ivyreject Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 I applied there too, so it's good to see that something is happening. Who knows how long it'll take to hear from GW. I applied to GW, American, and G'town in some part because I figured DC would be an exciting place to study political science. Granted, my area of specialization will be American politics, but I'm surprised that I've seen so little talk about DC-area schools, save Maryland, which seems to be on many peoples' list. My ambitions might be more modest than some of the brilliant minds and future superstars on here. I chose the schools to which I am applying based mostly on where I want to live, work, and study the next five years, and assumed that DC might provide a particularly rich environment for such things as opposed to frigid, remote outposts in the Upper Midwest. Of course, I tried to find departments which seem well-matched to my area of interest and, to the degree this can be known, that have success with placement. Just as an aside, as maddening as this process can be, I hate to think of how it will be in five years when we're all trying to get jobs at somewhere besides Joe Blow State Community College. Especially since all these boomer profs we all know and love will still be too poor to retire. Oh well, one thing at a time.
yinz_guys Posted January 30, 2009 Posted January 30, 2009 Hi all- new to the board. CAPoliSciPhD, I applied to Colorado as well.
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 30, 2009 Author Posted January 30, 2009 Welcome to the board yinz. Feel like adding your info to this thread? Where else are you applying/what's your field? Well, welcome to my favorite way to procrastinate...thegradcafe!
IRHopeful Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 I've been lurking here for a while, but I suddenly feel the urge to break my silence (maybe the anxiety is starting to get to me). I'm a senior at a highly ranked liberal arts college and I'm applying to political science PhD programs, with a focus on IR and security. I applied to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Cornell, Duke, UVA, and Columbia. I aimed high obviously, but at this point I'm just hoping I get in to one. Good luck to everyone, I'm guessing next week is when most of us will start to hear from a school or two...
twright Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 I've been lurking here for a while, but I suddenly feel the urge to break my silence (maybe the anxiety is starting to get to me). I'm a senior at a highly ranked liberal arts college and I'm applying to political science PhD programs, with a focus on IR and security. I applied to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Cornell, Duke, UVA, Yale, and Columbia. I aimed high obviously, but at this point I'm just hoping I get in to one. Good luck to everyone, I'm guessing next week is when most of us will start to hear from a school or two... how about sharing your stats, just for fun
GradHappy Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Anyone know anything about Colorado's Masters program? When decisions will be made? Also, anyone else apply to Washington University in St. Louis?
twright Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 AKarn said: Anyone know anything about Colorado's Masters program? When decisions will be made? Also, anyone else apply to Washington University in St. Louis? I applied to WUSTL ... I'm interested in public law/judicial politics...
IRHopeful Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Okay, why not. ~3.9 GPA, ~1500 GRE/5.5 Writing. I'm an RA for one of my professors, and I've co-authored a short article with that professor that has been accepted at a pretty big journal. I was really disappointed not to hear from UVA this week. It seems like a great school, and given the other places I applied, if I don't get in there, things could get ugly...
twright Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Okay, why not. ~3.9 GPA, ~1500 GRE/5.5 Writing. I'm an RA for one of my professors, and I've co-authored a short article with that professor that has been accepted at a pretty big journal. I was really disappointed not to hear from UVA this week. It seems like a great school, and given the other places I applied, if I don't get in there, things could get ugly... Our stats are pretty similar ... I think (hope) we will both be admitted to UVA. I'm sure you will also be admitted to at least a couple of the other schools to which you applied. Good luck!!
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 31, 2009 Author Posted January 31, 2009 Anyone know anything about Colorado's Masters program? When decisions will be made? Also, anyone else apply to Washington Univ. at St. Louis? I'm not sure about this. I forgot that Colorado had a master's program, too. I wonder if one committee does both or if they have two committees... If there's one, I'd bet they make PhD decisions before they masters decisions...but for both our sakes, my friend, I hope we hear something soon. BTW, why did you not apply for the PhD program? You have great stats. Side note: I'm starting to get a little down about my chances...
catchermiscount Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Enough of this tomfoolery! We have all developed ulcers over the past six months or so. It's a Friday night, and I'm sure we all could use some fun instead of fretting. This is what I propose: 1) We all go out and get belligerently drunk; 2) We buy midgets (see my post in the what-are-you-going-to-now thread of the Waiting It Out board); 3) We wake up somewhere that we have never (consciously) been before; 4) We find our way home under the rule that we're not allowed to spend more than $5 doing so; 5) We take a few aspirin at home; 6) We come on the board tomorrow morning and report the results of debauchery -- at least what we can remember. Who's with me? Screw it - I'm getting sloshed either way. You should, too!
IRHopeful Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Enough of this tomfoolery! We have all developed ulcers over the past six months or so. It's a Friday night. This is what I propose: 1) We all go out and get belligerently drunk; 2) We buy midgets (see my post in the what-are-you-going-to-now thread of the Waiting It Out board); 3) We wake up somewhere that we have never (consciously) been before; 4) We find our way home under the rule that we're not allowed to spend more than $5 doing so; 5) We take a few aspirin at home; 6) We come on the board tomorrow morning and report the results of debauchery -- at least what we can remember. Who's with me? Screw it - I'm getting sloshed either way. You should, too! I wholeheartedly agree with this, at least #1. I'm having a party at my place tonight with a "Recession" theme
convex Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 I'm with you CA, but I think a lot of us are pretty down on our chances at this stage. I quick glance at my list of schools should reveal why a waitlist from UIUC brought quite a jolt of pessimism about the rest of my admissions cycle. My top choice is WUSTL--my cycle would be pretty much over if I was admitted there.
flyingwalrus Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 convex said: I'm with you CA, but I think a lot of us are pretty down on our chances at this stage. I quick glance at my list of schools should reveal why a waitlist from UIUC brought quite a jolt of pessimism about the rest of my admissions cycle. My top choice is WUSTL--my cycle would be pretty much over if I was admitted there. No reason to worry. I was rejected and waitlisted by departments ranked below places that offered me fellowships.
AllFiredUp Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 My safety was MSU and I was waitlisted. I have to say right now that my strategy to the Ph.D. has crashed.
sam123 Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 at least u r waitlisted...i havent heard a single word from any of the schools i've applied to... :cry:
yinz_guys Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Welcome to the board yinz. Feel like adding your info to this thread? Where else are you applying/what's your field? Well, welcome to my favorite way to procrastinate...thegradcafe! Sure- 3.8 undergrad from state university, 3.9 grad gpa from East Coast university (masters in security studies). Applied: Ohio State Minnesota Washington-Seattle Indiana (Public Policy) Colorado Cal-Davis (already accepted) Maryland (Public Policy)
twright Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Sure- 3.8 undergrad from state university, 3.9 grad gpa from East Coast university (masters in security studies). Applied: Ohio State Minnesota Washington-Seattle Indiana (Public Policy) Colorado Cal-Davis (already accepted) Maryland (Public Policy) once again proving my point, nearly EVERYONE applied to Ohio State (me too!!) ... maybe OSU is the most overrated school...
convex Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Â In any case, I am in the unique circumstance of having eliminated about a third of that list already on the basis of my spouse not being admitted to the law school. She is already in at WUSTL, which moves them right up the list. After my UIUC waitlist, I am feeling like my list should have looked a lot different anyway. Live and learn...
gradster Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Convex, lots of people got wait listed by schools that were their backups (including me). Why? I cannot emphasize this enough, the process is very random. Very VERY random. Suppose you want to be in comparative politics and study africa. Well the faculty that do that work at school Y may be leaving, may be on leave this year (therefore not pushing to get you), or may have too many students right now and feels they could be without a new advisees for a year or two. Or the person reading your file happens to know one of your letter writers and if the letter is good you are in, even if probably another file was pretty much the same. The bottom line is that there are way more qualified candidates than there are spots for, and deciding who gets those spots will always involve a bunch of things that completely out of your hands and that are not personal or reflect on the quality of your file. Now if you apply to many schools and your file is good you increase your chances that the random factors will go your way somewhere. If you don't get in anywhere, it still could be that you are not presenting yourself well on paper (your not clear on what polisci is, what you want to do, etc) or one of your letters is not great, or that you had the real bad luck of not having the random factors go your way anywhere. Not to mention that lower ranked schools may pass on some of the best candidates assuming they will go to top 10 or 5 schools. All this is just to assure you that given all the randomness in the process you cannot predict future success or failure from one rejection.
convex Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Yeah, I know all of this stuff, but 'tis the season for irrational freaking out I guess. If people are going to get off the wait-list at UIUC, I'm thinking it could be to my advantage that they're not going to decide that until April, because I have two papers that have been under review at major journals for months. Hearing something positive from them between now and April might move me closer to the top of that list, I hope. The good news is, it's the weekend, and we can have two days of not speculating about whether or not departments are going to send out emails or call candidates! Edit: I was just watching the South Park episode, "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", and it occurs to me that my relationships to thegradcafe is beginning to look like Randy's relationship to Wall-Mart in this episode. I clearly know that it would be better for my sanity if this place did not exist, but since it does, I am unable to stay away from it.
adaptations Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 Just to keep the info coming, my Ohio application changed from "evaluation" to "acadreview" this morning. I have to be honest, this is the first weekend I have actually been excited to get away from the application suspense. Next week should be interesting, but this weekend is all about getting work done and meeting immediate deadlines.
IRHopeful Posted January 31, 2009 Posted January 31, 2009 No word from UVA. I'm guessing we'll hear back Monday/Tuesday or so.
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