convex

Your application will be good enough to get you into a few of the places on that list, and any of them will be sufficient for your goals. good luck!

I'm much more nervous than a few hours ago.

I take back my skepticism. Still, why no love, Illinois?

Someone reported being accepted via phone today on the results board. Edit: I am mildly skeptical about this though, since a.) they would have got this call after offices should normally be closed and b.) it seems that nobody got phone calls from this school last year. I do, however, WANT to believe it.

Yeah, the first thing I thought when I saw that was "Uh...Lee Epstein?"

I'm not sure where you heard that, but I'm pretty sure no political science PhD program fits that description. I could be wrong.

It's weird that the application deadlines do not correlate at all with decision times. Columbia, UCLA, Berkeley, and Stanford had December 1 deadlines but do not send decisions earlier than anyone else.

That's not necessarily meaningful in terms of when you'll hear back.

I waste all my time here: http://www.regator.com/

Thank you. Are you a current graduate student?

I'm in a very similar position. My spouse is applying to law schools and we also have to match up on cities. It definitely increases the anxiety of the admissions cycle.

What blog?

You had to know you'd let loose an unstoppable flood of speculation.

So, Chicago?

If you are thinking about picking up some real analysis on your own I would recommend looking here. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

By the way, could you tell me who taught the last formal theory course offered in the department?

I have a feeling that these anonymous claims on the rumor board are at least exaggerated. This St. Louis Dispatch article explains why: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... enDocument particularly this passage: While it's possible that this is WashU specific, my gut tells me that other school administrators have similar foresight.

Rochester focuses on ethnography and post-modern philosophy. (Play along.)

Thank you for your response, tidefan. I am pretty interested in UIUC, and will definitely be considering it if they don't reject me. (If they do reject me, I will probably decide that they are overrated ) Have you heard of people who enter with advanced statistical training fulfilling some of the methods requirements with courses in the statistics department?

I think some people on this board are students at UIUC. I have some questions about the program, so I am throwing them out there and hoping someone answers. 1. I see that methodology is not offered as a major or minor field, despite stellar methods faculty such as Jude Hays, Wendy Tam Cho, etc. What is up with this? Can students who want to do methods research (i.e. develop new statistical models/tests, write the software to implement them, write the kinds of papers that appear in Political Analysis) be successful at UIUC? 2. Do faculty co-author a lot of papers with students? How would proportion of students who co-authored a paper with a faculty member compare to other institutions? 3. How many people are in a typical graduate seminar?

fenderpete, you sound well qualified, but I do not think you are applying to the correct places for what you want to do. None of the programs you mentioned are going to emphasize practice over theory, because all of them (and pretty much any political science PhD program) are designed for people who want to be researchers. If you really think you need a doctoral degree would recommend looking at the following schools for what you want: 1. International Relations/Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego (note that this is different from the political science department) 2. Hopkins SAIS. I see that you've already looked at this and saw that they prefer students who already have a graduate degree, but you should consider applying to the MA program and then moving on to the doctoral program. 3. The University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies. A lot of diplomats and high-ranking officials went there, so this might be more what you are looking for. You should talk to your professors about this though. I think they will tell you that you should consider getting a Master's degree instead, and I think this is the best advice. Look into some public affairs type of professional degree programs that focus on IR. I hear Security Studies at MIT is pretty good, and also all three places I mentioned above offer a Master's degree. I think Columbia's SIPA is considered very good for this as well. Also, if you do not believe me and apply to these places anyway, I do not think that you will be admitted with a Statement of Purpose that says you would like to be a diplomat of government official.

So, I just sent all of my transcripts to graduate schools, and as I returned to my books to study for finals, I wondered if the grades in my current classes would matter at all. Are they going to request an updated transcript before they decide whether or not to admit me? Just curious...

I don't know that much about Europe, but maybe you should check out London School of Economics and Essex. You might at least apply to schools like Rochester and WashU if you have done well in your previous programs. Your economics background may actually increase your desirability for some of those programs, and a lot of prior background in political science may not be as necessary as you think.