then they'll admit everyone else based on how many of the initially accepted applicants choose to attend. There is a slim chance that GTown will fund those in the "second wave" if less than 6 of the 24 admitted thus far choose to attend. The IR applicant from my school might be the smartest kid I knew as an undergrad (I went to a top-10 LAC), so I wouldn't be surprised if he declines the offer in favor of a "top-5" IR program.

Georgetown has accepted at least one student in IR (I went to undergrad with him). My guess is that they have sent out acceptances to those whom they believe have a chance at funding, and they will admit the rest once they get an idea of how many applicants from the initial pool intend to commit. I'm saying this because I received an email inviting 24 admits to an open house, but GTown's admissions statistics show 92 admits from last year, only 19 of which were accepted, and only 8 of which were funded. Last year, 276 applied in IR and 27 were admitted. 2 accepted with funding (Yes, that is less than 1% of applicants). http://government.georgetown.edu/57323.html

Last year, only 19 enrolled out of the 92 admitted. That makes sense, since most of the students with funded offers turn down GTown in favor of higher-ranked places, and those who don't have funded offers at GTown turn it down in favor of funded offers elsewhere. Here are the admissions statistics from last year. Looks like IR is most competitive (by far), while American accepted almost 40%(!) Theory.

Here's what appears to be going on at Georgetown. I received an email sent to 24 students inviting us to a prospective students day on March 26. However, the department accepted 92 students last year. So I'm guessing that means they still have to accept another 70-odd students! The catch is that they're only likely to fund those who have received news so far (they funded 8 PhD candidates last year).

E-mail from the department; it says that I'll be receiving an official notice from the Dean of the Graduate School shortly. I had already given up hope (0 for everywhere so far), so this is pretty sweet news. Now about that funding....