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Monody

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Posts posted by Monody

  1. Well, I just asked (not at Columbia, but at PennState). Even though the answer may not be unbiased, I am nonetheless quite curious about their perspective in the case that I were to get an acceptance at MIT or Stanford and would have to decide between Columbia and one of them?

  2. 2 minutes ago, Bibica said:

    Fair enough. I think you've answered your original question for you--time to politely decline Penn. Will you be visiting Columbia, by the way? We might see one another there :) 

    Then I know what I will do later today.

    I am still waiting for the email regarding the travel arrangements. The flights from Copenhagen are surprisingly not as expensive as I thought they would be (around 450€ round trip) so that I am quite certain that I will be there. :) 

  3. 9 minutes ago, Bibica said:

    @Monody I can't see a reason why they would rescind your offer, especially since it has already been approved by Columbia's GSAS. If there is no possible way you'll choose the other school, then I do think it is right to (when you are ready) politely decline their offer. My experience with this has been positive. A short, simple email thanking them for their acceptance but that you are choosing to pursue graduate school elsewhere will suffice. They may ask what school you are choosing otherwise, which I would tell them (they like to keep track), and then they'll probably just wish you well at your other school.

    That being said, if you aren't 100 percent sure I would hold on to that offer and visit. Rank does matter, and I you seem pretty decided, but there isn't any shame in not feeling decided.

    I honestly would feel bad to visit as an international student and getting reimbursed with over 500$ even though I am practically certain that choosing Penn over Columbia would be foolish given my interests. Yes, they have a great program, great faculty, and great research opportunities, that's why I applied there, but as someone else mentioned earlier, it is being trumped in every category by Columbia. 

  4. How would you handle two admissions from two universities of which one is vastly better regarding its faculty, training, offer, and prestige than the other? I am now considering to decline the second offer so that they know what they are at and are able to notify someone on the waiting list so that he or she can still go to the visiting weekend? Is there any chance (in hell) that a department rescinds an offer given that there are no irregularities?

  5. 14 minutes ago, mstama123 said:

    Do you guys think PennState is done? There don't seem to be too many admits on the results page (I counted 4, from what I could see) and there has only been 1 rejection (but I question the legitimacy of that post). Just trying to hold out hope, but it's getting desperate :unsure:

    Missed to post my results. Sorry.

  6. 7 minutes ago, HermioneWannabe said:

    And the war between qualitative and quantitative lives on yet again

    Id say I am somewhat happy that they have their journals, we have ours, and nobody forces me to read anything in that direction. The only thing that annoys me is the activism that grows out of this perspective (and the indoctrination of undergraduates) and the idea that they may at some points in time have some influence on policy decisions. 

  7. 21 minutes ago, HermioneWannabe said:

    They looked down on quant research? That's sucky and strange - we were pretty much told that quant was the only way to get anywhere at my last institution and the conferences I've attended have seconded that.

    Well, the prof explicitly told me that quant is on its way out since all civil wars are different and there is nothing to be generalized. She said that with a straight face and cited as evidence the last few conferences she visited. Since she applies critical theory I just thought selection bias and kept my mouth shut. Nothing against her personally, after all she wrote one of the recommendations, but that is one some areas an actual perspective on the current state of affairs.

  8. 10 hours ago, Comparativist said:

    Honestly Monody, there is very little that should persuade you to choose PSU over Columbia. Columbia beats it by virtually every metric imaginable. 

    On the one hand, I agree with you, but on the other I am quite unwilling to decline their offer before I locked in another one and Stanford is still outstanding which for me would top Columbia. In the case that something obscure would happen to my Columbia acceptance I would still have PSU. And while rationality generally wins out, Ive a weakness for nice emails that care about my research after spending 2 years in an environment where quantitative work was generally looked down upon. In sum, I will probably let them know soon that I will attend someplace else and early enough so that a waitlisted candidate can go to the meeting in March.

  9. 11 minutes ago, Kenga said:

    Asking people, particularly current grad students, helps a lot.

    For the princeton admits: I heard that Kosuke and Davis are very likely (almost certain) to move to Stanford. Keohane is probably going there as well. (Source: Grad students within Princeton's department)

    Edit: That on the other hand means that Princeton is going to hire somebody (several somebodies) in the next few years to fill the vacancies.

    King to Stanford as well?

  10. I agree with the above, but I would also generally add that GRE scores signal particularly little (doing high school Math and logic puzzles under pressure) and if they communicate anything then I would say that the message is more often than not negative if the scores are lacking. I only received one acceptance so far and I am sure that neither the rejections nor the acceptance were particularly influenced by the GRE.

  11. 52 minutes ago, gc_user said:

    I have a question about Columbia's funding: is the summer stipend amount per summer for 5 years? (or total for 5 years?) that wasn't clear to me, although I think it's per summer. (Dean's Fellowship, which I think they offer to everyone.)

    I considered it as a summer stipend for each summer over the 5 years.

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