Eudaimonia

Just turned down a very well-funded offer from Penn.

Not entirely true. I'm doing an honors thesis in an unusual topic that no one at my university is an expert on and was able to put together a committee of people related to the topic in only a very general way (and this involved reaching into the law school faculty). You *can* develop research interests independent of the faculty specializations at your institution.

Brandeis: $20,400 x 5 years Penn: $23,700 x 5 years + $3,915 x 3 summers

I think history & econ can make a great background for polisci. If you've never taken a class in this area, or haven't in a long while, maybe read an introductory textbook on IR or International Politics to familiarize yourself with the terminology, etc. Show your knowledge in your SoP. If you can, perhaps try to do something to show your dedication to the field, like maybe working as a research assistant (this could also get you an LoR from someone in the field, which helps). This isn't my subfield so I'm afraid I can't be of much help... good luck!

Great topic, wordshadow! A nice article on this: http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS293/articles/smith.pdf I'm definitely inclined towards the qualitative side of this discussion, although of course both methods are important. I believe the name for rebellion against the current quantitative trend in political science is called "Perestroika" --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perestroika_Movement_(political_science) I'm not sure how much success it is having and would love to hear more about the current state of the debate.

Not in particular, but then I do Theory.

Claiming a Brandeis admit. Really nice letter from POI.

Not a single other person on here for UVA or Penn? Really? Wow. *edited for typo

Oh my, that is incredibly nice! Now I wish I'd applied there.

Weird request perhaps, but as I didn't apply to Berkeley and this is apparently the world's most courteous rejection letter, could someone post a sample of it? I'm really curious :-) Most of my rejections were quite bland...

Cool website. Bookmarking.

Grantman & meep -- Awwwwww! So cute. Especially the Shiba Inu puppy. Thanks, both of you!

Congrats! Subfield?

This is moving. Hang in there, grantman! You'll be a prolific scholar too! Also: Congrats to the Georgetown acceptances! What are your subfields? (It seems mostly IR?)

Congrats, Ironheel!!! Oregon is so beautiful: