Gracchus

So happy for you!!! Wish you a great academic journey!!!

Congrats! Heard about that great news of yours from Mark last week! Can't wait to meet you in person this fall!

Big Congrats! Given that many funding decisions have yet to be made, it could be some hesitant or new profs selected you instead of you being any second choice to replace candidates who rejected the offer -- don't consider that a "fish out"😁

That would be my guess -- the first bunch of admitted people may drop out or, I heard, that there would be incoming faculty who have not selected their preferred candidates. The decision for passing the committee's threshold into the pool is definitely finalised, but pooled candidates (I assume you are one) are not all secured by PI immediately. This year, IR faculty seems to have a more limited capacity than usual, thus solid candidates may wait longer (and not guaranteed to be admitted if the PI reaches the "cap"). I think extra offers are to be issued as per the current plan.

As per my knowledge, it has sent out offers for all viable internal applicants. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this also rings true for external ones, but alas, with only a small N known to me, no significance can be claimed. I believe some Nuffield offer holders would reject their place and enable the college to accommodate other candidates, thus more Nuffield slots could be on the way in either scenario. Moreover, DPIR is a rich department compared to other social science counterparts in Oxford, they have various fully-funded options for DPhil candidates (though not everyone), so stay tuned!

According to my knowledge as a student, internal applicants and external applicants are informed together, and the first bunch of offers has been made for both politics and IR. There are excellent candidates left in the pool waiting for final selections from the faculty side. Nuffield has made their invitation to offer holders before all other colleges (and private halls) but it may release extra slots if admitted students reject their place. Clarendon is always one of the last to issue its decisions but there are more funding opportunities in DPIR under active and automatic consideration for each non-Nuffield offer holder.

Claiming Stanford rejection and Princeton acceptance -- glad that I don't have to struggle between the two.