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bauhaus

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    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    Maybe it s just my trip as a "methodologist" but isn t it a too strong assumption that the notifications that are posted on gradcafé actually represent

    the true population well? I mean, if stanford accepts say twenty people on average and last year ten people posted acceptances and this year four,

    what can we seriously derive from that? actually i don t have a clue what might be the proportion of applicants that post their results on this site, though i am sure that acceptances are overrepresented as compared to rejects.

    not that its all that important, but still...

    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    Damn, well looks like I'm out at NYU. Hope better news is coming on the PhD front. Deep congratulations all around to those who have been successful this season.

    Do you guys agree that there is absolutily no chance of getting into NYU from now on? What i wondered about is

    that i did not find any "waitlisted" in the results page from prevous years. I am devastated as that was my dream

    school with dozens of POI-s...

    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    I got this mail from Duke:

    "The first round of admission offers has been made.  Because we fund all of our Ph.D. students, we are unable to offer admission to every top candidate.   Your application is on “hold”.  That means we are very interested in you, but extending an offer of admission depends upon the matriculation rate of the first round offers.  I know it is difficult to wait, but we didn’t want to deny admission to you if there was any chance we could possibly have enough funding to make an offer.  I’m sorry I can’t be any more enlightening. "

    So thats waitlist, right?

    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    That was not at all the intention of my response, as I definitely didn't read that in yours. My opinion, and this has always been my opinion of standardized tests, is that IF you consider all other aspects of an application, the GRE score should be mostly irrelevent. I think this would be true if adcoms could fully and deeply read every application, but they can't. I think it's too bad that the GRE sometimes eliminates candidates completely (or mostly) from consideration, who might have been competetive except for low scores. I get that this is how it has to be for the moment, though.

    Initially, this was about whether the GRE was unfair for international students, and I think that it is. I think that the GRE is unfair in general, but I accept that it is a reality as I said previously. What I also think, however, is that for international students there is an even greater likelihood that the GRE will underrepresent their actual abilities, and therefor it provides a somewhat unfair disadvantage for those applicants. Maybe I'm wrong though. I'm not a non-native English speaker, and many of the non-natives on this thread seem to find the test completely fair to them. They are probably really much better judges of this than I am.

    Allright,

    sorry for getting stuck with this, but the schools i applied to are not making any progress as it seems. So.

    My problem with using the GRE Verbal as ANY kind of criterium is that it measure entirely different abilities across natives and non-natives.

    I am kinda ok with speaking and writing in English (and guess I d be pretty much ok after 5 years of grad study in the US) but learning hundreds

    of word that you d learn at some point anyway seemed pointless. I think native speakers would be a bit more symphatetic if they we re to

    learn the kind of "GRE-words" in another language.

    As for the interview: I am scared because i graduated from an international school in the summer and since then I had no opportunity to

    speak English daily. Thats why i feel uncomfortable with the scenario that i ll need to convince faculty members that i am cool.

    My point is that the "language skills" needed for an academic job (like talking eloquently in a stressful situation) are very easy during

    grad studies in the US and very hard before it.

    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    I am sorry but this is just silly. You sat the GRE to apply to US universities but for some strange reason think they are not entitled to expect you to speak the language they work in. If you were applying to Japan you would need to speak Japanese so why does the USA get special treatment?? Victims of their own success?? I am sure there are universities that teach in your native language so there is nobody forcing you to study in the US, its your choice!!

    Allright,

    What i mean is that

    a. A GRE V score measures your English vocab. I don t think it has much to do with your intelligence/research potential (above a certain point), on the other hand it gives a very hard time to someone not native. Learning to speak in English also gives a hard time, but it makes sense. In my opinion GRE V doesnt.

    b. I would assume that an interview is much more stressful for a non-native, hence for these people it s harder to convince schools of their strengths.

    I totally agree with you: of course you are unable to be successful in grad school if you re not able to express yourself. What i am saying is that in an interview/GRE Verbal even quite subtle differences in language skills may lead to very different outcomes.

    anyway, i am probably bitching simply because i am anxious about the whole process:)

    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    Well, well,

    Personaly, I feel that an interview would scare the shit out of me. And a reason for that is that

    even though every grad school states that they would not dicriminate people who are not native

    English speakers it d be impossible in case of an interview.

    I was already pissed off with the GRE verbal (which IS discriminating) and a SOP obviously also

    takes a hell of more time to write for a non-native, but now I am seriously frightened. Sorry for bitching

    but those from US & UK can imagine what d it be like to respond under extreme stress in thier 2nd language...

    Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    I got an automatic email from Duke today saying that

    "this message will be sent on a regular basis, whether your application is complete or not, until you have received a final decision on your application. If you have already received

    an admissions decision letter from Duke University Graduate School, please disregard this message" and then it list the application materials they ve recieved. what is that supposed to mean?

    btw how can you check ones stats on the results page?

    g

    Post-deadline publication

    in Political Science Forum

    Posted

    Dear all,

    I have a ridiculous problem. I have just applied to a couple of pol sci phd-s. At the time of the application

    i already had a revise & resubmit at electoral studies. Now after the deadlines have passed I got an email that my

    paper is accepted for publication. Do you think there s any way to let the adcoms know about this?

    Cheers,

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