Habermas

With silence from Harvard, I think its safe to presume my cycle is over. A big thank you to everyone on this forum that made this community such a great place for support and info over these past few months. Best of luck to those still waiting on results. Congratulations to everyone, we should be proud of our efforts regardless of the outcomes as this was a crazy ride.

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I'm seeing two from yesterday, both methods.

Huge congrats!!!

Can anyone who applied strictly to the Harvard gov program claim any of the admits in the results page?

Important caveat: I'm not AP so I don't want to name schools based on my perception, but I'll share my logic on how I put together my CP list based on feedback on this topic. I imagine all schools in T25 that aren't boutique or explicitly not focused on AP (rare) could be contenders to climb into ranked subfield spots sometime over the course of the next five years. I just don't think these subfield rankings mean much compared to what you and your recommenders think is best for you when we are talking about the rank differential OP is dealing with. Hope this is helpful despite the lack of specificity!

Have you been admitted or are you asking for next year? If its the former, I would honestly just set up calls with your recommenders and run your options by them. My sense is that rankings mean less the smaller the differential, and things like differences in teaching responsibilities, stipend amount, life stuff will matter more at this stage than any perceived differences in prestige once we're talking within tier (CHYMPS/T15/T25/T50). This is especially true if you are comparing schools lower on the subfield list (Vanderbilt/OSU/WUSTL) and schools that could easily make it on said list next year. If you are comparing a school that is in the first half of the subfield list versus unranked subfield...well thats a different matter and probably worth considering. Just my two cents.

PROFILEType of Undergrad Institution: Private University on East Coast, Top 50Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science and Area Studies, with Minor in Language Undergrad GPA: 3.7Type of Grad: M.A. in Area Studies Grad GPA: 4.00GRE: Q 162/ V 170/ AW 6.0Any Special Courses: Two graduate level stats coursesLetters of Recommendation: 1 Full Prof from Undergrad; 1 Associate Prof from Grad; 1 Assistant Prof from Grad Teaching Experience: N/AOther: 1+ year of graduate RA work; 2 years of Professional Research work; 1 conference presentation; Fluency/Proficiency in two languages relevant to research RESULTS (PHD, Comparative) Accepted: Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins Rejected: Princeton, Yale, Stanford, UT Austin, Cornell, Northwestern, Michigan, Chicago Waitlisted: N/A Pending: Harvard Going to: Still pending Lessons I'm going to focus mainly on issues beyond preparing everything well in advance and getting lots of advice: 1. One point does bear repeating, this cycle was a complete mess. If you are reading this and 2020-2021 didn't work out as planned, I'm sorry, you probably didn't deserve it. I watched real life friends and gradcafe acquaintances that seemed destined for top programs get devastating results. I got headscratching rejections from schools that seemed like perfect matches. This is the worst cycle to try and draw inferences from. 2. Emotionally prepare for the results cycle. I was blindsided by how all-consuming January and February would be. Be intentional about how you are going to structure your time to keep yourself on task with other responsibilities, I guarantee it will take more discipline than riding the adrenaline of preparing and submitting your files. Plan in advance that you simply will not be functioning at 100% or even 50% during this time. Kudos to those who can, but realizing this in advance would have been productive for me. One trick: once you get into a school you could picture yourself attending, assume that you'll land there and start imagining your future accordingly. Once I did this rather than holding out for the remaining lottery tickets, I found more peace. If you did this process right, you should be excited about getting in anywhere. 3. I wish I had contacted more POIs in advance. While many people told me that this was not part of the "culture" of political science applications (as opposed to History and Anthro where it is standard practice), it seems like the vast majority of the people on this forum did this and I assume it didn't hurt. Perhaps more importantly, it may have helped me manage my expectations better about schools I later found out weren't taking anyone in my sub-subfield. 4. Doing a Master's is more helpful than many people may lead you believe. Not because of the M.A. itself, but because of how much more "mature" your ideas will be when you sit down to produce a writing sample and SOP. Area studies M.A.s are typically funded much more generously than policy degrees, and are a particularly good option for comparativists if you can use your electives to build some quant chops. 5. Fit is important but...you likely do not yet have a full grasp on what every scholar in your field is currently doing or where their research is going. You may say, "but I read all the journals in my field and made a spreadsheet a year in advance!" So did I, but that scholar whose work only seems tangentially related to yours? They may actually be just beginning a book project that is spot on for your interests, with no indication of that on their CV. This is where contacting POIs and networking comes in, and where applying broadly rather than looking only for matches made in heaven can work. 6. Stuck on your SOP? Think out loud. My first few drafts of my SOP were jargony messes. The most productive way of moving past this was calling someone who was familiar with my field on the phone and trying to pitch the ideas verbally. Slowly but surely, this strategy helped me find a way to express my interests to a broad (poli sci) audience in the plainest english possible. By the end, my SOP and the intro of my writing sample read more as punchy journalism than academic writing. This was definitely for the best.

No interview at Yale, I don't remember seeing anyone invited but I could be wrong.

Anyone have the inside scoop on the Harvard timeline? Hoping it comes this week but the data shows it could technically be early next week...

Claiming a Cornell rejection.

Rejected at Stanford too. Hoping for a swift response from Harvard to officially declare the end of my cycle.

Rejection at Yale.

Finally got the Northwestern rejection.

It looks like we can expect it sometime late next week given past release dates--have you been in touch with anyone that said it might come sooner?