eastafricanhopeful

Alhamdulillah my status changed to "funding" from "selection made". Success to those still waiting for their results.

Yeah--I did my undergrad honors thesis for my math/econ degree on empirical game theory modeling.

I was also roommates with the owner/admin of http://gametheory101.com/, Billy Spaniel, and we're actually going to be writing a more comprehensive extension to his Game Theory 101 e-book to incorporate some behavioral game theory/economics later this summer!

I posted a similar question awhile ago (you can see on my profile) - and overwhelmingly, I got the advice to take the job. Take the job. We're entering a recession and good jobs (especially at employers you like) will be hard to come by. It is not a good time to take out a big loan. Also your program experience is likely to be funky with the possibility of classes still being online-only. NOT worth the cost of Columbia tuition IMO - networking and in-person interaction is one of the biggest draws of Ivy league programs.
Is there a possibility your employer can contribute to tuition reimbursement if you go to grad school later? Or a way of working and doing your program PT (that comes with its own opportunity costs of not being a FT student)?
Work experience will almost always trump schooling. If the job offer is salaried at $100K you'd be veryyy silly to turn it down to PAY to learn. Remember, you're not just paying tuition and living expenses, you're also losing out on 2+ years of income. Given that you JUST got out of undergrad, you're at a big disadvantage compared to other people in the market. 
Unless you're planning on trying to end up in academia, grad school will end sometime, and you'll have to return to the workforce (the "real world"). Grad school will always be there, and you'll be an even more competitive applicant with more time and experience under your belt. Who knows, your interests may change with more time in the field, and you may realize that you actually want to look into other grad programs!
A lot of people go to grad school to pivot or try to launch and get new employment opportunities after they graduate. It doesn't make as much sense for you to go to grad school and just end up in the same place you were before. 
 
Take the job take the job!

Thank you! They informally got back to me a few days after my interview to let me know that they would be giving me an offer of place and would be nominating me for funding. However, I don't think that this is typical, but my potential supervisors wanted me to restructure and add to some of my arguments in the proposal before it was sent to the scholarship panel. I think I just got really lucky that they were willing to provide some feedback in this late stage to up my chances. However, it's been a couple weeks since this happened and I haven't received any formal communication, my application still says "under review by the department." 
I'm not sure when I'll hear the results on funding (from other online chat rooms I'm thinking late March). Again, I think it's not super common to hear back right now, so don't give up hope & good luck!!  

My cycle is mostly over, so I'll join as well. I might update later once I get my final decisions.
PROFILE
Type of Undergrad Institution:  Midwest SLAC
Major(s)/Minor(s): Conflict Studies
Undergrad GPA:  3.99 CGPA / 4.00 Major GPA
Type of Grad:  Chinese C9 - Chinese Ivy
Grad GPA:  4.00
GRE:   N/A
Any Special Courses: Graduate-level Econ, Intro Stats Class, SWE classes in Java and MySQL, Honors Thesis, Graduate-level Political Econ
Letters of Recommendation: 1 Professor, 1 Associate, 1 Emerita
Teaching Experience: Taught as a lab assistant in Languages dept.
Other: Lots of conference presentation experience, two undergrad pubs 
RESULTS (PHD)
Acceptances: N/A (so far)
Rejections: Princeton, Chicago, Michigan, Berkeley, Rice, Cornell
Pending: Yale, Concordia
 
LESSONS LEARNED
1. Unless you're in theory, quantitative skills matter more and more every year: The field is leaning towards quant methods as time goes on, so get some coding/technical (R) and stats experience under your belt as soon as you can.
2. Competition for spots is getting much more intense: A lot of schools reduced cohorts of 15-20 people down to 8 this year.
3. Connect with professors early: Don't wait until October or November to email a POI. The sooner you can get in touch with them, the better.
4. Fit is just as important as departmental knowledge: You might have two professors you are interested in working in, but they are leaving the department that year. Fit and information are two of your best assets. This ties into point 3 as well.
5. Don't beat yourself up: Most applications to graduate school are not successful. Rejections are not a reflection on your academic abilities or your personal worth. Make sure you have a good support system and healthy coping mechanisms before going into application season because your stress levels and patience will be tested.
 
I will update once I hear back from my MA programs.

I have accepted an offer despite pending decisions because I feel confident in my decision. 
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: Public EU Uni 
Major(s)/Minor(s): Law
Undergrad GPA: 3.7, with honours 
Type of Grad: Top 3 UK 
Grad GPA: Distinction, equivalent to 4.0 
GRE: N/A
Any Special Courses: Stats with R, Quant Analysis 
Letters of Recommendation: 2 tenured profs, 1 associate prof - all know me very well and I took courses and conducted research with them
Teaching Experience: N/A
Research Experience: 3+ years RA experience, several research internships w/ governmental department 
Other: Several publications in peer reviewed journals and blog posts 
 
RESULTS (PHD)
Accepted: USC, UChicago (both funded) 
Rejected: Indiana, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Boston U, LSE
Waitlisted: Georgetown
Pending: 2 EU options 
Going to: USC
 
Lessons
As this was my first and only cycle, I really consider it a success and am so grateful to have gotten any offers given the immense competition. 
What I strongly recommend/advise: 
1) Have professors (especially the ones writing your recommendations) and current PhD students read your statements. Make sure they are tailored to each department you are applying to and always highlight POIs. 
2) Don't apply to places where you don't have fit. 
3) Rankings are not everything, especially depending on your expectations of a program, and your end goals/ career trajectory. 
4) Don't be hard on yourself if you don't get any offers from 'higher ranked' options or any offers at all. It usually isn't a reflection of your abilities, rather it's a reflection of the reality that there are hundreds of equally qualified and capable scholars out there. 

PROFILE
Type of Undergrad Institution: Private University on East Coast, Top 50
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science and Area Studies, with Minor in Language
Undergrad GPA: 3.7
Type of Grad: M.A. in Area Studies
Grad GPA: 4.00
GRE: Q 162/ V 170/ AW 6.0
Any Special Courses: Two graduate level stats courses
Letters of Recommendation: 1 Full Prof from Undergrad; 1 Associate Prof from Grad; 1 Assistant Prof from Grad
Teaching Experience: N/A
Other:  1+ year of graduate RA work; 2 years of Professional Research work; 1 conference presentation; Fluency/Proficiency in two languages relevant to research
 
RESULTS (PHD, Comparative)
Accepted: Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins
Rejected: Princeton, Yale, Stanford, UT Austin, Cornell, Northwestern, Michigan, Chicago
Waitlisted: N/A
Pending: Harvard
Going to: Still pending
 
Lessons
I'm going to focus mainly on issues beyond preparing everything well in advance and getting lots of advice:
1. One point does bear repeating, this cycle was a complete mess. If you are reading this and 2020-2021 didn't work out as planned, I'm sorry, you probably didn't deserve it. I watched real life friends and gradcafe acquaintances that seemed destined for top programs get devastating results. I got headscratching rejections from schools that seemed like perfect matches. This is the worst cycle to try and draw inferences from. 
2. Emotionally prepare for the results cycle. I was blindsided by how all-consuming January and February would be. Be intentional about how you are going to structure your time to keep yourself on task with other responsibilities, I guarantee it will take more discipline than riding the adrenaline of preparing and submitting your files. Plan in advance that you simply will not be functioning at 100% or even 50% during this time. Kudos to those who can, but realizing this in advance would have been productive for me.
One trick: once you get into a school you could picture yourself attending, assume that you'll land there and start imagining your future accordingly. Once I did this rather than holding out for the remaining lottery tickets, I found more peace. If you did this process right, you should be excited about getting in anywhere.
3. I wish I had contacted more POIs in advance. While many people told me that this was not part of the "culture" of political science applications (as opposed to History and Anthro where it is standard practice), it seems like the vast majority of the people on this forum did this and I assume it didn't hurt. Perhaps more importantly, it may have helped me manage my expectations better about schools I later found out weren't taking anyone in my sub-subfield.
4. Doing a Master's is more helpful than many people may lead you believe. Not because of the M.A. itself, but because of how much more "mature" your ideas will be when you sit down to produce a writing sample and SOP. Area studies M.A.s are typically funded much more generously than policy degrees, and are a particularly good option for comparativists if you can use your electives to build some quant chops.
5. Fit is important but...you likely do not yet have a full grasp on what every scholar in your field is currently doing or where their research is going. You may say, "but I read all the journals in my field and made a spreadsheet a year in advance!" So did I, but that scholar whose work only seems tangentially related to yours? They may actually be just beginning a book project that is spot on for your interests, with no indication of that on their CV. This is where contacting POIs and networking comes in, and where applying broadly rather than looking only for matches made in heaven can work. 
6. Stuck on your SOP? Think out loud. My first few drafts of my SOP were jargony messes. The most productive way of moving past this was calling someone who was familiar with my field on the phone and trying to pitch the ideas verbally. Slowly but surely, this strategy helped me find a way to express my interests to a broad (poli sci) audience in the plainest english possible. By the end, my SOP and the intro of my writing sample read more as punchy journalism than academic writing. This was definitely for the best.

PROFILE
Type of Undergrad Institution:  Not sure how to categorize so I'll just say: U. South Carolina
Major(s)/Minor(s): International studies
Undergrad GPA: 3.94
Type of Grad: Georgetown (R1), Masters in International Development (not really poli sci at all, though tangential)
Grad GPA: 3.94
GRE: 170v/169q/5.5
Any Special Courses: lots of math/econ the past few years (mostly after getting my masters): several econometrics courses, calculus1-3 with diffyq, math stats, linear algebra, real analysis (brutal!), intermediate micro/macro econ (I was considering applying to econ programs too, but decided against it in the end)
Letters of Recommendation: 2 profs (one econ, one poli sci), 1 supervisor at a research institute (an economist)
Teaching Experience: econometrics TA in grad school
Research Experience: worked 3+ years at a think tank as an RA, doing some academic research with an economist and some non-academic research; research consultant with the World Bank for a little while (not poli sci though); supported a field experiment in Rwanda for a few months; lead author in a journal (not poli sci or econ); lots of coding experience (Stata and R)
Other: long time lurker; served in the Peace Corps (helpful for CP?); short stints at a few other intl development orgs; avid bird watcher 
RESULTS
Acceptances: NYU
Waitlists: none
Rejections: Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton political economy
Pending: Harvard, MIT
Going to: prob NYU, maybe Harvard if I get in 
LESSONS LEARNED
Since most of us don't receive feedback from faculty on why we did/didn't get in anywhere, I think it's hard to extract lessons about what was good or bad about our applications. With that said, I think I have a relatively strong quant background, and NYU is known to be a quantier school, so maybe that helped. I'm sure fit matters a lot too, but I also think it's hard to know from the faculty's perspective whether you will be a good fit. Honestly, I think the number one lesson is that there is a ton of randomness and luck. We've seen a bunch of people get into top programs and nowhere else, and super qualified people get in nowhere. With so many qualified applicants and so few slots, there will inevitably be a lot of luck involved. So the main takeaway I think is to apply to lots of programs. And don't get discouraged this year if it didn't work out--just roll the dice again next year (and maybe get some more research/math experience?).
Also, feedback from academics on SOPs is huge--they had a lot of advice for me.
 

I would like to give a huge thanks to everyone on this forum for being such a supportive group this year. This cycle has effectively ended for me, pending my MA application responses. 
I will be taking a break from this forum and come back around April to post my final results as I'm in the last leg of my master's (thesis defense soon ?) and would like to focus on finishing on a strong note.
If you would like to keep in touch beyond this forum, I'm pretty active on Twitter! DM me and I'll send my handle to you. 
Congratulations again to all those who have received offers in such a difficult cycle -- if you are planning to apply in another cycle, you'll probably see me on this forum again. 
Best wishes to all! ☺️❤️

I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I've applied at LSE for an MPhil/PhD program in the social sciences. The program I applied to is eligible ESRC funding and internal studentship funding. I didn't reach out to potential supervisor before I sent in my application, but I did interview with a couple professors early in February who were chosen to be my potential supervisors. I think it may help to reach out to potential supervisors to get feedback on your application/ proposal, but I don't think it will make or break your chances of receiving funding! 

Hi! In Ag. Econ. it is probably less important to have some of the most advanced courses in mathematics (such as Real Analysis) compared to Econ programs. However, I think it if you want to apply to an Ag. Econ. program you should at least take the basic math courses (one year of calculus, linear algebra and some courses on statistics). Also, getting a good score in the GRE quantitative section can help you a lot. Note that some of the top programs in Ag. Econ. (such as Berkeley) are even more competitive than several Econ programs. I wish you good luck when applying next year!