Sartori

Mine still just says Submitted Edit: oh, for Minnesota. I thought you meant Columbia.

DoS attack from a disgruntled applicant, no doubt. Got fed up of seeing his top schools go green.

Place your bets on who will report in this week

It's their job

Ask her wth she means!

No from Berkeley, no from Stanford. This is not a pleasant way to plan the next six years of your life. But! No need to take anything personally, luck is a huge part of life, and there are many, many exciting things to do in life for folk who like politics. We should all be proud of ourselves for just putting up with this Let alone the effort and care we've put into our applications, and academic lives...

Be absolute for death: thereby either life or death shall be the sweeter... Am I right in thinking you're the nuclear physics currently at Harvard guy?

Grad admin person says she expects all Stanford notifications by the end of tomorrow at the latest. Congrats to all admits so far, let's hope tonight is luck for a few more folk

Well this raises my blood pressure considerably. What's your background?

I'm English, and over here it's "politics", not polly-s'eye -- since it includes political philosophy, political history, and sociological theory (operationalized and otherwise). None of this scientistic discipline envy. I blame William Riker. Methodological pluralism FTW. But it's not the '70s anymore. Most departments are pretty catholic these days.

Tea leaves and entrails. At least we're all in the same boat. Do people have Plans B?

Yep, I cover economics for a newspaper in Abu Dhabi. It's interesting. I have a long backstory, academically and professionally speaking, which as BFB says, raises the variance but not the mean...

And what do you do for a living? I'm wondering vaguely how many applicants have jobs. (I'm a financial journalist)

Did they? When? Where?

Now would be an excellent time to get into Serial, if you haven't already

Yes to the Harvard crapshoot (HYPSBCCM). Pairwise comparisons of options are far less stressful, it is the next six years we're talking about here. The blizzard may delay results from Northern unis I'm guessing. I live in the desert so can only imagine.

I want Stanford results later, since it's my top choice, so that either the Monte Carlo fallacy or the Hot Hand fallacy kicks in...

And thank you for all the assistance -- it reduces the stress for many. Sensible. I will do that. For now, it might be time to swap the gradcafe for mindfulness exercises and the sauna.

@testingtesting I wish you luck! It's a messy world out there. @BRB -- I like my application, and my SOP goes into lots of detail about broad and specific areas of interest, plus interesting research questions. But, I didn't conceptualise the process as a marriage market of professors and students, and had never heard of gradcafe, or considered that serious candidates pick possible advisors in advance. I figure -- I'm interested in political leadership, ideology and political communication, so there'll be someone suitable at big faculties. I picked out a few people I'm interested in working with, but not for every application. So: Is not identifying PsOI in my SOP fatal? Should I email some suitable faculty now to express interest/discuss compatability/propose marriage? Your advice on this, as on all matters, greatly appreciated. You should have a syndicated column in student newspapers. I mean that sincerely -- bigger audience!

@testingtesting I'm in the same boat. Depression was practically epidemic at Oxford, but I definitely lived through some pretty horrific stuff. I stated health problems without disclosing fully. Unfortunately stigma persists, and given the super-competitive applicant pool... Well, it's a risk. It is unfair -- I'd rather strong regulations specifying both ex ante and ex post measures to prevent discrimination on grounds of health... But applicants must be content, as Touchstone sez. @slacktivist advice is all sound. One thing -- health insurance! See if you can upgrade your policy/the school will upgrade for better mental health coverage, and check the t&cs for details like co-pays on therapy, included providers. I pay 40% of my salary in medical bills and I earn far more than I hypothetically would in grad school... On Letter-writers, this is unfortunately another stigma issue. I was hesitant about "coming out" to letter writers, because you never know quite how enlightened their views on mental health are. Again, another difficulty.

There are several ways in which the application process seems to be skewed towards students with US qualifications, unfortunately. LOR writers from US institutions are more familiar, US acadenics are better able to contextualise US than international institutional reputation, GRE prep is bizarre for a UK student (it covers stuff I studied age 14), less of a culture of RAing and TAing before PhD in the UK. The semiotics of marks in the 60s in the UK, especially at Oxbridge, could be the subject of an anthropological study. And, of course, we study "Politics", not "Political Science". On the other hand, UK students (but not IB students) must specialise from age 16, and BAs are more focused. School level maths covers some undergraduate US maths. Presumably it is even harder to evaluate students who study outside of the Anglosphere. I'd be interested to hear whether faculty think it's an issue or not, how they contextualise data from international students etc. The differences may be marginal... But the percentages of int'l students -- especially when you exclude Canada -- suggest that there may well be an issue.

It is worth reiterating how important this is. These forums are filled with stress, anxiety, self-doubt, and perfectionism. They also encourage us directly to compare ourselves to others -- never a psychologically healthy thing to do. This is entirely understandable, but reading these forums can add to stress, rather than diminish it. (Although, of course, talking this stuff through helps, and like minded communities are good.) At this point, the above advice is the best advice. Be proud of yourselves. Celebrate your achievements. Remember that decisions are not personal -- they're the product of an imperfect data gathering process, and the best efforts of imperfect people. Rejection isn't failure. In this inevitable and unpleasant waiting period, when the stakes are high, positive psychology is the best thing to do. Also, Facade19, your post made my day. Thanks.