Fall 2010 applicants

[NEPA]

I'm applying to Rutgers, George Mason, GW, Penn State, BC, and Syracuse for Middle East politics with a focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict. (I might add an application or two, e.g. to Maryland, before February 1 deadlines.) I'm decently confident I'll have a shot at getting into at least one program; I'm not about to guess funding, but again, I'm hoping at least one school will offer funding. Like all of you, I'm sure, I just want this process to be over and know what I'm doing next year!

[Ferrero]

Good luck to you, red wing fan. Some of those programs are notorious misers.

[michal]

I'm applying to the schools listed in my signature...I'm really hoping to get into one! I would be super excited to attend any of them.

Good luck to everyone!

[michal]

wow, shooting high, michal? good luck! you're brave to not include any safeties.

haha. yes. it might have been a bad idea, but i think i have a fairly strong application...and i have a deferred admission to a top 10 law school to fall back on if nothing pans out

[Parisienne]

do admissions committees read these boards? i'm not concerned about anything i've written, but i just wasn't sure whether they take the time to do that.

Sorry to be barging in on this thread (not applying for Fall 2010), but I was wondering about this too. I haven't posted much since joining this forum, and, like cpaige, am not worried about anything I might have written, but it's always good to know whether adcoms do check out these boards or not.

[Ferrero]

I have secondhand knowledge of an offer being rescinded based on disparaging comments a poster made about a school they were accepted to. Their identity was ferreted out in short order.

[natofone]

We are less than a month away from when the first acceptances started trickling in. Anyone freaking out?

[thegradstudent]

Hey Fall 2010 applicants!

Only a month or so before certain programs begin sending out notifications. Most will be sent out in late February and March so hang in there if you don't get one in the next 3-4 weeks.

I'm currently a grad student at a top 15 program (in IR) and will be sharing some of my (probably useless) insights and opinions with you over the coming weeks and try to get some of the stuff I learned during the application process and other things I've picked up while being in grad school onto this board in the hopes that at least one of you will find it useful.

To respond to some of the previous posts on this thread, some adcoms do read this board. The adcom as a whole of course does not read it, but individual faculty members are known to creep around and soak up as much info as possible. They also use these boards to see when other schools are sending out notifications and get a sense for how the applicant pool is feeling. So individual faculty members do read the message boards. Also, grad students love reading these boards. Partly because it makes us feel wonderful inside seeing that we are already enrolled in a program and that our funding is secure (at least for now) while all of the rest of you are suffering through the application writing and the misery of waiting that we had to go through just a few short years ago. Also, we like giving you advice and trying to help you out. Some of you may become colleagues in the future and this is an initial introduction to the potential incoming cohort before the adcom even decides who will compose that cohort. So, I'm here as another resource in case you guys have questions.

To echo what has already been said above, GRE scores are not as important as most of you think they are. Don't get me wrong: they matter. But only as an additional check to make sure that you have the credentials and the smarts to get through a Ph.D. program. The statement of purpose, letters, future research agenda, fit with faculty members and the department as a whole and the quality of your writing (in the sample, SOP, analytical writing section of GRE) are the most important pieces of your application.  In my cohort, not one of us graduated from the ivy league, and most went to strong liberal arts/state/private universities. The name just isn't that important. The quality of your application, potential, fit and what you did at your institution are much more important.

I'll post my stats for those interested:

Top 100 university (US News)

GPA - 3.7

GRE - 650V, 720Q, 5.5AW

Very good letters

came straight from undergrad so no work experience, four internships

IR

I sent out applications to 10 schools (most between 10-25) and was accepted to 8 of them (7 with funding). So that's how my numbers stacked up. Probably should have shot a bit higher seeing how many I got into but am ecstatic with the school that I am enrolled in.

Best of luck!

[LordNorth]

I'm not "freaking out" as I recently got a new job and, if the worst happened and I got accepted nowhere, I know that I would still be able to pursue a good life, good career, be involved in activities that I enjoy etc. It feels good to be in a position where I don't HAVE to get accepted somewhere; it's not life and death for me anymore, which is in contrast to how I felt just a few months ago, when I really couldn't envisage myself being happy doing anything other than a PhD/academia.

Having said that, a PhD is still 100% definitely what I want to be doing come September 2010. Studying, researching, writing are what I'm most interested in and, in my opinion, are what I'm best at! So I'll still be extremely anxious to find out where I do and don't get accepted over the next few months, even if I'm right in thinking that the process won't be causing me to sleep *that much* less soundly.

PS thegradstudent - that's very decent of you to continue showing an interest in applicants. I'm sure you'll have some useful advice to impart upon us. Plus, I'm always excited to hear from anyone who says GRE isn't the be-all and end-all of applications! (700v 600q 6.0aw - hehe)

[amandaaimeparis]

Thanks for the advice, gradstudent!!

Thanks to some advice I received here and from professors, I revised my list a bit and am applying to:

Harvard, Wisconsin-Madison, NYU, Syracuse, George Mason, UConnecticut, Brandeis, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers.

(all for PH.D. in comparative with a focus on Western Europe)

Edited January 2, 2010 by amandaaimeparis

[beebly]

If you name your undergraduate school here, be very careful what else you say on the boards, because you will be identifiable to the places you are applying.

For that to be an issue, you might have to be so voluminous in your posting and transparent about your identity that your consuming obsession with graduate admission would be made instantly and screamingly obvious to any casual glance at this forum. Only one of you demonstrates this affliction at this point, but the winter of waiting has been known to break the best of men.

[thegradstudent]

Thanks for the advice, gradstudent!!

Thanks to some advice I received here and from professors, I revised my list a bit and am applying to:

Harvard, Wisconsin-Madison, NYU, Syracuse, George Mason, UConnecticut, Brandeis, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers.

(all for PH.D. in comparative with a focus on Western Europe)

You have some good choices and nice variety on that list. Looks like you want to stay on the east coast (with the exception of Madison), so I'd also recommend Duke and UNC as two other options for Comparative. Both top notch schools, especially for Europe.

[Ziz]

Looks like somebody got an acceptance to Berkeley already! I didn't apply there, but UCB applicants must be excited decisions are coming out so soon!

[econwonk1010]

seriously? Wait - it's only 7am in California right now. The person said he/she got a phone call. Either they called him/her on a weekend or did so very early in the morning?

Of course, this is me trying to make myself feel better, since I applied there and haven't heard anything yet.

Color me skeptical, too (although like cpaige I may be trying to rationalize my lack of notification!)... Both the Political Science Department and the Graduate Studies Division are closed until January 7th. They said they wouldn't be processing requests or responding to communication until then.

[natofone]

Yes, it is very fake.

[NYCnerd]

Hi everyone, I'm late in the game finding this forum but my fiance has been so obsessed with TLS that I figured I would see if there was anything comparable for me and here you guys are

I'm applying to a litany of schools (15) because my fiance and I need to get into good programs in the same city. The final list is: USC, UCLA, UCI, UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton, U Penn, Columbia, Yale, BC, BU, MIT, Cornell, and Syracuse.

I study comparative politics of the Balkans and Latin America with a specific focus on political transition be it democratization or civil war. I did undergrad at the Elliot School and am in the process of completing my MA in poli sci. I feel like I've done everything I could possibly do and at this point its all rather a crap shoot.

I know BU notifies mid-February. Are there any others that do so?

[Cicero]

Hello Everyone

I've been reading here long enough that I though I might as well introduce myself.

Here are my general stats:

GREs both just Q and V just above 700

BA from a top 20 institution

Senior thesis with awards

several citations in academic publications

1 publication in a peer reviewed journal

I'm applying to all PhD programs with an intention to focus on Comparative Politics.

I'm applying to quite a few programs, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, Michigan, Duke, WashU, Columbia

This is my second go-round, so, I'm hoping my improved scores and new accomplishments will help.

Regarding the Berkeley thing, my impression, and my hope, is that its false. I know people who were accepted last year, and they were contacted en masse in Feb. Also, for what it is worth, poli sci grad students I know who attend Berkeley and are there now, say the campus is pretty dead. I'm also suspicious of the result since the Berkeley app indicated there would be no contact or application processing until Jan 7.

[Cicero]

Thanks. That was my impression as well. Do you have a graduate degree? I'm just curious about the citations and publication.

Nope, just a BA

[natofone]

You're also a re-applicant cicero? What do you think you did wrong this time and what did you change on your application?

[Cicero]

You're also a re-applicant cicero? What do you think you did wrong this time and what did you change on your application?

I think what hurt me last time was my GRE scores, especially the Quant score: waaay too low. I've always had a hard time with math, and didn't give the quant portion enough attention when I was reviewing From talking with my advisors, we figured that my quant score was too low to get my application looked at, despite schools claiming to have no cutoff.

I worked hard over the summer to improve my scores, both the Verbal and the Quant, and each are now just a bit over 700.

Last year I was applying during my senior year, so I couldn't include anything about finishing my thesis, winning an award for it and getting an article published.

I also found out (this year) when contacting schools with early December deadlines about needing to send in some updated material, that it is quite possible that they never even looked at my grades from the fall semester of my senior year when evaluating my application last year. They told me that because the committee starts meeting in late December that those mid term grades do not typically arrive in time for them to be added to the files for consideration, so its quite possible that last year my application was evaluated on my transcript through the spring semester of my junior year. This is quite frustrating given the time and hassle it is to arrange to have updated transcripts sent out. This is even more frustrating for those who have to pay to send transcripts. At least my undergrad institution does not charge for sending transcripts.

Of course, I know people applying to these schools who got in straight out of undergrad, so the transcript thing may not be a big deal; in my case I'm fairly certain the bad quant score is what did me in.

I'm trying to keep my hopes up that things will go better this time, but it's hard, especially knowing how painful the rejections can be, and especially when (in my case) you know that your application was quite possibly not even looked at last time. I just keep reminding myself, as it has been said on this board and by many others, that the process is in many cases a crap shoot. I also try not to let the lack of transparency with this process get to me as well.

Natofone-- are you re-applying as well? How about you, what do you think you did wrong last time, and what did you do to improve this time?

Edited January 7, 2010 by Cicero

[Cicero]

I hope things go better for you this year! I'm sure they will, since you seem to have a great application. If you don't mind me asking, what was your quant score last year? I'm going in this cycle with 680Q/700V/5.5A and am worried that my quant score might be slightly low for some places.

Thanks! I hope we all get results that make us happy. My quant score was pathetically low, waaaaay lower than yours, which is quite good I think- it shouldn't cause you a problem. A lot of people would be very happy to have a score like yours or mine, and even so, I too still worry about my score not being "good enough", everyone does I think, at least a little bit. I'd rather not say what mine old score was exactly, because I'm embarrassed by it, but I'll just sum it up to say that my old score was far far lower than your current score, and my new score is over 100 points better than the old one. I studied really hard this past summer...

I've heard such varied things about quant scores that I really don't know what to think anymore. When I asked my advisor, he basically just said do your very best, get the highest score you can, and then don't worry about it anymore.

I've heard the 700 thing from some profs, I've also heard that's not necessarily true that you need to be at or over 700. I'm especially skeptical of the 700 bar when I see that top tier programs like Chicago (I think) have quant averages below 700.

I just keep reminding myself that even people with very high and even perfect quant scores get rejected. I think the quant gre, and overall gre is important but not decisive (or only decisive if its reaaaly bad). From what I've gathered GREs really only move your app into the "read pile". I guess there is a lot of variance from program to program, and committee member to committee member regarding what sort of quant GRE score they like to see.

Just more evidence as to how random this process is.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Cicero

[natofone]

Natofone-- are you re-applying as well? How about you, what do you think you did wrong last time, and what did you do to improve this time?

Yes, applying again. Well, my statement wasn't very good. It was much more personal statement than an academic statement of purpose. I took about six months and read most of the literature in the field pertaining to my core topical interests. I then used this background to focus my interests and develop a research agenda. I discussed where my research agenda fits within the existing literature and why each school would be an appropriate place to study based. Also, my undergraduate degree was from an unknown school and my GPA was relatively low, so I couldn't really change that. My strategy is to: A. interest the committee with a very strong SOP and interesting research agenda, and B. give them reasons (strong GRE, grad degree, stats skills, etc.) to look over my mediocre undergraduate performance.

I also didn't apply widely enough or include any safety schools. Last year was a tough one because of the economy (not that this year will be any better - likely worse).

[Cicero]

Yes, applying again. Well, my statement wasn't very good. It was much more personal statement than an academic statement of purpose. I took about six months and read most of the literature in the field pertaining to my core topical interests. I then used this background to focus my interests and develop a research agenda. I discussed where my research agenda fits within the existing literature and why each school would be an appropriate place to study based. Also, my undergraduate degree was from an unknown school and my GPA was relatively low, so I couldn't really change that. My strategy is to: A. interest the committee with a very strong SOP and interesting research agenda, and B. give them reasons (strong GRE, grad degree, stats skills, etc.) to look over my mediocre undergraduate performance.

I also didn't apply widely enough or include any safety schools. Last year was a tough one because of the economy (not that this year will be any better - likely worse).

I hope things work out better for you this time around. I understand why last year was bad (because of the economy), but I'm just wondering what makes you think this year will be worse?

[natofone]

Chicago's were 645V/698Q. so that means that a significant chunk of admitted applicants had scores below 690Q.

Chicago might be a bit of an anomaly because their strengths are in theory and IR (with a relatively qualitative slant). I don't know how applicable their example is to other schools.

[natofone]

I hope things work out better for you this time around. I understand why last year was bad (because of the economy), but I'm just wondering what makes you think this year will be worse?

Nothing in particular - just a hunch based upon all of the state budget horror stories in the news.