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Cesare

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So, this might be a stupid question, but...

What is the most polite/professional way to reject an offer?  Should I just fill out the "I am not coming to your school" form, or should I also contact the DGS or a POI?  If so, any suggestions on how to word that email?

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So, this might be a stupid question, but...

What is the most polite/professional way to reject an offer?  Should I just fill out the "I am not coming to your school" form, or should I also contact the DGS or a POI?  If so, any suggestions on how to word that email?

 

I don't think that's stupid! I think that, if you haven't had any contact with someone at the school, you can go ahead and fill out the form and leave it at that (unless you feel especially compelled to write to the DGS). If you have been talking to anyone in particular one-on-one, fill out the form and write a brief and gracious email thanking them for the offer and all their time/help, but you will be accepting an offer at [the school you are attending]. I don't think you even necessarily have to tell them where you're going to go, but that's the way I'd go about it. :)

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So, this might be a stupid question, but...

What is the most polite/professional way to reject an offer?  Should I just fill out the "I am not coming to your school" form, or should I also contact the DGS or a POI?  If so, any suggestions on how to word that email?

 

 

I don't think that's stupid! I think that, if you haven't had any contact with someone at the school, you can go ahead and fill out the form and leave it at that (unless you feel especially compelled to write to the DGS). If you have been talking to anyone in particular one-on-one, fill out the form and write a brief and gracious email thanking them for the offer and all their time/help, but you will be accepting an offer at [the school you are attending]. I don't think you even necessarily have to tell them where you're going to go, but that's the way I'd go about it. :)

 

That's more or less ideal. If you just fill out the online form, it could be days or weeks until the DGS finds out. As a bonus, most DGSes will at least drop you a quick note saying nice things about you, telling you how much they'll miss having you there, etc.

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So, this might be a stupid question, but...

What is the most polite/professional way to reject an offer?  Should I just fill out the "I am not coming to your school" form, or should I also contact the DGS or a POI?  If so, any suggestions on how to word that email?

 

I think you should drop a nice note, and for the POIs you really liked, might even leave the door open for future discussions about their research, etc. Building a strong network is really important in the field (and on the job market). Based on my personal experience, you would be amazed at how small the Ivory Tower is, and at how quickly word spreads (good and bad) about reputations. First impressions matter a lot. 

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Would the waitlisted Brandeis applicant please stand up? I'm waiting on Brandeis also. Any details would be much appreciated. It's funny that they would waitlist people before accepting or denying anyone, no? I know they are still hurting from Madoff but I thought they would be accepting people this year.

 

 

 

This won't help you. But I can verify that it is all true. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/philadelphia-underrated-city_n_4826930.html

Hey, I got the email from Brandeis a couple of hours ago from Kerry Chase: "I write to let you know that the Graduate Admissions Committee has placed your application on a wait list for admission to the PhD program. The Committee was very impressed with your dossier, and I'd like to emphasize that an offer of admission is still possible, but not guaranteed."

I was also surprised that there are no news for acceptances...

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Saw some people receive partially funded MA offers from Chicago on the rejections wave. Thinking that since I haven't heard anything from Chicago that I've been shut out altogether......

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Saw some people receive partially funded MA offers from Chicago on the rejections wave. Thinking that since I haven't heard anything from Chicago that I've been shut out altogether......

 

There is only one person on the results board who talks about a master's offer from Chicago.  Notice there is one from NYU as well.

 

I haven't heard from them either and am baffled at what they could possibly be doing at this point, but suffice it to say, I would definitely not accept a consolation master's offer.

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There is only one person on the results board who talks about a master's offer from Chicago.  Notice there is one from NYU as well.

 

I haven't heard from them either and am baffled at what they could possibly be doing at this point, but suffice it to say, I would definitely not accept a consolation master's offer.

 

I got a masters offer from chicago (I applied as a backup in case I didn't get into any PhD programs). If you search "MAPSS", you will see that there are a bunch of offers that went out.

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There is only one person on the results board who talks about a master's offer from Chicago.  Notice there is one from NYU as well.

 

I haven't heard from them either and am baffled at what they could possibly be doing at this point, but suffice it to say, I would definitely not accept a consolation master's offer.

The chicago MAPSS offer is a direct copy of one posted last year. Perhaps it's simply meant as a warning.

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I got a masters offer from chicago (I applied as a backup in case I didn't get into any PhD programs). If you search "MAPSS", you will see that there are a bunch of offers that went out.

 

Ah, okay.  I was searching on "political science."

 

The chicago MAPSS offer is a direct copy of one posted last year. Perhaps it's simply meant as a warning.

 

Very odd indeed.  Perhaps a disgruntled former MAPSS student.

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Has anyone contacted Harvard re decision releases for govt PhD? I know we've been saying next week, but is that just a hypothesis or is that coming from their grad student administrator? 

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Has anyone contacted Harvard re decision releases for govt PhD? I know we've been saying next week, but is that just a hypothesis or is that coming from their grad student administrator?

I did. Thom Wall confirmed that there have been no offers yet, and that decisions will be made next week at the earliest-- probably late next week.

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I did. Thom Wall confirmed that there have been no offers yet, and that decisions will be made next week at the earliest-- probably late next week. 

 

 

Awesome, thank you for checking and so promptly responding. Fingers crossed for you all! 

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Awesome, thank you for checking and so promptly responding. Fingers crossed for you all!

For what it's worth (and it's worth a lot given the unprofessional communication some of us have had from other departments) he got back to me almost instantly, and he seemed genuinely eager to let folks know exactly where they are in the process. Edited by grotian
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I won't be admitted anywhere. My SOP was totally stupid and childish. My chosen topic was pathetic. I understand it now. What I was hoping for? Why did I spend too much time and money for nothing? I'm idiot. Does anybody have the same feeling? How to bear with it?

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For those that have not had a successful cycle I have somewhat good news. 

Several universities in Europe still have PhD positions and scholarships:

 

Lunds University/Sweden - Doctoral Student in Political Science on Climate Change and International Relations
 
University Bamberg/Germany - Bringing policies back in:
Explaining payoff allocation in coalition governments 
 
University of Hamburg/Germany, GIGA Institute/Germany, J.Nehr University/India - Power and Region in a Multipolar Order
 
University of Bamberg/Germany - Political Science with a Focus on Political Sociology
 
University of Leiden/Netherlands - PhD-Project ‘Second-Order Electoral Personalization’
 
University of Leiden/Netherlands - Two PhD Positions at the Institute of Political Science
 
University of Cologne/Germany - The Cologne Graduate School in Management, Economics, and Social Sciences (CGS) offers Scholarships for its Doctoral Program 2014
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I haven't been accepted by Chicago, and I haven't heard anything about MAPSS. I'm assuming that it will be a long shot for me to get an offer for the MA program at this point and that I'll be shut out altogether.

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I haven't been accepted by Chicago, and I haven't heard anything about MAPSS. I'm assuming that it will be a long shot for me to get an offer for the MA program at this point and that I'll be shut out altogether.

 

I wouldn't give up just yet. It isn't over til you've got that last rejection in your email. Even if you do get shut out this year, life does not end. Multiple really smart people got shut out their first year, and ended up going to really good programs, incl. Top 5 in their next year!

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For what it's worth (and it's worth a lot given the unprofessional communication some of us have had from other departments) he got back to me almost instantly, and he seemed genuinely eager to let folks know exactly where they are in the process. 

 

 

I'm curious as to why they take so much longer than the other programs. Anyone know how many applicants they typically get and how big their class size is? I understand that Stanford usually has a small class (and had 440 apps this year), but Yale gets around 600-700 and still managed to report last week...I can't imagine Harvard is getting significantly more than that. 

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