Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

[Mnemonics2]

This is somewhat of a non-sequitur, but can I ask the community here what the thinking on Brown is? I've applied and I really like several of the faculty there but I've not really been able to grasp Brown's position amongst other departments... Anyone else here applying?

[Eudaimonia]

I applied to Brown too. US News has them sandwiched between Vanderbilt & UArizona (tied with the latter at #46).

[Carousel]

What's your subfield and general stats? You seem to be cleaning up everywhere...

American, which I know is possibly the least competitive field, but I have around a 3.5 from a top 20 undergrad and 162/164/5.5 GRE. I truly attribute it to a solid SOP and writing sample though; I was lucky to have great guidance on those. Regardless, I never dreamed it would turn out this well.

[saltlakecity2012]

Congrats to all the acceptances today! That's awesome. Hopefully good news will grace all grad cafe posters (and lurkers, I know you're out there) this year.

Edit: for those of you who are curious, the weirdest question I got at the interview (which went amazingly well) was, "How many times have you found yourself smarter than the people you work for?" A bit tricky, but I hope I got through it with grace.

Edited February 10, 2012 by tergellian

[shavasana]

OK kids. MIT acceptance posted. *cue giant ball of nerves*

Who can I congratulate?

[ginsburg]

American, which I know is possibly the least competitive field, but I have around a 3.5 from a top 20 undergrad and 162/164/5.5 GRE. I truly attribute it to a solid SOP and writing sample though; I was lucky to have great guidance on those. Regardless, I never dreamed it would turn out this well.

Were you phoned by your POI, or by directors/staff?

Edited February 10, 2012 by ginsburg

[Otherworlder]

Congratulations everyone!! Lots of great news from people today.

[balledematch]

Congrats to all the people who received good news today. With the apparent MIT acceptance and all the Stanford stuff, my mind is certainly racing. Probably headed for not the best night of sleep. This cycle is KILLING me.

[kolja00]

And Columbia now....

[balledematch]

Well that settles it...I need to get off here and get some sleep before I go totally bananas. with visions of working at a mcdonald's dancing in my head

[anxiousmike]

Okay I don't know who the other ones were, but I can claim a Stanford acceptance.

Actually in shock right now.

Congratulations Carousel! Wonderful news!

[kolja00]

Well that settles it...I need to get off here and get some sleep before I go totally bananas. with visions of working at a mcdonald's dancing in my head

Yup! Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day if this is true. MIT, Columbia, Stanford, hopefully Berkeley. GAH!!

[Mnemonics2]

I applied to Brown too. US News has them sandwiched between Vanderbilt & UArizona (tied with the latter at #46).

Yes, I've never been sure about how accurate rankings are in the 40s there. And according to petersens, there are less than 50 applicants a year...makes Brown a bit hard to judge...

[Carousel]

Were you phoned by your POI, or by directors/staff?

A staff member. I will admit that I was so caught off guard that I didn't catch the person's name, but it was definitely not a POI.

[iwouldpreferanonymity]

Yes, I've never been sure about how accurate rankings are in the 40s there. And according to petersens, there are less than 50 applicants a year...makes Brown a bit hard to judge...

Speaking of Petersons - how reliable is their data? I seem to remember reading someone in this forum state that their numbers are a bit out of date. Does anyone know if Petersons is a reputable source?

[Dragon]

Hi everyone! I've been lurking for a while but have been enjoying reading your posts.

This is anxiety-induced researching, but I was looking on Petersens website and it seems like polisci programs on the whole have some of the most competitive admissions among all the different disciplines (across humanities, ss and hard sciences). Is that the impression that you guys have as well? Of course, just comparing admissions statistics doesn't really tell us whether it's harder to get into poli sci prograsm than others, as there may be an even stronger selection bias among applicants for some disciplines (I could see this in the sciences especially).

[brent09]

That MIT posting officially doomed me to a restive night.

[balthasar]

wow guys, today has been a busy day apparently! tomorrow is probably going to be even greater yay!

@dragon - i didn't check petersons for that, but polisci forum in the gradcafe is definitely among the busier ones

[Max Power]

i can claim one of the MIT admits.

i had gotten despondent a few days ago when I got rejected from Vanderbilt (where I'm like 99% sure I blew the interview) and I buried myself in worst case scenarios that I wasn't going to get in anywhere and it was time to think about jobs again. I decided I wasn't going to check GC because it was just creating endless anxiety, but I guess I can relax now and go back to my old routine.

[PoliSci27]

i can claim one of the MIT admits.

i had gotten despondent a few days ago when I got rejected from Vanderbilt (where I'm like 99% sure I blew the interview) and I buried myself in worst case scenarios that I wasn't going to get in anywhere and it was time to think about jobs again. I decided I wasn't going to check GC because it was just creating endless anxiety, but I guess I can relax now and go back to my old routine.

Congrats! Vandy is weird.

[Max Power]

I think two things went wrong in my Vandy interview. I was a bit too gung-ho about methods given the strength of their methods sequence and lack of an accompanying stats department where one can work and I didn't sell my love for them enough. At the end, my interviewer told me that they only made like 5 or 6 offers in American last year and got all but one of them, so it seems like they play games to try to keep their yield up.

[Carousel]

Congrats! Vandy is weird.

Very, very true. I get the impression they're in the odd position of trying to rebuild their program from the semi-recent chaos with the best candidates they can, but also don't want to admit people who won't accept, which would hurt their numbers in that sense. I've always been told that graduate programs are strategic with their acceptances, but I've gotten the vibe that Vandy is taking that to new heights.

[CafeAuLait12]

After conferring with others and trying to understand the ambiguous email, I will claim one of the UMD acceptances!

Goodness, things have gotten a bit busy/crazy around here!

[dienekes]

Hey Guys! I wanted to ask for some advice here. I've had two separate conversations with professors at my top choice of school--first with my POI (who seemed really enthusiastic) and then with the head of admissions committee (who was nice enough but we didn't have that much to talk about that wasn't "funding/how does the department work, generally" because our interests areas are basically on different planets). Anyway, they've both told me that I'm a top candidate for their school, that my POI is very excited for me to come there, etc...but they won't actually say out loud that I'm in!

Am I just being paranoid at this point that I won't get an offer, or have people in this thread done multiple "interviews" with a school and still not gotten admittances? I think the acceptance rate for the school is around 6-7%, so I'm just worried that merely having done a few interviews isn't close at all to a guarantee.

Edited February 10, 2012 by dienekes

[Adornopolisci2012]

So after tomorrow, if I still have heard nothing during this cycle (my acceptance is a deferred admission), i'll officially submit to the proposition that I did, indeed, imagine applying to Ph.D. programs.