milkbaba

wow 14 weeks later and finally a decision on Columbia. Oh well, struck out at every Phd program but looking forward to my Mphil at Oxford. And as much as I'll miss you all I'm happy to finally stop obsessing, leave this place, and get back into the real world. Best of luck to all

Mormegil, your prospective stipend support from Marquette would be "at the poverty level" if you were actually in a PhD program for five years and had no other source of income. The fact that you're being seriously considered not only for tuition remission but also a significant stipend for an MA program is outstanding! Most Masters do not fund there students or if they do, certainly do not offer both tuition and a stipend. Just take on a small loan to supplement your income and live a little. Be happy you will be living in Milwaukee and not NYC or San Fran, or your bill would be much higher. And good luck with PhD programs next year! May you land a great school with full funding!

I did CLS Arabic in Tangier. Awesome time. State Dept. was generous and though our program director was a psychobitch now at UT-Austin (the workload and grading system she applied was insane) we learned a lot of Arabic. Since each year and each country has a different director, your experience will be different. But the cutural aspect is unambigiously amazing, especially the one week in-country orientation.

To add to the Cornell debate, I too must say that HYP are definitely not the sun around which academic political science orbits. As far as placement is concerned, I'd say that Harvard stands out significantly in part due to its indelible brand name (the dept. itself is, I'm sure, outstanding on its own). P is heavily focused on public policy and some area studies (African politics being one of them) and doesn't have a particularly impeccable placement record. As a recent polisci undergrad from Y, I can tell you that I was pretty disappointed by the teaching and lackluster enthusiasm of the faculty. Even at the graduate level, besides Jim Scott (who has been openly critical of the overly quantitative tendencies at Yale and American Political Science depts in general), there are few faculty that are not pigeon holed by heavily stat/empirical methods, or that take a fresh, unorthodox approach to politics. Ian Shapiro, Vivek Sharma and Karuna Mantena could be considered other exceptions but they tend to focus on undergrad teaching and even with a more historiographic/theoretical approach, their areas of interest are still very specific. For example, Ian Shapiro is obsessed with democratic and distributional correlations in South Africa (and some welfare/taxation policy in the US). Mantena looks specifically at late Empire in the context of social theory and India. Add to that the fact that many other schools indeed place better than Yale, and I think not going to Cornell only because it is not HYP is a bad decision.

This whole process is a circus show. Someone claiming to be in the know (I've heard that before on this site, only to be misinformed) said that Columbia had notified all of its admits. That was well over two weeks ago. Now there is a new wave of rejections. I have not yet received a rejection email, but I am awaiting the falling axe any day now. Monday?

Out at NYU, offered Master's option, which I'm sure is unfunded so screw that. Five languages (including Arabic), an HYP BA, publications, presentations and a research fellowship haven't made any impression so far. Really starting to question what it takes to get in and wondering if I was simply a wrong fit at a lot of my schools. I should add that I do not have a quant. background at all. Anybody here who is a South Asianist been successful at NYU? Also, what schools are best for South Asia that are also more qualitative? Sigh, I place the blame squarely on my own shoulders...I really should have done a lot more research into schools and this whole strange process before I started appying....

Wait, why the heck are people speculating that JHU is possibly done notifying?! There is just one admit post. No one should be making any assumptions about where JHU stands unless they have reliable info.! :evil:

Damned if you do, damned if you don't; horrible job market. horrible grad school market. No shelter from the perfect storm Is this the worst grad school admit year on record?!

I have been working full time for years and paying tuition during that time. Not only is tuition not-taxable, you should be able to take tuition credits (Lifetime Learning or Hope credit), which would reduce your tax liability substantially (possibly to zero). As far as tuition wavers go, it should not be taxable but obviously you can not claim tuition credits on it. Stipends are fully taxable, and I know this because I am on a fellowship right now in which I am taxed at approx. 15%. Now, if your only income is your PhD stipend, then 15-25k per year is not that much income. Your standard deduction plus any tuition credits (if you are unfunded and pay tuition yourself) should keep your tax liability down.

Karma, We have closely allied interests in SA. It looks like you have stolen my spot at NYU Doubt that there will be room for two, but by the looks of it (accepted at UCB and NYU, waitlisted at Yale) you deserve it! Regarding federalism and India, have you looked at Rob Jenkin's work? As far as the Yale waitlist is concerned, it depends how many people are on it and probably how they prioritized you on that list. Considering that Yale will take about 18-20 of the 30-35 they make offers to, there is a good chance several admits will take offers at other top schools (princeton, harvard, stanford) and some spaces will inevitably emerge. I'd say you have a fairly good shot of getting accepted. Congrats!!

Natofone, both Columbia and NYU have people in polisci that study South Asia. But Columbia is best for what I do, which is globalization AND South Asia. I'm really hoping that Columbia will be a good fit considering their impressive, cross-disciplinary resources on globalization. Thoughts?

I'm one for South Asia as a comparativist. But I'm not ready to be focused into a Area Studies guy. More of a generalist.

Rejected from UCSD. Oh well, I don't think UCSD is strong in South Asia and globalization, which is what I study. Yale certainly isn't, and that combined with having received my BA from there made me a sure reject. Keeping my fingers crossed for NYU and Columbia, but not holding my breath. What a BAD time to apply to PhD programs. No one can hide from this economy :cry:

Congrats to the Yale admit! I just got my decision.... rejected from Yale. Oh well, I did my undergrad polisci at Yale so that was a strike against me. Best of luck to all !! Applied, Polisci PhD: Yale, Columbia, NYU, UCSD, JHU MPhil: SOAS, Cambridge, Oxford Rejected: Yale Accepted: SOAS, Cambridge

Thanks guys! I have heard mixed things about going from undergrad to PhD at the same school. Sounds like it could very well be a big negative for me, at least regarding Yale. I have also heard of NYU being heavy quant, though they do stress that if an applicant does not have a quant background, then NYU may still admit them on the precondition that they take micro/macro before enrolling at NYU. Has anyone heard about JHU's reputation for polisci PhD? It is slightly outside of the top 25, and of course the old adage is that if you aren't in a top 25 PhD program...youre out.