2026-2027 Application Thread

[Brandon222]

On 2/13/2026 at 11:28 AM, cowboy199797af said:

I heard from a professor who is on the admissions committee that they only admitted 2 applicants for IR, 2 for comparative, and none for methods.

Check DM.

[barrenas]

Saw a waitlist from Colorado Boulder, any word on them? Any word on UIUC? 

Have an offer from a T25, and the only way I think about anything else is if UIUC offers me, lol. Don't want to wait it out and lose funding or something at the school that offered me (if that is how it works).

[randomuser39572]

Has anyone heard from NYU?

[2026applicant]

Hey all, could any of the Princeton theory admits could share anything they might have learned about how many people were admitted and waitlisted, or really just any info about admissions this year? I was waitlisted and was hoping to hear something from the department directly via email (rather than just portal) and have reached out, but haven’t heard anything back and am very anxious.

Just thought I would ask because they’ve shared this info with the accepted cohort at another (~peer?) school I got into.

DM me please!

Wishing y’all luck for the rest of the cycle! 

[the_drink]

Still waiting to hear back from Harvard and NYU, but I was the Yale acceptance. Details are in my profile, PE/FT subfield. 

[smoothoperator77]

5 minutes ago, the_drink said:

Still waiting to hear back from Harvard and NYU, but I was the Yale acceptance. Details are in my profile, PE/FT subfield. 

Are you the one with the 8 acceptances? If so, awesome and awesome!

[JYPAPA]

Anyone having updates on Duke?

[waitingforpoliscidepts]

2 hours ago, JYPAPA said:

Anyone having updates on Duke?

I'm also waiting for Duke but I'm assuming it's a soft rejection since all the admission and waitlist offers went out a few weeks ago 

[JYPAPA]

27 minutes ago, waitingforpoliscidepts said:

I'm also waiting for Duke but I'm assuming it's a soft rejection since all the admission and waitlist offers went out a few weeks ago 

I guess so too.. but I wonder why they don't notify official rejection if all the acceptance and waitlists were already confirmed... 

[PoliSci2026]

2 hours ago, JYPAPA said:

I guess so too.. but I wonder why they don't notify official rejection if all the acceptance and waitlists were already confirmed... 

Someone wrote a while back that sometimes it's stuck over bureaucratic stuff, basically an administration worker who should press a button and doesn't do it.

But I hope it means we're still in the game there, I'm also waiting for them (same with UW Madison, btw. They released decisions in January but didn't release rejections yet)

 

I respect the universities that release rejections and acceptances at the same time so much. It's much more fair for us applicants...

Edited February 19 by PoliSci2026

[erm]

Has anyone not in IR heard from UNC Chapel Hill?

[Greg12312]

I just saw “Application final processing; decision to be posted soon” (02/19/2026) on the Madison portal. My interview didn’t go well, and it’s been silent for weeks, so I have a sense of what the decision might be. Still, seeing that status update is nerve-wracking.

[PoliSci2026]

3 minutes ago, Greg12312 said:

I just saw “Application final processing; decision to be posted soon” (02/19/2026) on the Madison portal. My interview didn’t go well, and it’s been silent for weeks, so I have a sense of what the decision might be. Still, seeing that status update is nerve-wracking.

Thanks for the update!

It's written like this for me too,

I didn't even have an interview, so I pretty much assume rejection

[heartintheclouds]

Has anyone heard from WashU or know when decisions will be out? It seems like only one person got accepted early in Jan based on the results page, not sure if rejections have gone out or if decisions are coming out in waves.

[poliscicomm]

8 minutes ago, heartintheclouds said:

Has anyone heard from WashU or know when decisions will be out? It seems like only one person got accepted early in Jan based on the results page, not sure if rejections have gone out or if decisions are coming out in waves.

I am also waiting for the results, not sure when they normally send all results out though.

[2026polisci]

I've only heard back from two schools (MIT and Princeton - both rejections) and I am just so insanely anxious. It's like with each passing day of waiting for the remaining seven to send out their decisions, I lose my sanity a little bit more! And seeing other schools release their decisions is just making me feel crazier!

I saw a couple of results from Stony Brook on the admissions results page, but not sure if they're sending them out on a rolling basis... Same thing with Georgetown, saw some people say they got interviews but only a really small handful. Does anyone know anything about these two schools?

I'm still waiting on:

Boston University

Boston College

Harvard

Stony Brook

NYU

Rutgers

Georgetown

[waitingforpoliscidepts]

I'm also waiting on Cornell.... 

[randomuser39572]

1 hour ago, waitingforpoliscidepts said:

I'm also waiting on Cornell.... 

They had a really rough cycle, admissions had a hard time with decisions, will be really competitive this year. 

Edited February 20 by randomuser39572
Clarity

[waitingforpoliscidepts]

6 hours ago, randomuser39572 said:

They had a really rough cycle, admissions had a hard time with decisions, will be really competitive this year. 

I'm so overwhelmed by how competitive this cycle is... I'm trying to learn how to cope with all these rejections (and probably more to come!) 

[OBD]

3 hours ago, waitingforpoliscidepts said:

I'm so overwhelmed by how competitive this cycle is... I'm trying to learn how to cope with all these rejections (and probably more to come!) 

15 rejections so far....🥲

[Lorne Malvo]

5 hours ago, OBD said:

15 rejections so far....🥲

6 rejections in, 2 more to go 😁. Can you tell more about your profile and schools you applied to? 

[OBD]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

6 rejections in, 2 more to go 😁. Can you tell more about your profile and schools you applied to? 

International student, US MA running GPA 3.9, GRE 338, have some research papers - not all from PS field. Intended subfield: IR, Method. Applied almost 20+ schools, had fee waivers....

[cowboy199797af]

Does anyone have any broad ideas on what is the cause of this year's cycle being so remarkably competitive (based on all these rejections)? Is it due to the current administration freezing federal funds for universities? Any insights would be helpful.

[brumingdales]

Admissions typically get harder every year, and yes the federal fund freezes are causing a lot of universities to reduce their typical cohort size, which means there are fewer seats per applicant

[smoothoperator77]

26 minutes ago, cowboy199797af said:

Does anyone have any broad ideas on what is the cause of this year's cycle being so remarkably competitive (based on all these rejections)? Is it due to the current administration freezing federal funds for universities? Any insights would be helpful.

I was in the last two cycles, and so far this year feels more competitive than the last two, but not by much. Combined, I received 27 rejections, 3 wait-list decisions, and 2 offers. I knew many who had much better results than I had, but far more with worse results. It is just the reality that we are dealing with. Congratulations to those who have ideal offers, but for the others, try not to feel too sad and beat yourself down too much. If you really want this, do not stop trying. The reality we are facing is abnormal due to many reasons, but not necessarily because of your lack of competence or effort!