swagboy

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: T20, Private Major(s)/Minor(s): Economics (Departmental Honors), Quantitative Social Science Undergrad GPA: 3.99 Type of Grad: NA Grad GPA: NA GRE: 161Q 162V 4.0AW Any Special Courses: 7 stats/data-science courses including one graduate stats course. Additionally, a healthy number of Phil and critical/contemporary theory courses Letters of Recommendation: Tenured Soc Prof (highly cited but currency inactive), Tenured Econ Prof, Econ Snr lecture Teaching/Research Experience: 2.5 years research experience, 2 first author papers (R&R, under review) + senior thesis. 3 years TA experience, for Economic Statistics + two upper level sociology courses Other: Awarded 2 research grants and 1 humanities fellowship from UG institution. Subfields: econ soc/ political economy/ urban development. Applied straight out of undergrad. RESULTS: 3a/14r/0p Acceptances: Duke, Wisconsin, Harvard (Soc & Social Policy) Rejections: Brown, Cal Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell (Development Soc), Johns Hopkins, Michigan, MIT (Pol Sci), Northwestern, NYU, Princeton (Soc & Social Policy), Rice, Yale, Stanford Pending: NA Attending: Harvard (Sociology & Social Policy) LESSONS LEARNED: 1) Networks are much more important than I thought - I did not previously understand how important it was to pick recommenders within your discipline, specifically, recommenders actively building and maintaining networks within your discipline\sub-discipline. Obviously this is not always possible, especially for international applicants, but if it is within your control, I believe that well networked recommenders are overly determinative of your placement as compared to other marginal characteristics, such as research grants, awards, TAships, and fellowships. For some background, my best friend and I formed a somewhat ‘natural experiment’ from which I derived this conclusion: Coming from the same university, with nearly an identical profile (same majors, GRE, GPA, but he had slightly less research exp, no TA experience) and he was accepted into 12 of the top 14 pol sci PhD program. The independent variable in question: he had 3 well networked Pol Sci recommenders who are very active and respected -but not famous- within his sub-field. Couldn’t have been happier with my own results, but I do think his superlative success story is illuminating: 1) Having recommenders who adcoms recognize or are at least vaguely familiar with may help them, at least notionally, reduce some of the stochasticity and risk involved in admitting a given student who they have relatively little information about. 2) Selection of grad students acts as a form of status recognition for recommenders, and everyone knows that, so it is harder to reject a student with a strong recommendation from someone you know than a marginally stronger candidate with recommenders whom you are not familiar with. Nearly every email my friend received after admission (from POIs) praised his recommenders, which shows that not only do committee members know who recommends you, but they really think about it too. This is especially important given just how many qualified applicants apply to top programs each year. 2) The articulation of research fit. Everyone says this but it's true; Fit is highly personalized and specific to one's own interest but a topic which should pre-dominate both the application, and school selection process. Articulating fit properly in your SOP requires as much consultation, ideally with your recommenders and active faculty within your desired discipline. 3) Lastly, the most shocking element of this cycle was that every single rejection felt so much more personal than I ever could have imagined before being rejected. I could not have been more happy with my results and feel that I was extremely lucky to receive the offers I did, but even still it is hard not get caught up in all the rejections that are imminent. Try not to take any decision personally, there is so much stochasticity involved when there are so many qualified applicants, so sadly it really is beyond our control.

‘Cycle Results & Applicant Profiles’ was one of the most helpful resources I came across while preparing myself for grad school apps (in combination with scouring PhD student CVs from department websites). I hope others will join me in posting using the following format: PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Major(s)/Minor(s): Undergrad GPA: Type of Grad: Grad GPA: GRE: Any Special Courses: Letters of Recommendation: Teaching/Research Experience: Other: RESULTS: Acceptances: Rejections: Pending: Attending: LESSONS LEARNED:

any one else have no decision from Stanford yet? I saw both acceptances and rejections are out.

idk, from years past it seems like they all kinda come at once. I didn't get one, so I'm callin it a reject by now lol : [

Columbia and Northwestern did some last year too