jackassjim

I really like the "get to be". It must be such a joyous experience to read about all the path-breaking research conducted for our writing samples (I know I used a wonderful font...).

I wish I had... +Been more organized in my initial review of potential programs. Ideally, I would have built a spreadsheet right from the start with deadlines/mailing address/potential advisors + their research/contact information/required material. I ended up wasting quite a bit of effort going over the same pieces of information at different stages of the admission process. +Not bothered applying to departments where my match with the faculty was just so-so (wastes your money and gets you rejected...) +Not given pre-stamped envelopes to some of my letter writers. Since schools take a long time to process their mail, I was left waiting for a long time before I knew for sure that everything had been received. +Been more supportive of my spouse during the process. Life around you doesn't stop for your admissions. +Not wasted hours and hours on gradcafe.com instead of writing my thesis. I'm glad I... +Rocked the GRE. Go buy the books and do LOTS of practice tests on the computer. +Cultivated and maintained good relationships with profs from my undergrad even if I am not there anymore. +I was very anal about everything, especially when writing and re-writing my statement of purpose. (By the way, ask an academic or a fellow applicant to comment on your SOP. The harsher he/she will be in critiquing, the better for you.) +I applied to long-shot schools +Negotiated my funding package once I got in +Started the process rather early (took the GRE in August and wrote my SOP in November)

You're on the waitlist for the financial aid package, right? If you have not been accepted formally and are just on a regular waitlist at ucla, keep in mind that you might not even get funding even if you're bumped up.

Or maybe this is just another sign of my obliviousness In any case, I think we will all agree that the cost of contacting potential supervisors is so low that even if the benefits of doing so might be somewhat overstated, it almost certainly doesn't hurt to do it.

rising_star: I agree with much of what you are saying. My point was that professors in polisci do not seem to "take" students as they do in other fields. I have been accepted to quite a few schools, but I have not received any confirmation about who would be my adviser. You are usually assigned an informal adviser when you enroll. That person helps you plan your program (choose courses, etc.). Of course, at some point you'll need to find a chair for your dissertation committee. My sense is that the process of finding a dissertation chair (your main adviser and advocate on the job market), is sui generis. It depends on your individual path through grad school, and is certainly not decided by those in charge of admissions.

Here is my somewhat polisci-specific answer (for future generations of obsessive gradcafe readers). I concur with sunny27. Contacting faculty seems to be much more important in fields like psychology or the natural sciences since individual professors of such disciplines have more influence on the admission process. It is important to contact such professors, if only to know if they are taking students in their lab in the coming years. If they don't have the funds to pay for your stipend, they typically won't consider admitting you. Since they have much of their own individual research funds invested in their students, they are quite invested in the selection process (that's why they often do interviews too). Polisci profs might take you on as a first year advisee even if they have many others, as this does not necessarily mean a long term commitment (your research interests might change, etc.). In polisci, I would be very surprised to hear of a prof from outside the admission committee sticking her head out for a student whom she only knows through email. What my letter writers suggested: contact a prof only if you've met her in person, or if you have a genuine question that only she can answer (not on the website FAQ and not the responsibility of some departmental chair). My current advisors told me that they get so much of this type of email that they can rarely remember the names of the students they exchanged with. What might actually help your chances though, is if one of your letter writers makes phone call on your behalf to people inside the prospective department. This is much more likely to have an impact than a couple of smart emails. To this list, I would add: Fantastic research interest match with (ideally more than 1) faculty members.

It sure sounds like a waitlist to me. 6600 for 10 months (7920$ for 12) is VERY low, wherever you plan to live. Keep in mind that the national poverty threshold for a single individual below the age of 65 is about 10500$ a year (US census bureau). You might be able to pull it off, but you'll be eating loads of peanut butter, and you'll probably live in a dump or in a commune with 15 hippies.

Hehe, was that directed at me? I assure you, I am much nicer in real life

Then again, those who can afford to be deterred are those with options and, presumably, those which appear most desirable to admissions committees.

The key: "if one has the time to." I can barely rationalize the time I waste here, and I'm actually part of this process. Plus, I don't imagine there is much valuable information they can glean from this forum that they can't get from a frank discussion with one of their advisees. If my adviser asks me what I was looking for when applying to my current program, I will tell him/her.

Send me a sample statement of purpose by PM and maybe I can comment on it. Also, what schools did you apply to, and did you read the thread about area specialists/generalists?

I really don't want to sound like an a-hole, but you should really forget grad school for this year. If you really want to do this, you'll want to reapply next year, and make everything you can until then to make your app better. Options include: Learning a language Doing RA work (paid or not) Publishing (quite tough I agree) Retaking the GREs Learn some math Go to a summer camp like ICPSR (that will help you learn something + meet profs who could potentially write you good letters) Write a killer statement of purpose and make it read by (1) professors and (2) people who have been successful in previous admissions cycles. If all of the above fails, consider another career (yep, I'm sorry). The real problem is that the job market is so rough for political science graduates, and you'll be competing with so many people from the top schools, that you are really taking a risk anyway going into this. Add a huge debt to the equation, and you're f***ed. Not being offered funding is also a signal of something. Maybe you're not the top candidate ever. If you're not, you can wonder if profs are really going to take you under their wings. If they don't, what will happen to you when you need support from them to find a job? It's a hell of a slippery slope if you ask me. A lot of people get into this without knowing what it's all about...

Please, if you're going to follow an internet stranger's advice just once, follow this one: DO NOT PAY FOR YOUR PHD IN POLITICAL SCIENCE. Here's a tenured sociologist who makes the case why you should not: http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2007/05/ ... ad-school/

Thanks a lot for the answer. Yeah, I guess I'll have to go there pretty early then. I'm also thinking about a car, but I heard parking is awful on campus. We'll see... Thanks!

Northwestern. It was in the title of the post, but I will edit it to make it clearer.

Northwestern update Just thought some of you might want to know this, as it might help keep the hope alive: I have just withdrawn my application, and I received an email from someone in the department, informing me that my file was under serious consideration. That must mean that they are not completely done yet. I hope that some of those who are still waiting get in.

No and No. Just make sure you read everything you sign carefully to make sure there is no hidden "I accept the offer" clause.

You should ask your recommender to make a phone call for you. If he really likes you, he might do it.

There is a search function that you can use within topics Try this post: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=14579&p=66428&hilit=Columbia#p66428

Question about the housing market for you all: If I were to move to Ann Arbor in August/September, when would I have to start looking for an appartment?

That is indeed very good information. Thanks for posting it.

Don't be an ass

Oh, and download (and read) the whole Lijphart article. The short quote from wikipedia doesn't say much about the dude's actual argument.

No, it definitely wouldn't. While there is of course a lot of large-n studies in comp politics, research is also very often of a more qualitative nature. If there is any kind of quasi-consensus about an approach to comparative politics, it's that if you want to be hired, you will have to go out and do some kind of field work. I found this thread on the topic quite entertaining: http://www.poliscijobrumors.com/topic.php?id=8309

You sound like Bergman in Capablanca (or the old lady in the Bold and the Beautiful, I can't decide...)