2024-2025 Application Thread

[frd1]

Official thread for 2024-2025 admission cycle. Wishing everyone all the best. 

[mwmwmw121212]

eeeeeek good luck to everyone applying to Columbia!

[frd1]

Deadline was yesterday right? Best wishes! 

[JPYSD]

Good luck to everyone!
I was part of last year's cycle and while I only received rejections at first, there suddenly was an acceptance from one of my top programs in the spam folder. So, don't loose hope and use this forum for good motivation and for cheering up each other. It helped a lot last year 🙂

If anyone needs any advice during these times, please reach out!

[frd1]

Question to CP PhD applicants/current students: How crucial is it to identify a specific country or region of interest in the SOP? Would keeping it broad, such as focusing on advanced industrialized countries or developing countries, jeopardize one’s application?

[JPYSD]

5 hours ago, frd1 said:

Question to CP PhD applicants/current students: How crucial is it to identify a specific country or region of interest in the SOP? Would keeping it broad, such as focusing on advanced industrialized countries or developing countries, jeopardize one’s application?

I am in CP and everyone with my field has at least a region of focus. This can be as broad as "Latin America", but I think in the SOP, examples that are as micro as possible should at least be "mentioned", so yes, ideally mention countries. Your broad narrative can still be the main interest you are pitching, but at least bring one example to show your thought-of feasibility of your project. This is especially important if you are suggesting more of a qualitative methods focus. The more you go towards applying complex quant methods (which have to be explained), the less regional experience and focus seems relevant. 

[frd1]

2 hours ago, JPYSD said:

I am in CP and everyone with my field has at least a region of focus. This can be as broad as "Latin America", but I think in the SOP, examples that are as micro as possible should at least be "mentioned", so yes, ideally mention countries. Your broad narrative can still be the main interest you are pitching, but at least bring one example to show your thought-of feasibility of your project. This is especially important if you are suggesting more of a qualitative methods focus. The more you go towards applying complex quant methods (which have to be explained), the less regional experience and focus seems relevant. 

I really appreciate your insight! If you don’t mind me bothering you with another question: for CP, how significant is region/country compared to substantive areas when assessing applicants’ fit? Is it a clear rejection if none of the faculty members work on the country proposed in the SOP? 

[JPYSD]

5 hours ago, frd1 said:

I really appreciate your insight! If you don’t mind me bothering you with another question: for CP, how significant is region/country compared to substantive areas when assessing applicants’ fit? Is it a clear rejection if none of the faculty members work on the country proposed in the SOP? 

Of course, always happy to help! 
This is quite difficult to answer. I tend to see that the substantive area is much more important to be present at the department vs. the regional expertise, especially (!) if you can show through your previous studies or background that you naturally already have some of the regional expertise needed to have an understanding of the subject of analysis. If you work on political violence in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, it is much more important to find something that has worked on political violence generally compared to having worked on sub-Saharan Africa. Keep in mind, that you will have a committee, so while one person can almost never fit it all, you might take the regional experience of scholars with other substantive areas and combine it with those that have your focus on, let's say, political violence. 

Generally, it still seems that substantive focus trumps regional expertise, both in your SOP and in the faculty/department you are trying to select. Still try to find a way to address both in your application, however. 

Again, if you have specific questions, feel free to DM 🙂

[SoyTriangle]

Good luck, everyone. This process has been a real pain in the ass, but I tell myself that no matter what happens, I tried my best and learned a lot about politics along the way. And wasn't that always the point? 
 

Applying for IR, coming from a constructivist/qualitative background, which I know doesn't always make things easy in the USA. Applying only to schools that are open to that kind of work and hoping for the best! 

[edwardsaid]

Good luck everyone! The whole application process has been stressful for me with completing so many components and getting a potential letter writer rejecting my request. But thankfully it's all coming together.

I'm applying as a CP/methodology candidate focusing on MENA/Muslim world politics. Hopefully it will turn out great.

Edited November 29 by edwardsaid

[angremaru]

Only applying to four schools since my GRE score isn't high enough to submit anywhere. Potentially looking at a gap year at this point. Applying to CompPol Masters programs mostly.

 

 

[frd1]

Is it necessary for your SOP to highlight clear interest in a single subfield? Would framing  my lines of inquiry under two different subfields (CP and IR) be seen negatively? Less than 10 days left until 15 December 😥

[JPYSD]

1 hour ago, frd1 said:

Is it necessary for your SOP to highlight clear interest in a single subfield? Would framing  my lines of inquiry under two different subfields (CP and IR) be seen negatively? Less than 10 days left until 15 December 😥

Yes, you absolutely should present a primary subfield. It is ok to say that you are unsure about a second one and thus, can mention several, but all departments decide subfield-wise, meaning that they say before the cycle, e.g., that they want to admit 4 IR, 3 CP, 2 PT, 2 PE and 4 methods students this year and try to stick to that. If you are unclear in your primary field, they will likely not know what to do with you. But again, you can show that you are flexible and willing to go a different direction, especially with your second subfield. But for the sake of the application, be clear with at least the primary one. 

Edit to make it clearer: You can mention several subfields, but clearly divide into a primary and secondary one.

Edited December 6 by JPYSD

[mwmwmw121212]

Is anyone open to starting a WhatsApp group (or just like chatting with me on WhatsApp lol) to commiserate + talk about the process? I’m going a bit crazy, and maybe talking with people could help me go less crazy. Let me know. 

[frd1]

1 hour ago, JPYSD said:

Yes, you absolutely should present a primary subfield. It is ok to say that you are unsure about a second one and thus, can mention several, but all departments decide subfield-wise, meaning that they say before the cycle, e.g., that they want to admit 4 IR, 3 CP, 2 PT, 2 PE and 4 methods students this year and try to stick to that. If you are unclear in your primary field, they will likely not know what to do with you. But again, you can show that you are flexible and willing to go a different direction, especially with your second subfield. But for the sake of the application, be clear with at least the primary one. 

Edit to make it clearer: You can mention several subfields, but clearly divide into a primary and secondary one.

Thank you! I can confirm that my primary interest is CP. However, I heard from others that I should not try to make my application too narrow; something that I can totally agree with. But I wonder how much attention would the adcomm pay to the secondary field of interes? In my case, this would be IR and I am clear about how this overlaps and interconnects with my substantive area of interest in CP. But my concern is whether this would be interpreted as lack of focus. 

[JPYSD]

1 minute ago, frd1 said:

Thank you! I can confirm that my primary interest is CP. However, I heard from others that I should not try to make my application too narrow; something that I can totally agree with. But I wonder how much attention would the adcomm pay to the secondary field of interes? In my case, this would be IR and I am clear about how this overlaps and interconnects with my substantive area of interest in CP. But my concern is whether this would be interpreted as lack of focus. 

Don't put too much emphasis on the secondary field. You can mention it, it won't hurt and certainly not appear as too narrow, but rather make yourself seen as flexible. In my department, nobody really knows about their second subfield until early to mid second year. However, looking at the market, the safest path would probably be CP + Methods.

[frd1]

38 minutes ago, mwmwmw121212 said:

Is anyone open to starting a WhatsApp group (or just like chatting with me on WhatsApp lol) to commiserate + talk about the process? I’m going a bit crazy, and maybe talking with people could help me go less crazy. Let me know. 

Yes, please! 

[mwmwmw121212]

Does anyone know how strict schools are with writing sample page lengths? I have cut mine to about 33 pages, and while some schools I reached out to said that you can be a bit over the page count -- and that it is more of a suggestion -- but I don't want to come off as not knowing how to read instructions. It's just gonna be crazy hard to get this sample down to 20 pages unless I really mess with the spacing lol.

[JPYSD]

1 hour ago, mwmwmw121212 said:

Does anyone know how strict schools are with writing sample page lengths? I have cut mine to about 33 pages, and while some schools I reached out to said that you can be a bit over the page count -- and that it is more of a suggestion -- but I don't want to come off as not knowing how to read instructions. It's just gonna be crazy hard to get this sample down to 20 pages unless I really mess with the spacing lol.

I don't have any special insights into this, but I think you have to closely see how it is mentioned for each program. "Cannot extend ... pages" is stricter language than just "should be ... pages long". If it is not the former, I would read a "should" into this, meaning: "It is better to stick to the limit for our own sake, but you will not be disqualified if your sample is within the margin of 3-5 pages". Obviously, bibliography doesn't count and long footnotes or a lot of graphs can be seen as a legitimate reason to push the page count even further. But: Really be careful if programs are precise in their requirement language. In those cases, I would try to just stick to the seemingly hard limit. 

To add: They have to be somehow flexible, because most people will have wildly different margins, as usually, only the spacing is specified but not the layout. 

Edited December 7 by JPYSD

[polisci119]

Hello everyone! Does anyone know that if the word limit has to strictly follow the instructions of the program? e.g. GWU requires the statement should be from 250 to 500 words, while including a lot of things to mention. Minimizing an original 1000-word statement to a half sounds like almost impossible to manage unless I cut some info heavily.

Your answers would be highly appreciated.

[frd1]

18 hours ago, polisci119 said:

Hello everyone! Does anyone know that if the word limit has to strictly follow the instructions of the program? e.g. GWU requires the statement should be from 250 to 500 words, while including a lot of things to mention. Minimizing an original 1000-word statement to a half sounds like almost impossible to manage unless I cut some info heavily.

Your answers would be highly appreciated.

I do not know how strict they are, but I’d caution against going significantly over  the word limit. 

[angremaru]

Goodluck to everyone on their applications! I've applied to five or six masters programs (GRE not good enough for PhDs), though I expect to take a gap year most likely to work on a better GRE score and improve my mathematics. I gave the GRE twice and got a 153Q 168V, so I'm hoping to get a 160+ Q on my third try hopefully!

 

Would it be worth my while to take calculus and/or econometrics classes during a gap year given that I wish to do a quantitative degree?

 

Also, I know that most PhD programs have a certain quota for each subfield, so are some subfields more competitive than others? I always thought Comparative was the most popular. 

[brzher]

Hi everyone! I've been following this forum for almost 3 years and this is my first application cycle. I'm glad to share this season with you all—best of luck!

[frd1]

3 hours ago, brzher said:

Hi everyone! I've been following this forum for almost 3 years and this is my first application cycle. I'm glad to share this season with you all—best of luck!

Wishing you all the best! My first rodeo too 😁