anonymousvulture

Are we finally getting some Notre Dame results or what?? Man, I did not think they would actually use up the whole time frame lol. I'm pessimistic, but good luck, everyone!

Little did I know the story could get worse! sorry they were so unsupportive with you. and yeah, the money thing is wild. dunno if you're american, but I'm from south america and the exchange rate is wild. I've gotten fee waivers in 5 of 7 apps I've made, thankfully. It's wild to me that some private universities don't offer them, or put quotas. some of these places are filthy rich (looking at you Northwestern)

at this point I think it's safe to assume only a small sample of ppl have been invited, with more invitations to come. I mean, there were only two reported interviews, none of which claimed a field. I'm thinking they are taking this to the wire

holy shit, dude. least they can do is offer you a pre-doc haha

same here. nothing on the portal, though. does your shows rejection?

In case you guys missed it:

Reminder: someone on Reddit pointed out that today is a national holiday in the USA (MLK day). Don't hold your breath. Also, re: Northwestern: here is the PhD admissions tableau: https://tableau.northwestern.edu/t/TGS/views/OnlineData/OnlineData?%3Aembed=y&%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3AshowShareOptions=true&%3Adisplay_count=no&%3AshowVizHome=no Looks as if is about 350 applicants

Don't worry about admissions and funding; most universities look to build a diverse cohort. Private Unis will fund you, no problem. People say public universities like OSU or UW-M prefer taxpayers, but I have no idea wether this is true. As for the GRE, I asked a gazillion people and nobody gave me much of an answer to your friend's case (which is the same as mine). To be fair, there doesn't seem to be one. I think foreigners are strongly advised to submit their GRE if the scores are good. It is a function of I) how competitive the program is; ii) how quantitative the program is; iii) whether you're an international applicant. Foreigners like me without US grades in their academic record should really send the scores if they feel it won't hurt their chances. I was overworked and only had a couple of weeks to prep for the GRE. Didn't like my scores. I also have a boatload of methods training an TAing, so I thought it would be better to send an imperfect signal (methods training with no GRE) than a mixed signal (methods training with poor GRE) and get shot down by someone in the adcom for a poor GRE.

Hi there. Georgetown has conducted interviews in the past, even last year. I'm not sure they will necessarily conduct interviews, though (edit: meaning if you were not requested for an interview, it doesn't mean you're out). I'm clueless about Columbia. I'm on the same boat regarding Notre Dame. Since their deadline is the 26th, I'm assuming there's still a chance that the interviews that were reported here were from different subfields that did not include you and me (I'm comparative, as is a poster above with the same questions). That being said, I think if we're not contacted by next Friday (the 20th) then I'll count myself out, although I think it is prudent to wait until the 26th to actually post things. Best of luck for you at Duke!

Probably a little bit of both. Maybe they sent a first batch of acceptances but only one person posted. Maybe it's subfield dependent. You can get their admission data here: https://apps.grad.illinois.edu/dashboard/ Given that they usually admit something between 15-20 ppl, I'd imagine that not all responses are going out at the same time. I would think we would see a little more reporting here if they had sent that much acceptances/waitlists.

I'm freaking the F out, even if I rationally know I'm not getting any news until late january/late feb. I'm at a point where I get some stress relieve just to see any admission update, even if it is an interview at a place I haven't applied to. It is getting ridiculous lol. And yeah, I sometimes search faculty on twitter/mastodon, but to no avail so far haha.

Do you have any inkling regarding trends in admissions this year? For instance, should we expect smaller cohorts or something like that? I guess there are more important questions to be asked here, but since most of the PhD admissions have already finished, maybe we could kill some time while we wait the results lol

Man, I really wanted an inkling on that too. I don't think cohort sizes will increase because, in addition to the covid shock, there's the dual pull of i) need to provide better work conditions (stipends) and ii) increasingly dire job market prospects in academia. So I think the average department will try to keep less PhD candidates, but with better funding and with the possibility of providing extra years for a smooth(ish) job market transition. But it also feels like that adjustment already came, at least to some extent. So I don't think programs that aim for a cohort of 10 will start slashing it to 6, and I'm hoping (lol) cohort sizes to stay roughly the same. As for the demand side (number of applicants), I think it's hard to separate the GRE-waive effect from the covid effect (people choosing academia due to a slower job market or something like that). But I would guess that if programs had something like a 20% boom in applicants due to covid, 90% of those were people taking a flyer in academia, and so they would probably be less competitive applicants. I think what could really make our lives harder is a decrease in cohort size - if it really comes to fruition. I also think forums like this one may be falling out of favor for whatever reason. There's some ppl at reddit, but I couldn't find much polisci related content in there.

Yeah, same here. But I wouldn't rule it out just yet. Notre Dame starts early, but there is Xmas and all that. Also, it appears to me that those invites may come at different times depending on the subfield. I'm comparative too. I don't think they'll wait until the 26th (the date they gave us), but I'll wait until next friday to give up