santudius fusansus
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Posts posted by santudius fusansus
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Still...nothing from Cambridge
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Anyone heard back from Cambridge?
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5 minutes ago, Nicholashjbc said:
Anyone hear back from Princeton? Historically, now it's the time for those who are admitted to receive the informal emails...
4 minutes ago, cpmethods said:I think they are done with the acceptances.. I am crossing it off my list and expecting the rejection probably in 1-2 days
Thanks...I just wonder anyone with political theory subfield got admitted here
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Anyone hear back from Princeton? Historically, now it's the time for those who are admitted to receive the informal emails...
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On 1/11/2018 at 11:05 AM, ArcierePrudente said:
Yes, this is my first post, and yes, it's a desperate call for you all to evaluate my profile. In my defense, I lost my sanity long before I lost my shame, so I've been fighting this urge for a while.
While I'm applying to a few schools, this evaluation pertains only to the University of Chicago (Political Science; Theory Subfield)*. I've been freaking out more and more over the past couple of weeks (as I know we all have), so I'd appreciate any insight you all could offer.
*I'm also applying to Social Thought, but realize it's even more difficult to predict one's chances of admission to CST from data like this than it is for Poli-Sci. If you'd like to provide feedback on my CST viability, that would be awesome, but Poli-Sci admission is probably a bit easier to gauge.
BA: Political Science at a Top-20 or 25 university, depending on year. Major GPA 3.95.
MA: University of Chicago, graduated last June (so yes, several poli-sci faculty know me well). Partial scholarship. All A's with some A minuses.
GRE: 167V/154Q/4.5 AWA (I underscore on standardized writing tests despite being a good writer).
Awards/Conferences/Research/Misc:
- Undergraduate, university-wide analytical essay award
- Presented at an Oxford University conference immediately after undergrad
- Half-tuition scholarship for a summer abroad program in Italy
- M.A. thesis nominated for a department-wide thesis award (now in the final stages of review)
- M.A. work/study job proofreading a (now-deceased) philosopher's lecture transcripts from their tenure at UofC
- As an M.A., also proofread a paper for a senior faculty member's upcoming book project
- Partial scholarship for a summer Latin intensive at UofC
- Currently a writer for a political and corporate PR firm
LoRs: All three from Chicago professors; 2 well-known in political science, one of whom advised my thesis and remains a POI for PhD study. We both write on the same subject and have a similar methodology. Writer 3 is a Classics professor whose class directly related to my field of interest and informed my thesis/ongoing work.
Languages: Italian (fluent), French (conversational), Latin (reading), German (just beginning, but currently studying)
Faculty Fit/Research Interests: Best recognized as a Machiavelli scholar. Lately I've also been trying to merge this with liberal/immanent critique. My methods tend to involve close readings and rhetorical analyses as a means of de-constructing and re-interpreting political/theoretical paradigms. I'm interested in how political thought/rhetoric informs political behavior, and vice versa. Recently, I've also gotten into political theology quite a bit—I use the term 'theology' broadly, and as distinct from religion. And yes, I write—fairly impartially, I like to think—on Strauss.
For Poli-Sci, one of my target faculty (the one who advised my thesis/wrote one of my letters) would seem to be an excellent research fit going forward, but he's on leave this year so I doubt he'll be sitting on the adcomm directly.
Another POI looks like an excellent fit as his work relates to my methodology, and to specific research topics that I'm newer to — but I've never taken a course from him and we haven't spoken much. He's also on leave next year, which I just found out today — so again, not sure what this means in terms of my chances.
I mention other university faculty in my SoP with whom I've worked, and who would likely speak highly of me if contacted, but they aren't directly involved with the PoSc department.
For CST, I have a similar issue: one POI was on leave last year, but I've communicated with him substantially (his was the article I mentioned editing above) and had several extended face-to-face meetings with him. He knows me and my work well. The application that eventually resulted in my MA admission was first directed to CST (they referred me to the MA), and this Professor emailed me during that review process to let me know how much he enjoyed reading my writing sample. A few months ago I told him how meaningful this had been, and he remarked that he didn't remember many applicants' writing samples, and that mine remained one of the few that he recalled. He also said that I came 'very close' to admission last time, BUT he also said that after reviewing my MA transcript, if he were going on my course selections alone he might consider me a better for Poli-Sci than CST. I don't imagine the fact that I'm applying to all other Poli-Sci or Government programs will help much. I address/explain this in my SoP somewhat, but am not sure how well.
Another POI looks like a great peripheral/methodological fit, but I've never spoken with him directly.
Another POI is a largely similar case, except I have had a couple of face-to-face conversations with him. No classes, although I sat in on one while visiting Chicago ages and ages ago. I mention this class, and how cool it was, in my SoP (NB: I'm pretty sure I found a different word for 'cool' in my SoP. Pretty sure).
Biggest Concerns: Aside from the low Quant and AWA GREs, and the couple of A minuses from the MA, I don't see any giant red flags. What worries me more is that these are two incredibly competitive programs, and I'm vying for one of very few spots among a probable cohort of Fulbright scholars, GREniuses, scholars with a whole list of peer-reviewed publications, people who are fluent in a dozen languages, etc. My concerns are mostly of the 'good enough' variety.
This has all gone on quite long enough. Many thanks for any input people would like to offer.
I also applied to CST this year. It's great that you can have the chance to talk with the professors directly. I tried to contact some of them by email but no responses.
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26 minutes ago, soliloquy said:
As a current student as well as recent interviewee I'm fairly expert on this
The interview is divided into three parts: first they ask you generally about your interests and past work, then they discuss your proposal with you -- methodology, approach, impact etc -- and finally they try to identify with you your training needs -- hands-on archaeology, epigraphy, German, numismatics, you name it.
Let me stress that the final part is IN NO WAY intended to spot your weaknesses and use them against you: admitting that you can't even read German, for example, will not impair your application, since the Faculty is well equipped to cater for that need once you're in. The point here is assessing your own ability to identify the areas you need to work on, especially with respect to your future research.
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thank you very much soliloquy! That’s very helpful. By the way, in general how many percent students will pass the interview?
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What will Cambridge interviewers ask?
anyone hear from Yale?
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I have seen someone posted his Harvard acceptance from POI. I emailed Harvard and they said they are in the midst of reviewing. So the posters’ POI knew the result in advance?
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Hi! Has anyone applied to the Committee on Social Thought this year? Any news?
2017-2018 Application Cycle
in Political Science Forum
Posted
Have you got any news from social thought? or your POI from social thought?