Oboeist

Congratulations! You earned it 110%!

+1 on MIT rejection. I'm assuming I got rejected from Vandy and probably Maryland too so this is most likely the end of the cycle for me.

Congrats to the MIT admits! One thing that I found out when I was researching the school is that there's a position called Graduate Resident Advisor (GRA). It's a program where you can serve as a live-in advisor for an undergraduate dorm on campus and you get free housing. You can apply for it after your first year as a graduate student. Just something to think about if you want to save some money! https://studentlife.mit.edu/beagra

Claiming a Stanford rejection. Also got a Duke rejection earlier. Pretty sure I've been rejected at Maryland and Vanderbilt too so the only school left is MIT. Regardless of what happens, I'm still happy that I've been accepted to Emory with funding. Any acceptance is a success, esp this year. Best of luck y'all!

Waitlisted at CU Boulder. I already have an acceptance at another school so I've declined my spot on the waitlist. Good luck y'all!

For all y'all who got accepted into Berkeley, I watched a video from a Berkeley alumni about supercommuting (which is commuting 90+ minutes one-way for work). He mentioned that when he was in graduate school in Berkeley, he took the Amtrak Capitol Corridor line from Sacramento to Berkeley 4/5 times a week and that it was a 2 hour trip each way. Obviously 2 hours each way is insane but it was apparently a pretty nice commute all things considered, especially since there was free wifi, power outlets and a cafe on the train. The rent is a lot cheaper in Sacramento and the other towns on the Amtrak line so it's an option to consider if you're ok with a long commute and you want to stretch out your stipend. I also hear that the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood in Oakland and the city of El Cerrito are pretty good bang-for-your-buck options for living near UC Berkeley, especially since they're on transit lines that take you right to campus. (here's the video if you're interested btw, this guy does a lot of good videos on cities and urban planning:)

On the subject of waiting for results, my Duke interview was over 3 weeks ago by now and they only released decisions on Monday (and I got no update so I assume a rejection). I am so bad with refreshing my email every 5 minutes lol fingers crossed Stanford comes in soon!

Claiming an Emory admit! AP/Methods. Great timing too!

congrats! did you get a notification or did you just check the portal? i want to know if they're still releasing decisions right now

And also same here

Congrats to all the NYU and Princeton admits!

congrats to the stony brook and tamu admits! y'all earned it ?

Rejected from UCSD sadly. i have friends there so i was really hoping to get an acceptance, but that's how this goes i guess. On the bright side, I was emailed recently about an interview with CU Boulder so I'm looking forward to that! Congrats to everyone who got in!

relax, it's not harming anyone, it's no biggie

Congrats to y'all who got admitted to Wisconsin! I hear Madison is a super cool city (both weather and vibes). No email or interview for me so I can assume I've been denied, but that's ok, there's still 9 schools left for me to go.

AP/Methods here, I didn't get accepted to UT Austin but was put on the waitlist. A little disappointing but that's ok, this is still my first decision to come in. Congrats to all of y'all who got accepted!

Thanks y'all, I appreciate it! My subfield is AP/Methods (for Duke specifically, political institutions). It was a fairly short interview, they talked about the program for a while and then asked me about my research interests and my quantitative background and then left room for questions at the end. I don't know if it'll differ between professors but that was my experience, it was fairly relaxed but substantive.

Bit late on this but I just had an interview with two POIs from Duke today. It was brief, only about 15 mins, and I haven't been notified of a decision yet but from what I could gauge things are looking positive. Fingers crossed, and best of luck to all of y'all!

I originally planned to apply to 14 programs, but 2 of them cancelled admissions and I removed one from the list for not being a good enough fit, so now I'm at 11 programs. I feel like I spread them out pretty well with a few safety schools and a few reaches, so I'm just hoping that my application is enough to get me in somewhere even if there's a big uptick in applications and/or a downturn in cohort sizes. Speaking of cohort sizes, UC Berkeley had a graduate diversity admissions fair and the political science department had a webinar about the application process and the department itself. https://polisci.berkeley.edu/graduate-program/applying They mentioned that UC Berkeley won't be cutting down on their cohort sizes this year, maybe admitting one less student than usual. Admittedly Berkeley is a prestigious and well-funded school but I hope Berkeley's not the only department keeping their cohort sizes the same this fall.

don't try it honestly, just get it all done ahead of time so you don't have to worry about it. If there's a problem with uploading a file or if you have a question about the application, then you won't have time to reach out to the department to get your problem solved.

I've taken several statistics classes (there aren't a lot at my university), specifically classes on Regression Analysis, Sampling Theory and Nonparametric statistics among some others. I haven't had any specific faculty recommendations yet since I'm still trying to flesh out my research interests, but I know I'll either choose American or Comparative as a field and that if I do choose Comparative that either East Asia or Eastern Europe would be my area of focus. I do appreciate any and all feedback though!

Hey, I was hoping to look for some feedback on places to apply to get my Ph.D in Political Science given my stats. I'm aiming for a Fall 2021 start date, and I'm willing to go anywhere that'll provide full funding with a stipend and that'll give me a reasonably good chance of getting into a tenure-track position given my research interests. I'm not aiming for a tenure-track position at a top research university though, really any university or college will do. Program- Political Science B.A. with Statistics minor at a directional university, expected 3.9 GPA GRE- 160V 162Q (I could possibly bump this up by a few points though) Research experience- In the process of writing an undergraduate thesis, will (hopefully) be presented at a major political science research conference Possible research interests- Congressional studies, legislatures and elections and political parties Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the insight, does anyone else have any input? I'm willing to look outside the south too if I get into a really highly ranked program, I just want to know which mid-tier schools punch above their weight in congressional studies.

I'm looking to apply to a Ph.D program in American Politics and I was curious which colleges had the strongest departments for Congressional studies. I think I'll be applying to top 40 universities and if possible I'd like to stay in the south.