dagnabbit

Also claiming a Davis admit! Nice confidence booster after a few rejections. Big congrats to everybody who has received good news so far. Another thing - the congeniality and camaraderie displayed by the people in this thread makes me feel optimistic about our field. Here's to hoping that we all become friendly acquaintances, collaborators, and even coauthors in the future.
The only schools left on my list are Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan - obviously an admission from any of these would make my decision an easy one, but I am very content with my current options. Good luck to everybody still waiting for good news!

If we consider Berkeley and Princeton as rejects, I am three rejections and await on 6 more humbly (and why not count princeton and berkeley? In Russia, if something goes away and you don't hear more, you assume is gone). If doctor of science of politics don't work out, I will pursue career in husbandry of animals. I feel especially drawn to moose and fish. 

Also claiming a Davis admit! Nice confidence booster after a few rejections. Big congrats to everybody who has received good news so far. Another thing - the congeniality and camaraderie displayed by the people in this thread makes me feel optimistic about our field. Here's to hoping that we all become friendly acquaintances, collaborators, and even coauthors in the future.
The only schools left on my list are Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan - obviously an admission from any of these would make my decision an easy one, but I am very content with my current options. Good luck to everybody still waiting for good news!

Also claiming a Davis admit! Nice confidence booster after a few rejections. Big congrats to everybody who has received good news so far. Another thing - the congeniality and camaraderie displayed by the people in this thread makes me feel optimistic about our field. Here's to hoping that we all become friendly acquaintances, collaborators, and even coauthors in the future.
The only schools left on my list are Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan - obviously an admission from any of these would make my decision an easy one, but I am very content with my current options. Good luck to everybody still waiting for good news!

Also claiming a Davis admit! Nice confidence booster after a few rejections. Big congrats to everybody who has received good news so far. Another thing - the congeniality and camaraderie displayed by the people in this thread makes me feel optimistic about our field. Here's to hoping that we all become friendly acquaintances, collaborators, and even coauthors in the future.
The only schools left on my list are Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan - obviously an admission from any of these would make my decision an easy one, but I am very content with my current options. Good luck to everybody still waiting for good news!

I'm claiming one of the positive results from Pittsburgh. 
GRE and undergrad GPA were not high but I guess that some experience, two MAs, publications and a period lecturing helped in the end.
Couldn't be happier!

Not sure if you saw it already, but there is a really extensive thread about mock tests vs. the real thing already:
Might be useful! I think the consensus is that ETS' PowerPrep tests are the best predictors of your actual scores.

Just got a UCLA acceptance email as well!!! I'm going to grad school!

I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND! Thank God!
I cried in my office for an hour because this is the best news I've heard all year. 

One of the Pittsburgh acceptances at the results page is mine!

Good luck everyone this week! Hopefully it's all good and positive news. 

There is a lot of noise in the US News rankings (which, as Comparativist pointed out, are the authoritative ones for PS), but they can generally be used to understand where a school falls on the scale of Harvard to Kent State. The rule that you should generally attend the highest-ranked program to which you are accepted typically only applies when you are deciding between tiers - for example, it's best to choose Stanford over UNC, Columbia over OSU, NYU over UC-Davis, et cetera. I really don't think the ratings are too useful when comparing closely-ranked programs, and if you are deciding between (to use your example) Riverside and Merced then you should focus on their placement in your subfield. Most schools have this information available on their website, and it's really not a good sign if they don't. After all, most people pursue a PhD with the intention to use it, so it's very important to know how graduates of each prospective program are using theirs.

You should be fine - UIUC is in an extremely inexpensive part of the country, and Champaign is no exception.

Claiming a Madison acceptance! Just received an email from a POI! 

Claiming another OSU admittance! Status hasn't changed from "Pending," but was told via phone. Don't give up hope just yet people! 

I also received my OSU decision via portal. International relations subfield.

I also have an OSU decision on their portal, just to try to lend some certainty to this process. 

Congrats!

Just got accepted by UT-Austin! Email informing of admission with details on funding to follow.

I would suggest meeting/speaking with your letter writers to ask their advice - that's what I did when assembling my file, and they helped me figure out what should and should not go on an undergrad/B.A. holder's CV. However, if that isn't an option, it might be useful to look through some grad students' CVs (many department websites have them available) to see what kinds of things they've included.

Received indirect early word through my advisor that I was accepted to UW-Madison. Notices aren't out yet, but it sounds like they will be soon. No word on specifics. 
 
I haven't actually had time to fully process, but having an acceptance is a wonderful feeling. 

just checked OSU portal, accepted. no funding info yet. 

You're setting up a straw man. Nobody said that TT jobs are exclusively occupied by T10 PhDs, just that it is empirically true that T10 PhDs occupy a majority of them. Think about it - if your goal was to be a tenured professor, and you knew that a school (such as the one you describe) only places one person from each cohort in a TT position, would you invest 5-7 years of your life in that program? People get PhDs for many different reasons, and there are other fulfilling and lucrative careers outside of academe. It makes sense to go to a program where the outcome for the modal graduate is one that you would be happy with.

So...what?  Those of us without the ability to go to a top 10 should just give up and teach high school?  B.S.  I'm right now at an institution that is decidedly *not* top 10 and 2 of our ABDs got TT jobs within the last 2 years.  I think people who go to top 10 programs like to tell everyone else that they are the be-all end-all.  Must be an ego thing.

Can confirm, I got an offer of admission today with funding details, offer letter, accepted students weekend info.