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Welcome to the 2014-15 Cycle


Poli92

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Soo... is that it for Northwestern? Seems highly unusual to me given that the past 2 years they've announced mid-February. Can ANYone claim the 3 supposed admits?

 

These reports are probably people who got fellowships of some kind & thus early notification. 

...I hope.

Edited by cmh021
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Maybe Evgeny55 has an insider scoop, but in years past it was early-ish in the first week of February, so you never know.  I'm waiting on them too!  Good luck and try not to die ;)

And good luck to you as well. 

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Sheesh, there's a lot of red on the results page. Misery definitely loves company right now. Got my first rejection yesterday from Berkeley but it wasn't in Pol Sci, a half-hearted attempt to switch disciplines was easily seen through by the adcom and I wasn't a good fit really, so not disappointed.  I'm sure it'll pick up soon for all of us though. Good luck everyone!

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I sent emails to UC Davis and Northwestern...cause they're being teases right now.  

 Can you let us know what they say in terms of remaining admit decisions (if any) if/when they get back to you? Thanks!

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Oh boy. All those reds...

 

Went out with my boys and that took my mind off. Came back, check results page and wow. 

 

Now, I am so much more worried than I was before. It is just - and I am sure those that await one admission - I want one good school, with funding so that I can pursue this. And I know that the admission committees do their best in what they believe is best for them too. Nonetheless, as was stated by fakeusername, we are still human and seeing how others here got at least one, or multiple acceptances, while others so far got none (including me), a certain level of agitation is inevitable. 

 

But I do want to sincerely thank you guys. It is good to be able to express these sentiments with people who are going through the process. I tried to explain it to my friends, and while they certainly feel the agony, it is something entirely different. I be blunt and state that I feel like despite the fact that I applied to 13 programs, my despair has already reached a devastating acme that it will not be my year. And quite honestly, I just do not see myself having the patience nor the will to do try again next year. The costs are a major issue. Also, the time involved. Preparing to take the GRE is really a pain in the buttocks. But more importantly, the humiliation is the just the worst. I just cannot face the people who took the time and put their belief in me succeeding this year. Is it giving up? Maybe. But it could also be a realization that no matter what you do, certain elements that you thought you could overcome are just insurmountable. So in effect, even if I improve my GRE score (and that is a big if), and if I somehow manage to get a paper published, there is no guarantee that next year may not end up like this year.

 

Certainly, there are no assurances in anything you do. But I am also at a point in my life where I said to myself that if I do not happen to achieve admission this year, my "destiny" or course in life lies somewhere else.  

 

To me there is tremendous shame involved in not getting accepted. And I apologize for wearing my emotions on my sleeves, but I just am at a point in that I am not sure what to do. And while it may seem erroneous to assume that one rejection means total rejection, I cannot but feel frustrated where this overwhelming trepidation curtails any courage I may muster. I honestly invested so much into this process - like all of you - that I may have unreasonable expected something positive at the end of this tunnel. And today's rejection just showed to me that what I thought were important aspects of a strong application - accomplishments that are indeed considered worthwhile in other areas - are indeed insignificant and overall, worthless. Thus, I feel nugatory and facile. This should not be, but nonetheless, it is a reaction to the news of a rejection. 

 

Anyway, I better end it here. I already sounded too much like I am dramatic guest on a talk show. Lol. 

 

But once again, my respect and adulation to those of you who got accepted. And I sincerely hope that those of you who are still waiting on one admission get them. Because one admission alone can make all the rejections feel irrelevant. 

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Oh boy. All those reds...

 

And quite honestly, I just do not see myself having the patience nor the will to do try again next year. The costs are a major issue. Also, the time involved. Preparing to take the GRE is really a pain in the buttocks. But more importantly, the humiliation is the just the worst. I just cannot face the people who took the time and put their belief in me succeeding this year. Is it giving up? Maybe. But it could also be a realization that no matter what you do, certain elements that you thought you could overcome are just insurmountable. So in effect, even if I improve my GRE score (and that is a big if), and if I somehow manage to get a paper published, there is no guarantee that next year may not end up like this year.

 

Certainly, there are no assurances in anything you do. But I am also at a point in my life where I said to myself that if I do not happen to achieve admission this year, my "destiny" or course in life lies somewhere else.  

 

To me there is tremendous shame involved in not getting accepted. And I apologize for wearing my emotions on my sleeves, but I just am at a point in that I am not sure what to do. And while it may seem erroneous to assume that one rejection means total rejection, I cannot but feel frustrated where this overwhelming trepidation curtails any courage I may muster. I honestly invested so much into this process - like all of you - that I may have unreasonable expected something positive at the end of this tunnel. And today's rejection just showed to me that what I thought were important aspects of a strong application - accomplishments that are indeed considered worthwhile in other areas - are indeed insignificant and overall, worthless. Thus, I feel nugatory and facile. This should not be, but nonetheless, it is a reaction to the news of a rejection. 

 

I completely agree. I've already told friends and family that if it doesn't work out this cycle, I most likely won't be applying again. I just don't see myself having a stronger application in the future, if anything it will be weaker. Not to mention the added costs, time, effort and soul-destroying wait! It's now or never and that adds to the pressure certainly. On the other hand like you said, all you need is one acceptance so until you've received results from all your applications, you can't let your head drop.

 

Also I disagree that there's shame etc in being rejected. The process is extremely subjective, random and I've seen people on this thread last year who got into Harvard but failed to get into what must have been their third or fourth choice universities. One of my own friends got into Stanford but failed to get into Cornell, Michigan and MIT among others. You simply cannot take any of this personally. 

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Oh boy. All those reds...

 

Went out with my boys and that took my mind off. Came back, check results page and wow. 

 

Now, I am so much more worried than I was before. It is just - and I am sure those that await one admission - I want one good school, with funding so that I can pursue this. And I know that the admission committees do their best in what they believe is best for them too. Nonetheless, as was stated by fakeusername, we are still human and seeing how others here got at least one, or multiple acceptances, while others so far got none (including me), a certain level of agitation is inevitable. 

 

But I do want to sincerely thank you guys. It is good to be able to express these sentiments with people who are going through the process. I tried to explain it to my friends, and while they certainly feel the agony, it is something entirely different. I be blunt and state that I feel like despite the fact that I applied to 13 programs, my despair has already reached a devastating acme that it will not be my year. And quite honestly, I just do not see myself having the patience nor the will to do try again next year. The costs are a major issue. Also, the time involved. Preparing to take the GRE is really a pain in the buttocks. But more importantly, the humiliation is the just the worst. I just cannot face the people who took the time and put their belief in me succeeding this year. Is it giving up? Maybe. But it could also be a realization that no matter what you do, certain elements that you thought you could overcome are just insurmountable. So in effect, even if I improve my GRE score (and that is a big if), and if I somehow manage to get a paper published, there is no guarantee that next year may not end up like this year.

 

Certainly, there are no assurances in anything you do. But I am also at a point in my life where I said to myself that if I do not happen to achieve admission this year, my "destiny" or course in life lies somewhere else.  

 

To me there is tremendous shame involved in not getting accepted. And I apologize for wearing my emotions on my sleeves, but I just am at a point in that I am not sure what to do. And while it may seem erroneous to assume that one rejection means total rejection, I cannot but feel frustrated where this overwhelming trepidation curtails any courage I may muster. I honestly invested so much into this process - like all of you - that I may have unreasonable expected something positive at the end of this tunnel. And today's rejection just showed to me that what I thought were important aspects of a strong application - accomplishments that are indeed considered worthwhile in other areas - are indeed insignificant and overall, worthless. Thus, I feel nugatory and facile. This should not be, but nonetheless, it is a reaction to the news of a rejection. 

 

Anyway, I better end it here. I already sounded too much like I am dramatic guest on a talk show. Lol. 

 

But once again, my respect and adulation to those of you who got accepted. And I sincerely hope that those of you who are still waiting on one admission get them. Because one admission alone can make all the rejections feel irrelevant. 

 

I am on the same boat man. This is my second try. ok-in the first try, I applied to only 3 schools, my gre score was weaker, statement of purpose shabby. I just couldn't put time to it. But now I have improved GRE scores, better SOP, and I applied to 15 schools. So it's now or never. But I already got one rejection. Feel like it's gonna be like that for the rest of them. It's really frustrating. 

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In light of all the Berkeley decisions, wondering what hearing nothing means. Checked the portal, and my status is still just "submitted". Anyone else? 

 

Yes, I'm in the same position.  I have no idea what the silence means for our application.

 

A few theories: 

1) The system sends the emails in batches and we just haven't gotten our rejection email yet.

2) This was just the first round of rejections and they still have to make more "difficult" rejections to make in the coming weeks

3) Similar to #2 - They're waiting to hear on available funding totals and so they can't make final decisions on those who are in the running

4) Most optimistically - only admitted and waitlisted people are left

Edited by Doorkeeper
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Admission is a lottery in many ways. When committee has 500 application, at least 50-60 of them will be quite good, often more. My bet is that after initial cut offs, committee has to choose from at least 100 good applications. Given this situation, rejection does not necessarily mean that application per se is weak. In previous years there were only few people who received admission from a lot of places. Best case scenario is 3-4 out of 11-12 applications. 

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If that's for real, California really coordinated their admissions decisions....

 

That is the joint program (Political Science and International Relations). We still don't have news from the main program (only Political Science). I only applied to Political Science. The joint program seemed to me weaker in methods and much more competitive (I think there were 1-2 places). 

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No from Berkeley, no from Stanford. This is not a pleasant way to plan the next six years of your life.

But! No need to take anything personally, luck is a huge part of life, and there are many, many exciting things to do in life for folk who like politics.

We should all be proud of ourselves for just putting up with this :) Let alone the effort and care we've put into our applications, and academic lives...

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