cbsag123

I'm applying for the second time for PhD programs (Fall 2024 admissions) in the US, after an unsuccessful earlier attempt in 2020 for the 2021 admissions cycle (that was a brutal cycle... unsure if I've recovered enough from that). I just created some of the accounts on the applicant portals for schools I'm targeting, and I noticed that because I'm using the same email address, they have a bunch of my info saved -- including old GRE scores that were sent to them by ETS. I do not want to retake the GRE, so I was planning on sending those same scores again anyway and was happy to see I don't have to pay $$ to ETS to send them to the schools. However, I noticed that since I last submitted my scores in 2020, the percentile scores, especially for the quant section, have gone down significantly (in my case from 85% to 73%). As the scores in the application portal are "verified" because they received the official scores from ETS, I can't go in there to update these percentile changes. My question is, if I submit an application including those old, verified scores, will I be penalized or perhaps even accused of deceiving the admissions committees because I reported outdated percentiles? Will anyone notice or care? Or am I just lucky that they still have the old scores? Any insights into this would be much appreciated!!

Hello! I'm planning on submitting my thesis as my writing sample when applying for political science PhD programs this fall. I'm wondering, when editing the writing sample, should I remove all mentions of the document being a thesis? For example, if I say in the introduction "In this thesis, I will do X" should I change that to writing sample, or do admissions committees not care since most people do not write an original piece for their writing sample? Also, what kind of information do people include in the cover page? As always, your help is much appreciated.

Hello! I'm an international applicant intending to apply next Fall for the entering class of Fall of 2024. I already applied to PhD programs before, but this was in 2020/2021 -- an absolutely brutal cycle. Back then I got rejected from all schools I applied to, but I want to try my luck again next cycle. My GRE score from back in 2020 is 165Q/163V/4.0AW. I'm worried in particular about the low AW score, but also just want to ask in general if this would be considered a good-enough score for admission at top-20-ranked PhD programs? I really don't want to retake the GRE, but if it increases my chances, I'd rather get started on reviewing the material now before it's too late. Any input from you all is appreciated! A little bit more about my background: I did my undergrad (GPA 3.9) and M.A. (GPA 3.8) at Top-20 US universities, but I was born and raised in Europe and I'm not a native English speaker. I have some experience in research working as an R.A. and writing B.A. and M.A. theses, but no notable publications except for a few at my undergrad's undergrad political science journal. I'm currently working as a data analyst/data scientist, and I'm leaning towards a more quant-y focus in PhD. Thank you all!

Should we expect to hear about waitlist status today?

Has anyone gotten on the waitlist at NYU? Do we know if they have an official waitlist this year?

Has anyone heard back from MAPSS?

is harvard a done deal then if we havent heard anything by now?

Thank you, that's very helpful. Even though I've never even reached out to any POIs beforehand haha

To all of you who've gotten on the waitlist at these top universities -- is there anything one could do at this stage to increase chances of admission? Like, do I let them know that I've been rejected everywhere except for the waitlist spots, or would that end up hurting my chances of negotiating a better funding package in the long run without actually helping my chances of getting of the waitlist?

I might be blind but I don't see anyone claiming a Govt Phd admit from Harvard on the results page?

has anyone gotten formal rejections from UCLA and/or NYU yet? aka is there still hope?

is that true though or just them saying that? (not doubting you but rather wondering if others wanna weigh in with their opinions)

How do you guys go about reputation/ranking of international school and/or assessing the likelihood that an MA at school X will help with Ph.D. apps in the future? I'm currently looking at Amsterdam, LSE, and a few other programs for comparative politics, but I have no clue how I'm supposed to know if these schools are reputable (I know LSE is but every other school, not so much)

Has anyone gotten on NW's waitlist yet? i saw a weird post on the results page but I don't trust anything on there..

Has anyone gotten a rejection from UCLA or NYU yet?

Exactly! Also makes me wonder if there's anything we can do at this point to show our commitment to the school?

To those rejected from UChicago (this includes me), did everybody's application get forwarded to either CIR or MAPSS? How tough is the competition for these programs do you think?

How many of you all are planning on applying next cycle? Do you think the competition will be similarly horrible?

you should at the very least ask for your application fee to be reimbursed, in my opinion! what the hell!

i hope so, only if they accept me though. if not, they can shut up forever haha

guess WashU is yet another school I'm not in then -- this is getting very disheartening. Much love to all of you out there who are in a similar position as I am, not having gotten a single piece of good news yet this cycle.

congrats! was this via email? portal? individual email from poi?

does anyone know how many people who apply to uchicago and get rejected get offered a spot at their MAPSS program? and does anyone know when those decisions are usually sent out?

I'm wondering if there's any way to predict when we're gonna get formal rejections from schools? Specifically wondering about Berkeley, UChicago and NYU, since those schools all released acceptances but have yet to release rejections even though in the past they had been released in the same week at least. any insights?

So it appears as though MIT released acceptances and rejections over the course of two days in previous years, or at least that's when people posted them on the forum. Is there still hope to get an acceptance later today or tomorrow?