expfcwintergreen

I don't know whether or to what extent that's true for the other subfields, but comparative (where I will be) is growing. There's currently five people in the comparative faculty, and they're in the process of hiring two more. Midwest513 is right: the program has an overall reputation as something of a rising star. Almost certainly true. Davis's American is generally ranked somewhat higher than their comparative, and the program in general has a reputation for producing high-caliber quantitative research. Unfortunately I don't know anything about theory at Davis, but it seems to be a good place for "hybridity." I myself have a core set of thematic interests (I'm primarily an institutions guy) that I'm interested in exploring from both a comparative as well as an American perspective, and when I visited in March pretty much everyone I talked to gave the impression that they encourage that kind of interdisciplinary (or at least inter-subfield) work. One thing I can say from my own experience is that they won't get hung up on any black marks you might have on your profile as long as you make up for them elsewhere. I applied straight out of undergrad; I had a low cumulative GPA (~3.1 at the time I applied) due to a miserable first two years, but I had a good major GPA (~3.9), good GRE scores, and a bit of quality research experience, and once I was accepted they seemed pretty eager to get me on board (though they did not court me quite as hard as a few of the somewhat lower-ranked programs that accepted me). Work experience might help; in any case it certainly won't hurt. My cohort is 14 people including me, and if I recall from my visitation, only me and a few others were coming straight out of undergrad; the rest were coming from masters' programs or the working world. As with many or most programs, fit is probably the single most important thing. If there are people there that are doing stuff that excites you, I strongly encourage you to get in touch with them now - Davis's faculty and departmental staff were by far the most helpful and approachable that I dealt with during my application cycle. It was a stark contrast to certain other programs I applied to.

Hi there. I applied and was accepted to Davis in the last cycle, and I'll be starting there this fall. Obviously I can't say anything about studying there yet, but I'm happy to answer any questions you have about applying. What mixed things have you heard?

Anyone heading to Davis tomorrow?

Congratulations! I think I'm in as well - I checked my online status when I saw your post, and it says department recommendation - admitted, graduate school action - pending. No email or letter, though - how did they notify you?

'Nother Berkeley reject checking in. On the bright side, I finally got my funding offers from Davis and Pitt - nothing like people offering you free money to take the sting off your first rejection. Edit: @jsclar and saltlakecity: My last name is in the middle of the alphabet, so I don't think they're going alphabetically.

Theodore Roosevelt. His vision for the country was so ahead of its time - in my opinion, "The New Nationalism" was one of the best speeches ever given by anyone. Not to mention what a total badass he was.

I'm in the same boat. It's torture; at this point I wish they'd just send me a rejection so I can stop getting my hopes up and get on with my life. Anyway, I'm officially losing my mind over this cycle. I was just taking a nap, and I had a dream where I got a call at work, and it turned out to be one of my schools saying they'd changed their mind and they were rescinding my admission offer. I protested that I already had a letter and a funding offer, but they said, "Yeah, but if you read the letter carefully, it just says we've recommended you for admission, it doesn't say you're actually admitted." I woke up sweaty and terrified. In the dream, my boss was CJ Cregg from The West Wing.

My mom has a BA in English from a Canadian provincial university; my dad has a BE in chemical engineering from the same school and a Ph.D. from a top-15 (in his field) state university. He works in the private sector, though. My parents are thrilled that I'm going for the Ph.D., but my dad thinks I'm a little bit insane for wanting to go into academia. He keeps reminding me that I could work for the Foreign Service, or a think-tank, or the government. He's an engineer, and I suspect he doesn't quite grasp the distinction between politics and political science.

Adams, Scheiner, and Andrews in comparative. I contacted Adams last semester, and he seemed really excited that I wanted to work with him and that my interests aligned so closely with his. He called me and we had a nice chat about the program and political science in general. Are you planning on going to the reception thing?

Well, I've had an interesting day. This morning I got my official waitlist notice from UT, and this evening I got my unofficial acceptance notice from UC Davis. Judging from what's been posted in the other thread, I guess I'm most likely not getting into my first-choice school, but getting in to my second-choice school is a nice consolation prize

Comparative. I was originally going to apply for the MA at Oregon, but they really seemed to be steering applicants away from the terminal MA so I ended up applying to the Ph.D. program.

I called the graduate coordinator this morning out of curiosity, and they said the adcom is meeting tomorrow and/or Friday. (Edit: by "curiosity" I of course mean "crippling anxiety")

I think my slavish devotion to my email is starting to affect my sanity. I just got an email from a familiar name with the subject line "Congratulations on your admission!" and I actually started shaking, but it turned out to just be a follow-up letter from a POI at Pitt. It was a really nice letter and it was nice of him to send it, but this is the second time in two days I've nearly had a heart attack over an email that turned out not to be an admissions notice. Anyway, congratulations to everyone who got into UT. My undergraduate experience here has been great, and having taken two graduate classes, the departmental culture among the grad students seems really friendly and tight-knit. I haven't heard anything on my application yet, but I don't think I'll be too broken up if I don't get in.

I see there's another Texas rejection in the survey. Weird that we haven't seen any admits yet. I've been at UT for three years now, and so much about the way this school works is still a mystery to me...

I was about to say I also applied to only one top-15 (Chapel Hill). I keep forgetting I also applied to Berkeley - as I mentioned in the other thread, I just thought, why not, you'll never know if you don't apply. Anyway, of the programs where I'm actually hoping to get in, I'm so anxious about UNC that I'm feeling a little sick. I deliberately ran the range of the rankings, from big bad Berkeley to unassuming little Miami of Ohio, with most in the 20's and 30's of the USNWR rankings. I thought I could be a strong or weak candidate depending on what each adcom was looking for. Since then, though, I'm feeling more like I have a strong application overall, with my low cumulative GPA (3.17 at the time I submitted my apps) being the only real black mark on my profile. That's from failing two classes in unrelated fields three years ago when I was in a different major and at a different point in my life, and I made sure the adcoms knew that. I got into Pitt, though, and the survey shows they rejected a couple of people with substantially higher GPAs than me, so I'm hopeful that if Pitt can see past that one black mark, then my other schools can too.