Welcome to the 2012-2013 cycle

[phdhope2013]

Can anyone explain why some schools will send out some rejections mid-February, but then the rest in March? (This is just a general question. I am not referring to any school in particular and especially not to Chicago because they have the MA issues to deal with). 

[PoliSwede]

In at Georgetown with assistantship (though not sure how much, no details in letter)!

That's awesome!

[eponine997]

Can anyone explain why some schools will send out some rejections mid-February, but then the rest in March? (This is just a general question. I am not referring to any school in particular and especially not to Chicago because they have the MA issues to deal with). 

 

I would assume it has to do with a wait list, whom they would reject once they knew they had at least a committed class of however many, but I could be wrong.

[CGMJ]

Congrats!  Which subfield did you apply to?

 

Thanks raptureonfire and everyone else too!

 

I applied for comparative. 

 

And in case anyone is wondering, the status on Georgetown applyyourself hasn't changed. 

[raptureonfire]

Thanks raptureonfire and everyone else too!

 

I applied for comparative. 

 

And in case anyone is wondering, the status on Georgetown applyyourself hasn't changed. 

Ah!  Did you find out whether the other comparative spot is taken?

 

Who are you hoping to work with?

[BFB]

So I have a question, if you choose to admit someone without funding, does that mean that you don't really care if they attend or not? Or does the department literally not have the resources to fund the student?

 

 

I don't think it means that they don't *care* about whether you attend, but it certainly means that they are less invested in you as a candidate than those to whom they did offer funding.  Of course, it also depends on the resources of the department.  Not being offered funding from a large department with big resources is a bad sign, but the same offer from a small department with limited resources might not be as meaningful.

 

It definitely doesn't mean that we don't care. In our case, it generally means that the student didn't win a fellowship in the Grad School competition, which we have no control over, and some rule precluded us from using the discretionary funds we have to cover the student in question. In our case, the Grad School creates strict requirements (3.6 GPA, 75% average verbal/quant GRE) and only gives us two waivers to use for students who don't meet those criteria. The specifics about funding are here.

 

The upshot, though, is that we don't accept people we don't want to come. Period. If you were accepted, we want you here. If you weren't funded, that's not our ideal outcome—at all. And it doesn't necessarily reflect priority: the Graduate School might very well give funding to a low-priority candidate without leaving us enough waivers to cover all of our medium- or high-priority candidates.

 

I realize it's a frustrating process for all of you. Believe me, it can be absolutely maddening for us.

[CGMJ]

Ah!  Did you find out whether the other comparative spot is taken?

 

Who are you hoping to work with?

 

No idea about the other spots, the letter was fairly vague and said more details would follow. 

 

There are a bunch of great people at Georgetown, but I would like to work with Heydemann and Brumberg in particular (my focus is on MENA).

[tokenaustralian]

Thanks raptureonfire and everyone else too!

 

I applied for comparative. 

 

And in case anyone is wondering, the status on Georgetown applyyourself hasn't changed. 

 

Congratulations, and thanks for the information.  Does anyone else know of someone admitted to Georgetown this cycle in IR?

[cooperstreet]

whats the deal with Columbia? why haven't some of us heard yet?

[CGMJ]

whats the deal with Columbia? why haven't some of us heard yet?

 

Maybe it's a good sign? (i.e., some sort of informal wait list?)

 

That's what I'm hoping about UCLA...

[cooperstreet]

Maybe it's a good sign? (i.e., some sort of informal wait list?)

 

That's what I'm hoping about UCLA...

I hope. Its weird. I even checked the website: nothing.

[cooperstreet]

Also,

Did anyone apply/get in/ get rejected to/from Penn for Middle East/Comparative? Thanks.

[setgree]

It definitely doesn't mean that we don't care. In our case, it generally means that the student didn't win a fellowship in the Grad School competition, which we have no control over, and some rule precluded us from using the discretionary funds we have to cover the student in question. In our case, the Grad School creates strict requirements (3.6 GPA, 75% average verbal/quant GRE) and only gives us two waivers to use for students who don't meet those criteria. The specifics about funding are here.

 

You guys are the gold standard for transparency, thanks so much!

[ThisGuyRiteHere]

Thank you to BFB. That clears up things for me.

[certaincertainties]

Has anyone still not heard from Minnesota? I saw a few late rejects go up today, but applyyourself still says "Awaiting Program Decision." I've emailed them as well, but have yet to hear back. 

 

Also, thank you to whoever made the call to Toronto, crossing my fingers for that one.

[BFB]

You guys are the gold standard for transparency, thanks so much!

 

Thanks. It means a lot to me, actually: we've put significant time and effort into making our website as informative as it can be. I was thrilled when you linked to our Time to Completion page... I wrote it (and made the graphic) myself. 

[USCoregonian]

Are these Georgetown rejects legit?

[Doorkeeper]

I'm shocked that Harvard is waiting until March given their historical tendency to release in mid-February, but kudos to the person who called it in the results thread.

 

I guess they deserve a week all to themselves to release decisions.

[GopherGrad]

In our case, the Grad School creates strict requirements (3.6 GPA, 75% average verbal/quant GRE) and only gives us two waivers to use for students who don't meet those criteria.

 

Thanks for all the frank answers; this post was particularly helpful for me. I have a clarifying question that may be applicable to several of the posters here:

 

I finished my BA with a GPA below a 3.6, but I graduated ten years ago, did not study political science, and have finished two graduate degrees since then. My most recent, an MA in Political Science comes in well above a 3.6. Would your graduate school force you to use an exemption based on my undergrad GPA? Do you ever reject students because they would not receive funding based on the waiver rule? How common is this bifurcated funding / admissions set up?

[blissfullyhappy]

First time poster here and I will say that this will be a controversial post. My cycle has ended and it has been a great one for me (got into Stanford, Yale, and Princeton), but I feel like I need to say a few things about this cycle/admissions in general. As we all know there have been quite a few controversies that has irritated everyone.

It is obvious that people from the University of Chicago read this forum, which is why I am writing this (at a minimum I’m sure that undergraduate who told us that prospective students are laughed at will relay this comment back to them). Throughout this cycle your school and only your school has caused severe angst, but why? Well, in my case I e-mailed your school about my application status and whether you got my GRE scores (there was a previous problem, which you did resolve), so I wanted to double check that everything was alright when acceptances were sent out on February 5th. You never responded to my e-mail. I am not sure what other people have e-mailed you about, but when someone spends money and time in applying to your school you should have the decency to spend 3 minutes answering an e-mail. 

Furthermore, I think everyone on gradcafe can agree that you do have a lovely program, so those that have been admitted should go to your school and not worry about what people say about it on here or PSJR. Yes, your program has had some losses over the years in terms of faculty leaving (or did you kick them out? I am not sure and I frankly do not care). I hope you did not take it offensively when I pointed out that Wendt and Snidal were not there anymore (it seems as though you did because a little more than a week later you rejected some people (not me), which went against what you did in previous years), but you are academics, so I would imagine you are used to criticism. Actually, you probably LAUGHED at it.  Anyways, I fully apologize for this, but I was absolutely livid that you did not respond to my very important e-mail (do I think that it is important now that I got into my top choices? No, but I really shouldn’t have done that.).

So to my main point: How does a school prevent outrage on gradcafe?

 

1. Answer e-mails (this is the big one)
2. Actually tell students that apply to your school that you may be considered for CIR/MAPSS (I honestly had no idea and even though I don’t have an MA, I wouldn’t want to be considered for it).
3. Don’t tell your undergraduates that you laugh at prospective students
4. I guess someone at your school does answer some e-mails and there have been some controversy on here and on the board about it. Do NOT tell prospective students that you will hear results by a specific date. You are only asking for trouble. Yes, I am well aware that your NEW answer to that question is that everyone will hear by mid-March, but it is a little too late for that response.

These are my thoughts. Take from them what you want. If people disagree with me or don’t like me, I really don’t care (mostly because I am certain you will never figure out who I am). I am going to go out and celebrate my acceptances. I’ve spent far too much time on this post already. 

[BFB]

Thanks for all the frank answers; this post was particularly helpful for me. I have a clarifying question that may be applicable to several of the posters here:

 

I finished my BA with a GPA below a 3.6, but I graduated ten years ago, did not study political science, and have finished two graduate degrees since then. My most recent, an MA in Political Science comes in well above a 3.6. Would your graduate school force you to use an exemption based on my undergrad GPA? Do you ever reject students because they would not receive funding based on the waiver rule? How common is this bifurcated funding / admissions set up?

 

GPA below 3.6: Yes, we would be forced to use a waiver to admit you. The requirement is based on undergraduate GPA only, regardless of time, other degrees, etc.

 

(Let me pause to emphasize that I did not design this system.)

 

Do we ever reject students because they wouldn't receive funding based on waivers? Hmm. We haven't on my watch, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. If we did run out of waivers in the first round, we'd face a hard choice: Do we submit another no-waiver student, or do we accept a student who'll need a waiver in the second round (and surely not be funded in the first)? We get a fair number of waivers—19, if I recall correctly—in the first round, but because it's possible for one student to need more than one waiver (one for GRE, one for GPA, for example), those don't go as far as you'd think. So this sort of calculation, if it did come into play, would matter only in the last few students. But yes, it's conceivable that we'd be forced to forego a prospect we want in favor of one who didn't require a waiver. Rare, but possible.

 

In the second stage, it's more than possible to have a student defunded because of the waiver rule—which, in most cases, amounts to the same thing as rejection, except it comes about a month after the acceptance letter. It's really cruel when that happens. Last year, I took one case to the Dean, and it dragged out long enough that I had to deliver the bad news to the candidate in person, on the visitation weekend. The person in question was impressively gracious; I'm surprised I didn't walk out of that conversation with a black eye. This year, I'm fighting another case, and with a little bit of luck we might just get a different outcome, but I just don't know yet—it's really entirely up to the Dean.

 

How common is a bifurcated funding/admissions setup? I don't know, honestly. I never ran across this sort of situation in other schools, but I was never even on the admissions committee at those places. I suspect it's better in some places and worse in others. It was worse here, actually, before a recent reform gave us some discretionary money: prior to that point, funding was entirely in the hands of the Graduate School.

[BFB]

You never responded to my e-mail. I am not sure what other people have e-mailed you about, but when someone spends money and time in applying to your school you should have the decency to spend 3 minutes answering an e-mail. 

 

I'm going to leave the rest of this post alone—unprofessional to comment, really. But this line struck a nerve.

 

You're not "spending money and time in applying" to a school. You are offering to spend a very significant percentage of your life at a school, studying under the people who work there. The fact that you're offering to do that isn't an inconvenience. It's an honor.

[Guest hopefulfool]

I'm going to leave the rest of this post alone—unprofessional to comment, really. But this line struck a nerve.

 

You're not "spending money and time in applying" to a school. You are offering to spend a very significant percentage of your life at a school, studying under the people who work there. The fact that you're offering to do that isn't an inconvenience. It's an honor.

You have literally become one of my favorite people and I don't even know you personally. Damn. I wish I applied to OSU. 

Why are you so nice?

Edited March 2, 2013 by hopefulfool

[goforbroke33]

Alright, compadres: who else has yet to hear anything--one way or the other--from UC Berkeley?  I'm one of those who is still in purgatory here.  While we know that speculating and assuming rarely pays dividends (at least in the realm of graduate admissions), does anyone have any idea about what's going on?  As we had discussed yesterday, they might be slow in rejecting some of us, but they may also be working on a short waitlist and/or have the capacity to admit another student or three.  Even better--does anyone have any inside information?

[certaincertainties]

First time poster here and I will say that this will be a controversial post. My cycle has ended and it has been a great one for me (got into Stanford, Yale, and Princeton), but I feel like I need to say a few things about this cycle/admissions in general. As we all know there have been quite a few controversies that has irritated everyone.

It is obvious that people from the University of Chicago read this forum, which is why I am writing this (at a minimum I’m sure that undergraduate who told us that prospective students are laughed at will relay this comment back to them). Throughout this cycle your school and only your school has caused severe angst, but why? Well, in my case I e-mailed your school about my application status and whether you got my GRE scores (there was a previous problem, which you did resolve), so I wanted to double check that everything was alright when acceptances were sent out on February 5th. You never responded to my e-mail. I am not sure what other people have e-mailed you about, but when someone spends money and time in applying to your school you should have the decency to spend 3 minutes answering an e-mail. 

 

 

First of all, congrats on getting into such great programs! While I agree with--and share--some of your frustrations with the vagaries of the application process, your anger at UChicago seems a bit misplaced. As BFB's posts have shown, the application process is difficult and complicated for both applicants and admissions committees, and there's a lot that happens that we aren't aware of. Do I think that schools could be more transparent about the process? Absolutely. However, I do not agree that schools owe their applicants a particular response because they have invested time and money in applying (as BFB has much more eloquently shown). That both misrecognizes what you are doing when you apply to a school and how the admissions process works (a process that is even more complicated at UChicago because of the addition of MAPSS/CIR). Typically, the job of fielding phone calls and responding to emails falls to the department secretary, whose time is already stretched pretty thin. This isn't to excuse not replying to applicant queries, but rather to put it in perspective (they also receive over 500 applications, which is a huge number for a department with a relatively limited staff). I highly doubt that UChicago is deliberately not responding to you because of something you said here or on PSJR. And, at the risk of exposing my own identity, I would take the comment about profs laughing at applicants with a grain of salt--at this point, it's third hand information. I have never heard professors here laugh or otherwise make fun of perspective students. At the end of the day, there are any number of frustrating, nonsensical, and completely arbitrary reasons that you do or don't get into a program. Trying to find a reason behind the madness is just going to make you more frustrated (not to mention that you got into some fabulous programs).

 

Best of Luck!