2020-2021 Application Thread

[Mad Scientist Malfrost]

Just now, Aydemiru said:

why did you think that?

The Dan Nexon tweet. If he's on the committee and the recommendations have been submitted then it's likely the release of decisions will happen soon. 

[China_IR]

2 minutes ago, Aydemiru said:

why did you think that?

The tweets above are from the Georgetown IR subfield chair. He is the one who recommends the list of acceptances.  He said he has done the recommendations to the DGS. 

Edited February 1, 2021 by China_IR

[NeedaMormon]

2 minutes ago, til1996 said:

Wow! Congrats on a third acceptance!

Thanks! It’s interesting to me that all three so far are essentially the same in ranking (mid/low 20s). Doesn’t make any decision easy for me ?‍♂️
 

At this point I’m waiting for WUSTL and Emory to release results. Once I get decisions from those two schools I’ll have a better idea of where I want to go.

[dnexon]

So I decide to check on this website and... anyway, our process is almost done – the step I referenced is the penultimate stage before we start informally contacting admitted & waitlisted students. 

"The tweets above are from the Georgetown IR subfield chair. He is the one who recommends the list of acceptances.  He said he has done the recommendations to the DGS."

That's not how it works. While field chairs (at least this year) are automatically on the committee, all the PhD decisions are done by the field committees and then the whole committee together. I'm sure that some places might be more hierarchical. I've never thought to ask.

(anyway, if it helps anyone I'm signing off here but I'll try to check in on the thread that Bear used to post on) 

Edited February 1, 2021 by dnexon

[The Converse]

Are the Berkeley reports real? I am having a hard time understanding why anyone would even bother trolling about something like this, but apparently this is a thing. 

[Mad Scientist Malfrost]

Just now, NeedaMormon said:

Thanks! It’s interesting to me that all three so far are essentially the same in ranking (mid/low 20s). Doesn’t make any decision easy for me ?‍♂️
 

At this point I’m waiting for WUSTL and Emory to release results. Once I get decisions from those two schools I’ll have a better idea of where I want to go.

I see you are waiting for U-Iowa and Emory as well! Here is hoping for good news for both of us on those fronts here soon! Still, I'm jealous that you have some acceptances in already! None of the schools I have applied to have sent rejections or acceptances yet so I'm peak anxiety right now. 

[China_IR]

Just now, dnexon said:

So I decide to check on this website and... anyway, our process is almost done – the step I referenced is the penultimate stage before we start informally contacting admitted & waitlisted students. 

Thanks professor!!! our honor to see you here!!

[Mad Scientist Malfrost]

Just now, dnexon said:

So I decide to check on this website and... anyway, our process is almost done – the step I referenced is the penultimate stage before we start informally contacting admitted & waitlisted students. 

??? 

[icemanyeo]

Just to distract us a bit from the decisions waiting game, I have a few questions. Feel free to respond or not:

- It's a new week! How are you feeling today?

- What's your favorite food/dish you discovered during your quarantine cooking experience?

- Any reads you found in the last year that you would recommend to the sub?

- If you were not going into academia, what would be your profession?

 

I'll start!

- There's a ton of new restaurants in the area where my new apartment is, and they do delivery! SO excited to discover new places in a covid-safe way.

- I rediscovered ramyeon! I now add eggs, cheese and grass-fed butter with some chopped vegetables. It's delicious!

- "The Next American Revolution" by Grace Lee Boggs. An amazing read for those interested in REP, local justice organizing, etc.

- I would probably be a fiction author specializing in Afro-Latin Mythology/Folklore

[NeedaMormon]

1 minute ago, Mad Scientist Malfrost said:

I see you are waiting for U-Iowa and Emory as well! Here is hoping for good news for both of us on those fronts here soon! Still, I'm jealous that you have some acceptances in already! None of the schools I have applied to have sent rejections or acceptances yet so I'm peak anxiety right now. 

I’ve been lucky to get decisions relatively quickly compared to others here. I guess it comes with different subfields and my selection of schools (I’m AP/Methods, while it seems like most people here are IR or CP).

Fingers crossed with these other places! ? 

[Uberfloweret]

1 hour ago, im_sleep_deprived said:

Hi all, 

I am applying to University of Michigan and I just had an interesting chat with my professor. Apparently, there are times where Michigan does not admit any students in a particular field. In other words, different fields get to select different numbers of students in different years and sometimes it works out so that no students are admitted to a particular specification. I am unsure if this is the case this year. He believes that theory applications will probably not be admitted this year (which sucks for me). 

Unfortunately this is so true. A professor from Berkeley told me that they are going to take a smaller cohort (what a surprise), and the political theory applicants are the ones who will be sacrificed. Who ARE sacrificed :)) (as a political theory gurl, I disapprove)

Same goes for Stanford (1 slot instead of usual 3-4); I don’t know about Yale and Princeton (decided not not ask for I had enough pain) but I think they might do the same. 
 

Edited: regarding Berkeley: the same prof told me they will take 1 political theory student. It is unlikely that they will take +1, but unlikely does not mean “they will not”. 
meanwhile, I just want this admission cycle to eat sluggies 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Uberfloweret

[Lovemyboy]

 I'm peak anxiety,too.

It seems that today's gonna be no news again. So painful and anxious.

 

 

[icemanyeo]

Just now, Lovemyboy said:

 I'm peak anxiety,too.

It seems that today's gonna be no news again. So painful and anxious.

 

 

I really feel like the decision emails are gonna creep up on me when I least expect it! I got the Rice email while I was watching AoT  

[guest789]

Just now, icemanyeo said:

I really feel like the decision emails are gonna creep up on me when I least expect it! I got the Rice email while I was watching AoT  

Yeah, what's the saying? A watched pot never boils? I guess the equivalent is "an email never arrives if your inbox is open".

[guest789]

Also I know everyone is anxious, but if you find that it's affecting your quality of life and it's something you deal with generally -- figure out a way to deal with it BEFORE you go to grad school. Grad school, or so I'm told, can be very hard on your mental health and the people that succeed know how to deal with their mental health.

[ExileOnMainSt]

3 minutes ago, icemanyeo said:

Just to distract us a bit from the decisions waiting game, I have a few questions. Feel free to respond or not:

- It's a new week! How are you feeling today?

- What's your favorite food/dish you discovered during your quarantine cooking experience?

- Any reads you found in the last year that you would recommend to the sub?

- If you were not going into academia, what would be your profession?

 

This looks fun! 
 

I learnt how to cook Thai curry over the quarantine, and I think I’ve gotten quite good at it. Been experimenting with different ways to make the pastes from scratch. 
 

I really enjoyed Cooper’s book Africa since 1940, which traces Africa’s political economy over the colonial and post colonial period. The book focuses primarily on West Africa, but there are some diversions to Portuguese colonised Africa and the southern cone, so it makes for interesting reading. 
 

I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, in undergrad, and I’ve been trying to use the pandemic to finish as many other Marquez works as I can, so that’s been going well. Currently, on the General in his Labyrinth l, which traces Simon Bolivar’s life over his last few days. 
 

No joke, but if I wasn’t going into academia, I’d probably be diving into a career in music.  I’ve actually been recording an album these past few weeks, to cover the application anxiety. 

[icemanyeo]

Just now, timeseries said:

Also I know everyone is anxious, but if you find that it's affecting your quality of life and it's something you deal with generally -- figure out a way to deal with it BEFORE you go to grad school. Grad school, or so I'm told, can be very hard on your mental health and the people that succeed know how to deal with their mental health.

True! Make sure you have a good support system in place before you go into it, or ideally ASAP once you enroll. The lows of graduate school tend to happen when you least expect it, and you want to have a good foundation before having to deal with those lows.

[icemanyeo]

5 minutes ago, ExileOnMainSt said:

This looks fun! 
 

I learnt how to cook Thai curry over the quarantine, and I think I’ve gotten quite good at it. Been experimenting with different ways to make the pastes from scratch. 
 

I really enjoyed Cooper’s book Africa since 1940, which traces Africa’s political economy over the colonial and post colonial period. The book focuses primarily on West Africa, but there are some diversions to Portuguese colonised Africa and the southern cone, so it makes for interesting reading. 
 

I read One Hundred Years of Solitude, in undergrad, and I’ve been trying to use the pandemic to finish as many other Marquez works as I can, so that’s been going well. Currently, on the General in his Labyrinth l, which traces Simon Bolivar’s life over his last few days. 
 

No joke, but if I wasn’t going into academia, I’d probably be diving into a career in music.  I’ve actually been recording an album these past few weeks, to cover the application anxiety. 

Good luck with your album!

[kmccorm327]

Anyone else with that feeling of relief that you haven't gotten an email re: rejection for the day, but also a strong feeling of dread as well? Weird combination, lots of heart burn. 

[Lovemyboy]

18 minutes ago, kmccorm327 said:

Anyone else with that feeling of relief that you haven't gotten an email re: rejection for the day, but also a strong feeling of dread as well? Weird combination, lots of heart burn. 

Being anxoius through the whole day, including the sleeping time. Waiting is killing everyone here.

So sad.

[im_sleep_deprived]

38 minutes ago, Uberfloweret said:

Unfortunately this is so true. A professor from Berkeley told me that they are going to take a smaller cohort (what a surprise), and the political theory applicants are the ones who will be sacrificed. Who ARE sacrificed :)) (as a political theory gurl, I disapprove)

Same goes for Stanford (1 slot instead of usual 3-4); I don’t know about Yale and Princeton (decided not not ask for I had enough pain) but I think they might do the same. 
 

Edited: regarding Berkeley: the same prof told me they will take 1 political theory student. It is unlikely that they will take +1, but unlikely does not mean “they will not”. 
meanwhile, I just want this admission cycle to eat sluggies 

That sucks and I think from what you're saying most programs if they are in a similar position will sacrifice theory students. Here's hoping that some programs have the money needed to admit folk in what is, without a doubt, a very important field.

I really just want to get into one more school so that I can try and get the best deal for myself but it looks like that probably won't happen. 

On a separate note, what do you ideally want to focus your research on if you don't mind me asking?

 

[spotted]

followed a bunch of POI on twitter back in December, two followed me back within the day and I didn't think much of it (maybe they just follow a bunch of people back, which seems plausible). TODAY, about a month and a half AFTER I followed them, one POI I followed just followed me back. Like I'm trying not to be super optimistic but like they had to go out of their way to find and follow me back at this point. I wanna see this as a very good sign but at the same time willing to accept it means nothing. 
Thats my day so far though, the twitter notification came up in the middle of my workout and the adrenaline/nervousness helped me finish stronger ?

[BrownSugar]

Update: Staying away from your phone for hours does not help. A few hours later, no emails and I feel just as restless as when I usually keep checking my phone throughout the day. ?

[verschiedene]

52 minutes ago, Uberfloweret said:

Edited: regarding Berkeley: the same prof told me they will take 1 political theory student. It is unlikely that they will take +1, but unlikely does not mean “they will not”. 
meanwhile, I just want this admission cycle to eat sluggies 

I am also in theory and applying to Berkeley which is def one of my top choices and I thought a really good fit... thanks for the information, now i could start to prepare for an imminent rejection ?

[Mad Scientist Malfrost]

Just now, BrownSugar said:

Update: Staying away from your phone for hours does not help. A few hours later, no emails and I feel just as restless as when I usually keep checking my phone throughout the day. ?

There is no escaping the anxiety, no matter what we do it seems! Tis our lot in life until decision season is over!