politicalscience33

Hi! UPenn does not send acceptances/rejections on one day or waitlists. Every year things come in randomly. Hope this helps!

I'm not sure if you all can relate, but I've had almost two weeks of no decisions (not counting Yale lol, long shot)! It's very uncharacteristic for some schools. But watch me say this and hear back from somewhere immediately after. Also, I called with a UPenn POI earlier this week. No mention of a timeline. I don't think they liked some of my answers but have to be genuine For a list of schools, I'm waiting on UW (kinda), UPenn, Hopkins, and Cornell. Theory sub. I know a lot of us theory are waiting to hear from Cornell. Tbh, I think most of the theory minds stay away from forums. I'm more of the pessimistic critical theory type.

The Masters being redundant is very true—if the PhD stipend was not so low, I would take it. I still have places to hear back from, and I seriously hope one goes through. To address the other person who responded; I go to a non “little ivy” liberal arts school in the states. It’s great but not well-known. I believe a masters would increase my credentials next round regardless of difficulty. Most people getting into PhDs are much older than I am and have more experience, whether that be a masters or profession. I’m a mere undergrad with a published work in history (lol), a joint publication in CP (I’m not CP), and a couple of conferences. Plus I’d go into MAPSS with an outside fellowship! Hope this contextualizes some things :D

Hi! Question about UChicago's MAPSS program. I'm applying out of undergrad and received one informal PhD offer. I asked the admissions what the timeline is given that I'll soon be making a decision (also, I still have technically 4 more schools to hear back from). So, what is the timeline/how likely is it that they admit PhD cycle students in past the UChicago Masters' deadline? I would rather attend a master's program (in social theory!) than accept my informal offer. I needed to be offered more funding to live comfortably in the PhD school's city.

Hi! Cornell theory applicant -- I have not heard anything. I don't know if these all came out at the same time or what. Theory has been minimally accepted this rotation, it seems.

With the utmost peace and love, and understandable as political science, past trends do not matter and change from year to year. I don't want to hear you all sound so dejected before even hearing from a program. This is a reminder to myself, too; you do not know until you know!

My first rejection of the cycle from Brown! It's okay, more to go!

But also, remember a rejection is not a rejection until you hear. Especially at larger public school programs.

Based on prior years, some may hear from Northwestern today!

Hi! Where did you see the 3 released? On Reddit? I couldn't seem to find them!

Hi all -- random question! Do graduate programs typically provide a laptop/electronics? My laptop is slowwww and old, and I do not want to buy a new one if graduate programs typically provide it. Thanks!

Northwestern is historically batches. Acceptances roll out over a 5-day period. But even then, there are acceptances later than could be predicted. As always, we never truly know, but looks like they come out in groups based on subfield. This is confirmed by a data collection thing on Reddit and also by a person who was accepted into Northwestern for CP in the forum a couple of days ago. I hope this gives you some peace of mind! Again, these forums only theorize, and it is not an acceptance/rejection until it is one Rooting for you all!!!!!

No need to lose hope. Remember that we don't know how these institutions work/even if they pushed out all accepted applicants. Looks like some CP subfield applicants, and congratulations to them! Could be from one POI. Who knows! One thing these forums do is love to theorize. To the best of your ability, do not stress yourself out over the unknown ❤️

At least for my subfield, the GRE does not matter, especially now with the turn away from standardized testing (I was told by a PLSI prof. who attended Cornell). From every (very successful) professor I've talked to, the most important thing is how your research interests align with your POI and your academic statement of purpose BY FAR.

I haven't heard back from Brown either, and I didn't even know they did interviews!

Hello all, I'm a Political Theory subfield applicant (I feel one of very few). I have been in contact with a POI from U Chicago, and they said I am (more than likely, but cannot trust it) good. That's been about it as far as applications coming out have been. Here is some stuff about me if you are curious: I applied to 9 PhD schools: Yale, Brown, UChicago, UW Seattle (but I will decline if accepted), UPenn, JHU, Cornell, Northwestern, and Princeton. I'm an undergraduate student (3.9 GPA) with a triple major and two theses (one honors), and my writing sample was a fellowship work from the summer prior (concise, only about 13 pages). However, my interests are incredibly niche, and I only applied to schools that had very good academic personnel fits. My GRE was HORRIBLE. I didn't study because I loathe standardized testing. I got a perfect score on the writing, and about 45-50 percentile on the reading and math sections. However, in general, remember this process is very arbitrary and unpredictable! If you are in political theory and want to connect, let me know!