[Profiles, Results, SOPs, and Advice 2017]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: top 20 US university
Major(s)/Minor(s): political science, computer science minor
Undergrad GPA: 3.81
Type of Grad: n/a
Grad GPA: n/a
GRE: 169V / 168Q / 5.0W
Any Special Courses: game theory, econometrics, quantitative political methodology, ~advanced r programming, research design, matrix algebra, calc III
Letters of Recommendation: 1) poli sci tenured professor, senior thesis advisor; 2) comp sci tenured professor, TA supervisor; 3) poli sci tenure-track professor, TA and RA supervisor; 4) (when possible) poli sci tenured professor, took two seminars with him
Research Experience:  undergrad thesis; lil bit of r and python coding for professors' projects
Teaching Experience: two comp sci courses, one poli sci
Subfield/Research Interests: IR, international organizations and international law
Other:

RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): emory, wisconsin, nyu, osu, unc, penn state, texas a&m (all $)
Waitlists: harvard
Rejections: stanford, yale, columbia, rochester, ucla
Pending:
Going to:

 

LESSONS LEARNED:

For 6 of the 7 places where I was accepted, I included a section in the SOP about why I wanted to go to that school specifically, where I mentioned a few professors I'd like to work with and whatever talking points I could scrape from the website.

 

For 4 of the 6 where I did not get in, I basically submitted a (cmd+F replace with school name) form SOP.  Take away from that what you will. 

 

In retrospect I applied to too many places. At the time I had absolutely no way of knowing whether I had a shot at any one place, so I tried to maximize my chances. I did make sure only to apply to places where I would have been happy to go.

 

On the advice of my undergrad mentors, I refrained from contacting any professors before being accepted to their programs. Again, mixed success, so take from that what you will.