verschiedene

Well said buddy well said prof Amia Srinivasan at Oxford Phil has this brilliant piece on neoliberalism and the role of higher ed in marketplace reproduction. I will try to find the article but I think about it often when I’m in the depth of self doubts - admissions decisions are really just the partial result of a string of financial and administrative decisions in a complicit production system so def don’t evaluate yourself in terms of numbers of rejections!

Yes I think it’s just the reality that every time there is an economic downturn these “useless” (financially less productive) subjects are always the first ones to be sacrificed.

Me! Given that someone said on this thread earlier that they were only admitting one theory candidate this year, I’ve been trying to keep my hopes very low but yes, still extremely tormented atm

Congrats to everyone above! Would you mind sharing your subfield(s)? Just need my hopes to be thoroughly crushed is all...

Thanks for letting me know and sending good vibes to you too!

I might have missed this in these 70 pages of discussions but has anyone any news on Northwestern? I'm theory subfield btw.

Yes do what you have to do to take care of yourself and wishing you the best luck!

I am also in theory and applying to Berkeley which is def one of my top choices and I thought a really good fit... thanks for the information, now i could start to prepare for an imminent rejection ?

Yes I def feel you regarding the cost (and opportunity cost) of grad school app. There is a straightforward financial threshold as well as an intellectual one (which is not itself unrelated to one’s financial background) to enter the academia. And the academia definitely also suffers from a limited perspective bc of its middle-class positionality. The best we could do for now anyways is to do the best where we can and hopefully we could help change it from within someday!

Yes I think it has been there for at least over a week for me as well and IMO is really no indication re: our chance of being admitted. I share everyone’s anxiety but would recommend that we not obsess over this.

Mine has been like that for a while now. I think it’s just bc mich is one of the only schools requiring official transcripts and that’s just an additional (costly) third-party service to certify your transcripts. I didn’t do it anyways

Are you sure that they’re interviewing all shortlist candidates or just the ones they’re on the fence about? Also maybe not all sub fields are doing interviews? There are a lot of uncertainties around admission and I wouldn’t count yourself out this early!

Yes I did, tho I am in theory so don’t really see the point of being a research assistant. Applied anyway just to maximize my chance of ending up somewhere ?

Was wondering about this as well. Are there anyone in theory subfield claiming a Duke interview? Thanks! pending: Berkeley Chicago Cornell Harvard Northwestern Princeton Duke JohnsHopkins UCLA UCSC(HistConsciousness) Oxford

I’ve tried to stay off the grid or put my phone away from me but nothing seems to work bc I have to work on my laptop all day anyway and it’s so hard not to refresh this forum every twenty minutes. I found that the only thing that’s working for me is to spend time with families and friends who help take your mind off this (I’m now doing work in the kitchen with my roommate just so they could distract me from this site)

I personally would like to think adcoms do it this way bc they take admissions/rejections seriously. i.e. they’re gonna send out a number of admits that they are sure of and screen through the rest of applications and slowly roll out more admits/rejects. Sure that adds to our anxiety as applicants but it may also be of some comfort to know that they don’t reject ppl right away.

also applied to nw for theory and waiting!

Wow thanks I didn’t know this existed! Good luck to everyone!

May I ask where you’re finding these results? (Also applying to Princeton and def freaking out rn)

I would imagine that they wanna talk about your research interests so maybe research their department faculty (again) and think about how to fit your interests and experiences into that? Disclaimer: I haven’t done an interview so this is just my guess. Good luck!

I applied to 13 phd programs and am planning on applying to 3-4 additional MA programs. I am wondering how other ppl decide which schools are safe and which are reach? I extremely nervous as this point as I do not feel any program is a given *safe* for me.

I personally had only two professors from the polisci department, the other was my advisor for my secondary major. He is really familiar with my work and writings and has some relevance for my intended field. So I would suggest looking for another professor who is familiar with your work and whose field is not far from political science.

I am hoping to specialize in political theory/philosophy with a focus on critical theory and feminist theory. Undergrad GPA: 4.0. Majors in Government (what my school calls polisci) and German studies. Public school, ranks around #30-40 in US. GRE: 170 verbal, 168 quantitative, 5.0 writing. LORs: Two decent ones from my honors thesis advisors (one in Government and the other in German department), so they know my writings pretty well. Another professor (pretty well-established in this field) who I had for critical theory last year while I was a visiting student there. Research experience: Research assistant at my school's IR lab for two years. Honors thesis on critical theory (topic relates to feminist theory and Habermas). Writing sample: I am really worried about this. I had planned to use my honors thesis but my advisor suggested that it is still an unfinished work; so i might submit two shorter essays from last year. Decent quality at best. Right now I plan to apply to most of the top10 which I feel are a long shot (Harvard, Yale, UChicago, Princeton, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern). My more hopeful focuses are on Berkeley, Michigan, New School and UCLA. Are these latter ones within reach? What others schools are within the similar range and good for critical theory? And always would love to talk to ppl also applying this year to political theory! Exchange comments on SOPs and writing samples etc.

I am in a similar position. I am less well-versed in the French strand but since I am also a German major so know more about the Frankfurt School, Habermas, etc. Definitely look into New School of Social Research. I am applying there anyway. There are top schools like Columbia and Yale but they are a ~long~ shot for me.