Rodao

The departments LIE! THEY LIE! Seriously though, oh dear, I hope they haven't sent out all their acceptances just yet.

Ack, waitlisted at Austin for political theory. I hope at least someone declines.

Argh, still nothing from Austin. Starting to get worried.

Oh gosh! They are sending out acceptances? What's your subfield?

We always find it's better to reject people on a Friday. It's statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if we do it at the end of the week.

I keep hearing about how great Austin is. Why is that?

Phew, still under review.

Oh boy. Rejections from Austin are going up? Austin I consider my safety school, so if I haven't gotten in there, I may be doomed. Too anxious to check. Has anyone gotten an acceptance from Austin for political science?

Still haven't heard anything from any of the philosophy departments I applied to.

Rejected from Duke. I guess they do it in waves.

Hmm, I just got a decision letter from Duke. I'll open it once I calm down a bit here. Doesn't bode well, though :/

Was wondering this myself. Just checked my online Duke app. and still nada either way.

Again, I still wouldn't panic unless any of those were your safety schools.

For political theory? How did you learn of it? Through e-mail?

Now is not yet the time to panic. Unless those two were your safety schools or something.

No, don't do it. I can understand the urge, but you must bear in mind that they are up to their eyeballs in app. materials, and it probably just hasn't been processed yet.

Officially, you're supposed to include all transcripts from post-secondary institutions attended (for most schools). Unofficially, however, a single withdraw certainly won't help you in any way, and the admissions people will never be in a position to find out about it if you don't send in a transcript. I would just exclude it entirely.

Your GRE scores are practically identical to mine (770 v. 760 quant). I too was a little disappointed to get a 5.0 AW, but I did some searching around on forums (such as this one) and I learned that the GRE generally isn't an especially important part of the application, and the AW is even less so. Your GREs are definitely high enough; they are the least of your concern. As far as the rest of your application goes, I really can't give you any advice other than to somehow make sure the schools you're applying to understand your somewhat irregular academic career. I suppose it would be the sort of thing to address in the statement of purpose or "additional information" section of the application.

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, I don't think my GPA and GREs will eliminate me during the initial phases; in fact, they're quite solid. However, I'm pretty sure they won't really distinguish me from the many other qualified apps who will be applying. From what you tell me, it sounds like the SoP is an important part of the application process for poli sci. That's somewhat different from philosophy, where the SoP is used to evaluate fit, but isn't taken as an indicator of philosophical ability, and thus isn't anywhere near as important as other factors. With that said, I've invested a good deal of time in the SoP, and made sure to apply only to schools with faculty with whom I want to work, and who share my interests. Really, my best shot is having my writing sample read by some of the aforementioned political scientists. So assuming I make the cut in the initial phases, and my SoP demonstrates a fit, is there a good chance that my writing sample will at least be read? Or perhaps I should develop my SoP even more? What do professors look for in a poli sci SoP? Oh yes, I forgot to mention: I'll be applying for political theory. From what I understand, PT is a little different from other poli sci departments. Does this change matters at all?

I am a philosophy major applying for programs in both philosophy and political science. In philosophy, the writing sample is understood to be one of, if not the, most important part of the application. Does this hold true for political science as well? I ask this because my writing sample is probably the strongest part of my application, and I can imagine it will be of some interest to a certain cultish clique of political scientists that will remain unnamed. However, if poli sci departments don't really weigh the writing sample very heavily, then my app probably won't stand out very much. I am a little concerned about this because I've noticed that certain political science departments, such as Notre Dame, Yale, and even Harvard, don't require writing samples.

730 V, 5.0AW. I was pretty miffed myself.

It depends upon the school you're applying to, but generally they will want transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended. For example, I am thinking of applying to about 14 different schools, and only 1 explicitly stated that JC transcripts were not needed, while another said that they would "prefer" to have them sent. Your can probably have a request for transcripts sent in by mail.

Hah, funny you mention this. I got my official transcripts in the mail a day or two ago, and I had a look at them. Turns out they are just as inscrutable as the unofficial ones available on the university's website. One course is listed as "Special Topics," yet it literally says nothing more descriptive about the course. I'll leave out the work stuff and put in a relevant courses section. Thanks!

Hi all, I just have a few simple questions. As an undergraduate applying almost directly to graduate school, do I want to include non-relevant work experience in my CV? For the record, I am applying to programs for philosophy and political science, and I don't have a whole lot else to put on the CV, really. I'm talking about jobs that clearly have no relation to anything I'm applying in, e.g., delivery driver, document clerk, etc. Also, should I list relevant courses I've taken, or just the school and degree? And should I include (non-relevant) skills/hobbies/interests? Thanks!