Polly_Sigh

thanks. so had your friend been formally rejected before he contacted the department?

does anyone know whether some schools will consider you for a masters programs even if your application indicated you were only interested in a doctoral program? At the time of the application process I was fully focused on PhD programs and figured I had a shot, so I checked the "Only PhD" box. Now i'm realizing that another masters may be my best option at this point. There's still a chance I'll get a PhD offer, but should I contact some programs right now and mention that I would be interested in being considered for the masters after all? Or is it best to just let it go at this point?

Oh OK. I applied to the PhD program as well and have not heard anything.... I guess we just have to wait it out :-/ and i'm wondering if the "month" time frame refers to when all final notifications will have been distributed. i would assume that those who have been accepted would start hearing within the next week or so then everyone else will hear in about a month. but that's just my guess!

yes, i'm also surprised your friend already received a rejection from GW. did he/she apply to a PhD or to a masters program?

claiming a UPenn rejection. keeping my fingers crossed for Georgetown over the weekend!

Agreed. I’d keep it brief and professional. There will be time for more in depth discussion at an appropriate time and hopefully in person. If you have administrative questions (funding, housing options, etc), you could ask who the appropriate contact for those issues would be.

Congratulations, Harvard admits!!

hi everyone! i'm wondering how many of you have applied for external scholarships at this point? i applied to six schools. i havent heard from any, but there have been acceptances released for three of them, so i am assuming they will end up in the rejection pile. for the final three, if i do get accepted into a program, i will probably not get fully funded (by a long shot). however, these three could end up as rejections as well. is it worth it to start pursuing external funding, or should i just wait to see what my actual options are? i'm not in a situation where i have much free time at all, so this isn't a question of laziness. it's a question of investing much of my free time in scholarship apps, which could all be for naught. of course, if i do get accepted without funding i will kick myself for not starting sooner. but if thattime comes the acceptance alone will provide the motivation and necessity to work throughthe scholarship process. will it be too late to get external funding if i wait? any thoughts? anyone in the same boat? thanks! and congrats to all recent acceptances!! and to everyone still waiting -- i feel ya!

thats exactly what i was wondering about -- the impact on perception of an applicant's credibility. i guess something like that wouldn't be a major factor in the decision process either way though.

this raises another question related ot my last post. there is clearly overlap in the applicant pools for many schools, especially the top programs. is there ever communication between admissions committees across universities in ordere to minimize overlap of acceptances of top applicants? that may be far-fetched, but have wondered if that ever happens....

Thanks for this insight. It is much appreciated. One question I've wondered about is why do most applications ask what other programs an applicant is applying to? Is this info used during the process at all? Would applying to programs that have very different styles and focus lessen an applicant's credibility? Or is this simply a "market research" question for admissions?

General question: Why do applications ask what other schools you are applying to? Do they use that information? If so, how?

thanks.

haha i was thinking the same thing. the stress of watching the results board to no avail has gotten to everyone. so has anyone had any contact with Georgetown or George Washington? from last year's results it looks as though they really don't release until the very beginning of March, but I'm wondering if anyone has any more info about them....

Congrats, NYU admits!! I haven't heard, so I guess that is a bad sign. Ah well, still waiting on the rest of my apps, so i wont give up hope... yet! For the NYU admits, nothing specific, but what do your stats and backgrounds look like? In case i need to go through this process all over again next year....

how so?

thanks! yeah i guess we will hear eventually.... there's no action on the results board, so we aren't the only applicants in the dark!

I feel the same way! It's impossible to focus on work right now... I'm trying, but the refresh button on my browser is just so enticing! I applied to 7 schools and havn't heard anything form any of them... None of them do interviews and from the Results board it doesn't appear that any have released results, so I know I just need to chill.

Any word on NYU? I haven't heard anything....

thanks that's what i thought. i was doing completely fine with the whole waiting process up until this weekend. all of a sudden it's all i can think about! from looking at last year's results, it seems as though most of those schools don't send out acceptances until very late Feb at the earliest anyway. Penn looks like the only exception, if this year looks like last year, the first round of acceptances should be released in the next day or two...

Does anyone know if the following PoliSci Depts do interviews before accepting PhDs? Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, George Washington, NYU, Penn