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my understanding is that georgetown has admitted a few people so far, but that this week is their biggest round of admits. i initially thought their early admits were those granted funding, but i'm not quite sure about this...when i spoke to their grad coordinator, she seemed to indicate they're going through stacks of applications.

some have been notified by georgetown, but the grad coordinator told me they're basically going thru stacks of applications, and that the biggest chunk of acceptances will go out next week. i'm still waiting on them as well. as for the other places - depends on what your subfield is and who you want to study under. chicago is probably the elite school out of that pack, though i hear it's been slipping lately - still hard as shit to get into, though! the other 3 are pretty similar in terms of rep and rank (15-30 ish), though again, very different for subfields ie uva is much better for american politics than its overall rank, as are gtown and gwu for IR.

i lived in boston for over 4 years...and while it was no nyc (though what is), it is a pretty nice place. much MUCH better than new haven. however, it is also more expensive. reputation-wise, harvard is above yale, but that all depends on what your research interests are. ultimately, if yale fits much better than harvard for what you want to do (in terms of profs, research centers, etc), i'd say go to yale. but if its a toss-up or in harvard's favor, i'd seriously consider moving to cambridge. much better city, much better academic environment (boston is filled with colleges - lots of cool events and talks, lots of profs, lots of grad students). btw, those two programs are nearly impossible to get into, so congrats.

about CUNY - don't feel too bad. they are pretty shady w/ their funding (for those who they actually do fund). if you're one of the lucky ones who is funded, instead of getting to TA courses for your money, you teach classes. which in concept is cool, but is a shitload of work which you should be putting into studying for your comp exams, etc. basically, you're an adjunct at about a third of the cost to CUNY. it's a pretty decent program otherwise, but that is a major issue.

i think the assumption about columbia is probably right, and it seems the same is true of princeton. maybe they do have second waves of acceptances, though i'm pretty sure columbia is completely done. i've heard MIT is done as well, having mailed out overnight acceptance letters last week.

just curious if anybody here applied to and has heard back from MIT. i've only seen one acceptance on gradcafe, and that was apparently a phone call...they usually send admits via DHL mail.

i disagree...a 680 verbal is very high...that's like the 95 or 96th percentile. it might be at the bare minimum for top english programs, but i'd imagine that is an excellent score for history programs, esp. masters degrees.

i'm starting to get a little worried about where i applied - i looked for programs with really good fits w/ my research interests and professors i'd like to work with, and ended up w/ a ridiculous list that includes columbia, princeton, mit, and wustl, with american (SIS) and gwu as my "safety" schools - both really fit my interests as well, but are easier to get into. i'm worried because i can't really find many other schools lower than gw and au that are good fits, and while i did really good on the GREs (95% verbal, 91% quant, 87% analytical), my undergrad gpa was a little low - 3.35, from a top 30 school (though i did major in anatomy, which really knocked it down a notch). though i did manage to pull a 3.8 at a top-5 policy masters program, i know everyone gets a high gpa in masters programs. i feel like i have a really strong statement of purpose and letters of rec, plus i've worked in policy for 4 years (domestic, though - i want to study international politics). its just these programs are so freaking competitive, even though they all really seem like perfect fits for my research interests. am i being a little paranoid here, or should i take a quick look and find one or two more schools less selective than my safety's?