Uull6739

I think functionally you should not continuously abuse people for not having made a decision. Everyone has to make a decision by midnight April 15th, just wait and see instead of freaking out about it on online forums where it does no-one any good.

I know that everyone on here is "hoping" to get an offer. Im not trying to take away from that. What I am saying is that I don't think it's appropriate to state that the reason people are not getting offers is "because" of the decision making of other admitted students. In particular, this notion that "people are holding on to multiple offers, almost hoarding offers" is simply false. No one is sitting there expressly "hoarding". Like you, they just want to make the right decision. I don't think it appropriate to litigate your feelings about admitted vs. non-admitted students on a forum like this.

I mean no one is holding onto offers if they have already accepted for one program? I don't think it's correct to speculate that they are doing that when people are functionally not doing that. Should they decline their offers on or before April 15? Yes. Do they owe you a duty to do so? No.

Ahh yes, the issue in this thread is definitely me and everyone else who has been commented (and been courteous and upfront I would add), and definitely not you. Glad we just devolve into insults. Echoing previous comments, everyone here has told you that "they shared their disability in their statements of purpose (so the schools would see it) and still received admissions from top schools." It's a shame that you simply cannot admit that you are wrong. Also, note that any ranking which places 1st in political science a University which has a graduate program that does not place students in the best TT positions in academia, is probably a ranking that you should avoid. I say that as someone who was offered from Oxford DPIR.

I find Oxford being ranked 1st in the world in Politics difficult to believe.

Dude go do some introspection, stop taking rejection (in any form) as an affront to who you are as a person. Multiple people have said on here that this is not something that happens because the adcoms don't see information on this, unless it is through your personal statement. From my understanding of US admit committees, this is the case. They cannot 'discriminate' if they do not 'know'. I do not deny that discrimination occurs in society. I do deny that in top 20 political science graduate admissions, that they discriminate along any boundary other than academic and personal achievement (or maybe positive discrimination based on nationality for a more multicultural cohort). Im not trying to put down your achievements. You sound like an extremely talented person who has overcome a lot. No one is trying to take that away from you. You came on here looking for answers. The answer as to why you did not get offers, has, frankly, nothing to do with your disability. Plenty of schools want more diverse PhDs. You sound like an exceptionally competitive candidate. In fact, im sure you made it through to the final cut at multiple places. However, this year was exceptionally competitive. I cannot stress that enough. And you did not make it, because, by definition, you were not competitive enough. Do not take it personally otherwise you will live an unhappy life. Finally, note that I never once questioned to what extent you were disabled. I find that it speaks to your character that you would make assumptions about the extent to which I am disabled. That is sad. I hope you live a great life, and that you get into a PhD, now or in the future. And don't take rejection so hard each time. It's not the end of the world.

Ahh yes, the prospective grad student with a single authored APSR article... Please be realistic. Im not saying this to upset you. You already admit that you had an A- GPA, but people who applied had perfect 4.0s, so you were already at a disadvantage. You had a masters from Cambridge, but was it at Trinity College with a full ride scholarship? You were not discriminated against, you simply were just not competitive enough in a year where competitiveness mattered most. They only took the best of the best of the best more than any other year. Cohorts were cut by more than half at most top 10s. Take it from someone who has (and declared) a very significant mental and physical disability on my application and still did well this cycle. (10A, 2WL, 3R).

Hi! Given employability in the IR sector, an MBA may be best. Stray away from AI and data/compsci related work unless you have very very very good coding skills. For these jobs you are competing with Ivy kids who have grinded leetcode for half their lives, so unless that is you, stay away. Given your profile, I would recommend first taking the GMAT (needed for b-school), and then compiling a list of 12 schools based on ur GMAT score (4 reaches, 4 middle, 4 safeties) where u can figure out where you want to go. Look into US, UK, and European schools. I would recommend looking into MBAs at state schools (think OSU, Illinois, CSU, Rutgers, etc), which often have lower tuitions and still decent career outcomes. Hope that helps!

If your publications and recommendations were so elite, then why no elite offer? Did you have a real top 10 publication, I suspect not? Did you have an NSF or other outside funding? Did you have a perfect GPA? Did you have 90th percentile GRE scores? Did you have a top RAship? If the answer to any of these is a no, then I suspect you were simply not competitive enough. Even people with all of these get rejected. Don't take it personally.

This is an absolutely crazy notion. Frankly, no top school, let alone any US admit committee negatively discriminates against your application based on any disability you may have. They only ever use personal statements or any other information as ways to explain gaps/weaknesses in your application. It may be hard to hear this, but it was a competitive year, funding was limited, and you did not get offers because you simply were not competitive enough.

Hi, as a general rule, do not go into significant debt for any masters program unless you are in an employable field (think LSE EME, Finmath programs, etc). Given your interests, do not go to MAPSS. MAPSS, like other US and UK PhD-feeder masters programs, gives scholarships based on who they think will be successful at PhD admissions. Given they only offered 15k, they do not think you are overly competitive, both relative to the incoming cohort of MA students or for PhDs as a whole. I would highly recommend taking the funded divinity offer instead (be it Harvard or UChicago), as it will allow you to take pol theory classes while costing less. Again, I cannot stress how much you should not take the 15k offer.

As a rule, do not go to a US university where funding is not guaranteed. San diego is one of the most expensive places in the country and if your funding is not guaranteed you should literally take ANY other FUNDED option. I pray you have a funded alternate offer.

Anyone interview invites to Caltech? Does anyone have AP acceptances to Duke?

Anyone received interview invites to Caltech?

Hi, I can confirm that all admits have been sent out in early jan, and that this years cohort already exists. Only rejections to come, sorry guys.