smoothoperator77

I was notified just now that I was moved off the Rutgers waiting list and offered admission! For all still waiting, things could still happen today and a few days after!

What are the quotation marks around the word "hoping" supposed to mean? This alone tells me the exact reason that you did not answer my question. And for your information, I am not litigating admitted vs. non-admitted students, for the reason that I know that multiple people, including me, on this thread, have offers, and some are current PhD students who want to choose a better program. As you said, we are trying to make the right decisions, as these decisions matter a lot, especially at this time.

Listen, we perfectly understand your point, we know people have the freedom to do whatever they want, we know our chances are slim, but this forum is specifically for people like us who are still waiting and hoping, and it is only natural that we have some kind of healthy expression of either frustration or hope, in here, because we are only expressing those to each other and those who might have information and are WILLING to share, not you, and @PolPsychGal11, (I am calling on you directly because you've expressing harsh negativity once already and is upvoting this latest one again, like wtf? And it seems that you are a professor, I can't imagine how your students would feel about your attitude) if you were just going to dismiss people. You are very welcome to leave if we bother you this much. One question for you and all alike: have you had no setbacks in your life, at all? Don't pretend to be some kind of successful dudes from the moment you were born and look down upon us like you do. You might be really successful, and we might be a bunch of idiots to you, so please share your successful stories and condescending attitude with those who could appreciate it.

With all due respect, I don't think Omkar is clogging up the threads and spreading inaccurate information. I wish people could understand students in this situation with more compassion. Some of us really want to do this, and this is not even a job that meets the minimum wage, which tells how much we want this, and things are pretty desperate for many. Being in the seat of an insider is not a good reason to discourage the right of an outsider to have concerns and ask questions.

For me personally, as much as I am disgusted by some of the things you described, it's more of an issue that the political chaos in the US has been and is lowering the standard of the US academia as the No.1, than an issue that the US has necessarily stopped being the best location for academics. I think there is still a long way to go before we can consider the US worse than Europe if there would ever be a day of that, especially in terms of funding. Also, a big momentum for the increasing competitiveness of getting into a good program is the trend of stipend raises for PhD students, so in some way, you could consider the financial situation in the US academia is getting better, as long as you can get into a program. But I could understand your concern as a former progressive activist. However, it's not a perfect world. I am sure there are flaws in Europe concerning progressive values and academic freedom as well, let alone in Asia. If you just cannot stand Trumpism, then I guess you can't stand it. But as you said, we can always hope and contribute to a better future. I think one of the privileges of being a graduate student is that, compared with many other jobs, you can often find enough room for yourself to be yourself while making contributions to the changes you want to make, at least, that's how I want it to be.

The situation we are facing as possible future scholars in academia is so ridiculous….

I think it 100% won't hurt as long as we keep it discretely and humbly. I mean, it should be only normal that we feel excited and look forward to being in good programs that are still interested in us. But yeah, I doubt it impacts their decisions much. I think our ranking on the waitlist is already set either way, so it should be solely dependent on whether there would be a spot opening up. But I also think not expressing interest is inappropriate because if they are ever going to make offers off of the waitlist, they need to know that this decision is worth it and that they give it to someone who would cherish this opportunity.

I've reached out to them to confirm my strong interest in early March and will contact them again in late March. But I don't think most schools will have an idea about the chances of waitlists before April or even the second week of April. So I guess it's up to us.

I know that their offers are out since I was being waitlisted, not sure about their open house though. I am waiting for an update from UPenn as well, I emailed them yesterday but have not received a response yet.

Yeah it's weird if you have not received it. They should have sent multiple emails about that regarding the travel information and reimbursement for the travel cost.

We are in this together! A lot more difficult than I expected, and I thought I'd have more than one offer as well. But yeah, fortunate enough to prevent a total disaster two years in a row. I haven't received anything from Upenn yet. I'll send an email to check with them tomorrow. If you are attending the open house of AU on March 20th we could see each other that day.

Saw some rejections of Upenn pouring in. But is anyone still waiting on an official notice?

That's great! Congratulations.

I got an email from the DGS. Yeah I think all decisions were already out. Where did you accept?

Yeah I agree. I actually tend to think that they did not over admit, or at least they did not over admit a lot, like you said, maybe 3-4 offers in CP for two spots. Because they've always kept a small cohort and there are so few results posted on the result page.

I am on the waitlist at Rutgers. They told me that they would be admitting people on waitlists according to the subfield, and I am currently on top of the CP subfield. And I know Rutgers only admits two people for CP each year. So in my case, it seems that if either of the two admits reject their offer I would have a chance. I guess it really is different for each program and it's the best if they could tell us how they work on this. And if Rutgers CP admitted students, by any chance see my post, it would be very helpful if you could give some information about your plan with this!

Congrats on the big win here!

I think so. For one, GW is most likely delayed due to the uncertainty with funding, and I think Columbia obviously is, and maybe the Harvard and Upenn conundrum that's going on for us is also due to this reason. I feel like those schools that release results later than previous years are most likely all related to this, and there are many of them this year.

Yes I am CP subfield so it's from SPA. Like @PolSciComp said, if you are leaning toward non-academic jobs, SIS is a fine place to be, I really think so. And I understand perfectly about the difficulty as I am dealing with the same. So I am trying my best to get off of the waitlists from Rutgers and UCIrvine, which would make me feel a bit better. But since you are still waiting for JHU, I think you could still end up being there. Hope we could all receive better offers eventually.

I am in the same situation as you.I got one offer from AU and on the waitlists of Rutgers and UCIrvine. I would prefer both over AU for the same concern as yours, but I seriously doubt I would be better off if I let this one go and reapply next year. I think it is going to be harder and harder in the foreseeable future, especially given all the trends of current students asking for stipend raise and the Trump fuckery. I would say if you have a job that could make you feel better off than AU, you could probably consider reapplying, but if you are determined to do a PhD anyway, I don't think it is safe to reapply. It is not ours problem frankly, it is just getting too hard, for me personally. Last year I was on the waitlist of Duke, and I thought okay, I probably could be getting into some really good programs given another year's improvement, but it is just getting harder I guess.

I think it is more likely that a waitlist decision is coming, and in this case, you could for sure reach out. Wish you the best!

I am waiting for Upenn as well, but the hope is not high. I also think they have not released anything yet.

Yeah, I was a Civ 4 player and was really obsessed with it, but didn't try the later versions.

Would be helpful to get some feedback on that🤣if it's worth it to play that one

Totally agree with the last point. Whenever I see that, I am like, come on, "top journal" publications, and they are still applying for a PhD? Either they are like really enjoying being a PhD student for 5-7 years for the sake of being a PhD student, which, by the way, is exactly for training people to get published in top journals, or they just have misunderstandings about what "top journal" means. Very unhelpful information for others.