adaptations Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Regarding the number of applicants to yale last year, whomever thought there were over 8000 in political science is crazy. I pulled up my rejection letter from last year, which happened to be a personalized response from within the department (so I trust it) - It says they had "about 550 applicants and less than 40 admits."
dodger Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 yeah, it's definitely not 8000 for poli sci. if i recall correctly, they have about 13000 applications for their A&S + professional schools faculty, and Yale grad A&S receives maybe 8000-10000 applications a year
rlayla Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 All this waiting is driving me f-ing crazy. I thought I could be nice and patient, but no such luck. I can't beleive we have another month to go.
CAPoliSciPhD Posted January 19, 2009 Author Posted January 19, 2009 I'm losing my mind. I woke up this morning to my blackberry buzzing with e-mail and jumped right up to check it. Freaking spam. I'm an idiot...it's MLK day and it's JANUARY!
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Would you recommend I just read Real Analysis books on my own, and then try to write paper drafts that might demonstrate my knowledge? What suggestions do you have on how to show the committee that I have learned these subjects (and, of course, actually learning the subjects)? Studying math on your own is certainly better than not studying it at all, but unless you take a class and get it on your transcript, you can do little more than mention your independent work in your personal statement. Those minimum courses I listed are on topics that are rather hard to pick up on your own unless you have a natural propensity for it. If you've had at least most of them, then trying to learn on your own might not be too painful. If you do decide to try learning math on your own, the key is to not gloss over ANYTHING. There is a real temptation to say "OK, I get this" and move on. That's when you miss seemingly innocuous details which turn out to be quite important. Choose a book that has answers in the back including proofs. Since proof reading and writing is the biggest skill involved in this course (beyond memorizing theorems), it does you no good if you can't check yourself. If you find a book that looks interesting, find it on Amazon marketplace and contact the seller to find out if it has proofs in the back. An alternative you might consider is investing some time in learning a programming language or stats package. While R is the up and coming hot package, Stata, GAUSS, EViews, or any number of others could help your profile.
plisar Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 My graduate program (one of H/Y/P) regularly admitted students from the same university - there were perhaps as many as 5 in one cohort. I know that this is true of the other programs as well, because I see the CVs of graduate students from these schools applying for jobs at my institution as they finish. Just going through CV's while applying for programs was enough to show that this is the case. I attended one of the top six as an undergraduate and know that they regularly accept well qualified students from their undergraduate program. Why not accept someone if they are qualified for the program and they are a good fit? Whether it is in the best interests of the student to attend is a completely different matter.
Luckige Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 If you do decide to try learning math on your own, the key is to not gloss over ANYTHING. There is a real temptation to say "OK, I get this" and move on. That's when you miss seemingly innocuous details which turn out to be quite important. Choose a book that has answers in the back including proofs. Since proof reading and writing is the biggest skill involved in this course (beyond memorizing theorems), it does you no good if you can't check yourself. If you find a book that looks interesting, find it on Amazon marketplace and contact the seller to find out if it has proofs in the back. I would start with this book:http://www.amazon.com/Functions-Mathematical-Association-America-Textbooks/dp/088385029X I read it on my own and found it very useful. Proofs (Heine-Borel, Bolzano, etc) are really well explained. Do not skip the exercises!
technocat Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 Just going through CV's while applying for programs was enough to show that this is the case. I attended one of the top six as an undergraduate and know that they regularly accept well qualified students from their undergraduate program. Why not accept someone if they are qualified for the program and they are a good fit? Whether it is in the best interests of the student to attend is a completely different matter. I've also seen this happen every year at my alma mater, which is a top 10 program for polisci. Not everyone who's accepted back enrolls, often because they themselves feel like they've exhausted the program as undergrads, but they do accept their own. Some grad schools also waive the application fee for alumni of their own school, so if there is discouragement of 'academic inbreeding,' it doesn't seem to be evident at the institutional level.
jackassjim Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 So they are actually looking at files. I just got an email from one of my department's secretary that my GRE score report is missing. So how do you all think this works? Do they first go through all the files to see what's missing, then contact all the students to ask them to provide the documents? Would seem like a huge waste of time with the +/-60% of applications they won't seriously consider in the end... Hehe, I guess I'm just fishing for this to be a good sign.
plisar Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 I don't want to crush your hopes, but depending on when you submitted your application, it very well could mean nothing. Us graduate coordinators (secretaries is a slightly derogatory term) are constantly going through applications. Remember 250-400 applications is a ton of work!
adaptations Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 Plisar - I don't mean to pry, but I saw you applied to 21 programs. Do you mind sharing with the community what subfield you're applying in, and if you feel like making a list - perhaps some of the schools for which you bought lottery tickets?
jackassjim Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 I know it probably means nothing. Don't worry about crushing my hopes, I was only joking. Us graduate coordinators (secretaries is a slightly derogatory term) Well maybe, but it's still her official title (at least as I read it from the department's website).
sabana15 Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 So they are actually looking at files. I just got an email from one of my department's secretary that my GRE score report is missing. So how do you all think this works? Do they first go through all the files to see what's missing, then contact all the students to ask them to provide the documents? Would seem like a huge waste of time with the +/-60% of applications they won't seriously consider in the end... Hehe, I guess I'm just fishing for this to be a good sign. which school contacted you--I just got e-mailed by Rochester today and I turned my app in before winter break.
jackassjim Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 I just got e-mailed by Rochester today I don't feel so special anymore :wink:
sabana15 Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 I don't feel so special anymore :wink: sorry to burst your bubble. funny that both our scores went MIA! Good luck to you!
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 sorry to burst your bubble. funny that both our scores went MIA! Good luck to you! ETS proves every year that they are about as sharp as a bag of wet kittens.
jackassjim Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 ETS proves every year that they are about as sharp as a bag of wet kittens. Hehe. That really made me laugh.
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Hehe. That really made me laugh. I wish I could claim credit, but it's a Foghorn Leghorn-ism.
sam123 Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 just outta curiosity, do poli sci departments conduct interviews? (first-time applicant myself)
plisar Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Virtually none, though there are one or two exceptions.
Luckige Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 just outta curiosity, do poli sci departments conduct interviews? (first-time applicant myself) I heard about Emory conducting interviews.
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Emory did last year and the experience convinced me to withdraw my application (because of my research interests, not because of anything that happened). Everyone who attended the interview weekend and everyone with whom I have discussed the matter believes Emory to be the only school that does this. Mind you, I think interviews (or at least a phone or email conversation) would be a good idea when it comes to funded offers. If schools are offering tuition waivers and assistantships/fellowships, then this is a significant investment. At a private school, that could be around $60k per year all inclusive. If the program lasts 5 years and the goal is for all students to complete the program, then why not spend $500 per visitor and know that the $300k is going to the right person?
sam123 Posted January 23, 2009 Posted January 23, 2009 anyone hear anything from Brown yet? got an email from the admission office saying that they will mail out decisions soon...i am like...dah...
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