Sad Politics

Here is the tweet:

The short answer is that we do not know for sure, but it is clear that the number of applications has increased substantially. In a tweet, Ian Turner (Yale) said that they received around twice as many applications this year. I have read similar things about MIT, so it is safe to say that the number of applications is way up. However, it is unclear how that will affect the timing of decisions, and they have been very constant in previous years.

As a fellow applicant, I totally understand your anxiety. If you want to know more about admission decisions, you should check out Martin Devaux's app (https://martindevaux.com/2020/11/political-science-phd-admission-decisions/). While this year may be different because of the pandemic and the high number of applicants, it is still a very useful reference.

Thank you for your reply, I think it is really good advice and I appreciate it a lot. GradCafe is a great forum but browsing it every day is probably not healthy given my current situation. Unfortunately, I cannot take days off (Duke deadline!) but hopefully, I'll be able to take a break during Christmas and think about this seriously. By the way, you always give good advice in these forums, so thank you for that.

Hello everyone, It is already too late to change any of my options but I would still like to hear your opinion on my chances (COVID anxiety I guess). Thank you for your time! Undergrad: Latin American University (among the best in LatAm, relatively well known in the US). GPA: around 3.8 on a 4 point scale. Graduate: Good European University for Political Science. Also relatively well known in the US (compared to other European Universities at least). GPA: 3.9 on a 4 point scale Undergrad Major: Economics Grad Major: Political Science GRE: 165V/168Q/5.5AWA Research Experience: Research with one LOR (the project did not go anywhere though), Undergraduate thesis. My M.A. is research-oriented, so I have written many seminar papers there. SOP: Trying to focus on research experience, interests, and fit. I left out almost any information that can be found in my CV. Writing Sample: A seminar paper for an M.A. class. Extras: Exchange semester at Columbia University (3.77 GPA). I have been working as a T.A. this year. Subfields: Comparative Politics, Methodology, Political Economy (Duke, Princeton, NYU, Yale). A am mostly interested in Latin America, so I like schools with a strong Center for Latin American Studies (I don't want to do area studies though). Schools: Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, NYU, Duke, UCSD, Cornell, Michigan, Washington University in St. Louis, Georgetown, Rochester. If anything, I feel like my options are excessively ambitious. I should have applied to OSU and maybe Wisconsin. I am still considering Vanderbilt or Texas-Austin. I will also apply to a couple of European programs just in case everything falls apart.

Hi everyone, I am currently polishing my SoPs for a couple of universities and I just noticed that the instructions say that the SoP "should not exceed 1000 words". My SoPs have around 1080 words, and I was wondering if this is OK or if I should trim it. I guess that removing 80-something words would not be too hard, but I like my current version and I would rather not trim it. Any thoughts on this? Thank you for your advice.

Hello everyone, I have received some contradictory advice regarding whether I should mention professors in my SoP. I know that mentioning a few professors can be risky, but I was trying to mention professors who may share my research interests as a way of showing my "fit" and explaining why I chose that program. Of course, I am aware that my fit is mainly signaled by my research interests, but I wanted to say something about the department and program/why I am applying there. I would like to hear your opinion on this.

I just wanted to add that maybe you should check out Penn State as a safer quant-oriented option. However, your profile seems to be very good, so I don't know if you will be interested in going there. As a fellow European applicant, it sucks that there are no good quant-oriented programs in Europe. I still plan to apply to a couple of European programs (Oxford, European University Institute, maybe CEU) just as an "insurance" in case I don't get admitted into any good American program. Perhaps you should consider doing the same.

I suggest that you check out the MA in Social Sciences at the Juan March Institute of Madrid (google it). It has a pretty good placement record (Duke, Yale, NYU, etc.) and it offers nice funding for international students. It also has a history of admitting several Turkish students. There is a very talented guy from Bogazici in my cohort.

Next year I'll apply to political science Ph.D. programs. I am currently studying a terminal MA in Political Science, but my BA is in Econ. Since my background is more quantitative than qualitative (the MA program I'm studying is also fairly quantitative) I'm interested in applying to quantitatively oriented programs. I know that Rochester, WUSTL, NYU, and UCLA have very quantitative programs. Could you recommend me other programs with a similar focus? I'm interested in both American and European programs. Thanks.