2020-2021 Application Thread

[guest789]

I did include a link on my CV. I saw the other day that someone from a college town (I applied to the university this year as well) was looking. This is a school that generally doesn't release their results until the end of February, but it sounds like they're going through our profiles now.

Edited January 20, 2021 by timeseries

[loiewo]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M GOING CRAZY. Just tell us already! It seems like all decisions are coming out slower than in previous years. 

[ExileOnMainSt]

I’m going insane as well. ?

[polisci_gal]

Anyone claiming the Boston University acceptance?

[Theory007]

2 hours ago, loiewo said:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M GOING CRAZY. Just tell us already! It seems like all decisions are coming out slower than in previous years. 

It does not seem slower to me. The only two programs you can really count on to release decisions in January is Madison and OSU and several others are beginning to come out now as well. It is quicker than usual actually. Try not to check your email every 5 min. Many programs will not release decisions for another month or two.

[mypolisciguy]

7 minutes ago, Theory007 said:

It does not seem slower to me. The only two programs you can really count on to release decisions in January is Madison and OSU and several others are beginning to come out now as well. It is quicker than usual actually. Try not to check your email every 5 min. Many programs will not release decisions for another month or two.

UT is a virtual lock for Jan. as well. Although, now that I checked sometimes they release in early Feb haha.

Edited January 20, 2021 by mypolisciguy

[funfetti]

2 minutes ago, mypolisciguy said:

UT is a virtual lock for Jan. as well. Although, now that I checked sometimes they release in early Feb haha.

I too am hoping Rice or UT will announce in January. 

Even seeing results from schools I didn't apply to trickle in makes me feel so much better. 

[BrownSugar]

21 minutes ago, polisci_gal said:

Anyone claiming the Boston University acceptance?

Would also like to know what subfield! 

[ir_guy]

Hello everyone. I have discovered this forum a couple of weeks ago and said enough to just lurk around and decided to share my views with grad aspirants like me. 

Although some of you are hesitant with the authenticity of the posts in the results page I am on the pessimistic side and consider them to be true as an applicant who did not get any response up to now. I am seeing 4 Princeton and 6 Northwestern admits. Do you think it is logical to think people who did not get a response from these two most probably are gonna rejected. I am coming to this decision on the basis of the claims that many schools are gonna admit less students this cycle. As much as I can see, there were 11 admits for Northwestern and 8 for Princeton last year based on the Gradcafe results. What do you think? By the way is there anyone who contacted with those universities to learn whether they are done with the notification of admits or not?

In all honesty, I am far from being pessimistic about my other applications, I am just trying to understand the dynamics of this cycle. I hope everyone of us get what we wish for.

[uncle_socks]

3 minutes ago, ir_guy said:

Hello everyone. I have discovered this forum a couple of weeks ago and said enough to just lurk around and decided to share my views with grad aspirants like me. 

Although some of you are hesitant with the authenticity of the posts in the results page I am on the pessimistic side and consider them to be true as an applicant who did not get any response up to now. I am seeing 4 Princeton and 6 Northwestern admits. Do you think it is logical to think people who did not get a response from these two most probably are gonna rejected. I am coming to this decision on the basis of the claims that many schools are gonna admit less students this cycle. As much as I can see, there were 11 admits for Northwestern and 8 for Princeton last year based on the Gradcafe results. What do you think? By the way is there anyone who contacted with those universities to learn whether they are done with the notification of admits or not?

In all honesty, I am far from being pessimistic about my other applications, I am just trying to understand the dynamics of this cycle. I hope everyone of us get what we wish for.

Princeton is almost assuredly trolls, this is over a week earlier than usual, and they admit 40-50 people in a regular year so the fact that no one is claiming it in the thread is suspect (I also haven't seen anything from polisci twitter on it either). They admit so many people that in past years, there's at least a couple of people on the thread who will claim acceptances. Northwestern could be legit, though they have a slight reputation for trickling out admits, but they do start early. 

[BrownSugar]

7 minutes ago, ir_guy said:

Hello everyone. I have discovered this forum a couple of weeks ago and said enough to just lurk around and decided to share my views with grad aspirants like me. 

Although some of you are hesitant with the authenticity of the posts in the results page I am on the pessimistic side and consider them to be true as an applicant who did not get any response up to now. I am seeing 4 Princeton and 6 Northwestern admits. Do you think it is logical to think people who did not get a response from these two most probably are gonna rejected. I am coming to this decision on the basis of the claims that many schools are gonna admit less students this cycle. As much as I can see, there were 11 admits for Northwestern and 8 for Princeton last year based on the Gradcafe results. What do you think? By the way is there anyone who contacted with those universities to learn whether they are done with the notification of admits or not?

In all honesty, I am far from being pessimistic about my other applications, I am just trying to understand the dynamics of this cycle. I hope everyone of us get what we wish for.

What we all need to keep in mind is that not everyone uses/posts on gradcafe (this includes those with rejections and offers). Gradcafe is not a complete overview of the admissions process/results.

 In addition, most universities send decisions in batches. Whether admits from the last few days/past week are real or not, more decisions will continue to come. This is merely the beginning.
Good luck! 

[uncle_socks]

Just now, BrownSugar said:

What we all need to keep in mind is that not everyone uses/posts on gradcafe (this includes those with rejections and offers). Gradcafe is not a complete overview of the admissions process/results.

 In addition, most universities send decisions in batches. Whether admits from the last few days/past week are real or not, more decisions will continue to come. This is merely the beginning.
Good luck! 

most top American programs do not send out admits in batches that span across days. they send notifications in batches (which means if you're rejected, you probably have to wait a few days/weeks/months to hear back, but if you're admitted, you hear back in close proximity to others).  

[uncle_socks]

1 minute ago, baby__yoda said:

Departments usually expect about half of admitted students to accept their offers meaning Princeton would then be expecting a cohort of four students which is unrealistic in my opinion. Additionally, I think its unclear whether departments are going to admit less students this cycle. For example, Northwestern generated a surplus of $83 million in 2020 so it would be ridiculous for them to cut admissions on the basis of funding (not that they won't do it regardless because universities remain shady and for-profit, but I don't expect that to happen). Additionally, the chair of a highly-ranked public uni told me he was not expecting his dept to cut the cohort size this year. All in all, I would say don't count yourself out. I'm also freaking out, but trying to remind myself that there are too many factors we can't account for this year. 

Princeton in a usual year admits ~40-50ish. We just don't hear about most of them on here. 

[gradpumpkin]

Does anyone have any insights into Emory? I know they usually come out around this time. I'm curious as to whether GRE-required schools will see greater, equal, or even decreased applicant pools because of the overall trend with GRE this year. Is the massive increase in applicants mostly people who are only applying to GRE-optional schools? Will score averages at GRE-required schools be lower this year? Just wondering if anyone has thoughts since everything is so ambiguous right now. 

[BrownSugar]

4 minutes ago, BunniesInSpace said:

most top American programs do not send out admits in batches that span across days. they send notifications in batches (which means if you're rejected, you probably have to wait a few days/weeks/months to hear back, but if you're admitted, you hear back in close proximity to others).  

I know, I did say they send “decisions” in batches, not admits. I was speaking in more general terms, because I’m sure people have anxiety for programs that may not be in the “top”. Also, “most” indicates that there are outliers, which is also important to consider.  

[BrownSugar]

2 minutes ago, gradpumpkin said:

Does anyone have any insights into Emory? I know they usually come out around this time. I'm curious as to whether GRE-required schools will see greater, equal, or even decreased applicant pools because of the overall trend with GRE this year. Is the massive increase in applicants mostly people who are only applying to GRE-optional schools? Will score averages at GRE-required schools be lower this year? Just wondering if anyone has thoughts since everything is so ambiguous right now. 

My opinions aren’t “well informed” but I certainly can’t imagine universities lowering their standards, i.e. expected average GRE scores. 
I also think GRE-required programs won’t see as much as an increase of apps as that for GRE-optional ones. I myself only applied to GRE-optional universities, and so did most of the “international” students I know. Of course, this is merely anecdotal. 

[Indeed]

23 minutes ago, baby__yoda said:

Departments usually expect about half of admitted students to accept their offers meaning Princeton would then be expecting a cohort of four students which is unrealistic in my opinion. Additionally, I think its unclear whether departments are going to admit less students this cycle. For example, Northwestern generated a surplus of $83 million in 2020 so it would be ridiculous for them to cut admissions on the basis of funding (not that they won't do it regardless because universities remain shady and for-profit, but I don't expect that to happen). Additionally, the chair of a highly-ranked public uni told me he was not expecting his dept to cut the cohort size this year. All in all, I would say don't count yourself out. I'm also freaking out, but trying to remind myself that there are too many factors we can't account for this year. 

Well, I have some bad news. I have contacted Northwestern pol sci before the application deadline and  they told me that it will be an extremely competitive year for admissions since they will accept 1-2% of the applications instead of the regular 10%. So I suppose we all got rejected if they did not decide to admit more people.

[uncle_socks]

13 minutes ago, BrownSugar said:

I know, I did say they send “decisions” in batches, not admits. I was speaking in more general terms, because I’m sure people have anxiety for programs that may not be in the “top”. Also, “most” indicates that there are outliers, which is also important to consider.  

I'm aware, I just wanted to clarify the distinction between decisions and admits because it's helpful to know when to stop holding out hope for (I know personally holding onto false hope made me a very very anxious mess when I went through the process). It's cruel when programs send rejections and waitlists much much later than admits. As I've noted before, NYU does this thing where PhD rejects are sent to the MA pool, and aren't told that they're rejected from the PhD program until very late. However, when you inquire with the department, they'll tell you something vague along the lines of "final decisions are pending," making people think that they might get a PhD accept, even though like the NYU admit weekend RSVP deadline has passed. But every year, people on this forum hold onto hope. 

 

I just clarified "top" (and here I mean maybe ~25ish) because it's what I personally have experience with and because these are the most discussed schools on here.

[guest789]

21 minutes ago, Indeed said:

Well, I have some bad news. I have contacted Northwestern pol sci before the application deadline and  they told me that it will be an extremely competitive year for admissions since they will accept 1-2% of the applications instead of the regular 10%. So I suppose we all got rejected if they did not decide to admit more people.

I think this is a possibility - not only have the # of applicants increased, many schools that don't need tons of TAs (private schools, usually) are shrinking their class size. I saw a tweet from a Yale grad student a few months ago who said that Yale is halving their class.

Edited January 20, 2021 by timeseries

[funfetti]

I haven't been admitted anywhere and have no information to suggest that I will be admitted anywhere.

Nevertheless, there is a part of me that is searching for any semblance of a silver lining to cope with this extremely stressful season... right now, I'm insisting on telling myself, "hey, maybe this means the job market will be less brutal in 5-6 year!" which is wishful thinking at best and delusion at worst!

[mypolisciguy]

55 minutes ago, timeseries said:

I think this is a possibility - not only have the # of applicants increased, many schools that don't need tons of TAs (private schools, usually) are shrinking their class size. I saw a tweet from a Yale grad student a few months ago who said that Yale is halving their class.

I think it's a fairly safe assumption that there is a decent chunk of programs - even top ones - that will have reduced cohort sizes this cycle. 

[Richelieu]

Claiming one of the Ohio State (OSU) acceptances. 

Comparative politics subfield. 

[Muan1]

Don't worry, be happy.

[jjiffy]

Also claiming an OSU admit for IR subfield. I havent gotten an email yet but I just checked the portal. I never got an interview request. 

[guest789]

24 minutes ago, mypolisciguy said:

I think it's a fairly safe assumption that there is a decent chunk of programs - even top ones - that will have reduced cohort sizes this cycle. 

Yes - for example, I was going to apply to HKS PEG this fall, but they emailed us before the application deadline and said that all applicants - if "accepted" -  would be waitlisted as the number of deferrals from last year meant that they already have a full class this year. 

 

Congratulations to everyone who has heard good news!