apolloscreed

Type of Undergrad Institution: Big-10 State School Majors/Minors: Political Science/History Undergrad GPA: 3.4 Type of Grad: MA with a security studies concentration at a DC-based policy school Grad GPA: 4.0 GRE: 163 157Q 5.5A Any Special Courses: Graduate level applied statistics Letters of Recommendation: Three graduate school professors and my research center director Research Experience: Extensive applied research in my field for a number of high profile organizations Teaching Experience: Subfield/Research Interests: International Relations / Security Studies Other: A few years of work experience after undergrad. RA internships throughout grad school. Applied to PhD right out of Master's. Multiple field-specific publications and current employment as a research director at an Ivy-League university research center. RESULTS: PM me for specifics if curious. Acceptances ($$ or no $$): 1 USNWR top-3 ($$$), 1 middle-ranked policy-leaning program ($$) Waitlists: 1 highly-ranked policy-leaning IR program Rejections: 6 USNWR top-30 programs Pending: Georgetown Going to: top-3 program LESSONS LEARNED: 1) Apply widely and to a lot of schools if possible: I knew that my chances at most top schools were slim; however, because of my refined research interests and experience working on the same research agenda in a number of professional roles, I felt I had a good shot at making it in somewhere in the upper echelon. 2) Fit matters: This is why you should apply widely. You may have amazing stats and tons of experience, but your interests might not align with the department at all or nobody may be currently willing to support your research. Likewise, your stats may be less than stellar (like myself) and you may be an excellent fit for a particular program that sees promise in your research and is keen to support your scholarship. 3) Find a way to stand out: This can be accomplished any number of ways. But the bottom line is, your application is in a pile with hundreds of others (perhaps even just within your subfield!). Speaking as someone who conducts hiring for research positions on a regular basis, those candidates that stand out for one reason or another are much more likely to get serious consideration--even if based on metrics alone they are less competitive. 4) Network: Academia isn't the corporate world, but it is a small, very connected world and who you know can make you stand out. If you're able to get in direct contact with a professor you want to work with, then do it! The worst that happens is they say no. If you know someone who worked with or studied under someone you want to work with, leverage that to your advantage. Again, it is all about standing out.

Georgetown

This is true. And given the chatter this morning/last night about “Penn usually announcing on Presidents Day,” it wouldn’t be surprising. However, the results postings do mention the DGS correctly and differ in their level of detail and style. Perhaps that is reading into it too much, but I’m still crossing my fingers nonetheless.

Accepted at George Mason. It is my safety school, but having one fully funded acceptance in the bag makes waiting out the next seven decisions much less stressful! For what I'd like to study and pursue career wise, GMU is actually a great option for me. So I'm choosing to see the bright side in all of this moving forward 1a/1w/1r/7p

*checks mail box in major city on the NE corridor* Nope. Although I did get a notification that a FedEx letter had been delivered to me today. It was my MA diploma. Satisfying, but certainly not what I had hoped it was. Do let us know when (if) you receive an email notification. I’m moving in a couple of weeks and have nightmares about schools sending any sort of decision via snail mail to my former address and mail forwarding missing it!

Same boat here. If Columbia had sent out their full set of admissions then I suspect there would be more results posts. I also suspect Chicago may be trickling out. Perhaps some subfields met and finalized this morning and the others will get together this week. Or not—but I'd like to sleep soundly tonight so I'm going with that prediction.

I don't exactly have any helpful info in that regard. I received an email from the director of the doctoral program, she also happens to be a POI of mine for what that's worth. The email seemed relatively personalized, but who knows. I do know that individuals posted acceptances and waitlists for SIS's PhD on the results page on the same day, but I have not seen any rejections. Couldn't hurt to contact them at this point!

Long time lurker here. Just received an email from the American University SIS DGS informing me that I was waitlisted. I am relatively surprised by this in a good way actually--my research is not exactly the best fit and their cohort is generally quite small. They received over 200 applications for 8 slots and expect 4-5 people to be accepted off of the relatively short waitlist. After being rejected from GW, this is not the news I was necessarily hoping for, but there are still 8 more results to come! Edit: I should add some info to my results post. I am a few years removed from undergrad and recently completed an MA in IR with a 4.0 GPA. I have relatively extensive research experience within my area of interest. The good thing is that it displays a level of research and professional experience within the field. The bad thing is that it paints a distinct picture of my focus and interests, thus making it easy for adcomms to say "well that's just not a good fit."