DuBois

Wow, congrats on improving your GREs so much! From what I understand, GRE scores are more salient in adcomms' decisions regarding whether to admit international students, so it sounds to me like you've already strengthened your profile an awful lot. 
I guess I would also advise to cast your net wide, so to speak. If I remember correctly from the last cycle, you only applied to a handful of departments. I think I would recommend applying to at least 8 this cycle. That said, I can't offer you much advice regarding where you'd be a good fit since I'm not familiar with your research interests. Would you mind sharing a little more about what you hope to study? And out of curiosity, where did you apply last year?
With a profile like yours, I think you're very competitive. It's very much possible that your GRE scores were the biggest factor holding you back last year. I think that to make this cycle as successful as possible, you really need to concentrate on 1) applying to departments where fit is really great, and 2) taking care to explain that fit in your SOPs. 
 

Only Columbia is late right. Yale last year was around this time too.

Is Columbia and Yale kidding me rn 

All my eggs in the Yale Basket! 

(Thinking about the hope quote from Shawshank Redemption )

Alright fellow nervous wrecks: this is our week.

I come here to read about the progress of applications, information of fundings, how prospective students and admits decide colleges, how rejected students cope and apply again. In a way I come here with an assumption that this is not facebook or twitter but a forum for emerging social scientists to exchange information and engage in a dialogue. Its disheartening to see quarrels and fights. I am sure both of you have different views on the issue and all the right to express yourself. But for the sake of others and myself as well  it would be my sincere request to use personal messages for such an exchange. Lets us not use the affordance of anonymity in employing vulgarity and personal comments.

I come here to read about the progress of applications, information of fundings, how prospective students and admits decide colleges, how rejected students cope and apply again. In a way I come here with an assumption that this is not facebook or twitter but a forum for emerging social scientists to exchange information and engage in a dialogue. Its disheartening to see quarrels and fights. I am sure both of you have different views on the issue and all the right to express yourself. But for the sake of others and myself as well  it would be my sincere request to use personal messages for such an exchange. Lets us not use the affordance of anonymity in employing vulgarity and personal comments.

I come here to read about the progress of applications, information of fundings, how prospective students and admits decide colleges, how rejected students cope and apply again. In a way I come here with an assumption that this is not facebook or twitter but a forum for emerging social scientists to exchange information and engage in a dialogue. Its disheartening to see quarrels and fights. I am sure both of you have different views on the issue and all the right to express yourself. But for the sake of others and myself as well  it would be my sincere request to use personal messages for such an exchange. Lets us not use the affordance of anonymity in employing vulgarity and personal comments.

I feel like a fool getting all rejections and waiting for Yale decisions. 

I knw what you mean... all schools that I had chances of getting in have rejected me... waiting on Harvard and UPenn makes no sense, yet there is no closure until they send out their decisions...

There are a few things you can do next year. It's best to apply to 5-7 schools. One top-tier, one lower-tier that is your back-up, and the rest in the middle. One of the most important things is fit. I am interested in gender and labor, so I didn't apply to any department that didn't treat this like a solid focus. Use any resource you can to lower your application fees. Take the GRE again! Your TOEFL score indicates that you know what you're doing. The GRE offers a half-price option, but I'm unsure if it's available to international students. If you're international, check anyway. Some of these discount options are open to people in the US and India. 
The Statement of Purpose is really important, as it shows your ability to understand what meaning you got out of your research/teaching experiences, and what your goals are. It shows that you know how to put a plan of action together. Ask people on this forum to help you sort through your documents and give you tips. It needs to sound a bit braggy and boastful about your accomplishments. It has to have a specific format as well. There are also professional organizations that will help you for a fee. I graduated in December, so I have a few months free if you want me to look over your stuff. 
You have the scores, I am sure it is just something else that is blocking the way. 

Yes! Though I'm no expert, I thought I'd add my two cents. I got several acceptances, but my range of schools varied WIDELY in rank and fit was great at 8/9 of them. I applied to 1 school in the top 5, 1 school in the 5-10 range, 2 schools in the 11-15 range, 2 in the 15-25 range, and 3 in the 26-100 range. Was rejected at the top ranked one and one of the 11-15 ones. SOPs were tailored to each one in the bottom few paragraphs. I'll add that I did not attend a prestigious undergrad and my GRE scores were good, not stellar. 
Also, if it is helpful in any way, I would also be happy to look over SOPs for future applicants. Again, I'm no expert, but if you want another perspective on it, DM me any time. I also have been writing down some of the things I learned about this process. I don't want to bore you all here, but if anyone would like them, just let me know and we can chat. 

Ok can you guys stop now
 
Also derriduh why do you think farmer is an insult?..

I have to say, I was completely unprepared for how painful this process would be. When I was applying to Masters programs I just submitted the applications and forgot all about it until I got the decision emails. This has been something I worry about constantly. If I go for a jog and am able to forget about it for an hour, when I get home and remember my worries, my first thought is "oh that was so nice to forget for an hour."

If I had a dollar for everytime I thought about Yale I would have funded my own phd ! 

If I had a dollar for everytime I thought about Yale I would have funded my own phd ! 

Who else is sitting around wondering what's going on at Yale and Columbia?

My first post here. I had been following what people were saying, and attempting to shore up my deflated morale. Applied to Princeton, Harvard, Brown, UPenn, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Michigan Ann Arbor, UVA and McGill in CP. Had written to POIs at these places and they had written back saying they thought the proposal was a good one. GRE was ok V:168,Q:163, AW: 4.5, one joint published paper, but no conference work. I did have 5 years of work experience relevant to the field I was proposing my topic in; some POIs even highlighted this point as a strong part of my application.
Two months of intense tension later, I have rejects from Princeton, Brown, Ann Arbor, UVA and possibly McGill. Any attempt to email said POIs is returned by a ‘sorry we had too many applicants’ rather than how to improve the application. I am expecting rejections from the last three as well, Harvard was a bit of a stretch in any case. 
Thanks a lot to people like Tedmonkey, for putting out how to try and get back at this application process. I’m at a total loss right now, after having put in almost 8 months of concerted effort building every part of the application. I don’t know, at this point, what I can do to make it better...
In any case, if there are people like me here, who got wiped out this application cycle, and who are trying to get back on the application cycle, maybe we could create a separate thread and support each other over the next year, which I have all reason to believe, will be brutal.
 

Response from Yale regarding their decisions was that they don't have a set date and that all the decisions will be sent out by 1st Week of March! 

Waiting....g......g.....g.....g......g

Quite a lot going on about Boston acceptances on the results page lol! I think Boston spreads it's acceptances over 2-3 days going by previous year posts. But sadly no mails so far. 

Response from Yale regarding their decisions was that they don't have a set date and that all the decisions will be sent out by 1st Week of March! 

Waiting....g......g.....g.....g......g

Response from Yale regarding their decisions was that they don't have a set date and that all the decisions will be sent out by 1st Week of March! 

Waiting....g......g.....g.....g......g

How can we get people to stop posting forum comments on the survey? There are sometimes 3 "results" that are just communications in between actual results the survey was meant for. It's making it harder for posterity to understand the results

Anyone feeling that we'll hear from  Yale today ?  

Two things. (1) take everything you read on this forum with a grain of salt. As far as I'm aware, nobody here is on an ad com, and even if they were, they probably wouldn't break confidentiality on an internet forum. (2) Hope is a weird thing. Too much of it and you'll be destroyed when the rejection comes; not enough and you lose confidence and stop believing that you can do the things you want to do. Personally, I'm bracing for rejections, but there's no point in calling it quits until you're actually rejected. There's a big difference between being realistic and being defeatist. So who knows! There are posts on the results page of people being accepted to Cornell off the waitlist in mid April. It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings.