Quickmick

Even if you don't want any part of the "feel them out" kind of email, the desire to know if they are taking students seems credible. If you are a DrSeussist and want to go to Happytown U (who has 3 DrSeussists) it would be helpful to know if one is retiring, one will be on leave, and the other one is not taking students...

you can search the 'results' button above, or I have had luck punching something like "results Georgetown political science (or whatever) gradcafe" into google which seems to link me to an appropriate page, then crtl F to find your key word. I managed to find (I think) a pretty good window for notices for my apps, I hope you have good luck too!

For me it was important to remember that the student/uni relationship is a two way street and the POI contacting process informed me as much (or more) than it did them. One school I wouldn't have applied to got added to the list, and several got removed from the list, as a result of these efforts. In terms of time, I didn't track it, but the process was to 1)scour the uni websites/faculty bios to get an idea of fit 2)do a little more looking into the 'possibles' and contact about 1/2 of those 3)depending on the feedback I looked through their history of pubs and 4)for those I met in person/skyped with/phoned/or detailed conversations with I read a paper or two and in one case skimmed their (to date) flagship book--so not really too much time.

I would go back and check each school to see what they specify and call the graduate admissions office of any school where I didn't follow directions or was unsure. My understanding for my applications is that copies of an official version were OK, then--if admitted--I will need have a copy of the same sent directly from the school to the school via script-safe/snail mail etc. I hope it works out OK!

I don't know what you are using (SAS, R, etc.) but R is free and can do what you are asking. http://datascienceplus.com/perform-logistic-regression-in-r/ I tried to look at your link, but it didn't work.

8, including my MS granting institution. I looked seriously at around 20, got it to 12 thought I might pare it to 5 but settled on 8. While there are a couple more I wouldn't have minded applying to, I wanted to be cognizant of the message I would send to my current group if I asked them for scads of letters...I applied to different types of programs then where I am (where I am happy) so it wasn't really a competition, per se, but I didn't want it to be funky with them if I stay...if that makes sense lol.

This really resonated with me (as did most of @unræds post). I had written an SOP with two possible research approaches in it (separated by about 50 years), and a POI and a top institution told me to pick one even though they liked them both...they said that reviewers know that your approach will change, and even your topic will change, what they want to see is that you can craft a well thought out question that is framed in a way that fits with the department generally and your POIs more specifically.

I'll pm you

Just curious--and not sure if it matters--did you already submit the rest of your app? I did not have any problem with ETS, but I sent my scores right after I submitted my app. I wonder if you didn't send your app yet, your scores may be sitting at the school and they don't have an app file to "marry" it up with yet? I hope you get it sorted out.

@Zebu I, too, had to address changing directions in some SOPs. I just took the straightforward approach and explained the motivation--I don't know if this qualifies as "justification" or not. I spent more time on my SOP than any other piece of my app (if you don't count writing time for sample--though it was closer than I would have guessed) and went through several revisions. It was read by: me, my wife, two professors not otherwise related to my app, three POIs, two fellow applicants I met here and my UG writing center. Probably the best move was going to the graduate resource center on campus, where I luckily found a tenured Prof. who has served on adcomms who edited it twice. If I found myself up against the clock I would use the center again, and if I didn't get lucky use them to find an appropriate reader. Hope this helps, good luck.

Just curious, did they mention the main (or any) of the factors that kept you out? If they mentioned a soft spot in your materials--or where others were stronger--you might want to take the time in your SOP to describe what you have done in the past year to fill in the gaps.

Just thinking that I don't know if I agree with the "they want the app fee" argument. Columbia, for example, has an endowment of 9.5 Billion, even if they get 12000 applicants at 85 per that adds about to about 1 million--just doesn't seem that significant. I wonder if more applicants = more rejections which increases their apparent selectivity. Who knows, maybe they just don't want to deal with people begging for an extension and an automated email is simple to set up. Also, regarding the 'early consideration' idea...they want the best people they can find in their applicant pool...it would not be in their best interest to start making decisions until they had seen the whole pool, though they could probably begin to weed out the obviously poor applications.

I did cross post this in History... December 1st fast approaching, and all through the nation Hopeful applicants face much consternation. POIs have been mailed, LORs have been written, With dreams of great funding these minds have been smitten. T's crossed and i's dotted, spell check is complete For a chance at a PhD, unemployed on the street. Happy holidays and good luck everyone!

December 1st fast approaching, and all through the nation Hopeful applicants face much consternation. POIs have been mailed, LORs have been written, With dreams of great funding these minds have been smitten. T's crossed and i's dotted, spell check is complete For a chance at a PhD, unemployed on the street. Happy holidays and good luck everyone!

Call the department admin and see if they can help? your LOR writer might have a land line where they are?

I would try not to worry about it too much, but would probably call. Given that Dec deadlines are on the heels of Thanksgiving (and I know one letter writer travels a lot) I did send a friendly reminder type of email on the 21st. In any case, some letter writers wrote them the second they got the email and some obviously didn't. I happen to know one individual very well and they get everything done on time, but--I believe--they are legitimately so busy that they are constantly doing the things on their calendar that are imminent. I try to phrase the communication in a friendly way "Hello Dr. X, blah blah. This may already be on your calendar, and if so I am sorry for being a squeaky wheel, but I just wanted to touch base as a friendly reminder that the letter you offered to write to DreamyMcDreaminstien U is due blah blah blah." Just my thought that the reception to the communication is partly predicated on how it is done...and I wouldn't want to annoy someone a few hours before the write a letter that can get me in (or keep me out).

Can you explain a bit more? I am not sure what your are asking here.

Nor am I qualified as an adcom member, but I do wonder if a program has tons of applications to sift through, if they have some minimum GRE number as an initial screen to make first cuts. If that is the case, I would have some concern that I might end up in the "no" pile before they had a chance to look at me holistically.

Grade Point Average - Grade Point Average (GPA) is the quotient of the student's grade point total divided by the grade point credits.

In addition to @fuzzylogicians good advice, I would be prepared to let them know why field x. Every POI I have spoken with wanted to know why study "fill in blank." While I didn't have a canned answer, I had thought about it enough to be able to discuss it. This might come into play if your username is indicating you have been a math major and are going to study econ. You might also get a question about your future plans. My Skype interactions have been 30-40 minutes, in person have been about the same (with an equal amount of time added for tour the dept. kind of stuff), and phone interactions have been the briefest at 15-25 min. In terms of my expectations I did want to know some things about livability, funding, basically things I could get more insight into from a person as opposed to the internet...but what I really wanted to know was: did I get the feeling that I liked the person/how our personalities jibed (at least to have an inkling as to if I would like to work with this person for years) to understand a component of 'fit' that goes beyond published research interests. Good luck, I hope it goes well.

The 5000 words bit might make sense. Often references are not included in word count...so you could have 15 pages at 5000 words, leaving you up to 5 pages for references. For these guidelines I wondered if my prospective schools just wanted to see if I followed the instructions, as I do not believe they have the time, or inclination, to read 15-20 pages from every applicant. You can run 'readability' stats on your writing to see % of passive sentences, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level...I wouldn't be surprised if admissions reads a couple/few pages and checks these (or some other) metrics to come up with a score for your writing. I, too, had to craft a 500 word SOP for one app, and it was difficult for me. If I were making evaluations I would prefer 1000--but I am thinking in terms of reading one applicant's materials, not 100's. I felt my best SOPs were of the "1000" variety, with 500 being a bit terse and over 1000 a bit much. In any case, I just followed the rules. Luckily I knew I would be applying a while ago, so in the spring wrote a paper for coursework that I was able to tailor to fit (it came in at 17pgs + references) so with a little tinkering fit the bill. Except for Cal, who wanted 10 for writing, yet was looser with SOP. I suppose there is always an exception... Good luck.

Cal has a bunch of spreadsheets for doing this (https://gse.berkeley.edu/gpa-calculator) if you want to use one of theirs...I could tell you how I did it, but if there is an error I would hate to share it!

I tend to agree with @ExponentialDecay . If you have exhausted the possibilities from your MA work maybe think back to your UG experience and try to come up with one prof who really stands out/influenced you? Just might be a way to expand your sphere of possibilities. Good Luck!

I did not have a bibliography, but did mention a bit about the scholarship regarding my research. It went something like While Yogi Bear explores blah blah from the perspective of blah, and WilmaFlintstone brings dabbadabba do into the discussion, I hope to take an approach closer to Professor Plum's "Hotdiggity" where yadda yadda ya.. I was a little conflicted about this. For one, if the adcomm doesn't like/respect the people I mention that could be a problem. Also, if I omit some giant in the field from the list they might scratch their heads about that too. In any case, I did include it, thinking that showing some familiarity with the current body of knowledge and how my piece might fit into the narrative outweighs the possible negatives. I took this approach for 6/8 of my SOPs.

@marxistglue you could always hedge you bets and mention it in 1/2 of your SOPs.