2018-2019 Application Thread

[dvxyzijil]

2 minutes ago, taraeh said:

Of course, if you are colleagues who work together regularly that is fine. I assume this person has never met the professor and is hoping to start off on the right foot. I am a current graduate student at Columbia and with faculty, first name basis must be earned or used only when expressly given permission. 

These professors don't owe you anything and although this is not undergrad anymore, being a graduate students doesn't change your student status. You will be working for them and learning from them. For now, be safe and treat them like your boss.  If they come back with "please call me ___" then great. Until then, do yourself a favor and call them the title they have worked really hard to earn.

Again... I have a lot of work experience in some very big organizations (think tanks, academia, IGO, etc) and it has been my experience that calling anybody by their first name, especially in this capacity, is deeply disrespectful. 

Good to know that some departments really do have a strong norm of using titles. I had thought that might be the case, and it’s nice to get confirmation. 

Play it by ear, everyone.

[upsy]

My thoughts are mostly in line with Taraeh's, though I might be somewhat less stringent. For an initial contact, from a prospective grad student to a professor, undoubtedly. use Prof. [Last name]. If you're reaching out to an administrator, then Mr./Ms. (though I would look up the person to see if they have a doctorate, many in academia do, and if so, use Dr.). But, I wouldn't go as far as Taraeh in saying that first name usage needs to be "earned." Oftentimes, the professor in question will sign his/her response with just a first name. That, in my experience and understanding of norms, is a signal to begin using the first name.

[humanpinata]

Got four rejections in 24 hours.... Lol that's what I get for being impatient about decisions (1a/6r/0w/3p)

Edited February 9, 2019 by humanpinata

[VoidFish]

Nvm

Edited February 9, 2019 by VoidFish

[trinityshot]

7 minutes ago, humanpinata said:

Got four rejections in 24 hours.... Lol that's what I get for being impatient about decisions (1a/6r/0w/3p)

Sending good vibes for those last 3. Here is my cat in a cone of shame for your enjoyment  

 

[mackeycold]

Does anyone know anything about the quality/strength (s) of Rice's program? And damn it, TAMU and UC Davis are dragging their feet! 

[humanpinata]

44 minutes ago, trinityshot said:

Sending good vibes for those last 3. Here is my cat in a cone of shame for your enjoyment  

 

Thank you so so so much for this. This brightened my entire week. I had to put a pet down yesterday, so this was very delightful ?

[TheBunny]

I got an e-mail from UMass Amherst which said that my application status changed. I got the e-mail right now (0.41 according to EST). The change is from under review to update pending yet there is no decision on the application website. They are just mocking with me I guess

[frankfrank]

21 hours ago, 104642 said:

A couple of hours ago I got an unofficial acceptance mail from the DGS. Two weeks ago; I made a phone conversation. Good luck!

Congratulations! Whether the DGS or POI talked with you during the conversation? Do you mind sharing some questions you were asked with me? Thanks a lot!!

[eggsalad14]

Howdy y'all, welcome to another episode of "What Big Name Schools are Going to Drop Some Decisions This Next Week?" ???

 

Standard caveat (to be read aloud super quickly) : There are always reasons why things aren't the same year-to-year, like new having a new DGS, someone being out on vacation or an emergency, or conference timings. It is way above my paygrade to verify whether or not any of these things are at play. I do not and cannot guarantee that any results will come when they are predicted to off of historical data -- and frankly, if I could, I would be monetizing the heck out of it. 

 

These are ordered pretty much by when I expect to hear things back and that could possibly be next week:

UCLA: Since 2011, results have always come by the first week of February. By all estimates, this year is on the late side for an otherwise pretty consistent school. Forecast: Very soon

UC Davis: Same deal as UCLA. 

WashU St. Louis: I've seen as late as Feb 15, which as you would know it, is indeed next week.  Forecast: some point next week. There's more variance across years for WUSTL, so don't put more money on it coming out on Monday versus Friday. 

UNC for those outside of the American subfield: Not sure if any of these have come out yet? The results page only indicates the American subfield. I haven't seen anything come later than about Feb 13 historically. Forecast: some point next week, possibly divided by subfield

Cornell: Another high variance school. Have come out as late as Feb 26 but more often than not in about the second week of Feb. Forecast: you can get your hopes up but please not too much that we'll know by the end of the week

Stanford: Looks like they try to stick around the mid-point of February give or take a few days, but have historically been as late as Feb 20th and as early as late January. Forecast: I don't know about anyone else, but I am ready to have one of my greatest hopes and dreams crushed pretty likely by Friday of this week as the Stanford math department announces that they have discovered the smallest non-zero number, and that number happens to be the same number as the Political Science department acceptance rate

University of Pennsylvania: Looks like they try to keep it approximately around Feb 15-20. There's a bit of variance though. Forecast: More likely around the 18th, but possible late this next week.

Columbia: More variance in more recent years, but looking at the historical release record as a whole, they seem to aim for mid-February. Forecast: We could be getting this as early as Monday next week but also maybe not for two more weeks, who knows. 

Vanderbilt: I believe interview requests have already gone out, and conventional wisdom is that at Vandy, no interview=rejection. They have been as early as next week but I think the interviews aren't until next week (it could be cool if someone confirmed this, I didn't apply to Vanderbilt) edit started earlier this week, so decisions probably won't come until later. Forecast: The last three years point to Feb 20-something, this is probably something worth asking in your interview if you want a better answer than this magic 8 ball I'm using an official answer

Georgetown:  These went out Feb 17 this year and last year. Previously they've been a trickle starting around now. Forecast: probably not until the week of Feb 17, though if we get any notification of like only 1 or 2 people hearing back, don't freak out too much

 

Notably missing: Harvard (will almost definitely make us wait two more weeks) and Yale (has released as early as about 2/14 but that does not seem to be the recent trend. It seems like they like 2/20 more these days). 

 

[olieb0llen]

On 2/9/2019 at 1:21 AM, eggsalad14 said:

Howdy y'all, welcome to another episode of "What Big Name Schools are Going to Drop Some Decisions This Next Week?" ???

 

Standard caveat (to be read aloud super quickly) : There are always reasons why things aren't the same year-to-year, like new having a new DGS, someone being out on vacation or an emergency, or conference timings. It is way above my paygrade to verify whether or not any of these things are at play. I do not and cannot guarantee that any results will come when they are predicted to off of historical data -- and frankly, if I could, I would be monetizing the heck out of it. 

 

These are ordered pretty much by when I expect to hear things back and that could possibly be next week:

UCLA: Since 2011, results have always come by the first week of February. By all estimates, this year is on the late side for an otherwise pretty consistent school. Forecast: Very soon

UC Davis: Same deal as UCLA. 

WashU St. Louis: I've seen as late as Feb 15, which as you would know it, is indeed next week.  Forecast: some point next week. There's more variance across years for WUSTL, so don't put more money on it coming out on Monday versus Friday. 

UNC for those outside of the American subfield: Not sure if any of these have come out yet? The results page only indicates the American subfield. I haven't seen anything come later than about Feb 13 historically. Forecast: some point next week, possibly divided by subfield

Cornell: Another high variance school. Have come out as late as Feb 26 but more often than not in about the second week of Feb. Forecast: you can get your hopes up but please not too much that we'll know by the end of the week

Stanford: Looks like they try to stick around the mid-point of February give or take a few days, but have historically been as late as Feb 20th and as early as late January. Forecast: I don't know about anyone else, but I am ready to have one of my greatest hopes and dreams crushed pretty likely by Friday of this week as the Stanford math department announces that they have discovered the smallest non-zero number, and that number happens to be the same number as the Political Science department acceptance rate

University of Pennsylvania: Looks like they try to keep it approximately around Feb 15-20. There's a bit of variance though. Forecast: More likely around the 18th, but possible late this next week.

Columbia: More variance in more recent years, but looking at the historical release record as a whole, they seem to aim for mid-February. Forecast: We could be getting this as early as Monday next week but also maybe not for two more weeks, who knows. 

Vanderbilt: I believe interview requests have already gone out, and conventional wisdom is that at Vandy, no interview=rejection. They have been as early as next week but I think the interviews aren't until next week (it could be cool if someone confirmed this, I didn't apply to Vanderbilt), so decisions probably won't come until later. Forecast: The last three years point to Feb 20-something, this is probably something worth asking in your interview if you want a better answer than this magic 8 ball I'm using an official answer

Georgetown:  These went out Feb 17 this year and last year. Previously they've been a trickle starting around now. Forecast: probably not until the week of Feb 17, though if we get any notification of like only 1 or 2 people hearing back, don't freak out too much

 

Notably missing: Harvard (will almost definitely make us wait two more weeks) and Yale (has released as early as about 2/14 but that does not seem to be the recent trend. It seems like they like 2/20 more these days). 

 

I had an interview with Vanderbilt earlier this week. 

[eggsalad14]

17 minutes ago, olieb0llen said:

I had an interview with Vanderbilt earlier this week. 

Did they only offer interview dates that were this week? Any mention of result dates? 

[quesadilla]

27 minutes ago, eggsalad14 said:

Howdy y'all,  

Are you from Texas?

[eggsalad14]

3 minutes ago, quesadilla said:

Are you from Texas?

Not at all, just really a big fan of the word "y'all" and decided to jazz it up. Totally unrelated to anything political science, but English really lacks a formal "you all" single-word and it really pains me. I could use "everyone" but that's too many syllables and feels impersonal. There are regional varieties like ya'll or youse or yinz and things like "you guys" but these are all problematic in their own ways. 

[olieb0llen]

16 minutes ago, eggsalad14 said:

Did they only offer interview dates that were this week? Any mention of result dates? 

From an email that was sent out to everyone prior to the submission deadline: “Week of Feb. 18: Admissions committee meets to finalize final admission list and waitlist. Either I or the subfield faculty representative will contact those individuals to whom we wish to extend an offer of admission during this week (or possibly the early part of the subsequent week). Official offer letters typically take an additional week or two due to the administrative process they must go through before becoming official. If you have not heard from us by this point, it is safe to assume (unfortunately) that you will not be receiving an offer of admission from our program”. 

My interviewer said something along this line as well.

 

[eggsalad14]

37 minutes ago, olieb0llen said:

From an email that was sent out to everyone prior to the submission deadline: “Week of Feb. 18: Admissions committee meets to finalize final admission list and waitlist. Either I or the subfield faculty representative will contact those individuals to whom we wish to extend an offer of admission during this week (or possibly the early part of the subsequent week). Official offer letters typically take an additional week or two due to the administrative process they must go through before becoming official. If you have not heard from us by this point, it is safe to assume (unfortunately) that you will not be receiving an offer of admission from our program”. 

My interviewer said something along this line as well.

 

It's awesome they have things spelled out nicely like that. I wish other schools were similarly transparent about the timeline. 

I guess anyone who cares about Vanderbilt admissions all have that information so my guesswork is unnecessary there. 

[IR1995]

2 hours ago, eggsalad14 said:

Howdy y'all, welcome to another episode of "What Big Name Schools are Going to Drop Some Decisions This Next Week?" ???

 

Standard caveat (to be read aloud super quickly) : There are always reasons why things aren't the same year-to-year, like new having a new DGS, someone being out on vacation or an emergency, or conference timings. It is way above my paygrade to verify whether or not any of these things are at play. I do not and cannot guarantee that any results will come when they are predicted to off of historical data -- and frankly, if I could, I would be monetizing the heck out of it. 

 

These are ordered pretty much by when I expect to hear things back and that could possibly be next week:

UCLA: Since 2011, results have always come by the first week of February. By all estimates, this year is on the late side for an otherwise pretty consistent school. Forecast: Very soon

UC Davis: Same deal as UCLA. 

Wash U St. Louis: I've seen as late as Feb 15, which as you would know it, is indeed next week.  Forecast: some point next week. There's more variance across years for WUSTL, so don't put more money on it coming out on Monday versus Friday. 

UNC for those outside of the American subfield: Not sure if any of these have come out yet? The results page only indicates the American subfield. I haven't seen anything come later than about Feb 13 historically. Forecast: some point next week, possibly divided by subfield

Cornell: Another high variance school. Have come out as late as Feb 26 but more often than not in about the second week of Feb. Forecast: you can get your hopes up but please not too much that we'll know by the end of the week

Stanford: Looks like they try to stick around the mid-point of February give or take a few days, but have historically been as late as Feb 20th and as early as late January. Forecast: I don't know about anyone else, but I am ready to have one of my greatest hopes and dreams crushed pretty likely by Friday of this week as the Stanford math department announces that they have discovered the smallest non-zero number, and that number happens to be the same number as the Political Science department acceptance rate

University of Pennsylvania: Looks like they try to keep it approximately around Feb 15-20. There's a bit of variance though. Forecast: More likely around the 18th, but possible late this next week.

Columbia: More variance in more recent years, but looking at the historical release record as a whole, they seem to aim for mid-February. Forecast: We could be getting this as early as Monday next week but also maybe not for two more weeks, who knows. 

Vanderbilt: I believe interview requests have already gone out, and conventional wisdom is that at Vandy, no interview=rejection. They have been as early as next week but I think the interviews aren't until next week (it could be cool if someone confirmed this, I didn't apply to Vanderbilt) edit started earlier this week, so decisions probably won't come until later. Forecast: The last three years point to Feb 20-something, this is probably something worth asking in your interview if you want a better answer than this magic 8 ball I'm using an official answer

Georgetown:  These went out Feb 17 this year and last year. Previously they've been a trickle starting around now. Forecast: probably not until the week of Feb 17, though if we get any notification of like only 1 or 2 people hearing back, don't freak out too much

 

Notably missing: Harvard (will almost definitely make us wait two more weeks) and Yale (has released as early as about 2/14 but that does not seem to be the recent trend. It seems like they like 2/20 more these days). 

 

I’m an IR UNC admit, so at least some decisions outside of American have been released 

[Larm]

8 hours ago, mackeycold said:

Does anyone know anything about the quality/strength (s) of Rice's program? And damn it, TAMU and UC Davis are dragging their feet! 

I believe Rice's program is a good one. At least in CP. That's what I've heard. They also have a Joint MA in stats/Ph.D in polítical science for the students who wish to study something related to methods. It would be interesting to hear more opinions about it.

[upsy]

Re: eggsalad14's very helpful post - My POI at UCLA contacted me in late Jan, so they definitely have known about some decisions for a few weeks now. I still haven't the slightest idea on when official decisions will be out, but wanted to share that if it's helpful.

[eggsalad14]

30 minutes ago, upsy said:

Re: eggsalad14's very helpful post - My POI at UCLA contacted me in late Jan, so they definitely have known about some decisions for a few weeks now. I still haven't the slightest idea on when official decisions will be out, but wanted to share that if it's helpful.

Definitely helpful and congrats! I wonder what the hold up is. Maybe figuring out funding packages? I know they've gotten flak before for admitting students without full guaranteed funding. 

[upsy]

30 minutes ago, eggsalad14 said:

Definitely helpful and congrats! I wonder what the hold up is. Maybe figuring out funding packages? I know they've gotten flak before for admitting students without full guaranteed funding. 

The email mentioned they were still reviewing applications at the time. Hopefully, with several weeks having passed since then, accepted students will be getting funding information at the same time as their decision. But, many schools seem to be okay with putting a week or more between releasing decisions and releasing funding information, so it's anyone's guess. I hope the schools that provide decisions towards the end of the February will be a bit faster about getting funding information out, since we'll all be thinking about our own choices during March.

[OmniscienceQuest]

I've noticed one acceptance to Georgetown and one interview at Stanford so far. I'm hoping both will start sending out notifications around the end of next week

[peggy.olson]

lol more rejections from northwestern today apparently.... nothing for me though!!!!! LOVE it 

[peggy.olson]

honestly I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around or make sense of their admissions process. why would they stagger the rejections like this??? 

[Dwar]

Anyone know anything about Syracuse admissions decisions? 

It seems that the past few years they've either come out this past week, or the upcoming week.