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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?

Oh good, I'm still waiting to hear back from UNC <_<

Congrats to the folks who have been getting recent admission notices.

I'm making my first trip to a prospective university in a few weeks. It'll also be the first time I will be flying somewhere :blink:

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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!

Their admissions website was a hot mess, too.

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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...

Randomness always plays a part, but even techy schools and techy scholars want to see students who will be able to have an impact on (and get hired by) the larger field. Some students just throw around a bunch of advanced methodologies they learned in some class, but give no evidence that they might actually apply them in interesting ways to important topics. The best technical applicants wear their technical skills lightly--good grades in hard classes (plus a 760+ math GRE) communicates the technical competence, while the SOP and the letters from political scientists present a picture of a scholar and intellectual.

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Some of you have held out hope for applying again next year. I wouldn't rule it out, but for your application to do much better, something major has to change. For instance, you did a great senior thesis this year and now have a prof who says you walk on water. Or you pursued advanced Arabic study in Egypt and also made a bunch of friends while hanging out in Tahrir Square. Or you did a very techy MA program like the Columbia QMSS program and stood out.

If, by contrast, all you'll have done is polished your application essays and pumped up your GRE scores by a hundred points with a tutor, don't expect a drastically different outcome. You might get lucky, because there is always a lot of randomness in this process, but probably you'll just do a little bit better. You might also do worse, if your activities this year were not that impressive, or if we recognize your application and realize this means all of our peer institutions must have rejected you last year, too.

My intention here isn't to be mean, but poli sci is a tough field to get ahead in so if you fail this year you should really consider whether there is something else in the world you might enjoy doing.

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Hey everyone, it's not over till it's over... just got an acceptance from UCSD. The same deal as the previous ones -- no email, just through the website, with an invitation to the open house. Glad I somehow had the impulse to check again, because I had really given up.

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Some of you have held out hope for applying again next year. I wouldn't rule it out, but for your application to do much better, something major has to change. For instance, you did a great senior thesis this year and now have a prof who says you walk on water. Or you pursued advanced Arabic study in Egypt and also made a bunch of friends while hanging out in Tahrir Square. Or you did a very techy MA program like the Columbia QMSS program and stood out.

If, by contrast, all you'll have done is polished your application essays and pumped up your GRE scores by a hundred points with a tutor, don't expect a drastically different outcome. You might get lucky, because there is always a lot of randomness in this process, but probably you'll just do a little bit better. You might also do worse, if your activities this year were not that impressive, or if we recognize your application and realize this means all of our peer institutions must have rejected you last year, too.

My intention here isn't to be mean, but poli sci is a tough field to get ahead in so if you fail this year you should really consider whether there is something else in the world you might enjoy doing.

This is just plain false. I know of several people who were shut out one year and had to choose between several offers (often from the same schools that had rejected them) the year after. Statements of purpose can be improved, as can letters and writing samples, not to mention GRE scores. Finally, the situation at the schools you're applying to can change as well.

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Hey everyone, it's not over till it's over... just got an acceptance from UCSD. The same deal as the previous ones -- no email, just through the website, with an invitation to the open house. Glad I somehow had the impulse to check again, because I had really given up.

Would you mind sharing the funding package they offered? You mentioned the same deal as before, but I couldn't find what others reported. Also, mine was lower than other schools, so I'm curious if it's the same for everyone.

Edited by Viking
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Would you mind sharing the funding package they offered? You mentioned the same deal as before, but I couldn't find what others reported. Also, mine was lower than other schools, so I'm curious if it's the same for everyone.

Yeah, check your PMs.

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"The Department of Government at Cornell University is progressing along with the review of 393 applicant files. We will notify students that are accepted via e-mail immediately and all others will be sent a letter around the 2nd week in March.

Best of wishes and good luck to everyone!"

Edited by Purled
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Cornell's about to send out acceptance emails.

Just received this:

The Department of Government at Cornell University is progressing along with the review of 393 applicant files. All applicants should of been contacted on rather their file is complete or not. If you have not heard, please send me an e-mail. We will notify students that are accepted via e-mail immediately and all others will be sent a letter around the 2nd week in March.

Best of wishes and good luck to everyone!

I got this email as well, but direct correspondence with the dept (as recent as today) has told me otherwise... admits notified in the first week of March, everyone else second week. I think "immediately" here means "immediately after the committee finishes their deliberations in early March." It'd be nice if something has changed though.
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I got this email as well, but direct correspondence with the dept (as recent as today) has told me otherwise... admits notified in the first week of March, everyone else second week. I think "immediately" here means "immediately after the committee finishes their deliberations in early March." It'd be nice if something has changed though.

Yeah, this began to occur to me as I re-read it - I think it was the accidental use of "rather" for "whether" that made me slow down and digest this a bit.

Itchy trigger finger this time of year.

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This is just plain false. I know of several people who were shut out one year and had to choose between several offers (often from the same schools that had rejected them) the year after. Statements of purpose can be improved, as can letters and writing samples, not to mention GRE scores. Finally, the situation at the schools you're applying to can change as well.

I'd call his comment less "false" than "misleading but with an underlying and unspoken truth." The advice to seriously reconsider whether this is something one really, really, really wants to do is solid. Academia can be fickle, sometimes cruel and sometimes a delight. For all the great moments we have in it, it will also ask very, very unacceptable things from all of us at one time or another. Given that, one has to truly love it to go in and remain intact. Asking whether this is absolutely, positively what you want to do, and whether you might not be happy elsewhere is a wise move. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the OP knows this and the advice given is with that in mind.

All that said, I agree with you that the surface statement that the application has to change dramatically is a gross generalization (true in some cases, not in others). Thankfully, I've got at least one acceptance under my belt this time around, so I don't have to worry about it. Even so, I'm considering dropping a line to some of the committees that rejected me to find out whether there was a particular weakness with the application or whether it was a matter of a great application and just not the right time. I figure knowing that will help me with future grant or fellowship proposals. Seems like anyone who strikes out might benefit from doing the same, give themselves a specific plan of attack for the next go-round.

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Even so, I'm considering dropping a line to some of the committees that rejected me to find out whether there was a particular weakness with the application or whether it was a matter of a great application and just not the right time. I figure knowing that will help me with future grant or fellowship proposals. Seems like anyone who strikes out might benefit from doing the same, give themselves a specific plan of attack for the next go-round.

Just curious: how exactly does one 'drop a line' to the admissions committee? Would that be an email to the grad administrator? Or would it be directed at a specific professor? I think the contact for feedback is definitely good advice, but I'd like to know if anyone here has done it successfully in the past, and if so, how.

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Just curious: how exactly does one 'drop a line' to the admissions committee? Would that be an email to the grad administrator? Or would it be directed at a specific professor? I think the contact for feedback is definitely good advice, but I'd like to know if anyone here has done it successfully in the past, and if so, how.

I'll probably call the grad administrator and explain what I am hoping to do/learn and ask for their opinion on whether anyone on the committee would be willing to oblige and, if so, who would be the right person to approach. Although I haven't initiated this particular request before, in other similar such scenarios (asking for advice, who to contact, etc.) the person usually has a suggestion on who to talk to and even initiates the conversation by forwarding an email or providing a formal introduction.

Faculty are often busy and it's not a given they will have time to do this, which is why I would approach the admin staff first to find out whether to proceed.

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I think the key here is that something substantial has to change from one year to the next. If all you plan to do is polish up a previously sent application, then you should not expect a different outcome. With that said, another year of course work combined with a higher GRE score, a published paper, and a more polished SOP can make a difference. Anyway, just my two cents.

I'd call his comment less "false" than "misleading but with an underlying and unspoken truth." The advice to seriously reconsider whether this is something one really, really, really wants to do is solid. Academia can be fickle, sometimes cruel and sometimes a delight. For all the great moments we have in it, it will also ask very, very unacceptable things from all of us at one time or another. Given that, one has to truly love it to go in and remain intact. Asking whether this is absolutely, positively what you want to do, and whether you might not be happy elsewhere is a wise move. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the OP knows this and the advice given is with that in mind.

All that said, I agree with you that the surface statement that the application has to change dramatically is a gross generalization (true in some cases, not in others). Thankfully, I've got at least one acceptance under my belt this time around, so I don't have to worry about it. Even so, I'm considering dropping a line to some of the committees that rejected me to find out whether there was a particular weakness with the application or whether it was a matter of a great application and just not the right time. I figure knowing that will help me with future grant or fellowship proposals. Seems like anyone who strikes out might benefit from doing the same, give themselves a specific plan of attack for the next go-round.

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