megabee

Claiming the Michigan State admit! I'm very excited about it. So much relief to hear from a school - particularly one with some great prospective advisors - and to be given at least one stick to beat back that impostor syndrome. If anyone else has a stake in this, it was an email telling me to check the grad portal, sent around 5 AM US Central. No info on funding or visits yet. Super hyped to know that I can throw out my backup plans, and ready to take on the rest of this application season.

Trolls. Historically, those schools seem to be mid-late February decisions. @DreamersDay pointed out that the Harvard "admit" came on MLK day. I have no personal investment in either school, though, so I've no specifics. Wondering how bored one has to be to troll a bunch of prospective students.

Sadly, RDU doesn't have the flightpath/airline I'm looking for. Chapel Hill does look absolutely lovely though. The airport thing is just a wish list item. I could do without it, and it won't make or break a program for me, but it'd be nice to have.

The current "you got rejected from everywhere" plan is flight attendant school, with the possibility of attempting an online museum studies certificate a few years down the road. A far cry from my PhD goals in political science but it's a good backup plan for my hobby interests - travel and museums.

Thanks for the info! Yikes, not sure I'm a fan of this method. I think I'd like to know when I should be concerned about not hearing back from a school.

Willing to name drop UNC-CH, at least. I think a few of us are waiting for results from them this week. North Carolina is an average fit for me. Good potential advisors if I'm willing to give myself a little wiggle room on my research interests. They have good job placements, of course, and there are geographic pros and cons (I'd get to keep my car, but one of my wish list considerations is nearness to a major airport hub and UNC doesn't meet that).

Strongly disliking this weird purgatory. I am, however, very glad that I can check this forum after going through the circuit of checking my email and various application statuses every morning and evening. A few of my "reach" programs have historically earlier decision dates, and I have this ominous sense of dread in my stomach about it. The program which I think is my best fit doesn't announce until late February/early March. Anyone else in a similar boat with their school list?

Finally joined the waiting game. Letting my last LORs trickle in and dealing with some technical problems on one of my applications. Someone in an office of admissions accidentally submitted my unfinished application for me while processing a fee waiver - craziest thing to happen to me during this process. Imagine my surprise when I logged in to edit my application and saw "You have successfully submitted your application to..." Other than working with the political science department at that school to make sure that they get my (already completed) documents and connect them with my incomplete application, I'm finished! It's out of my hands now.

Godspeed everyone. I've procrastinated on a few with later deadlines just because of the many due today though. Finally got all my Dec. 15ths in, but I've got a few lingering January 2nds. Does anyone else feel like one of their applications is a lot stronger than the others?

Screaming incoherently. Wondering why political science programs favor one of the busiest weeks of the academic year for application submissions.

It's a bit ridiculous to me, primarily because the GRE is possibly the worst possible indicator of whether someone can do quantitative research. I struggled so much with the geometry problems, while the actual stats stuff on there was overly basic and easy to me. But it's not like I invented standardized testing. We've just gotta play into the system. I got 158Q (dragged up kicking and screaming from a 142 on a practice test only one month before), but I'm hoping my quantitative research background will make up for it. We'll see.

Thank you for your suggestions, I've now also submitted applications to UPenn and UCLA. Those numbers for Michigan are actually wild? I submitted the Michigan application awhile back, though, so now it's out of my hands!

First of all, this forum has been an absolute lifesaver during the applications process. However, some of the programs I'm applying to are top 15, so I'm a little concerned. Any input on my school list or how I should frame myself would be greatly appreciated. BA (12/2017): Political Science, History Minor. The degree is from a large, public university in Texas (not UT). My main worry here is the lack of prestige factor. No MA. GPA: 4.0 GRE: 161V 158Q 4.5A LOR: All professors from undergraduate institution. One from my undergraduate research advisor, one from the head of a multi-school data collection project which I was an RA for, one from a professor who knows me only from class but knows how I can participate in a seminar-style setting. All of them know me extremely well (meetings once per week for two years on the first two), so I at least expect the letters to (hopefully) be honest and not very cut-and-paste. Research: Worked as an RA and a coder for a nationally known dataset involving conflict studies. My name is credited on the dataset as an RA. One quantitative research study on ethnic insurgency, unpublished. Another study (IR related and quantitative) is my undergraduate thesis and my WS. A third qualitative study (comparative-ish) is published in an online journal for research conducted while studying abroad. I worry about it being more qualitative when I really want to get into quant stuff. It's searchable on a few academic search engines, though. I've presented a few times, though all have been at my home institution (which is the host of a national undergraduate research conference that I've presented at) because funding is tight. Focus: Conflict studies - specifically civil conflict and ethnic insurgency. I also have (paid) teaching experience in political science. It was three world politics classes for high school students, but the classes are supposed to closely emulate college courses to help first generation/low income/underrepresented groups prepare for undergraduate education. I don't know if this will actually help my application, but I've included it on my SoP and CV. Schools: Stanford, UCSD, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and UNC Chapel Hill are the ones I'm worried about. After that, I have Arizona State, Penn State, and Michigan State. Thanks for any feedback.