2023-2024 Application Thread

[fizzan]

Yeah I hear admissions rates have been extra low across the board!

Congrats on Rice, it's a cool programme!!

[Maverickz]

  On 2/2/2024 at 4:21 PM, fizzan said:

Yeah I hear admissions rates have been extra low across the board!

Congrats on Rice, it's a cool programme!!

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What could be the reason for this change?

[24App]

Did anyone apply to Duke's political institutions subfield and get noticed? I saw two Duke acceptances yesterday but haven't heard anything

[miss-walker]

I know I saw UNC acceptances on the results page but has anyone here heard from? 

[OrlandHistorian]

  On 2/2/2024 at 4:55 PM, Maverickz said:

What could be the reason for this change?

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Lack of funding most likely 

[amp2324]

Claiming Boston rejection. Congrats to everyone who got in!

[fizzan]

  On 2/2/2024 at 4:55 PM, Maverickz said:

What could be the reason for this change?

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Like most time this happens - post 2008, during COVID etc - it's bc the economy is bad and people are going back to school 

[politicalscience33]

With the utmost peace and love, and understandable as political science, past trends do not matter and change from year to year. I don't want to hear you all sound so dejected before even hearing from a program. This is a reminder to myself, too; you do not know until you know!

[jce8491]

  On 2/2/2024 at 5:25 PM, fizzan said:

Like most time this happens - post 2008, during COVID etc - it's bc the economy is bad and people are going back to school 

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At least in America, the economy isn't bad, though. Unemployment is quite low. From what I read on Reddit, it seems like more people are applying because the system is more accessible to both domestic and international students now.

[Ir2024]

Anyone claiming the Minnesota acceptance?

[Maverickz]

  On 2/2/2024 at 5:25 PM, fizzan said:

Like most time this happens - post 2008, during COVID etc - it's bc the economy is bad and people are going back to school 

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This is serious.

[barthestow]

  On 2/2/2024 at 5:40 PM, jce8491 said:

At least in America, the economy isn't bad, though. Unemployment is quite low. From what I read on Reddit, it seems like more people are applying because the system is more accessible to both domestic and international students now.

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doubt a lot of people in the states are clamoring for a phd in humanities/social sciences; even fewer people are looking to improve their employment prospect by getting a terminal degree in said fields. international applicants always hold a steady majority in the candidate pool, who seek better socio-economic opportunities by way of an academic connection. i think a better explanation for the year-to-year explosion of applicants is that the socio-economic circumstances in countries like China or India have provoked out-migration on an ever-greater scale. this, combined with the fact that departments are looking to enroll fewer people because of a recent raise in grad stipend, pretty much means the process is getting increasingly more selective.

[2024_IR]

  On 2/2/2024 at 2:55 AM, LeO886 said:

Does anyone know if there is a general ddl for accepting or declining offers? Or if it depends on different programs? I got this email from OSU's admission office telling to go to the application center to accept or decline the offer but without mentioning any specific date for doing so. I hope this does not imply any time soon becasue OSU is not going to release their funding decisions until late Feb. So it is impossible to make any decisions now.

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Im pretty sure PhD programs (at least in polisci?) have the same response deadline - April 15th. Im sure they won't require ppl to make decisions before making funding offers and the campus visits

[LeO886]

Thank you so much!

  On 2/2/2024 at 7:27 PM, Ytc1212 said:

Im pretty sure PhD programs (at least in polisci?) have the same response deadline - April 15th. Im sure they won't require ppl to make decisions before making funding offers and the campus visits

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[Maverickz]

  On 2/2/2024 at 7:36 PM, LeO886 said:

Thank you so much!

 

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University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  Rejection 

[jce8491]

Another week with no results. Hopefully, I'll finally hear from some programs next week. Until the past two days, it wasn't much of a distraction, but I spent way too much time checking my email today. It doesn't help with my concentration that I'm having to wade through the tedious (but necessary) parts of my job until late next week. ☹️

[Polisci882]

Have UChicago and UNC sent out all their acceptances? The fact that just a few have been posted on grad cafe is a little confusing. 

[nyalagyal]

Seeing the JHU interview post was alarming. I guess that means we should hear back soon

[allaprima]

not gonna lie the UChicago ones seem a bit sketch

[JPYSD]

  On 2/2/2024 at 10:43 PM, Polisci882 said:

Have UChicago and UNC sent out all their acceptances? The fact that just a few have been posted on grad cafe is a little confusing. 

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I am almost certain that UChicago hasn't sent anything yet. The two acceptances yesterday contain literally no information and came at a really weird time, and the one acceptance from roughly one week ago sounded like a troll. We might hear from them a little later (probably next week) this year, which is weird since UChicago seems to have been dumping acceptances and rejections in all social sciences/humanities especially since yesterday.

[Polisci882]

Out of curiosity, when you all were creating your list of PhD programs to apply to, did you all include “safety” schools on your list? I use that term loosely, because I don’t really think there are safety schools in PhD admissions. It’s all fairly competitive. I’m just curious because it seems most posts on gradcafe tend to be about the same ~30 or so schools, but there are many more universities that offer PhD programs that don’t get posted about as much. It seems we are all vying for spots at a few very name-brand institutions. 

[jce8491]

  On 2/3/2024 at 1:32 AM, Polisci882 said:

Out of curiosity, when you all were creating your list of PhD programs to apply to, did you all include “safety” schools on your list? I use that term loosely, because I don’t really think there are safety schools in PhD admissions. It’s all fairly competitive. I’m just curious because it seems most posts on gradcafe tend to be about the same ~30 or so schools, but there are many more universities that offer PhD programs that don’t get posted about as much. It seems we are all vying for spots at a few very name-brand institutions. 

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No. I only applied to highly ranked programs. I'm trying to transition to academia and already have an established career. So my feeling was that if this doesn't pan out for me, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

[2024_IR]

  On 2/3/2024 at 1:32 AM, Polisci882 said:

Out of curiosity, when you all were creating your list of PhD programs to apply to, did you all include “safety” schools on your list? I use that term loosely, because I don’t really think there are safety schools in PhD admissions. It’s all fairly competitive. I’m just curious because it seems most posts on gradcafe tend to be about the same ~30 or so schools, but there are many more universities that offer PhD programs that don’t get posted about as much. It seems we are all vying for spots at a few very name-brand institutions. 

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I kind of did I guess? I applied to a few programs with relatively lower rankings while most of the other programs that I applied to were top 20. 

It is almost impossible to accurately define "safety schools" for PhD bc of how idiosyncratic the application process is but I asked some of my professors (who knows me and my file really well) when I was compiling the list and they gave me some input about the ones that they would consider as a "safety" for me

Edited February 3, 2024 by Ytc1212

[Maverickz]

  On 2/3/2024 at 1:32 AM, Polisci882 said:

Out of curiosity, when you all were creating your list of PhD programs to apply to, did you all include “safety” schools on your list? I use that term loosely, because I don’t really think there are safety schools in PhD admissions. It’s all fairly competitive. I’m just curious because it seems most posts on gradcafe tend to be about the same ~30 or so schools, but there are many more universities that offer PhD programs that don’t get posted about as much. It seems we are all vying for spots at a few very name-brand institutions. 

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I think majority of applicants that opted for high ranking schools are domestic student. IMO, Safety schools to me are R2 schools. 

[Polisci882]

No activity on here for a little bit — I hope everyone has been able to get a little break from this stressful application process