jce8491

It's an idiosyncratic process. You got a "yes" from a program you quite like. That's all that matters. Just enjoy the ride knowing that you're good no matter how it plays out. 😉

Yup. With my decisions likely to come over the next few weeks, I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for rejection. Having been through idiosyncratic processes like this before, it's tough. And it really hurt when I let myself get overconfident in the past. Trying not to do that this time. Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.

If they follow the same pattern, it looks like next Monday for acceptances and Tuesday for rejections.

Same. Very jealous. I don't know if I'll hear anything before the week of February 5th. 😫 On the doc I created, I have them down for early February, so next week would be my expectation. But it's always possible they could move sooner. Don't do it is the general advice.

Very sorry to hear that. It's the wackiness of PhD applications. There really aren't safe applications. They select based on fit and yield protect. So you can never be fully confident you're getting in. Such a "fun" process lol.

It means they're interested enough in you to offer you an interview. They aren't going to waste their time interviewing a bunch of people they don't like. But it's not a guarantee of an offer. It is however a good omen.

This is my first time applying. Based on past years, it appears they send acceptances in early-to-mid February and rejections later that month or in early March.

I applied. Hoping for the best.

I applied to Princeton (Public Law), Michigan (Law, Courts, and Politics), Harvard (American Politics), Chicago (American Politics), Yale (American Politics), and Stanford (American Politics).

Thanks! Looking at the results on the tracker on here from last year, it shows results from Yale on February 10, it shows results from Princeton on February 6 and 7, and it shows results from Harvard in late February and early March, for what that's worth.

I'm anticipating early-to-mid February, if I get accepted. I don't believe that's correct on HYP. But I could be wrong.

I'm probably not the best person to answer this, as I imagine you and I are close in age. I didn't attend any camps, but I've also been out of undergrad for about a decade. I spoke with some people I know in academia to get baseline advice once I decided I was going to start looking into this option. Based on what I heard from them, I used the internet to find as much information as I could. There are a few things I know now that I wish I knew when I submitted my applications, which is the downside to not having an advisor to guide you through this process, but the information I needed was out there. It just took some looking to find it all. It definitely would have been more overwhelming if I didn't have people in academia I could ask what I felt were stupid questions just to help me get started.

Depends on the program. For the ones that have them, it's the law/courts-focused subfield. With others, it's American politics.

I applied to six PoliSci programs and two interdisciplinary programs. Not sure what to expect, as this is the first time I've applied to PhD programs.

I applied.