IRToni

Ok, first: My Plan B would be to go work in China for 2 years. I'd be interested in doing Chamber of commerce type of things, working for a company, doing business consulting and/or working for a think tank/ foundation, not necessarily in that order.. At the same time, I would try to get some of my papers published, raise my Mandarin level to completely fluent, possibly take some more Econ classes etc. to make myself more competitive, I think. I def. need a contingency plan to not go completely crazy... I just started a spreadsheet with historical decision times (GC) of the schools I applied to in a moment of utter desparation. I was quite surprised how late some of those were. Which professor? Historically, UCSD sent out decisions around the 9th of February... Last year, though, they sent out rejections first!

That's what I figured. I had my sample and CV in LaTeX anyway, so didn't wanna change it. I actually once got a bonus for using LaTeX, for one of my papers, though, for what it's worth!

I wrote my SOP with both LaTeX and word, and decided to submit the word version... All my Writing Samples, and my CV are LaTeX, though. I tend to not use LaTeX for smaller documents anyway, so it made more sense, and made me feel more comfortable and less like I was trying to show off. I don't think it will affect your application much, honestly.

Pretty much all my UK schools were a really bad experience. Not only did they only send out the requests for LoRs after you had submitted your application, they also didn't tell me about it, so my LoR writers asked me about the requests. Many also had two "systems", where I had to submit the supporting documents separately. The follow-up is also often separate, including different log-in details. One school that used a good system (embark) wasn't able to match the documents for some reason (including LoR)... I ended up having to email/call back and forth all the schools at one point or another.

Maybe people realized that most of us won't be hearing back this week in all likelihood, so everyone's off trying to distract themselves from the misery that is waiting... Or yesterday was an anomaly because of all the troll posts?

I'm guessing at this point, there will be a couple that professors absolutely want, and a couple where something doesn't quite fit. The rest might be just up for grabs (e.g. we had someone doing this just graduate, so we could use him/her; or: we have one person with similar interests in first year, so don't need person X?).

Stanford has better weather, so maybe their yield is higher?^^ Guess Stanford's will be closer to 40 then, since princeton and Stanford are kind of peer competitors. I'm guessing there will be some people with offers from more than one HYPS school, and then there will be the odd person turning down a HYPS school for other programs (better fit? I think Rochester sometimes got people that turned down HYPS, possibly other top-5 schools), so 50% might not be that far off.

That's the question! Numerically, it might make sense for them to cut down to 80 and then to 40, but 40 for a class of 20 means 50% yield. Do we have any numbers? Wasn't there a spreadsheet going around a couple years ago?

Do we know Stanford's class size? This year's cohort had 18, the year before 21. I'm guessing they make roughly 25 offers then, and put 5 on the waitlist?

One of the reasons I did not apply to Wisconsin (aside from my PoI having retired just last year) was their low stipend, honestly...

Sorry to hear you're unwell! Did you look into what it would cost to have that surgery done in Singapore or a similar country? Not only does it seem quite complicated to get health insurance in the US, and possibly be very time-consuming, I am honestly not a fan of people buying health insurance only for that one surgery/operation, because I think it's unfair, and, if everyone did this, the health care system would be completely unsustainable. I studied in China for a while, and had to buy Chinese insurance, but also had insurance from my home country (for coverage in China and at home), bc Chinese basic insurance sucks. Maybe this would be an option for you (in the future at least). Plans like scorestudies aren't too expensive if you're a student. Hope you'll find a way, and (as a non-American), I do hope this experience will help you make (IMO) better choices in the future regarding health care.

I wouldn't pay for my PhD, but I would also say that the UK is different from the US. In the UK, them not funding you is not necessarily a sign that they don't have faith in you, it might just be that they actually don't have the money etc. I would say it's not worth it going into debt for a PhD, especially if your goal is to stay in academia.

Wish I had applied to OSU, just so I could have some idea of what one of my schools is doing. You've been amazing, BFB. Unfortunately, no POI at OSU for my interests :-(...

Congrats to everyone who heard already, and especially to cautiously! In my last cycle, after I had gotten my first acceptance, I was able to be much more chill about the other schools. Started freaking out again when it came to making a decision, but... that's months away. It probably is, at this point. Might change later, however!

My Michigan app doesn't even have a status, complete or otherwise... I'm hoping for an offer from Princeton PE, although they sent out offers in February last year, I think! I'm not the biggest fan of German soccer/football, but also assume you like Bayern München? In Germany, a lot of people just think that they have too much money to compete on an even playing field with all the other teams, so utside of Bavaria, you won't find many fans. Hating Bayern München is definitely its own reward in Germany^^.

I have an "Against all odds" story from my last cycle, two years ago, when I exclusively applied to MA programs: Among others, I was applying to a reputable UK school for their 2-year MA program. This school required two short academic writing samples as part of the application process. I was pretty naive, and misread the instructions (it said: ... words max. without references), so I submitted two essays without any references whatsoever. I did add, in a footnote, that all the references (except direct quotes) had been deleted... I went back and reread the instructions a month after (don't remember why), and I realized that they likely meant that the wordcount did not include the references. But, at that point, it was too late to change anything, so I had resigned myself to not getting accepted.... Long story short, I ended up getting in! Didn't attend, but it still was a WTF moment for me!

I uploaded pdfs (in Adobe X), and they seemed fine! You can take a look at the preview, if you're in doubt.

Love Orphan Black and sherlock, will start House of Cards today, wanted to wait for my apps to be completely done (UK schools with later deadlines), and since today is also my birthday, I'm hoping it will be really good. I also haven't watched Sherlock S3 yet, something else to look forward to! What I'm the most terrified of is having to tell my recommenders who really went the extra mile that I did not get accepted anywhere... Hoping I won't have to do that!

I would definitely say that the proof-writing advice is great. Having done a minor in math in college, I can definitely say that proof-writing has helped me also in my non-math studies. However, if you're planning on doing public policy and especially statistics, actually learning stats might be more useful for you (in terms of opportunity costs). While my econometrics class included a lot of proof-writing, the applied part (using a statistical software) was actually what I found extremely useful. Of course, knowing the assumptions that need to be fulfilled (true) is necessary, but assuming you haven't done much beyond linear regression/OLS in stats, this might be more useful than proof-writing as such. There are tons of online (free) courses available that could also teach you R, it would only depend on you being able to get yourself motivated, I think. I wouldn't say it's necessary, though. Whatever you do know might only make the first couple of weeks/months of classes in your PhD program easier, but probably won't make or break it, as you seem to have had quite some exposure to quant stuff in the past. I'd also think of the opportunity cost, because, assuming you'll get in, you'll be spending a lot of time doing school-related stuff from September onwards, so focusing on some private project that you won't have time to then might be more cost-effective. I will say that I think learning R would be worth-while for me, and I am thinking of taking a course/teaching myself before the PhD.

How about looking into MPPs? The Government Affairs Forum on gradcafe might be a good place to start!

It seems like there's roughly an even split, possibly with more people wishing to work in analyst-type positions than going on to do a PhD directly. In my class of 19, I know of 5 that for sure wanna do a PhD, 4 that know for sure they don't want to do one, and the rest is considering it. In theory, IR/PS is supposed to prepare you for more research-oriented careers than MIA, but of those people not wishing to do a PhD, many are going in the same/similar direction as the MIA people.

Being a German myself, I know that there are people with German doctorates in US institutions as well. I'm sure it's easier with a US PhD, but it's definitely possible, I would say.

IR/PS 2nd year

I had a very similar situation happen to me. Went to Prof's office hours, she said she'd write me a LoR, and that I don't have to tell her each time, bc she had written me one twice before. Then, when I sent her the material, entered her in the online systems etc., she couldn't remember, and said she was too busy. I immediately searched another LoR writer (and found one luckily), and took the blame. Wrote her an email back apologizing for the confusion, explaining why I had a different impression than she did etc. I'm hoping it won't leave a lasting, negative impression of me with her, as I actually really liked her etc. The other LoR writer has also been great, extremely on top of things, super nice etc., so it all worked out. I would say that you'll just have to roll with it. Trying to get prof A to write you a letter now will only reflect negatively on you, and even if she does agree, it likely won't be positive. DO you have another professor you could ask?

Congrats, morocca. If you have questions about the program, don't hesitate to ask!