2020-2021 Application Thread

[comradecommissar]

3 minutes ago, cbsag123 said:

anyone claiming the MIT admit?

Id be really happy if people got in but god I have never wanted someone to be a troll this bad.

[comradecommissar]

Okay there's two now. Looks like it might just be out.

[AHD]

.

Edited February 9, 2021 by AHD
Deleted due to redundancy

[Polysciapplicant21]

5 minutes ago, comradecommissar said:

Okay there's two now. Looks like it might just be out.

Both of them were posted at ~the same time and are pretty wordy.. which strikes me as odd. But then again, I’m holding on to any pieces of hope left.

[btermite]

Congrats to everyone who has received good news so far!

I have to admit, I'm losing hope on my chances of getting any acceptances. If that's the case I'll certainly be bummed, but I'm just trying to be realistic given how difficult this cycle is.

Assuming that's the case, I definitely want to reapply next cycle and figured there must be at least a few people who might be feeling similarly. 

Not sure if this is really the place for starting to talk about advice etc. for potentially reapplying, but figured since so many people are active on this thread I'd start it here. The amount of support and solidarity on this thread has been so amazing this cycle, would hate for it to fizzle out after this round is over!

 

[comradecommissar]

5 minutes ago, Polysciapplicant21 said:

Both of them were posted at ~the same time and are pretty wordy.. which strikes me as odd. But then again, I’m holding on to any pieces of hope left.

You already got in at NYU haha you'll be just fine. Don't worry about it.

[poliscibxtch]

19 hours ago, baby__yoda said:

AP! 

Hi I know you study AP but I was wondering what your research interests are?

[loiewo]

Does anyone not have the possibility to apply next year? If so, what’s your backup? For me it’s this year or never and I’m striking out

[comradecommissar]

11 minutes ago, Polysciapplicant21 said:

Both of them were posted at ~the same time and are pretty wordy.. which strikes me as odd. But then again, I’m holding on to any pieces of hope left.

There's three now. That about settles it.

Edited February 9, 2021 by comradecommissar

[cbsag123]

4 minutes ago, btermite said:

Congrats to everyone who has received good news so far!

I have to admit, I'm losing hope on my chances of getting any acceptances. If that's the case I'll certainly be bummed, but I'm just trying to be realistic given how difficult this cycle is.

Assuming that's the case, I definitely want to reapply next cycle and figured there must be at least a few people who might be feeling similarly. 

Not sure if this is really the place for starting to talk about advice etc. for potentially reapplying, but figured since so many people are active on this thread I'd start it here. The amount of support and solidarity on this thread has been so amazing this cycle, would hate for it to fizzle out after this round is over!

 

I'm feeling the same way. Applied to 12 programs and have only gotten rejections so far (and a lot of not hearing anything while others received acceptances so that's that).

 

Currently wondering if it'd make sense to apply next year given how crazy this cycle was, or if it makes more sense to maybe wait two years given that a lot of people who didn't get in this year might apply next year and thus drive up applications again. This is all speculation though -- do others feel similarly? Are you planning on reapplying next year? The year after?

[btermite]

Just now, loiewo said:

Does anyone not have the possibility to apply next year? If so, what’s your backup? For me it’s this year or never and I’m striking out

I would love to reapply next year, but not sure if that will be feasible. As far as backup plans or even what to do in the meantime if I were to reapply, I haven't really gotten that far!

[Polysciapplicant21]

4 minutes ago, comradecommissar said:

You already got in at NYU haha you'll be just fine. Don't worry about it.

Not me, someone with similar name. BU reject and UVA waitlist here...

[btermite]

Just now, cbsag123 said:

I'm feeling the same way. Applied to 12 programs and have only gotten rejections so far (and a lot of not hearing anything while others received acceptances so that's that).

 

Currently wondering if it'd make sense to apply next year given how crazy this cycle was, or if it makes more sense to maybe wait two years given that a lot of people who didn't get in this year might apply next year and thus drive up applications again. This is all speculation though -- do others feel similarly? Are you planning on reapplying next year? The year after?

That's a good point, I honestly hadn't thought of the potential for the number of applications to be super high again next year as a result of this cycle.

I'm really unsure what to do in the meantime regardless of if I apply again to try to improve my chances. I've been trying to find research assistant type gigs with very little success

[AHD]

Just now, comradecommissar said:

This is a bit early for MIT though, compared to last year. No school has come in earlier than usual this year, always later. Wondering whats up there. Could just be an informal email or two.

 Official acceptances to UCSD came a week early, if I remember correctly. And in the 2019 cycle MIT results came out on the 8th. So I don't think that's so extraordinary - I'm more suspicious about the wording of the notes in the survey (but I am also just trying to not lose hope).

[comradecommissar]

3 minutes ago, Polysciapplicant21 said:

Not me, someone with similar name. BU reject and UVA waitlist here...

Aah okay. My bad. 

Looks like MIT is out then. I just have Yale left, which was my strongest app, but at this point I dont think thats coming in either.

[comradecommissar]

Just now, AHD said:

 Official acceptances to UCSD came a week early, if I remember correctly. And in the 2019 cycle MIT results came out on the 8th. So I don't think that's so extraordinary - I'm more suspicious about the wording of the notes in the survey (but I am also just trying to not lose hope).

There's 3 now. Can't be 100% sure until someone claims it, but I think its probably out.

[icemanyeo]

3 minutes ago, loiewo said:

Does anyone not have the possibility to apply next year? If so, what’s your backup? For me it’s this year or never and I’m striking out

I guess I can start the conversation on backups. Nothing is solid but I have several plans in mind:

Work: My geographic focus is on Latin America and East Asia; since I'll have my master's, I'm working to see if I could get a part-time lecturer position back home with undergraduates in international relations in diplomacy. I'm also looking at research positions at institutes and think tanks in East Asia depending on how travel pans out in the latter half of 2021 with COVID still raging. My very last backup is political consulting since this is a major election year for several Latin American countries.

Study: Looking at programs to improve my language skills in my target regions. I probably won't apply for another master's as that seems redundant. Also looking at MOOC-type courses in coding (R, LateX, Stata). There are a couple programs that have really early admissions schedules for Fall 2022 so I'm looking at starting to craft applications for those as well.

I guess the biggest concern right now is income and lodging. I probably can't afford to pay for a regular master's degree from the US or CA right now without any funding, let alone cover living expenses.

[peculiarindividual]

Anyone from American Politics subfield get into Berkeley or Michigan/PhD? I got an acceptance at an Ivy for AP as well as one from my alma but no word from these two or the other Ivy yet. I’m definitely just happy to have gotten the options I have, neither of which I expected to get into at all. But since I’m just seeing CP/IR for Berkeley in wondering if they’re still working on AP or accepting fewer students from that subfield potentially.

 

 Congrats to everyone who got in and Godspeed otherwise! Don’t let the rejections defeat you, it’s a shite year friends

[comradecommissar]

Still no MIT claims?

[Mad Scientist Malfrost]

For those interested in CIR or any of the other master programs at Chicago in the wake of rejection you can send an email to the Student Affairs Administrator to let you know if your application was forwarded to them by the PHD committee. 

[btermite]

Did anyone here happen to also apply to the Social Policy PhD joint degree program at Harvard?

I applied as a total crap shoot, but it seems like such a cool program I figured why not.

[Mad Scientist Malfrost]

36 minutes ago, icemanyeo said:

I guess I can start the conversation on backups. Nothing is solid but I have several plans in mind:

Work: My geographic focus is on Latin America and East Asia; since I'll have my master's, I'm working to see if I could get a part-time lecturer position back home with undergraduates in international relations in diplomacy. I'm also looking at research positions at institutes and think tanks in East Asia depending on how travel pans out in the latter half of 2021 with COVID still raging. My very last backup is political consulting since this is a major election year for several Latin American countries.

Study: Looking at programs to improve my language skills in my target regions. I probably won't apply for another master's as that seems redundant. Also looking at MOOC-type courses in coding (R, LateX, Stata). There are a couple programs that have really early admissions schedules for Fall 2022 so I'm looking at starting to craft applications for those as well.

I guess the biggest concern right now is income and lodging. I probably can't afford to pay for a regular master's degree from the US or CA right now without any funding, let alone cover living expenses.

As someone who has taken programs or learned both R and Stata I can say I prefer R over Stata nine times out of ten! Can't say I've ever worked with LateX but in general improving your coding in any language is a super good idea. 

[Polisci-PhD]

39 minutes ago, peculiarindividual said:

Anyone from American Politics subfield get into Berkeley or Michigan/PhD? I got an acceptance at an Ivy for AP as well as one from my alma but no word from these two or the other Ivy yet. I’m definitely just happy to have gotten the options I have, neither of which I expected to get into at all. But since I’m just seeing CP/IR for Berkeley in wondering if they’re still working on AP or accepting fewer students from that subfield potentially.

 

 Congrats to everyone who got in and Godspeed otherwise! Don’t let the rejections defeat you, it’s a shite year friends

I am in AP and was waitlisted at Berkeley. 

[plus]

Claiming an admit at Michigan (Law & Politics)! Received it yesterday, but it got stuck on my spam folder. 

[peculiarindividual]

4 minutes ago, Polisci-PhD said:

I am in AP and was waitlisted at Berkeley. 

Ahh shoot, okay. Well thanks for the update! Guess I’m accepting that bougie-league offer sooner than anticipated ?