abed

Department website lists two Graduate advisors, one of whom "Coordinates graduate admission" among other things. Contact info here: http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/graduate/advisors. Good luck!

In the same place. It looks like in previous years, some PhD applicants who didn't make it were considered for Chicago's MA Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS), so perhaps that could explain the delay?

So I'm still waiting to hear back from a program that sent out its acceptances three weeks ago and rejections last week, but I still haven't heard anything. I'm guessing it's some kind of informal waitlist? But I was wondering if anyone had advice on whether it would be appropriate to contact the department administrator to ask about the status of my application. Thanks y'all!

No worries, I'll be the one showing up awkwardly late on the second day!

Anyone planning on attending the Northwestern visit weekend? Excited to meet you if so! And congrats to McGill admits!

Ditto. Got an email from the Department last week, nothing since then. Nothing shows up on the application portal either.

Yes, these are all excellent points! I didn't mean to say that activism/organizing experience should be centralized in the statement; I got some similar advice from my advisors as well, and I think it makes sense. Ultimately I did decide to include it towards the end in the statements that had longer word/page limits, since it forms so much of the latter half of my resume that I figured I could use the opportunity to explain why I thought my organizing background prepared me well for doctoral work in addition to my research experience. If I remember correctly, the paragraph went in 3 out of my 12 statements, and in longer form in 3 diversity/personal history statements. I kept it short, and focused on how my background would make me a better researcher and how it shaped my research agenda, rather than suggesting that research would take a backseat to organizing in my future career plans. Here's an (edited) example of what I wrote: "My co-curricular experiences engaging in community organizing have prepared me for doctoral work as well, encouraging XXXXX. For example, while organizing for XXXX in XXXX at XXXX, my role as a leader focused on XXXXXX. The task of XXXXX drove me to seek a more nuanced understanding of how XXXXX. This background XXXXX drives my intention to connect my scholarship with XXXXX. It has also facilitated my ability as a teaching assistant to XXXXXX." And ditto on the indiosyncracy of the admissions process. In retrospect, I don't regret including this background (in this way) in my application, but I don't think I would have lost that much if I had dropped it.

Congrats to BU and Howard admits!

Could I ask how you went about doing this? As I saw your post I realized how good of an idea it would be, but I'm wondering if it makes sense to just cold-email grad students who have similar interests to mine, or if there's a more specific protocol for reaching out? Thank you!

Thanks so much! I'm thrilled and honestly very surprised!

Just double checked my email, and it actually just says soon (guess I just projected "a couple of days"). So, ditto @PizzaCat93, hang in there and we'll all find out soon!

Claiming a Princeton admit. I was that first post; sorry for causing any confusion! Received mine at around 3:30pm EST, standard email from graduate studies director (not POI) stating that official acceptance letters will be sent out in the next couple of days. Congrats to other admits, and best of luck to everyone still waiting!

I posted on the Decisions forum asking for advice on what kinds of questions to ask professors and current grad students and got some useful advice there; linking here in case you find this useful as well!

Ditto on making sure that you get good reference letters. What I've learned from the process is that (generally) the more express your passion for grad school to your recommenders, they more excited they get about writing LORs. As someone who also has some organizing background, I also learned that it's important to frame this as best you can in your application. Some schools will ask for a Diversity statement or a Personal History statement, which makes this easy. For other schools, your statement of purpose is your only chance to frame yourself as an applicant. Try to show how your organizing and non-profit experiences are directly relevant to your research, not just in that they emerge from the same interests and passions, but also in that they prepare you in interesting and compelling ways for your work in a PhD program. Everyone has different ways to do this, but if it helps, what I did was start with my agenda and then show how my experiences were relevant and compelling (so research interests + why school X is a good fit, then how my academic experience is relevant, then how my organizing experience is relevant). Similarly, I would also recommend organizing your resume to reflect your priorities, if you haven't already -- I categorized mine as "Academic & Research Experience", "Other Relevant Work Experience", and "Leadership & Organizing". I found that this helped me demonstrate how my organizing background was relevant to my research agenda.

Best of luck, @s1994!

That makes sense, I was just looking at past results from Chicago and counting it as a rejection (or at best a wait list) seems like the most probable option. Many of the rejected students from previous years seem to have been accepted to the MAPSS program or CIR MA program at the University with varying degrees of financial aid, so perhaps the delayed response for rejections has to do with secondary consideration for those Masters programs.

Ditto, in the same boat and wondering the same thing.

Right there with you. Rejection, got an email to check the admissions portal.

Thanks so much, @rising_star! This is all really really helpful.

Hey everyone! I know it's still early in the admit season, but this is something I've been wondering about nonstop the past couple of days. After so much time competing to get into schools, the role reversal is catching me a little off guard. With visiting weekends coming up and opportunities to talk to professors and grad students on the phone, I'm wondering: what are good questions to be asking them? For current/recent grad students: what questions did you ask that were helpful? What do you wish that you had asked? Would also love to hear from other applicants, and of course professors if you're on here! For context, I'm applying to Political Science PhD programs. Only heard back from one school so far, and I certainly don't want to be overconfident, but their visiting weekend is super early so I'm hoping to think through this early as well. Also hopefully this will be helpful to others who are picking between schools!

No idea, actually. Sorry I can't be more helpful!

Re: Northwestern acceptances -- I heard from my POI, but it seems like that's just because my POI wanted to reach out first. Was told that official acceptances from grad admissions would go out by the end of next week.

I applied! One year out of undergrad, 3.87 GPA, and 169/160/5.0 GRE. Best of luck! What subfield are you hoping to go into?

Thanks! I went with the shorter one.

I'm wrapping up my last few applications, and am struggling to pick a writing sample for one of them. The application portal asks for a writing sample of "no more than 25 pages" (no specifications given on the department website), but doesn't specify if they mean single or double spaced? I have two writing samples, a shorter one and a longer one, that are 20 and 40 pages double-spaced respectively. I think the longer one is better, so I'm wondering if submitting the longer one single spaced would make sense, or if that would just seem like a flagrant violation of the guidelines? Sorry if this is a dumb question! And thank you so much for your help. I've really appreciated the support and guidance of this forum. Good luck to everyone else wrapping up Dec 15 apps as well!