polyglotaspiring

It really depends on the school, though I will say a lot of the top 15 are unfortunately very heavily quant-based schools. However, in my experience (hearing people in my first-year cohort who are qual-heavy talk about their application process), if you can sell your qualitative research interests well (and answer the question "why is qualitative research the best for my question"), targeting those few qualitative scholars in those schools on your statement is likely to get those faculty members to vouch for you during the selection process.

Hi all, I was part of the last application cycle and have friends applying this year so I remembered how anxious I was around this time. If it helps, I dug up the notification emails for all of the schools I applied to and checked the date: UC Berkeley: 2/7 (Monday) Stanford: 2/24 (Friday) UC Irvine 2/9 (Wednesday) UC Davis: 2/4 (Friday) UCLA: 2/9 (Wednesday) USC: 3/1 (Wednesday) NYU: 3/22 (Super late, but I was accepted to the Master's only and I think the Ph.D. acceptances got notified before) Good luck to everyone and congrats to those already accepted! If anyone has any questions about those schools above or the process / first-year experience in general, I would be down to chat.

Just wanted to let people know that I've declined UCLA's offer, as well as all of my remaining offers besides USC. Best of luck to those on the waitlist!

I also received an MA offer from NYU and will be declining. Finally, my cycle is over!

When I attended UCLA preview last week, they said that there was a waitlist they were hoping to tap into in the following weeks, so they encouraged people who knew they weren't attending to deny their offers. I hope it's good news for you!

FYI: I declined admission to UCI and will soon for Davis. I hope this helps some people out!

Has anyone who hasn't heard from NYU yet reached out to them? It's the last school on my list, and I just want the cycle to be over...

I emailed the program coordinator yesterday. She said I hadn't missed any correspondences and info should be out soon when she finishes scheduling faculty interviews. I hope that helps!

Also claiming a USC admission! ? @swanronson, see you there if you are attending the virtual event!

PROFILE:Type of Undergrad Institution: Small liberal arts college - Top 5 in U.S.Major(s)/Minor(s): International Relations (Major) / Economics (Minor)Undergrad GPA: 3.85 / 4.0Type of Grad: Getting a Masters in Education Grad GPA: 4.0GRE: 161Q/168V/5WLetters of Recommendation: 4 tenured profs - 2 in Political Science, 1 in Korean Studies (my area focus), 1 in Japanese Studies (I TA'ed for her in college) Teaching/Research Experience: In college, I was a research assistant for one of the professors who wrote my LOR. I contributed research to his book that got him tenure, as well as co-published opinion editorials. We had a close relationship through four years and he saw me grow as a student/academic, so it was a really strong letter. I also interned at a think tank for a summer, and won the Boren Scholarship for Language Studies. Slightly unrelated but enriched my SOP, I also have 2 years of public school teaching experience from my participation in Teach For America.RESULTS:Acceptances: UC Irvine, UC Davis, UCLARejections: Stanford, UC BerkeleyPending: NYU, USC Attending: PendingLESSONS LEARNED: My profile is not NEARLY as strong as some of the other applicants I've seen on this thread: Low GRE score (especially Quant), minimal research experience, no masters in the field, and kind of a non-linear path to pursuing a PhD so it was hard to articulate the career path switch in my SoP. Here are some things that helped my case: 1. LORs. Forge those connections with your professors! Sooo important! Also, don't settle for an "ok" letter of rec. Send your professors all of your materials when you ask them to write a rec: publications, CV, even application essays if you have them. That way, they have as much info as they possibly can to write your stellar rec. 2. Quant training. I was too "lazy" to retake my GRE because working full-time / studying for an extra test was not it, but I'm pretty convinced that if I just had that low quant score without my Econ minor or proven quantitative training I would not have gotten into any school. I had an econometrics analysis/quantitative section in my writing sample, and also detailed in my SoP the training I received in my Econ minor. 3. SoP. A lot of applicants have detailed their structures of the SoP and mine was pretty similar, so I won't go too deep into it. But yes, make sure your SoP emphasizes your RESEARCH EXPERIENCE/INTERESTS as well as weaves a short/concise story of why you're pursuing a PhD. Don't listen to friends in law school or med school about making your SoP more "story-like." You do need a story, but it should be like 5-10% of your SoP. PhD programs care a lot more about your research fit, previous experience/training, etc. Make SPECIFIC connections from your interests to profs at the school. Last, if you're like me, doing a career pivot after a few years of something else (for me, education), make sure to articulate your reason for switching (i.e. wanting to find solutions on a macro-level). Even better if you can connect your research interests to your current occupation. 4. Plan ahead. I didn't start thinking about applying until the summer before applications open, but I think I would have made more informed decisions about where to apply to if I started earlier. I made a Google Sheets with the university, average GRE admit scores, submission requirements, and most importantly, professors whose research I could write about in my SoP. Doing this frontload work early on will make the writing process so much easier. Good luck!! I will update this when I commit to a school. If you are a future applicant to that school, feel free to reach out to me! I will be more than happy to chat.

I'm still waiting on NYU as well -- Just want it to be over already!

Oh gosh, thank you for the info! I'm sending it to them now. Panicking slightly but choosing to believe that them notifying me this late into the cycle is a good sign...

I guess I missed that requirement when applying -- don't remember anything about a cover letter though? I do remember having to fill out a lot of different sections for their app.

I just received an email from USC that I have an incomplete application - official transcripts. I remember reading their website in detail when I applied and it said that I didn't need them when submitting my app... I wonder if this is a sign?

Also have not heard anything from USC -- fingers crossed!