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Political Science - Fall 2011 Cycle


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Congrats to the Rochester and Yale admits! amazing news!

In unrelated news I withdrew from IUB and UNC and hope this opens up a spot for others- great programs, just not ideally located for me.

Good luck to all, eagerly awaiting the NY schools... surely NYU by end of the week? anybody know about Columbia too?

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This is pretty surprising. Umich is a great school though, so I hope you're not too worried about it. This ends my lingering pipe-dream that I might have made their waitlist.

@Tufnel and wtncffts. I appreciate the encouragement! NYU's really the only school left amongst the remaining four that I feel I have any chance at. My fit there is good (probably the best of any school, actually), but they've struck me as more competitive than some of the schools I've been de facto rejected from. My only hope is that their extremely high average GRE-Q scores relative to other political science departments reflect an unreasonably and unjustifiably high focus on GRE scores in admissions! If that ends up being the case, maybe I'll have a chance. But as of this point, my focus has shifted from the now minute probability of success this year to planning for next year's applications.

I really don't think fit matters. I was thinking that my best chance was at quatitative schools...but I pretty sure I have a (de facto rejection) from Rochester and Caltech (I put a ton of effort into those apps, i.e. crafted SOP, contacted professors at Rochester, Caltech). However, I actually got into Berkeley and Duke so far...I still have five schools to go....it seems that the process is totally idiosyncratic...I have no idea what to say...just don't give up hope...eventually someone will recognize your abilities.

Last year, I applied to three schools and was rejected by all three, so there is definitely hope for next year (your app exponentially improves)....but don't give up yet...maybe you'll get in where you least expect it :)!!

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Does anyone want to claim the CUNY acceptance? I was expecting them to take a little longer.

I will claim it. I wasn't expecting to hear anything for a few weeks yet, but got the call out of the blue. I was informed that the committee had more or less just finished their deliberations, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was a bit of an early notification. 'Official' letters won't be out for a few more weeks, so I wouldn't sweat it if you haven't heard anything yet.
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I really don't think fit matters. I was thinking that my best chance was at quatitative schools...but I pretty sure I have a (de facto rejection) from Rochester and Caltech (I put a ton of effort into those apps, i.e. crafted SOP, contacted professors at Rochester, Caltech). However, I actually got into Berkeley and Duke so far...I still have five schools to go....it seems that the process is totally idiosyncratic...I have no idea what to say...just don't give up hope...eventually someone will recognize your abilities.

Last year, I applied to three schools and was rejected by all three, so there is definitely hope for next year (your app exponentially improves)....but don't give up yet...maybe you'll get in where you least expect it :)!!

Congrats on those acceptances; Berkeley and Duke are very strong schools, at either of which I'm sure you'd be able to pursue formal theory effectively, and which have strong placement! My thought is that Rochester and Caltech may get applications from every formal political science student, so that it can become difficult to differentiate yourself at that point if you're applying for formal-heavy stuff. Perhaps your application is more unique/stand-out at Berkeley or Duke as a result?

There are a couple of very clearly defined ways in which my application will improve for next year, so I know I'll have a better chance then. It would have been nice to get in now and not have to worry about applying next year, and getting rejected starts to raise those nagging worries about what would happen if I don't ever get into a Ph.D program, but all in all, it's not the end of the world.

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No love for me in the latest rounds of acceptances... but I'm not too sad because I have some great options to choose from. The only school I'm still really anxious to hear from is MIT. I know they've sent out acceptances by mail in the past. Does anybody happen to know how far along they are this year with making their decisions?

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Congrats on those acceptances; Berkeley and Duke are very strong schools, at either of which I'm sure you'd be able to pursue formal theory effectively, and which have strong placement! My thought is that Rochester and Caltech may get applications from every formal political science student, so that it can become difficult to differentiate yourself at that point if you're applying for formal-heavy stuff. Perhaps your application is more unique/stand-out at Berkeley or Duke as a result?

There are a couple of very clearly defined ways in which my application will improve for next year, so I know I'll have a better chance then. It would have been nice to get in now and not have to worry about applying next year, and getting rejected starts to raise those nagging worries about what would happen if I don't ever get into a Ph.D program, but all in all, it's not the end of the world.

Thanks! Uniqueness probably played a role. But, I pursued a different strategy for quantitative versus qualitative schools which may have backfired on me with regards to quant schools. For qualitative schools, I stressed my ability to do socio-political analysis and my knowledge of the current comparative literature. I really worked to show my ability in both qualitative and quantitative pol sci. They were not very focused applications (which I thought was a mistake, but maybe it turned out to be a strength). However, my quant apps were very focused (only quant skills) ... My quantitative SOP I tried to really push the boundary of pol sci by integrating algorithms. I also had different recommenders...(for qualitative schools more political scientists). I did not know what would work so I threw out a large net and tried to diversify the schools I was applying to and my strategy....

I completely know how you feel this year...I felt the exact same way last year....don't give up hope yet!!...but if you don't get in this year...it's not the end of the world, it's not even a very bad day!!....think about it...you are competing with people who have gone through this process and failed...so they have more experience, knowledge of the process, and time....it's not an equal playing field...so if you don't get in this year, trust me...it has nothing to do with your talent in pol sci....just with your ability to sell your talents...you can improve your "marketing" skills....in the meantime, get a new perspective, explore something new, and really think about why you want a PhD (even if it means that you may not find a decent job)...you may find that the linear path...is not always the shortest, best road to your dreams...Good Luck (really don't give up hope yet)!!!....All kinds of crazy things happen in grad admissions...

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Anyone knows what's up with UMass Amherst? They gave out few acceptances early this month, earlier than they usually did in previous years. But then, their acceptances are spread out through February and March.

Edited by mormegil
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Congrats, NYU admits!! I haven't heard, so I guess that is a bad sign. Ah well, still waiting on the rest of my apps, so i wont give up hope... yet!

For the NYU admits, nothing specific, but what do your stats and backgrounds look like? In case i need to go through this process all over again next year....

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On 2/17/2011 at 10:18 AM, Beach Bum said:

No love for me in the latest rounds of acceptances... but I'm not too sad because I have some great options to choose from. The only school I'm still really anxious to hear from is MIT. I know they've sent out acceptances by mail in the past. Does anybody happen to know how far along they are this year with making their decisions?

I'm also nervous to hear back from MIT. And I really think MIT needs to do a better job in replying to prospective students. When I applied to themI had trouble with getting official transcripts at the beginning, so I sent out an unofficial transcript to their grad program coordinator and explained the situation, yet received no reply. One week later I mailed out the official ones and emailed the coordinator again, still no reply. Two weeks later I emailed AGAIN asking if they've got my transcripts. And of course, still no reply!

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Anyone claiming the Yale acceptance from today? Was the email actually from today, or is that just when it was posted?

I had an acceptance call from a Yale professor this morning. Great surprise, since I didn't hear anything from them yesterday and have been rejected from Northwestern, which I thought had a better chance both in terms of perceived fit and competitiveness. I hope you hear a good news soon!

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Maybe not many posts left....hmm T.T

I had an acceptance call from a Yale professor this morning. Great surprise, since I didn't hear anything from them yesterday and have been rejected from Northwestern, which I thought had a better chance both in terms of perceived fit and competitiveness. I hope you hear a good news soon!

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