MsOptimism

I agree with the above posters re: the MA or PhD question, and for many of the same reasons. I'll add a personal anecdote, which is that I applied to both MAs and PhDs for Fall 2007 and ended up turning down a good PhD offer to go for an MPP instead, with the thought that I'd hone my research interests more and re-apply if/when I was more confident that the PhD was right for me. Now that I AM confident about it, I'm being rejected everywhere (likely even the school that accepted me two years ago!!). For one, it was hard to form as personal a connection with my grad school professors as in undergrad, so my letters weren't as strong, and the professionally-oriented programs just don't give you the same research opportunities with profs. Also, I can't help but wonder if schools now question my dedication to the academic profession seeing as I have more of a policy/professional background now than when I applied 3 years ago. Anyway, just some lessons learned that I hope can help others who are making the PhD/MA choice...

<br /><br /><br /> Then I'd like my rejection to come in the form of a howler.

Congrats, everyone! So, did we figure out what's going on with UCLA? Does it seem that they've released all their acceptances by now?

Hello all, Just discovered this forum a few days ago (wish I had known about it back in the fall!) and wanted to say thanks for the helpful updates and insider info. And congrats to all the acceptanes so far! I applied to ten (incredibly difficult) schools, and have only had rejections/likely rejections so far. So I might need to commiserate with others at the end of this process. But I'll keep the hope alive for now. Good luck to all! So far... Rejected: Stanford, UCSD, Yale, and sounds like Princeton and Berkeley Waiting on: MIT, Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, Georgetown