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StormingTheCastle

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Posts posted by StormingTheCastle

  1. PROFILE:
    Type of Undergrad Institution:  R2, Ranked just inside the top 200
    Major(s)/Minor(s):  BS Political Science/BA History
    Undergrad GPA: 3.41 Overall, 3.85 at Baccalaureate granting institution

    Type of Grad: Same institution
    Grad GPA: 3.85
    GRE (V/Q/AW): 164/158/4.0
    Any Special Courses:   Graduate Seminars in history.
    Letters of Recommendation: 3 letters from professors at my institution (1 IR, 2 Americanists) 
    Research Experience:  Honors Thesis in Political Science as an undergraduate. Coauthored a paper in my first semester of my MS program, which was presented at ISA South. Currently serving as an RA on multiple projects, including one paper where I will be included as a co-author. 
    Teaching Experience: None
    Subfield/Research Interests: International Relations (my current work examines political economy, conflict, and IOs, but I am looking to go more in the IPE/CPE direction)
    Other:

    RESULTS:
    Acceptances($$ or no $$):  Colorado-Boulder($$), University of Florida (4 year funding)
    Waitlists: Northwestern (unofficial)
    Rejections: WUSTL, UNC, Penn, Ohio St., Pittsburgh, Virginia, Emory,
    Pending:
    Going to: Almost certainly CU-Boulder

     

    LESSONS LEARNED:

    If I had to do this all over again, I would definitely have been prepping and taking the GRE in the three years between my application cycles. This year, my spouse and I didn't decide I should apply until October, and I hadn't been prepping because I thought I wouldn't be going back until about 2021. As such, I just went with my Dec. 2015 GRE scores, which were okay, but not stellar. That said, I generally don't think my GRE scores were disqualifying in most cases, although the Q would have been concerning for WUSTL, UNC, OSU and Emory, imo. If I had worked on the GRE right along, I could definitely have gotten the Q into the mid-160s, which may have gotten me one or two more acceptances. Similarly, my late start meant my SoP was not nearly as polished as I would have liked. Frankly, with my SoP, I count myself lucky to have gotten into CU-Boulder, which has a pretty strong placement record relative program ranking. It could have been worse.

    Also, FIT MATTERS! CU had, by far, the greatest number of professors for me to work with (at least 7 faculty members that had research that overlapped with mine in some form or fashion). I think this was a major factor in getting in. It also may have helped that they had a graduate student from my institution in residence, which I didn't realize at the time. For those in political science programs, it might be beneficial to get contact info for recent PhD admits out of your department to both get info about grad programs from a student perspective and get a handle on what your department's academic network looks like. Having knowledge of where current PhD candidates are from your institution can give you an idea of which PhD programs are familiar with the quality of students from your current institution. This honestly had not even occurred to me until I mentioned my CU admit to my faculty mentor, and she mentioned that another student from our department had gone there. If you start the process in April or May, it should give enough time to follow these leads. If I had known I would be applying, I would have been laying the groundwork that early.

     

     
  2. 45 minutes ago, Corsette said:

    I feel your pain, I’m still waiting on rejection from Vanderbilt and any form of notification for Pittsburgh. 

    I emailed Pitt today, and the Grad coordinator said that all acceptances and waitlists were sent on February 18. Might be worth a follow up email for you.

  3. 8 hours ago, dreamschoolcometrue said:

    Any news about the CU-boulder? They sent the admissions but still rejections and waitlists are not sent. I want to end this waiting regardless of the result.

    I think they said they had 27 acceptances and were hoping for 14 students to matriculate. They may be holding off to send more offers if they fall short of that target, but that is just a total guess.

  4. 1 hour ago, ijustwantin said:

    So just out of curiosity, how professional should I dress for a visitation weekend? I'm going to UC Boulder's visit next week and don't really know the formalities, what to pack, etc. Some insight would be most appreciative. 

    I'm also a Boulder admit for IR! What subfield?

    I assume, like the others, that the dress expectation is business casual, but I am going to touch base with the graduate admissions coordinator today to confirm.

  5. 32 minutes ago, Tobz said:

    Anybody here still thinking that not having heard from northwestern at this point may mean anything but a rejection? 

    I'm assuming a rejection, but still hold out some hope. Intuitively, one would assume that if they only had rejections, they would just send them out in a form letter in a relatively short window, no? I can't imagine why they would stagger them for weeks if they were all firm rejections.

  6. These are just my thoughts with limited experience, and with sort of unusual circumstances surrounding my two(ish) cycles. Mileage may vary. For my first cycle, in 2015-16, my girlfriend (now wife) and I decided I should apply to Duke since she had to stay in NC, but it was pretty late in the season. As such, I only had three days to prepare for the exam from the diagnostic. My V has consistently been around 165, +/- 2 points. However, I was able to boost my Q by about 6-8 points in that time using the Barron's GRE Prep book. I found it was very useful in getting me back up to speed in algebra and geometry in relatively short order, as well as giving test-taking strategies for certain types of questions. In my case, I was quite good at math in high school and early in college, but had just been away from it for about 5 or 6 years prior to the GRE, and I found the Barron's book to be a great refresher. I am pretty sure that if I had several months to prep (We decided, again, late in the season this year. I'm in my late 20s and my wife doesn't want me waiting anymore ?), the book alone would have gotten me closer to the mid-160s. As such, I really can't recommend it highly enough.

    IMO it is MUCH easier to raise Q scores than V scores, so I think whatever you do will yield gains in the short-term. And apologies for the soliloquy above. I just figured it would be useful to understand the specific circumstances surrounding my prep, allowing you to judge the appropriateness of the Barron's book for your situation.

  7.  

    6 minutes ago, peggy.olson said:

    Best of luck !!!! And yeah, I think spacing decisions apart by a few days or so is fine, but it has...literally been two weeks since they sent out those acceptances! It's insane

    Have any Northwestern rejections gone out, or was it just acceptances? I've been assuming a rejection for awhile, but it would be nice to know definitively. 

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