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I don't think this is called for. And poli sci is a small world. Bitterness is not becoming

nothing from georgetown or hopkins for me

That's because most American poli sci is (neo)positivist, so the makeup of top departments will reflect that. That said, Chicago may be a haven. You may even consider the Committee on Social Thought or anthropology departments. I would also suggest looking into CUNY's graduate center. There you can take courses across the entire New York system and craft a committee with some incredible scholars in all departments across the New School, Columbia, NYU, and so on. You will find scholars there who are amenable to non mainstream and more interesting approaches to politics. I'd also suggest UMass and some schools outside the top 20. Think seriously about European and Canadian schools as well.

Full scholarships only cover tuition (approx 60k). Note that student would still be responsible for student fees + insurance (approx $2200/quarter). Thankfully, living on the south side is very affordable, in relative terms. I'd say that is a mischaracterization of US programs. And @Artifex_Archer is right; Chicago would be the place. It is uniquely hospitable to theory heads and you will find peers and professors engaged in this scholarship. I would not sink tens of thousands in loans to talk about a couple of nazis (don't much care for Schmitt or Heidegger) for a year, but that's just me - there are plenty at Chicago in MAPSS/MAPH who work on this and thrive. Some find better return on investment than others - be aware that reported placement is inflated and uneven for these programs.

what

s/o to UCLA for providing admission decision in the subject

yes. can take up to a month

Transparency is important, so I'll add more after I make my final decision PROFILE:Type of Undergrad Institution: PrivateMajor(s)/Minor(s): ChemistryUndergrad GPA: not terribleType of Grad: PrivateGrad GPA: goodGRE: OKAny Special Courses: noneLetters of Recommendation: YesResearch Experience: 4 yearsTeaching Experience: yesSubfield/Research Interests: Comparative / Labor politicsOther:RESULTS:Acceptances($$ or no $$): Berkeley $$, UMass $$Waitlists:Rejections: Texas, CambridgePending: Chicago, Yale, Harvard, Brown, MIT, CUNY, MichiganGoing to: ? Lessons & advice: Apply for fee waivers if eligible and help your peers apply. Pool knowledge and resources. Review their statements & send yours out widely. Lift each other up. If undergrad offers a workshop or series on how to apply, take advantage of it (I did not do this but know folks who did and benefitted). Let profs help you with SOP (I did not do this, but many peers did and are doing well). Get your statement to letter writers early, i.e. two months in advance. Get GREs in 80th plus percentile if possible. If not possible, don't sweat it too much and start beefing up other parts of the app. Really think about where you want to be, who you want to work with and why. Are there three faculty there you are excited to work with? Are they tenured? Will they jump ship in a year? Will they be sympathetic to your research? Send them emails & request to chat. They can give you insight about the program, and while this is more useful after the acceptance for paring down apps, it may help you get a sense of how to think about fit & if you want to put time into the app. That said, send out as many apps as you can. If you are applying to oxford/cambridge/euro schools, start early on the special fellowships. Think about if you want the PhD - reach out to profs and ask them if it is worth it. Talk to people that dropped out or chose not to apply and see what they're doing. Can you get the career you want w.o a PhD? Remember to go outside, even if it is snowing. Take a breather from this and don't stress. Do things outside of school or the app process. Volunteer. Start an herb garden. Learn how to make pasta. Figure out how you best shrug off rejection and stay positive. Talk to friends. There will be a lot of rejection in an academic career, so also savor the acceptances and wins. Get yourself together. Move to Philly. Buy a loft. Start a noise band. Get six or seven roommates. Eat hummus with them. Book some gigs. Paint. Smoke cloves. Listen to Animal Collective. Start some kind of salsa company.

actually they went out feb 8 last year...

submit updated cv in additional materials section if you are concerned

right on lots of cool stuff happening at both very exciting

What I do not like about the choices is having many people who advocated for your app reach out with very thoughtful messages, but inevitably when the tide comes in you will have to turn down faculty you respect & whose work you admire. For me it's always been easier to get dumped than to do the dumping. Getting rejected from a school I started to feel tepid about was a blessing in that sense.

i would go take a walk, have a nice picnic in this beautiful high wind weird rainy weather, because someone is likely playing you with the survey. admits go out first, then rejects get referred out to ma committees and then aid is decided weeks later & ma admits happen

last year michigan decisions came out at 5p est

yea thank u good luck ?

form letters being sent out individually, not en masse

letter attached via email

UMass just dropped

@bigmood is right imo Texas, for example, writes "Our application process is much like those of our peer institutions. We are looking for applicants who show promise of a scholarly career in teaching and independent, original research – which is quite a different thing than being a very good undergraduate student." ^ I'm not so sure about that, but since there is a lack of transparency on stats & low / unreliable individual reporting, so who knows. similarly, GRE plays a variable role. just drawing on texas, whose sentiment can be found in faq across other institutions as well, "A high score does not guarantee admission just as a lower-than-average score does not doom an application. GRE scores do matter, however. Some years, depending on the composition of the committee and the applicant pool, GRE scores matter more, other years less, but our admissions committee is looking both for evidence that your interests fit with the interests of the department, and for indicators of promise as a graduate student." to this end, something the GRE can do is boost students from schools that do not commonly pump grad students into the pipeline or non traditional scholars. these students may not have famous letter writers or harvard inflated gpas, but a higher score may make them seen. the problem is still one of access, though. it's expensive to take & costly to report. this for sure needs to be reformed. may be interesting to see if schools start to treat it like uchicago did with the sat, and make it optional.

hey @niceward, i'd keep your chin up til everything comes in. early days still.

just wait til you hear about the job market. but joking aside, gpa/gre likely matter much less than you may think. it's a system with really random dynamics.

i think the drawback is opportunity cost & truly diminishing returns as sloth adeptly pointed out, but shoot your shot

how did you find out about Brown? I have nothing yet

for an ma, gre is very lenient, much more lax than phd. so putting this in context, cusp of 80th percentile & + is a general rule of thumb for phd programs (save NYU and quant heavy programs, who may want 90th+). for theory phd admits, quant can dip all the way down to 150-155. if you target an ma that offers aid, gre may be a factor in determining aid, but matters much less than other components. sloth makes a great point. just write a good sop & communicate your concerns with letter writers. plus once you are in an ma, undergrad grades matter significantly less, if at all for many prog if you are considering using the ma as a stepping stone for phd. hope this assuages your concerns, as you really have nothing to worry about with those scores. and aw means nothing

If eligible, I would recommend taking advantage of GRE fee reduction program. This opens up a number of fee waivers. Affiliation with some programs that promote diversity open up waivers, but not all programs are included. Most top schools are happy to offer fee waivers if candidate shows demonstrated need / hardship. Apply for these early. I'd like to put Stanford on blast as an exception, as they have a particularly distressing system of selectively applying program waivers after candidate jumps through a number of hoops. I find this gatekeeping abhorrent. Georgetown's is also particularly troublesome. As you go lower in rank, it seems these waivers are harder to come by, but still worth the ask. In my mind, this very high barrier to entry runs counter to missions of diversity and inclusion. As if there wasn't already enough inequality and exploitation in higher ed