JordanJames

You are the only other person I know who has applied to UCR. Did you by any chance get that letter they sent out to people who took the GRE and are interested in Poli Sci? After getting the letter, I checked out their website and ended up really liking what I saw. The assistant at UCR told me that they don't usually make decisions until March when I called before turning in my application, so I'm not holding my breath waiting to hear back from them. I didn't apply to any of the other schools on your list (I wish UCSB had professors in my area of interest). Good luck

It's probably with the committee, and they probably really don't have an answer for you. Now, if they had said something like your admissions decision has been mailed to you or will be mailed to you shortly, then I would tell you you've probably been rejected. But it just sounds like they haven't made their decision yet.

Thanks, that actually makes me feel a little bit better. Ilinois was one of those schools with one professor kind of doing the research I would like to do, and the rest of the department no where near my interests. Still, it's hard not to take it personally, and even harder not to freak out when you get rejected so early on from a school you thought you would at least be competitive at. By the way, congrats on the Illinois acceptance (and also the big time recruiting class for the Tide).

If a school called me right now and said you're accepted so long as you let a bird shit on your head, I wouldn't even think twice about it. Hell, I'd even open my mouth if that's what they want. It's 1:30 am, I'm reading posts I've read 800 times and thinking about all of the mistakes I've made in my life that have put me in this terrible situation where I have no idea if I'll be accepted anywhere at all. I'll probably be online for another 3 or 4 hours deconstructing every part of my application and convincing myself that there is no way anybody will give me a chance. What's a little bird shit on the head compared to that?

It's official, rejected at Illinois. I was a bad fit at their program anyways, but seeing as how they were one of my lower middle/safety schools, I'm pretty sure I'm not getting in anywhere. Well I guess it's time to grow up and actually start using my law degree, blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.

Do PhD programs at state schools have different admissions standards, funding considerations and processes for residents of the state than they do for those who are applying from other states? I saw on Florida State's website that Florida residents may get additional funding, and I was wondering whether that is common, and whether there are other things that may be affected by a person's residency.

Good recommendations, they'll definently find their way into my rotation. I'm very embarrassed to admit this, but today I listened to Stereophonics and found them to be a lot more soothing than Nirvana. So I think from now on I'll be giving myself a heavy dose of them and the Beatles (only McCartney songs, and maybe Here Comes the Sun). Lennon and Harrison tend to depress me, which I usually actually enjoy, but at the moment I think I should stay away from self actualization.

I've noticed that I've been listening to a lot more Nirvana since finishing my applications. For those of you who are looking for something to do while "waiting it out," I don't recommend listening to Nirvana. It might be hard to believe, but Kurt Cobain isn't that good at lifting a person's spirits.

I think you'll have better luck posting this on the Government Affairs forum. Most of the applied politics (PP and PA) are posting there I think. Good luck!!!

I haven't heard anything. I'm assuming that since an acceptance and waitlist email has been sent out to you guys, that I should be getting a rejection letter in the mail any day now.

Did anyone get accepted or rejected by Illinois? If you did, how did you find out? I'm almost ready to assume that Illinois has rejected me, and the letter is on its way to my house. As you can tell, I'm a very positive guy. Flyingwalrus, I'm sorry to hear about you being waitlisted by Illinois and rejected by Ohio State, but congrats on UNC. I haven't heard from anyone and it's honestly driving me crazy. If any school outside of my deep safety would offer me a spot right now if I were to withdraw all of my other applications, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Genius lives, but not all geniuses are the best applicants, and not all professors can recognize it. So, while they may not be superstar applicants, it's possible that one of the geniuses is a regular on this board or reads these posts. But you're right, while we're stressing, there are a few people out there who have Harvard and Princeton fighting over them. Anyways, the vast majority of us aren't competing with the Rhodes Scholar or John Nash for a spot in a program, we're competing with Mr. and Ms. Cum Laude for those precious last spots at those schools (if we're even applying to those schools).

I called Illinois today to see when they were expecting to notify admitted applicants and the assistant told me that the committee was meeting right now. The thought of them going over my application scared the hell out of me. Anyways, I just wanted to give everybody the heads up. Good luck!!!

False alarm. They did send out that email, but my application is complete and under review.

I read a post on a website where a person said he received an email from Illinois (supposedly sent out to all applicants) that said applications were going to begin being reviewed in late January. I never received the email, and now I'm worried that something in my application is missing. I contacted the Admissions office, and the assistant said that she was having trouble getting into the system and can't check on my application right now. Did those of you who applied to Illinois get this email?

Sorry, I didn't read the last line. I'm glad your father is fine.

Congrats Sevenleagueboot, I was one of the people who argued in favor of the GREs, but I don't want my perspective to be misconstrued by anyone. I'm sorry that I and posters like me may have bummed you out. I'm sure that when a person gets strong LoRs and meets the minimum GRE and GPA requirements, they have a good shot at being accepted at good schools. My personal point of view is that the GRE is useful, but it certainly isn't everything. In the end, we all have to remember that most of us are merely applicants and not admissions committee members and do not know exactly what will get us into graduate programs and what will keep us out. By the way, I'm insanely jealous of you right now and feel like I'm going to suffocate if I don't get a (positive) response from a school soon. Again, Congrats!!!! P.S. I hope your father is fine now.

The problem with my personal statement was bothering me so much, I couldn't just let it go. I decided to email the Graduate Director and ask him questions about the program while subtely slipping in the fact that the professor named in my personal statement is not at the program. Our email exchange was productive, and I feel it helped. It was a risk, but I figured it was a risk that needed to be taken. By the way, if anybody who reads this applies to a political science PhD program in the future, do mention the methodology by which you wish to conduct your research and not just your substantive interests. I've now talked to 3 Grad Directors who discussed the importance of explicitly stating your methodological goals in the SoP.

Totally off subject. Never underestimate the power of secretaries.

Sarah, that's sad, but I'm absolutely pathetic. Ever since all of my applications have been completed, I've spent the majority of my time refreshing this board to see if anyone has posted anything, refreshing my inbox, and looking for schools whose application deadline has not past. Does anyone else have an overwhelming desire to apply to more schools?

You're right, I certainly didn't have the money to take classes or buy the books (ok, I could have bought the books, but I needed beer money). I just used the free resources and took the test. But as with pretty much everything else, establishing a level playing field is extremely difficult. Money also effects what school a person attends or how well they do in school. For example, I entered a pretty good undergrad as a freshman but had to leave due to financial problems. Don't take that as me complaining though, because I have it way better than most people. So money doesn't just influence GRE scores, it influences the whole process. All in all, life is unfair, but I find the GRE to be more objective than GPA. The LORs should probably be the most important part of the application. By the way, I didn't mean to be rude, I just come off that way sometimes. For the engineer, I agree. For engineers, mathematicians and most scientists the GRE is useless. But, I do think it is useful when evaluating prospective students in the social sciences and humanities.

1. Having a good GRE score isn't a problem, thus that can't be Mr. (or Ms.) I Love the GRE's problem 2. Nobody is saying that having a good GRE score makes you neccesarily better than others. It's not perfect, but it's a somewhat useful tool in determining an applicant's abilities 3. Would you prefer that there be no standardized measure to evaluate students? 4. How do people know their overall percentile on the GRE? 5. If GRE scores are meaningless, why did you feel the need to drop your percentile? Saying you taught Kaplan courses would have been enough to support your argument. P.S. There are plenty of people who scored higher than me on the GRE. I did well, but I definently did not "rock the GRE." It just seems reasonable to me that there be some objectivity in the admissions process.

Brandeis Illinois Indiana Harvard Georgetown Northwestern UC - Riverside WashU Field: Comparative Politics (Middle East) Interests: Islamic law, panarbist socialism and democratization (also comparative corporate governance and comparative constitutional law)

Canadian- I heard that for a lot of poli sci programs, the quant is more important to them than the verbal. True or not.

Thanks for the advise everybody. I woke up today and was about to email the Grad Director, but the consensus reached that I should not contact him convinced me not to. At Brandeis, I'm interested in working with Jytte Klausen. I actually don't know anything about Brandeis that doesn't relate to its poli sci program, its location, or its history (the whole Einstein U problem). So if there is something I should know about the professor or the school, your info would be appreciated.