2020-2021 Application Thread

[Oboeist]

2 minutes ago, gingerantelope said:

Congrats on your interview and glad to hear it went well! Would you mind sharing your subfield? Wishing you the best this application cycle!

 

Just now, sjetp said:

First of all congratulations on the interview! I'm just quite curious about the interview process at Duke and had one question to ask: was the conversation more focused on substantive matters (sort of like an oral exam, I mean) or was it more like a personal/aspirations "getting to know who you are" sort of thing?

Thanks y'all, I appreciate it! My subfield is AP/Methods (for Duke specifically, political institutions). It was a fairly short interview, they talked about the program for a while and then asked me about my research interests and my quantitative background and then left room for questions at the end. I don't know if it'll differ between professors but that was my experience, it was fairly relaxed but substantive.

[icemanyeo]

Congratulations to those who are starting to receive acceptances! I hope things pick up soon, I'm stressing out too much haha.

[kestrel18]

Guys, I intend to offend nobody, but to me, all that jazz around UCLA decisions seems too suspicious. I'd bet these "decisions" are the products of the regular trolls who, apparently, became especially acrimonious this year in the conditions of the ongoing pandemics

[Endor0790]

Hey guys! I know admissions season is just beginning but does anyone have any advice on how to manage admission anxiety? Haha Like am I supposed to interpret that if someone posts they got an interview/acceptance then that = I'm rejected? Any insight people have on how this works or has seen from last year would be great. Thank you!!

[guest789]

Honestly, no one knows. Really - no news is good news in the sense that it could go either way.

Edited January 19, 2021 by timeseries

[Stumbling_My_Way_Through]

3 minutes ago, Endor0790 said:

Hey guys! I know admissions season is just beginning but does anyone have any advice on how to manage admission anxiety? Haha Like am I supposed to interpret that if someone posts they got an interview/acceptance then that = I'm rejected? Any insight people have on how this works or has seen from last year would be great. Thank you!!

Hey! Anxiety is a natural reaction to something as consequential as grad apps, so you are not alone in that feeling! You have to be really careful about how much you monitor this site because it can be a really toxic cycle of checking your schools for the slightest update.

That being said, don't take stock in individual preliminary notices (unless the person indicates that the PI is someone you applied to as well). PI's all vary in how long they take to contact applicants. However, something that is pretty indicative of rejection is if you see a Visiting Day or Interview Day post, and you still haven't had an interview/invite. You could potentially still make it if you are waitlisted, but that is something to contact the school about later.

Regardless of what happens, try to separate your admission decision from your sense of self-worth. I really struggled with rejection in my first round of admission decisions. Regardless of what happens, I wish you luck in this cycle!

[Marianabroad]

I also applied for UCSD GPS and haven't received any information. So it seems that they are sending rejections/invitations on a rolling basis. 

[gbheron]

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Illinois acceptances listed? They seem real but it's hard to know, and I'm still waiting to hear

[afas103]

12 minutes ago, Marianabroad said:

I also applied for UCSD GPS and haven't received any information. So it seems that they are sending rejections/invitations on a rolling basis. 

An admissions person emailed me directly to move my application to a different program. My status on the website hadn’t been updated yet or anything.

[uncle_socks]

4 hours ago, Stumbling_My_Way_Through said:

Hey! Anxiety is a natural reaction to something as consequential as grad apps, so you are not alone in that feeling! You have to be really careful about how much you monitor this site because it can be a really toxic cycle of checking your schools for the slightest update.

That being said, don't take stock in individual preliminary notices (unless the person indicates that the PI is someone you applied to as well). PI's all vary in how long they take to contact applicants. However, something that is pretty indicative of rejection is if you see a Visiting Day or Interview Day post, and you still haven't had an interview/invite. You could potentially still make it if you are waitlisted, but that is something to contact the school about later.

Regardless of what happens, try to separate your admission decision from your sense of self-worth. I really struggled with rejection in my first round of admission decisions. Regardless of what happens, I wish you luck in this cycle!

you don't apply to PIs in political science and interview days are very rare in our field (and many schools that interview some applicants don't interview everyone they admit). For the most part, for at least the top ~25 schools, if it's been a couple of days since the wave of notifications of acceptances have gone out and you haven't heard back, you're either waitlisted or going to be rejected. Some schools are super evil about prolonging the wait time (I'm looking at NYU, because they then put you into the MA pool but tell you "final decisions haven't been made", as well as Northwestern). Some departments do have field coordinators email people instead of the chair of the adcom, but these come out within 1-2 days of each other if not mere hours. Sometimes, someone with an "in" in the department will hear back informally before the general public, but I think people here on this forum are pretty good at indicating when that's the case. 

 

It's not fun to say, but for at least the top schools, if you see admissions out (or if people indicate that their online portal has changed) and it's been a day or two and you haven't been contacted, it's highly likely a rejection.

Edited January 19, 2021 by BunniesInSpace

[icemanyeo]

50 minutes ago, BunniesInSpace said:

It's not fun to say, but for at least the top schools, if you see admissions out (or if people indicate that their online portal has changed) and it's been a day or two and you haven't been contacted, it's highly likely a rejection.

I haven't had any of my portals changed yet so I'm keeping hope. Admissions anxiety is real!

[plus]

10 hours ago, Endor0790 said:

Hey guys! I know admissions season is just beginning but does anyone have any advice on how to manage admission anxiety? Haha Like am I supposed to interpret that if someone posts they got an interview/acceptance then that = I'm rejected? Any insight people have on how this works or has seen from last year would be great. Thank you!!

Perhaps not all the subfields at Duke are doing interviews.

[NotaDoctorShh]

16 hours ago, gbheron said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Illinois acceptances listed? They seem real but it's hard to know, and I'm still waiting to hear

Hi, 

I can claim one of the UIUC acceptances. I'm in the IR subfield if that helps. I got my offer from email, but my portal has not changed so make sure you check all your spam filters and whatnot. 

Edited January 19, 2021 by NotaDoctorShh

[Barry B. Benson]

Hello everyone! I wanted to share that I had an interview recently with my PI (OSU, comparative). I'm curious to know if anyone else that applied there has also had an interview, because it seems that I might the only one (which may or may not be good news hahahaha).

Also, from our conversation it seemed that decisions there are not coming soon, so if you applied to OSU I advise you to not stress (yet).

[NeedaMormon]

Finished up with my interview with UW-Madison, and thought I'd let y'all know the questions they asked me:

Why would you be a good fit for UW-Madison?

What made you want to pursue a PhD?

What are some challenges you expect in graduate studies, and how do you think you would over come them?

They then asked how I would differentiate my research from other people. (They said they would expect quite a few thesis papers on my research interest in the future. AP if that helps.)

I mean I certainly feel like I did well on the interview!

They also mentioned to expect decisions in about 3 weeks.

[HopefullyPanicked]

1 minute ago, NeedaMormon said:

Finished up with my interview with UW-Madison, and thought I'd let y'all know the questions they asked me:

Why would you be a good fit for UW-Madison?

What made you want to pursue a PhD?

What are some challenges you expect in graduate studies, and how do you think you would over come them?

They then asked how I would differentiate my research from other people. (They said they would expect quite a few thesis papers on my research interest in the future. AP if that helps.)

I mean I certainly feel like I did well on the interview!

They also mentioned to expect decisions in about 3 weeks.

I didn't apply here, but I wanted to say thank you for putting their interview questions! The interview process makes me so nervous and being able to practice questions, even if they aren't from my school, helps so much!

[NotaDoctorShh]

23 minutes ago, NeedaMormon said:

Finished up with my interview with UW-Madison, and thought I'd let y'all know the questions they asked me:

Why would you be a good fit for UW-Madison?

What made you want to pursue a PhD?

What are some challenges you expect in graduate studies, and how do you think you would over come them?

They then asked how I would differentiate my research from other people. (They said they would expect quite a few thesis papers on my research interest in the future. AP if that helps.)

I also just interviewed with Madison. Very similar set of questions with the only difference being that I was asked about my research interests broadly and was not asked to differentiate. I applied as IR/Comparative for Madison. However, no mention of decision timeline. 

The overall atmosphere was pretty relaxed and very friendly. Only advice would be to make sure you are familiar with your interviewer and your own application material. 

[loiewo]

54 minutes ago, NotaDoctorShh said:

I also just interviewed with Madison. Very similar set of questions with the only difference being that I was asked about my research interests broadly and was not asked to differentiate. I applied as IR/Comparative for Madison. However, no mention of decision timeline. 

The overall atmosphere was pretty relaxed and very friendly. Only advice would be to make sure you are familiar with your interviewer and your own application material. 

Thanks for this! How specific do you all get with research interests? Like general areas or actual research prompts in their most narrow form?

[nivy25]

2 hours ago, Barry B. Benson said:

. I'm curious to know if anyone else that applied there has also had an interview, because it seems that I might the only one (which may or may not be good news hahahaha).

 

I haven’t heard back from OSU (it still says pending), and I haven’t gotten any email yet either for an interview.

[NeedaMormon]

59 minutes ago, loiewo said:

Thanks for this! How specific do you all get with research interests? Like general areas or actual research prompts in their most narrow form?

With how they asked about my research I had to go pretty narrow. I'm interested in online manipulation in AP and the questions specifically to me was something like "How would make your research on online manipulation stand out from other thesis papers?" I ended up explaining how my research would be based on some developments in the Computer Science field (It's these things called "Dark Patterns") and so I was more focused on the individual being manipulated rather than the topic of misinformation.

 

I know this gets really in-depth, but that's what I had to do in my interview. Luckily I've been formulating this research for a while now so I was able to answer well.

Edited January 19, 2021 by NeedaMormon

[gbheron]

3 hours ago, NotaDoctorShh said:

Hi, 

I can claim one of the UIUC acceptances. I'm in the IR subfield if that helps. I got my offer from email, but my portal has not changed so make sure you check all your spam filters and whatnot. 

Thanks for letting me know! I'm in AP so I guess there may still be a chance. UIUC was one of the programs I thought I actually had a shot — admissions anxiety is through the roof here lol. Hope everyone is staying sane

[nivy25]

Is anyone claiming the Northwestern acceptance results for today? The one in IR/Critical Theory? 
 

Out of curiosity, does the NW application portal show any change? 

[im_sleep_deprived]

Any theory people interviewing with Madison? If so how did your interview go? I have mine tomorrow and I am quite anxious. The previous posts here have really helped me out regarding what to prep. However, I am worried that the theory interview will have some curveball questions. 

 

[guest789]

Do y’all think website views mean anything (note I don’t have many views when I’m not applying for things, it’s not a well trafficked website or blog LOL)? It’s going to suck if they’re looking because they’re curious but they wind up rejecting me anyway, ahh. 

[icemanyeo]

1 hour ago, timeseries said:

Do y’all think website views mean anything (note I don’t have many views when I’m not applying for things, it’s not a well trafficked website or blog LOL)? It’s going to suck if they’re looking because they’re curious but they wind up rejecting me anyway, ahh. 

I think LinkedIn/website views do mean something if there's an increase around the time of application reviews, especially if that website/link was included in your CV. At least it means they're closely looking at your profile!