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PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: International
Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science
Undergrad GPA: 3.5
Type of Grad: International (MPA, MA in Political Science, MSc in Computer Science)
Grad GPA: 3.8
GRE: 159V/169Q/4.5AW
Any Special Courses: Some methods courses
Letters of Recommendation: 3 LORs; 1st writer my MPA prof teaching quant; 2nd writer a well known prof in the field; 3rd writer a well known prof in the field
Teaching/Research Experience: A few RAs
Other: worked in the tech industry as an engineer for a few years

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Harvard (off waitlist), Princeton (off waitlist), UCSD (off waitlist), Penn, SAIS, NYU (MA), Rochester (MA)
Rejections: All else out of 17
Pending: Georgetown (waitlist)

Attending: Harvard

LESSONS LEARNED:
I will try to be short.
1) for GRE, enough is good. After the cutoff first round, it's no longer used. I am guessing 155V, 160Q for non-native speakers. GPA is not important. You don't need to have near perfect 4.0. 3.6-3.8 should be good enough.
2) if you are an old applicant, dont get discouraged. Pursue your dream. I am already 30 after years of work. I switched to polisci from engineering literally in late 2020 but I was driven by interest and passion. But being old does bring you some disadvatanges: one of my poi at Harvard told me that committee likes my experience but may hesitate because of non-typical profiles. As they pick more safe profiles first, this explains my non-typical result of so many waitlists. But yeah I eventually get into schools like UCSD, Harvard, Princeton and Penn. 
3) Fit matters. Schools that either admits me or put me on a waitlist have more than 3 profs doing what I want to do. 
4) Showing your research capabilities is important: this can be from RA, writing sample, SOP, work experience, etc.
5) My SoP focused on my experience rather than research topics. I later realize it may be a mistake and could explain only 2/17 schools sent me straight offers.
6) Don't lose hope in Feb/March, especially if you are on some waitlists. I got off three waitlists on April 14, 15 and 16. There are lots of movements during the last period. 

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: International
Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science
Undergrad GPA: 3.5
Type of Grad: International (MPA, MA in Political Science, MSc in Computer Science)
Grad GPA: 3.8
GRE: 159V/169Q/4.5AW
Any Special Courses: Some methods courses
Letters of Recommendation: 3 LORs; 1st writer my MPA prof teaching quant; 2nd writer a well known prof in the field; 3rd writer a well known prof in the field
Teaching/Research Experience: A few RAs
Other: worked in the tech industry as an engineer for a few years

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Harvard (off waitlist), Princeton (off waitlist), UCSD (off waitlist), Penn, SAIS, NYU (MA), Rochester (MA)
Rejections: All else out of 17
Pending: Georgetown (waitlist)

Attending: Harvard

LESSONS LEARNED:
I will try to be short.
1) for GRE, enough is good. After the cutoff first round, it's no longer used. I am guessing 155V, 160Q for non-native speakers. GPA is not important. You don't need to have near perfect 4.0. 3.6-3.8 should be good enough.
2) if you are an old applicant, dont get discouraged. Pursue your dream. I am already 30 after years of work. I switched to polisci from engineering literally in late 2020 but I was driven by interest and passion. But being old does bring you some disadvatanges: one of my poi at Harvard told me that committee likes my experience but may hesitate because of non-typical profiles. As they pick more safe profiles first, this explains my non-typical result of so many waitlists. But yeah I eventually get into schools like UCSD, Harvard, Princeton and Penn. 
3) Fit matters. Schools that either admits me or put me on a waitlist have more than 3 profs doing what I want to do. 
4) Showing your research capabilities is important: this can be from RA, writing sample, SOP, work experience, etc.
5) My SoP focused on my experience rather than research topics. I later realize it may be a mistake and could explain only 2/17 schools sent me straight offers.
6) Don't lose hope in Feb/March, especially if you are on some waitlists. I got off three waitlists on April 14, 15 and 16. There are lots of movements during the last period. 

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: International
Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Science
Undergrad GPA: 3.5
Type of Grad: International (MPA, MA in Political Science, MSc in Computer Science)
Grad GPA: 3.8
GRE: 159V/169Q/4.5AW
Any Special Courses: Some methods courses
Letters of Recommendation: 3 LORs; 1st writer my MPA prof teaching quant; 2nd writer a well known prof in the field; 3rd writer a well known prof in the field
Teaching/Research Experience: A few RAs
Other: worked in the tech industry as an engineer for a few years

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Harvard (off waitlist), Princeton (off waitlist), UCSD (off waitlist), Penn, SAIS, NYU (MA), Rochester (MA)
Rejections: All else out of 17
Pending: Georgetown (waitlist)

Attending: Harvard

LESSONS LEARNED:
I will try to be short.
1) for GRE, enough is good. After the cutoff first round, it's no longer used. I am guessing 155V, 160Q for non-native speakers. GPA is not important. You don't need to have near perfect 4.0. 3.6-3.8 should be good enough.
2) if you are an old applicant, dont get discouraged. Pursue your dream. I am already 30 after years of work. I switched to polisci from engineering literally in late 2020 but I was driven by interest and passion. But being old does bring you some disadvatanges: one of my poi at Harvard told me that committee likes my experience but may hesitate because of non-typical profiles. As they pick more safe profiles first, this explains my non-typical result of so many waitlists. But yeah I eventually get into schools like UCSD, Harvard, Princeton and Penn. 
3) Fit matters. Schools that either admits me or put me on a waitlist have more than 3 profs doing what I want to do. 
4) Showing your research capabilities is important: this can be from RA, writing sample, SOP, work experience, etc.
5) My SoP focused on my experience rather than research topics. I later realize it may be a mistake and could explain only 2/17 schools sent me straight offers.
6) Don't lose hope in Feb/March, especially if you are on some waitlists. I got off three waitlists on April 14, 15 and 16. There are lots of movements during the last period. 

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: San Diego State University
Major(s)/Minor(s): International Security and Conflict Resolution aka ISCOR (Major)/Islamic and Arabic Studies (Minor)
Undergrad GPA: 3.61
Type of Grad: San Diego State University (MA in Political Science)
Grad GPA: 3.77
GRE: 161V/158Q/6.0AW
Any Special Courses: Seminar in Scope and Methods of Political Science, Seminar in Research Methods and Design
Letters of Recommendation: 3 LORs; 1st writer taught me as an undergrad and grad student and was my primary person for the comprehensive exams I needed to graduate with my MA; 2nd writer taught me as an undergrad and grad student and inducted me into Phi Beta Kappa; 3rd writer only taught me for grad school and was the secondary person for my comprehensive exams
Teaching/Research Experience: TA as an undergrad student for ISCOR/POL S classes for one professor from 2012-2015; TA as a grad student for ISCOR/POL S classes for several different professors from 2015-2018
Other: Dean's List as an undergrad for 7 semesters; inducted into Phi Beta Kappa during my 4th and final year as an undergrad; graduated with my MA in 2018 and worked for several years before applying for Fall 2022 PhD admissions cycle

RESULTS:
Acceptances: University of Missouri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Georgia (from waitlist)
Rejections: University of Connecticut, Cornell, University of Maryland-College Park, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Northwestern, Ohio State, University of Washington, Vanderbilt
Pending: N/A

Attending: University of Georgia

LESSONS LEARNED:
1) I started studying for the GRE in January 2021 and took the GRE in June 2021. I'm not sure if that is a "long" time to study and prepare, but I graduated with my MA in 2018 and have been away from school since then. I performed better on the GRE practice exams I took before I took the real exam, so that was a bit of a downer. On the other hand, when I took the GRE in 2015 to start my MA program, I received a 159V/156Q/5.0AW so all of my scores DID go up this time around. I'm not sure how much it mattered, but I certainly think a higher quant score would have helped my applications a bit.
2) I reached out to professors in Spring 2021 and advised that I was going to be applying for school and needed LORs. They all agreed and were ok with submitting as many letters as needed. This worked out as I applied to 11 schools and I read horror stories of other applicants having a professor that would only submit a limited number of letters (I.e. to 5 schools instead of all of them). I did not see these letters so I do not know what they said or didn't say, but they clearly worked enough to get me into a few schools. As mentioned above, 2 of them taught me as an undergrad and grad student, while 1 only taught me as a grad student. Furthermore, 2 of them oversaw my comprehensive exams so they was something to discuss.
3) My writing sample was one of my comprehensive exam responses. I think this may have hurt my application a bit as it was not a formal research paper, and I did not have any publications or legitimate research experience. However, based on all of the documents I still have, I do believe this was my strongest piece of writing that I could use as a sample. Again, I cannot definitively say how much this mattered, but I imagine it did.
4) Fit certainly is important, but I don't think it is the only thing that matters obviously. Based on my own interests, I found Nebraska-Lincoln, Washington, and Georgia were my best fits. Other solid fits included Minnesota-Twin Cities, Vanderbilt, and Cornell. I know there is no such thing as a "safety" school when it comes to PhD admissions, but I did look at Missouri, Nebraska-Lincoln, and Connecticut as safer options based on ranking. Missouri and Nebraska-Lincoln accepted me while Connecticut did not, but Georgia did. I think this is a testament to how much fit matters, as a higher ranked school (Georgia) accepted me (even if it was from the waitlist) while a lower ranked school (Connecticut) did not.
5) I took an irregular path to get here. If I could turn back time, I definitely would have put the necessary work in to write a thesis instead of doing comprehensive exams. Furthermore, I would have tried to get RA experience and get something published. I do believe the lack of these experiences probably played the biggest part in my admissions results.
6) Be prepared to face a dilemma once April 15 hits and you have been accepted in at least one school and waitlisted somewhere. I had no choice but to accept an offer by April 15. Then a couple days later, I was accepted at my waitlisted school. I mulled the decision over and came to the conclusion that withdrawing from my original school and accepting the offer from the waitlisted school was better for me and my future. I firmly believe it is perfectly ok to do this, but you should communicate clearly to both schools the situation at hand prior to April 15. The DGSs at both schools knew of the situation and I even politely asked the original school for a deadline to accept their offer. They did not grant this so they had to know the possibility of what was to come. I wrote a polite, apologetic email to my original school and accepted the offer from the waitlisted school. The DGS at my original school took a couple days to respond, but she did respond with a short but polite email acknowledging the difficulty of the decision and wishing me the best with my academic career.
7) I can't say money shouldn't matter to everyone since everybody's situation is different, but I will say that I took a cut in funding to go to the better school. If you can afford to do so, consider it. There is a ton of debate over how much ranking matters past a certain point (I.e. some say ranking doesn't matter once you are like out of the top 25 schools...but does it really not matter anymore? Look at placement record, for example) but I do think a higher ranking school likely leads to an increased chance of landing the type of job you want.
Just remember that we all are on different paths doing different things. If you want to change your path, it isn't impossible. Put the time in to give yourself the best chance possible, and if it doesn't work out, just be sure that you did everything you could to make it happen so there is no regret later on down the line.
I can't think of anything else to add right now. If I do, I'll edit and update this. Anyways...if you got any questions, you know how to contact me.

At this point, there is no harm sending it again 

At this point, there is no harm sending it again 

Got off waitlist by Princeton... on 4.16...

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Got off waitlist by Princeton... on 4.16...

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Got off waitlist by Princeton... on 4.16...

Got off waitlist by Princeton... on 4.16...

Got off waitlist by Princeton... on 4.16...

Got off waitlist by Princeton... on 4.16...

Just got an unofficial offer from Duke, off the waitlist. They said to ask for an extension of a few days from the other program i'm considering until Duke Graduate School sends me an official letter. I've asked for the extension and been granted one. Most likely will accept Duke if the official offer comes. 
Very happy, but just want the cycle to end now! 

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got extended waitlist offers by Harvard and UCSD… anybody got off waitlist at Princeton? 
 
Good luck to all! There will be lots of movements these two days. Fingers crossed for everyone and never lose hope!

Just got told I'd be extended an offer from the University of Virginia after 2.5 months on the waitlist. I am thrilled as I had not been accepted to any PhD programs and was ready to shell out for one of the two masters' programs I had been accepted to. This process has been beyond stressful, so I am sending love and strength to anyone else still holding out in these last few days. All the best, I'm out.

The new 4.15 agreement says waitlist offer post-4.15 can override the previously accepted offer without asking for release.

Just wanted to let people know that I've declined UCLA's offer, as well as all of my remaining offers besides USC. Best of luck to those on the waitlist!