Bibica

Some information is included on the 2 page letter you can download. As far as I can tell, it is something given to all social science/humanities students (at least, my SO and I also got it). It seems to mean that we don't have a work obligation, at least in the first year.

Yay! Congrats! And @Kenga, yep, it's been a crazy day.

Me for all three. Removed myself from the waitlist.

Quiet night tonight. Wonder if the whole week will be like this or if there will be a flurry of schools on Thursday/Friday.

True, and Princeton was supposed to be Feb. 9, but released them in January. We only have these rough guidelines but they could technically come at any time.

For emails from professors, I generally say something like: Dear Professor X, Thank you for your email. I was delighted to hear of my acceptance to your program and am looking forward to attending visiting days in March. I hope to speak with you then. Then, if I have questions about the program, I will ask them. Otherwise, something along the lines of "I will be sure to come to you with any questions I have in the following weeks." Best Wishes,

Echoing the sentiments of @Comparativist and @Kenga. But, from what I've seen, most of the notifications this cycle have come out later in the day, between 3-5 local time.

@Shirtless Putin's Horse You're my favorite.

Just going off of what the results page said. Could be a troll, but if it is then they're evolving.

Oh, I don't think I would, especially after receiving their funding offer. I noticed that someone had posted a Duke admit and people had been asking about them for the past two weeks. I also paid for these applications so I'm generally curious as to how they turned out. EDIT: Also what @resDQ said. These are my future colleagues and I want them to like me.

Oh jesus, here comes Duke.

First, congrats on getting into two very good schools. They are tied in rank according to US News, so things you ought to consider are fit (how well your research interests align with faculty), placement record, funding, and location. My advice is to reach out to professors and especially graduate students at both of these schools and discuss these things before making your decision.

@VMcJ I did the same as you, and only applied to programs I could see myself at. Although I am no longer considering some of them, I spent so much time researching each school and imagining myself on their campuses that I almost feel nostalgic about it. Still, we have to make a decision at some point, and earlier is better in many cases. Have you been able to narrow down your options at all? I can see you're still waiting for a lot of schools.

@resDQ on further reflection, I am inclined to agree with you. Finally have a draft I'm happy with, so I should be sending that out to one or two schools next week. I know it will be a relief after, but the thought of turning down programs so early in the cycle just feels wrong. But I know they're out of the running for me and it is only fair. Hopefully it frees up some space for others, though. @concrema of course! I'm very lucky to know some people in admin + older grad students who have drilled into me the importance of negotiation. Apparently men do it a lot more than women, which is a shame.

If it is a school that you're excited about attending, it is absolutely okay to haggle for more funding. Especially if you have an offer at another university that gives you more funding. I spoke to someone in my university who handles this sort of stuff and she said that they'll almost always give an extra $1000-3000 to someone who says that funding is preventing them from accepting. Keep in mind that before they accepted you, you were trying to convince them. Now THEY'RE trying to recruit YOU. They've already decided that they want you, and that gives you some bargaining power. That being said, it is important to be polite about it, and it would definitely help if you visit first.

I think you're right, and I've decided to decline two of my offers without visiting. I've been trying to draft a short letter that expresses (1) how grateful I am to have been accepted, (2) how difficult a decision this has been for me, (3) that unfortunately I have to decline their offer (4) some sort of reason??? Is there a polite way to say that I have received better offers? One school has given me a pretty unlivable stipend but the other was downright charitable. I'm turning them down before making my final decision, so it isn't like I can say "After careful consideration, I have decided to attend University X." And I don't feel comfortable saying "another school" in case they follow up with "which one?" Also at one of these schools no professor has reached out to me, but at the other 2 have. Should I tell them about my decision as well? Ultimately I know I'm not a huge loss to either of these schools but I still want to be as polite as possible about it without burning down any bridges. Academia is a small world...

I doubt it @polisci13542, but then I've been wrong about these things this whole cycle and will believe just about anything at this point. I'm trying to treat the weekend like the weekend: pizza and wine, and not checking my email all the damn time.

Yay! Congrats! College Station is a very nice city to live in, pretty good food and very affordable.

How should I go about declining an offer of admission? I just received my funding package for a school that I quite liked, and thought was a great fit. It wasn't exactly my top choice but it was competitive and I was going to at least visit campus before making my decision. Anyway, the funding is no way enough to survive on given the high cost of living in that area. I'm not sure whether I should still visit, voice my financial concerns to them, or just send an email to the department and decline the offer on the portal.

I think it depends on how often you're getting positive (or negative) news. I informed my letter writers when I got my first acceptance, then yesterday I sent them an update (and met with one of them, but I had a meeting scheduled anyway). So once a week? Or once every other week? But if nothing changes in a week then I wouldn't bother, and honestly if I hadn't had a phone call with a professor at one of the schools I was accepted into I would have waited longer to update my letter writers. That being said, your letter writers/other professors are great resources for what questions you should be asking prospective advisers, what you should expect in terms of funding/resources, things you should know and weigh in your decision, etc.

Duke, Stanford (maybe), UMN (maybe), Notre Dame (maybe), Columbia. Might be easier to know where you applied and check the results page for previous years (search "political science" + "school name".

Apparently last year they took forever and had a very confusing cycle. I recommend doing this search with all your programs. There's no guarantee that they'll be the same this year but it gives you an idea of what to expect.

Waiting on Duke, Notre Dame, and UMN, among others. I thought Duke would come out this week but that's looking increasingly less likely. Oh well. :/

Congratulations!! Glad to see at least one NYC school doling out the good news today What's your subfield?