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Type of Undergrad Institution: State Public School (Not Highly Ranked) Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science Undergrad GPA: 3.48 Type of Grad: -- Grad GPA: -- GRE: V162 Q156 AW 5 Any Special Courses: Two graduate level courses at a T10 institution through a special program. Letters of Recommendation: 1 Tenured Professor at my institution (we did not share same substantive interests), 1 Assistant Professor at my institution, 1 Tenured Professor from the T10 institution where I completed a program. Research Experience: Independent Study through entire second year, Independent Study the following summer, Local Internship resulting in research paper the following Fall, senior seminar resulting in research paper (in my substantive interests) the following Spring, research program resulting in another research project the following Summer, research presentations in the Fall of my senior year, and the beginning of another independent study this Spring. This is a bit wordy and hard to follow however, this is presented to say I have consistently immersed myself in research from my second year going forward. Teaching Experience: Naturalization course TA, Political Philosophy class TA Subfield/Research Interests: American Politics Other: N/A RESULTS: Acceptances ($$ or no $$): UCLA ($$), UCSD ($$), Columbia ($$), University of Michigan- AA ($$), University of Virginia ($$), Duke ($$), Vanderbilt ($$) Waitlists: - Yale Rejections: Stanford, MIT, Harvard, NYU (Offered admission to MA program), Princeton, UC Berkeley Pending: - Going to: Columbia LESSONS LEARNED: 1) Think about where you are applying. Take the time to read through at least the biographies of the people that may be of interest to you. That means going to the website and filtering faculty by area of interest. It sounds like a lot of work, especially if you are applying to many schools, however, you will thank yourself later, and you will maximize your chances of being accepted when there is a genuine fit. 2) Don’t freak out about GREs. My GREs aren’t that great, and I got into some amazing programs. I personally know people with lower GRE scores than I had, who still got into T10 institutions. I know for people applying GREs can be a great source of stress, but I hope this alleviates some of the anxiety, don’t sweat it, you got this. 3) Apply to a wide range of programs. Do not limit yourself to where you think you can get in. Half of the programs on my list were not on my initial school list because I thought there was no way I could get in, but I was dead wrong. Apply to the most prestigious programs if that’s somewhere you want to be and of course if you can afford it. 4) For people of color/underrepresented backgrounds – Ronald E. McNair is your friend. If you meet the requirements, the McNair Scholars program can make a world of difference. I did not pay for any applications (hundreds of dollars in savings) because I was a McNair scholar. Schools want to diversify their cohorts, being a McNair scholar in some ways is a draw. Also, you can join McNair pretty late into your undergraduate career and still benefit from the free application waivers. You also get to cut the cost of the GRE in half (that will come in handy). 5) Stick to having about 2 different people help you with your apps. Asking for advice is important. On optional statements as well as your SOP and writing sample. However, you will find that the “right thing to do” will vary based on who you ask. You want to be as prepared as possible but asking too many people will result in having conflicting opinions and possibly a weaker package. 6) Letter writers matter, but in varying forms. I would imagine the importance of letter writers vary based on the committee dealing with applications. I did not have anyone widely renowned in my field write a letter for me, although I technically had the option to have that. I chose to have the people who knew me best write my letters, and I feel it worked to my advantage. One of my writers was not even tenured and before the results came in, I panicked a bit due to the stigma surrounding those kinds of people write recommendations. The people who wrote letters for me I’m sure wrote them extremely strong because they spoke best to my strengths and weaknesses as a budding scholar. I would say do not worry too much about the status of your professor, I was glad I asked the assistant professor to write my letter, it was probably the strongest one, if not the second most. These are the people willing to stick there necks out for you, and it works (at least for me). 7) Don’t be afraid to reach out. I e-mailed professors in almost all the institutions I applied to because, I wanted to make sure they felt out interests fit. There is no harm in that, and if you do it right it will help! They really do remember you, and you never know, it could mean the difference since this process is such a crap shoot. As for timing, I emailed in the summer before the application process and followed up when I submitted my application. 8) Making a decision is tough, even if you got accepted to the school you thought was your favorite. This process is long, and your favorite school might not be your favorite by the time all the decisions roll in. For me this process was filled with stress, even if it was a good problem to have. This also goes for people who are not accepted to their dream program. It is going to hurt, but if you prepared yourself in the right way, your other options are also great fits for you, meaning you will have a great time in a multitude of ways, elsewhere. When navigating through making your choice, try to think about where you can see yourself actually completing the program and also growing most personally and professionally. 9) Gradcafe is not all that bad. Professors will tell you to stay off of this website. Although they do have a point (your anxiety builds up as you see others get accepted places), this website also has great value. You have people going through the same thing as you, and it provides a bit of structure when you feel in dark in regards to the decisions rolling out. That said, I primarily visited the main 2017 discussion thread and refreshed results here and then. On a bit of a side note, do not go to polisci rumors… that website is utterly toxic. If you have any other questions PM me, I am open to chatting about the process. SOP: Layout: 1st ¶: My research interests/subfield and why I think its important to pursue ideas along those lines (very brief and to the point). 2nd ¶: A little bit more about the kinds of puzzle I want to pursue alongside my plans on how I would study it in the near future (Spring Independent Study). 3rd ¶: What I have done throughout my undergraduate career to try to study the puzzle I have been discussing, alongside the limitations I encountered. 4th ¶: What I have been doing more recently (think around the Fall when students apply to schools) concerning the topics of my interest and also how beginning to speak to how X school might help me overcome the limitations I have encountered. Essentially a paragraph speaking about the value added to me if I am admitted to X school. 5th ¶: Fit paragraph! Who I wanted to work with, what interested me about what they do, and any research centers/opportunities that stand out from X school. In addition to expressing interest in helping them with their research agendas. 6th ¶: Aspirations (very short)

I just did the same yesterday! Good luck to everyone/

Well my case was sort of different because all directions pointed to Columbia. (I'm from NY, better funding, and I visited some of my schools in the past so I met grad students and some faculty already). Visits are important! I actually was at Columbia today. Definitely dont choose the school before seeing it I feel unless there are some extenuating circumstances. TL;DR: It's all good, don't feel any rush to make a choice.

I'll be accepting my offer at Columbia too, but I wont be at the visit day. D:

If you check the portal it sounds like we have to wait until after the 15th of April, which sounds super strange to me.

Also American Politics, however I do not know how the waitlist works, do they adjust based on area of study?

Waitlisted at Yale as well!

Also got rejected by MIT D:

They distribute the list to the faculty before they send us the acceptances. With that being said, it may very well be on the same day. I don't think it is impossible. As of right now though, they are not done deliberating on who gets an offer, since the professor at UMich indicated that he was just as in the dark about it as we are. Unless they are rushing to get out the offers, I wouldn't bank on UMich releasing stuff today (I felt someone who was anxious about Michigan might be calmed by info like this at least for today). But like I said, you never know.

Hey y'all, a little bit of inside info on UMich. My professor who got his PhD there, reached out to a friend on faculty and the faculty member has no idea who has been accepted. This is important because when UMich makes their decisions and makes acceptances they distribute a list of those they accepted to the current faculty and the graduate students apparently. So if they don't know yet, I don't believe we will be knowing at least today. But, you never know. Hope this puts some at ease about Michigan for now.

Claiming a Columbia admit. Don't know how fast they're rolling out, but best of luck to everyone!

It's the onelink thing they tell you to sign up for when you submit your application

Claiming acceptance to Duke (Americanist). Got an e-mail to check decision on website, no funding info yet, at least not updated on website

How likely do you all think it is that Duke would send admissions notifications past open hours (5 PM EST)?

Yeah I get you, but keep your head up! Don't be too concerned as of now, since they're contacting people all the way up to the 20th. I'm assuming they do this pretty slowly to give each person they're interviewing the option to choose the time of their phone call.