CatallaxisOfEvil

Philosophy or Political Science, eh? I'd say neither. You sound like a History of Political Thought person to me. The best part? You could probably make yourself employable in history, political science/theory AND philosophy departments, if you balance your expertise right.

I hope you don't mind if I weigh in? I'm afraid that you've encountered one of the many emotionally stunted people who take refuge in academia. I'm sure your undergrad prof. is a fantastic thinker, researcher, teacher and all the rest of it. But many, many people stay at school for the shelter it provides, as much as for the intellectual opportunities it offers. It can be a bubble, and the bubble can preserve people in amber, emotionally. This man is one such case, I'd stake my life on it. He was disappointed that your mutual efforts would come to nothing, and he reacted like a child. It was unprofessional and unneccessary, even if he means the best for you. My only advice is that you should not allow him to infect you with his irrationalism. A PhD at Cornell would be a remarkable achievement and I think you must pursue it. Then go back to this guy in five or six years and tell him all about your real 'achievements of distinction'.

Clearly you should be applying for courses in philosophy, Ivyreject. Seriously, very good attitude. I will attempt to emulate.

From your lips to God's ears, my friend. But I'm not feeling too bad about it, been assuming rejections were on the way since I applied, basically. I think the most difficult thing at the moment is the idea that I'll have to go tell girlfriend/family/friends about it. I hate the 'disappointed sympathy' look. And I dislike trotting out the "it's a tough year to apply" line like it's an excuse. If we did this stuff in a vacuum or a bubble with no-one else's expectations to satisfy the whole thing would be a total breeze.

Whoa. Just got email rejection from NYU. Busy day... Go click 'refresh', friends.

Alternatively, read loudly from whatever journal you're currently looking at. Anything on indexing democracies should do the trick.

Ok, so at least I can stop wondering about Brown. And NYU should have rejected me by the start of next week...

I got a cryptic response from Brown, to the effect that yes, all acceptance calls are being made "around this time" and that we can look forward to formal letters toward the end of the month. So precisely nothing new there. If we hear nothing soon, then that's it.

Well, I weakened: I've written to Brown to ask whether they're done etc. I will let you all know if/when I get a reply.

It'd be nice if our colleagues who have been admitted would stand up and tell us all about it...

There's another Brown admit on the results database... this one was notified on the 26th! Starting to think that everyone who got in, got in last week...

Good grief.

That's a good question! I suspect that (unless it's a tiny, tiny intake this year - not beyond the realms of possibility...) Brown hasn't finished making its calls. They've done it over several days, traditionally. But I will say that if you haven't heard by... say... end of business Wednesday, then it's probably game over. Does that sound reasonable? Of course, it would be most helpful if the board's one confirmed Brown acceptee would step forward...

Looks like Brown has made its first phonecall... whoever that is on the results page, congratulations! Care to share the details?

BRANDEIS news: Hey folks - just in case anyone is interested, I just got through to Brandeis' politics department. I was told that they have "only just started" to review the applications there, and so we shouldn't be expecting any responses for a couple of weeks.

Mid-90s Britpop! So, Pulp: Different Class.

I don't think so. I think there will be another round, or at least a small number of people will be filtered in as people choose other colleges. I think we should only officially give up hope at the end of the month. Or when we're holding our rejections, whichever is sooner...

Perhaps this would be a good place for people to put down what they think worked/didn't work in their own personal statements? No specifics required... But I fear the worst for this cycle, and I'm slightly awed by the successes of others here!

I take your point - the 'messiah' of political science would still be taken on if the faculty had just been taken by a tornado, absolutely. But most of the conversation we're having on here revolves around the idea that there are too many perfectly capable and qualified candidates for each phd spot. Eventually, as someone said recently, they just have to choose; certainly whoever gets in might be all the better for the immense competition, but that doesn't rule out the fact that the next 30 people in line would have been creditable additions to the school as well. So it's in this context that I'm suggesting that it's false advertising and very bad practise to accept money for application processing and then announce that 'there won't be any matriculation this year'. All that said, I'm not aware of this having actually happened to anyone yet. Surely this board will be the first to find out if it does. But someone raised the possibility and it really does strike me as problematic.

I think there's a specific question that needs asking in cases where a school decides not to admit ANY grad students for a specific discipline. Isn't spending $50+ on an application fee on the assumption that there is at least a place to be filled something worth thinking about? Put it this way: Isn't failing to advertise the possibility that there will be no spots AT ALL indicative of... kind of... you know... evil? I have no problem with stiff competition, but there really ought to be an opportunity at the heart of it somewhere. Do such schools intend to refund people's application fees if they decide not to enroll anybody? I severely doubt it. And there's no way of refunding time, effort and heartache. So I sincerely hope the anonymous poster was wrong about this - I hope that all the schools we applied to at least admit one applicant. Otherwise this whole thing is a very expensive and unfunny joke.

Not absolutely sure yet, but my MSc thesis will probably be based on a critique of Gerry Mackie's 'Democracy Defended', relating Riker to a longer strand of liberal-democratic theorists in HPT and showing the distinction between historically reflexive and non-reflexive interpretations of democratic models to be the main point of divide. So not a defence of positive political theory, more 'Riker isn't anti-democratic' in the philosophical sense. And if I can throw in a few digs on Deliberation while I'm at it then that would be nice. Sorry, did I mention I was a theory guy?

Well, as a Brit, I'm going to wait to hear back from my US apps before taking the plunge with PhDs here. It's a very different system, and there's only a handful of political-scienceish programmes with decent funding opportunities. With this in mind, and seeing as I'm too late for the LSE (you need to submit by mid-january for a chance of funding there), I think that i'll probably end up trying for QMUL, Exeter, Essex and Bristol (possibly Manchester, possibly Cambridge). All of these are pretty great politics departments, and there are some specific people I'd love to work with in each one (which is kind of a prerequisite for PhD level study in the UK) These places have reasonably late deadlines and a number of college-based funding opportunities, as well as two or three council-funded studentships each year as well.

It'll come down to the strength of your recommender's letters and how strong your own personal statement is. They'll need to kick ass to outweigh your GPA, which on its own isn't enough to recommend you for research work or graduate level study. But you have very impressive GRE results, which should get your application looked at carefully just about anywhere. Your 'real world' experience should also serve you well, depending on the disposition of the admissions committee. So add in decent SOP and letters (and, these days, a bucketful of luck) and I would be very surprised if you didn't get in to one of those at least. Good luck!

Perhaps another wave of NYU decisions? Or are we doomed to wait til March? Also, I'd be quite surprised if Brandeis didn't start talking this week.

I'm with you, poststructuralist, on the Schumpeter! Democratic/constitutional theory in general is my bag. Also interested in 18th-19th Century HPT, and ideas of modernity in politics. I'm currently writing on Hayek, Locke, and my MSc thesis will probably be a critique of Gerry Mackie.