lifesurfer

i agree with the rest of the folks who replied. unless your unfunded school of choice is in the top 5-10 and they pretty much guarantee funding after the first year, getting into debt to get a phd is not rational. best to aim to excel where you've been offered full funding than to get in debt and end up having to deal with the harsh realities of the job market afterwards. plenty of political science students from top 10 schools, harvard included, did not land a job last year. good luck!

what beebly says is in tune with what i've heard from theory folks at nyu, which is known for its heavily quantitative focus, for example. the theory students who seem to be thriving, and particularly those who are content, at nyu are not afraid of quantitative analysis and actually like it. they will be the first to tell you that enrolling in their program if you balk at the thought of doing quantitative work is a recipe for disaster. before you make a final decision, talk to as many of the theory students in the departments you are considering as possible - particularly those who are on the market. you should get a much clearer picture of departmental dynamics for theorists (and the currently impossible job market) that way. good luck!

hey. my friends who've attended nyu and not gotten subsidized on-campus housing have for the most part chosen to live in brooklyn, which is a short commute from nyu on the subway, or right off the path train in new jersey (hoboken, for example.) i had a friend who lived in harlem and would hop on the express a train to get downtown relatively quickly. these options will give you more bang/space for your buck in nyc since living downtown near campus tends to be very expensive. my suggestion would be for you to get in touch w grad students who are currently attending school there and get the lowdown. and, of course, to visit the campus and the aforementioned neighborhoods before you make a final decision. i personally would opt to live in brooklyn since that's where the action is these days anyway - but it depends on the kind of vibe/crowd you like. congrats on your acceptance btw. nyc is a phenomenal city and you'll be the envy of the rest of the grad student population that is stuck in new haven, princeton, etc...

i'm sorry to hear about this. i must say that of all the schools i applied to columbia's admissions process was the most disorganized. had i not been on top of my application and pestered the admissions office to look for the materials i submitted by the deadline (december 1) after i noticed that my form online also said "incomplete" in january, my application would probably never had made it to the political science department. even with me on top of things, and after emailing scans of all materials that i had already submitted, my application was not forwarded to the department until early february. i don't know whether and how this affected my admission chances, but it was definitely an unpleasant inconvenience.

wow. i have family members who worked in the UN system as well. but that was a decade ago. i knew things had gotten bad, but i didn't realize they were that bad. so would you argue that unless you've got strings to pull applying for the posts they list online is simply a waste of time? somber thought.

seems like a second batch of people heard back today, if we go by the results forum. definitely makes me wonder how the process works at columbia. by fields? random groups? doesn't seem standard.

thanks for your reply. that's my hunch as well, except that it's strange that some people got rejection emails at the time as well while i gather most of us haven't yet. also wonder whether and how my application, alongside others that were processed late, was reviewed in time for the mid-Feb decision-making... congrats on getting in, by the way. would you care to share a bit of your background? curious to learn what you think might have given you the edge. you can message me directly if you'd like. thanks again.

hey everyone. i posted earlier in the results forum, but my post was deleted and i did not get a chance to see if i got any responses. my post was a reply to a couple of posts regarding the possibility that columbia has already reviewed and made all admission decisions for the phd program in political science. one poster mentioned that s/he had insider's info from professors in the department confirming that all admits have already been contacted. another poster mentioned the s/he had been reassured that the process is still ongoing. in the past, it seems that applicants who have not gotten good news this month will get bad news in march... in my reply i mentioned that i know for a fact that my application (alongside others) was not processed and forwarded to the department for review until the very last days of january because of the backlog caused by the high number of applicants this year (650+ according to the administrator i contacted.) since some people were accepted/wait-listed twenty days later, i am wondering if my application could have actually gotten/be getting a comprehensive review given the twenty day turn-around. to clarify, i have yet to hear from the department one way or another. i hate to think that applications that got processed later, for whatever administrative reason, might not be getting full consideration. does anyone know if columbia accepts/wait-lists applicants in batches? to me, this seems unlikely given that i understand that most admissions committees meet to agree on all admits at once to guarantee a well-rounded group. insights?