wannabee

First, I am not an "expert". I am in the midst of applying and hearing results. But I will say this...there is absolutely no guarantee that you can get into a top 15 program. Most programs, at least in the top 10, accept less than 10% of applicants. I would say that there is no guarantee even if your gpa is 4.0 from a top 20 school plus you had a master's and top GRE scores. One question --Although you say you have a 3.5, is this the gpa in your major, or your overall gpa? Still, you are on the right track to strengthen your credentials. Your GRE is strong. You can always retake over the summer if you want to give it another shot. One of the difficulties in getting an MA is that many programs do not give funding, but some do. What is your concentration and possible research interest? That will influence the type of MA program you might want to consider. For example, a student in comparative could look at an area studies program. There are other threads in this forum that discuss possible MA options with funding. Some of them are just a little ways down this page. I chose not to go directly into a doctoral program. I wasn't ready and felt I needed more background. Last year, when I graduated, I applied to four different language and area studies programs (MA and non-degree) that had the possibility of funding. This year, I am shooting for the PhD after completing a one-year specialty program in Arabic. Even this time, I am applying to some MA programs as well as the PhD. There are other things you can do to improve your credentials and work towards the doctorate. Think about your field of concentration and your research specialty. Can you write a statement of purpose that will show the department that you understand what scholarly research is? If you know what you want to study, start pouring over faculty rosters, asking your professors, poking your nose into academic journals in order to find out which professors would be good and where they teach. Good luck! I have found this to be a long and slowly evolving process.

My quant background was the weaker part of my application. I am in comparative and my undergrad degree was in area studies. My gpa, language preparation, and references are fairly strong, but I only took college statistics and before that AP calculus. My verbal GRE is much higher (99%) than my quant (66%). I have not taken econ. I've just heard back from Maryland and was admitted with funding. This is the most quant oriented program that I applied to. I am thinking that I should spend next summer before grad school strengthening my econ and/or quant to make my required methods courses a little easier. Perhaps econ at the local community college? I have also noticed that MIT has an online graduate level course: Quantitative Research in Political Science and Public Policy taught by Prof. Stephen Ansolabehere. http://ocw.mit.edu/c...cy-spring-2004/ Would this help? I will hopefully be returning to Cairo next week to focus on language and finish my program, but will be home at the end of May for the summer. Any suggestions or ideas?

I claim the Maryland acceptance (Comparative). In the middle of the night I received an email that directed me to the website. The website had a copy of a letter from the Dean of the Graduate School indicating I was accepted. No reference to funding. A subsequent email exchange confirmed that a letter with four years of funding had been mailed last Thursday and I would get it shortly. So relieved. The past ten days I have been glued to the internet and television watching events in Egypt and wondering when and if I can return. I kept seeing the professor I wanted to study with at Maryland on many news broadcasts. Yet I did not expect to hear so early. Applications closed February 1. Last year, Maryland did a series of admits stretched over February and March. I am guessing the same will be true this year, but it is just a guess.

Kate - Congratulations! That's wonderful. I also got positive word today on admission and funding in Government at the University of Maryland with focus on Comparative and the Middle East.

humanprovince-- That's great news! Glad to hear another area studies person getting in. So far I am in limbo. My current program is on hold with the situation in Cairo. Haven't heard yes or no on any applications. But I was glad to hear what happened in Egypt today.

I am so sorry. But we still have a long way to go so keep your fingers crossed. I'm in modern, not ancient. Right now my life is up in the air. Since last May, I've been studying Arabic in Cairo on a fellowship. Now I am sitting at home, worried about friends in Egypt and worried about when and if I will ever get back. I was so hopeful yesterday but now the situation looks worse than ever! Also waiting to hear about applications in Middle Eastern Studies and comparative politics....

Nothing here. I had to write the DGS at Princeton two days ago to explain that my midyear transcript would be late since it is coming from the American University in Cairo. I received a pleasant reply that seemed to indicate that they are still evaluating credentials. Did you see somewhere that notifications have gone out?

If you applied to Chicago for a PhD and don't make it, there is a chance you will be rerouted to CIR or MAPSS, sometimes with partial funding.

Groan! I don't think I can wait that long. My program in Cairo is suspended, half of my books are back there as well, and I have nothing to do but think about my applications. I am really hoping to go back but everything is uncertain.

Was that posted on the Grad Cafe listing? Or did you hear elsewhere? That's not one of my programs so I wasn't searching for it. Sorry to hear some had a bad response. This is such a tough time for getting in. Any news on the short list for Princeton Near Eastern Studies?

Definitely don't give up. I read over the acceptance boards from last year and there were several people who received a number of rejections over many weeks and then one or two acceptances near the very end. Remember --- it just takes one. My own background is very different than yours but we have something in common. As an area studies major, I do not have political science references and I have "holes" in my background. I will be happy to accept an MA program if the doctorate doesn't work out. So we will both keep our fingers crossed.

Hope no one minds a long rant before I get to my questions.... Well, I knew February was going to be hard with the application thing but I didn't know it would be quite this bad. I am back in the States. British Airways flew me home yesterday from London for free. My original flight to Cairo was cancelled because of the protests and, by the time they rebooked me two days later, the situation was not safe. I would have had to fly into Cairo airport with thousands struggling to get out and hope that I could get through the roadblocks and reach my apartment before curfew came. So I came home instead. My head told me this was right to do, but I have very mixed feelings. Many of my fellow students actually flew to Cairo a day or two before I did so they have been mainly holed up in their apartments. Our classrooms are immediately on Tahrir Square. Today, the university and program and frantic parents went back and forth and finally the Director said all remaining students must leave Egypt and either go to a safe haven to wait it out or return to the U.S. There are hopes the university can start again in a few weeks if and when the situation settles down but no one knows. A language immersion program abroad is such an intense experience. Suddenly everything is gone...the students, teachers, the whole lifestyle. This program really was my dream. I did it because I want to do comparative politics and use my language skills to do dissertation research.(Yeah, I'm one of those qualitative types.) Now my possessions are stranded in an empty apartment and the friends whom I studied with for seven months are scattered to the four corners of the globe. I was supposed to be there through May and I have no idea what I am going to do the next four months. If the program reopens and things settle down even a little, I will definitely go back. I don't care about the credits--I care about my Arabic skills. Despite my complaints, I know that my Egyptian friends I left behind are in the middle of a situation that is a thousand times worse than my own. And some thugs are roaming the streets giving a hard time not just to journalists but to any foreigner they meet. I do have a practical question. Should I let the schools I've applied to know my situation so they understand I am here in the States? Should I explain that my program was suspended and it may or may not continue? In some instances, I am going to have to tell them something because I only listed my Egyptian cell phone on the application and that is back on my kitchen table in Cairo. Plus, I am supposed to report mid-year grades on at least one application, and I don't know what those are or have a way to get a transcript. Do I write the Director of Graduate Studies? What is my obligation here? Never have themes like democratization and authoritarianism seemed so real.

So am I.

Congrats Bandersnatch!

What a lousy thing.... This process is stressful enough without having anonymous people post notes like this, but it seems pretty standard. On a personal note, I should be back in Cairo now but that is not the case. I am "stranded" in London. My plane was delayed and rescheduled twice. It may (or may not) fly out tomorrow. However, I was contacted by my program director and told that classes have been cancelled this entire week and they are advising students still en route to stay put several days to see what happens. This is getting to be a habit! I was also stranded in London six days in December because of weather. I really wish I had flown back a few days earlier. Right now my thoughts are with friends in Egypt and the people there and am hoping things come out right. Honestly, this situation has put my anxiety over applications into a slightly different perspective. Whatever happens, I do not face the same problems that many over here have. And for someone who wants to study democratization, opposition, etc. this is both an interesting and challenging time.

Good luck to everyone! I was in Amman for advanced Arabic in 2009 and learned a lot. I was initially put on the waitlist and whisked off of it in mid April, much to my relief. It was a great experience. (Now I am at CASA and sweating out graduate school admissions.)

Definitely. I am just home on winter break and returning to my program. The classes are held on the AUC old campus, which is near Tahrir Square.

Congrats to both Creuset and Sneezy! I am afraid this is the start of a long process for many of us with much sweating and gnashing of teeth. I am not expecting to hear anything for at least 10 days. I'll be in transit to Cairo starting tonight.

I would guess that admission for the MA involves relatively little "departmental politics". I'm not even saying that it affects each and every PhD admission but it is more likely to factor in to those situations, since a greater commitment is being made. There is more hanging in the balance.

Almost all of the "near perfect record" students that we took ended up being mindless robots Ack! That certainly sounds grim. But I think we are overlooking something in trying to determine why one person is admitted and another not, and that is the program's acceptance rate. Most of the doctoral programs to which I have applied only accept five to ten percent of applicants. At least that has been the case in the last two years. This is true of many funded PhD programs, especially in a field like political science. The state of the economy isn't helping in terms of the exploding number of applicants to many programs nor are cutbacks in public universities in many states. When you face statistics like these, it is easy to understand how someone can have perfect paper credentials and still not gain admission, even if they have written a decent SOP and presented a thoughful argument for a research match. Many faculty have noted that after they weed out obvious misfits from the hundreds of applicants they receive, they are still left with 60-75 strong applications. After that, other factors play a part--departmental priorities and politics, balancing an admission pool, whether one department emphasizes X in terms of qualifying credentials and another wants to see more Y, plus just plain luck. In some fields, interviews also factor in, but that is not true for the areas in which I am applying (with one exception). My personal experience has been that things aren't quite as capricious when you apply to MA programs, which often have a slightly better acceptance rate....the 25% at Georgetown, for example. My credentials are far from perfect but they are strong. Last year, I applied for three masters and a one-year intensive language program overseas and had excellent choices. This year, I am quaking in my boots and hoping to be accepted somewhere (anywhere) with a funded PhD program that has a specialist in the Middle East! My credentials haven't changed--in fact they are slightly improved. The time and effort I put into my applications definitely hasn't changed. What has changed is that the programs I am applying to accept less than 10% of applicants. If I am rejected everywhere, which is definitely possible, I honestly don't think it will be because my paper credentials are "too good" (in any case, they aren't! ) or that I did sloppy essays, but because of a number of imponderables over which I have very limited control.

No, not odd. Just different. It was actually a good request and made me think more carefully about some issues than I had done in the past. However, I definitely couldn't use my "normal" writing sample(s, since these were chapters from my honors thesis that focused on a particular research topic.

Departmental politics should be a less of a factor for the MA in Arab Studies, precisely because it is not a PhD program. As I understand it, the way the MA program works, they admit you with a specialization in an area but there is less emphasis on the particular professor you want to work with (not that you can't mention particular profs in your SOP). Your credentials are great, and I would guess you stand an excellent shot at admission and funding. But I am in the same boat you are, waiting to hear back from various programs, and, like you, am fearing the worst! How did you like the GT essay where you address the "greatest problem" in the Middle East today?

I know nothing about either program. However, when I looked over the websites, it seems as though the IR degree is more oriented to policy and those who want to enter government. Moreover, it is interdisciplinary. The Department of International Relations has developed a series of interdisciplinary Master of Arts programs. These international relations programs prepare students for a variety of careers in the international arena, including government work in the Foreign Service and intelligence agencies; jobs in private non-profit organizations, such as non-governmental organizations, policy think tanks, and international charitable organizations; and a variety of careers in the private sector, such as consulting, international journalism, and marketing. The Poli Sci Department, by contrast, offers both the MA and PhD and seems to have a more "academic" orientation: Most of our Political Science graduate students intend to seek a teaching position at the university level.

Since it appears you are going into a field related to English, can you study and retake the GRE to pull up the verbal before applications go in?