DBear

I don't think there's such a thing as a template for a writing sample. I would suggest looking at journal articles in your field and if you can, look for MA theses or dissertation written by students at schools you're looking into. Google scholar or academia.com might helpful if you don't have access to a school library although a lot of school library online sites will let you at least view some digital resources

Night shift

I think the safest bet is to use whatever the most common format is for scholarly papers in your field. For example, most Literature papers use MLA so I just used MLA format (double spaced, standard margins etc). I know some people who used articles that had been formatted for a particular journal, and sometimes journals have really weird rules. In that case, I also suggested he switch the formatting to something more standard. Be it MLA, APA or Chicago, if you stick to a pretty standard format consistently, you should be okay. If you're really worried, double check with the department

I hope it'll be your last! Best of luck!

Night cap

I've heard some schools ask for a separate essay dealing with why you are qualified for TAships and such. I think you can approach this as a venue to discuss work experience or previous teaching / admin experience during your prior studies

There's nothing wrong with that, it might even help that you have clear goals.

Hi Simeon, doesn't look like you have any disqualifying factors, but I think it would be more accurate to share the GRE breakdown. I think that if you include all your academic accomplishments in your sop, you still have a chance.

Office depot

I've submitted 7 phd apps, and now I'm super anxious so looking back at my "maybe" school list. I got this rhythm going toward the end and I don't think it'd be too hard to crank out a few more, but I doubt I'll find more schools I'm really passionate about applying to. Among my friends already getting their phds or have recently finished, I know a couple who applied to one program and got in. I also know loads more that applied to more than 10. I think the most anyone I know personally applied to is 17. I dunno how she was able to afford it especially as an international student with no fee waivers and having to report TOEFL on top of everything else

Party pooper

Dance battle

Guerilla warfare

I personally agree with @Yanaka. Unless you had such a good rapport going that you got to the point of sending random emails of greeting, I think it's better not to try and open new lines of communication. In the end, since your applications are in, the email really wouldn't be able to say anything useful, other than hey, I applied fyi. This whole application process makes me feel like damned if you do, damned if you don't. I got all my applications in this pasy weekend because I was so anxious and didn't want to feel like they were still on my to do list. Now that they're all in, I'm still anxious now that all I have left to do is stalk one last Lor writer. I wish time would go faster I'm going to try and work on a paper or two I've been hoping to get published and maybe catch up on some fun reading... Do some freelance work... I hope I'll be able to keep busy..... Hope all this anxiety will lead to some good news. Good luck!

True, there are not many terminal programs, but there still are some programs that off MA or MA/PHD instead of just PHD, the first two might be good contingency plans. Also, depending on what subfield you're interested in there are quite a few int'l relation MA programs. If you're interested in theory, like you want to read Kant and Hegel all day, and read Foucault in your free time, yeah.. you might not find a MA program...

For political science, you will be up against a lot of competition from people with MAs from other top-tier schools. You have relevant experience, but not enough to say that you're an expert. That being said, nothing is impossible, so go for it. Judging from the credentials of people I know who did get into 'elite' schools in the U.S., I'd suggest applying to a few MA programs as a back up plan.

Thank you! That sounds like a good plan - I know that there's only so long one can stay in the same school - good luck on finding new perspectives outside Madison hopefully I'll get in and then have lots of questions about what the school/ city are like!

More than a month after I emailed them, UCSD replied confirming the Jan 13th deadline. I'm not planning on applying anymore but if anyone is still considering UC San Diego, you've got over a month left

Would be happy to have a look! You can pm me with it

Have you contacted the school? I think that's the only thing left to do in this case.

Hi! I just finished my U Mass application and the online application said to convert to A+= 4.0 scale "to the best of your ability" so I converted

One of the schools I'm applying to had a strange LoR upload system and my non-tech savvy professors preferred giving me hard copies and then two schools wanted hard copy transcripts. It seems most schools are moving away from official transcripts at the application phase, wish all did....

Thanks! I don't know why I didn't even think of this earlier, since like you said, any scholarly submission requires an abstract. I think I was afraid of going over the page limit. As for the cover letter, I think it should be okay, I saw a few schools asking for this so I'm thinking that if it's not explicitly required, the abstract should be good enough!

International student here - I'm totally breaking the bank. Applying to 7 Phd programs - (int'l applications are consistently more expensive:( ) Application fees: approx $450 GRE reporting : $216 TOEFL reporting : $137 mailing hard copies (int'l registered mail): $62 Official transcripts (BA,and 2 MAs and foreign exchange) : approx $60 Roughly $925 so far (an the exchange rate is not so good right now so what I'll actually have to pay once my credit card bill gets to me...urgh) Then there's the cost of taking the GRE *3, and TOEFL = that's around $800 and books and prep courses for the GRE (I didn't do anything to prep for the TOEFL) was around 500. So with test taking and the actual total is way over 2,000 so far.

Yay! there is hope for us all! My applications are almost all done (and way ahead of my original schedule) except for that ONE professor who is so super late with everything.. 2 of my 3 letter writers uploaded their letters within days (sometimes hours) of when I sent them the link.. except that ONE professor...