ultraultra

Claiming a Harvard admit

losing my mind trying to figure out what to pack for the NU visit

any other international applicants eyeing the GOP primaries with trepidation as they plan their move to the US

I'll be there! I'll be the one with no small talk skills, looking awkward at the wine & cheese event...

Oh re: this general discussion. I'm 23. My trajectory was high school --> gap year --> BA --> applying during MA. In general I think it's better for people to work a bit after their BA or MA before applying for PhD programs. But during my BA, in addition to getting research experience, I was involved in a lot of "real world" things including campaigns, alternative journalism, nonprofits, and community organizing (as well as service and administrative jobs). So I had a pretty good sense of what my life and career options would have been outside of academia, and it made me very sure about pursuing a PhD (especially the juxtaposition of my non-academic research projects with my academic research projects).

I have my response drafted! Just waiting to hear back from one last school before I post!

Since a lot of people seem to be waiting on their last school and may disappear after those decisions drop, I thought it might be a good time to post the annual results thread! I found the previous threads extremely useful while putting my apps together and setting my expectations, and have poured over them dozens of times. So if your cycle is over, please consider posting your profile and results (with as much detail as you feel comfortable sharing), to help future applicants going into this messy and stressful process! The previous threads are here: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2010 The template, from previous years, is as follows: PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Major(s)/Minor(s): Undergrad GPA: Type of Grad: Grad GPA: GRE: Any Special Courses: Letters of Recommendation: Research Experience: Teaching Experience: Subfield/Research Interests: Other: RESULTS: Acceptances($$ or no $$): Waitlists: Rejections: Pending: Going to: LESSONS LEARNED: SOP:

Woah you've had quite a successful cycle (based on your signature). Congrats!! What are your research interests?

My condolences. There's always next cycle!

Usually it's come up in one of two ways: either they've asked (during the call) where else I've been accepted and I've told them the schools and which ones I'm considering the most strongly, at which point they've volunteered advice, OR I've said something along the lines of 'I'm considering your school and x school most strongly, one perceived advantage of their school is that they have y resource, do you have anything like that and/or do you think that's something worth considering?' and then we end up having a good chat about that particular resource that evolved into a discussion about the relative benefits of each program. Also some have just straight up offered to give me advice on various schools, during our e-mail exchange preceding the Skype call. Obviously you should be careful about how you discuss it but I don't think you need to be coy about it either... faculty know that students apply widely and have many offers.

I haven't been to any recruitment weekends yet, but I've been skyping with faculty from basically every institution I've been admitted to (as well as chatting on the phone with grad students). What I have found - unexpectedly - is that potential advisors have been very willing to be frank with me about the shortfalls of their program. And in fact, POIs at several institutions have told me flat out that they'd love to advise me but think that I should go to x school for placement reasons. I have had one or two people give me the 'hard sell' method, but its very transparent (and at the end of the day reflected pretty badly on them - I wouldn't want an advisor who wasn't up front with me). So I just want to emphasize @CarefreeWritingsontheWall's point that you can get a realistic picture just by asking and using rudimentary critical thinking skills. And you don't necessarily need to wait to the admit weekend to start that process.

If there's even a small chance you'd go there, I'd say tell them they're still on your list. They're not asking for a signed contract or anything, they just want to know if its a waste of their time to pursue you (and if you still think there's a chance you'll go there, depending on what they throw at you, then it's not a waste of their time). If its a funding thing you could even say you'd need them to match a certain offer before you'll consider going.

It's really awful that that's happened to you, especially at a top program. I can't imagine that creates a positive environment among graduate students... If I were in that situation I would ask to be put on a waitlist for funding (as someone suggested) or at least ask what it would take to be on one (higher test scores, etc). After that I would (after doing whatever necessary for self-care - bath, wine, netflix, w/e) start looking for research-oriented jobs to pursue over the next year in an attempt to boost my profile for the next cycle. Graduate school is stressful enough without spending the entire time worrying about where your rent money is coming from + graduating in massive debt in a volatile job market is very unwise... I don't think its worth it to plunge ahead instead of taking a year to rebuild and try again.

Hi POLIS - ditto @Determinedandnervous. When I was applying to MA programs in Canada last year, I was able to get extensions from basically every school. If they've offered you such a competitive funding package, they definitely really want you there, and I'm sure they'd oblige. Just call the graduate administrator.

With those schools you can't really go wrong, and so you should definitely visit and see how you feel. If I were you though, and they all stacked up similarly, I would default to Princeton as HPS are in their own league in terms of placement and prestige.

I got the same e-mail! I also found it odd, did not interview, and was in American politics. I assumed it was written that way to screen out people like me (I think Vanderbilt is a great program but am not really considering it now, given my other choices) before spending time/money/etc trying to convince us. As much as I would have loved to visit and/or meet my POIs there, I let them know they should focus their resources elsewhere... hopefully this helps another prospective student! I really want to but it unfortunately overlaps with the Michigan visit.

Just got a UPenn e-mail as well!

^ thanks for clarifying!

Has anyone else lost the motivation to do their remaining school work? Oh also, maybe this is common knowledge but I was talking to a Michigan grad student today who said they host a one month "math camp" in August for first-year PhD students to boost their skills before the quant sequence starts. And then I mentioned it to my advisor, who said this is common at US schools. Just thought I would mention it here so that people know to ask their schools about that and potentially plan for it!

So many UCSD POI emails

Congratulations and good luck with your remaining schools. This is the political science forum, you might have more luck finding people who applied to those programs in a different forum: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/26-the-menu/.

Congrats on your acceptances! You might want to check out the architecture forum, which is here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/60-architecture-and-planning/. We're all political science applicants in this thread/forum, so the schools are working on different timelines!

congrats!

there is no terminal MA at Stanford

This is probably something you should talk to your advisors about - if they know you, your outlook on research, and your interests, they should be able to tell you where you have good "fit". In my opinion, fit is, at its most basic, a factor of the number about the number of people who could feasibly be on your committee. Faculty leave, research agendas change, and so on, so you can't apply to places where there are only 1 or 2 people studying your topic of interest. I basically only applied to schools there there were 3 or more people studying my substantive interests, and then at least 5 people using experimental methods. A part of it is pitching yourself too - you need to describe your interests in a way that shows they have the right scope/breadth.