ivyreject

OK, so I saw two Boston University acceptances by postal service yesterday. I live in Florida, so i was hoping maybe today would be the day. But alas! Rejected at BC, MIT, and now BU... I really wanted to go back to Boston.

It's all a matter of perspective. For some of us, Georgetown is a huge reach, not a safety... You have submitted yourself to a rigorous process and you have a great deal of ambition, given your list of schools. Your advisors all know how intensely competitive this process is. I've been pretty quiet about the notifications I've received, mostly because my job doesn't know I'm leaving. But when it comes to friends and loved ones, I'm not taking any sympathy, nor offering up any excuses. It is what it is. Some people are way smarter and have worked way harder for this than I have. Others have not. It is what it is.

Sorry to hear. It's disappointing news in any case, and especially so when you've applied to relatively few schools. I got my BC rejection two weeks ago, and that was my first notifaction. It was supposed to be my safety school. I haven't heard from MIT but I assume the rejection is on its way. As for BU, perhaps my top choice, several acceptances were posted yesterday on the results board and I didn't get one. So I'm anticipating rejection there, too. There will be no lightning. I KNOW Brandeis will come through for you!

I got into Florida today. My first acceptance!!! Not my first choice though. (Have you been to Gainesville in August...?) Waitlist for funding, which sucks. It feels kind of like being the last kid picked for kickball. But whatever, I'm on a team. The orange and blue team. I got an email from a prof 2/11 and finally talked to him on the phone 2/24. The conversation seemed like an acceptance, but he wasn't in a place to make it official since he's not on the committee apparently. Re: the waitlisted funding, he said that if I get offers elsewhere to let him know, sometimes you can create leverage that way. Looks like I'm gonna be a doctor! Well, I guess we all are. But still, it feels good!!!

Congratulations to the BU admit up on the big board! I haven't seen any other BU hopefuls here in the thread. I guess I'll cross my fingers...

Re: Georgetown I heard they are really bad about funding. But if it's the best place I get into, it will be hard to borrow all that money knowing I could have gone somewhere else with a better financial aid package. I have an email from a prof there saying my GRE scores "should be good enough to get you in." But that was months ago and this process is not going well for me. But.... back to reality... I have no acceptances as yet.

Come on, Fridaaaaaaay!!! I know this game's winding down for a lot of folks here, but I'm still waiting to hear from five departments. Batting .000 at the moment. Don't make me spend all weekend contemplating dusting off the ol' resume in these turbulent times. Give me some happy news....

No package from MIT, so there's another rejection... Nothing from Georgetown... This blows. Very disappointing. I went to my therapist yesterday and spent half the damn session talking about this crap. Then I got pissed on the way home because I realized that if I hadn't gone to therapy in the past year, I could almost afford the Kaplan GRE course, which, apparently, would have been a whole lot more useful. Congratulations to everyone who is receiving good news this week! I'm holding out hope that Georgetown isn't done notifying.

660V/620A/5.0AWA.... Way worse than their average, which is 673 Verbal, 709 Quantitative, 5.5 Analytical Writing But since the prof emailed in December to say "I hope it works out that you can join us," and that my scores should be good enough to get in, I just kind of assumed that I would get in. This rejection would sting most because it's the best match to my interests.

Good point. Problem is, at this point, in my case I'm not sure this is turning out to be such a good Plan A...

I hope the admits were just from one subfield, perhaps comparitive or IR... That place is a PhD factory compared to the programs that enroll 5 or 6 people a year. But the number of unfunded enrollees is staggering. I don't know how people afford this. After a bachelor's and a master's, who is going to borrow $100,000-$150,000 to spent 5 years and get a teaching job? I'd think more people would just borrow the $100k, go to law school, and make 3 times what we'll make coming out. But I guess none of us would be here if it was about the money. Still... From Georgetown's website http://government.georgetown.edu/57323.html PhD Admissions Statistics (2007) Total PhD Applicants: 696 American Government - 68 Comparative Government - 245 International Relations - 296 Political Theory - 87 Total Admitted PhDs: 85 American Government - 17 Comparative Government - 28 International Relations - 27 Political Theory - 13 Total Enrolling PhDs: 28 American Government - 7 Comparative Government - 10 International Relations - 7 Political Theory - 4 Total Funded PhDs: 10 American Government - 3 Comparative Government - 3 International Relations - 2 Political Theory - 2 Admitted PhD Applicant Statistics *Average GRE scores - 673 Verbal, 709 Quantitative, 5.5 (out of 6) *Analytical Writing *Average GPA - 3.7 *Average TOEFL - 274 (ETOEFL); 112 (ITOEFL) *Male to Female Ratio - 51:34 (60% men and 40% women) *Average age (at time of application): 27 years *Number of International Students admitted: 12 (18%) *Average years of work experience: 5 years

Georgetown question: When I emailed a prof there in December stating my intention to apply and that I'd recently taken the GRE, I mentioned my scores and he emailed back, "Good work on the GRE. That should be enough to get in... I will look for your application." Should I contact this professor to check on my status? Or just wait it out?

Re: G'town mailing notifications the first week of March... Does this mean that the 25 or so admits who got emails are in, and the rest of us will get our thin envelopes? Or might there be more acceptances? Georgetown was my last best hope of getting in somewhere I would go to as a top choice, not a safety.

So, a prof from one of my schools called yesterday and we chatted for 30 minutes. He said many forward-looking things, but did not officially say, "You're in." If I do get in, it will be my only acceptance thus far. One of my other schools, MIT, made calls yesterday and I didn't get one, but that was a long shot anyway. Still waiting on GW, G'town, American, and BU. I get the vibe that G'town has made a few calls, presumably to their top admits, which makes me think even if I do get in, it'll be without funding. I doubt the other D.C. schools offer funding. boo... Oh well, the waiting continues. I'm trying to remember: 1. It's out of my hands at this point, and 2. This will all be over in 3 weeks (right??)

It's almost 5:00... looks like the sun is setting on my dream of moving back to Boston just as surely as the sun sets early on cold, wintry New England days.

I've seen a few references like this. My question is, according to who?

So, I don't need to settle for Northeastern is what I'm hearing... UGPA 3.5 GGPA 3.6 GRE 660/620/5.0 Anyway, when all this is over, I'll be in at Georgetown and BU, so this discussion is moot. That's what I'm telling myself.

I figured Brown was a bit out of my realm of possibility, and had never heard anything positive or negative about UMass. The only reason I contacted Northeastern is that, after getting rejected by my safety school (BC) and anticipating a rejection from MIT, if I don't get into BU, I may not have any other options (in Boston). Maybe others are in this situation, regardless of the relative prestige of the schools to which we applied. At what point do we just say, "Forget about it."

I really want to move back to Boston. I got rejected from BC, which means MIT is almost certainly a "No." The jury is still out on BU. I have a master's from BU in another field, so I don't know if that will help or hurt. If I get into BU with funding, I'll go. Unless I get funding from Georgetown, that is... Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone knows about Northeastern's program. I emailed them after I got my BC rejection and today they finally came back and said that yes, even though their deadline was 2/1, I should apply to the program. Does anyone know anything about it, positive or negative? Is anyone else applying there?

I took a mini-vacation to Savannah with my significant other. Except for a few moments of anxiety, I really didn't think about this stuff all that much. But then I got back last night and saw that people are already hearing from Georgetown, and now I'm flipping. That, and I have someone from Florida who's supposed to call, and I haven't heard from that person yet... Back to full-on anxiety mode. 11am Monday morning, and I'm already in need of another three-day weekend mini-vacation. Yikes. Congratulations to all who are receiving good news in this worst of all possible years.

flatcoat, if they said "you are not in the denied pile," then I'd say it means you're in. Did UF tell you that? I got an email one week ago from a prof saying, "it would be useful for us to chat a bit about what we offer," then asking when would be a good time to call. I emailed back immediately some times, but a week has passed and I've heard nothing. What does THAT mean?

I'm not expecting to hear much in the next week or so. But I now check this site rather obsessively whenver I can throughout the day. I get to work shortly after 7 on the east coast, so I guess the rate of postings doesn't really heat up until mid-morning. Congratulations to those of you who are being admitted to some very, very fine schools.

I got my rejection form letter 2/13. It was dated 2/10. Has anyone heard anything from BC? I understand they only enroll 5 students a year, so maybe they only admit 10-15 out of a field of ??? applicants... This was my first notifcation, so I'm officially 0 for 1 with 6 to go. Just wondering if there's anyone else out there who applied to BC. It was my safety school - so much for that.

The caliber of people on here is very impressive, I agree. My numbers are, on balance, worse than yours. My GRE Verbal was better, but my UGPA, quant, and AWA were all lower. It's weird to have a master's degree and a 660V and still feel like the dumb kid who got placed in the honors class by mistake. But whatever... Anyway, glad you're here. I was one of the BC rejects, too. I've been repeatedly reassured here that I should be able to get into at least a couple of my schools. If that's true, then you should be fine. Good luck.

How do you know, flatcoat? I got an email on Wednesday from a UF prof who wants to talk to me in the next two weeks. It sounded more like a phone interview than an acceptance. I emailed back times I'm available and presumably this person is going to call me.