2020-2021 Application Thread

[ExileOnMainSt]

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Chicago, UCB, UCSD, Northwestern, Michigan, MIT, UCLA. 
 

Starting to rue my lack of safeties. If I strike out this year my list will be a stunning testament to hubris. 

[icemanyeo]

Just now, iamlia said:

Yes I thought so! It's on my CV as well. This wait is killing me so now the slightest sign of anything related to those schools makes me even more anxious. 

Try to pass the time using some activities that you like. I'm in the middle of winter break at my university, so I've been catching up on my Netflix, K-Drama and Anime backlog, writing my thesis, and watching TikTok videos. Anything that can get your mind off of the cycle is good.

[icemanyeo]

27 minutes ago, StarkDark1 said:

Where all did y'all apply?

I've seen people in other fields create a signature that keeps track of their applications. Maybe we should do that too!

[jjiffy]

Stanford, Chicago, MIT, Berkeley, UCSD, UCLA, Cornell, Georgetown, Duke, Madison, OSU

Edited January 27, 2021 by jjiffy

[Cassatrass]

3 minutes ago, ExileOnMainSt said:

Starting to rue my lack of safeties. If I strike out this year my list will be a stunning testament to hubris. 

LMAO same with my schools... Haven't heard a peep...

Edited January 27, 2021 by Cassatrass

[icemanyeo]

2 minutes ago, ExileOnMainSt said:

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Chicago, UCB, UCSD, Northwestern, Michigan, MIT, UCLA. 
 

Starting to rue my lack of safeties. If I strike out this year my list will be a stunning testament to hubris. 

Go big or go home! You got this!

 

[ExileOnMainSt]

Just now, icemanyeo said:

Go big or go home! You got this!

 

That was the general idea! ?

[icemanyeo]

3 minutes ago, ExileOnMainSt said:

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Chicago, UCB, UCSD, Northwestern, Michigan, MIT, UCLA. 
 

Starting to rue my lack of safeties. If I strike out this year my list will be a stunning testament to hubris. 

Also to be honest, there's probably no such thing as a "safety school" with PhD admissions, especially in a year like this one. So don't beat yourself up over that.

[funfetti]

Duke, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCSD, Chicago, UT, WUSTL, Yale

[TheLifeofBrian]

55 minutes ago, StarkDark1 said:

Where all did y'all apply?

I went into this application season focused on the "fit". I found Professors and departmental expertise in all of the mentioned programs that could help me with my research. My interest deals with media, public opinion, political ideology, and destruction of democratic norms in the US. 

Accepted, Rejected, Pending

Political Science: Princeton, UMass, UConn, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Syracuse, Cornell, Yale, MIT, Oregon
Sociology: Boston College, UVA
Communications: UConn, UMass, UPenn
American Studies: William and Mary

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by TheLifeofBrian

[guest789]

35 minutes ago, TheLifeofBrian said:

I went into this application season focused on the "fit". I found Professors in all of the mentioned programs that could help me with my research. My interest deals with media, public opinion, political ideology, and destruction of democratic norms in the US. 

Accepted, Rejected, Pending

Political Science: Princeton, UMass, UConn, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Syracuse, Cornell, Yale, MIT
Sociology: Boston College, UVA
Communications: UConn, UMass, UPenn
American Studies: William and Mary

 

We have similar research interests. No Stanford comms/poli sci?

 

I applied to 

Top 10 political science programs and two computational social science programs.

Literally no "safety" programs at all, YOLO.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by timeseries

[ExileOnMainSt]

5 minutes ago, icemanyeo said:

Also to be honest, there's probably no such thing as a "safety school" with PhD admissions, especially in a year like this one. So don't beat yourself up over that.

You’re absolutely right, but I’m not going to feel at ease with this till at least one turns green!

[ssppiikkeerr]

36 minutes ago, StarkDark1 said:

Where all did y'all apply?

Accepted, Pending

 

Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, OSU, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Northwestern, UCLA, USC, UCSD, MSU

 

Notably it seems the school's I've been admitted to so far did not require or accept the GRE. May not be the case when all is said and done, but an interesting trend nonetheless. 

[icemanyeo]

Just now, ExileOnMainSt said:

You’re absolutely right, but I’m not going to feel at ease with this till at least one turns green!

I feel the same way~ ?

[BrownSugar]

43 minutes ago, StarkDark1 said:

Where all did y'all apply?

Pending: Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Boston U, Chicago, Indiana, Georgetown, USC, EUI, Graduate Institute Geneva

Rejected: LSE 

15 minutes ago, icemanyeo said:

I've seen people in other fields create a signature that keeps track of their applications. Maybe we should do that too!

How do we?  

[plus]

6 minutes ago, timeseries said:

We have similar research interests. No Stanford comms/poli sci?

 

I applied to 

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Michigan, Berkeley, and two computational social science programs.

Literally no "safety" programs at all, YOLO.

 

Which computational social science programs?

[icemanyeo]

Just now, BrownSugar said:

How do we?  

-> Click on profile name in upper right hand corner

-> Select Account Settings

-> Select Signature

From there on you can edit it however you like.

[icemanyeo]

2 minutes ago, BrownSugar said:

Pending: Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Boston U, Chicago, Indiana, Georgetown, USC, EUI, Graduate Institute Geneva

Rejected: LSE  

I was on the cusp of applying to Geneva...Kinda regretting taking it off my list now. Also wanted to apply to CEU but I didn't feel strong enough in my theoretical background to do the straight PhDs in most of Europe.

[guest789]

8 minutes ago, BrownSugar said:

Pending: Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Boston U, Chicago, Indiana, Georgetown, USC, EUI, Graduate Institute Geneva

Rejected: LSE 

 

EUI looks amazing, such a gorgeous campus.

[TheLifeofBrian]

16 minutes ago, timeseries said:

We have similar research interests. No Stanford comms/poli sci?

 

I applied to 

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Michigan, Berkeley, and two computational social science programs.

Literally no "safety" programs at all, YOLO.

 

I was eyeing mostly east coast schools. I live in Seattle and Im ready to be back east. Although I did apply to Oregon, but I like Eugene, Im not the biggest fan of the Bay Area.  

[afjackie]

Despite having an MPP from Georgetown, good GRE scores, and 8 years experience at the State Department and the White House, when I applied the first time for the 2017 cycle I only applied to Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and USCD - no safety schools, I didn't reach out to professors because I was living in Khartoum, Sudan, and was super busy, and not surprisingly I didn't get in anywhere. So this time around I was super focused on fit before ranking, talking to profs at every program, included a couple safety schools, and fingers crossed will do better this time! As you can tell from my programs I'm clearly an IR/Conflict Studies person  Good luck to everyone out there!

Accepted Interview(ed) Pending Rejected

Northwestern, Graduate Institute Geneva, Notre Dame (Kroc/Peace Studies and PoliSci), Manchester, Edinburgh, U Denver (Josef Korbel/International Studies), UC Irvine.

[poliscibxtch]

1 hour ago, StarkDark1 said:

Where all did y'all apply?

Accepted: UT Austin 

Pending: UCSD, Princeton, Cornell, UCLA, Stanford, Michigan, Vanderbilt, Duke, Berkeley, and Yale

Edited January 27, 2021 by poliscibxtch

[Barry B. Benson]

1 hour ago, StarkDark1 said:

Where all did y'all apply?

Accepted: OSU

Rejected: UTexas (not formally, but being almost a week since acceptances I lack faith)

Pending: MIT, Chicago, NYU, Michigan, Harvard, WashU, Berkeley

[TheLifeofBrian]

1 minute ago, afjackie said:

Despite having an MPP from Georgetown, good GRE scores, and 8 years experience at the State Department and the White House, when I applied the first time for the 2017 cycle I only applied to Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and USCD - no safety schools, I didn't reach out to professors because I was living in Khartoum, Sudan, and was super busy, and not surprisingly I didn't get in anywhere. So this time around I was super focused on fit before ranking, talking to profs at every program, included a couple safety schools, and fingers crossed will do better this time! As you can tell from my programs I'm clearly an IR/Conflict Studies person  Good luck to everyone out there!

Accepted Interview(ed) Pending Rejected

Northwestern, Graduate Institute Geneva, Notre Dame (Kroc/Peace Studies and PoliSci), Manchester, Edinburgh, U Denver (Josef Korbel/International Studies), UC Irvine.

I applied and got into Edinburgh back in 2008 for a PhD, but ended up choosing Dartmouth for my Masters instead. I often wonder if that was the right choice. I think Edinburgh is an AMAZING school and considered it this round, but I find the funding options in the US are much better (or at least I understand them better). 

[BrownSugar]

2 minutes ago, afjackie said:

Despite having an MPP from Georgetown, good GRE scores, and 8 years experience at the State Department and the White House, when I applied the first time for the 2017 cycle I only applied to Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and USCD - no safety schools, I didn't reach out to professors because I was living in Khartoum, Sudan, and was super busy, and not surprisingly I didn't get in anywhere. So this time around I was super focused on fit before ranking, talking to profs at every program, included a couple safety schools, and fingers crossed will do better this time! As you can tell from my programs I'm clearly an IR/Conflict Studies person  Good luck to everyone out there!

Accepted Interview(ed) Pending Rejected

Northwestern, Graduate Institute Geneva, Notre Dame (Kroc/Peace Studies and PoliSci), Manchester, Edinburgh, U Denver (Josef Korbel/International Studies), UC Irvine.

I studied at Edinburgh during undergrad. Probably my favorite city ever.