HermioneWannabe
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Posts
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Posts posted by HermioneWannabe
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Also still waiting on Chicago
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I think emailing Brandon Bartels is your best bet - he's really responsive and willing to answer questions.
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2 hours ago, VMcJ said:
I think @Monody did.
Thanks!
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Did someone here say they already accepted their Columbia offer? I thought someone did, but I can't find it.
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Cycle is done for me too - still haven't heard from Chicago or Harvard, but I'm counting them as no's. Overall, I'm happy though!
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2 minutes ago, oakeshott said:
JK: Just heard from Harvard. Waitlisted.
Gah - still nothing for me. Did you get a form letter or a personalized one from a faculty member?
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1 hour ago, Bibica said:
I wish I'd never found the results page. My SO also hates that I am constantly refreshing it, even on weekends lol.
Mine too - he told me if I came home from work one more time and talked about grad cafe or spent the entire night refreshing grad cafe he was going to have to leave me hahaha
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11 hours ago, machinescholar said:
You should receive an email from Columbia about Graduate Housing Application or you can also check out here: http://facilities.columbia.edu/housing/how-apply
In general, graduate housing in the main campus (116th Street) is reserved for PhD and Post-Doc so if you are a MA student, you may want to search for off campus alternatives.
Awesome, thanks! I'll be going into their phd program, so I'll keep that in mind.
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9 minutes ago, Comparativist said:
Well, it is presumably supposed to be. But it's track record of predicting who will last and who won't is not very good. Of course, I don't think anyone should expect it to be perfect.
It seems the admissions process is fairly reliable for determining especially strength of applicant/student and potential. You can see that every cycle in these threads. There are a handful of applicants every year that do extremely well across the board. Then there are a handful that get rejected from most or all places. It also does an adequate job of sorting students into the tier of programs that they should probably belong to (not perfect by any means though).
But it doesn't seem like a very good indicator for predicting attrition. Attrition rates for most programs - even top ones - are somewhere around 50%. That's extremely high. Now, I don't think attrition rates should be 0% or else your program isn't rigorous enough (and we certainly wouldn't want the potential candidates pool for academic jobs to double which would be a disaster).
But I also see an admissions process that looks for the best students rather than potentially the most promising or committed ones. Large emphases on pedigree, GPA, GRE, ect. that really doesn't indicate a whole lot.
I did a masters in a program affiliated to a top 25 program and watched attrition closely. Out of a cohort of around 20, 2 or 3 people didn't make it past the first year and a half (one even dropped out after the first semester). Another 2 probably won't even make it to comps. Then a bunch will take the masters and leave. It's crazy how unprepared and unfamiliar these students were with what grad school entails. This is typical across many programs.
That being said, I am sure the admissions process is difficult to do. Lots of applicants and lots of noise in the process.
But I do think there are a few things these programs could do:
1) It's interesting that there is a real lack of an interview process throughout the discipline. Most sciences programs employ them extensively. Even other humanities/social sciences like sociology and history use them quite a bit as well. One way of weeding out those great students that don't really know what they doing/committed is through interviewing them.
2) Smaller cohorts. I really see not reason why some departments have these massive cohorts. Yeah, they need TAs of course, but there are ways of addressing this. The academic market is saturated as it is...and having smaller cohorts that support their students better would make attrition less likely.
3) Political science as a discipline could make masters programs more prevalent and/or used as breeding grounds for developing good candidates for top programs. Other disciplines and countries do this, not sure why political science doesn't. A student who has been through a rigorous masters program is much less likely to not know what they are getting themselves into.
I agree 100% with the interview idea. I have a friend who is doing a neuro science phd and his process was a lot harder - he had to get invited to interview at schools, then go through rigorous interviews and THEN he found out if he got in or not. I think it really helped him pick the best program for him / make sure he really wanted it - on top of helping the programs to decide. I only interviewed at GWU, and that wasn't even a true interview (it was more like a group conversation with two prospects and one professor).
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18 minutes ago, dih2 said:
Does this have to do with Harvard's funding cuts/reduction of spots across grad schools? Also, do you happen to know if it applies across sub fields?
more generally, how does that work? Are there quotas within departments for the various subfields?
I did see an article saying they were cutting 4% of the grad spots due to funding.
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2 minutes ago, Anxiously Awaiting said:
For those waitlisted at Yale, what subfields are you?
AP
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Just now, ralphwiththeconch said:
@HermioneWannabe It's awesome you have an acceptance that you're happy with! I saw earlier that you're thinking of going to Columbia - I worked there for a summer with poli sci profs, and it was great. It's a beautiful place to study.
And yes, an answer is better than radio silence, for sure. I'm just really really hoping that I get off one of my waitlists, both are at my dream schools.
Do you mind me asking what the second one is? What are your specific interests in AP?
Fingers crossed for you!
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1 minute ago, ralphwiththeconch said:
@HermioneWannabe I just got waitlisted at Yale too. Second waitlist...this is killing me! But glad it's not a rejection, at least. Fingers crossed, and sending so much love to whoever has an offer and decides to go elsewhere
Obviously I would have preferred an acceptance
But I'm also have acceptances I'm happy with...it was just killing me not knowing!
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3 minutes ago, VMcJ said:
Just got my Rochester rejection.
Same
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1 minute ago, AsymptoticallyUnbiased said:
Got accepted to Yale for AP. Visiting weekend is April 4-6. Heard from EH and JH.
Were they your POIs?
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Just now, Bibica said:
@HermioneWannabe I know someone in AP who was rejected. It could be that no one who uses this site got an offer for AP? I only say that because I've already gotten my official letter and in previous years Yale sent those all out at once.
However, visiting days are quite late (April 4-6) so they may have some stuff to sent out still? I'm not sure how likely that is.
Thanks, that's helpful!
It's just weird to me that some rejections have gone out and I haven't heard anything yet, especially since they're known for sending everything out back to back.
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5 minutes ago, dih2 said:
Has anyone who got accepted to Yale heard more details about the visiting weekend? Is it funded? I just know the dates, but have heard nothing else.
Sorry to repeat the question, but have anyone in American Politics heard from Yale yet?
When is the visiting weekend, by the way? Maybe that will shed some light on when we can all expect to hear by. Thanks!
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24 minutes ago, dih2 said:
What do you all mean by dissension at Yale? In the entire department? Just some subfields?
I haven't heard any of this!
It's my understanding that the department, but especially AP, is a bit of a mess - unable to agree on things, etc.
But I don't have any insider information.
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Anyone have info about the Columbia grad housing? There's a 95% chance that's where I'll be going in the fall and I like to start having a handle on things as early as possible.
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13 hours ago, Anxiously Awaiting said:
@HermioneWannabe, also waiting to hear back from Yale. Is anyone else waiting to hear back?
What subfield are you? I haven't seen anything (acceptances / rejections / waitlists) for any americanists so I'm wondering if they're just doing it by subfield.
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12 minutes ago, VMcJ said:
I can't help myself to wonder: should I contact UNC-CH to ask about my status? Some people got their acceptances in late January, then some were rejected, and then some more got waitlisted last week, as per the results page. I think it will be a rejection, of course, but I think it's taking way longer than expected. My other schools issued acceptances recently, so I am not as worried to know those.
If it'll give you peace of mind, do it. Honestly, we're late enough in the process that we've all stressed enough.
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Still radio silence from Yale for me....
Just checked my portal, status hasn't changed either. Any ideas??
Welcome to the 2016-17 cycle!
in Political Science Forum
Posted
Same here - hope it helps!