2021-2022 Application Thread

[nevernottryingtounderstand]

On 1/3/2022 at 4:40 AM, Theory007 said:

Actually, I am beginning to think there is no point in me posting here further. Respond with a yes or upvote if I should leave the forum and I will.

Please don't!

I have not commented on any of the previous posts and have really held my tongue not to engage so far, and honestly - it would be fantastic if the GRE didn't matter at all since being out of school for over 20 years wasn't all too beneficial for my quant score - but how sad would it be if we were to discourage opposite opinions and try to silence those who state them just because we want the world to be a certain way. We shouldn't and won't be able to shape everything the way we want by ignoring those who challenge our beliefs, we should see the discourse as an opportunity to re-evaluate what we believe to be true and come to informed decisions after weighing all the evidence. 

You have contributed so much to this forum, have given advice again and again, and invested your time and energy to help us, who come after you, navigate our way through the application process and more, please don't leave. 

[PolishPhD]

Hi everyone,

I am in need of advice.

I am a first-year Ph.D. student at an international university and I have applied to do my Ph.D. in the United States in Fall 2022. As it is impossible to transfer, I would begin my studies from scratch (if accepted). 

I have just received the results of my first semester at my Ph.D. program and somehow managed to receive a perfect GPA of 5.0 out of 5.0. Here is my question:

Should I contact the universities to which I applied and share the results with them? Would this aid my application or should I simply silently wait for the results? I am worried that sharing the results might annoy the administration, or complicate my enrollment if I am accepted to a program. 

[sbidyanta]

Hi @PolishPhD! I'm in a bit of the same boat right now, in the sense that if I get rejected from all the American universities I applied to this cycle, I'll start my PhD at an Indian university, and apply again next cycle. I just wanna ask as to how you mentioned your current PhD in your CV and SoP, and how did you explain applying for a fresh PhD? 

[PolishPhD]

Good luck, who knows, maybe this cycle will turn out successful!

I am not in a position to give advice, after all, I am waiting for results myself. But the way I approached it is to discuss the fit to the program and my aspirations to pursue an academic career in the United States (which is nearly impossible with a non-US Ph.D.). I also tried to emphasize how my current Ph.D. training has strengthened my credentials, and that I am not escaping my current program. I have asked a Professor at my current program to provide me with a letter of reference, to show that I have all the skills necessary to undertake a Ph.D. 

 

[uncle_socks]

9 hours ago, PolishPhD said:

Hi everyone,

I am in need of advice.

I am a first-year Ph.D. student at an international university and I have applied to do my Ph.D. in the United States in Fall 2022. As it is impossible to transfer, I would begin my studies from scratch (if accepted). 

I have just received the results of my first semester at my Ph.D. program and somehow managed to receive a perfect GPA of 5.0 out of 5.0. Here is my question:

Should I contact the universities to which I applied and share the results with them? Would this aid my application or should I simply silently wait for the results? I am worried that sharing the results might annoy the administration, or complicate my enrollment if I am accepted to a program. 

I don't think it hurts to reach out, though fair warning: I'm not sure what the GPA norms are in your country, but a "perfect" GPA in PhD programs in the US often doesn't mean too much. For most classes (methods sometimes being the exception), at least in the US, the scale is basically A = average, B = bad, C = drop out. If a perfect GPA is indeed meaningful in your country, I would reach out to departments and also try to mention that the grading standards are more meaningful than in the US. 

OTOH, if like 50%+ of your cohort is also getting a perfect GPA, I mean you could try updating departments, as this can't hurt. It just might not really make a difference. 

More broadly, I'm not completely sure how much of an impact really high GPAs have on admissions (esp in between going from a 3.7 to a 4.0 on the 4-scale). Of course it's hard to decorrelate because it's highly correlated with letter quality, GRE, etc., but anecdotally it's clear that there is reasonable variance even in top departments of past GPAs. 

Edited January 5, 2022 by uncle_socks

[catiecatie]

Hi everyone! For those who have applied to MIT, I was wondering if your official test scores are displayed on the Test Score Status page. I have submitted my scores a long time ago but I still can't see them.

[honeymoow]

1 hour ago, catiecatie said:

Hi everyone! For those who have applied to MIT, I was wondering if your official test scores are displayed on the Test Score Status page. I have submitted my scores a long time ago but I still can't see them.

I just checked and can see mine here, though it might have taken a little while to process.

[catiecatie]

3 minutes ago, honeymoow said:

I just checked and can see mine here, though it might have taken a little while to process.

Thanks! This is so weird. I am worried that they might have not received my scores, but the score status page said "You should not contact the department if scores do not appear."

[Tutankhamun]

 I was wondering if we "should" report Fall grades even when it is optional...

I got two As and two ABs... so not my best semester in terms of grades, although I took hard quantitative courses...

[honeymoow]

15 minutes ago, catiecatie said:

Thanks! This is so weird. I am worried that they might have not received my scores, but the score status page said "You should not contact the department if scores do not appear."

I'm sure it's okay! I just checked and I had my scores sent to the institutional code 3514 without specifying the department, in case you'd like to compare.

[catiecatie]

1 minute ago, honeymoow said:

I'm sure it's okay! I just checked and I had my scores sent to the institutional code 3514 without specifying the department, in case you'd like to compare.

I sent to the institution code 3514 and the department code 1902 (according to https://polisci.mit.edu/graduate/faq ). Have no idea what is going on but guess I'll just wait and see if their admissions staff would contact me.

[ballofstress]

Hi! I wanted to introduce myself. This is my second cycle for PhD admissions. I accepted a one-year accelerated master's last year. I'm trying again, hopefully this cycle is a little less harsh than last year. My subfield is American with interest in social movements and political psychology. 

Where is everyone applying? 

[LatinAmericanFootball]

4 hours ago, catiecatie said:

Hi everyone! For those who have applied to MIT, I was wondering if your official test scores are displayed on the Test Score Status page. I have submitted my scores a long time ago but I still can't see them.

I have a similar problem. My GREs don't show up but my TOEFL scores do, which I assume must be because I registered for the GREs under a slightly different name (common and acceptable under my country's naming customs, but weird for the application systems). I sent emails for most programs warning them of that and they matched my scores with no issues, but as you mentioned MIT specifically asks not to do it so I'll also just wait I guess.

[PolishPhD]

Thanks for the advice about sharing the results from last semester. We are graded on a curve, so I am quite happy with the results, but the cohort is small so it's not that impressive in terms of top x % in class. 

I have also submitted my GRE's to MIT and they seem to not be able to see the results. Weird, but I don't want to disturb them given the guidelines they have set.

[Gryffindor50points]

Has anyone heard back yet? I'm getting unbelievably nervous with all the other fields posting their results every few seconds.

[jjiffy]

I wouldn't worry. The earliest anything came out last year was around the end of January. 

[sbidyanta]

Someone on reddit got an interview from University of Washington, so I guess the programs which would have an interview are already starting to send invites. 

[Richelieu]

For those of you waiting for the results, last year, I used this website to have an idea on when to expect results from some of the more popular schools. https://martindevaux.com/2020/11/political-science-phd-admission-decisions/  (I don't think they have added 2021 results yet, though.)

Also, generally, it's almost always Ohio State that announces the results first among top 20 (3rd week of Jan), then Rice, Wisconsin and WUSTL follow. Most of the schools do not release decisions until the second half of February so you might want to find/visit hobbies during this time. 

Good luck to you all!

[jjiffy]

Yep, but word of caution to everybody applying to OSU: the department sends acceptances ~Jan 20 but they only send the results of the university-wide funding competition about a month after. Last year I got my acceptance and thought I was all good but I was notified that I was on the funding waitlist in February. Just wait until you have the funding letter before you celebrate!

[Theory007]

20 hours ago, Gryffindor50points said:

Has anyone heard back yet? I'm getting unbelievably nervous with all the other fields posting their results every few seconds.

It's way too early to hear back. In previous years, only a couple of programs have released results in late January. But there is variation fro year to year so by mid-February (I think) there should be a bunch of decisions out from a bunch of programs.

[Theory007]

12 hours ago, sbidyanta said:

Someone on reddit got an interview from University of Washington, so I guess the programs which would have an interview are already starting to send invites. 

If it is genuine it may be advisor specific. I would not worry if you don't get an invite. 

[DanTheGrad]

Does anyone know if UCSB is doing interviews again this cycle? They said last year that they did them to help mitigate the number of applications they received and I am wondering if they will do them again this year. 

For context - I received my interview invitation from program admissions director on Jan 10, 2021 and interviewed on Jan 14, 2021.

[LatinAmericanFootball]

 

On 1/9/2022 at 4:15 PM, Gryffindor50points said:

Has anyone heard back yet? I'm getting unbelievably nervous with all the other fields posting their results every few seconds.

Seconding most of the other posters above, I'll only start worrying in about two weeks from now. Princeton, Berkeley, Emory, and UT Austin usually release initial decisions on the last week of January. Unlikely to receive anything before Jan ~25th.

[hyla]

8 hours ago, DanTheGrad said:

Does anyone know if UCSB is doing interviews again this cycle? They said last year that they did them to help mitigate the number of applications they received and I am wondering if they will do them again this year. 

For context - I received my interview invitation from program admissions director on Jan 10, 2021 and interviewed on Jan 14, 2021.

I was wondering the same thing. POI told me there would be an interview but nothing heard yet. 

[ShowroomDummy]

I am applying for fall 2022. I am starting to get anxious already!?