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PROFILE:Type of Undergrad Institution: UC San DiegoMajor(s): Political Science | Joint Math-EconUndergrad GPA: 3.82; Major GPA: 3.93GRE: 166 Q; 163V; 5AAny Special Courses (3.9 GPA): 8 PhD-level courses (including 2 methods) + 2 master-level courses, by the time of applicationLetters of Recommendation: 2 Distinguished + 1 Prof; I took grad courses with all three. I studied with my first recommender since my freshman year (directed reading/senior thesis); Go to their office hours or just talk to them about your interest/progress at least monthly!!!Teaching/Research Experience: 2RA experiences (not research interest related) RESULTS: Applied for CP/IR; doing CPE/IPEAcceptances: Berkeley, Yale, UC San Diego, UCLARejections: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, UMichi, Uhicago (PE)Pending: NYU, DukeAttending: Berkeley or Yale since I am doing CPE/IPE related topics. LESSONS LEARNED: 1. I think my quant skills are not the most excellent part of my application for sure. I should have taken more quant grad courses to prove that I can do more math/DS. I got a few B-B+ in my Econ (not much excuses there; just didn't care about them as much as my poli sci courses; should have cared). Also, I think Berkeley and Yale like my profile because of my qualitative skills/grad course. 2. SOP is super important, and I think I completed that really well. Please ask your profs to edit it. It is important to hear comments from grad students, but there seems to be a generation gap between older profs and students's perceptions of a good SOP. For example, most grad students suggested me to start my SOP with a research question, but my profs literally said no one (really) cares (unless it is a really good unanswered question with potential). Start by introducing yourself a little bit. Since I am an international student, my profs specifically asked me to briefly emphasize on my high school experience in the states to send a signal to the committee that I can write and read fluently in English. SOP Structure: 1. intro; 2. grad courses/quant skills (RA); 3 - 5: three ongoing projects I am working on; 6. other research interests; 7. why this school? 3. I think I could not have made it without supports from grad cafe and my friends. Find friends to apply tgt, even from different fields. Studying with them will give you a lot of strength and discipline. 4. Decide early or at least plan your research opportunities early; I know I wanted to do research and a PhD at the end of my freshman year. It was mainly because I took a master-level course and completed an original project; I found the process super enjoyable. Do *directed reading courseS* in your second or third year with profs to build your letter and research experience/ability. Do the senior thesis also! Am I happy with my results? Yes and no. I thought I had a strong shot at Harvard or Princeton, but I think I gave my best here. Berkeley and Yale both have super great CPE/IPE people I want to work with. I hope you find this helpful. I wanted to contribute back to this forum as it has helped me tremendously. please excuse my grammar, sentence fragment, or typo

@mdalt21I think we accidentally created two discord links, but let's just merge into the new one (it's much more organized?). Thanks for the effort!!! This is the old link from yesterday: https://discord.gg/peQJtCxM This is the new discord link created by @mdalt21: https://discord.gg/cWENytFv

claiming an UC Berkeley offer!!!!!!! omg I am over the moon. My friend got accepted as well.

Congrats on your UC Davis acceptances!!! We created a discord page - just the three of us talking right now. DM me if you are interested. I don't want to be rude to the forum by posting the link here.

Both slack and discord work for me! I think a chat platform is good because 1) we can chat in a less formal way to make each other feel better in this long wait, and 2) we can connect better there. The Inbox system on grad cafe is super user-unfriendly. This being said, we definitely should continue to post questions and stuff here. Chats move too fast and will likely drown important questions/comments. These are just some of my thoughts...I just want a space to chat with others.

A quick question: do we have a discord page, and if we don't, why not create one?

5am offer - best news I have woke up to. congrats to everyone. You will love ucsd.

Congrats to him or her who just got the UCB offer! It will be great if you can share any details with us such as the cohort size or anything!

Haha that website only includes results ≤2020, not the 2021 cycle. We are the 2022 cycle as in decisions come out in 2022.

UCSD started around Jan.28 last year, 11:05am to be precise, according to my friend who got in last year.

@modesteffect I think the thing about anxiety is not that it is necessary or not. Anxiety just happens to you as you try everything you can to calm down. Anyway, UCSD just started releasing, but I guess only the polisci-GPS PhD program for now. Technically the last week of Jan is next Monday, but can we please not wait for another weekend for this????

lmao I stayed up the entire Monday night anxiously to wait for a supposed UCB offer on tuesday morning. I need something - even a rejection (jk

I was confused about why the forum was so silent... Honestly, by now, no news from Emory is the best news. I started to feel like the UCB results log from last year is a scam since no one really claimed those offers around late Jan in the forum...does anyone know for sure someone got offers from UCB the previous year in late Jan?

So I guess...no UCB today? ?

sigh - I saw someone got an offer without an interview last year, but I don't know how often that actually happens for Duke. I heard from profs that it can be an English oracy test for international applicants, but I am not so sure if that's the case for this year; I also heard that from grad students that sending interview invitation or not may simply depend on specific prof's preferences.