NeedaMormon

Claiming the MSU admission! Email looks custom for me. This a good note for me after the UCSD rejection.

Pending: UIUC, Emory, UCSD, U-Michigan, WUSTL, UT-Austin, Princeton, Michigan State, Indiana University, Texas A&M, U-Maryland, Northwestern, U-Iowa Rejected: UW-Madison

Claiming a rejection from UW-Madison. Sucks that I interviewed but didn’t even get waitlisted, but oh well. Congrats to the admitted! 0a/1r/13p

I just need to harness all this stress/email checking into something productive, like actually focusing on my last undergrad classes, or working on my Animal Crossing island.

I think it's interesting that many of the acceptances here (whether Northwestern or some other school) have been in Comparative or International. There have been very few American, Theory, or even Methods acceptances so far. I wonder if that's due to differences in candidate pool size for these different sub-fields. If the Comparative or International applicants are far fewer in number it would make sense that their decisions are made faster. I'm not saying I think the claimed acceptances are false though. I find the decision pacing interesting, and there are a lot of different factors to take into account for this "adventure" of an admissions cycle.

With how they asked about my research I had to go pretty narrow. I'm interested in online manipulation in AP and the questions specifically to me was something like "How would make your research on online manipulation stand out from other thesis papers?" I ended up explaining how my research would be based on some developments in the Computer Science field (It's these things called "Dark Patterns") and so I was more focused on the individual being manipulated rather than the topic of misinformation. I know this gets really in-depth, but that's what I had to do in my interview. Luckily I've been formulating this research for a while now so I was able to answer well.

Finished up with my interview with UW-Madison, and thought I'd let y'all know the questions they asked me: Why would you be a good fit for UW-Madison? What made you want to pursue a PhD? What are some challenges you expect in graduate studies, and how do you think you would over come them? They then asked how I would differentiate my research from other people. (They said they would expect quite a few thesis papers on my research interest in the future. AP if that helps.) I mean I certainly feel like I did well on the interview! They also mentioned to expect decisions in about 3 weeks.

There was no mention of interviewing other people, just that they wanted to interview me.

I received an email today about it. I know the interview will be about 15 min either next Tuesday or Wednesday over Zoom. Now I need to make sure I pick the best spot in my apartment for this. Anybody have tips on preparing for an interview? I assume being specific about my research interests is very important, along with being myself. I'll be sure to let y'all know about the specific questions they ask me!

Just an update, Madison has just asked me to interview with them! This is the first response I've gotten so far, and now I am scared out of my mind.

I applied to 14 schools total, most of which are Midwest/Northeast US. I’ve also decided not to apply to any master’s programs. My original plan was 12 schools my mentor and I thought were attainable and a good fit, but then I added 2 schools that are definitely “Hail Marys.”

Get a rough idea of where I'd be likely to be accepted with my current profile I've started most my applications and I nerves are getting to me. Institution: Current 3.81 GPA, Public Land-Grant Research University Major & Minor: Political Science w/emphasis in American Politics, Statistics and Japanese LOR: 3 Tenured Professors, One of which I have worked on research for about a year. GRE: 159V/157Q/4.0AWA Research Experience: Research with one LOR (one project didn't pan out, currently working on another project), Research with another professor, Research fellowship over the summer. Research class my junior year. 2 Poster presentations. SOP: I applied for the NSF GFRP and this is just a modified version of that statement. I've cut out most of the background and I'm focusing it on research experience. I probably need to write more on my future research goals. Writing Sample: My research proposal for the NSF GFRP is the best thing I've written so far, so I'm planning on using it, even though it is a bit short. Subfields: American Politics, Methodology Schools: UT Austin, USCD, Michigan State, Emory, U of Illinois, Indiana State, U of Wisconsin, Texas A & M, U of Iowa, Washington University, Northwestern, U of Maryland. Hammering out my SOP is my current work right now. If anyone is willing to take a look at it or my writing sample I would appreciate the help!