TerribleTowel

I did, March 1 at 9:45 pm Central Time. If you haven't heard from them then that's probably a good sign!

They were held virtually, both yesterday and today. Hope you get some news soon!

Ah, I didn't apply for the joint program, but I imagine they'd have the same visit day? I didn't realize you were referring to that program in particular. I haven't been checking the site frequently either! The stipend at UCSD is a little low (at least in the political science department). If you have better offers, I wouldn't wait for this result.

I was also admitted there, feel free to DM me if there's anything you'd like to talk about

UCSD's visit days are March 5-7. If you haven't heard from them, maybe you've been informally waitlisted? I'd expect some people to make up their minds after the visit days, so hopefully you'll hear from UCSD soon

Based on results from last year, I'm expecting Harvard/Stanford results to come out next Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb 21st/22nd). But then again, most programs seem to be moving faster this year

It was from a department administrator on behalf of the department head

I just got admitted to MIT. Email came at 1:03 pm Central Time. The message says they had over 330 applications and admitted fewer than 5% of all applicants.

I agree, that's a good plan - I was planning to apply to masters programs in Europe if this cycle didn't work out. There are some really affordable programs there (it sounded like the public universities in Germany are free for foreigners), and the deadlines are later. But if you wait until April it might be too late. Hope it won't be necessary, but at the very least it'll give you peace of mind until the rest of your results come out

I'm in American Politics

Yes, happened to me. Accepted at Berkeley. Rejected at Vanderbilt.

I don't think they do. I know a guy at Berkeley (not political science) who is able to get by, but he shares a place with 5 other guys. He seems to think it is doable if you are willing to live with roommates. You won't be living in luxury, though. Grad students there went on strike for a higher stipend this fall. They won a $10k increase that brought the base stipend to $35k starting next year. I think departments can augment the base stipend with additional funds, though I don't know how many programs do that.

I heard back from them. It was on the portal, notification from the graduate school (not the department). I got an email at 1 am CT

Hang in there! It seems like more results are coming out these days. The wait is hard, but it will be worth it!

I just checked the portal and discovered I was admitted to UCLA as well. No email. This day feels unreal. Wow.

I also got into Berkeley! Congrats everyone!

Thanks for weighing in. I should nuance my answer - I did not mean to suggest that someone at a lower ranked school would be better able to compete for *all* jobs in a region based on where they went to school. I only meant that for applicants applying for jobs of equal prestige/desirability (especially if coming from lower ranked schools), they will probably fare better within the region. My family background is in academia, but I'm from the Midwest, so what I say may be more true of schools in the South/Midwest

I was admitted to Emory too. Email came at 12:40 central time

UNC doesn't make that available. You can always ask them, though, especially if you are an admitted student.

Those are fine! A top ten school (i.e. Michigan and U Chicago) will place you well, so you don't need to worry as much about location. Recent NWU grads have placed at U Illinois - UC and Toronto (plus a loooooot of postdocs and visiting positions). Where you study doesn't lock you into staying in that region, but it can give a little boost. Keep in mind that the East coast also produces more PhD graduates, so it won't necessarily be easier to stay on the East coast. I'd say don't worry too much about this! Especially if you do a postdoc, that'll affect where you ultimately end up

Also, to some degree, placement is affected by the location of your PhD program. If you go to Emory, for instance, that increases the likelihood that you'll place somewhere in the South. Whereas at UCLA you might place somewhere in Utah or Idaho. I think this is because programs tend to have connections to schools around them, or at least be more familiar with schools that are closer by. So that's not to say for sure that you'll place within the region, but your odds go up a little bit.

Definitely talk with people and look at the "job placement" section on each program's website. Look at placement by year, not just the list they compile overall, since things have gotten more competitive recently. It's becoming more common to do a post-doc after finishing a phd in order to place better. Using Brown as an example since someone just mentioned it, looks like recent grads have done postdocs, gone into industry, and worked as visiting or temporary professors. The few who make it directly into academia tend to work at smaller schools like Lehigh University and Cal State - Chico (which both still seem like good placements to me), though someone did place at U Washington in 2021. As long as you're willing to do a postdoc and go into industry if things don't work out after trying the market for a few years, I think it's worth getting a PhD

I wish you the best!

I think many of your schools don't do interviews. Several haven't released results yet - I think we'll hear from Princeton and Berkeley next week while Penn will likely come closer to Feb 28. I'm not familiar with the others, but it seems that you have a fairly wide range, so there's reason to think that one could work out.

Northwestern admits in waves, with the last wave likely occurring a few weeks from now. It's not clear how they do it - could be by subfield or some other criteria. So there's still hope! Where else are you applying? If it makes you feel any better, I know people in other fields who were rejected everywhere they applied but then were successful applying the following year. So even in the absolute worst case scenario that you get rejected everywhere, you can always work to add to your record and try again. It is stressful, but you can succeed eventually no matter what happens this cycle.