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You are absolutely right. Be extremely discreet and courteous. Do not spam their mailboxes. So, it is important to space your communications apart. First in 24 hours (a thank-u email, which is quite appropriate). Another one in 10 days, which is quite acceptable imo. I would argue admission committee would appreciate if you let them know what offers you receive. Remember, the ad comm makes decisions with constraints given by higher up, and offers you get from elsewhere might help them persuade whoever higher up to open up an extra spot / fight for a fellowship that can fund your spot.

Tips for waitlists from a source I wouldn't name: "If you are extended a waitlist offer to a program that you prefer compared to the other offers you have at the time, your first response should come within 24 hours. Write the department’s Director of Graduate Admissions (DGA). Express gratitude that you’re still under consideration, offer to send any additional materials that might help your chances, say that the department would be your top choice if admitted, attach any funded offers from other programs that you’ve received, and provide your contact information (email and phone). Write that department’s DGA every 10-14 days afterwards, to restate your continued interest, attach any new offers you’ve received, and remind that person of the earlier offers you forwarded ... Every cycle, we have applicants accepted from waitlists at UChicago, Yale, Princeton, and other highly ranked schools. The only way for that to happen is if you stay in regular (biweekly) contact with that department’s Director of Graduate Admissions (DGA), apprising that faculty member of other funded offers you’ve received. Without those competing offers you have no way to come off any wait-lists, and no leverage to negotiate your financial award."

I see what you mean. Yes, there will be fewer offers this year. But, because the required yield is also lower, they might not even go into waitlist this year. I think it is quite possible, since the desired yield this year is quite small. Hope this clarifies.

Okay, so I will answer to the best of my knowledge. I must preface by saying I am not involved in the admission process or know the technical process behind it well. I simply relay what I hear from my colleagues/faculties. To answer your first question: I believe, no. I heard that they would try to limit the eventual yields to a certain number X (which I do not want to disclose publicly). The Graduate School will cover the cost for the X incoming students. For any students we eventually take over this X number (if more applicants accept our offers more than usual), the department will have to pay for them through their budgets, which is not ideal because that money is normally needed elsewhere. And this X is not a big number. To your second question: Yes, the cuts are impacting our PoliSci admission. I don't know if this is true for other schools. I must admit I do not know much why. Apparently, the finance of CU is extremely opaqued. On paper, CU is extremely wealthy, so it should not be as badly impacted by the federal cuts, but a lot of the assets CU holds are in real estate (2nd largest landlord in NYC, after the Church) and there is little liquidity.

Hi guys. I got words that Columbia will extend offers to applicants this year, as opposed to what I heard. The number of offers will be fewer than previous years (~20, as opposed to ~30), so as to control the number of eventual yields. They will also seek subfield balance among the incoming class (each subfield having a roughly equal number of students). As for decisions, I don't know when they would be out. At this time last year, they were already out. But this year is complicated because of anticipated cuts, Trump, etc.

Sorry for bad news, pal. Keep in mind, these are just hearsay, and I am sure they are still deciding. Wish you all the best!

Hi, current PhD at Columbia PoliSci. Yes, our administration plans to slash PhD enrolment in the coming years. The reasons could be a few things: Trump, expected drastic raise for PhD stipends (our union is demanding 72k starting 2025-2026), the larger trend of insufficient job opportunities for PhD graduates, etc.. No one knows, except the leadership. As for PoliSci, I heard rumours. One is that we will not accept any student this cycle. The other is that we accept 5-7, all in one subfield (eg, all 5 AP in the coming cohort). I don't follow these news very closely, but these are the words in the department.