Bibica

Good luck to you as well! Fingers crossed for everyone. 

Just wanna say, good luck to everyone for next week's round of decisions! Certain that many schools will release their decision by end of next week.

This is actually very normal and typical in academia. Many postdoc and other positions have the same procedure. I'll address the two parts separately (asking if you're still interested and asking for other offers).
This is more normal for programs that only accept a few students, or for programs that have very qualified applicants and they want to get the most qualified ones. Let's use an example of a program that wants to accept 5 students and they have 100 applicants, 10 of which are really good. Ideally they would want to take their 5 students from this pool of 10. However, for whatever reason, they know that their candidates also have good offers from other places (either because the school itself is a top school or they are often a second tier school for top candidates). Let's say you are the #2 ranked candidate. For Candidates #1 through #5, they might want to check if you are still interested before issuing an official offer. An official offer might have a deadline to decide like April 15 so if you sit on that offer until April 15, then by the time you say no, it's likely that Candidates #6 through #10 already took offers elsewhere. So the school will either have less students or take on less desirable candidates (#11 onwards). Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to check in on Candidates #1 to #5 to see if you are still interested before going ahead.
The right thing to do? Be honest. Are you still seriously considering this school? If so, then say yes. If you have some questions before you can know if you're still interested, this is the right time to ask them. If you already have offers from the your top 3 schools so this school is no longer something you want, then be honest and say no. It would be a good time to withdraw your application too. If you say yes now but then get good offers that interest you more later, then it's okay to give them an early decline so that they can move down their list.
As for the asking for other offers thing, this is totally normal as well. If you want to negotiate your stipend, the only real leverage you have is offers from other universities. I am betting that this school has a set base stipend that they initially offer and there's a small pot of money that they can use to make their offer more attractive to their top candidates. So I would interpret this as meaning you are one of their top choices (or at least a top choice for this particular professor) and that they are willing to increase their stipend offer if stipend is what you need to take their offer over another one. 
Your offer letters from other schools are not secret nor confidential (unless otherwise stated?) and you are free to share them. If you are still seriously considering this school then wait to see their official offer. If you have offers from other schools with a larger number, send those letters to her so that she can negotiate for a higher stipend. However, only proceed with this step if you are prepared to take their offer should the negotiation succeed. The prof may have to use some political capital to get you more money and you only want someone to take this effort if you will take the offer.

hey, this is the OP. First of all, you all were right, I shouldn't have been so confident; I didn't get into either Berkeley or NYU, unfortunately  Lesson learned. But I did get in to one of my other top choices in California, which I'm really excited about too! Anyways, thanks to everyone for the critical feedback and sorry for writing an obnoxious post to begin with. Hope everyone else has had good luck this round...

I think the reason why @tkid86 brought up your desire to teach at CCs is because in most cases you do not need a PhD to do so, meaning that getting one would be a waste (why spend 5+ years getting a degree you don't need?), and costly not just in terms of the amount of $$ you might need to spend (if you do not get into a top program) but also from lost wages.
Asking who your favorite scholars are is a good way to gauge your academic interests. But liking Zaller and Skocpol and Fukuyama is just not very informative--I like all those authors and I'm a Comparativist. Those are literally some of the most well-known political scientists in the field, and they do very different things. @tkid86 mentioned you needing the work to find out which scholars you like. That means not just picking names that show up on your syllabi, but reading political science journals and finding out where the authors of articles you like work. It means going on a department's faculty web pages and reading the CVs of professors. You will always get an incomplete answer asking people here to find you schools because we don't know you well enough to tell you where to apply. In fact, I'm shocked you got a list as thorough as the one linked to here. The list of schools has not changed in a year and I don't know why you think they would.
Placement record is important, you're right. However, first you need to get in, and to do so you need to pick schools that are a good fit and write an SOP that clearly identifies your research interests, which you seem unsure of yourself. And it is absolutely fine to be interested in a variety of things, but you'll need to boil that down and write about it at length before they let you in the door. What kind of puzzles are you interested in? Do you have any methodological interests? What do you think you can contribute to the field?
Funding at a top program is not an issue. In fact, as was mentioned above (in the link to @BigTenPoliSci's thread), you should NOT go to a school that does not provide full funding for 4-5 years. I don't have an MA so I can't speak to transfer credits, but at my school you will rarely get credits transferred (top 10 school), and I imagine it is the same at most top schools. Again, different schools will have different policies, and it is best to inquire with them.
TLDR: You will benefit more from doing research on schools on your own and asking us about specific programs than from asking us to pick out schools for you. 

The data I need for my honors thesis exists! I had long given up on finding a dataset so good and had shifted the entire focus of the paper to something else (which is another rant, since it is not working like I want it to). Now I'm tempted to put in the extra work to finish the thesis I originally wanted to write.
BUT I need permission to access the dataset and NO ONE HAS RESPONDED TO ME YET. I know it's only been a week, but I want it now  I have the codebook and know it is perfect. I just want to sit here on a Saturday night with some wine and play with STATA, is that so much to ask?
Trying to be productive and reading up on the literature/editing my own literature review. Let's hope this issue is resolved soon so I can move on with my life.

So who do we expect to hear from next week? Based off of last year, I'm thinking it'll be a busy one: Stanford, Michigan, MIT, Vanderbilt, UPenn and Notre Dame. Maybe more UNC if @PizzaCat93's intel is right. Cornell could surprise me.
 
And, of course, it seems Duke rejections are still trickling in 

Bump. OP should do an update now that both Berkeley and NYU released their decisions.

There might (emphasis on "might") be more announcements from UNC early this week. I walked by a conversation and heard something about the first round of acceptances already being out (as you all know) and that a second round would be coming out soon. But if this is wrong, please, no one be angry... I was in a rush to get to class!

To be fair I am in no way being contentious. At least, I thought I was answering your questions honestly and thoroughly (and don't think I questioned your intent).
You should also keep in mind that, since you're asking these questions in February, when everyone on this forum is stressed about their pending applications, collaboration about schools won't really happen (unfortunately, most people wait until later to start looking for schools). So your future cohort is out there, but it isn't here. Most of the people here have already done the work of looking for schools, and they don't know enough about you (from your original post) to be of much assistance. This is a positive reflection on you in the sense that you're looking now, but also means that you're in a much different place of mind than the majority of users in the forum. And I would think their insights (in terms of what programs are worthwhile and how to look for schools) would be useful to you. 

To be fair I am in no way being contentious. At least, I thought I was answering your questions honestly and thoroughly (and don't think I questioned your intent).
You should also keep in mind that, since you're asking these questions in February, when everyone on this forum is stressed about their pending applications, collaboration about schools won't really happen (unfortunately, most people wait until later to start looking for schools). So your future cohort is out there, but it isn't here. Most of the people here have already done the work of looking for schools, and they don't know enough about you (from your original post) to be of much assistance. This is a positive reflection on you in the sense that you're looking now, but also means that you're in a much different place of mind than the majority of users in the forum. And I would think their insights (in terms of what programs are worthwhile and how to look for schools) would be useful to you. 

I think the reason why @tkid86 brought up your desire to teach at CCs is because in most cases you do not need a PhD to do so, meaning that getting one would be a waste (why spend 5+ years getting a degree you don't need?), and costly not just in terms of the amount of $$ you might need to spend (if you do not get into a top program) but also from lost wages.
Asking who your favorite scholars are is a good way to gauge your academic interests. But liking Zaller and Skocpol and Fukuyama is just not very informative--I like all those authors and I'm a Comparativist. Those are literally some of the most well-known political scientists in the field, and they do very different things. @tkid86 mentioned you needing the work to find out which scholars you like. That means not just picking names that show up on your syllabi, but reading political science journals and finding out where the authors of articles you like work. It means going on a department's faculty web pages and reading the CVs of professors. You will always get an incomplete answer asking people here to find you schools because we don't know you well enough to tell you where to apply. In fact, I'm shocked you got a list as thorough as the one linked to here. The list of schools has not changed in a year and I don't know why you think they would.
Placement record is important, you're right. However, first you need to get in, and to do so you need to pick schools that are a good fit and write an SOP that clearly identifies your research interests, which you seem unsure of yourself. And it is absolutely fine to be interested in a variety of things, but you'll need to boil that down and write about it at length before they let you in the door. What kind of puzzles are you interested in? Do you have any methodological interests? What do you think you can contribute to the field?
Funding at a top program is not an issue. In fact, as was mentioned above (in the link to @BigTenPoliSci's thread), you should NOT go to a school that does not provide full funding for 4-5 years. I don't have an MA so I can't speak to transfer credits, but at my school you will rarely get credits transferred (top 10 school), and I imagine it is the same at most top schools. Again, different schools will have different policies, and it is best to inquire with them.
TLDR: You will benefit more from doing research on schools on your own and asking us about specific programs than from asking us to pick out schools for you. 

I think the reason why @tkid86 brought up your desire to teach at CCs is because in most cases you do not need a PhD to do so, meaning that getting one would be a waste (why spend 5+ years getting a degree you don't need?), and costly not just in terms of the amount of $$ you might need to spend (if you do not get into a top program) but also from lost wages.
Asking who your favorite scholars are is a good way to gauge your academic interests. But liking Zaller and Skocpol and Fukuyama is just not very informative--I like all those authors and I'm a Comparativist. Those are literally some of the most well-known political scientists in the field, and they do very different things. @tkid86 mentioned you needing the work to find out which scholars you like. That means not just picking names that show up on your syllabi, but reading political science journals and finding out where the authors of articles you like work. It means going on a department's faculty web pages and reading the CVs of professors. You will always get an incomplete answer asking people here to find you schools because we don't know you well enough to tell you where to apply. In fact, I'm shocked you got a list as thorough as the one linked to here. The list of schools has not changed in a year and I don't know why you think they would.
Placement record is important, you're right. However, first you need to get in, and to do so you need to pick schools that are a good fit and write an SOP that clearly identifies your research interests, which you seem unsure of yourself. And it is absolutely fine to be interested in a variety of things, but you'll need to boil that down and write about it at length before they let you in the door. What kind of puzzles are you interested in? Do you have any methodological interests? What do you think you can contribute to the field?
Funding at a top program is not an issue. In fact, as was mentioned above (in the link to @BigTenPoliSci's thread), you should NOT go to a school that does not provide full funding for 4-5 years. I don't have an MA so I can't speak to transfer credits, but at my school you will rarely get credits transferred (top 10 school), and I imagine it is the same at most top schools. Again, different schools will have different policies, and it is best to inquire with them.
TLDR: You will benefit more from doing research on schools on your own and asking us about specific programs than from asking us to pick out schools for you. 

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.

Hopkins is beautiful! I'm sending good vibes y'alls way, I absolutely love the campus. 

Hopkins is beautiful! I'm sending good vibes y'alls way, I absolutely love the campus. 

Personally think graduate schools should send all offers by owl tbh

This has been somewhat working for me. You should check out the sweet bottle collection I've started. 

...must refresh email...
...must work on thesis...
...must refresh email...
...must work on thesis...

Personally think graduate schools should send all offers by owl tbh

Personally think graduate schools should send all offers by owl tbh

That. I'll take that. Better than my alternative fantasy that people haven't been responding to me because my application is so bad that they really see no need to reach out at all, lol.
But honestly, it makes me wonder if someone is diverting my emails. I think I broke the refresh button.

Duke rejection 

@Bibica Just have to remember to come up for air every now and then. 

(My UG cohort and I had a FB group where we'd post motivational images, quotes, and cute animal gifs during exams. You've reminded me of that.)

They fund everyone. You'll get an email to check the portal (or it may be uploaded already?) with your offer.
On another note, just got off Skype with UND. POI says he expects decisions soon. Of course, upon asking for clarification, that meant next week. But he said he'd keep me posted, and I'll share the deets as they become available.