Avocado_town

I also received an offer to the MA program from NYU. I'll be declining. Cycle finally over

PROFILE:Type of Undergrad Institution: International University from Latin AmericaMajor(s)/Minor(s): Political ScienceUndergrad GPA: 3,83 (equivalence)Type of Grad: No grad studiesGrad GPA: GRE: I took it three times (I hope no one else goes trough this haha): The results I sent to all the school were 162v, 164q, 5,0w. I also got 165v, 158q, 4.0w; 166v, 157q, 4.0w. I sent the second sent to Princeton and Northwestern too, since they said they accept multiple GRE scores. Any Special Courses: I took courses on qualitative methods, quantitative methods (data analysis, were I learned R), research design, and calculus. All those were required courses at my undergraduate school. Letters of Recommendation: 2 asisstant professors and 1 associate professor. The first assistant professor was my thesis supervisor and then I was his teaching assistant and now research assistant (I almost didn't even need to ask for his letter, since he always encouraged me to go to grad school). The second assistant professor was a former associate professor at my school and now an assistant professor at a R1 university in USA. The associate professor is a professor for whom I was a research assistant for one summer. Not sure if this is really relevant, but I appliead as a political theorist, but the associate professor works on International Relations.Teaching/Research Experience: I was teaching assistant 10 times, for 6 professors in 4 different courses (mosty in political theory and two times in Intro to RI). I was research assistant to a Professor during one summer, I did a 4-month intership working mostly in research, and since November I am a reseach assistant again.Other: I'm ranked second in my cohort (undergrad).RESULTS:Acceptances: University of Virginia, University of Colorado Boulder.Rejections: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, California Berkeley, Northwestern, Columbia, Michigan (Ann Arbor), Brown, Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania.Pending: NYU (assumed rejection)Attending: University of Virginia.LESSONS LEARNED: 1. It is obviously difficult to be sure of what you learned from your application cycle, since most of the times (unless you ask and have luck) you don't really know what you did good to get an offer and what you did wrong to get a rejection. 2. This is one thing one of my recommenders told me: you need to know someone who knows someone there. This means: you need to get recommenders who know people at the schools you are applying to. This makes sense, since it is important for the prople on the committe to properly assess if they can trust the recommender and what his/her letter say. It also make sense, since your recommender can approach the professor he/she knows at the school you are applying to and tell him/her "hey, please don't forget to look at this applicant's file". This will surely not grant you an offer, but it may help you to be noticed by the committe. 3. Start early. I mean it is important to start early to look for programs, asking your prospective recommenders if they can write a letter for you, working on your statement of purpose/personal statement, and choosing/working on your writing sample. 4. Ask your recommenders (or maybe grad students or other professors) to read your application materials and give you comments about them. Maybe you can ask them to share they application materials with you. Those worked for them, and they probably know what they could have done better. One of my professors shared his SoP with me and pointed out all the things he thought were not good or simply bad. 5. Fit is important, especially when deciding between offers. I applied to 13 schools and almost applied to a 14th. Besides, not every university offers political theory. Therefore, not every school I applied to were a good fit for my interest. Maybe if I were to do all this again, I would avoid some schools that I know were not good fits for my interests. Obviously as a theorist you want to apply to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. I did it, but knowing that from those, only Princeton was a really good fit for me. Berkeley and Columbia weren't really good fits for me. But when you have to decide between different offers, that's when you really have to consider which of the universities from where you get an offer is the best place to do what you want to do in grad school. 6. Once you get at least one acceptance, start talking with the people from that department, particularly professors - and grad students if possible. That will help you to get an idea of what the department's general atmosphere is, and if it is really what you expect. Talk about professors' researach interest, the courses they give at the graduate level and that kind of things. If you can, talk to grad students and ask them what they think about the program, what they don't like, and so on.

I see. Thanks for sharing that. I don't understand why they take such a long time either. In any case, I hope you get good news in the end.

Hi everyone. I declined the offer I got from the University of Colorado Boulder. I hope this helps anyone here.

April is way too late haha. I didn't remember about the MA option so I don't know if I checked it.

Thanks for emailing them! In any case, I assumed a rejection (which means my cycle is over). I checked here and they seem to take a really long time to send rejections. In 2020 and 2029, for example, they sent rejections like 5 or 6 weeks after acceptances.

I second this. I'd recommed you to talk to the DGS first.

In one school, my POI sent me an email first (I had previously talked to another professor). In the other, one of my POIs was also director of grad admissions, so s/he sent me an email first (I had also talked to another professor first). Then s/he put me in touch with my other POI. I never took the initiative in the sense of sending a POI an email before they sent me one. Have you not received any email from faculty/staff?

I received a UPenn rejection as well. I only have NYU left to finish my cycle.

In my case, I'd say that both schools have put their effort to try to convince me to choose them. Particularly, I've had meetings with faculty/POIs, talked to graduate students and recived several emails from both departments. I'd say that one of them has been more eager to be in touch with me (e.g., more grad students from one of the schools have sent me emails). Also, both schools invited me to their virtual visit events (one of which has not yet taken place). Having that in mind, I'd be worried if I didn't get attention from those schools (maybe not that level of attention, but I'd say that lack of attention on their part would be worrisome). In general terms, I'd say that if you get an offer from a school, that school really wants to have you in their program.

And just received the Harvard rejection as well.

Finally got the rejection from Northwestern. Email to check portal.

I didn't see that coming. I checked back and it looks like they have staggered their results in the past, although not always. I hope that brings good news for us.

From one of the universities I've received an offer, I first heard from another professor of the same field. Several days later I received an email from one of my POI and we had a meeting after that. I haven't heard from my other POI of that same University. From the other university, I have exchanged emails with another professor of the same field, but not with my POI. So I think it depends on each university and each professor.

I'm guessing Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania may release their results (at least acceptances) next week--Penn even today. What do you guys think? My predictions are not always accurate haha. That would be the end of my cycle, since I'm assuming rejections from NYU, Columbia and Northwestern.