HardPromises

Chapel Hill for me, as well!

For a top choice waitlist situation where you've been notified that any decision on the matter will likely be very last minute or even just after April 15th, would it be wise to elegantly ask for an extension from the best offer already on hand (my top choice if not brought off the waitlist). It's possible that I'll hear back from my waitlist program early April 15th, but just in case it's a day or so later, I'm thinking I should ask my confirmed offer for a short extension maybe a week before the deadline. I don't want to wait and then be stuck asking for the extension on the afternoon of April 15th if I don't hear about the waitlist in time. And I don't want to just accept the offer and then ask to be let go if the waitlist goes my way.

What is everyone's perception of chances for those on a waitlist? Of course, I imagine it's more hopeful for lower ranked programs, as there are fewer people declining offers from top 10 programs. But I'm on the Yale wait list, so I'm just curious about the numbers. If anyone has any info, tips, etc. it would be much appreciated!

Vanderbilt is taking fooooorrrreeeeeveeerrrrr. Sorry that this post is entirely useless, but I needed an outlet to vent.

Same here.

I was just thinking about how at some point in the future, when we're all established successful scholars, I might think back to this time and wonder who was in this group with me and contributing to this forum. Some of us could end up working together and not realize it! We should all have a secret code that reveals we were part of the "Welcome to the 2015-2016 Cycle." ?

Could you provide some insight as to how you're discussing your different options among your POIs at this point in the process? I understand the benefits that can come from that, but I'm struggling to determine the most acceptable approach.

Finally received the much-discussed Vandy email asking if I'm still interested. Not sure how I'll respond, as it's not my top choice at this point, but I'm still considering it.

@finalsenator I thought the first one (on the bottom) was authentic, although I could be wrong, and the second (on top) was making fun of the first one. That latest one really killed me. I thought it was hysterical after reading that first post.

Wish we could give reputation points for results postings...

@Straightoutta @Hopeful57 are you both in American politics?

Not sure, to be honest. I can't recall the exact language used, and this was before my UNC letter, so I didn't think much of it at the time. Just jotted down the dates.

Does anyone here in Comparative claim a Vandy acceptance, yet? I was informed in the interview that a considerable number of spots were going to American, while comparative only had 4 or so, and I only see American and unspecified on the results page.

Really close call. UNC's is March 31st-April 2nd and Vandy's (according to phone interview, not acceptance email), is April 3rd-5th.

Decisions will be out by the end of the month. Probably next week.

Same. They've all been posted at strange times. It will be interesting to see if there are any other acceptances early next week, or if rejections start appearing instead.

It's the title of the Tom Petty album I was listening to when I created my profile.

That's probably a safe assumption. I'm in the same boat with Duke and UCLA unfortunately.

If that MIT admit is real, depression and heartbreak is about to kick in. My dream school that's been on my mind every day since this stressful process began. Here we go...

@s1994 Did you receive an official notice of rejection from Duke, or are you just assuming? I noticed your signature...

This cracked me up Michigan State University Department Of Political Science (Theory), PhD (F16) Rejected via E-mail on 11 Feb 2016 ♦ A 11 Feb 2016 report spam It's ok. Want to be an Athenian anyway.

Especially since the person says they found out by checking the website. Seems like that's how the rejections came out, but the acceptances are over the phone.

Does anyone here claim that Stanford acceptance with the 3.2 GPA and 152/153/4.0 GRE? I'm just curious. I understand that's just part of an application, but still.

Just realized I mentioned proceeding from a qualitative perspective when referring to my thesis, but I used quantitative methods. And I said this in all my SoPs. Considering how many times I read over my statements, I can't believe this happened. I know many people have something they would like to change after submitting an app, but do you guys think this particular case warrants contacting the department? Because it's not obviously a typo, as qualitative is a real word, and since I mentioned that I plan on having quantitative methods as a field of focus, it would possibly help me to clarify that I used quantitative methods in my thesis research. I'm so torn up over this; I can't believe I missed that.

I was told in my interview that they were going to reconvene and make final cuts at the end of this month. So it's hard to tell. It seems that everyone would've already been contacted to set up an interview, as they had already decided who to interview by February 1st (when I was contacted and told they had narrowed it down to 40), but it's possible it's taking longer, I suppose.