gleeful_horror

On the contrary, I applaud Johns Hopkins for their wisdom in summarily declining your file. The fewer preening grammarians in academe (or online) the better!

That makes sense. And you didn't even have to take a shot at JHU to get your point across! Thanks for the lesson - I'll pipe down.

Do you really think you're such an articulate writer that you have the right to criticize anyone else? No one envies or admires someone who puts others down. If you don't want to spend the rest of your life alone and bitter, I suggest you learn a little compassion for those you don't believe are on your "level."

As a former waitlister I am a huge proponent of people telling schools their decisions as soon as they make them. I feel like the polite thing to do during decision time is send them out as soon as you know -- it's dragging on enough on its own.

Try to sit down and figure out where you're going after your visits are over. Those accepted off the wait list have only a relatively short time to find places to live (a lot is snapped up before even summer), job searches for significant others, etc. Be thoughtful and rational, indeed, but don't run out the clock for the heck of it.

I just sent a long email to Associate Director of Admissions at Columbia letting her know how 'disappointed' I was with their admissions process and their lack of consideration for applicants.

You need to consider this *very* seriously. A phd takes years. In your instance, years at an expensive school in an expensive place (DC/Vir/Mar). Most people will tell you to defer from attending unfunded, and there is merit in the warning. There is pretty good research to the fact that those going to grad school will never make up the financial time/ground lost had they foregone grad school and simply taken a job. If you take out loans, you're setting yourself up for a long road to anywhere secure. This all depends, however, on your own financial situation. If you're minted, there are no worries, although it would be nice to be funded. If you need to take loans for all things considered; tuition, housing, general living, you should probably consider other options. Finally, you might consider this as well; funding offers typically go to the depts most desired students. If you go into it without funding there is little to guarantee you that there will ever be funding in the future.

The question is not whether to believe or analyse, but rather - given the limited evidence and lack of consequence - whether we should actually care.

Just found out that I do not have to log in as another poster to give myself reputation points

Just found out that I do not have to log in as another poster to give myself reputation points

What gave it away?

This is good advice for everyone in this thread, including the poster in the above quote.

It's also a bit ironic to advise everyone else to stop making assumptions about strangers when, just a few posts earlier, your yourself did the very thing that you discourage.

Cornell is a no-brainer easy choice for you. Very strong placement in IR and comparative (including both the P and the Y from your HYP in recent years). Plus if you care about Asia they have extremely strong East and Southeast Asia programs. I can't imagine a better place to study IR or comparative with an Asia focus. Georgetown is a notably inferior program. CIR is a cash cow that pays for PhD programs.

Just incidentally, I can't imagine that your marketing yourself as IR rather than comparative hurt your application. If people thought that you were a suitable candidate in comparative they would have treated you as such. If you want to switch to comparative after you arrive, go ahead, I'm sure no one will care. And as a comparativist, I can assure you that based on what you've written about security policy, you sound like an IR applicant. You just do second-image type of work.

It sounds like you think that you deserve to have gotten into a higher ranked program. I base this on the tone of your message, which among other things,

thought to remind us that you went to "HYP"--which, I'm sorry to say, really doesn't matter now that you've graduated. If your letter writers from Princeton (you went to Princeton, right, looking at your PTiger username?) didn't write better letters this year, they're not getting better next year. is disappointed by an admission to a consensus top-20 program in IR The question you should ask yourself is, what can you do in the next year that will make your application stronger next year than it is this year?

I received an e-mail this morning...It was from UA, not ASU

E-mail from the department; it says that I'll be receiving an official notice from the Dean of the Graduate School shortly.

I had already given up hope (0 for everywhere so far), so this is pretty sweet news.

Now about that funding....