Dwar

They could be? But i would say probably not. In the past they've come out around late Jan early Feb. Plus from the looks of it they send all decisions out at once, so two random acceptances this early seem pretty fake.

Absolutely not

Lol thanks. I am hoping it'll work out for me this year too. Last year I went into this totally unprepared and honestly lacking a lot of basic knowledge. My SOP and choice of schools suffered because of that. This year I really prioritized fit and applied to schools that I think I have a reasonable chance of admissions (minus the two reach ones because why the hell not). This forum and others like it had really opened my eyes and made my profile 10 times better. hoping it'll pay off!

Woah, thats major. I believe this is the the second major program to do this, the other being the University of Hawaii. I think it's a great thing to happen, and I hope other schools start to do something similar. LOW KEY wish this happened a few years ago. The GRE has plagued my admissions chances. This is the second round that I'll be applying and hoping that the GRE's don't hold me back again.

Emory does, OSU does, but only sorta. For OSU some faculty can request an interview while others will waive it, so if you applied to OSU and did not receive an interview request it literally doesn't mean anything. I think in general interviews for Political Science are much less frequent then in other fields mainly because funding comes from the department and not individual faculty members. But some programs do send out interview requests. I would suggest you look up the specific program you are interested in under the results tab, if they have sent out interview requests in the past it'll show up there.

I would suggest you not really mention public policy during the fit paragraph, instead focus on the individual professors that you want to work with, their research, and how it pertains to your own desired research area. Try not to make to much of a big deal over the sub-field, more on the topic or sub-sub field you are researching. For example, i am interested in IR, then within that Security Studies, then within that Asymmetric insurgencies/terrorism. In my fit section i wrote about how the professors and their research pertained to terrorism or asymmetric insurgencies, and my specific question within that sub-field. I honestly think i only mentioned IR once or twice within the entire SOP. Sure it is important during grad schools, but for the fit section they really want to know which professors and research you are interested in, and how it works with your own desired research.

If you did major in public policy would you still want to work in academia? A political science PhD program, of any major, primarily teaches students how to be professors, while many can and do transition that learning to a career in the government or private sector as researchers or stuff like that, it isn't the goal of the program. If you don't think you'd want to pursue a career in academia then i would urge you to check out a public policy specific PhD program. those programs are in the public policy schools at various universities. They mostly teach students to work in the field, with the career training and alumni network that goes along with that. The downside to those programs is that the vast majority of them do require applicants to already have an MA degree, and many are geared toward mid-career professionals looking to advance their careers.

That's why fit is so important too, and prior contact. Those schools want to increase their yield, so sometimes they will decline otherwise great applicants because they do not think they'll commit.

I would agree with the previous poster. At least over 300 for top 7 schools. There are even super high numbers for lesser ranked schools. I applied to two schools in the 30-40 range and both of them receive well over 150 applicants a year while accepting on average 20-30 students. BUT, i would caution against not applying due to the massive numbers. You have to remember that a lot of those schools have great name recognition, so they get a lot of random applications. Mostly from people who have zero fit, don't measure up to their average admitted student profile, or just don't understand political science. I would say that a conservative estimate is that anywhere form 40-60% of those applicants get sorted out before the committee even meets. So while they do receive a massive amount, the actual number of qualified candidates is much less. And like, shoot your shot, it's good to have a reach school. With that in mind though, you should never only apply to top 7 schools. The chance of admissions is still super tiny at those ones.

Hey, So i'll try and answer some of these questions. So in terms of locating professors who share fit, the rule of thumb that I've been following is within the same research area. Now i'm talking about a specific sub-sub research area. The reason for this is that while you may have a general idea about what you'll want to research, you don't know the exact question yet. While you may present a question in your SOP, the faculty are well aware that it will most likely change as you progress throughout grad school, so don't stress to much about that. For example, I am interested in asymmetric insurgencies and terrorism. So that't a sub-field within security studies which itself is a sub-field within IR. Now I do have a specific question within that field that I am looking for, but TBH I mainly just looked for professors who are studying either asymmetric insurgencies, terrorism, or even stuff like civil wars/conflicts (which often devolve into asymmetric insurgencies). I made sure that each of the schools that I applied to had at least two faculty members who were researching within that sub sub field. While some of them are more aligned with what my current question is, they all at least are researching that topic. So while it doesn't need to align directly, you need to be able to show how their past/current work will help or is related to the question or research area that you are looking at. In terms of the contacting question, it varies. It doesn't hurt to reach out and contact them, but TBH it doesn't always help either. The worst thing that can happen is that they do not respond, which you should not take personally. But do NOT email them again and again if they do not respond. In our field we do not apply to a direct professor, so annoying them that much is unnecessary. If you do email them I would essentially put the "fit" section down. Talk about their research, what you like about it, and how it fits into your own research area/proposed question. Bring up specific stuff that they have written to show that you actually know what you're talking about. In terms of your last question, about cross-departmental work, I honestly don't know how it would be reviewed by the adcomm. I would caution against going too strong on that unless the school/department itself encourages it. I know that many programs have "public policy" as a subfield, so if you were applying to one of those schools then I would say that talking about your policy interest makes sense. Some programs also offer like joint PhD programs with other in house departments. The one example that I can think of off hand is Penn State which offers joint PhD programs with like African and Asian studies. I would check out those types of programs. Hope this helps!

Molly

Good luck to all of those with December 15th deadlines!

It seems like around this time is when the finally got their budget together and decided they couldn't accept any new students. But i do agree with you that it seems a bit late in the game to be announcing it.

https://polisci.duke.edu/graduate/apply So i think this has less to do with economic problems and more to do with a high yield. That sometimes happens with programs where they have a target class, in Duke's case 10-12 students, and they exceed that. That happens because more then the expected number of students accept their offer. It is sometimes common among high ranked programs. I know two years ago U of M had an unexpectedly high yield so last year they only accepted a handful (3-5) students. I don't think it should be a warning bell for other programs though. Just don't apply to Duke this year

Big Mood

I'd check with the department. Maybe shoot one of their admin staff an email and ask?

I'll start it off. I am very happy to say that as of yesterday, all of my applications are fully submitted! my last professor finally submitted her letter of rec so now i'm 100% done with the season! How's everyone else's season coming along?

Hey All, Guess I'll start this thread. This will be a place for applicants applying to the 19-20 cycle to talk about their applications and such. Ask question, hopefully get some answers. When the time comes, get updates on admissions decisions!

Thats a great option! For more info on those types of programs I would suggest you check out the "government affairs" page. They have more info and discuss those sorts of programs much more then we do here.

Big oof right there

Your profile looks amazing! honestly you can probably get into some schools higher then the 20-40 range. Just make sure that you fit in with the department. With a profile like that you can probably get in anywhere that you fit. So I'd really focus on that aspect. don't just apply to schools because they are good schools, make sure that you and your research actually fit in with the department.

Yaaaaaaaa, of course there are those cases. Thats why I would encourage someone, regardless of their GRE scores, to apply to at least one reach. You never know? But of course only if there is excellent fit and all that. For me my GRE scores are fairly poor at 309, so I am mostly applying to schools in the 50-80 range, but I am applying to two schools in the 30-50 range simply because there is excellent fit and why not? While I obviously don't think that I'll get in to the 30-50 schools, you never know. But that's why I'm also applying to four schools in the 50-80 range, as that is far more likely for my profile.

Generally I'd agree with you and say that a 160+ for quant is required for the 10-20 range, but I was thinking that with a Verbal score of 170, it can make up some of the difference. Obviously I could be wrong, but that was my thinking. Now for the top 10 thing, I'd say that on the USNWR list they extend to the top 15, essentially everything before OSU. Thats not to say that OSU isn't an amazing school, but I would say that CHYMPS, Columbia, UNC, UCSD, and the like are in another slightly higher field. For the OSU onward schools i'd say that you can get by with a 155 Q coupled with a 170 V as long as the rest of your profile is killer. But TBH you need a complete killer profile regardless of your GRE scores. A lot of schools simply use it to check a box, and then disregard it from the admissions decision.

First off, congrats on the 170! that's super impressive. Second, I'd say that as long as your quant is above the 155 mark, you should be good for all but the top 10 of schools in terms of GRE. If you are looking to break into the top 10 then I'd say that the quant should be in the 160 range. With a verbal score of 170 I'm sure they will be impressed. Third, I would say that it is not a good idea to retake it and not do the verbal test. I see what you're trying to do, but I'm not sure how that would work with the adcoms. They may only look at one of your scores, or they may look at both. But honestly it'll be a crapshoot as to whether or not that actually works.

I agree with the previous poster, if they offer you the extra space you should use it. But I also will expand on that, if they offer you that space it means they want you to use the full 1000 words. It means that they expect an essay around 1000 words and don't think you can accurately express what you want to say in less than that. I would follow the advice above and create two versions, one shorter and one longer, for the two different lengths. Thats what I've done for writing them. My longer one just has more stuff from me and about myself, while the shorter one just has the highlights or the most important stuff.