nerokoala

I emailed the AA for the program, and she told me folks should hear back no later than Monday. My portal's changed and an additional application for MPP was added ? meaning I probably didn't get into the PhD program but was pity admitted me to MPP.

Forgot to add - will definitely apply to more than the 7 programs I applied to this year!

Haha no worries. I'm a little perplexed - I have pretty reasonable scores 165/165/5.0, a not amazing but decent 3.5 GPA from a t15 liberal arts school, and have experience working for a big-name think tank doing empirical research and have consulted for another. I know two of my letters were great, but don't know how the letter from my third - an economist who I work for- was. Applied to both pub pol and poli sci programs, and the only positive(ish) response was a waitlist at Rochester. Yet to hear from Harris, but somewhat resigned at this point. If I were to apply again, I'd probably rethink fit and make sure I only apply to places with faculty who specifically do empirical & comparative political economy of development work. I can definitely do better on the quant for GRE, but other than those two things not sure what else I'd redo. My sample was highly technical and empirical, so I might submit a more poli sci ish next time round?

I was an econ/poli sci undergrad and work as an RA in health econ/public econ; happy to chat about the process. That said, this cycle applying to Poli Sci programs hasn't been successful for me, so can't say for certain it's a path that will guarantee a place in a Poli Sci PhD. Might be in love with the wrong discipline tbh

Would you be doing PE/applied micro if you went there? Also, with real analysis, what motivated apps to Poli Sci over Econ?

Any discipline straddlers here applying to Caltech SS?