SBL

Yeah, I'd like to mix them, but I don't have any formal quant training. I thought this was the point of the first two years in a program - to train you in the methods you require to pursue your research interests fully. If I'm expected to have it all before I get there that will be problematic. If the the point of a program isn't to train you but just to have you publish a dissertation at the end, I might as well do a phd in my country and be done in three years (I was offered a fully funded one at my last institution but turned it down as I wanted a program that would actually train me and not just facilitate dissertation writing).

Thanks very much. The main problem with my letters of rec are that I had to have one from my employer (which is in an IR field, but not academic). The ones from my professors however (my undergrad thesis advisor and my master's thesis advisor) would have been very good. In fact, I used the same 3 individuals whose recommendations made me a finalist for a major national scholarship that would have paid for some of my phd. My writing sample was a selection from my master's thesis, the highest scoring piece of work I've ever written. That said, it was a historical piece and didn't demonstrate extensive knowledge of formal poli sci methods etc (was very qualitative). It was however all original research and the subject matter had not been written on previously, so I thought that would be a good illustration of my research abilities. Maybe I should go in with a critical piece next time, one that furthers a subject that has been written on? Maybe landing an RA position would be a better boost, I really don't know.

Hey all, Was hoping to get your ever so useful advice on something. I know this probably belongs in the GRE forum but I wanted to get the specific perspective of poli sci applicants and it will get a much better hit rate here. As you can no doubt deduce from my signature, I will be applying for programs again next year. But given limited resources and time pressures, I will probably need to be selective as to where I direct efforts to improve my application. I'm wondering if I should retake the GRE or instead direct my energies elsewhere. My scores are V620 (89%), Q760 (85%), AQ6.0 (98%) The verbal score is pretty low compared to a lot I see here, and certainly below the averages of your HPS-type schools. But according to places like Berkeley, I am well within range (their average is 80%+ in each section). Do you think any benefits from improving my verbal will be negligible or could putting up the higher score be a determining factor that gets me past the first cut? Thanks for any input.

I think they meet on Friday?

When I visited MIT in October, everyone there (professors and students alike) mentioned the stipends were for 9 months. I asked specifically what students do over the summer, and they said some land RAs (either there or at other institutions) and a lot of the international students go home. Interesting if they have offered summer funding to someone.

Sorry, I meant international students coming from international schools - i.e. places that adcomms will have never heard of no matter how good they may be in their respective countries.

Doesn't bode well for us international students then, unless we went to Oxbridge!

To be fair, what it potentially changes (at least in my case) is the decision as to whether to reapply next year. I thought I had pretty competitive stats for some of the places I applied to. But given my likely universal lack of success, any information others can provide will prove a useful gauge through which to measure my competitiveness. This could well help me decide whether the huge investment of time (a 6 month process for me from start to finish this time around), effort (a full-time job in itself outside of my actual full-time job) and money ($3,000 this year) is a worthy investment or merely the visible collateral damage of an ill-pursued pipe dream.

another UCLA accept just went up on the results page

Congrats all, it's a huge achievement. Got my fingers crossed for Oxon who I know really wanted it.

Thanks v. much! Looks like it'll be moving to the official rejection pile for me then. Also, on Columbia, I think they already sent out waitlists too? So even if the decision time line is mid-March, they will have to let in the current waitlistees before they even consider going back into the applicant pool

yeah... they haven't sent out rejections yet.

anyone claiming the UPenn waitlists that just went up? was it a mass email or from professors etc?

Looking at the results page, it looks like the UCLA acceptances are being sent out by individual professors, so it might be a case that some responsible for sending them out are not working today.

App fees alone have paid for tuition and stipend for one of those acceptances for their first year...

Shouldn't have any problem landing DoD or intel if your research is on something relevant to them. - i.e. strong country expertise or terrorism analysis etc. There is a prof there, Jerger-something (sorry bad with names) who has done quite a bit on terrorism. Should speak with him and see what the government prospects are like.

Looks like I'm going 0 for 11, and Columbia was one of the better fits Really don't know where it could have gone so wrong. Congrats to all those that made it.

I just got an email rejection from Berkeley. I'm heartbroken

Did she mention at all when they might be notifying people whether they were rejected or waitlisted? If the decisions have been made, what are they waiting on?

Did they refund applicants' application fees? Seems a bit unfair to charge if there is zero chance of being admitted.

It's a simple case of being courteous about privacy really. My email is my full name, and I know I'd rather have say over who knows where I was accepted or rejected...

My friend called them up last week. Apparently they said they have sent out all their acceptances and are operating and unofficial waitlist, but that they are rarely turned down beyond their anticipated yield rate. So unfortunately it doesn't look likely any more admissions are coming On a side note, anyone claiming the Berkeley waitlist that went up on the results page? Any details on subfield etc pls?

Thanks for this, though I should clarify for everyone (I wasn't very clear) that my undergraduate degree was not in IR either, just I took some IR/politics courses as part of it. My degree was an interdisciplinary social sciences degree.

Awesome

This is very interesting. Can we extrapolate on this and assume that not having a poli sci undergrad degree is a huge hindrance then? It might go some way to explain my (lack of) success so far. I have a non-poli sci undergrad degree so therefore no relevant thesis, though I did do a number of American politics courses (I'm foreign and studied at a foreign college so these fell under IR for me ). I do have an IR-related master's degree as well though... so I don't know.