Welcome to the 2012-2013 cycle

[cooperstreet]

Dear faculty,

 

If I am going to re-apply next year, what should I do differently? Rework my SOP and re-take the GREs obviously, but would it benefit me to take more math classes at my local community college? A political science graduate course at my local Ivy would be hard to pay for (and I already have three of them on my transcripts). Just wondering if staying in school (I work full time) would be a bonus, especially if it is an advanced undergraduate math course. Thanks.

[chaetzli]

Dear faculty,

 

If I am going to re-apply next year, what should I do differently? Rework my SOP and re-take the GREs obviously, but would it benefit me to take more math classes at my local community college? A political science graduate course at my local Ivy would be hard to pay for (and I already have three of them on my transcripts).

 

Do all of the above!

 

Edit: as dnexon just showed "Interesting. We tend to place much more value on recommendations." you just never know which parts of your application carry the most weight!

Edited March 5, 2013 by chaetzli

[news2yous]

Quick note: Georgetown's remaining acceptances went out at COB yesterday. 

 

Again, email me if you have any questions.

 

Well I guess I'm out.

 

Thanks for letting us know!

[dnexon]

Dear faculty,

 

If I am going to re-apply next year, what should I do differently? Rework my SOP and re-take the GREs obviously, but would it benefit me to take more math classes at my local community college? A political science graduate course at my local Ivy would be hard to pay for (and I already have three of them on my transcripts). Just wondering if staying in school (I work full time) would be a bonus, especially if it is an advanced undergraduate math course. Thanks.

 

Maths and stats classes -- if you do well -- are definitely a good signal. But I wouldn't put my life on hold with the idea of eventually pursuing a PhD. When you look at the odds of getting into a program (very low) and the state of the current job market (not quite depressing, but definitely a downer).... that suggests, at least, hedging your bets.

[news2yous]

Dear faculty,

 

If I am going to re-apply next year, what should I do differently? Rework my SOP and re-take the GREs obviously, but would it benefit me to take more math classes at my local community college? A political science graduate course at my local Ivy would be hard to pay for (and I already have three of them on my transcripts). Just wondering if staying in school (I work full time) would be a bonus, especially if it is an advanced undergraduate math course. Thanks.

 

Same question here.  I'm wondering whether or not a program like CIR or MAPSS would necessarily be beneficial.  I'm also considering write an entirely new writing sample.

 

Some people said my interests might have been stated to broadly on my SOP.  I just don't know.

Edited March 5, 2013 by news2yous

[news2yous]

Do you think it would be okay to ask (after a few weeks or months) different schools about my application, specifically, what my weaknesses were and what I could do to improve for the next time I apply?

 

I heard some people did this, got some good responses, and were able to do much better the next cycle they applied.

[cooperstreet]

Do you think it would be okay to ask (after a few weeks or months) different schools about my application, specifically, what my weaknesses were and what I could do to improve for the next time I apply?

 

I heard some people did this, got some good responses, and were able to do much better the next cycle they applied.

 

I've done this. It helps. Some people may not respond, some do.

[cooperstreet]

Maths and stats classes -- if you do well -- are definitely a good signal. But I wouldn't put my life on hold with the idea of eventually pursuing a PhD. When you look at the odds of getting into a program (very low) and the state of the current job market (not quite depressing, but definitely a downer).... that suggests, at least, hedging your bets.

 

Thanks Dr. Nexon. Fortunately, community college classes are cheap and online, and useful for things outside of PhD programs. I can take one and stay at my day job without disrupting my life too much.

[TakeMyCoffeeBlack]

When can we expect GTown rejections?

[BFB]

Interesting. We tend to place much more value on recommendations. For us, the statement of purpose is more a signal of "does this person have any idea what it means to do political science" -- as is the writing sample -- as the correlation between statement of purpose and PhD topic is, shall we say, loose.

 

IMO recs are complicated. You do get some so-so letters (very few) and some over-the-top rock-star letters (also very few). We don't generally send either signal lightly, so those are informative. Otherwise, though, they're generally pretty formulaic, and no one really wants to write anything bad. At the same time, some professors are Panglossian, while others are pretty meticulous about giving very candid reviews. As a result, variation across professors can be greater than variation across students; in other words, the noise can swamp the signal.

 

Well put, on statements and writing samples. I use them as indicators of professionalization first and best guesses as to direction second.

[irfannooruddin]

BFB summarizes my position on rec letters well. And I agree with dnexon too that SOPs are lousy predictors of eventual dissertations, but, in a very low-information setting, the ability of a student to pose a question clearly and reveal their analytic chops is useful info about their ability to do PhD-level work. What that question is is far less relevant.

[BFB]

Dear faculty,

 

If I am going to re-apply next year, what should I do differently? Rework my SOP and re-take the GREs obviously, but would it benefit me to take more math classes at my local community college? A political science graduate course at my local Ivy would be hard to pay for (and I already have three of them on my transcripts). Just wondering if staying in school (I work full time) would be a bonus, especially if it is an advanced undergraduate math course. Thanks.

 

 

Same question here.  I'm wondering whether or not a program like CIR or MAPSS would necessarily be beneficial.  I'm also considering write an entirely new writing sample.

 

Some people said my interests might have been stated to broadly on my SOP.  I just don't know.

 

I'm hesitant to say, in general, since (I assume!) I'm not familiar with your file. Doing these things might or might not compensate for some existing problem; at the same time, you might be reading too much into rejections, which (as we've pointed out) are not as informative as most of you take them to be. To complicate things further, some committees won't care whether you do X, while others may value it highly.

 

The people who would be better able to answer these questions are the people who read your files at the universities to which you applied. Especially given that your outcomes are so at odds with your expectations, I'd urge you to contact them and ask them what you could have done differently, and to ask them to be candid in their response. The answer might sting, a lot. But if you really want to improve your odds, you can't do it in a vacuum.

[dnexon]

When can we expect GTown rejections?

 

Soonish. I kept a wall of rejections when I applied to grad school, but I'm not sure what the other good use of the official letter is.

[GopherGrad]

you might be reading too much into rejections, which (as we've pointed out) are not as informative as most of you take them to be.

 

Without disagreeing with this in any way, there's a reason it's hard for us to accept. The discipline seems to value admission to top programs. If the admissions process isn't well-suited to select the most talented candidates, the concentration of placement among the most competitive programs is a puzzle that has only arbitrary and depressing answers.

[zzzzzz]

finally heard from Chicago- funded CIR. eh

[BornAndRaised]

For those who have still not heard from Chicago:

 

- Admissions decisions are still not done.

- They will be done by the end of this week.  The hope is that they will be done by Wednesday, but that is not guaranteed.

- They were not able to comment on whether or not they are talking about the PhD program or if these decisions were just for CIR/MAPSS or both.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the update. 

Gosh, I hope we hear soon. This waiting and uncertainty is not doing me any good. 

[PoliSwede]

Without disagreeing with this in any way, there's a reason it's hard for us to accept. The discipline seems to value admission to top programs. If the admissions process isn't well-suited to select the most talented candidates, the concentration of placement among the most competitive programs is a puzzle that has only arbitrary and depressing answers.

I'm not sure it's as much about the process being ill-suited to select talented candidates, as much as is it is about there being so many talented candidates that it's hard to separate them from each other.

 

Not saying that the process seems to be perfect (far from it), but I can understand that it's problematic to select the best 20 candidates from a pool of 300+ extremely talented applicants.

 

Edit: I posted a tombola many pages back. It still feels a bit like that

Edited March 5, 2013 by Lemeard

[phdapplicant2013]

Soonish. I kept a wall of rejections when I applied to grad school, but I'm not sure what the other good use of the official letter is.

 

I know this is out of context... but I'm a big fan of you(r works)!!!

Just saying.

[BornAndRaised]

finally heard from Chicago- funded CIR. eh

 

Congrats! I still have nothing from them. 

[ThisGuyRiteHere]

40 days till decision day

[RWBG]

Some interesting stuff from the faculty contributors! As a thought, if any of you wanted to post some general advice on admissions in a separate thread on this forum, it might be more easily accessible to future applicants than finding it through this thread. Also, I'm going to count the fact that both Irfan and Bear are Michigan Ph.Ds as a win for Ann Arbor...

[hope23ful]

also heard from Chicago, funded CIR 

[BornAndRaised]

also heard from Chicago, funded CIR 

 

Got into CIR but no funding. 

[CoS]

Come on, Harvard....

[raptureonfire]

I'm not sure it's as much about the process being ill-suited to select talented candidates, as much as is it is about there being so many talented candidates that it's hard to separate them from each other.

 

Not saying that the process seems to be perfect (far from it), but I can understand that it's problematic to select the best 20 candidates from a pool of 300+ extremely talented applicants.

 

Edit: I posted a tombola many pages back. It still feels a bit like that

I'm inclined to agree with Lemeard.  It's really important to remember how competitive this process really is.  Even if we discount half of all applicants to a department as unqualified, most programs will have to decide on 15-20 spots from a pool of 150-200 candidates.

 

I hate this expression, but let's "just do the math".

 

Let's say SCHOOL X received 300 applications for its doctoral program, which has 20 available funded positions.  We could make the assumption that half of those candidates get cut simply for not being as competitive as the other half.  They may be great candidates, but for whatever reason, they didn't match up to the other half.  That leaves 150 candidates.  Let's cut the deck again, just to really narrow down the pool to the top quarter of candidates.  Alright, now we're looking at 20 spots and 75 'top candidates'.  At this point, 55 of those candidates, all of whom easily qualify for the program, will not get admitted to the program.

 

This is exactly the reason that it is important to apply to a broad range of schools.  The faculty contributors to this board also report having been rejected from multiple schools.  So take heart - it's not something to take personally; it's just how things are.