2021-2022 Application Thread

[uncle_socks]

31 minutes ago, sswimky said:

Do you think the old adage from college applications applies here? That if schools think you have a good shot at better ranked programs than them, they'll just reject you upfront, so as not to waste an offer? I used to hear people say this all the time about college and some professional schools (namely, law school), but would be interested to see if that's relevant here too.

Yield protection in polisci programs is much less severe than for law schools and undergrads. Law schools have crazy high incentives to keep their yield rate high because ranking is everything in that world, whereas political science rankings aren't based on yield rate (and aren't even updated yearly lol). Anecdotally, I have heard of professors from potential PhD programs asking an applicants' letter writers about where they had gotten in (and waitlisting instead of accepting based on that), but I think that's rare -- your letter writer and someone on the committee would have to be pretty close to get away with that, and it's not rejecting either. ETA: the post upthread is a great example of this too -- they want to know you have better offers before passing you over. 

 

In PhD admissions, things are somewhat random: like sure, some people get into 80%+ of the top schools they apply to, but a lot of other people at top schools also only got into that one program (or maybe more commonly, got into that one top program and then a couple like 20 ranks lower). Like if I saw someone get into like, Yale but rejected from Wisconsin, I wouldn't assume it's because of yield protection, but rather because committees just evaluated the applicants differently and valued different things. Unlike law schools especially, 90% of the admissions criterion isn't the LSAT/GPA, which are observable to us, so unless you get into all #1-10 but rejected at all #20-30, it's really hard to blame yield protection. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by uncle_socks

[at1109494]

33 minutes ago, sswimky said:

Do you think the old adage from college applications applies here? That if schools think you have a good shot at better ranked programs than them, they'll just reject you upfront, so as not to waste an offer? I used to hear people say this all the time about college and some professional schools (namely, law school), but would be interested to see if that's relevant here too.

I was explicitly told by a T20 PoliSci POI that their school does this. So, I would say it is definitely the case.

[CapTipps]

3 minutes ago, scared_phd said:

Lolll. Guess I will cross GU off my list. I told them all the better offers I have. 

I'm not sure though -- just my experience. But I agree with what you said here before:

23 minutes ago, scared_phd said:

I actually do. If you are not a perfect fit for their program and your application is stellar, they might decide to reject you because their offer might not mean much to you at the end of the day. Or they could simply think you are a much more capable applicant and can easily get offers at much higher ranked places. I think @jjiffyis a good example. @jjiffyLet us know your thoughts man!

I really think that if you are a perfect fit they will admit and fight for you. But if the fit it is not that clear, they'll probably go with a waitlist or rejection?

[sswimky]

8 minutes ago, uncle_socks said:

Yield protection in polisci programs is much less severe than for law schools and undergrads. Law schools have crazy high incentives to keep their yield rate high because ranking is everything in that world, whereas political science rankings aren't based on yield rate (and aren't even updated yearly lol). Anecdotally, I have heard of professors from potential PhD programs asking an applicants' letter writers about where they had gotten in (and waitlisting instead of accepting based on that), but I think that's rare -- your letter writer and someone on the committee would have to be pretty close to get away with that, and it's not rejecting either. ETA: the post upthread is a great example of this too -- they want to know you have better offers before passing you over. 

 

In PhD admissions, things are somewhat random: like sure, some people get into 80%+ of the top schools they apply to, but a lot of other people at top schools also only got into that one program (or maybe more commonly, got into that one top program and then a couple like 20 ranks lower). Like if I saw someone get into like, Yale but rejected from Wisconsin, I wouldn't assume it's because of yield protection, but rather because committees just evaluated the applicants differently and valued different things. Unlike law schools especially, 90% of the admissions criterion isn't the LSAT/GPA, which are observable to us, so unless you get into all #1-10 but rejected at all #20-30, it's really hard to blame yield protection. 

Yeah this makes a lot of sense. I didn't think it would matter much either, but got to thinking of it bc most of my applications had a question asking where else I was applying. I answered honestly bc I didn't think about it, but I'm not sure what they'd want to know that for except to determine roughly where you/think you are as a candidate

[LatinAmericanFootball]

Claiming an acceptance at Vanderbilt! Just got an email from the DGS.

[uncle_socks]

9 minutes ago, CapTipps said:

I really think that if you are a perfect fit they will admit and fight for you. But if the fit it is not that clear, they'll probably go with a waitlist or rejection?

I mean I don't buy the "perfect fit" stuff that much OTOH, like I had gotten into plenty of schools where in hindsight, knowing what I know now, have no idea what I'd do and who I'd work with if I went there. Not to mention, interests change as people progress in the program. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's this fit-potential kind of tradeoff that they're trying to maximize on, but how programs each evaluate fit or potential is kinda idiosyncratic. 

[uncle_socks]

6 minutes ago, sswimky said:

Yeah this makes a lot of sense. I didn't think it would matter much either, but got to thinking of it bc most of my applications had a question asking where else I was applying. I answered honestly bc I didn't think about it, but I'm not sure what they'd want to know that for except to determine roughly where you/think you are as a candidate

I don't think they read too much into this question -- I think it's a general grad school app question, not something the department asked to be on the app or focuses on. Like most people applying to say, UCSD are applying to CHYMPS too, but statistically most of them won't get in: it's not really helpful in that context. 

[jjiffy]

49 minutes ago, scared_phd said:

I actually do. If you are not a perfect fit for their program and your application is stellar, they might decide to reject you because their offer might not mean much to you at the end of the day. Or they could simply think you are a much more capable applicant and can easily get offers at much higher ranked places. I think @jjiffyis a good example. @jjiffyLet us know your thoughts man!

You have summoned me! Its honestly so tough to say. I have acceptances from top 10 and <30 programs, with rejects from great schools like UCSD and and Chicago. I also thought I had strong fits at those two places with potentially weaker fits at some of the highly ranked places, so I am just accepting that I can't divine the intentions of the adcomms. I do think there is a chance that if you are a decent but not stellar fit, and a strong applicant, a good but not amazing place will reject you on the assumption that you are unlikely to accept their offer. Maybe that is the case with me and Madison tbh. 

[Movies_1411]

28 minutes ago, LatinAmericanFootball said:

Claiming an acceptance at Vanderbilt! Just got an email from the DGS.

Hey congrats!! Claiming a waitlist there, will add it to the results page in a bit. Will you consider declining their offer? Just wondering because we have very similar interests, Vanderbilt has an amazing Latam program, so congratulations again!!

[smallcrown]

49 minutes ago, LatinAmericanFootball said:

Claiming an acceptance at Vanderbilt! Just got an email from the DGS.

Congrats. Man - you're balling. 

[sbidyanta]

51 minutes ago, LatinAmericanFootball said:

Claiming an acceptance at Vanderbilt! Just got an email from the DGS.

Congratulations! You are absolutely killing it this cycle! 

[LatinAmericanFootball]

Thank you all! I'm incredibly happy. I certainly did not expect to get this many acceptances from such great schools!

1 hour ago, Movies_1411 said:

Hey congrats!! Claiming a waitlist there, will add it to the results page in a bit. Will you consider declining their offer? Just wondering because we have very similar interests, Vanderbilt has an amazing Latam program, so congratulations again!!

Sure thing! I will probably still wait for their official offer, though, as the email was an unofficial admission. And thanks!

[Lighthopes]

1 hour ago, LatinAmericanFootball said:

Claiming an acceptance at Vanderbilt! Just got an email from the DGS.

Congratulatiooons! And I'm also claiming a Vanderbilt acceptance !! So so happy :)) After getting rejected from UT Austin and Emory I was pretty convinced I wasn't gonna be accepted into any top 20 programs but here we are ! Also focused on CP/Latin America so fit is definitely an important factor. Your reassurance that Vanderbilt CP didn't seem to interview turned out to be correct, ty 

Now a little overwhelmed because I had really warmed up to the idea of going to GWU both because of location (which I would still greatly prefer to Nashville) and the fact there are several professors there that are a great fit. But deciding between the two is a good position to be in and I'm very grateful. 

I also wanted to thank everyone here for your reassurance and advice so far. Checking gradcafe results can become a very obsessive/harmful habit but its been so nice to be a part of this particular forum. Being able to voice random af concerns and thoughts (which I could not handle sharing with my loved ones to the degree we do here) and hearing yours has been very helpful during this time. Sending everyone good vibes and my best wishes and I hope you all get good news soon

[smallcrown]

1 minute ago, Lighthopes said:

Congratulatiooons! And I'm also claiming a Vanderbilt acceptance !! So so happy :)) After getting rejected from UT Austin and Emory I was pretty convinced I wasn't gonna be accepted into any top 20 programs but here we are ! Also focused on CP/Latin America so fit is definitely an important factor. Your reassurance that Vanderbilt CP didn't seem to interview turned out to be correct, ty 

Now a little overwhelmed because I had really warmed up to the idea of going to GWU both because of location (which I would still greatly prefer to Nashville) and the fact there are several professors there that are a great fit. But deciding between the two is a good position to be in and I'm very grateful. 

I also wanted to thank everyone here for your reassurance and advice so far. Checking gradcafe results can become a very obsessive/harmful habit but its been so nice to be a part of this particular forum. Being able to voice random af concerns and thoughts (which I could not handle sharing with my loved ones to the degree we do here) and hearing yours has been very helpful during this time. Sending everyone good vibes and my best wishes and I hope you all get good news soon

Congrats! You still have some more to go and will have heaps of schools to choose from!

[CapTipps]

4 minutes ago, Lighthopes said:

Congratulatiooons! And I'm also claiming a Vanderbilt acceptance !! So so happy :)) After getting rejected from UT Austin and Emory I was pretty convinced I wasn't gonna be accepted into any top 20 programs but here we are ! Also focused on CP/Latin America so fit is definitely an important factor. Your reassurance that Vanderbilt CP didn't seem to interview turned out to be correct, ty 

Now a little overwhelmed because I had really warmed up to the idea of going to GWU both because of location (which I would still greatly prefer to Nashville) and the fact there are several professors there that are a great fit. But deciding between the two is a good position to be in and I'm very grateful. 

I also wanted to thank everyone here for your reassurance and advice so far. Checking gradcafe results can become a very obsessive/harmful habit but its been so nice to be a part of this particular forum. Being able to voice random af concerns and thoughts (which I could not handle sharing with my loved ones to the degree we do here) and hearing yours has been very helpful during this time. Sending everyone good vibes and my best wishes and I hope you all get good news soon

Yaaay! Huge congrats!

[Lighthopes]

8 minutes ago, smallcrown said:

Congrats! You still have some more to go and will have heaps of schools to choose from!

Thank youu, that means a lot ?  You also have many more to hear back from, wishing you the beest

6 minutes ago, CapTipps said:

Yaaay! Huge congrats!

thank youuu ???

[Movies_1411]

21 minutes ago, LatinAmericanFootball said:

Thank you all! I'm incredibly happy. I certainly did not expect to get this many acceptances from such great schools!

Sure thing! I will probably still wait for their official offer, though, as the email was an unofficial admission. And thanks!

Thanks for the response!! That sounds good, I hope i can get accepted from the waitlist, I love their program !! Wondering what are my chances and how many people are placed in the waitlist. Also, I'm so happy to see a lot of people focused on Latin America in the forum this year, like you and @Lighthopes!! Congrats on their acceptances guys, you seem fantastic!! 

[ballofstress]

Congrats to everyone getting good news today! It seems like you all are doing a great job this cycle! 

Has anyone heard back from Illinois in the American subfield? It seems like all the admits on the results page are international.

[Taaya]

Hello everyone, 

Congrats to all those admitted and good luck for those awaiting their hopefully good news. 

I saw this cycle is not as brutal as last year! 

Anyone applied to Canadian schools and any news so far ? i applied to 6 polisci programs there and could not see any updates. 

 

 

[honeymoow]

Claiming Princeton acceptance!

[smallcrown]

1 minute ago, honeymoow said:

Claiming Princeton acceptance!

Nice! Congrats!

[EstherBritoAbrio]

That's amazing! Congratulations! Did you get an email?

[bmo103]

Claiming Rochester acceptance!

[catiecatie]

Also claiming Princeton acceptance!!

[smallcrown]

1 minute ago, bmo103 said:

Claiming Rochester acceptance!

Congrats!

1 minute ago, catiecatie said:

Also claiming Princeton acceptance!!

Congrats to you as well. 

Turns out the day wasn't over yet after all! Woohoo!