ICanRead

If anyone else received their funding offer from UT-Austin today and wants to discuss, feel free to pm me 

I'm not particularly an Americans guy, even though I've done a little work with them. More like Ancients/Early moderns. I will add, though, that while I am not much into Germans, Gillespie is nobody to sneeze at.

Is Tarcov still particularly active? I got the impression he's old and on the way out. CST is awesome for great books, no doubt. As for Duke, I am not fully decided. They've offered me the GAANN fellowship, which is a really great funding opportunity, but the program just isn't really the best fit for me, I think. I'm not interested in Germans a la Gillespie, and Grant seems to be less interested in theory these days (though she does still advise). Roussiliere is really close to my interests, but she is very junior, and going there for one person seems risky. Certainly not saying no yet. It's a great school and they're offering me enough to live very comfortably in Durham, but at the moment I'm leaning away.

Depends. For the most part, USNews is pretty roughly accurate as far as I've heard. Re: theory, though, it's more complicated. For one, there's the question of whether you're doing History of Political Thought or Contemporary theory. In HPT, if people think you're a Straussian (doesn't matter if you actually are or not), they may not take you. Many institutions are very very against it (there was a whole scandal with Yale and Thomas Pangle a while back, though Yale in particular is much more sympathetic these days). So if you're a Strauss-like HPT applicant, you're really only looking at certain places anyway, which kind of nullifies the top 10 consideration. Re: international, it largely depends on where you want to work. If you want to work at an American University, go to one. Even UToronto, which has the largest political science faculty I've ever seen and is Canadian, has some trouble securing American placement. Hope it helps.

Just got admit from UC Davis.Funding offered and they're looking for RSVPs about a campus visit.

Snow AND Stats? My thoughts are with you in these trying times.

Snowing where I am too. My sibling's school has been cancelled twice this week for ice and snow. Unfortunately I still have to go to stats class ?

Hey gang. Sitting in the middle of a snowstorm atm plugging away on school stuff and trying unsuccessfully to distract myself from my inbox. I'm reading some of the comments above and it's making my heart full. Everyone here is a smart, capable scholar who will find success no matter the result of this application cycle, and I hope everyone's managing to keep it level, regardless of the # of acceptances. Keep on digging through!

Thank you for the information. I heard that they are very theory focused and one of the top schools for political theory. I am strictly IR, and as a secondary field, I am interested in methods and comparative politics. 

I wouldn't stress a ton about BC in particular. It's a boutique program. Not many admits, and very heavily theory focused. Even going beyond theory, their second biggest thing is American stuff, which is itself pretty APT heavy. The extent to which they have been branching out into IR with faculty picks may take a while to affect the kinds of students they're taking. If you're a good showing in IR, they may simply not want IR students this run.

Thank you for your kind words  I think this application process thought to me that I love political science slightly more than sociology. Also, sociology programs are super super slow to answer applicants. I only heard back from one sociology program, but I heard back from 4-5 political science programs. You are very right about the geographical constraint. My only regret is that I wanted to apply Georgetown (a bit of a stretch but I may have worked it out with my husband) a lot but the application fee to two different programs was so expensive, and I did not apply. Except for that, I do not have any big regrets. If I need to apply again (which currently I do not think so, I think BU is the best fit that can ever happen to me), I may try to work on my GRE and SOP a bit more. 

This is an extremely idiosyncratic process. I'm sorry to hear you've had to deal with so much rejection (what a crappy feeling, even if you're in good company). One thing I wonder about is your dual applications, to sociology and political science. I'm sure you realize this is extremely unusual, and I wonder how you have dealt with it in terms of letter writers? I'm assuming you have two totally separate sets of letter writers, and I'm assuming that each knows that you are applying in the other discipline? I have to assume this would raise concerns among both sets, with respect to their impression of your commitment to either discipline. I am confident that my letter writers are in part selling my strong commitment to, and total immersion within, political science. For that matter, I know at least two of them wrote specifically about my particular interest in, and aptitude for, my sub-sub discipline. And one of them made me strip my SOP of the word "policy" for several schools, fearing that I would appear oblivious to the tradition of disciplinary boundaries at those schools. If you decide to go another cycle (big IF given your acceptance at BU and maybe other places), I would suggest picking one discipline or the other and having a direct conversation with your letter writers (who will preferably be strictly tenured political science faculty, if you pick polisci) to make sure they are convinced of your devotion to the study of political science and your thorough preparation for rigorous study and research in your chosen subdiscipline. Good luck, and I hope you can chuck my advice right out the window when you either decide on BU or you receive a "yes" from a preferred school!

Just got admit from UC Davis.Funding offered and they're looking for RSVPs about a campus visit.

Just got admit from UC Davis.Funding offered and they're looking for RSVPs about a campus visit.

Has anyone heard about funding packages from UT?

Hello All. Bit late to the party, but I've got admits @UTA, Duke, and BC, all for theory

I heard from BC yesterday, actually, but supposedly more stuff is going out in the next week. My research is pretty varied in scope: if it's not Medievals or Christians, I'm probably at least a little into it. My thesis is on Hobbes, but I've done a bit of work with the Greeks and a considerable amount with the Americans, which had a bit of a bridge with APD stuff as well. My biggest keyword is probably distinction.

Hello All. Bit late to the party, but I've got admits @UTA, Duke, and BC, all for theory

Hello All. Bit late to the party, but I've got admits @UTA, Duke, and BC, all for theory