Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

[shavasana]

Congrats on today's acceptances!!!

Any of the Chicago admits going to event on March 9?

[ohsnap]

I am planning to, what about you?

[kolja00]

I am going. 2 minutes away from me haha

[blaspheming]

Just got an email from Northwestern and my heart skipped a beat. It was one of those generic GRE messages from the journalism school. Stop messing with me.

[shavasana]

I am planning to, what about you?

I am going. 2 minutes away from me haha

I am heading down. I took winter quarter off, but I'm an undergrad at Northwestern so it's not far for me

[balthasar]

Congrats for the Chicago, OSU Notre Dame and UVA admits! The more good news, the merrier this forum is.

[ohsnap]

Thanks, congratulations to all of the admits everywhere. I'm looking forard to meeting some of you at various universities' admit events.

[whirlibird]

'Ello, boys and girls! I missed you yesterday while I was gallavanting where there was no internet access...had to catch up just now. Congratulations to everyone getting acceptances from UVA, OSU, UChicago, ND, and UT! I'm excited to claim one of the Austin admits myself. I concur with balthasar that good news makes this forum merry. The challenge is making it merry when we hear bad news...that's when I turn to pictures of cute baby animals and bad Harry Potter jokes.

[CafeAuLait12]

'Ello, boys and girls! I missed you yesterday while I was gallavanting where there was no internet access...had to catch up just now. Congratulations to everyone getting acceptances from UVA, OSU, UChicago, ND, and UT! I'm excited to claim one of the Austin admits myself. I concur with balthasar that good news makes this forum merry. The challenge is making it merry when we hear bad news...that's when I turn to pictures of cute baby animals and bad Harry Potter jokes.

Congrats on UT! Are you going to go to the visit on March 2nd?

Oh and congrats to all of the admits everywhere else! It has been a big couple days so far this week!

[Calhoun]

Got my official notification, going to Stanford. I am almost embarrassed to write this though, never thought it would be me. If this cycle doesn't pan out how you want it to - try again! That's what I did!

Best of luck everybody!

Congrats. But if you know you're going to Stanford, please turn down your other offers. Schools often can't make additional offers until they receive turn downs.

[Megan]

Oh man. I just got an email from UNC and my heart skipped a beat, but it was COMPLETELY unrelated. *sigh* I think this process is eroding my sanity.

[saltlakecity2012]

Looks like the news will be slow in coming and less than exciting for those of us who didn't get into U Chicago yet, based on the last few years.

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=chicago+political+science&t=a&pp=100

[Tamboursg'sell]

Congrats. But if you know you're going to Stanford, please turn down your other offers. Schools often can't make additional offers until they receive turn downs.

This is actually a very important point. Being in the fortunate position of having been accepted to several programs, I have a couple of questions about this:

What is the specific point when one has officially committed to a program? (When some form is signed or is a mere email enough?)

Furthermore, when should one decline an offer at a less preferred school given that the funding situation at preferred places is not entirely clear.

The reason why I am asking is because I neither want to reserve places unnecessarily long, nor do I want to end up in the wrong / underfunded program.

Thanks for the advice (I hope someone else was wondering about this too).

[PoliSci27]

This is actually a very important point. Being in the fortunate position of having been accepted to several programs, I have a couple of questions about this:

What is the specific point when one has officially committed to a program? (When some form is signed or is a mere email enough?)

Furthermore, when should one decline an offer at a less preferred school given that the funding situation at preferred places is not entirely clear.

The reason why I am asking is because I neither want to reserve places unnecessarily long, nor do I want to end up in the wrong / underfunded program.

Thanks for the advice (I hope someone else was wondering about this too).

I definitely would wait to hear about funding. I think your acceptance of their offer is official when you respond by email.

[iwouldpreferanonymity]

Though I am a bit late in posting this, I just wanted to congratulate all those who have received good news over the past 24 hours. It is nice to see that so many of the forum members here have been successful this application season.

Edited for errors.

Edited February 8, 2012 by iwouldpreferanonymity

[whirlibird]

Congrats on UT! Are you going to go to the visit on March 2nd?

Oh and congrats to all of the admits everywhere else! It has been a big couple days so far this week!

Thanks! I actually really wish that I could, but I don't think they can help me with ridiculous travel costs enough, and I don't think I could take the days off if I wanted to. :/ Therefore, I expect a full report back from you, if you're going! (Insider reports...like is the entire prospective cohort full of slackjawed fools/uptight hooligans?)

[Hotspur]

I definitely would wait to hear about funding. I think your acceptance of their offer is official when you respond by email.

I agree with this. While I am quite envious about the position of those who have gotten into many places, I think they need to tread carefully in deciding to respond, especially without clear funding. What to hold onto and what to turn down seems like a balancing act.

For example, if you get into Super Awesome University with unknown funding, Great University with full funding and Prettty Decent U with full funding, you can now safely turn down the last one because you know you have at least one better choice, thus opening up a spot for someone else. Yet at long as there still is a possibility you are going to go to a school (like if you can't decide which one is your definite second choice while you wait for the funding to become clear), you have to hold on to that school, so you don't regret it later.

[johnnehm]

Just a quick question.

I noticed that a couple acceptances to UVA have popped up, however I checked on applyyourself and my email, and nothing has come through. Is it safe to assume I was rejected?

Feels bad man

[shavasana]

I just want to second whirlibird about the wonderful positivity on this thread. Also, cute animals: http://i.imgur.com/iLP5B.jpg

How can you be sad about anything when looking at that little guy?

[Calhoun]

Just a quick question.

I noticed that a couple acceptances to UVA have popped up, however I checked on applyyourself and my email, and nothing has come through. Is it safe to assume I was rejected?

Feels bad man

I'm told that a lot of schools do rolling admissions. A DGS will extend a few offers in a week (or over a couple of days) and then update his/her information. So don't feel bad yet.

What field are you in ?

[johnnehm]

I'm told that a lot of schools do rolling admissions. A DGS will extend a few offers in a week (or over a couple of days) and then update his/her information. So don't feel bad yet.

What field are you in ?

I am in IR. My stats are marginal... (3.4 Undergrad GPA, 3.8 M.A. GPA, 164 V 151 Q, 4.5 W, and 3 conference presentations).

[expfcwintergreen]

I think my slavish devotion to my email is starting to affect my sanity. I just got an email from a familiar name with the subject line "Congratulations on your admission!" and I actually started shaking, but it turned out to just be a follow-up letter from a POI at Pitt. It was a really nice letter and it was nice of him to send it, but this is the second time in two days I've nearly had a heart attack over an email that turned out not to be an admissions notice.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who got into UT. My undergraduate experience here has been great, and having taken two graduate classes, the departmental culture among the grad students seems really friendly and tight-knit. I haven't heard anything on my application yet, but I don't think I'll be too broken up if I don't get in.

[Ironheel!!]

I am in IR. My stats are marginal... (3.4 Undergrad GPA, 3.8 M.A. GPA, 164 V 151 Q, 4.5 W, and 3 conference presentations).

I don't think a 3.8 MA GPA and a 1300ish GRE is going to knock you out of the running, but you will need a solid SOP and letters. My stats are similar except my MA GPA is a tick higher and my UG GPA is quite a bit lower. Hang in there.

[saltlakecity2012]

Any other Berkeley applicants have any thoughts on when we're going to get the first wave of acceptances?

[kolja00]

Any other Berkeley applicants have any thoughts on when we're going to get the first wave of acceptances?

According to a response from an email to Berkeley mentioned a few pages back, the end of February. ughhhhh

Edited February 8, 2012 by kolja00