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Illinois Poli Sci PhD Applicants


JordanJames

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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?

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This whole thing is so screwy, that someone gets accepted to UNC and gets waitlisted at UIUC doesn't make any sense...

It seems a bit odd, but there is a rather large random factor in graduate admissions. The IL committee might not have liked me as much as UNC's. It's also possible that UIUC wasn't looking for (as many?) people in my subfield this year. Lots of possibilities.

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I checked the application page just in case they worked like Yale, but they do not.

I actually did hear something from them, though, hilariously enough--I got a letter complaining that my FAFSA information did not match up with my transcript records. I went to UIUC for my undergraduate degree, and enrolled under the shortened version of my name, rather than my full name. This never caused any problems until this graduate applications cycle. But oh boy, has it ever caused problems.

On the plus side, if the rejections already went out, surely they would not need me to correct my name on my transcripts just to reject me? Or maybe they are cruel like that.

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I never received that initial email, but I was admitted via email on 1/31. My subfield is American politics with concentrations in survey research and methods.

Various professors have emailed. Seems like a great faculty!

I have received major outreach from the IR faculty as well. They were not my first choice school, but I am VERY impressed with them so far and their interest will weigh heavily in my decision making...

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My undergraduate degree is from UIUC. Here is everything you need to know before a visit:

* The Courier Cafe has the best milkshakes on the planet

* The university basically runs the entire town

* By my rough calculations, the student body is 50% more attractive than at the average institution

* No matter how well the story is told, the guy who needs money for gas to get back to Rockford never actually needs gas, and likely is not even from Rockford.

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My undergraduate degree is from UIUC. Here is everything you need to know before a visit:

* The Courier Cafe has the best milkshakes on the planet

* The university basically runs the entire town

* By my rough calculations, the student body is 50% more attractive than at the average institution

* No matter how well the story is told, the guy who needs money for gas to get back to Rockford never actually needs gas, and likely is not even from Rockford.

Excellent advice, but what I really need to know is who makes the best coffee in town?

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* By my rough calculations, the student body is 50% more attractive than at the average institution

My brother goes to U of I, and I agree 100%. That lucky bastard, most of the people in my freshman dorm looked like they'd been force fed butter for 18 years.

tidefan, McDs has the best coffee anywhere, so long as you drink the coffee with a McGriddle (the greatest idea since coitus interruptus).

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My brother goes to U of I, and I agree 100%. That lucky bastard, most of the people in my freshman dorm looked like they'd been force fed butter for 18 years.

tidefan, McDs has the best coffee anywhere, so long as you drink the coffee with a McGriddle (the greatest idea since coitus interruptus).

Not to be rude, but if you think that McDonalds has the best coffee anywhere, you seriously need to get out more...

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Excellent advice, but what I really need to know is who makes the best coffee in town?

You know, that is actually a good question. To hopefully divert an enormous coffee-fight between my best buds in the UIUC thread, I will start throwing out bunches of random names of places that may or may not actually even serve coffee, to try to distract you.

I am a huge fan of sugar and cream with some coffee flavor thrown in for good measure, so what I consider to be good coffee is likely irrelevant anyway. But I do know my friends have sung the praises of Cafe Kopi (their webpage has drinks broken down into "coffee" and "not coffee"), and I always thought that the two competing places next to the Canopy Club, Espresso Royale (regional chain, though) and The Bread Company, had great hot chocolate and cappuccino. Plus, the Bread Company has fondue.

Of course, none of the places I mentioned are actually in the "main drag" off Green Street by the quad. In that area, Moonstruck Chocolate Bar has fantastic coffee-hot chocolate mixes, but I am not sure about the pure coffee.

The best part is that you likely were not totally serious in asking. But I sure do like typing.

My brother goes to U of I, and I agree 100%. That lucky bastard, most of the people in my freshman dorm looked like they'd been force fed butter for 18 years.

You truly have a gift for prose.

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The best part is that you likely were not totally serious in asking. But I sure do like typing.

You truly have a gift for prose.

You are wrong, I was totally serious in asking. I am a coffee house junkie, spent most of my previous graduate career living in coffee shops across D.C. I can tell you where at least 30 places to get a good cup of coffee in the district, not counting the requisite three starbucks per block.

Thanks for the input on UI places though. I will probably check them out when I visit in March.

Oh, and just to clear things up, I do like Mickey D's coffee, but breaking out a laptop and books in mcdonalds is not what I call an environment condusive to production...

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  • 1 month later...

So I got back from my trip to UIUC a couple of days ago and I wanted to share some thoughts. One, the 400 miles of cornfields in every direction was staggering. Second, the fact that there is this little city stuck out in the middle of those cornfields is pretty crazy. I was actually surprised how urban the campus feels, esp. when compared to the schools in the south. I did go at a really crappy time of year, everything was still dead from the winter, but the pictures I saw of the campus in spring and fall looked beautiful. Also, as someone from the SEC, the quaintness of memorial stadium was amusing, in fact I drove right past it the first night I was there and never noticed. Kind of hard to do that with Bryant-Denny and its 95k seats.

The faculty was extremely happy to have me there. They were energetic, engaging, and very impressive. I will seriously consider going there.

Oh, and the food. The food was AMAZING. There is a greek restaurant called Papa George's that has the best lamb I have ever had, didn't even know that it could taste like that. And an even better place called Alexander's, where you cook your own steak in the middle of the restaurant, was KILLER. The most tender beef I have ever had. I could eat there every day. Everyone told me that the beef in the midwest was the best in the world, I sure believe it now.

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