MIA EARLY BIRD APPLICATIONS IHEID

[su_nayana]

2 hours ago, haru_ko said:

3.2 GPA in the US scale is really low...I'm quite sure that they take into account the standards of marking in different countries. When I attended their on-site campus visit, they did say that when accessing international students, they do take into account what different grades (or GPA) mean in different countries. Just like all other universities, they said that their admission team is very informed about different educational systems, and hence, is also very experienced in accessing students from different systems  (which I sometimes really doubt). 

I am really confused as to where I stand now. I did a combined BA in Arts and an LLB which is a 5 year course. I studied 64 subjects over ten semesters and my overall GPA is about 3.3. However, this includes subjects like company law, property law etc. I opted for the international law concentration which included Public International Law, Humanitarian Law, Refugee Law, International Criminal law, Human Rights Law, Comparative constitutional law etc and scored A's in almost all the 15 relevant courses with an average of about 3.5-3.6... so I have no idea where I stand. The comment about 3.2 being low scared me. I hope they take into consideration that the subjects that dragged my gpa down are really not so relevant.

[pubpol101]

1 hour ago, su_nayana said:

I am really confused as to where I stand now. I did a combined BA in Arts and an LLB which is a 5 year course. I studied 64 subjects over ten semesters and my overall GPA is about 3.3. However, this includes subjects like company law, property law etc. I opted for the international law concentration which included Public International Law, Humanitarian Law, Refugee Law, International Criminal law, Human Rights Law, Comparative constitutional law etc and scored A's in almost all the 15 relevant courses with an average of about 3.5-3.6... so I have no idea where I stand. The comment about 3.2 being low scared me. I hope they take into consideration that the subjects that dragged my gpa down are really not so relevant.

The vast majority of schools, whether for undergrad or grad, STEM or humanities, pay particular attention to your performance in subjects related to the field of study. So I'm certain that your 3.3 will not hold you back nearly as much as the "average" 3.3, since many students with similar GPAs may have had their strengths in gen ed courses or other subjects unrelated to their field of study. No one can make predictions on anyone's chances, aside from the 3.2/4.75 GPA minimum that they described, but what is certain is that your transcript's trends--improvement, performance in challenging subjects, and performance in relevant subjects, along with your extracurriculars--will be far more important than just the 3.2/4.75 numbers on their own. And besides, none of us even have any idea on the extent to which the 3.2 minimum is related to the actual median GPAs.

Edited December 9, 2015 by AAAAAAAA

[haru_ko]

11 hours ago, su_nayana said:

I am really confused as to where I stand now. I did a combined BA in Arts and an LLB which is a 5 year course. I studied 64 subjects over ten semesters and my overall GPA is about 3.3. However, this includes subjects like company law, property law etc. I opted for the international law concentration which included Public International Law, Humanitarian Law, Refugee Law, International Criminal law, Human Rights Law, Comparative constitutional law etc and scored A's in almost all the 15 relevant courses with an average of about 3.5-3.6... so I have no idea where I stand. The comment about 3.2 being low scared me. I hope they take into consideration that the subjects that dragged my gpa down are really not so relevant.

@su_nayana When I said 3.2 GPA being low, I was referring to the GPA system in the States. I assume that you study in India, so your GPA probably means something else as compared to the U.S. one. Actually, I myself come from a university where we both use the U.S. GPA system and the U.K. honours system. Many students from my university go on exchange in the States every year, and according to them, it is rather easy for them to achieve top grades (As), and it is certainly do-able to achieve a 3.7 or even 4.0 GPA. (I had a friend who got straight As (hence 4.0 GPA) during her exchange semester in the States, but it is totally impossible to achieve such top GPA here at my home university. My GPA is somewhere around 3.5, which could be seen as quite low for application to top universities around the world with regards to the GPA system, as they usually ask for 3.7/4.0. But actually, at my university, this is already a very good (may be not top) GPA, which placed me within top 10% of the cohort last year. Personally, I am also a bit worried about all this GPA mess, since I can't be sure if they don't judge me based on how they judge U.S. students applying with GPA as well. But I guess we have no choice but to trust them when they say they are very experienced with this! 

Actually, I would also like to ask if someone could give me some comments on my situation: 

I am also pursuing a BA, but our curriculum is so flexible that I did a lot of courses that are not completely related to my major. For courses within my major, I did them quite well (especially the advanced ones, where I got pretty much all As in). My grades also shows an upward trend on my transcript. (from a mix of As and Bs to almost all As in the last semester) I always think that my GPA (around 3.5) is gonna hurt me, since it is not very top, and comparing to students from other countries using the GPA system (like the U.S.), it could even seem bad. But the thing is, my GPA is rather 'low' really because in one semester, it dropped drastically, and I had to spend the rest of my undergraduate career saving it. Hence, my semester GPAs are actually not bad (once, it was even up to 3.7, which is really high at my university) Besides, I took more courses than average students in each semester (and still maintain top 10% within my cohort), and will graduate a year earlier from my degree. Do you guys think they will just overlook my relatively low GPA due to the efforts I made? 

[su_nayana]

42 minutes ago, haru_ko said:

@su_nayana When I said 3.2 GPA being low, I was referring to the GPA system in the States. I assume that you study in India, so your GPA probably means something else as compared to the U.S. one. Actually, I myself come from a university where we both use the U.S. GPA system and the U.K. honours system. Many students from my university go on exchange in the States every year, and according to them, it is rather easy for them to achieve top grades (As), and it is certainly do-able to achieve a 3.7 or even 4.0 GPA. (I had a friend who got straight As (hence 4.0 GPA) during her exchange semester in the States, but it is totally impossible to achieve such top GPA here at my home university. My GPA is somewhere around 3.5, which could be seen as quite low for application to top universities around the world with regards to the GPA system, as they usually ask for 3.7/4.0. But actually, at my university, this is already a very good (may be not top) GPA, which placed me within top 10% of the cohort last year. Personally, I am also a bit worried about all this GPA mess, since I can't be sure if they don't judge me based on how they judge U.S. students applying with GPA as well. But I guess we have no choice but to trust them when they say they are very experienced with this! 

Actually, I would also like to ask if someone could give me some comments on my situation: 

I am also pursuing a BA, but our curriculum is so flexible that I did a lot of courses that are not completely related to my major. For courses within my major, I did them quite well (especially the advanced ones, where I got pretty much all As in). My grades also shows an upward trend on my transcript. (from a mix of As and Bs to almost all As in the last semester) I always think that my GPA (around 3.5) is gonna hurt me, since it is not very top, and comparing to students from other countries using the GPA system (like the U.S.), it could even seem bad. But the thing is, my GPA is rather 'low' really because in one semester, it dropped drastically, and I had to spend the rest of my undergraduate career saving it. Hence, my semester GPAs are actually not bad (once, it was even up to 3.7, which is really high at my university) Besides, I took more courses than average students in each semester (and still maintain top 10% within my cohort), and will graduate a year earlier from my degree. Do you guys think they will just overlook my relatively low GPA due to the efforts I made? 

I think @AAAAAAAA is right and very reassuring as well!  I guess we can't really predict anyone's chances as even what seems like a great profile may be rejected in favour of a less shiny one (like the example I shared earlier in the thread). It is all up to the admission committee so I say we all just wait and hope for the best. As an optimist, I think we will all make it!!  

[su_nayana]

Also guys, have your recommendation letters disappeared as well? Mine are still showing which means they haven't checked them yet! Boy, I hope they have written nice things.  

[shirley_xie]

for my case, the tab of recommendations is still there.

[Erminia_LL]

Still presente here as well. And this is why I am kinda starting to doubt that documents disappearance = decision made. I mean, isn't it weird enough that such thing happened to almost every applicant on this thread on the same day?

 

 

[pubpol101]

6 hours ago, su_nayana said:

Also guys, have your recommendation letters disappeared as well? Mine are still showing which means they haven't checked them yet! Boy, I hope they have written nice things.  

 

5 hours ago, shirley_xie said:

for my case, the tab of recommendations is still there.

 

2 hours ago, Erminia_LL said:

Still presente here as well. And this is why I am kinda starting to doubt that documents disappearance = decision made. I mean, isn't it weird enough that such thing happened to almost every applicant on this thread on the same day

Still present here as well. I looked back earlier in the thread and no one's ever stated that the recs ever disappeared. For applicants here, only the required document list disappeared and that happened just about a week ago for some, if not all of us.

[Maeva]

Hello everyone ! 

I haven't been active on this thread for so long . I thought I would get a e-mail notification whenever someone posted something but I didn't. I'm so sorry su_nayana for not replying to you. 

I've applied for the Mdev this weekend (january deadline). I'm already a wreck and I still have to wait for a couple of months. GOSH. Finger crossed for all of you brave early bird applicants. 

Here are two interesting threads t(not only for early applicants, for those applying to IHEID in general). They're quite old, but might still be useful: 

For those applying to the Mdev here is another one (it's full of horror stories about people whose portal statuts said they were refused, while their email said they were accepted. If that happens to me, I'll kill someone). 

Teayon i'm glad to hear you've studied in France and know how the grading system goes here. I'm a French student myself and it's horrible. My grade are not really high (like every French student): from 11 to 14/20. I hope the committee will take into consideration the fact that our universities rarely give students grades that go beyond 12/20. I've studied in the United Kingdom for a year, and found it much easier. I managed to get Bs while it's nearly impossible to get such a good grade at home. 

Also, I forgot to add one of my grade transcripts to my application, so ended up sending an email to the woman in charge of the applications files. I even called her and she was really prompt to reply and  so lovely. I love her, hahaha. You probably didn't need to know that. But I'm going quite crazy, so bare with me. 

[Erminia_LL]

What about having a discussion concerning the difference between early and regular deadline in terms of acceptance rate? I have always wondered if it is REALLY true what the Institute states in this page: chances to be admitted or to receive a scholarship are equal for both rounds. They also say that in order to ensure that the quality of admitted applicants is the same throughout the process, we postpone a number of first round applications to be re-assessed during the second round (is this what waitlisted means?). In terms of numbers, in the 2013-2014 academic year, they admitted 496 students in Master's Programs. They are seven, so they accept ON AVERAGE 70 students per Master's Program, right? 

My question is: what are the criteria they follow when deciding to postpone some applications from January to March? Does this mean that you are not good enough to get in with  other fellow early bird applicants, yet you do not suck enough to be rejected straightaway? And, also, once again in terms of numbers, do they fill up the half of the slots in the January and the other half in March? Or - and this is how I wish it was - early bird applicants have (even slightly) more chances to get in (although they can't say it out loud on their website)?

Edited December 10, 2015 by Erminia_LL

[haru_ko]

5 hours ago, Maeva said:

Hello everyone ! 

I haven't been active on this thread for so long . I thought I would get a e-mail notification whenever someone posted something but I didn't. I'm so sorry su_nayana for not replying to you. 

I've applied for the Mdev this weekend (january deadline). I'm already a wreck and I still have to wait for a couple of months. GOSH. Finger crossed for all of you brave early bird applicants. 

Here are two interesting threads t(not only for early applicants, for those applying to IHEID in general). They're quite old, but might still be useful: 

For those applying to the Mdev here is another one (it's full of horror stories about people whose portal statuts said they were refused, while their email said they were accepted. If that happens to me, I'll kill someone). 

Teayon i'm glad to hear you've studied in France and know how the grading system goes here. I'm a French student myself and it's horrible. My grade are not really high (like every French student): from 11 to 14/20. I hope the committee will take into consideration the fact that our universities rarely give students grades that go beyond 12/20. I've studied in the United Kingdom for a year, and found it much easier. I managed to get Bs while it's nearly impossible to get such a good grade at home. 

Also, I forgot to add one of my grade transcripts to my application, so ended up sending an email to the woman in charge of the applications files. I even called her and she was really prompt to reply and  so lovely. I love her, hahaha. You probably didn't need to know that. But I'm going quite crazy, so bare with me. 

@Maeva Thanks for posting the threads! They are very useful 

It is indeed a huge concern for pretty much all French students/ students studying in France. When I attended the info day, a French student in my group raised questions about it too. The guy who brought us around (he's actually a PhD student at IHEID, but seems to have close ties with the admission office. He probably works for them as part-time job or something) told him not to worry about the grades, since they know it is very difficult to get good grades in France, and 20/20 is just impossible. So I guess they will judge you based on the French system, and how good your results are amongst French applicants.

[taeyeon]

Wow, so much going on here! So like all the others, my recommendation letters section is still there. I just think maybe the coding doesn't let it disappear or something... And speaking of coding (because apparently I love playing detective), has this white divider line always been there?

I did some more poking around and see a hidden section marked "Invoice", with fields like 'Payments' and 'Download.' Is this a good sign or is it just general updates to the page overall? Am I being perceptive or overly analytical? Let's find out next week if what El pichichi said was true 

@Maeva Hiya! Glad you joined in on the discussions. Let us lament together over the vast unfairness of the French grading system... and let us hope they definitely take everything @haru_ko said into consideration.

@Erminia_LL It's always a conundrum trying to figure out who gets awarded early admission. I'd say the filling up 50% of spots for all majors equally is a good theory. I also don't think being waitlisted until March necessarily means you're not good enough, but maybe they pick the exceptional/unique students first, then keep the good/average students until the next round since they can't be sure how many more applications will roll in by mid-January. Eh, who knows.

[pubpol101]

19 minutes ago, taeyeon said:

I did some more poking around and see a hidden section marked "Invoice", with fields like 'Payments' and 'Download.' Is this a good sign or is it just general updates to the page overall? Am I being perceptive or overly analytical? Let's find out next week if what El pichichi said was true 

 

I think we might be going a little too far in terms of our digging here. No one's checked the HTML code on that page earlier, so we don't have any comparison from a few weeks ago. We also don't know much about the text's relationship with our actual decisions--it could be just a general update for the page with our decisions still being set for release in mid-January still as opposed to Dec. 16. Even if decisions were set for Dec. 16 and this code is an indicator of that, unless someone goes through the actual code and can tell us if the text's visibility appearance is variable or if it is set, we have no idea on whether this could refer to our acceptance or denial. What would be interesting is if not every person has the invoices code on their page.

In any case, I think it may be best to just wait until the 16th unless an email or a blog post from the office confirms the actual date of decisions. In spite of el pichichi's comments, when I asked the adcoms via the prospectives email, they said that decisions wouldn't be released until January, so nothing's certain here.

[shirley_xie]

I saw the hidden section "invoice" too! Probably this apply for everyone.

[Maeva]

@haru_ko You're very welcome, and thank you for all you said. It's quite reassuring. 

@taeyeon I could ramble about the French grading system for an entire day. Truly. 

@Erminia_LL i would agree with @taeyeon being pushed back until March really doesn't mean you're not good enough, it just means they want to review your application and compare it to other applicants. Maybe not individually, but in regards to the general level and qualifications I guess. Many early applicants whose applications have been pushed back ended up being admitted in March. 

[Erminia_LL]

21 hours ago, Maeva said:

 

@Erminia_LL i would agree with @taeyeon being pushed back until March really doesn't mean you're not good enough, it just means they want to review your application and compare it to other applicants. Maybe not individually, but in regards to the general level and qualifications I guess. Many early applicants whose applications have been pushed back ended up being admitted in March. 

By clicking on the yellow question mark on the follow-up module, I noticed that waitlisted students will be informed of the final decision latest by the end of May. Does anyone know why is it May instead of March? 

[haru_ko]

3 hours ago, Erminia_LL said:

By clicking on the yellow question mark on the follow-up module, I noticed that waitlisted students will be informed of the final decision latest by the end of May. Does anyone know why is it May instead of March? 

@Erminia_LLBecause being put on the waitlist is different from being deferred. In case you applied for early decision and they "push back" your result notification, that means they are going to review your application again when they review those who apply by regular deadline. And after that, you will either be rejected, accepted or waitlisted. But if you are waitlisted when they release results for those who applied by early deadline, it means that you will be notified if there's any place for you after every admitted student has confirmed their attendance in the coming school year, which is very possible by the end of May. 

[taeyeon]

Hmm, I thought maybe waitlist notifications for May is for those who applied for the regular deadlines. So for instance, if you were waitlisted during early application notifications on January, you'd get your final answer by March... and for regular applications, you'd receive a waitlist notification on March and know your final status by May?

[Erminia_LL]

So, according to what @haru_ko said, if in mid-January I will see my application status changing from under consideration to waitlisted, I'll basically have to wait until May and hope to fill some potential spots of those admitted who decide NOT to enroll? I thought it was as @taeyeon stated instead, which makes more sense to me actually:

Early Applicant --> Decision in January --> Waitlisted? --> Final Decision in March

Regular Applicant --> Decision in March ---> Waitlisted? --> Final Decision in May

Edited December 13, 2015 by Erminia_LL

[haru_ko]

1 hour ago, Erminia_LL said:

So, according to what @haru_ko said, if in mid-January I will see my application status changing from under consideration to waitlisted, I'll basically have to wait until May and hope to fill some potential spots of those admitted who decide NOT to enroll? I thought it was as @taeyeon stated instead, which makes more sense to me actually:

Early Applicant --> Decision in January --> Waitlisted? --> Final Decision in March

Regular Applicant --> Decision in March ---> Waitlisted? --> Final Decision in May

@Erminia_LLActually, why don't you send IHEID an email and ask about it? 

My rationale behind is based on the normal practice that a "waitlist" is where schools put students who are not exactly as good as other applicants in the pool, but wouldn't mind taking in if there're available places. Based on this, the only way to get off the waitlist is when places open up, or in other words, when someone declines his/ her offer. According to your theory, for someone who applies early, but is put on the waitlist, will either get accepted or rejected by March. This makes sense in the way that indeed, some early applicants may turn down the offer early and hence, places will open up before March. But March is not the end of the whole admission process. There are other applicants who apply by the regular deadline, get their offers in March, and in the end decide to go somewhere else instead. So if an early applicant receives the final decision (rejection) in March after being waitlisted, isn't it a bit unfair should there be more places opening up after March since that's the period when most students decide if they are really coming? 

I think we should maybe think about what is the true difference of quality between someone who's deferred and someone who's waitlisted. Like, does any early applicant even get waitlisted? 'Cause the school could have just defer their application for another review in March, instead of putting them on the waitlist. 

[taeyeon]

From browsing last year's threads, I got the impression that several people waitlisted in December/January were given acceptances in March. Saw nothing about rejections, but maybe those who were rejected just didn't post about it. But yeah, I agree that emailing IHEID would be the best way to go about it 

[Erminia_LL]

1 hour ago, haru_ko said:

I think we should maybe think about what is the true difference of quality between someone who's deferred and someone who's waitlisted. Like, does any early applicant even get waitlisted? 'Cause the school could have just defer their application for another review in March, instead of putting them on the waitlist. 

The point is that, apparently, there's no difference between deferring or waitlist an applicant, according to IHEID. The yellow question mark on the follow-up module says that the waitlisted status means that the application has been kept on a waiting-list and the applicant will be informed of the final decision at the latest by the end of May. However, in the Admission FAQs, they also say that they postpone a number of first round applications to be re-assessed during the second round. My question is: what's the difference between the first case (waitlisted) and the second one (postponing) - in terms of status, too? And how will I know whether I am concerned by the first option (which means decision in May) and the second (which should equal to decision in March)?

It's my first application ever, and I might be doing too much confusion. Any more expert eye would be very much appreciated.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Erminia_LL

[pubpol101]

11 hours ago, Erminia_LL said:

The point is that, apparently, there's no difference between deferring or waitlist an applicant, according to IHEID. The yellow question mark on the follow-up module says that the waitlisted status means that the application has been kept on a waiting-list and the applicant will be informed of the final decision at the latest by the end of May. However, in the Admission FAQs, they also say that they postpone a number of first round applications to be re-assessed during the second round. My question is: what's the difference between the first case (waitlisted) and the second one (postponing) - in terms of status, too? And how will I know whether I am concerned by the first option (which means decision in May) and the second (which should equal to decision in March)?

It's my first application ever, and I might be doing too much confusion. Any more expert eye would be very much appreciated.

It's possible that the deferral of admission as opposed to a waitlist will leave your application simply marked as "under consideration". It's unlikely for IHEID to conflate waitlisting and deferrals as both matters are useful for the admissions process.

Edited December 14, 2015 by AAAAAAAA

[AndrewM]

Hi guys!

I applied to the MIA at the IHEID as well. I am very happy I found this thread!

@taeyeon caught my attention with the HTML code thing, as the hidden section 'invoice' and the voice 'payment' and 'download' appear to me, too. What about you guys? It might mean nothing, but if they have popped up only to a few of us, maybe it is a good sign or something?

Thanks for the feedbacks!

[su_nayana]

Welcome @AndrewM glad to have you here!

 

Guys! It's the 15th! *Dum Dum Dum Dum*

Also those secret sections haven't appeared on my form. I feel left out now.