JanuaryHymn

<br /><br /><br /> Perhaps a visit will suit you best where you can get a feel of the department/subfield there, and more important, talk to graduate students there.

For whomever posed the USC email/postal mail question, I'll let you know that I received both the information about the Provost's Fellowship as well as an acceptance email from Dr. Katada via email. Perhaps something more official will come in the mail, and Saori did mention that the admit offer was contingent on funding. So, perhaps that is where the email-post divide comes into play? Not sure.

To whomever posted the latest Austin acceptance with the stats. How do you know if you received a TA position? Was it listed in the letter?

Although you never what's going to happen in the future, I don't think they'd admit anyone they can't foresee funding. That said, to help cope, Berkeley did reduce the size of its cohort significantly.

Yeah, I had thought about applying to Michigan until one of my professors asked if I wanted to be strictly quantitative and told me that the quant methods requirements were more than most departments.

Did your prof give you any reason why that is? I mean, no news that you're rejected is good, but after the acceptance waves go by for schools to which I applied, I get nervous. Does it mean we are on some sort of unofficial, or unannounced-as-of-yet, waiting list?

Would anyone like to claim those Duke acceptances? Although I don't think they may be out of sync with the admissions patterns of previous years, I'm just curious about their authenticity since the program has thematic subfields (i.e. there is no comparative, like two of the three results submissions maintain)

Troika, it depends what you mean by creative. All personal statements should be pretty professional. In mine, I included my ethnicity, academic experiences, and community involvement, and discussed how they all informed my research interests/decisions to go to graduate school. Tidefan, it sounds like your describing a statement of purpose, not a personal statement about which the OP is talking.

I am applying to several political science (comparative-Lat Am) programs and am seeking advice about from whom to obtain an LOR. So far, I have two tenured faculty in my field that I have writing a recommencation for me (one I did research with and the other I taught a freshmen seminar under). As for my third recommender I am deciding between two and was wondering whom I should choose in the cases where I'm only allowed to submit three. On the one hand, I have an assistant professor, trained at Harvard, who is the same field roughly (Latin American comparative politics). She is a junior faculty and I have only had but two classes with her, but she has become a mentor to me and has really guided me throughout the graduate school process (and thus, knows what I want to do and who I am on a personal level). The other is a tenured professor in the history department. I do have research experience with her that is easily transferable to what I will be doing, though the topic was not exactly related to my field. She has been really enthusiastic about my work for her and about writing me letters of recommendation for previous applications. What do you guys think?

I hadn't heard about Nortre Dame, but I will be sure to look into it. I myself am shooting for Berkeley, they seem to be very supportive mentors and give their students plenty of publishing opportunity. Thanks for the overall response. I've been following your posts for a while, and they always seem to be filled with sound advice.

Hey, looks like we're in the same boat, even with research interests...weird. Some schools with great Latin Americanists, I think, are UT-Austin, UCSD, UPitt (not highly ranked as a department, but pretty strong in the region), Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, and really, any of the ivies are worth checking out. I was told that NYU has a budding LA program, along with UNM (one of my professors called UNM a hidden jewel for this field)

That website seems like a great resource, but did anyone else think the SOP was overly lengthy? In a diversity program I participated last summer, I was told it was ideal to keep it 2 pages, definitely no more than 3, double-spaced.

Hi, I've also heard how miserable graduate students are at Columbia, from both graduate students (not outright, but I sure as heck picked up on it) and from administrators, when I spent last summer in residence. Anyway, my vote is Berkeley. I'd like to think the university/department would seek alternative methods than not be able to give you what they say they will. But, I guess, you never know. Best of luck!

Hi, I've also heard how miserable graduate students are at Columbia, from both graduate students (not outright, but I sure as heck picked up on it) and from administrators, when I spent last summer in residence. Anyway, my vote is Berkeley. I'd like to think the university/department would seek alternative methods than not be able to give you what they say they will. But, I guess, you never know. Best of luck!