Political Science - Fall 2011 Cycle

[wtncffts]

Sorry, man. You must have other places you felt more strongly about?

BTW, I'd call that you get in somewhere great still. I was right about Tufnel and I'll be right about you.

Thanks for the encouragement. There are others I feel more confident in, but I also think I'm just numb right now. It may kick in later.

[RWBG]

I should note, my skepticism of the local food "movement" does not entail a skepticism for particular elements of local food. I completely agree that there are instances where knowing a particularly strong local source can insure you have access to better food, and sometimes for cheaper. My main opposition to it as a "movement" relates to its universalism; a more rational approach to me would not be to say "buy local food" more broadly, but to make choices on a case by case basis dependent on the sources in question and associated costs.

I definitely think that per-unit costs (environmental and otherwise) is the appropriate way to look at agricultural cost accounting, not per-acre. And while accounting in these instances might be difficult, people still do it to some extent, and the results usually don't support the locavore movement.

http://agecon.ucdavi...les/v13n2_2.pdf

Finally, I'm not sure if spreading production is necessarily the best idea. Sure, if you want to grow some food yourself and use your unused lawn to do so, you can get food at no cost without creating added environmental costs (assuming you don't take into account your own labor as a cost...) But agriculture seems to be subject to some pretty strong economies of scale, so in terms of the larger food production system, personal gardens are unlikely to have empirical significance.

In a bit of a different/potentially more controversial direction, given growing populations/growing demand for food, I think people should be focusing on increasing production efficiency. Locavorists tend to advocate for things to move in the opposite direction.

Anyways, not to get the discussion sidetracked from stressing over admissions!

[mcmanos]

I posted my Northwestern rejection. First one. Hurts, but not overly despondent.

Sorry to hear. Good luck with other applications!

Thanks for claiming the survey report, I take me doubts back.

[Croasyjr]

In at UT Austin. It came via email. No details on funding yet.

[Rodao]

In at UT Austin. It came via email. No details on funding yet.

Oh gosh! They are sending out acceptances?

What's your subfield?

[Livio88]

In at University of Texas - Austin. Weird "collective" email. No funding info

Subfield Formal Theory

[Rodao]

Argh, still nothing from Austin. Starting to get worried.

[GopherGrad]

Finally, I'm not sure if spreading production is necessarily the best idea. Sure, if you want to grow some food yourself and use your unused lawn to do so, you can get food at no cost without creating added environmental costs (assuming you don't take into account your own labor as a cost...) But agriculture seems to be subject to some pretty strong economies of scale, so in terms of the larger food production system, personal gardens are unlikely to have empirical significance.

I've not read a lot one way or the other, but I don't know that leveraging economies of scale necessarily requires that we take a contiguous 1000 hectares and use it to raise wheat. Then use it to raise wheat again. Then again. And again.

I know that some areas are better than others in terms of soil and weather, but not so much so that some crop rotation and diversification erodes the advantage of size. It means capital investment, but that might pay off if it means farming the same land an extra hundred years. Minnesota is hugely fertile, but farming is on the decline here in favor of Mexico and California. There's no way that would be the case (at least in summer) if there were a price for carbon.

Part of my disagreement here stems from the fact that large companies will chase competitive advantage only to find that the advantage wears through faster than expected. Ask the wheat conglomerates that chased the Murray-Darling boom and now have salted fields if the move was worth it. History is replete with examples of humans arriving in a bountiful land only to find that a couple generations of farming strip the soil of value. Ecological appearances can be deceiving.

[secretly_yes]

I definitely know what you mean (as I think most of us do). It just bugs me that things are so totally in limbo. I've woken up the last two nights at six in the morning (after dreaming about getting admissions letters, I kid you not) to check my email. But at least it will all be over in a few weeks, and then in the Fall we'll all be in school laughing about this process (probably in between tears at the insane grad student workload, but victory is victory: ).

I keep waking up after crazy nightmares too! I keep seeing the little red Blackberry light blink in my sleep telling me I have an awful e-mail.

I hope, hope, hope, hope that you are right and that come September we will all be laughing about this from our respective schools.

Buena suerte!

[Croasyjr]

Oh gosh! They are sending out acceptances?

What's your subfield?

I'm Comparative.

[explodingstressball]

! I keep seeing the little red Blackberry light blink in my sleep telling me I have an awful e-mail.

I keep waking up because I've had a dream that my iPhone is buzzing because someone is calling me to welcome me to my dream school.

[morningglory]

I am making a pitch for my town: DC has excellent food. I have lived here for three and a half years and found the food here wonderful. There's farmers' markets if you are a talented cook (I am not) and lots of options for the culinary-ly challenged, like myself.

In case any of you end up coming to DC, my favorite restaurant here is Founding Farmers. It's a block from the World Bank in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. They get all organic, fresh food and they make everything from scratch- even ketchup! It's owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union or something like that. It's a little expensive but definitely worth it.

seconded on all accounts! i live in DC as well and there are some excellent finds. i too looooove founding farmers. secretly_yes, have you been to farmers and fishers (their sister restaurant) in gtown yet? i've heard it's as good as ff, if not better.

[tomsmonticello]

seconded on all accounts! i live in DC as well and there are some excellent finds. i too looooove founding farmers. secretly_yes, have you been to farmers and fishers (their sister restaurant) in gtown yet? i've heard it's as good as ff, if not better.

Here's a third...I spent a summer in DC a couple years ago and didn't live far from Founding Farmers. It was certainly my favorite spot in town. But there are all kinds of nice little restaurants throughout the city and it's a relatively easy city to navigate.

[RWBG]

I've not read a lot one way or the other, but I don't know that leveraging economies of scale necessarily requires that we take a contiguous 1000 hectares and use it to raise wheat. Then use it to raise wheat again. Then again. And again.

I know that some areas are better than others in terms of soil and weather, but not so much so that some crop rotation and diversification erodes the advantage of size. It means capital investment, but that might pay off if it means farming the same land an extra hundred years. Minnesota is hugely fertile, but farming is on the decline here in favor of Mexico and California. There's no way that would be the case (at least in summer) if there were a price for carbon.

Part of my disagreement here stems from the fact that large companies will chase competitive advantage only to find that the advantage wears through faster than expected. Ask the wheat conglomerates that chased the Murray-Darling boom and now have salted fields if the move was worth it. History is replete with examples of humans arriving in a bountiful land only to find that a couple generations of farming strip the soil of value. Ecological appearances can be deceiving.

Well, we're the reaching the limits of what my knowledge of agriculture/agricultural economics would allow me to comment on substantively. My vague impressions are that there are instances in which modern agricultural techniques have been applied incorrectly, leading to long term costs that are more significant than the short term benefits, but that there isn't generally a huge amount of evidence to suggest that a lot of the current practices being used are likely to leave the land unusable a few years from now. But I don't have a lot to back that up.

In terms of carbon pricing; sure, but the accounting should also take into account pretty massive domestic farm subsidies, gasoline taxes, etc. I'm not sure if taking into account all those factors into account, whether the lack of carbon pricing is actually enough to show domestic producers are disadvantaged relative to foreign producers, were all the externalities accounted for.

Good discussion! Although I'm not necessarily convinced, your arguments are not unreasonable. Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to empirical questions that I lack to knowledge to answer one way or another.

[RWBG]

Sorry, man. You must have other places you felt more strongly about?

BTW, I'd call that you get in somewhere great still. I was right about Tufnel and I'll be right about you.

GG, you seem pretty sharp, and I'd feel optimistic about your chances as well. I don't know what schools you applied to, but I have a feeling your SOP would be pretty convincing, and from what I read in your other thread, your stats are not uncompetitive. I think a number of law schools mark on pretty hard curves, and grad schools are likely to know that; I know the average entering GPA for the law school at my school was a 3.85, but grades at the school were curved to a 2.7-3.0.

[yinumzhou`]

The results page for political science shows some.

Where can I find the results page? I can't find it.

[RWBG]

Where can I find the results page? I can't find it.

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=(politics|government|political)

[Wishing and Hoping]

I keep waking up because I've had a dream that my iPhone is buzzing because someone is calling me to welcome me to my dream school.

I love the thread in the Waiting forum just about the various admissions-related dreams people have had. It's always nice to know one is not alone in one's neurosis. And super good luck to you too secretly_yes (and to all of us).

[explodingstressball]

I love the thread in the Waiting forum just about the various admissions-related dreams people have had. It's always nice to know one is not alone in one's neurosis. And super good luck to you too secretly_yes (and to all of us).

Yes, I replied to one about off hours responses, and the general consensus was that NO ONE!!!! ever got a response on the weekends, or late at night. They were kind of stunned with by 11.36 pm on a Saturday acceptance e-mail.

[yinumzhou`]

http://www.thegradca...ment|political)

Thanks. I didn't find any results of Wisconsin on the first three pages though. But I came across several offers of UC Berkeley. So anxious.

[GopherGrad]

Good discussion! Although I'm not necessarily convinced, your arguments are not unreasonable. Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to empirical questions that I lack to knowledge to answer one way or another.

I agree. I think one of the first things I learned when looking into these issues is that there aren't a lot of reliable, easy answers. The irony of my critique of Noma's book (at least the parts of it that relate to it's implicit promise of sustainable practice) is that in the end I'm following my gut, too.

Thanks for your encouragement about my application. If adcomms are aware of how law schools grade, I might yet be in for a pleasant surprise. If not, I'll have to decide if I want to reboot this process or start a rip-off Noma in the Twin Cities.

[balderdash]

It's like a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie.

Law school? That was in a NYT article recently about it being one great ponzi scheme, yes?

I didn't apply to Northwestern or UT Austin, but the best of luck to you all - having been on edge about Stanford all of last week, I can empathize with you guys.

[explodingstressball]

Law school? That was in a NYT article recently about it being one great ponzi scheme, yes?

There have been several articles about law schools in the past few weeks along the same line.

[Wishing and Hoping]

Yes, I replied to one about off hours responses, and the general consensus was that NO ONE!!!! ever got a response on the weekends, or late at night. They were kind of stunned with by 11.36 pm on a Saturday acceptance e-mail.

And logically this would stop me from waking up in the middle of the night and groping around in the dark for my phone. But then I worked out the highly-convenient justification of the time difference (I'm on the west coast). And schools might send out mass emails at 7am east coast time...maybe...ok it's not very likely, but you never know! But I like the all caps, bold, underlined and italicized 'no one!!". Luckily my compulsive email checking is now totally immune to things like "logic" or "reason". I mean, c'mon.

[explodingstressball]

(I'm on the west coast).

Not to feed the vicious troll that is your obsession (at least that is how I describe my own), it was 11 pm West Coast time. And the school is also on the West Coast.

Rawr.