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I felt this same way. Duke's open house really blew me away. The environment is just top notch and the quality of the student very high. They've also got great profs and staff. They have clearly invested a lot of thought and resources in the program over the years. It's evident in how they've stacked hires and blended disciplines along with applied practice. The other thing that really stood out to me was the sense of community that Sanford exudes. It has a very active, very community-oriented student body doing some incredible work in the Durham area. Durham and the whole Research Triangle are wonderful, too. Great food, affordable living, super friendly people, and nice, moderate weather. What's not to love?!

I made the same choice as you guys, largely based on Harris' past performance when it comes to: job and PHD placement, reputation among 20-30 high-level policy practitioners/politicals/SESers, et al, I queried across 5-6 agencies from Justice to CIA to Treasury to NIH respect the degree garners in the private sector (Google's gov arm, Deloitte, and even some finance bros I talked to had positive feedback specifically about Harris) quality of in-house and affiliated poli sci/econ faculty (who actually teach courses @ Harris IRL/whose courses you can actually cross-register for) the rigor and range of their courses (within Harris and, again, affiliated departments like their poli program) the resources at the school's and uni's disposal; and not just today, but over the long-run as the higher ed landscape (maybe/hopefully?) continues to change shape under cost/public revenue pressure In doing so, I've gotten a much better sense not just of where Harris was in the past, but where it will be in the next 1-2 (but also 5, 10 and even 15 years from now since this is a credential and network I'll carry with me for as long as I am working). Here is the scoop, put best by Harris' very, very interesting(those top 5 econ pubs, tho) new dean, Daniel Diermeier: So, here's what's developed since Diermeier was named dean about a year ago today 1) aforementioned announcement of rehab/move via $35mm gift; new HQ=modernist "New Grad" building (designed by architect of MOMA & Kennedy Center): 2) New hires(thus far): Diermeier himself http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-economist-konstantin-sonin-leaving-russia-2015-5(Harris) http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2015/02/03/james-robinson-appointed-university-professor-chicago-harris(Harris) http://pages.wustl.edu/patty(PS) http://pages.wustl.edu/penn(PS) Formal theory, much? Now if they also somehow land Acemoglu and/or Egorov over the next 12-24 months... 3) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-u-of-c-urban-labs-met-20150309-story.html 4) http://hpherald.com/2015/05/19/obama-library-coming-to-south-side-but-exact-location-remains-to-be-determined/ I am not going to rehash all of the above for CMU, Duke, Goldman, and Ford (schools I seriously considered/researched), but this is all to say I think Harris (an already great school, w/close proximity to top-4 business and law programs]) is only going to grow in stature, especially as they build out their labs and MSCAPP (and related joint CI efforts) program under the tutelage of so many renowned modelers. THAT SAID, with all this change there has obviously come some flux in "wrap-around services" for very recent grads and general administrative support as alluded to by some other posters who suffered the brunt of the structural/programmatic flux. But these are easy things to fix, mostly just take time for organizational adaptation, and will improve as new staff settle in. All in all, I think it's a diamond in the rough (if being on par w/HKS, WWS & GSPP is "in the rough") that is already realizing some very exciting, positive changes under a new and pretty exciting dean. For me, a chance to get in on capacity/organization building in the realms of research and academia at an institutional level is actually a huge upside. I thrive in those kinds of environments, and there are not a lot of top-5 MPP programs at which there will be so many near-run chances to, say, help build out an applied poverty lab, or work on setting up joint efforts between the Obama Foundation/Center and UChicago researchers. I don't think, though, that I'd recommend such an environment for someone looking for more of a canned or tracked environment, at least not for one to two years (which is totally fine, and I do not mean in a judgmental way- my wife, who is a far more accomplished badass than I could ever hope to be really does better with more structure). Anyway, my $.02 that I just didn't have time to share earlier in the cycle. I will check back in after I matriculate and see how my analysis marks to market!

Hey! Since I'm obviously getting the GSPP ding, they should unreject me/take me off the wait list for calling this in advance! Congrats to all who got in. To all who did not (almost certainly including myself), you have (and will always have) amazing opportunities ahead of you by virtue of the fact that you care enough in the first place to obsess over which school will best allow you to make change in this world. GO FORTH AND KICK ASS!

God bless you. Me RN, IRL, while I phone in some distracted memos all signed with "dictated, not read"

Here's to holding out hope, but I am also not feeling so hot on my chances at the moment, having yet to receive the infamous "YES!" email.... Having already psychologically written Berkeley off due to their completely screwy notification process, I am left to begin a tough choice between Duke, Carnegie Mellon and Chicago. Time to start building my decision matrix! To everyone who got in to The Woo, a well deserved congrats!

Rejected. Good luck to all who applied!

Yes, perhaps every single one of us on here who hasn't heard back yet has gotten in. In which case premature congratulations are in order! We did it (maybe?), you guys!

I only looked back two years or so, but in each year prior acceptances and rejections were issued and reported on here simultaneously. I think it would be anomalous to the point of probabilisticly improbable that this year alone would reflect a 100% acceptance bias.

I agree, but the release order is not a function of an antiquated system's limited technological capability. That there have been no rejections issued is a new development as compared to previous cycles (and something no other school--at least in the top 10--has done). That is an administrative choice or perhaps, as I posited earlier, a business decision made with an eye towards yield. Either way, though, I think it is a cruel deviation from the norm of notifying all applicants at once or rejections first such that they're not strung along on pins and needles.

I agree that each school has the right to notify applicants when and how they choose. In a normative sense, though, it is disheartening that they would sequence things this way (accepted->rejected) knowing that it affects 700 people or so and their families. I feel particularly sorry for international students who have no idea where in the world they will wind up. If you've got to kill someone's hopes and dreams, at least do it softly!

Yeah, that's a game of telephone, though. We have no idea from which program they were rejected (PHD? MPP? a dual degree program?), when, how, why, or what their letter said (if they really even got one in the first place). I'd say it's extremely unlikely that a friend of a friend posting on here would be the only evidence of rejections thus far if indeed they have gone out. Look at all the previous years!

You should consider Chicago- it's empathy optional (at least compared to Berkeley)

I saw a single Goldman school rejection for a *PHD* in public policy, but I didn't see a single MA rejection (unlike during every previous year at this same time in the cycle). Maybe I just missed it my query coverage (e.g. GSPP, Goldman, Berkeley, etc.). Mind posting a screenshot? I'm curious when (date+time) the poster was rejected and/or posted as much!

Congrats! Mind sharing time and date of email? Funding? No funding?

I do not think this is the case only because there have been NO rejections (meaning there is a clear pattern here, and I can't think why a mistake would lead to them delaying ALL rejections until the end). I think they just switched their order, possibly as part of some kind of operations experiment or yield result A/B test vis-a-vis previous cycles during which rejections went out first instead of last.