2021-2022 Application Thread

[jjiffy]

Also got an email from Berkeley! Over the moon!

[modesteffect]

 

3 minutes ago, jjiffy said:

Also got an email from Berkeley! Over the moon!

This is really great news to close friday! congrats to you three!

 

@zoooxu @LatinAmericanFootball now that both of got into UCB, would you guys consider declining UCSD? 

[sbidyanta]

Claiming a University of Cincinnati offer. My first fully funded offer; the stipend is kinda low but I will definitely take it if this is the only offer I get. 

[polyglotaspiring]

Congrats to everyone admitted to Berkeley!! Does anyone know if they historically stagger their admission notifs, or can I assume rejection? 

[scared_phd]

@LatinAmericanFootball@jjiffy@zoooxu I was trying to sleep when I decided to check the forum one last time and saw your posts. I refreshed my email and there was nothing. Berkeley is one of my top schools, probably number one, and I was devastated. Like I felt my heart sink literally. And, because of a reason I really can't explain, I decided to check my spam folder and there it was. I got innn!!! Damn you Gmail! I am sooo happy right now. 

[jjiffy]

Just now, scared_phd said:

@LatinAmericanFootball@jjiffy@zoooxu I was trying to sleep when I decided to check the forum one last time and saw your posts. I refreshed my email and there was nothing. Berkeley is one of my top schools, probably number one, and I was devastated. Like I felt my heart sink literally. And, because of a reason I really can't explain, I decided to check my spam folder and there it was. I got innn!!! Damn you Gmail! I am sooo happy right now. 

Amazing! Congrats!!!

[scared_phd]

1 minute ago, jjiffy said:

Amazing! Congrats!!!

Thanks!! I am still pretty much shook!

[LatinAmericanFootball]

1 hour ago, modesteffect said:

 

This is really great news to close friday! congrats to you three!

 

@zoooxu @LatinAmericanFootball now that both of got into UCB, would you guys consider declining UCSD? 

I will probably decline most of my other offers very soon, including UCSD. I'll post here when I do so!

14 minutes ago, scared_phd said:

@LatinAmericanFootball@jjiffy@zoooxu I was trying to sleep when I decided to check the forum one last time and saw your posts. I refreshed my email and there was nothing. Berkeley is one of my top schools, probably number one, and I was devastated. Like I felt my heart sink literally. And, because of a reason I really can't explain, I decided to check my spam folder and there it was. I got innn!!! Damn you Gmail! I am sooo happy right now. 

Haha that's amazing! Congrats!!

[modesteffect]

3 minutes ago, LatinAmericanFootball said:

I will probably decline most of my other offers very soon, including UCSD. I'll post here when I do so!

Haha that's amazing! Congrats!!

Awesome!  and to all of us: plz decline offers you unlikely go asap so more and more of us may benefit!

Edited February 5, 2022 by modesteffect

[newinthefield]

Would love to connect through SLACK if you're about to create one! Claiming a Chicago offer, methodology field.

[scared_phd]

@jjiffy@LatinAmericanFootball@zoooxuWould you mind sharing your Berkeley funding package? Just trying to see if it is a standard package or a personalized one, which indicates some leeway for bargaining. 

[sbidyanta]

Congratulations to all the Berkeley admits!! 

[phdhell]

Hey guys! Just wondering, for those who got all rejects last cycle or are just trying again this cycle and finding more success, I was wondering what you did to make your application better over the course of a year? I’m currently finishing a two year masters in the UK and I’m not sure what more I can do outside of school/what even some of these programs are looking for! 

[EstherBritoAbrio]

@jjiffy@LatinAmericanFootball@zoooxu congratulations! thats amazing! If I may ask, whats your subfield? 

[EstherBritoAbrio]

Also, quick question, does anybody know if public policy programs have a very different timeline than polisci?

[EstherBritoAbrio]

11 minutes ago, EstherBritoAbrio said:

@jjiffy@LatinAmericanFootball@zoooxu congratulations! thats amazing! If I may ask, whats your subfield? 

Oops - no, just saw that its across all sub-fields. Sorry. Guess its a no from them then ? 

[mdalt21]

16 hours ago, smallcrown said:

Sounds great. I live on discord half the day - but it seems to me like it's more of a gaming and geek kind of plattform. 

Same here.. if no one has made anything yet, here ya go! I can adjust channels as we see fit. I have a bit of mod experience but not much... https://discord.gg/MgjdkS4F

Edited February 5, 2022 by mdalt21

[sbidyanta]

28 minutes ago, mdalt21 said:

Same here.. if no one has made anything yet, here ya go! I can adjust channels as we see fit. I have a bit of mod experience but not much... https://discord.gg/MgjdkS4F

Joined! Thanks for making this! 

[hyccup]

15 hours ago, polyglotaspiring said:

Congrats to everyone admitted to Berkeley!! Does anyone know if they historically stagger their admission notifs, or can I assume rejection? 

Last year it appears they did both acceptances and rejections in two batches based on when results came in: Feb 1 and Feb 8-10. So perhaps there may be some more?

[scared_phd]

5 hours ago, phdhell said:

Hey guys! Just wondering, for those who got all rejects last cycle or are just trying again this cycle and finding more success, I was wondering what you did to make your application better over the course of a year? I’m currently finishing a two year masters in the UK and I’m not sure what more I can do outside of school/what even some of these programs are looking for! 

Last year, I applied as a senior in undergrad and got rejected from all the programs I applied to. It was devastating! What really helped me was deciding that I really want to do a PhD and taking positive steps that will enhance my application for the next cycle. What I did first was secure a research job after graduation. I was able to get in on a project led by an econ professor at my institution and that really helped. The project is a large, research effort that involves fieldwork and a collaboration with big organizations like the World Bank. That really made my CV look better. It is also important to mention that my involvement in the project signals a willingness and a desire to learn research methods I was not familiar with like survey research, RCT, and generally, research that involves fieldwork. That really complemented my relative strengths on data analysis, regressions, text analysis and so on which they could observe from my CV, transcript and writing sample. 

The other thing I did is edit and enhance my SOP substantially. I can't stress enough how important this is and how hard I worked on it to make it better. I removed and added a lot of stuff that the SOP that looked well last cycle became really really good for the current cycle. It had to go through multiple revisions and feedback from my mentors and recommenders really helped. 

But, the biggest improvement I made was on my writing sample. I used a senior thesis I wrote for graduation at my undergrad institution. Last cycle, by the December deadline, the thesis was barely a large research proposal. By the time I graduated, it was very developed and looked entirely different. The data analysis was complete, the plots, graphs and figures were all in a good shape. To make it the best writing sample it could be, I asked for more feedback on it after I graduated (around October, November last year) and that really helped reorganize it better and make the writing more nuanced. Given most of the project was done in 2021, after last cycle's deadlines had already passed, it looked significantly different. In one of my interviews, the POI who interviewed me indicated that he was most impressed by the writing sample. It is the biggest improvement on my application from last year and it really has paid off. 

I would recommend working on your files as much as you could to get them into the best shape they could be in. If you think you would benefit from a more involved research experience, that would also really help and make your CV better for a PhD applicant. Hope this helps! 

[zoooxu]

@mdalt21I think we accidentally created two discord links, but let's just merge into the new one (it's much more organized?). Thanks for the effort!!!

This is the old link from yesterday: https://discord.gg/peQJtCxM

This is the new discord link created by @mdalt21: https://discord.gg/cWENytFv

 

[honeymoow]

I will say that I do think it more fruitful to focus discussion on the forum, which is naturally more accessible for both current and future applicants.

[LatinAmericanFootball]

26 minutes ago, honeymoow said:

I will say that I do think it more fruitful to focus discussion on the forum, which is naturally more accessible for both current and future applicants.

I wholeheartedly agree, since these forums helped me so much when I first decided I wanted to apply. It's only fair to give back to the community and future applicants.

I think the Discord server can be useful for quick questions, off-topic conversations (so that we can talk to people who are going through the same things without flooding this thread), and discussing stuff you wouldn't be comfortable saying in a completely public forum. But we should make sure it is complementary and not substitute to the forum!

[bmo103]

3 hours ago, scared_phd said:

Last year, I applied as a senior in undergrad and got rejected from all the programs I applied to. It was devastating! What really helped me was deciding that I really want to do a PhD and taking positive steps that will enhance my application for the next cycle. What I did first was secure a research job after graduation. I was able to get in on a project led by an econ professor at my institution and that really helped. The project is a large, research effort that involves fieldwork and a collaboration with big organizations like the World Bank. That really made my CV look better. It is also important to mention that my involvement in the project signals a willingness and a desire to learn research methods I was not familiar with like survey research, RCT, and generally, research that involves fieldwork. That really complemented my relative strengths on data analysis, regressions, text analysis and so on which they could observe from my CV, transcript and writing sample. 

The other thing I did is edit and enhance my SOP substantially. I can't stress enough how important this is and how hard I worked on it to make it better. I removed and added a lot of stuff that the SOP that looked well last cycle became really really good for the current cycle. It had to go through multiple revisions and feedback from my mentors and recommenders really helped. 

But, the biggest improvement I made was on my writing sample. I used a senior thesis I wrote for graduation at my undergrad institution. Last cycle, by the December deadline, the thesis was barely a large research proposal. By the time I graduated, it was very developed and looked entirely different. The data analysis was complete, the plots, graphs and figures were all in a good shape. To make it the best writing sample it could be, I asked for more feedback on it after I graduated (around October, November last year) and that really helped reorganize it better and make the writing more nuanced. Given most of the project was done in 2021, after last cycle's deadlines had already passed, it looked significantly different. In one of my interviews, the POI who interviewed me indicated that he was most impressed by the writing sample. It is the biggest improvement on my application from last year and it really has paid off. 

I would recommend working on your files as much as you could to get them into the best shape they could be in. If you think you would benefit from a more involved research experience, that would also really help and make your CV better for a PhD applicant. Hope this helps! 

I have been told that a good, polished writing sample is an excellent way to signal to adcoms that you know what you're doing, or at least are on the right track (understand data analysis and able to use R/Python, know how to structure a piece of research, etc). Of course each committee varies in what they look for, but I think this advice holds up universally. 

[sbidyanta]

Happy Sunday, people! Finally, a day to not worry about getting results, and to rest. The week ahead is going to be very busy, so don't forget to recharge yourselves.