natofone

Cornell is a great match for your interest in South Asia. If I remember correctly, a South Asianist placed very well last year and got a slew of offers.

I would caution future applicants against using the highly personal "since I was a kid" approach.

(I should say that both of the above statements that employ this approach are very good overall - this wasn't a knock on them. Just a suggestion based on what some professors at Chicago suggested to me.)

I agree with what Plisar said. You are not a sure thing at top 10 programs, but you should apply widely if you can afford it because I think that you have a very good shot at getting into a great program. One thing to consider is that American politics is a little bit less competitive than some of the other subfields. Don't lose hope.

Nobody cares about your political views. The "persecuted conservative in academia" routine is just really boring and cliched.

Cry me a river.

Nobody cares about your political views. The "persecuted conservative in academia" routine is just really boring and cliched.

Congrats Ap! I will be attending Maryland as well.

I am not sure if my experience is an exception, but perhaps I might be of some service. I will briefly discuss my long trip below.

At 18: had one good semester of college at a very good (top of the second tier) public university, then got all Fs the second semester (except for jazz band of course). GPA there: 1.8

At 19: didn't tell the parents about the Fs; faked going to college for a year with forged transcripts and whatnot. GPA: Still 1.8.

From 20-22: worked as an ice cream scooper for a summer and a semester; confessed to flunking out; transferred to a tier 3 midwestern Catholic university. One good semester; one semester with all Fs that were converted to Ws by a very kind dean; one other semester of all Fs converted to Ws due to the really kind dean. GPA: now somewhere in the 2.1 range.

From 22-25: move to the south; after being rejected from the military, I enroll at a directional state university that only recently went to competitive admissions. Try to flunk out again; given reprieve. Finally get my act together and don't get a B after that. Final GPA: 3.3, but from the really bad school.

So, I had no econ background; no math background save for the semester at Georgia Tech; no rigorous poli sci background (hadn't heard of regression or the APSR, AJPS, or JoP until grad school).

GRE: 700 verbal, 800 math. Apply to 10 schools throughout the midwest ranking from as high as 3 to as low as 40 or so. Get into a master's program (unfunded) and a top 25 Big Ten school (though one that was moving down in the rankings).

At 25: start the PhD program at said Big Ten school. Learn only possible advisor is taking an offer at another university. Spend two years preparing to transfer.

At 27: Apply to 14 more places with more geographic mixing but much more targeted to what I want to study. Do OK -- get into about half maybe. Eventually transfer to my current home, Rochester. Very happy here.

The point of the story is: the probabalistic nature of the admissions process can be to your advantage. A well-written SoP can be a saving grace, as can a good quantitative score on the GRE. If you have the option of getting letters from known people, that always helps. Top 10 or even Top 25 might not be probable. I am not talented, nor do I have any pedigree to help me, nor do I have any special skills. I am very, very lucky: somebody on the adcom at the place I got in the first time found something they liked amid all the stuff not to like (and there was plenty of it!). The posters before have every reason to voice cynicism, because the process is probabilistic even for the best applicants. But maybe you'll be lucky too. So apply broadly if you can; something good can come of it.

I agree with what Plisar said. You are not a sure thing at top 10 programs, but you should apply widely if you can afford it because I think that you have a very good shot at getting into a great program. One thing to consider is that American politics is a little bit less competitive than some of the other subfields. Don't lose hope.

I agree with what Plisar said. You are not a sure thing at top 10 programs, but you should apply widely if you can afford it because I think that you have a very good shot at getting into a great program. One thing to consider is that American politics is a little bit less competitive than some of the other subfields. Don't lose hope.

Agreed.

You need to look outside the top 50. Everyone who applies to top 50 programs has GRE scores like yours.

Also, visit each school's website to check for stats of incoming admits. In most cases, you'll have to email the Graduate Director.

In my opinion, your expectations are not realistic. Your stats are not Top 25-40 caliber, and you'll be lucky to get funded at a school below the Top 50. Get a MA first, it's the only way to set off a low UG GPA (That's what I did).

Hey Slacktivist.

Nice to see some new blood here. I couldn't disagree more with all the advice you are getting here. First of all, I'm sorry to hear about your health problems. This happens more often than people think and is completely excusable reason for the lower than expected GPA (especially if the quarter is completely on the left side of the distribution of your grades). In your case, it may be necessary for you to have at least one of your letter writers (or some documentation) that can prove your medical issues on the application. I would talk it over with a trusted advisor at your university. Your last four quarters of at 3.8 are incredible and will be a signal that you are not all talk--committees will typically recognize this.

The lack of economics and calculus classes will not hurt you in the admissions process. What will hurt you is a GRE-quant score less than 750. In your case I highly encourage you to shoot for an 800. It's an essential signal to the committees that you can do the math required of you and it is a fairly achievable goal given the amount of time you have to prepare. I can PM you with more details as to how to ensure at least a 780+.

Honestly, I think you can shoot for the moon, but it seriously depends on how many applications you can afford to send in. My advice is different if you apply to five schools versus 20. Either way, please do PM me and we can discuss things further. I'd be more than happy to help out. You seem like a smart kid, and you have absolutely NO NEED to restrict your applications to the bottom half of the top-50 or "outside of the top 50" as people have told you. That's absurdity.

PS

When I started this thread back on January 15, I had no idea that it would take me three months to finally hear from the place that was my first choice. However, it indeed did. I was admitted off the wait list at the University of Rochester about an hour ago and will be going there this fall.

For anyone else who's still waiting, I wish you the best of luck! I must say that I'm going to miss posting on this thread but as it comes to an end think it's pretty cool that there are over 3,000 posts and almost (probably by the end of the day!) a quarter million views.

This is such a relief to finally know where I'm going to be!

Everyone's files were reviewed at Columbia.

If the file was completed correctly on the applicant end, it was reviewed by Columbia. This means transcripts were sent in and all letters were received. That is the applicant's responsibility.

The conspiracy theories on this board this year are mind boggling. It just seems like yesterday that you were openly referring to one of my advisor's students as living in a 'fantasy land' because s/he got accepted to all the schools s/he applied to. I've tried to be helpful by sticking around this year and providing some context based on my experience wearing as a former employee of a graduate program, a former applicant, and now a graduate student. Since it seems that my insight is not wanted, I'll cease visiting.

-PS

I'm sorry!! That sucks. You have some great options, though.

1. You can't know that much about me because I'm no longer in undergrad.

2. I didn't apply to any Ivy league schools for undergrad. I applied to two schools I really wanted to go to early decision and that's it. How's that for being a "prestige whore"?

3. I have my reasons for wanting to do the MA. They have nothing to do with trying to get into a better Political Science PhD program later on. They are my own personal reasons that I don't care to share with random people on the internet.

4. I don't believe that I will come to regret having accidentally--and indirectly--divulged where i went to undergrad to people bored enough to try to figure out who some random person on the internet is. If it ever comes up (and I doubt it even will), I think I can accurately say that I stupidly asked people on an internet discussion forum for advice and my motives, character, and intentions were completely misconstrued by several people who decided to start hating me.

Good luck with Princeton! I'm in my own waitlist purgatory over here ...

I feel ya, though I am sure that by April 15th or 16th you will hear from them. I am waiting to hear from two schools and it's quite maddening! But I understand that they are also at the mercy of people who might be sitting on acceptances and haven't yet declined, even though they eventually will. I'm sure it's frustrating for them as well!

I do have a question, though: Let's say a school receives notification from an admitted student that he/she has declined his/her offer on April 15th at 4:30pm. It seems ridiculous for the school to then have to decide who to take off the waitlist, email that person, and get a response back by 5:00pm. Moreover, waitlisted people who have acceptances elsewhere have to commit to a place by 5:00pm on the 15th, right? So what happens if you commit to a place but then get off the waitlist somewhere after you've already committed? Can you withdraw your acceptance of that offer without incurring penalties?

What's with the nastiness on this board? I don't know why people have the incentive to burn bridges at this point in the game. People like SOOT are your potential colleagues....

I'm a regular over at PSJR, and I stumbled over here yesterday. I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE STILL DEBATING THIS CHOICE.

Look, I know where you go to undergrad (FYI you should be more careful about what personal info you put on the internet. You WILL come to regret it later). The kids at your school are prestige whores who are all bitter at not having got into an Ivy. I think you are letting this ethos inform your choice about grad school, and it is swaying you towards the Yale MA offer. To those of us who've done grad school and know what we're talking about, the solution is obvious: you should take the Wisconsin PhD offer. But because you are posting to a board full of ignorant undergrads, you're going to get poor advice.

GO TO WISCONSIN AND STFU.

Forget grad school. If I were you I'd focus on my ability to write coherent English.

Ditto.

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