schuaust

If you have a Professor writing you a recommendation, they aren't going to mind looking over your SOP and providing some pointers. Go into the prior application cycle threads and see what people have to say about what they thought made their applications successful or not. Some people put in those threads that they are willing to share SOPs. 

If they were supportive of your transfer during the application process, I'm sure they'll be understanding and a simple thank you will suffice, maybe with some nice notes. 

Several thoughts here (current PhD candidate at a lower-tier R1): 

1) If you have regional expertise it seems like working for the government would be an option, but I'll assume you've considered this and that you prefer to stay in academia
2) If that's the case, is working at a teaching University an option? Even with a degree from a top-tier program lots of people end up with 4-4's, and there's nothing wrong with that kind of job (except in a world where we've devalued teaching). 
3) If you are shooting for an R1, IR theory isn't really going to be what gets you a job. It is not true that IR is non-quantitative, there are certainly IR scholars who are oriented toward theory, but most of the ones getting jobs at R1 schools have quantitative skills (there are notable and interesting exceptions, but speaking from a position of having to game the market a bit, you will at the very least need to demonstrate competence in some 'empirical' methods). Most of the IR 'theorists' getting jobs are more sociologically oriented, so they aren't doing the same kind of inductive theorizing that Waltz/Mearsheimer/etc. did/do. 
4) Even with that degree you aren't ensured a better job than you can get now. 
5) Quantitative skills might help you get into a program, but all programs will have a required methods sequence. I don't think that's going to be something that kills your chances. 
6) I'm sure you already know this, but this is likely 5 more years of making very little money, there's a big opportunity cost to think about. 

I'm not trying to dissuade you, but if you haven't thought about some of these things, you likely should. 
Good luck! 

Just got it, have been on the waitlist. I'll put it in the results. 

PROFILE: Low tier
Type of Undergrad Institution: small, state school
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science
Undergrad GPA: 3.63
Type of Grad: Large, state school
Grad GPA: 3.93
GRE: 161V/154Q/4
Any Special Courses: 
Letters of Recommendation: three well published critical theorists
Research Experience: RAship building a large dataset for which I am writing conference papers now, worked for Correlates of War (doing so again)
Teaching Experience: 2 years, excellent teaching reviews
Subfield/Research Interests:  IR (theory, civil conflict), Political Theory (international ethics, empire, postcolonial/decolonial & queer theory)
Other: 

RESULTS: 1 Acceptance ($$ @75-85 rank, waitlist @ top 20, rejected at 8 other schools ranked from top 5 to top 40)
Going to: The school I've been waitlisted at if accepted, otherwise staying where I currently am.
Transfering is difficult unless you have extraordinary circumstances (which, being gay in the deep south isn't easy) or are transferring to a less prestigious program, I don't know that I'd recommend trying. The best advice I've got is that rejections aren't an indictment on your potential or character. If I had to speculate on what to avoid based on my experience, I think retaking the GRE if your quant score is lowish (undergrad scores, figured graduate grades in stats/methods would compensate) and varying the 'type' of recommender might matter. Was told by all recommenders that my application materials were excellent, but I'm sure that my writing sample and statement of purpose weren't perfect.

They have Dr. Ashutosh Varshney who is an incredible scholar. If you are thinking about doing ethnic politics as a part of your work he would be an amazing person to be on a committee. Snyder has also done some interesting stuff on the 'resource curse' in civil conflict. I'm sure they have other very good comparative scholars, but those are the two that stick out from the work I've encountered in graduate school.  

I've heard that telling them if they send you an offer you will accept it will sometimes move you up the waitlist YMMV. I'd wait for more input. 

Thank you so much for your insightful comment. I do think I should have had some strategic plans instead of just applying to schools I want to attend. I didn't have enough time to research each school I applied to, and that's probably the cause of defeat. I will keep it in mind when I prepare for the next cycle! I wish you the best

I've been reporting them as spam as they are posted. I haven't looked back through to see if they've been deleted over time. 

I've been reporting them as spam as they are posted. I haven't looked back through to see if they've been deleted over time. 

My first post here. I had been following what people were saying, and attempting to shore up my deflated morale. Applied to Princeton, Harvard, Brown, UPenn, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Michigan Ann Arbor, UVA and McGill in CP. Had written to POIs at these places and they had written back saying they thought the proposal was a good one. GRE was ok V:168,Q:163, AW: 4.5, one joint published paper, but no conference work. I did have 5 years of work experience relevant to the field I was proposing my topic in; some POIs even highlighted this point as a strong part of my application.
Two months of intense tension later, I have rejects from Princeton, Brown, Ann Arbor, UVA and possibly McGill. Any attempt to email said POIs is returned by a ‘sorry we had too many applicants’ rather than how to improve the application. I am expecting rejections from the last three as well, Harvard was a bit of a stretch in any case. 
Thanks a lot to people like Tedmonkey, for putting out how to try and get back at this application process. I’m at a total loss right now, after having put in almost 8 months of concerted effort building every part of the application. I don’t know, at this point, what I can do to make it better...
In any case, if there are people like me here, who got wiped out this application cycle, and who are trying to get back on the application cycle, maybe we could create a separate thread and support each other over the next year, which I have all reason to believe, will be brutal.
 

in case anybody is interested: i just called up northwestern and the graduate program coordinator told me that they were still waiting to send out an entire second wave of decisions over the next two weeks so i guess the wait may still be a little while longer 

Here's a bunch of stuff that probably isn't helpful or reassuring at all, but hopefully has the intended effect (to be reassuring and encouraging). 
Looking at where you applied it looks like there are really no mid-range programs other than Florida State (which is really well respected). It looks like you still have quite a few pending, so don't give up hope, and remember that it is a very idiosyncratic process. Most of these places have 10-50 applications for every one that they accept (for example, Washington-Seattle accepted 10 people and had over 160 people apply). At the 70-100 range the competition is a lot less, but obviously the career prospects aren't as 'good' (if by 'good' you mean becoming a tenured professor at an R1 institution).
I'm currently at an institution in the 90-100 range, and reapplied to programs because where I am does not have LGBT support ... at all ... and so in my second go-round with quite a bit of training and a massive data project under my belt I've gotten in only at a similarly ranked University, with a few still pending. So, it's kind of a brutal process that requires really solid applications all around, and even then, it's still luck of the draw (some people are exceptions and just stand above the rest). So don't give up hope, hopefully you get in at one of the schools you are waiting on a decision from (and fingers crossed we will see each other at UPenn, lol), but if it does require a second go-round remember that fit is the most important thing for getting in (beyond the strength of your applications) and to apply widely based on that. When you do, you'll see that it naturally constrains where you apply within each rank (so for me, that looks like --- Elite tier: Berkeley (UCLA, if I applied) -- High: Northwestern (haven't heard back), Minnesota, UPenn (UBC, if I applied) -- Mid-high: Washington-Seattle, Hopkins -- Mid-low: UC Santa Cruz -- Lower: Delaware, remain at home institution). Regardless, even at the lower institutions, a postdoc can really give you a better chance (we've had people get jobs at Kansas and South Carolina recently and are ranked pretty low). There's also a possible selection effect in some lower ranked Universities, at mine there are very few of us who want to be at research Unis, so most people are looking for teaching jobs at liberal arts colleges, or to work in the private sector. The people that have wanted research oriented jobs have generally been able to get them. I don't know how far that travels to other institutions. 

This is something that is generally determined after you are in the program (currently in a PhD program). 

How can we get people to stop posting forum comments on the survey? There are sometimes 3 "results" that are just communications in between actual results the survey was meant for. It's making it harder for posterity to understand the results

Monday is President's Day. Idk if all universities observe or just some -- it should say on their academic calendar

As the bizarre trickle of Northwestern rejections continues I'm beginning to feel an odd combination of hope/nihilism. I still haven't heard back, does that make it more or less likely I'm in or on the wait-list? Who knows? Will be emailing them on Monday. 

Thanks for your kind words! and ya, I am trying to look at it not as a reflection of who I am or what kind of student I am, but honestly that got harder and harder as the rejections began to pile up. Grad school is still my dream so I plan on applying next cycle, I hope for better results. 
And good luck with all of your applications! I wish you and everyone else on here the best of success, this has been a great resource, and one that I truly appreciated during the stressful application season. its also really opened up my naive eyes about the whole application process, and the tips and knowledge i've gained from here will go along way to improving my application for next time. 

Congrats on the admission! 

In the same boat here. Still waiting on Northwestern and UNC which obviously sent out offers already....

In at Delaware for IR/Theory, so the anxiety of not being in anywhere is alleviated. Still waiting on Washington-Seattle, Hopkins, and Northwestern. 

I've been admitted at Duke, UNC, Princeton, Berkeley, Stony Brook, MIT, NYU, UCLA

I've only heard back from three schools so far, all rejections, and *still* waiting on Northwestern. So far this has been a defeating process. Still waiting on a few others. 

Two things:
1. This process is absolutely brutal. I don't know any person who would go through this and not have the very same feelings. It's one thing to understand on an intellectual level all the things we know about how admission decisions can be arbitrary, how lots of extremely impressive applicants get denied every year, etc. It's a whole other thing to get there emotionally. After all, we are pouring out our thoughts and ideas and shiniest accomplishments onto paper for the purpose of being judged. That's a really hard thing not to take personally.
2. Something that has been helping me deal with rejections (in addition to all the stuff about it being arbitrary and what not) is that the people making these decisions are looking at a much reduced version of you. You can only glean so much from some stats and a personal statement. If you have racked up all the signifiers that told you you'd be a good fit for those schools, you were probably right and just got unlucky. Trust the sense of self you had when picking schools to apply to. I was really spiraling after getting two rejections in the same afternoon and then picked myself back up the next day thinking that it's a shame I wasn't accepted because I am going to be an awesome grad student and I'm sure they would love me if I was there. Can't say I always feel that way, but it's a start. 

Best of luck !!!! And yeah, I think spacing decisions apart by a few days or so is fine, but it has...literally been two weeks since they sent out those acceptances! It's insane