Monody
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Posts posted by Monody
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As some have noted on PSR, you should also note that a drop in the ranking does not necessitate a drop in the program's quality given first the low response rate of the survey (around 30 or so percent I think), second the possibility that other programs simply became better, and third similar to second that no tie to tie need also not be a downturn.
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54 minutes ago, Bibica said:
I agree with @VMcJ. Although I would also say that within the Top 5 or 7 (basically, CHYMPS + Berkeley, etc.) your personal fit with the faculty matters much more than the subfield rankings. This is especially true for comparative politics, I think, where some programs are really strong in some regions but not in others (Stanford, for example, has only one Latin Americanist that I know of. Columbia, much further down the rankings, has 2 or 3.)
Let's not kid ourselves. Everyone knows that the C in CHYMPS stays for Columbia, just as much as the P stands for PSU.
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PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: Somewhat known international university
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science
Undergrad GPA: 3.8
Type of Grad: N.A.
Grad GPA: N.A.
GRE: 163/169/5.5
Any Special Courses: Statistics I, Statistics II, Social Science Research Methods, Survey Design, Econometrics I, Econometrics II, Causal Inference, Analysis of Panel Data
Letters of Recommendation: Method prof whose lecture I took and who heard very positive things from others (was the first one in years who aced all the Statistics exams), IR prof at my home university with whom I had two courses, AP at my exchange university for whom I am an RA (free of charge)
Research Experience: thesis, sent one manuscript off before my applications, lots of long term papers (16 times 4500 to 6000 words with original research questions and quant methods)
Teaching Experience: None though the department of the Method prof offered me a TA but I transferred which made this impossible
Subfield/Research Interests: Civil Wars
Other: 3 languages more or less in addition to my mother tongue and English
RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): Columbia ($$), Penn State ($$), ETH Zurich MACIS (MA, $$)
Waitlists: NYU
Rejections: Duke, MIT, Stanford, Princeton
Pending: None
Going to: ColumbiaLESSONS LEARNED:
- It's probably a two-tale story. On the one hand, you can get into your preferred university if you work really hard. There have been few days on which I didn't do anything and I always took 1.5 times the regular course load or more and could have probably had my degree after 2 years were it not for a technicality with the transfer and funding requirements. That may have shown and now I am really happy with the outcome.
- Also never wait for others or blame limited opportunities. If you are interested in something be it advanced methods, game theory or a specific substantive subfield, just google for good introductory books, the main journals, and so forth and start reading. You won't get any younger and it will never hurt to have learned/read more than it would have been required.
- That said I would not advise anyone to do the same as I did, because the probability that you shoot yourself in the foot is too high if you first transfer and then take an exchange year, because there will be few profs who know you well, few opportunities to get a RA position, and it will send a lot of mixed signals as some others also mentioned to me
- I would probably just recommend a lot of hard work and a stable undergraduate degree and you should be set.
SOP: You dont want to read it. It becomes worse by the second.
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13 minutes ago, VMcJ said:
I think @Monody did.
Yeah, I did. Best offer and best fit arguably, and the stipend suffices for everything I will need, so who am I to wait or to complain. Also closure.
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9 minutes ago, oakeshott said:
See above: I was not referring to reductions due to funding cuts, but rather to more significant ones as a result of last year's high yield.
It was meant as a reply to an earlier post regarding the funding/endowment reduction.
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1) I can only partially speak for Columbia as it is the school I am going to, but it seems to me like funding after the fifth year is pretty certain given how regularly it is alluded to in the material they provide on the website.
2) I guess whether you feel overworked depends on what kind of person you are, how you work, and how fast and efficient you are at it and maybe less on the program. Personally, I wake up every morning at 6 and work from 8AM (10AM on the weekends) to 17:30+PM and then go to bed at 10 PM. Some would say that this is excessive (my grand-mother), others would consider it as normal. I would be bored if I wouldn't do it and if I were to only focus on the courses I am taking now, I would only do stuff on two days a week which would feel frustrating. In sum, in your place I would ask myself what kind of person I am and then contact current graduate students at the departments to ask about their experience to do some comparisons.
3) Given their rank, I would say that they may be both generally good. But again, it depends on what you are actually interested in. I do IR and for example didn't apply at Havard because they quasi-literally have nobody who is working in my field of interest. Columbia on the other hand is practically a dream come true.
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Just now, dih2 said:
(this is dumb probably, but what does "POI" stand for? Professor of interest?)
Person of interest
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Oh, I misread that. Sorry.
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2 minutes ago, VMcJ said:
I wouldn't trade Columbia for NYU, unless the fit is way better.
How come? Only the quant training? I've 4-5 persons in my area at Columbia and only 1-2 at NYU.
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2 minutes ago, resDQ said:
that is a good point. It is a Friday! Don't think about it until Monday.
Wouldn't it make the recruitment visit awkward then?
Ay. I may also write a short email to Gelman and ask whether Columbia can offer comparable training to NYU's.
It doesn't have to be awkward. It's a great way to get some books across the Atlantic without paying for shipping.
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Just now, resDQ said:
You have until April 15th. I do not understand why anyone would want to accept any offer now even if you do not have competing offers until you visit (unless you do not plan on visiting).
Closure, I guess. I like to have things in order well ahead of time.
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Any reason to wait to potentially get off of NYU's waitlist instead of accepting Columbia's offer now? The only comparative advantage is the quantitative training, but it seems like I can get a comparable experience at Columbia as well with a far better substantive overlap.
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Saving the republic... From my perspective a PhD from a very respectable program is a good safeguard against domestic turmoil. There is always the potential to apply for a faculty position in New Zealand...
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Also rejected. Bad for the ego, otherwise fine.
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2 minutes ago, dih2 said:
Uh oh, another Harvard post. Looks like I'm done for both for Yale and Harvard
Yale isn't that good. It really isn't.
- BillyJoel182 and oakeshott
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Ive to say even if I still hypothetically would get into Stanford, I would struggle deciding between it and Columbia.
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Maybe MIT (and hopefully the theoretical rest of Stanford).
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So, I just declined my admission offer at PennState and hope that one of you who are still waiting out receives a very nice email in the next few days. Good luck.
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8 minutes ago, gc_user said:
I received it just then
Do you think that they sent out all offers? After all, 9PM is quite late.
Postcolonial Theory
in Political Science Forum
Posted · Edited by Monody
I would recommend Europe and preferably German universities given that there is no tuition and such approaches are quite popular outside the few quant-heavy departments in Mannheim, Konstanz, Bonn or Heidelberg.