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Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle


Cesare

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Their methods training is reportedly much improved now, but qualitative, policy-relevant stuff is geared to place much better in the private/defense sectors than in academia anyway. The GC told me yesterday that they would send all admits out by the end of next week.

Their quant methods training is now on par with NYU, WUSTL, Rochester, UCSD, Columbia, and any top 5 for anyone not willing to go beyond applied methods. Their two areas of longstanding strengths, security and industrial political economy, are not very trendy subfields on the market. Taking that into consideration, therefore, this year's job placement is pretty good. 

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I've spoken with some top IR faculty at length about MIT. Based on those conversations, my sense is that (from an IR perspective -- can't speak for other subfields):

 

(1) Internat'l security-wise, Stanford, Columbia, MIT and Princeton have the best programs. Princeton's seems to be improving due to junior faculty hiring while Columbia's is slowing down a bit due to key faculty hitting retirement

 

(2) Stanford's is the most quantitive, followed by Princeton then Columbia and then MIT.

 

(3) MIT is the most policy-relevant. One prof mentioned that in terms of career placement, Stanford is 75% academia-focused, 25% policy oriented; MIT is  the exact opposite. The advice I've been given by pretty much everyone in the field is, if you want to go into academia, go to Stanford/Princeton. If you want to go into policy, go to MIT/Columbia. 

 

(4) MIT has hired a few key methodologists in the past year or two, but I'm not sure this is reflected yet in its reputation/rankings

 

Hope that helps

This is very useful information, especially displayed like this. Thanks for sharing!

There have only been 8 MIT admits reported thus far, so fingers crossed that they've got a couple more to contact. (Although by the looks of it, only 8 admits were reported on GC last year too...) Also curious about whether any IR acceptances have gone out yet.

 

Congrats to everyone who's heard good news today and yesterday!

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Their quant methods training is now on par with NYU, WUSTL, Rochester, UCSD, Columbia, and any top 5 for anyone not willing to go beyond applied methods. Their two areas of longstanding strengths, security and industrial political economy, are not very trendy subfields on the market. Taking that into consideration, therefore, this year's job placement is pretty good. 

Though not really so much if you're including formal theory. It's a great department, just something to consider.

Edited by RWBG
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http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/political-science

 

FYI: an interactive NRC ranking of political science programs. Breaks down the data in an easy to read way. If you open up the school's individual page, you can go to the tab "outcomes" and see - at the time of the last NRC ranking - approximately how employment breaks down. MIT is 53% academic hires, 26% postdoc (presumably with an academic goal), 9% private sector and 12% government.

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http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/political-science

 

FYI: an interactive NRC ranking of political science programs. Breaks down the data in an easy to read way. If you open up the school's individual page, you can go to the tab "outcomes" and see - at the time of the last NRC ranking - approximately how employment breaks down. MIT is 53% academic hires, 26% postdoc (presumably with an academic goal), 9% private sector and 12% government.

Thanks for posting this, TMCB. It's a great link. 

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http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/political-science

 

FYI: an interactive NRC ranking of political science programs. Breaks down the data in an easy to read way. If you open up the school's individual page, you can go to the tab "outcomes" and see - at the time of the last NRC ranking - approximately how employment breaks down. MIT is 53% academic hires, 26% postdoc (presumably with an academic goal), 9% private sector and 12% government.

 

I think my favorite part of this was looking at the median debt for my top choice and it was less than $3,000. Now THAT'S what I like to see: minimal debt. 

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This is very useful information, especially displayed like this. Thanks for sharing!

There have only been 8 MIT admits reported thus far, so fingers crossed that they've got a couple more to contact. (Although by the looks of it, only 8 admits were reported on GC last year too...) Also curious about whether any IR acceptances have gone out yet.

 

Congrats to everyone who's heard good news today and yesterday!

 

haha

IR indeed is a BIG mystery now. 

Quite a few people on this forum are wondering about it as well. 

No one has claimed it so far tho...

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Congrats!! Did you get your decision via postal service already, or did your POI contact you?

 

 

Finally, congrats! 

did you get a call? (oh, and abroad by any chance?) 

 

Thanks! I got a call yes, and no I'm in the US. Official admission notices are being sent out only through postal service (fedex) but I haven't received mine yet.

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Surprised GW is waitlisting people. Thought they were in the habit of just admitting without funding.

When I spoke with Celeste Arrington in August, she told me that GW admin had decided to transform from a mid career phd program to a more full research institution and hence would have more funding opportunities from 2014-15. Maybe this is why they are wait listing more?

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