Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

[Eudaimonia]

the counterpoint, of course, is that she developed those interests while she was there. it would be crazy to think we all developed our interests independent of the resources we were surrounded by

Not entirely true. I'm doing an honors thesis in an unusual topic that no one at my university is an expert on and was able to put together a committee of people related to the topic in only a very general way (and this involved reaching into the law school faculty). You *can* develop research interests independent of the faculty specializations at your institution.

[Tikko]

Does anyone know how many MA students the University of Toronto accepts on average or what the average MA class size is? And what percent of these students are Canadian/American/ect.?

[Tikko]

To answer my own question about Toronto: "Each year about 25 to 30 students register in the PhD program and 45 to 50 in the various MA programs. Students come to the Department from all over Canada and from other countries. About 30 percent of the doctoral students and 20 percent of the masters students are admitted from outside Canada." Found it on the website.

[kilgore_trout]

WOULD IT KILL BERKELEY TO SEND OUT FUNDING INFO?

[puddle]

To answer my own question about Toronto: "Each year about 25 to 30 students register in the PhD program and 45 to 50 in the various MA programs. Students come to the Department from all over Canada and from other countries. About 30 percent of the doctoral students and 20 percent of the masters students are admitted from outside Canada." Found it on the website.

Yikes! That's a big grad class. Explains why they don't offer the greatest funding package, I suppose.

[amesoso]

Well I'm sorry you haven't gotten any offers, but there's still hope! You never know. Some people heard nothing from any of their schools and then got offers recently with GWU and Georgetown. You never know. =)

On the other hand, it's semi-nice to know I won't be alone reapplying. Not that I'd ever be happy to see anyone else be unsuccessful. I'm glad I'm in good company, though. =)

Thanks!! But GWU and Georgetown were actually two of the fews that I was waiting to hear back from, and of course, got rejected by GWU yesterday like everyone else.

Well, maybe we can start the 2012-2013 cycle together later! LOL

BTW, anyone heard from Syracuse?

[puddle]

WOULD IT KILL BERKELEY TO SEND OUT FUNDING INFO?

If it follows the trend (i.e. Grad Cafe Results Page notes) from a few years ago (2009) then your funding package should look something like 25K for 5 years and 2 summers at 4K. Unclear how the Cali budget crisis might impact this funding but it probably just means they accept less students and pay them the same amount. Sweet deal!

[kilgore_trout]

So my choice of programs has just got more difficult - the information on MA funding at IHEID is now up.

Now choosing between a fully funded MA and reapplying or going straight for Cornell PhD...

I think I am leaning toward Cornell at this point, but there seems to be some concern about the weakness of methods training there. Does anyone know about methods training at Cornell?

Jasjeet Sekhon went to Cornell and he's currently the quant meth ninja of the universe. If you want more methods training, that's what ICPSR is for... and you can always audit classes in the statistics department.

[CairoKid]

Well, maybe we can start the 2012-2013 cycle together later! LOL

I'm right there with ya! Let's do this! haha.

[Penelope Higgins]

^^ is true, but Sekhon's adviser (Mebane) left for Michigan a couple of years ago. I still would think that Cornell is too good a program to turn down unless there is a financial or partner issue, but your preferences may of course diverge from mine.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Penelope Higgins

[Hotspur]

Anyone else still in Maryland limbo? Do you want to PM me with your subfield so I can try to work out whether they've notified by subfield or if it seems like an unofficial waitlist situation? (I'm comparative) I also liked that they updated my online status to "decision made" but without saying what it was--when I called they told me that it was a computer glitch and no decision had been made yet!

[kilgore_trout]

^^ is true, but Sekhon's adviser (Mebane) left for Michigan a couple of years ago. I still would think that Cornell is too good a program to turn down unless there is a financial or partner issue, but your preferences may of course diverge from mine.

I'm super quanty, so I imagine if methodological training is your concern, my preferences are fairly in line with yours. I just think that with very few exceptions, no school offers EVERYTHING one needs in the way of methodological training, which is why the summer institutes (IQMR, ICPSR, EITM, Networks Conference) are so useful.

[midwest513]

^^ is true, but Sekhon's adviser (Mebane) left for Michigan a couple of years ago. I still would think that Cornell is too good a program to turn down unless there is a financial or partner issue, but your preferences may of course diverge from mine.

A prof at my undergrad institution does India stuff and he did most of his methods training in the economics department at Cornell since their methods sequence is kind of lame/weirdly truncated....so it won't be unprecedented if you do indeed want to be a Cornell quant.

[wordshadow]

FSU vs. UC-Irvine for political psychology/behavior...informed opinions, GO!

[Anonymouse Bosch]

Congrats. UToronto is really great. Toronto's better than any American program if you plan on working in Canada.

Yeah they placed someone in Theory at Cornell, that's pretty epic in my opinion... I DO wonder how other theory people placed in Canada?

It's clearly too early to ask for that info haha

I'm not sure how the wait list works at UofT but if it is general (i.e. not sub-divided by field), a spot is going to open up in the program in a few days. I hope you or another Grad Cafe-er gets it!

Cheers! I hope one of us gets it too! And I hope you do theory so that I'm one of the Grad Cafe'ers you're talking about

[puddle]

Yeah they placed someone in Theory at Cornell, that's pretty epic in my opinion... I DO wonder how other theory people placed in Canada?

It's clearly too early to ask for that info haha

Cheers! I hope one of us gets it too! And I hope you do theory so that I'm one of the Grad Cafe'ers you're talking about

Sorry... comparative. Still, I wish the best for you!

[blackcoffee64]

Go to WashU for political science, their placement looks awesome.

[saltlakecity2012]

I just turned down the offer at MAPSS (came with full tuition). I don't know if that opens up a spot or money for anyone else, but hopefully it will help things move a bit faster for others (if they have a waitlist).

[shavasana]

I don't deny any of this. They are really good and in fact, they were really helpful and honest when I visited NU and talked to them. Hendrik and the Hurds might have work somewhat in the same ballpark as mine as well, but overall the main problem was the lack of a fit. I don't think the departments interests and mine fit well together. There is also the problem of them having no experts in the region I'm interested in. Adblache, I know you speak highly of NU and I have no doubt it is a good school, but fit and future career plans matter a lot. Out of curiosity, I note you yourself haven't applied to NU according to your list of schools. Is there any reason you'd like to share with us?

I'd be happy to tell you. I will honestly say that

1) I was definitely shaped by the department I "grew up" in. But that includes the Journalism school at NU.

2) They don't have people doing the kind Middle East work I want to do (although Wendy Pearlman is absolutely awesome).

3) Doing security, I'd be working closely for J.Caverley for the next few years (which I did as an undergrad...wanted to broaden my academic pedigree so to speak.)

4) I've taken quite a few graduate classes at NU already. That influenced me a lot. Just for my BS, I'll have taking IR Theory, Media and Public Opinion, and IPE. So the range of classes still available to me would be less than I'd like.

5) I was advised that applying to one's alma mater isn't really the best plan for future career plans (academic incest so to speak...could look like you couldn't get in without a little help).

I hope that helps/clarifies my position!

[Savage Henry]

Has anyone, outside of those who posted earlier acceptances, heard from Rutgers?

[non humilis mulier]

Does anyone have any clue how long the wait list is at ND? Also, did anyone here get off the ND wait list last year? I'm curious how many actually make it off the "very short" wait list, and just how "short" it is. Thanks everyone!

[Anonymouse Bosch]

Sorry... comparative. Still, I wish the best for you!

I had no illusions that I would know my fate before April haha.

[Bdeniso]

Does anyone have any clue how long the wait list is at ND? Also, did anyone here get off the ND wait list last year? I'm curious how many actually make it off the "very short" wait list, and just how "short" it is. Thanks everyone!

I emailed the DGS to talk to her on thursday. She said she planned to update me over spring break so maybe she will email the rest of the waitlisters as well. If you haven't heard in a couple of weeks wouldn't hurt to email her and ask where you stand. There is also a admitted students weekend at the end of march they accidentally emailed me about (:\ that was a disheartening) and had to retract, so after that people should accept or decline and then they may go to the waitlist.

[Apill]

I'd be happy to tell you. I will honestly say that

1) I was definitely shaped by the department I "grew up" in. But that includes the Journalism school at NU.

2) They don't have people doing the kind Middle East work I want to do (although Wendy Pearlman is absolutely awesome).

3) Doing security, I'd be working closely for J.Caverley for the next few years (which I did as an undergrad...wanted to broaden my academic pedigree so to speak.)

4) I've taken quite a few graduate classes at NU already. That influenced me a lot. Just for my BS, I'll have taking IR Theory, Media and Public Opinion, and IPE. So the range of classes still available to me would be less than I'd like.

5) I was advised that applying to one's alma mater isn't really the best plan for future career plans (academic incest so to speak...could look like you couldn't get in without a little help).

I hope that helps/clarifies my position!

Thanks, I really appreciate the answer. Your points 2 and 3 were my issues with NU's program as well. Caverly is great, but he is only one person doing security, and so there are not many other people to work with, especially if Caverly leaves NU as I've heard he might consider doing. Also, I looked at the classes offered for graduate students, and as I think you noted before, there are not that many offerings at all. While I wanted to do something that was a mix of theory and IR/security/foreign affairs/politics, I find that NU leans, for the type of stuff I want to do, in the direct of theory too much. My work then would be, by being exposed to a department environment that leaned a certain way, much more theory oriented that I wanted it to be.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Apill

[whirlibird]

Coming from a liberal arts background, it's sometimes weird to hear about people applying to their alma mater for grad school...I'm like...you can do that? Then I remember.