MyUSofWhatever

It's not impossible. There are a ton of departments that have people doing Russian/post-Soviet studies in one form or another. My undergrad program, all of the programs I applied to and the program I am going to have at least one person studying Russia, including IR people. Instead of googling, go to department websites and look at faculty profiles, CVs, etc.

It depends on where in Maryland you live and what you'd consider a long bike ride. Silver Spring to CUA is not so bad and I found some studios/1 bedroom places for under $1200 there a year ago when I was looking (can't remember where, since Silver Spring is sort of amorphous). There's a trail - although north of CUA, it's mostly on-street riding, but nothing busy - that goes from Silver Spring through Northeast to Union Station http://www.metbranchtrail.com/. The one catch with the Metro Branch trail is that it runs through some sketchier neighborhoods; there was a cyclist attacked during the middle of rush hour a few weeks ago on the trail. I think you would most likely be fine during the day, but I wouldn't want to ride around there at night. You could always look south of CUA too, like somewhere off the Hill, by Navy Yard/Nats Park or Southwest. Those places are all on the Metro and only a 4-ish mile bike ride each way to CUA.

At the risk of generalizing from my personal experience, many people's "best" writing sample will be written on something they're interested in studying in grad school. If your interests have changed between your "best" work and your application, then as other people have said, you want to show that you can write well and think critically. Either way, I wouldn't get spun up trying to fit a writing sample to each of your schools - especially since fit is a fairly nebulous concept anyways.

While I say this without a firm grip on the value of a professional network vis a vis a program's pedigree, professors at Oxford and LSE will likely not have as strong of a network in the US as they will in Britain. It might not actively hurt you to not have this kind of network in the U.S. to tap into when looking for a job, but it puts you at a disadvantage when competing against candidates who do have a professor or professors who can call up friends in departments where you are applying for a job. It would also be interesting to know if/how often grad students or professors from British and other international universities attend conferences in the U.S.; I would imagine that the answer is 'not very often' because of the cost/time/distance to travel. Being an incoming grad student, I'm not sure whether a lot of concrete job offers - or the foundations for job offers - come from presenting or meeting people at conferences so maybe this is not a factor. Any current students or faculty care to comment? All that said, LSE and Oxford's reputations (and more importantly, the programs themselves!) are good enough, as other people have said, that you should not have to worry too much on that front. Plus, you clearly liked both programs enough to apply, so why not go for it? Getting waitlisted to over 25% of the top 20 means that you probably would get in somewhere in the U.S. if you try again, but 'probably' is a lot less certain than definitely having a couple of good offers in your hand now. Sounds like a hard choice either way, good luck!

When I visited in March, all the grad students said to stay away from the stadium/north side of campus since that's the undergrad neighborhood.

There are a couple different ways to look at this. Making connections with professors, both for advice and as possible recommenders, is an obvious plus. Plus, you'll hopefully have connections that could come in handy in the medium-to-long-term. The flip side to this, as was pointed out in a similar thread from last year-ish, is that you'll only be 3 months into the program by the time applications (and recommendations) are due. You would have to really hustle to get any meaningful recommendations by December, meaning that it might make sense to put off your re-applications to PhD programs until after you finish. If you don't think you need different recommendations, than this is less of a consideration. You'll also get the coursework and writing samples to bolster your resume.That will help your SOP since you'll be able to make more connections between your interests and other people's work/debates in the field. It will also help you either confirm that you want to go onto a PhD or to re-think whether you want to spend the next 5-6 years doing a PhD. For what it's worth, CIR does have a pretty good track record of placing people into good PhD programs, at least according to their website. Of course, that's all contingent on whether it works financially for you. It is only a year, so it's still cheaper than doing a two-year MA at a private university or is probably roughly equivalent at the in-state rate for a public school. It's a big investment, but even if doesn't lead to a PhD program afterwards, you'll go onto the job market with an MA from a really good and well-known school. That's my two cents, having not done an MA or knowing much more about CIR than what I've read on this forum and on their website. I was thinking about doing an MA after not getting in last year, but I'm a couple years out of college and decided that spending an extra year or two before re-applying meant that I would be starting a Phd program later than I wanted to. I re-applied this year, having only overhauled my SOP, and got in somewhere, so there is more than one way to skin that cat. Yikes, that's long - Ima stop typing now.

All else being equal, it's difficult to top Charlottesville as a location. The grad students I knew there seemed to like the program as well. If you want any other info about UVA (with the caveat that it may not be overly up-to-date), feel free to PM me.

Got rejected from GWU today. Getting in would've been nice, as I basically live down the street and the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods is pretty awesome. At any rate, assuming Texas finally gets around to telling me they've rejected me, that ends my application season, except for a couple MA programs I applied to as fall-back options. I'm pretty thrilled to have gotten in somewhere after striking out last year. Not having a choice between programs doesn't really bother me as I only applied to places I was excited about (and no, I am not claiming that this is an original strategy) and started this application cycle knowing that all I needed was one admit to come out successful. I hope everyone who is still waiting for their first acceptance or is on a wait-list hears good news soon. Similarly, to all of you fortunate enough to have choices, I wish y'all the best of luck making your decisions.

I applied to GWU and considered applying to Georgetown as well. As someone who grew up around DC and lives there now, I'd second the point that its biggest drawback is that it is a very expensive area to live. The only way to not get killed on rent is to live pretty far out in the 'burbs, and in that case you'll have to have a car and fight DC traffic. Even College Park is not dramatically less expensive. Still, all three programs you mentioned have good faculty, including in comparative, and offer a lot of opportunities not available elsewhere due to their location.

Also in at Indiana - I'm super excited. This is my second go-around and Indiana is actually the only school that I re-applied to from last year. Hope everyone gets good news soon!

I'd second this for Cornell and all of the other places I haven't heard from (Texas, Berkeley, don't think I've forgotten). If I have to hear a bunch of rejections in one day, then bring it - I'd rather rip off a band-aid than slowly peel it away. It should be a fireworks-filled day on the results page either way, so good luck to everyone.

Save some for me. It looks like we applied to some of the same schools actually, so good luck!

Congrats!

My guess is Thursday or Friday. That's based on the same historical results data you're referring to, however, so your guess is as good as mine

The real question is: would you rather receive someone else's rejection or someone else's acceptance?