mcm1

Claiming a UMass Amherst acceptance for IR. It feel so good to have my first acceptance be to such a great fit school, plus got a full five year funding package (tuition waiver, plus stipend) as well as a fellowship for the first three summer semesters. Anyone else going to the recruitment days Feb 28/March 1??

Hey congrats!! I'll be there as well. I just got accepted - IR. Maybe I will see you there @mcm1 

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: Public state university in the US
Major(s)/Minor(s): International Studies
Undergrad GPA: 3.7
Type of Grad: MA International Relations, top European university
Grad GPA: 4.0
GRE: 165V, 160Q, 5.5W
Any Special Courses: A few methodology courses
Letters of Recommendation: 2 tenured professors and one visiting assistant professor
Research Experience: 2 research internships in Middle East think tanks, plus research assistant for 2 years in undergrad
Teaching Experience: none
Subfield/Research Interests: International relations of the Middle East, US foreign policy in the Middle East
Other: Book chapter publication, multiple conference papers, a few published op-eds

RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): None
Waitlists: GWU
Rejections: Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Chicago, WashU, Wisconsin-Madison, Ohio State
Pending: Georgetown
Going to: Nowhere. Wasn't accepted.
 
LESSONS LEARNED:
 This is my second cycle applications, and my second cycle of only getting rejections. Figured since I've read almost all of these threads without ever hearing from anyone who was totally rejected I ought to pitch in my experience.
My first cycle I applied to five universities straight out of my BA, which I believed was the main reason I was rejected everywhere. I tried applying more broadly (11 this time around), upped my GRE from 316 to 325, got in a publication and finished an MA. Thought that would put me at least in the competitive field. Was I still too ambitious? Apparently.
Recently at conferences, I met with some professors from the programs that I applied to after I got my rejections. Heard a variety of potential reasons I was rejected ranging from the fact that one of my POIs hasn't had a grad student in years (why don't they publish these things online?), but nothing concrete. Should I have emailed them beforehand? Probably, but I've heard so much conflicting information on the wisdom of bothering POIs as a prospective that I didn't take the risk.
I do have a fairly specialized field that I work in, and all my published work has specifically focused on my sub-sub-subfield. There's no big US university that is specifically tailored to what I want to work on, so I'm not sure how much that killed my chances.
Anyway, the main lesson is that I have learned zero lessons because I've only received ambiguous signals from anyone I have asked. I'm going to do a third round of applications next cycle (I'll bankrupt myself applying to 20+ this time if I have to), and be less ambitious in the rankings I guess.
SOP:
I think mine was fairly standard, around 500 words. Most was the same for each application, with a "fit" section at the end where I tried to tie my work in with some of the papers that my POIs had written recently. Given the results I got, it must suck though.

They already did

Calm before the storm

I've only had two applications that asked for them, Princeton and Yale. AFAIK the rest have to mechanism for providing them, and don't ask for them anyway.

I actually ended up re-doing the whole thing in LaTex rather than Word, and I have to say it looks much better. It offers very fine-tuned control over href behavior, and I learned basic latex syntax in the process. Thanks for the tip.