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JPYSD

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  1. No 😞 Just that I have been rejected from Nuffield. But no college or funding news...
  2. I am not knowledgeable enough to give you a proper answer, but I guess every opinion helps in those decisions: I have heard from many more people that BC is seen as a niche program for certain areas of theory and know of a handful of people that were placed decently. Now, I don't know about funding and the specific campuses, but BC would for most people be in a much more desirable location. Not just Boston vs. Bloomington itself, but also the fact that as a theory student, you pretty much stay at your program for most of the 5 years (rarely fieldwork etc.) and the Boston area would give you the chance to be a proper part of the theory community with conferences and events at Harvard, MIT, BU, Northeastern, Brandeis etc. Connections seem so important in academia, and I believe this could be easier to achieve, so you could have a more diverse academic life at BC/living in Boston. But as always: funding and personal fit should be the most important factors! (also: since you might have posted there - don't listen to PoliSci rumors - that page is just full of awful trolls that don't want anything good for you)
  3. Congratulations -that's awesome! Also DPhil in Politics? Let's wish each other luck for funding...
  4. Hello 🙂 It is indeed a good idea to apply to PhDs directly, especially if you have a political science background already. If your GPA is decent, can score a high GRE result, have access to decent LORs and enough time to create a serious research narrative in your SOP, thats all you need. Most US master programs are cash cows and only really make sense if you can find funding for those, which is really rare. The name will not carry, everyone knows what they are for. I only saw people really increasing their chances with a master from for example Chicago or Columbia (both rather common for that purpose) if they did not have a political science background in their undergrad or if they really had bad grades and needed to create a better "impression" of themselves. UK master programs are a bit of a different story it seems, since they are usually more competitive themselves to get into, don't have the grade inflation and make the candidate more interesting. Especially Oxbridge, LSE and King's would be the options here. In terms of rankings: It sadly is true that the US News Ranking is the only really trustworthy ranking for US graduate programs in political science. Its subfield rankings are decent for ranking the T10, but as you can see yourself, they don't go very far down, so take them with a grain of salt. It is also true that while theoretically everyone has a shot at academia, the vast majority of placements stem from T10-15, max. T30 schools. There are a few exceptions of good programs outside of those here and there, but it's really tight. If you are interested in political science schools globally, the Shanghai subject ranking is not too bad. Among the top 30 schools globally, Oxbridge, LSE, King's and the European University Institute definitely should be included as well. Maybe even Zurich and some of the English programs in Scandinavia. In terms of chances, it is all about the "fit". Your topic has to fit to the research focus of ideally not just one professor and the department as a whole. Yes, a statement of purpose will be a research proposal with maybe one paragraph about the specific university you are applying to and yourself in the end. The "purpose" is your topic and not who you are. Here and in your statement, you have to be as specific as possible, although not one person has to fit it all. Remember, you will build a committee, so its the synergy of several people you should be interested in. On the flipside, if there is one perfect faculty for your topic, but the rest of the department is very far away from that subject area, it is not a good sign. Of course it is not about the subfield you should match faculty with but about the subfield in the subfield. Try to get as close to your actual research as possible. Comparative politics and theory are really big fields, e.g., and you could still have a horrible fit in a department that is usually known for those fields. Most of the T10-15 programs will be really good for most subfields. Then there are some departments that are clearly specialized in one subfield or research focus, but rather weak in most of the other classic ones. This will reflect in the rankings of course. Brown, e.g., is top-notch if you want to do comparative work with a South Asia focus or political theory. It is ranked at place 41, however. NYU is probably the top school for formal and quantitative methods, but is much lower. Chicago might be the best in country for political theory, but has no substantive people in American Politics. So it really depends and you have to do your research. A general rule is (and you should stick to it, because it really shows the quality of the program): Where there is no good funding included in the program, it will not be a good program. The more you move yourself away from the T20, the less money or even no money will be guaranteed. Avoid those programs by all cost and don't even bother applying. T10 programs all pay a stipend of above 40k USD. But it decreases rapidly from there and of course depends on the area you would live in. Also, apply broadly. There is no such thing as a safety school, since most programs max. take in 10-20 students, even the "low-ranked" ones. It really is about fit and fit only if your stats are right. If you don't have an obviously bad GPA and GRE, then still apply to the T10-schools, even if you think you would never have a chance. Placement records are usually published by each department and show where people might end up with the degree. They could be read as a ever-changing "ranking". For T15 schools, they don't really matter because everyone really has a shot if they do good research. Of course the top of the top schools have it much easier producing those kind of students with their connections. If you are looking at schools ranked lower, definitely check their placement records. They won't be great but take them with a grain of salt - it will be about you in the end, so a good fit and funding is much more important for now. Go through every single university from the top to the bottom of the US News List and filter by fit and funding. Then narrow down. Feel free to PN if you have specific questions regarding programs etc. 🙂 All the best!
  5. Thank you for this! Are you saying that you know for a fact that Nuffield already sent out their offers for this year (at least for the already admitted students)?
  6. March 22nd is the day until they will have completed sending out everything, by latest. I would guess they sent out about half of the decisions by now (including mine), DPhil in Politics more than DPhil in IR it seems, and internal applications probably before regular applications. No information about funding yet (Nuffield, Clarendon etc. is not out yet).
  7. I am in CP, however, even if you applied to the "Politics" DPhil and not to the "IR" DPhil, subfields don't really matter for the application. I know more people that have gotten results from the Politics DPhil. IR was rather quiet so far. They follow a list that they "work through" and send out acceptances on a rolling basis/in batches. March 5 was one of these days. I also know that some rejections were sent already, which really shows that you have nothing to worry about for now. It was confirmed, however, that all acceptances and rejections will be sent out until March 22nd.
  8. Claiming Oxford DPhil in Politics acceptance! Upload button disappeared in the portal about two hours ago. Supervisor/POI mentioned in the application was copied to the e-mail, funding information is pending. Really happy, although I am not sure if I would end up going or prefer my US option...
  9. Because there have been some questions related to them: UPenn indeed hasn't send out rejections, but I am quite sure that they sent all acceptances and waitlists. Their program is really small, so not many people get accepted every year (far below 10 usually), so it makes sense that we only saw one acceptance here and two waitlists. NYU also hasn't send out rejections, but that is in line with their usual procedure, since they reevaluate applications that weren't initially "successful" for their master program, which for whatever reason takes them so long every year.
  10. No. However, I know that while most Oxford master and DPhil applications are rolling admission/decisions, they actually do send out DPIR DPhil results relatively reliably on one date, usually within the last 10 days of March. I am an internal candidate and haven't heard anything from other people here either... Funding decisions usually come one or two months later, if you haven't gotten Nuffield, which should already be included in your decision letter.
  11. Anyone claiming the Yale rejection from Friday? And do we know if they sent all acceptances out already? Seems maybe to be POI-specific this time?
  12. Someone claiming Stanford? That seems way too early...
  13. I have also been expecting it since Friday last week. Although they released their decisions on the 10th last year, their schedule seems to be different every time and usually hints to the last two weeks of February, so most likely next week...
  14. Let's see if some universities "have some roses" for us today, after it has been rather quiet the past days 🙂
  15. Harvard usually sends out acceptances on the 22nd/23rd of February, so mid next week. Yale is different every year, but according to last year (which was on the 10th), they should send out acceptances very soon, maybe even today...
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