innervisions

Can somebody claim the Duke acceptance? I had an interview with them but it didn't go that great. They liked my proposal but I fumbled through some answers to questions and I didn't get great body language at the end. Would like to be able to cross this off my list I guess if it's not gonna work out.

I'm really not sure why this is standard practice. Don't academics have better things to do than listen to the half-baked research proposals of prospective graduate students who likely won't be admitted to their departments? I would never bother with this if I were a faculty member. There's an application process for a reason! Maybe I'm the crazy one though.

This advice seems exclusive to applicants with MAs. I don't think applicants out of undergrad are expected to namedrop dozens of contemporary academics and demonstrate in-depth understandings of the contemporary politics of subfields that interest them. You of course have to read some work by POIs and frame your interests in a way that demonstrates fit with a program, but you also have to demonstrate individual intellectual ability/development/vision. PhD programs are professional development programs - I don't think committees expect (or even want) people to arrive pre-professionalized.