nivy25

Thank you

I’m urging everyone who has acceptances from UT Austin who isn’t going there to decline soon. With no other offers, this is mostly my only hope and I’d also be really happy here. Please decline sooner rather than later if you feel positive you’re going somewhere else. Thank you.

It might! Thanks! What’s your sub field?

I called Northwestern, they said they’re in the process of sending every decision out. It takes time cause they have a specific system that puts in every person’s name I guess. I’m assuming it’s an automated system for rejections at this point. They said it should be entirely complete by Monday hopefully. Idk if it’s like a rolling thing where rejections will keep flowing or if it all goes all at once.

+1.

My portal just says it’s in review and it doesn’t mention any decision being reached. I hope it’s not bad news!

Did you or others get a personal email or a mass email? I haven’t heard anything from Penn State yet. Also, has your portal changed?

I believe when I was reading this forum sometime ago, I saw some people claiming a Penn State rejection? I checked my portal right now, it’s still under review. Did you receive a rejection for Penn State, and was it a personal email or what?

Please send me a message if you’d be comfortable sharing where you got your Masters from, and what Masters exactly?

Honestly, I was having similar thoughts. I had a 161V, 160Q, 5.0 AWA. I only attempted it once and did not care as much because most schools made it optional anyway. I think a safe score is about 164+ and 5.0+ on AWA. I'm also currently exploring job opportunities that would help me work on obtaining research experience. I'm also awaiting some decisions from Masters programs and also exploring some other ones in Switzerland, and Middlebury Institute in California. I'm also afraid that next year won't be much easier, it might be equally difficult or more. There's no way we can know. I also want to work on my quantitative skills and improve that part of my profile significantly. If I get into any of the schools that waitlist me, I'll still take it, because even though a part of me wanted some other schools so much more, the next years might be so unpredictable and I don't want to risk losing the chance. If you want to stay in touch through channels apart from Gradcafe you can message me and we can maybe do a GroupMe or something.

Just got an official rejection from UC Davis.

Hello! Does anybody know anything about the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA? I was wondering if a Masters degree from there could be useful in getting closer to my goal of getting into a PhD program...

For all Northwestern folk: Firstly, congrats to everyone who got accepted. They received around 600 applications this year and are accepting around 2-3% of them. I just called the Political Science department to get an update. Secondly, I don't know if there is a lot of hope, but they did say that decisions are sent out on a rolling basis and they're hoping to wrap up the process within the next 3 days or so. I don't know if any more acceptances are coming, but we should hopefully officially know soon if we are rejected or not. If we do count 2% of 600, that is 12 acceptances. We have seen around 5-6 on here so far, and maybe there's a few others who don't report it on gradcafe. There might be a slim chance that maybe a handful of acceptances come later (I hope).

Same.

At this point, should I assume a reject from Northwestern? I believe 4-5 people have received acceptances here today across the subfields. Edited: Based on the website information FAQs, they specifically state that they do not send all decisions at the same time. Do you think they mean rejections and acceptances, or do you think it could mean there's still a chance to get accepted? I know these are pointless speculations but I'm trying to grasp to the little hope I have left.

Oh I know that. Some decisions came out today, and people have claimed it.

My anxiety has peaked. I thought decisions would come around the 15th. I'm glad people have heard, but now with every passing minute that passes that I don't hear from them I am just getting more and more worried. It's my strongest fit and I'd give anything to be here. It's also my only hope.

So I think two people got a NW admit sometime ago? Can you tell us which subfields please? I'm so anxious. Northwestern is my only hope and my best research fit (IR). I REALLY want an acceptance here.

Also, I just wanted to put this out there: For those who didn’t get into a school of their choice this year and will most likely try next year, I would love to stay in touch and brainstorm ways to plan better for the next cycle. Gradcafe usage is probably going to die down once the cycle officially ends and it’ll be nice to still get positive vibes and motivate each other for the next few tough months that may come! (I am willing to disclose my identity and share personal information like social media or something to stay in touch if I feel like I’ve seen you posting on here frequently!)

OPT: Damn, that sucks. Do you mind me asking what sort of job you had? I’m mostly thinking of think tanks and unpaid internships (last choice), at top research organizations or NGOs. DPSS: Would this be a significant bonus to my profile? It costs $4,500 which is a good amount of money. I get that I will receive an added credential on my resume and a Chicago transcript, but I just want to know it’s market value. Will this help me improve my chances of getting into PhD programs significantly? Also, do you know if programs like these can be done as part of the OPT?

I haven’t gotten any acceptances yet so I might not be the most “qualified” here to present my opinion. You can read it or fully ignore it but I just thought I might as well throw in my two cents. I agree with everyone else on here who said that Chicago will definitely improve your future job prospects. It’s just the “brand” associated with its degree. At the same time, it’s not completely impossible to get the same job after going to USC especially if you work hard and succeed. As someone mentioned previously, you could win an award and be published a couple times, as compared to a Chicago grad who’s done less than half of what you have but still be considered less than them or equal. However, it really depends. I personally regret not applying to USC because I went on rankings whereas they’re a great program and they’re trying to move up the rankings and they’ve improved a lot. I’ve worked with a professor in my current college who got his PhD from USC about 10 years ago. I get that 10 years is a long time and things change, but he also worked at Columbia University which is R1, top tier after getting a PhD from USC in IR. This is obviously not the norm and it’s easier to get a better job with the Chicago degree but it’s not impossible. Some of my other professors also gave me the same advice. There’s no point spending 5 years or more at a school if you don’t gain the most you can from this experience. Some people are cut out for the competitive and super busy top tier environment, but some prefer a better quality of life in terms of living and working in cooperative environment. I personally do know now that if I do apply next year, I’m not going to make the mistake of skipping USC, and I’m also going to consider lesser ranked schools because my happiness matters more. I would suggest choosing a school based on your personal goals and ambitions.

These are my backups in case I don’t get in this cycle (which seems likely): - Masters programs that I have applied to as listed in my signature. - OPT after I graduate, which I will use to try and get internships at think tanks. I am also open to doing some unpaid internships at this point like the UN internships just build my profile. If anyone has possible job opportunities that are related to IR, I would appreciate it. I also aim to improve my statistical skills and get a stronger quantitative background that I lacked this cycle. I am going to use the helpful information in the application thread about R and try to learn it (along with other relevant programs). I might audit some courses or actually take courses taught by top universities on platforms like Coursera etc. related to topics of my interest / topics that will help me build my profile. Thank you for creating this thread. If it actually doesn’t work out for me this year, any and all information on this thread will be useful to me. I’ll try to keep updating it if I find any other useful things too!

Honestly a 3.79 is a great GPA in my opinion, and your major GPA is great too so it won’t hurt your chances significantly. Unfortunately, it’s hard to predict a range of schools based on this information. Your statement, letters and research fit will matter A LOT. I personally like applying to schools across the spectrum. I do regret not applying to schools ranked a little lower even though I had great fit. Don’t only chase rankings, it’s really not the most important thing!

I agree with @Sad Politics. Rankings do matter, but in the end, it really depends on how you pass your 5+ years at the program, and the stronger your research fit, the easier your time will be there. If I were you, (probably going to apply again next cycle too), I would really carefully pick out my PhD programs that I apply to. Making sure you maximize programs that you feel are great research fits rather than high rankings is important. Getting a combined score of 325+ will definitely help too. I would try to push my GPA towards at least 3.8 or more. One way to do that is take classes with professors who you already have a good relationship with, or choose classes that are not taught by professors who are famously known to barely give people a grade of A. I had a professor who was amazing, but it was incredibly hard to get an A in his class, I would usually get an A-. In the end, even an A- affects your GPA. Try to finish this semester strong and aim for a 4.0 for this semester so you can bring your overall up. You seem really strong on the quantitative front which is awesome. That might open up a lot of doors for you. Networking with current faculty at programs that you wish to apply could also help. Just work on your research and develop strong interests in a topic of your choice. If you haven't already, work hard on your thesis/large paper that you would use as a writing sample!

Yes I have. Two of my professors checked a box that said they didn’t mind if I used this recommendation for any other application this year, so they didn’t have to resubmit it. I asked two others to resubmit the same one they did for the PhD app. I don’t know if the professors made any changes cause I waived the right to see them.