ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid

I haven't come across anyone saying that they applied there. Their funding is ridiculous though so whoever goes there will live like a king while a grad student.

Oh, and mind sharing your stats and interests?

Well the history of people on this forum saying they're contacted for the same thing consistently suggests it to be an admittance phone call. I'm going to jump the gun and say congrats

If it's Penn State (which I am assuming it is) that basically means you're accepted

Oh, how I loathe thinking about my student loans.

Looks like CUNY denials are going out right now

Princeton, Univ. of Chicago, Penn, NYU, UT-Austin, Penn State, Yale, UCR, UCI, UCSD, Purdue, Notre Dame, UC Boulder, Univ. Washington

Where else did you apply?

I missed UIC because I waited til a day before the deadline to apply only to find out all their crap had to be mailed in including LOR's. I said screw it.

What are your interests and POI?

Ya one conversation I had with a particular POI ended up with multiple e-mails back and forth. He also sent me articles he has published and chapters out of one of his books that were right up my ally. He also forwarded our conversation to the graduate chair and then I had a few emails with him. Another POI I have I met at ASA and is a friend of the professor I published with. I've exchanged a few emails with him. And the third person that I had multiple e-mails with is a top 10 university and she was engaged in the convo but it wasn't like the other two. She basically told me my research was interesting, we'd be a good fit, asked where all I was applying stuff like that and said that when the time came that a POI's suggestion to the adcomm could be helpful at times. I strongly suggest going to the ASA. It takes a lot of effort to meet people. I went without knowing a single person and started up some convos with professors and went to some receptions. In fact, I went to a ton of receptions. I'm convinced 70% of the ASA is just professors just drinking with old buddies and playing catch up. 20% is schmoozing and 10% is actually presenting research. I met some current graduate students and have kept in touch with one in particular who had similar interests to mine as well. I wish I had the money to go to the one this summer.

This seems like a good strategy to get a response too (asking for suggestions on graduate students that might have similar interests)

Oh, and if you have the money, go to the ASA this summer. You have plenty of time to create some POI's and then attend where they present and have a short conversation afterwards. You would be surprised how much this could help.

How to contact them? Dear ______, I am applying to graduate school (season) and was looking into (____ university) and came across your faculty page. I have looked into your research interests and have read (_____ if you have read a publication of theirs) and feel that we would have a good research fit. My research interests are _______, ______, ______, and ______. (go into some detail here, don't just say political soc, religion, social movements, etc.) I was wondering if 1) you were accepting students to work with ____ (the season e.g. fall 2012) and 2) if you feel that my research interests align well with yours. Thanks a lot, _______ I used that format and got replies 9/10 times. Some people gave really apathetic responses but with others it created really good dialogue afterwards.

I was going to do 5 top 5 high average and 5 average but when the applications actually came I did with what you were saying you wish you had. I put in a majority of applications at schools that are high ranked that I didn't really think I had much of a chance at. Reflecting upon it, I kind of wish I put in a few more applications at places I had the "they'd have to be crazy to reject me" kind of fit. I would have liked to have a few schools to weigh against each other when trying to choose where to commit to (assuming I get any acceptances at all that is).

I saw a new R post (a rejection). Anyone here?

That's how my Princeton felt and probably my University of Chicago too.

I really wish my interests were better represented at LA. I wanted to apply there so badly but felt even if I had the worlds best stats I would have been rejected off of fit anyways. ucla has an awesome awesome campus. UCLA fun fact: the campus used for the movie Old School is UCLA.

I feel like UCLA is more like a Berkeley and not lumped into the R, I, SC, SD category but more with the other top 10 programs across the country. I feel like the four of these programs are pretty similar with small variations in rankings and are lumped into the same breath with one another, not so much with Cal or LA.

Figured I would start a thread we could discuss the UC's, specifically UCSC, UCI, UCR, UCSD (Berkeley has it's own already). I think it would be interesting to compare acceptances/rejections and funding between the schools.

Rejected by Princeton. No surprise there

Great idea for a thread. Can you keep updating the main post with the various dates so it remains a central location? Notre Dame is February 16-18

You should also make a second e-mail account and send some test e-mails to your primary account. Ya know, just in case....

Culture and Theory, Isaac Reed

I did but I would be really surprised if they accept me. There's only one professor in the department I'm really wanting to work with and he's the outlier to the departments specializations.