CambridgeHeismanLord

I wouldn't be so quick so as to brush off Maryland as some of you are already doing. Its placement record is quite great especially regarding how difficult it is to get a job in the political science field in the first place. Personally speaking as to some of my friends at Maryland, the quant is quite good (and according to them, the website hasn't been updated in ages) and I don't see any reason why one shouldn't go there. But as much as I disagree with @Comparativist on his other issues with the program, I do wholeheartedly agree on the factor where it's up to the student to make their own success. This isn't limited to Maryland at all, but rather to the general field of academia. I have had the fortune of having been grown up throughout my life surrounded by family and friends in academia, and, on top of my own observations, the current atmosphere of academia has changed a bit from what it was 20-30 years ago. Back then, the name of your school certainly limited where you could end up at, but nowadays, so long as you aren't attending somewhere like Hawaii (no offense but I grew up there and know all about UH as a "retirement school" for old professors), your own work will stand out for itself and help get you the position you want. No absolute guarantees, as with all things in life, but it can help immensely. Above all, you CANNOT be inactive during the summers and must be continuously researching/publishing/presenting in order to make yourself stand out. My professors have said themselves that they would rather take the Ph.D. candidate from West Virginia University who has a plethora of work and shows PROMISE rather than the Harvard candidate who has done nothing but just get a Ph.D. with no other recognizable skills. That being said, all else equal if both candidates are the same (which happens more often than you think), they will take the Harvard guy over the WVU as a tie-breaker. But in the end, the factors you control are what you make of them. Do all the work you can do to make sure you stand out and don't look like another factory degree who thought a Ph.D. alone was enough to get a job. It's not, and if you approach a Ph.D. program with the same mentality you did in undergrad, you will be lucky to make it past the qualification exam and have a microscopically low chance of even making use of that Ph.D. in the academic field.

I was 29 when I started. I had worked for a good while at a family friend's law firm at my hometown for a bit while also doing some research with a nearby university. I wouldn't say medical school is harder to get into than a Ph.D. program as much as it was the fact that my MCAT and my undergraduate GPA weren't too terribly high. I did far better on my GREs and had near perfect grades with my MA. My only regret is that I didn't approach my undergraduate pre-med with the same attitude as I did with my political science stuff. If I did, I have no doubt I would be in medical school.

Hey, don't lose hope! Prior to entering Harvard for political science, I actually struck out 3 years in a row on medical school. I figured that it wasn't worth it, and I went back to do my MA and got into a Ph.D. program off of that. What I'm saying is that there's always more to look forward to, and your past experiences can only help build up to an even stronger and taller version of you. At the very least, you still have the motivation which is great! I hope the best of luck for you next cycle!

I know this sounds a bit cliche, but do not give up until you've received a rejection. As I said before, I didn't get my acceptance until early-mid March, and this was far long after many other of my colleagues had gotten acceptances to other places.

So, once again speaking for my sister, but are all Berkeley, Northwestern, MIT, Indiana, Texas, UPenn, and Georgia acceptances sent out already? I don't want to be the one to tell her that her dreams are over, but it seems like these schools already accepted everyone. Also, congrats to any Harvard admits! You'll love it here.

I wouldn't give up hope so easily. I got rejected from the University of Washington, Texas A&M, and Syracuse yet I still got into Harvard. The Ph.D. process makes no real sense in terms of how decisions are made, so you never know!

Out of curiosity, should we be assuming UT-Austin and Indiana applicants to be rejected if they haven't heard back by now? I feel like these places have a "Round 2" for applicants who turn down the initial offer, but I'm not sure. My sister (who applied for both) is getting pretty anxious and keeps telling me, "I have a six-pack of Blue Moon, and I'm not afraid to use it."

If I had to sum up this entire application process:

Hey man, I don't know if you'll read this if you have truly left to go off into the wilderness. That being said, I know things are looking down, but your life isn't worthless just because of some college admissions. I admit the entire process is pretty screwed up where a group of people can throw away nearly an entire year's worth of work and send an oftentimes borderline insulting letter that seems (and most of the times is) completely and totally insincere, but there are other things to look forward to in life. There's always hope, so don't get too down on yourself. It's not something worth demeaning yourself over. That can lead into an avalanche of bad things, and I would know better than anyone else how much poor self-esteem can cripple someone. To add on, most people only get accepted to a handful of programs (and more often than not only one). You're on a forum where there is a concentration of highly qualified applicants who excel in this particular process. What is happening here is not an indication that you've been automatically rejected as highly qualified applicants (and I'm talking about people who have been preparing for this since they stepped onto a college campus) more often than not receive notifications first. Congratulations! I had the same reaction with Harvard. My first reaction was to read my name a few times and make sure they didn't screw up. I had a hard time they accepted someone like me over probably far more qualified candidates. Ann Arbor is beautiful, so I hope you enjoy it! To quote Jim Carrey, "So you're telling me there's a chance..."

Judging by how the admissions are coming out day by day and piece by piece, I'm assuming it's being staggered. Of course, I'm not a member of the admissions committee, so don't take my word for it. I would just say don't give up hope since I got accepted in early March of all times.

Oh, I definitely agree. I'm just more or less clarifying to Komina and to a great many other anxious posters here not to go and call it quits if they didn't get an interview or haven't heard back at this point. Admissions is a long process, and it's not as clear at the doctoral level as it is for the undergraduate level. A lot of people are pessimistic (for perfectly valid reasons), but I think it's good to have an open mind and not let it weigh themselves down too much. To be honest, part of the reason I lurked for so long was because I felt a lot of people here were really negative and only saw the flaws in their applications rather than the strengths. After all, if the Eagles were able to win the Super Bowl, then anyone can get into any program.

No, because most departments have pretty horrible funding and if your resume speaks for itself or if your LOR's are good enough, then I would gander that they don't need one. I didn't get a single interview yet I still got into a fair number of schools. I think it's honestly if there's an incredibly impressive candidate that they want to make sure actually does reflect the pedigree you offer, then that's certainly something. On the other hand, I've seen it used on people with incredible resumes and GPA/GRE scores but have little to no research experience at all. So under no circumstances should you assume no interview means a rejection nor should you assume that it means an automatic acceptance. I have seen both poor and great candidates receiving interview requests for a variety of reasons. At the end of the day, it's to ask about thing left unclear by your application or resume. That is indeed the case. I believe more often than not though that it's more a case that very few get interviewed to begin with. At least from what I've heard talking to my professors, it was to distinguish and sort out top candidates when it comes to that oh-so-sweet funding that is in demand at least when it comes to Harvard. Can't really say for other schools, but I would assume it's not an automatic rejection by any means if you don't get an interview.

My younger sister has been rejected from Wisconsin and UC Davis so far. Don't think she's doing too well mentally right now....

I did not. I was actually preparing to go to UCLA when the acceptance hit me.

I am a CIR graduate, so feel free to ask any questions.