2022-2023 Application Thread

[Gabbiew]

8 hours ago, randomsinging said:

I can tell Michigan has compelled their final short list, but I'm not sure about whether they'll send out offer letters this week.

Thanks for sharing such important information! When do you hear of this? The last week or this week?

[randomsinging]

11 minutes ago, Gabbiew said:

Thanks for sharing such important information! When do you hear of this? The last week or this week?

Later last week.

[TerribleTowel]

1 hour ago, iskander said:

Thanks for the info! but damn, 19 programs?? I felt like I had no life for months and was going way overboard with 12 lol, good on you for putting in that much work, hope it pays off

Ha, thanks! Well, I probably went overboard because I'm coming from an economics background - in econ it is typical to apply to at least 30 programs. Applying to 25 would be on the low end.  ?

[randomsinging]

2 minutes ago, TerribleTowel said:

Ha, thanks! Well, I probably went overboard because I'm coming from an economics background - in econ it is typical to apply to at least 30 programs. Applying to 25 would be on the low end.  ?

I also apply to more than 30 programs! It's maybe just my insecurity that pushed me to do so...

[juliacar]

Oh my goodness yes so expensive. Preparing for and taking the GRE alone was close to $750 and then an average of $100 in app fees per school… legit criminal 

[coffeeman123]

Anyone else get the email from UChicago talking about their certificate programs and think that they had an interview? Just me? Lol 

[Tutankhamun]

6 minutes ago, randomsinging said:

I also apply to more than 30 programs! It's maybe just my insecurity that pushed me to do so...

I thought I had applied for a bunch of places hahaha

[TerribleTowel]

3 minutes ago, randomsinging said:

I also apply to more than 30 programs! It's maybe just my insecurity that pushed me to do so...

Yeah, I feel you. You should definitely get some good results given how many applications you put out!

To everyone who submitted fewer apps - don't stress out too much, seems like @randomsinging and I are outliers. In the end, you only need one program to work out, right?  So hopefully all those applications aren't necessary. In hindsight, I wish I had applied to fewer programs.

[randomsinging]

7 minutes ago, juliacar said:

Oh my goodness yes so expensive. Preparing for and taking the GRE alone was close to $750 and then an average of $100 in app fees per school… legit criminal 

Yep! More than $3,000! I was bankrupted! Cancelled all my holiday trips and had to cook at home...

[juliacar]

4 minutes ago, coffeeman123 said:

Anyone else get the email from UChicago talking about their certificate programs and think that they had an interview? Just me? Lol 

I got the email and also got excited. I didn’t even apply there lmao 

[randomsinging]

3 minutes ago, TerribleTowel said:

Yeah, I feel you. You should definitely get some good results given how many applications you put out!

To everyone who submitted fewer apps - don't stress out too much, seems like @randomsinging and I are outliers. In the end, you only need one program to work out, right?  So hopefully all those applications aren't necessary. In hindsight, I wish I had applied to fewer programs.

Yep I agree. I don't think it's usual the case that polisci students apply for more than 20 schools. So, no worries and keep our fingers crossed!

[Gabbiew]

A little venting in here. Let's honest, this whole process is like borderline mental torture, and the admission committees are to blame. Unlike a job application, we all paid the alleged "application fee". Some of us have to spend extra dollars sending out official test scores to the graduate schools. The least these programs can do is to provide a timeline for every step of their admission process, like when the shortlist will be finalized, when the acceptances will come out, and when people rejected will be officially notified. A little more transparency and communication here would make a whole lot of difference to the applicants whose mental heath clearly suffers from the radio silence without a clear vision for their decisions. Some programs, like Notre Dame or Vanderbilt, have the basic decency to do this but sadly most don't.

Also, the decision-making process is egregiously slow for most programs. Most application deadlines are set between Dec 1 and Dec 20, yet fist round of decisions usually won't come out until the February. Do they really need roughly two month to settle a shortlist from like 200-400 applicants? Again, we paid the applicant fee and thereby deserve better treatment from the admission committee. If WUSTL can finish their review in one week, I don't think there should be too much technical difficulty for other programs.

More transparency, better communication, and a reasonable speed. That''s all I ask for. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Gabbiew

[juliacar]

Hopefully we get some good news tomorrow (BU WHERE ARE YOU??) but at this point I might pass out if I keep holding my breath

Edited January 31, 2023 by juliacar
Spelling

[randomsinging]

6 minutes ago, Gabbiew said:

A little venting in here. Let's honest, this whole process is like borderline mental torture, and the admission committees are to blame. Unlike a job application, we all paid the alleged "application fee". Some of us have to spend extra dollars sending out official test scores to the graduate schools. The least these programs can do is to provide a timeline for every step of their admission process, like when the shortlist will be finalized, when the acceptances will come out, and when people rejected will be officially notified. A little more transparency and communication here would make a whole lot of difference to the applicants whose mental heath clearly suffers from the radio silence without a clear vision for their decisions. Some programs, like Notre Dame or Vanderbilt, have the basic decency to do this but sadly most don't.

Also, the decision-making process is egregiously slow for most programs. Most application deadlines are set between Dec 1 and Dec 20, yet fist round of decisions usually won't come out until the February. Do they really need roughly two month to settle a shortlist from like 200-400 applicants? Again, we paid the applicant fee and thereby deserve better treatment from the admission committee. If WUSTL can finish their review in one week, I don't think there should be too much technical difficulty for other programs.

More transparency, better communication, and a reasonable speed. That''s all I ask for. 

I TOTALLY AGREE. I mean we pay the fees and adhere to the deadlines. Why can't these schools just be more efficient and set a firm deadline of sending out results?

[politicallygrad]

11 minutes ago, juliacar said:

I got the email and also got excited. I didn’t even apply there lmao 

Same. They have been sending some random mails for a while. I did not apply also. Looks like they are trying to enlarge the applicant pool

[politicallygrad]

14 minutes ago, Gabbiew said:

A little venting in here. Let's honest, this whole process is like borderline mental torture, and the admission committees are to blame. Unlike a job application, we all paid the alleged "application fee". Some of us have to spend extra dollars sending out official test scores to the graduate schools. The least these programs can do is to provide a timeline for every step of their admission process, like when the shortlist will be finalized, when the acceptances will come out, and when people rejected will be officially notified. A little more transparency and communication here would make a whole lot of difference to the applicants whose mental heath clearly suffers from the radio silence without a clear vision for their decisions. Some programs, like Notre Dame or Vanderbilt, have the basic decency to do this but sadly most don't.

Also, the decision-making process is egregiously slow for most programs. Most application deadlines are set between Dec 1 and Dec 20, yet fist round of decisions usually won't come out until the February. Do they really need roughly two month to settle a shortlist from like 200-400 applicants? Again, we paid the applicant fee and thereby deserve better treatment from the admission committee. If WUSTL can finish their review in one week, I don't think there should be too much technical difficulty for other programs.

More transparency, better communication, and a reasonable speed. That''s all I ask for. 

That is so true. At this point I feel like it is a spillover effect. Some programs took forever to do it and it spread like disease. ? Nobody feels the responsibility to take the decisions within a reasonable timeframe. There is no accountability or transparency. Also, half of the applicants probably get eliminated from objectively poor application, lack of documents etc.

 

I mean I am quite sure I am not on the short list of each and every program that I have applied to. These programs could easily send out rejections very quickly. This whole thing is expensive, mentally draining, and does not welcome such a bright future for the short term (given the stipends). My professors told me that doing a PhD was madness, I think applying is the mad part to begin with.

Edit: gramma(e?)r

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by politicallygrad

[juliacar]

My mentor told me that if I wanted to do a PhD, he would spend 2 hours telling me how awful it is and then if at the end of it I agreed that it was awful and still wanted to do it, then I was allowed to lmao 

[politicallygrad]

3 minutes ago, juliacar said:

My mentor told me that if I wanted to do a PhD, he would spend 2 hours telling me how awful it is and then if at the end of it I agreed that it was awful and still wanted to do it, then I was allowed to lmao 

Mine did a quite similar thing. I am a senior undergrad so I also apply for masters in Europe and several scholarships. I am sick of asking the professors to upload the references, constantly reminding them of the deadlines making everything coordinated, de writing my SOP for the millionth time, mailing the admission offices for site breakdowns etc. This feels like the longest year in my life. If nothing happens then I will apply for jobs or internships but I keep myself doing it rn because I wait for decisions to come out. Sorry for the whole nagging but I am really so damn tired...

 

[okiedokie.....]

For those folks who have received some results, did the decision come from the department or the graduate school? I asked an admission officer at Emory by email. He/she said the official admission decision will come from the graduate school around Feb 6. Not sure this is the case everywhere or not, but do all decision emails come from the graduate school? On the result page, some posts said the results came from DGS/DGA. Does this refer to the grad school or the department? 

Edited January 31, 2023 by okiedokie.....

[TerribleTowel]

13 minutes ago, okiedokie..... said:

For those folks who have received some results, did the decision come from the department or the graduate school? I asked an admission officer at Emory by email. He/she said the official admission decision will come from the graduate school around Feb 6. Not sure this is the case everywhere or not, but do all decision emails come from the graduate school? On the result page, some posts said the results came from DGS/DGA. Does this refer to the grad school or the department? 

I received an informal acceptance at WUSTL via the department. The official acceptance will come from the graduate school, but it has yet to arrive. There is a lot of bureaucracy involved in university admissions, so it isn't necessarily the fault of the departments that decisions take so long to arrive. The fast decisions seem to come from departments that offer informal acceptances before the formal results come out later.

Thanks for the update on Emory! Hope we get some additional results in the meantime

[new display name]

39 minutes ago, okiedokie..... said:

For those folks who have received some results, did the decision come from the department or the graduate school? I asked an admission officer at Emory by email. He/she said the official admission decision will come from the graduate school around Feb 6. Not sure this is the case everywhere or not, but do all decision emails come from the graduate school? On the result page, some posts said the results came from DGS/DGA. Does this refer to the grad school or the department? 

I received 3 acceptance notifications at this stage; for 2 schools, I received nothing from the DGS before I was notified to check portals; for one school, I received an email congratulating me on my acceptance into their program before I received the official letter on the portal. I think this depends on schools. 

[qampus]

Schools don’t give a crap about anyone or anything. Their logic is simple: Don’t like something? Don’t apply.

Also, they could have specified desired applicants’ profiles on their admission requirements page: research interests, skills, publications, etc. However, they don’t do so because they want to get as much free money as possible. Even those who neither fit the program nor satisfy the guaranteed admission requirements end up applying (kheh, spending money, I mean) - just in case. Maybe I’ll get lucky. Maybe the cycle is not as tough this year…

Edited January 31, 2023 by qampus

[polyglotaspiring]

Hi all,

I was part of the last application cycle and have friends applying this year so I remembered how anxious I was around this time. If it helps, I dug up the notification emails for all of the schools I applied to and checked the date:

UC Berkeley: 2/7 (Monday)

Stanford: 2/24 (Friday)

UC Irvine 2/9 (Wednesday)

UC Davis: 2/4 (Friday)

UCLA: 2/9 (Wednesday)

USC: 3/1 (Wednesday)

NYU: 3/22 (Super late, but I was accepted to the Master's only and I think the Ph.D. acceptances got notified before)

Good luck to everyone and congrats to those already accepted! If anyone has any questions about those schools above or the process / first-year experience in general, I would be down to chat. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by polyglotaspiring

[Senochka]

5 hours ago, coffeeman123 said:

Anyone else get the email from UChicago talking about their certificate programs and think that they had an interview? Just me? Lol 

Experienced this with Northeastern last night. The title said "Graduate Admissions", and I put a lot of effort into stopping my hands from trembling to click. When I finally opened the email, it was some promotional shit about some summer program. Felt scammed.

5 hours ago, randomsinging said:

I also apply to more than 30 programs! It's maybe just my insecurity that pushed me to do so...

OMG, I admire your perseverance so much. I was physically, mentally, and financially drained only after a dozen.

[caa_17]

For those of you who haven't been accepted to OSU, does the status on the buckeye portal says "pending"?

Mine does and I don't know if it will be a rejection or a waitlist. I was interviewed and basically they only ask me to which other universities I applied and where did OSU rank on that list, which was a little weird.