tomorrows verse

I remember someone on here said that Brandeis could be out in early March. Let's hope it's this week. Good luck to all of those still waiting on decisions. Keep your fingers crossed for a Brandeis admit for me!

Just got my Cornell rejection. Once I hear from Brandeis and JHU, this process will finally be over!!

What do you folks think of UMass-Amherst? I was accepted there about a week ago, and it's looking more and more likely that I'll end up back in Western Mass (I'm from Western Mass originally). I know it's certainly not a top program, but I'm just looking to see what people think. I'm an Americanist and my research interests are APD, the Presidency, and elections. There seems to be a lot of young and active professors there doing very similar research and I think it would be a great fit, I'm just nervous about its low ranking.

Has anyone not heard anything from Cornell--I haven't heard anything from our pal Tina yet? I'm quite sure I will be rejected based on my earlier results from similarly competitive programs...I figure they will probably finish up the rejections on Monday though, thus delaying the inevitable.

My guess is that we hear from Cornell next week. Tina Slater has been quite specific in her emails noting that decisions will be made and sent out in early March. Someone on here also mentioned that during a recent call or email, she specifically said that no decisions had been made yet. Take it FWIW. What about Brandeis? Any news from them?

Not sure how active he still is, but Martin Shefter at Cornell has done some interesting work on urban politics, and Michael Jones-Correa does REP work and urban politics to a certain extent.

I've been getting calls and emails from several profs from one school so far, and I'm confused as to what questions I should ask as well. I was very thrown off by one phone call (the school is in the same area code as my hometown, so I answered it thinking it could be anyone--was a bit thrown off that it was a professor and I was on my way to work), so I hope I didn't sound uninterested. I was just thinking about asking what types of projects they are working on now and what current dissertators are doing, as well as TA vs RA positions (availability of each). I want to ask about recent placements, but I'm not sure if that is a question for a prof in my subfield or more of a question for the dept. chair or DGS--what do you folks think?

Not in terms of job availability, since American tends to have the most job openings, but in terms of prospective grad students? One of my profs was saying that while she was working on her PhD, most of the folks she knew at the time were in American, but from the looks of this site (and a lot of the grad student lists on some dept. websites), it seems as though comparative and IR are really gaining in popularity. Do you think this could be a result of globalization--as more future scholars realize what else is happening in the world, the more they want to study it? Just some food for thought while we keep waiting...

Not sure about your chances, but your birthday is the day before mine! Good luck with the rest of your apps. I'm still crossing my fingers for Cornell or Brandeis...

I was also accepted at UMass yesterday. American subfield

I grew up and lived in Western Mass most of my life, so at least if I go to UMass, I'll be going back home.

My only acceptance is from UMass-Amherst. When I say a "job" I mean a TT position. The professors in my dept seem to think that if you get a PhD from a middle of the road institution (such as UMass), your best chances of landing a job will be in the region where that school is. I'm not sure how valid that assumption is, but that's what a lot of my profs have said. If UMass is my only offer, then I will certainly go (especially since I was offered funding), but I'm certainly nervous that I will have a tough time finding a job when I (hopefully) finish up in 5-6 years. It also helps that I'm an Americanist, and Intro to American is on the menu basically everywhere, but it still won't be easy.

Sounds about right. Most of my profs have said that a PhD from a school outside the top 20 will be hard to transfer into a job...makes my only acceptance less exciting. Oh well.

Anyone claim any of the acceptances from Syracuse? I thought I was a good fit there, although one of the professors I mentioned in my SoP is apparently leaving to teach at American Univ.

The email I got was just a notification, I hadn't inquired at all. Don't lose hope yet, I was assuming across the board rejections until I noticed my UMass email in my inbox today.

I'm glad to have gotten my first acceptance after 4 rejections. I'm in at UMass-Amherst with 14,000 stipend for 20hrs/wk RA or TA position for my first 3 years.

I believe they did refund application fees last year (I remember seeing someone mention it on the results page). I think they also offered some folks who would normally have been accepted to the Ph.D. program a reduced tuition option on their MA program. Hopefully the email to Keller was true, and Brandeis will be accepting (and funding) students for their Ph.D. program for the Fall.

A bit random, but does anyone have any insight into the Politics Dept. at Brandeis? I know last year they did not accept any students for their Ph.D. program (damn you Bernie Madoff!); but have they recovered enough to accept students for the upcoming year? By the looks of the results page, decisions from Brandeis have come at various points throughout Feb. and March in the past...anyone know what the timetable might be this year?

I've been rejected from 4 schools so far (I've got 4 still pending, but based on my first 4 results, things aren't looking good). I'm still in undergrad so I've got a couple months to look for a job. I've been looking for jobs in cities/towns around my hometown and where I currently go to school (mostly municipal jobs). I plan to reapply next fall if I get rejected across the board. If I can't find a meaningful job, I can always go back at substitute teach at my old high school.

Just got a rejection email from Syracuse. 0/4 for me.

I did pretty much the same qazwerty, I'm just telling the OP to do what I wish I had done. Another thing to consider: check out potential professors' websites (if they have one) or email them to find out what type of research they are doing now and also if they are planning to stay at the institution they are currently at. I had very compatible research interests with a professor at Syracuse, sent him an email only to find out that he was leaving for American Univ next fall. Also, just because a professor did work on something once in their career does not necessarily mean they are still pursuing that topic today, so check what their current projects are to find the best fits for you.

Talk to any profs you know already (particularly if they are within the subfield you want to study), tell them your research interests and ask if they know anyone who works on similar topics. I think one of the most useful things to do is just look up journal articles and books about topics you like, glance over them (unless you have incredible amounts of free time and can read all of them) and make note of some professors who are writing about things you want to write about and find out where they are. I (and most of the folks on here) cannot stress enough the importance of applying to top ranked schools, both overall and within your subfield. Look at placements--not just the placements listed on the website, email the department and ask if you can have a detailed list of placements from the past few years. I'll probably be doing this all over again next fall (I'm 0/3 so far, and not very optimistic about my chances at the rest), and I wish I had some of the advice from this site before I applied last fall. There are a lot of helpful folks around here, and I'm grateful for all of them.

I guess the Penn mass email means I'm 0/3. This is getting depressing.

Congrats Jolly! Was your acceptance email from a prof who had been in contact with or a formal email from the department? I still haven't heard anything from Penn.

Anyone claiming the Penn decisions?