tkid86

I know they've sent some acceptances, but visiting day is late March if I'm not mistaken, so they might send out late acceptances maybe?
 

Also waitlisted for Yale (IR subfield). Glad to finally know!

Waitlisted at Yale - so glad I finally got an answer!

Just got my UMD acceptance! Available via the application portal. No word on funding, yet. 

If it'll give you peace of mind, do it.  Honestly, we're late enough in the process that we've all stressed enough.

If anyone who snatched up a Yale admit would like to talk with a current grad student (5th year), please feel free to PM me. Happy to offer advice - anonymously or otherwise.
Also I should note that the "list" hasn't been sent out by our department so all hope may not be lost. Back in the day I got my "admit" email at 2am on a Wednesday because my POI was in Thailand and hadn't gotten around to it before then.

Just got my UMD acceptance! Available via the application portal. No word on funding, yet. 

Just got my UMD acceptance! Available via the application portal. No word on funding, yet. 

Mine too. I don't think it's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm thinking it just means they're done reviewing and we can expect a decision soon. 

Mine too. I don't think it's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm thinking it just means they're done reviewing and we can expect a decision soon. 

Same, just got a Yale email! Congrats!

Y'all, after the drama of earlier, I just got a Yale admit. LOL

It's been a little bit of an up-and-down cycle for me so far. I got a very early and enthusiastic acceptance to a top #15, a couple interviews, and an acceptance from a lower ranked program with good fit, and then a long string of silence. I've only gotten one actual rejection (Duke). So anyway, I'm just desperate to hear actual responses from the last few programs.
 

I think they're more likely the very last week of February into March. But it would be a nice surprise.

Claiming an American University admit  . I am stunned right now. 
 

Claiming a Stanford admit! 
E-mail from POI came about 2 hours ago. I am currently outside the US, so no phone call. 

I just got the Stanford phone call! Having difficulty processing this. 

Mine (WUSTL) was real! I'll be sure to reach out- I'd love to hear more about the area!
 
Thanks!

Claiming a WUSTL acceptance. It wouldn't let me do that while the forums were down.

Have no idea about Yale but according to past years, Harvard started trickling in from the last week of February though March 4th so I wouldn't start to worry until March 3rd (aka my birthday. I totally think if they send out decisions on that day, I should be an auto admit because well...you can't reject a girl on her birthday. It's rude. Lol)

I was in this boat last year actually (deciding between Princeton, UPenn, GWU and WashU). I think my perspective was a little different since I was less concerned with the overall ranking of the department/program, and far more concerned with the individual people I would be working with. My closest mentors said the decision was crystal clear, an absolute no contest but for me it wasn't immediately evident because GWU had amazing people I could work with, and their placement record in recent years has been fantastic. I also go along extremely well with everyone I met, as well as the graduate students. I also really loved DC. 
I was torn, because I wanted to go somewhere where I could write the best dissertation, and that stemmed first and foremost from mentorship. I asked every professor I met with, no matter the institution, very blunt questions. Who was leaving. What was funding like for fieldwork, or research on top of the stipend. What was their hiring strategy. What was their long run plan as a department in terms of goals. What was it like for women in the department there. What was the teaching load like. What were courses like. What research opportunities were there out of coursework, as an RA, or as a co-author with faculty. I asked the same of current graduate students and I was told very honest, unbiased information about the state of affairs, and some other surprising details about hiring strategies (or lack thereof...). Four months in, everything they said is true (for better or worse). 
Faculty genuinely don't want to "fool" you into picking their program because you're all the more likely to be miserable, less productive and reflect poorly on them if you find yourself in a situation you didn't expect. I did openly ask programs why I should pick them over a top 3 and they gave strong answers. Everyone was also open about why I shouldn't pick them (another good question to ask, albeit a blunt one).
I didn't decline offers until I was sure of where I wanted to go, which was admittedly quite close to the April 15th deadline but evident to me as soon as I was in the airport heading back after my last visit. Don't feel compelled to turn someone down. Consider your options carefully. Happy to talk more over PM as well. 
 

Yeah, it's an easy decision to make, but a hard action to take.
Myself, I am spiralling inside my own conundrum. I have five good offers, maybe will get a couple more, and can see good reasons for accepting all of them. My case should be settled by visiting them, but that is not going to happen. My only solace is that:
"Is this a hard choice for you?" he demanded. Yes! I cried. "Oh," he said, springing back cheerfully. "In that case, it doesn't matter. If it's a hard decision, then there's always lots to be said on both sides, so either choice is likely to be good on its way. Hard choices are always unimportant."

I would like to respond to this constructively, but to be frank, you seem kind of all over the place. Part of your profile reads like you want to go into politics — your mention of "very prestigious moot court program", your internship at the state legislature, and your work with political campaigns. The other part seems like a lackadaisical approach to academia. You like research because you think you have an aptitude for it, but you still would not mind ending up teaching at a community college. If you do get your PhD, it is because you want to try your hand at finding a tenure track job at a four-year top program. It seems as if teaching to you is simply whimsy — and that is okay; there are some PhDs who are interested in straight research and not particularly interested in teaching. But you are giving very mixed signals here.
You want to apply to T-30 schools, but you want to use placement record rankings (assuming you are referring to Table 1: Placement of Oprisko 2013). But as noted even within the abstract, "We find that as one’s prestige rank decreases, their ability to place diminishes." The only school that is listed in the top twenty-five of the placement record that isn't a top twenty-five ranked school is Hopkins, which recognizably has significant symbolic capital even outside of the political science discipline. (If you go to the top thirty of that list, you do add in Iowa, Michigan State, UVA, Syracuse, and FSU, all of which are not ranked in the top thirty of the program ranking cited.) Yet, you still mention UCLA (10/9), Harvard (1/1), Princeton (2/8), and Northwestern (21/19).
I suppose my other trouble with your posts here is that you posted very similar ones in the past, and I do wonder why you have not learned from that experience — from searching for a MA program — how to figure out which schools you should even begin researching and considering. As I mentioned above, you start with people whose work encourages you and interests you and then you look at the broader department, especially if the only reason you are drawn to a university is for the big names. Are more people doing things you like than just the big names? Or is it just them and their prestige? We all have our scholastic idols, but you look for the people and then you stay for the department. Do you like UCLA as a whole or is it just Zollar and Mann? Are you interested in Harvard beyond the name or Fukuyama and Skocpol? Do you see where I'm going with all this?
From my observation, you seem ill-prepared for what you are getting yourself into with a PhD (which is why I pointed you to that other thread of some words of caution in my earlier post).
Edit: It seems that you've already received a very long and thorough list of schools to consider.

Rejected from UMN but accepted to USC and invited to the POIR day in March! That first acceptance feels so good!