s1994

As long as your LoRs, GRE scores, and official transcript (some schools (i.e. Michigan, WashU) want it; most don't) are shown to be received, I am pretty sure your application is completed and will be reviewed even though it takes days for the system to change from "submitted" to "completed".

Duke and WashU -- very likely Berkeley and Chicago -- likely, but we are not sure

Congrats!

To echo ultraultra's words, I would say, it's also more strategic and making much more sense to pick someone who is willing to take that 2 hours from his/her busy schedule and to write and upload the letters for you. Sometimes self-reflection is more important (and helpful) than blaming on your recommender. Good luck on your other schools, yaisr

From the survey page, someone said that he/she was recommended for admission at OSU -- and it was on the school application website (although there was no email). Congrats to those who got recommended/admitted!

In particular, Duke, WashU, Chicago, and Berkeley are likely to release their results during that week.

Let's worry less and finish the last semester strong!

What school? If you indicated that you want to work with some professors in your SoP, read their papers again.

Fair enough. I just did a guess simply because a few people said they got interviews, and all their feedback seem to be really positive. But anyways.

My feeling is that most school started reviewing the materials starting from last week, and if (1) you have mentioned a particular professor in your SoP, (2) s/he likes you a ton, (3) both the school and your POI have the funding to feed you for 5 years, then you will receive a call from the professor and get an "informal offer." So UIUC applicants should definitely not panic. However, in terms of OSU, I think the chance of one getting admitted without receiving any interview until now is not high. I haven't applied to either UIUC or OSU -- so my guess based on rumors and observations can be completely wrong!

It seems like someone has already gotten in UIUC. I am pretty sure that none of the schools that I have applied to will release its result until 1/29 tho. Congrats to the people who got into UIUC!

That book won't be that insightful to us because it's too general (by trying to cover all top graduate departments in the analysis). Graduate admissions, different from undergrad admissions, really depend on each department's own philosophy -- trying to generalize one field (or graduate schools) in general, in my opinion, is a really bad idea, almost as bad as submitting one same SoP to every school you are applying to.

I have heard that among Ohio State/Rochester/NYU, one or two of them give(s) out interviews. Are you getting the interview from one of them?

On a brighter note (or not), Duke/WashU, and maybe Chicago and Berkley would release their results probably sometime around Jan 29, which is not that far away Now I am more anxious.

Hey I have a first-authored pub on Nature, and I am depressed and devastated because I don't think that I can get into any top 50. How dare you to impugn me that I am trolling ;]

I'm convinced. My original issue with "one should only go to top-10" is that certain schools outside of that range do have good placement in a few subfields (like Rochester and WashU in methods, and hopefully Cornell in China (with JCW and JW), etc). But yeah, a degree from a top-10 program (or a really strong subfield/area from a top 25) could be a good rule-of-thumb to determine the likelihood of a TT position after one graduates

But ... he's making America great again!

GPA is really low, which is a really bad sign -- Yes, you can definitely enroll in the classes you don't care b/c of the immigration policies that require you to be full time. However, if you can't even handle a few distribution courses, why would the admissions committee trust you to finish your grad coursework? It might be possible for you to explain this weakness in your SoP, although I think it's highly doubtful that you can convince the committee. GRE seems to be okay if you are only considering 20+ schools. Maybe retake it -- improve your quant score if possible. I would say try your best to explain your GPA situation in your SoP, by emphasizing that you were not a slacker as an undergrad/master student, if it was the case.

Hey but also, when people say "top 10", they also refer to Rochester/Wustl/Cornell/Duke/etc. For example, even for a comparatively low ranked department (compared to the school prestige), it seems that UPenn is doing a pretty good job at placing its students (https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/content/recent-phd-placements)! So I guess "top 10" actually refers to all schools up to #30? Maybe all PSR stalkers (including me) should not be THAT scared by the caveat that "non-top 10 --> trash."

That's what I am feeling as well. Duke and Wustl have pretty late deadlines. However, both schools release their results fairly early. It definitely won't hurt if one submits her application a few days/weeks before the deadline.

Did most of the students in your cohort go to APSA in their first year? What about MPSA/SPSA, or other smaller regional references (say, for example, ISA-Midwest)? Thanks!

My feeling is that it won't hurt -- as long as you have good grades during the fall. None of the committees will start reviewing the files until next semester, and that gives the staff plenty of time to add your fall grades to your file in order to make your application "more" complete. What's the point of not doing that then? However, if you are getting B's mostly and your program doesn't require your fall grades, then probably not submitting them would be a better idea.