Chuck Mangione

That's rough. At the very least though you have UC Davis which is quite great. Davis is wonderful and Sacramento is a good place (albeit it's home to a basketball team that causes me physical pain to support every year). I'm just going to quote Hacksaw Ridge and say, "Lord, help me get one more."

I keep telling myself that but I'm honestly just getting worse and worse mentally. It's sort frustrating that I worked so hard and spent so many countless hours and nights preparing for this, only for it to culminate in a blunt and frankly insincere letter that probably only took 2 seconds to send. This entire process is slowly sapping away at my will to live lol

Rejected from UCSD. Looks like I was too much of a dumbass That makes Wisconsin, UC Davis, UCSD, and most likely Northwestern and Berkeley. 0/5 let's go for the 0/15 and send my confidence straight to the ninth circle of hell lol

I'm in the IR field so hopefully, admissions are staggered. You basically have an admits list about the same status as the Avengers so that's always good to have!

This is not ideal for me lol Congrats though

15, but assuming non-replies mean rejection, I am 0/5 so far.

Does anyone know if UCSD has acceptances all at once or staggers them? Striking out seems like a heavy possibility.

So if we haven't gotten a UCSD admit, I presume we should assume rejection 0/5

Tfw you expect to get rejected everywhere so you're beginning to apply to Japanese PhD programs.

My friend in South Korea has told me she just got into UChicago's PhD program so take that for what it's worth

I would be concerned if I got a rejection from Emory or UW because I didn't apply there haha But in all seriousness, I get what you're saying. Thank you for the reassurance. The combination of a long day of work and receiving a rejection e-mail doesn't go too well together.

I wouldn't particularly say that because my area of focus was on Korea and Japan and the schools I have so far been rejected from did not have exact matches in the area or were top-tier competition (i.e. Cal and Northwestern). It's really what you make of your time at CIR. I went in not sure whether or not I wanted to do a Ph.D. or law school, so I hesitated on that. Many of my other friends have been able to get into stellar schools from CIR with full-funding such as OSU. It just so happens that a majority of the people who do apply to CIR in my year chose to pursue the professional field. I believe the year after me was actually a flip around where a majority were Ph.D. prospects. There are countless opportunities such as PIPS (I think that's how it was spelled) and critiques of your thesis to make sure your work gets properly written, and the network there is always strong. Albeit, some professors are quite busy especially the older or more notable ones (such as Professor Mearsheimer or Cumings), but they will make the time of the day for you.

That is somewhat reassuring to hear. I'm just under so much stress at this point. I can only hope USC does the same for me (albeit I don't know if I can handle another 4 years of football after the sadness I saw during undergrad).

Time to add another rejection to the list. Bad week gets worse lol

Chicago CIR was incredibly great for me, and I got to receive advice from Professor Cumings. I met some of my best friends there (albeit that was because the Japanese government sent a lot of their workers there for the Booth School so I was able to get along with them fairly easily due to my own cultural similarities) and the education I received was definitely top notch. If there is any reason for my failings so far in this Ph.D. cycle, it comes from my own personal deficiencies and not from Chicago. Regardless of whether or not you're going to pursue a Ph.D., I think having a MA from Chicago is always great for job prospects and whatnot.

I haven't heard back from Georgia or UCI. I suppose I should also assume rejection as well?

We should start a support group lol Somehow I feel like saying my research area focuses on Korea, Japan, and China was a poor idea.

Unfortunately, that's what I've come to expect at this stage. So far for me, it's been rejections from Berkeley, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Davis.

I'm wishing the best for you. You most likely have the appropriate credentials deserving of a Ph.D. program unlike me.

I've worked hard for the past year and a half to prepare for this, and I have nothing else left in the tank. If this goes poorly, I will probably just go to the military or something and try to build a career off of that instead since it's obvious I've wasted time and effort with my education and work experience up to this point.

Rejection from Wisconsin, UC Davis, and no notification from Princeton, Northwestern, or UC Berkeley Good thing I live on the 10th floor

By supervisor, do you mean the professor I'd want to work with even if I haven't sent in an application at this point? On a side note, thank you for the advice you've been giving so far!

It's not a Plan B, and it's my fault for poorly conveying that in the form of a bad joke. It was more or less something I ultimately came to pursue as I was initially going to pursue a PhD after my Master's program before I decided that I wanted to take a step back and take a break before completely burning out. Applying for law school was something I did as a second though given I had already taken the LSAT during my undergraduate education. As I stated before, my lack of research experience is what concerns me the most, outside of my time interning abroad which I am hard-pressed to even call "research." I appreciate your bluntness and candour in giving me advice though. So in the event that my undergraduate GPA is as horrendous as mine was but I managed to make it up with a Master's program, would it still be an application send straight into the trash? I'm a bit traumatized by law school admissions which were more or less nothing but a pure statistics game, which I failed to realize that my Master's program had little to no effect upon helping me get into. I am happy to hear that there is a lot more filtering and that chances are high if I can get past this, though funding isn't too much of an issue for me if that is the case. Thank you for the solid advice!

Type of Undergrad: Top 25 undergraduate institutionMajor: International RelationsUndergrad GPA: 3.181 cumulative, 3.327 majorType of Grad: I'll just be frank here, it was the University of Chicago CIR ProgramGrad GPA: 3.75GRE: 160 V, 158 Q, 4.5 W (planning on retaking them to break 165)Any Special Courses: Nothing aside from a few Asia-focused classes I took since I research that area heavily and wrote my thesis on itLikely Letters of Recommendation: One from a very well-regarded professor in the field I study and two others from professors I knew at my undergrad who like me a lot and still keep in contact with even after retirement.Research Experience: This is where it's a bit iffy. I have a summer where I researched abroad and worked at an international law firm as an intern during undergrad. Aside from that, I've just been trying to find something right now.Research Interests: Political economy, East Asia international affairs, Korea and Japan relationsQuantitative Skills: STATA, SPSS, Excel, MATLAB Other: I spent (read wasted) a year applying to law school and that didn't pan out. I'm going for a PhD at this point. Also applying for some internships and research programs but I won't know until August whether I'll get into them. What my main concern here is my lack of research experience, alongside whether or not I can feasibly get into any good Political Science programs with my stats. I don't know if doing a Master's program (even if it is Chicago) makes up for a lack of research experience. My undergraduate GPA was frankly shit because I started off as an engineer and it just went downhill until I just churned out A's and B's once I made the switch to IR. Also, I don't really know how the UK (i.e. Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial College) goes about their PhD applications. I'd imagine the process isn't that much different from the US but I really do want to know what tests are needed or if there's anything I need to prepare before I apply there. In any case, thanks for any future advice!

I personally went to and graduated from the CIR program. If you have any questions regarding it, just let me know. It was an incredibly fun time and the professors are always willing to help. The Chicago "where fun goes to die" sort of holds true, but you get used to it over time.