slacktivist

As an Americanist, I'm glad that my case is considered special enough to have its own subfield. Otherwise, I'd have to compete against the rest of the world.

You've probably been told this, several professors at the schools I visited told me that CP was the most competitive field for admissions. It looks like you're taking affirmative steps to make your file even more competitive. The only thing I can recommend with regard to identifying research fit would be to review your thesis and see where the most prominent scholars in your literature review teach.

Adela, at this point, I'd say to contact the DGS and really impress upon them that you would seriously consider a funded offer. What they meant by asking you about your decision-making process is that they wanted to see if you were leaning toward another school.

Believe me, I totally understand that feeling. BTW, the unfunded offer became a 3/4 funded offer today, with assurances from multiple professors that they are working for that last 1/4.

Still deciding. Visiting Brown and UMD next week.

Anyone want to claim the Rice acceptance off the wait list? If so, PM me and let's talk about the program.

A lot of public universities (Michigan and the UC system, for example) require a personal statement in addition to your SOP. In the personal statement, it would be fine to write about your experience in the service and your disability within the context how they affected your path to academia.

Ask them. Despite what you might infer from the lack of funding, they want you there. I have an offer that was originally unfunded, but I asked to see where I was on the waitlist. That opened up a line of communication with the DGS, and they have been in contact with me pretty regularly as the situation has changed. Today, the DGS said they could give me partial funding, and from talking to them and my professors of interest, it sounds like they are working to give me full funding.

Waitlisted for funding at Iowa.

I can't speak to your personal situation, and that may be enough to override any of the academic considerations you have. School A sounds like an ideal situation to develop as a researcher. If you're coming in with external funding, then School A's resources should be less of a concern. As long as you feel that the total financial package you have from them crosses the minimal threshold you set for your standard of living, then whatever School B is offering is relevant only to the extent that it may allow you the financial flexibility to pursue further professional opportunities. On the other hand, if School B is offering you substantially more time spent in fellowship, that may be a decisive factor. Also, since you would be advised by an assistant professor, I'd be wary about the possibility that she may have certain demands on her time that a tenured professor would not.

Yes, I have four years of guaranteed funding, as well. It's my understanding that the standard package is for four years at between $14,700-$15,900 per year, and I am at the bottom end of that range. If we both take their offer, let's be in touch about housing.

Thanks! I've been very fortunate. I have a really tough decision to make and am considering five schools: Maryland has been my top choice, but I won't get to visit the campus before I have to decide and their financial offer is currently too low for me to accept. I'll need to negotiate and talk with several professors and students about the program. Brown is the place where I would be personally happiest. The students, city and lifestyle are great, the department has a reputation of being especially happy and collegial, and I can bump up to Harvard and MIT to take some classes. However, they are weaker than any other school on this list in terms of research fit and placement outcomes. They did make an outstanding hire of a young scholar who fits my interests perfectly, which is cause for giving them a very hard second look. Rice has come on very strongly. I say this acknowledging the risk of outing myself if anyone at Rice visits this board, but I am at their admit weekend and am very impressed both by the caliber of graduate students and the prospective students in my cohort. It is immediately clear that they are very well socialized into the discipline, which sends a signal that faculty are plugged into the state of the discipline and prepare their students well. Irvine is almost formally out. I'll need to do a pairwise comparison between them and Rice after I've returned from the admit weekend and have had a chance to reflect on it, but I can't see myself choosing Irvine over Rice. I haven't thought much about Iowa, though I will arrange a visit at the beginning of April. It seems the department is in a state of transition.

I could be wrong, but doesn't MSU place better?

I appreciate the advice! Coming from San Francisco, I'm not sure there's a rental market in existence that would give me sticker shock. I did look at some of the management companies and the prices seem a bit more reasonable (~$650-700 per person in a two-bedroom), but am unsure about how I can coordinate a roommate situation on the other side of the country. Of course, I'll also end up asking Maryland nicely if they have a few more dollars they can give.

I'm leaning toward accepting my offer from Maryland, but I am concerned about finding an affordable rental. My offer was just under $15,000 for the school year, which I don't think I can accept if I can't feel pretty sure that housing will be affordable. There is no way that I will spend 40 percent or more of my stipend on housing. Are there any other admits in the same boat? If so, PM me and maybe we can figure out some sort of roommate situation in advance.

Good times. Now I don't feel so bad about coming directly from undergrad at 28.

I appreciate the response. However, I'm quite happy with the offers I have received. With respect to placement, I would argue quite the opposite: Maryland, Rice, Irvine and Iowa have quite a few lateral placements, and I'm not dead set on the idea of "R1 or bust." I would be perfectly happy at an R1, LAC, or terminal MA institution. Also, the location of Maryland and especially Irvine facilitate the building of a broad professional network, considering the schools in the area (the DC and Northern Virginia universities; the area UCs, USC and other private teaching universities, respectively). I'd love to hear from the professors (Penelope Higgins, The Realist, Charlie2010) who frequent this board, but I feel very good about my future prospects.

To correct an error in my longer post above: However, I think it helps that I have done my undergraduate coursework in grad school - about 60 semester units - entirely in night classes while working a full-time job in the day.

Great REP program even without Segura. Their main area of strength is in Latino politics with Barreto and Fraga. I'm assuming that your funding package is strong, though. It's one of my very best research fits in the entire country, but I ruled out applying there because I heard from a UW PhD that the funding is meager and variable.

I don't know. Their email to me said they are trying to figure out how many first-year students they can fund, which will take a few weeks.

Co-sign all of this. It's really great advice. I'd say to retake the GRE and give yourself a month of prep time; I studied about 15-20 hours per week for a month and thought I improved considerably. Additionally, I would suggest writing a conference paper if you haven't done so already. It is very helpful in giving you a strong writing sample, but it also does a lot to focus your SOP and better figure out which universities fit with your research interests. I will add Tufnel's FYI to qualify my thoughts on this, as well.

Thank you. When top schools were due in December, I did not have a good research paper that served as a writing sample. I finished it in mid-January and only applied to schools due between Jan. 1 and Feb. 1. Also, I have a bit of an unorthodox profile. To give you my background: I am coming directly from undergrad in the California State University system after attending three previous schools. I began by attending community college and transferred to another CSU, but had personal problems and dropped out after a semester, basically failing a full-time course load of upper division political science classes. Overall, I have a 3.3 GPA, 3.0 in the major. I had a C in Intro to Stats, which represents my most advanced math coursework, other than the intro to quantitative methods requirement in my major. My academic transcript is certainly not that of the modal applicant. However, I think it helps that I have done my work in grad school - about 60 semester units - entirely in night classes while working a full-time job in the day. On the other hand, I did very well on the GRE (760 V/740 Q) and have a conference paper I'm presenting this spring. I've audited intro to econometrics and taken graduate seminars this year. My paper uses fairly advanced methods for an undergraduate (recent variations on ecological inference and spatial econometric analysis) to examine voting behavior by racial group and how that diffuses across space. It greatly focused my SOP and I assume I had strong letters of recommendation, though I can't know that for sure.

Good: got accepted to Iowa this morning. Bad: at a visiting weekend and feeling an intense case of imposter syndrome over needing to take calc, linear algebra, econ math camp and ICPSR over the next three summers. I have to fall back on my 760 Q to believe I can get through this.

Thanks! It'll be really tough, especially if Iowa makes an offer.

Claiming the Maryland acceptance. Emailed DGS, who apparently pulled me off of a waiting list after I told him it was a top choice.