pspr

Yup it is for PhD in Government. I emailed to ask yesterday morning, and got this reply today! I guess the batch of rejections are coming soon (my portal remains the same at the moment). I guess it’s because I asked the coordinator, so he got back with the decision! This could also very well mean that the methods and theory acceptances on the result page are real.

Harvard has just responded to my email of inquiry! It is a generic rejection, of course, but a very polite one. The email says that "notifications are being sent just now by the Graduate School" (but I haven't received any tho) and that "there were 588 applications under consideration for an incoming class of eight." 588... for a class of 8 ...that is INSANE. For those who got in: a very, very big congrats!! This finally marks the end of this cycle for me!

Congrats to all the MIT admits! On the other hand, it seems Harvard is going to be a grand finale for many people in this cycle! Apart from the two results on the result page, has anyone heard anything from them?

I believe for the PhD in Government we have not seen anybody on this thread claim the acceptance yet. On the result page there are Methods and Theory acceptances notified by phone (which seems to be the usual way Harvard has been doing for the past couple of years).

I have learned from my POI at Cornell that they can only admit 2 CP people from the pool of over 200 CP applications. That's basically less than 1 percent! This cycle is BRUTAL. I think there's one or two people on this thread who have already claimed the CP acceptances and/or waitlisted. These guys are basically Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark ?. By the way, my POI is not on the adcom, so he had no idea about when the official results would be sent to us, nor can he explicitly tell if I have been rejected ?.

I think they do notify those who are waitlisted (don’t quote on that). Rejection should come several days after I think. Cornell is a perfect fit for me ...if they reject me thats going to be more heartbreaking than other places! Someone who claimed the AP acceptance here told me the email is from the DGS and follwed by emails from her several POIs and the grad coordinator. One of the schools that accepted me actually had notified other successful applicants before me. For unspecified reason, my offer came one day late. I just try to hope that this could also be the case, but of course it is that I am pretty much trying to calm myself by injecting myself with a potentially false hope ? Good luck to you all!

I haven’t seen anyone here claim it for CP (only IR and AP, i think). But i’m not sure if it’s likely or unlikely that the DGS sends out acceptances of different subfileds at different times. Best case scenario (which I hope so lol) is that the result on that page is a troll bc the acceptances for other subfields were sent out this morning, not yesterday. On the contrary, it can be possible too that CP acceptances were all sent out this morning along with other subfields, but the CP people who got it are simply not on this thread. Another odd thing is that no one has claimed they are waitlisted at all. So I am not sure if the whole process is really done. Then I decided to email the grad coordinator (not the DGS) to ask if all the decisions and admission process are concluded. She replied: we may send additional acceptances in the next few weeks, so have not concluded our process.” i just hate this in-between feeling where i’m not sure if i am rejected or still have hope!

Any Cornell acceptances or waitlisted in CP?

I almost had a heart attack when I saw the sender's name as "Dept of Government: Director of Graduate Studies" and not that professor's name.

Today at around 5pm I received a reply from Cornell's DGS. He wrote "we expect to conclude our admissions process this week. Notifications will be sent out to applicants shortly thereafter." ...I guess it's no longer by the end of Feb or beginning of March. It's THIS WEEK! I know a lot of us here have applied to Cornell thanks to its GRE waiver and the program's reputation. My cycle is almost done, with one fully funded offer, one rejection, and two more to hear back from. Hang in there everyone!

OH MY GWAD

I'm really sorry I can't answer all questions. I have no idea about what the department means by "go slow," but I doubt it's all going to be like what you described. But that's all the department told me. I had posted somewhere earlier that Cornell's plan to release the decisions would be by or before the end of this month, which is in line with previous years.

NYU's ranking might be high, but someone seems to be quite low in empathy and sympathy ?

Cornell just told me they are reducing the number of the incoming cohort by "at least 50%" (they said they usually send out at least 26 offers). They also said they plan to "go slow and use a waitlist." Assuming the number of applicants soared from around 300 to, say, 400 or 500 thanks to the GRE waiver, I guess the ratio for Cornell is as terribly horrible as Harvard or Georgetown, which we have only around 1-2% chance (from, say, 300-400 applications) of getting the offer... For some of us who are waiting for these places, I am more than confident that it is absolutely not our fault -- as least not entirely -- that we don't get in. It is indeed too hyper-competitive. And I'm sure this is also the cases for the schools that have already released results.

I am actually going to the department on Monday to speak with my professor there. I'll drop by the grad studies coordinator's office and ask her if there's any update.

PhD in Government, of course.

I believe that should be the case, plus the waitlist too.

Just heard back from my POI at Harvard to confirm that they are really reducing the cohort size from 24 to 8. The decision should come out as usual, towards the end of this month. This is the Hunger Game: Grad School Edition indeed.

I wrote an email to Cornell yesterday and got a reply this morning. They said that they "hope to have decisions in by the end of February." I suppose that could mean somewhere between Feb 14-17 as usual or until the end of the month, which is a little bit later than usual. I specifically asked if the covid-19 slowed things down or pushed the normal timeline. They did not specifically write about that.

I’ve been lurking here for quite some time. I do share the anxiety facing most of us right now! Keep your hope and head up! And a big congrats to those who have heard some great news. Seeing that many of us have talked a little bit about themselves, i’d like to share mine too. Due to my financial condition, I could afford to only apply to four places. I decided to take on a perilous “go hard or go home” route ? and applied to Harvard, Cornell, UTAustin, and UF — all CP. Unfortunately, I assume it’s a no-no for Austin by now as I have heard nothing since some of us here claimed acceptances last week. I intend to focus on specific comparative issues with focus on LatAm and Southeast Asia, so it’s a little bit sad that I didn’t get in there because Austin is quite strong in LatAm politics. Cornell, on the other hand, seems like a good fit and the program itself is very strong in both Southeast Asian and LatAm politics. The POI there is also very nice and gave me several tips on the application (so I really recommend emailing them!). But you know, it’s still Cornell and this year’s going to be hyper competitive for sure... let’s see how it turns out ? I genuinely don’t hope much from Harvard, although the fact that the POI there replied my email with solid responses gives me a slight glimpse of hope ? UF is also such a lovely place and a relatively good fit too. One small rant: the time and money we spend on grad school apps are way too much, especially for foreign students whose first language is not English. As a non-US citizen we can’t file for app fees waiver, so that’s around $80-100 per each school you apply to. Plus we have to pay for a standardized English test (TOEFL/IELTS), and that’s additional $180 plus the fees for sending scores to the schools ($20 per each). And of course, the GRE... almost the same exact amount as the English test for foreigners. It’s just quite a lot! I can say with every cent we paid we have every right to be anxious! ? My (brief) profile: a foreign student doing MA in area studies in a public university in the US. BA from abroad. Currently co-authoring a book with my advisor, under contract with an academic publisher. Was a field journalist for an int’l news agency in Asia and LatAm for three years, plus a couple of years of university-based research experience.

Cornell is in fact my top choice! My focus is on democratization/authoritarianism and populism in LatAm and Southeast Asia, and the program looks like a good fit. How do you find the Govt Dept in general? And just in case you have heard something, any idea if the results will be sent out a little bit later than usual bc of the GRE waiver? I also hope the incoming cohort won’t be too small....

Congratulations! Are your subfields all IR? Mine is CP and i’m still waiting to hear back. Wondering if all the acceptances from all subfields are sent all at once or it depends on the subfield (or i’m trying to soothe my anxiety and upcoming rejection ?).