ladedodaday Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 New from Yale: I didn't get into the PhD program, but they want me to apply for their Master's program. They offer partial tuition waivers, unless you get the FLAS fellowship, in which case it's free plus a stipend. Now I'm really conflicted. Do I take my funded offer from Madison and run with it, or do I delay acquisition of a PhD by probably a year (they say any PhD program would allow me to count Yale courses towards a PhD) in order to probably graduate from a top 5 program? I wrote the graduate coordinator back saying that I want to apply to the Master's program, but what do you all think I should do if I get into it and don't get into the programs I'd go to over Madison (namely, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and Chicago)? To be honest, it's pretty tempting to go to Yale and beef up my application for next year, but I'd love your advice. Hmm, I feel like we just had this conversation, but I wouldn't bother thinking about it until you hear back from other places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curufinwe Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 cpaige, brouhaha is in the same situation. As I said before, if you dont get acceptance from any Yale-class program, and if money isnt an issue, take the masters program so that you can beef up your resume, and have more chances of getting into a Yale-class phd program next year. Since you are fresh out of undergrad and dont have a masters degree, you wouldnt be wasting any time anyways. So... -wait for the other big boys to announce their decisions about you. -if they reject you all, don't settle for a lower-quality program. you might curse yourself when you start looking for a job in the future. -and pursue that scholarship thing, so that you wont have that kind of liability over your shoulders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuddenlyParanoid Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 New from Yale: I didn't get into the PhD program, but they want me to apply for their Master's program. They offer partial tuition waivers, unless you get the FLAS fellowship, in which case it's free plus a stipend. Now I'm really conflicted. Do I take my funded offer from Madison and run with it, or do I delay acquisition of a PhD by probably a year (they say any PhD program would allow me to count Yale courses towards a PhD) in order to probably graduate from a top 5 program? I wrote the graduate coordinator back saying that I want to apply to the Master's program, but what do you all think I should do if I get into it and don't get into the programs I'd go to over Madison (namely, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and Chicago)? To be honest, it's pretty tempting to go to Yale and beef up my application for next year, but I'd love your advice. I would write the graduate coordinator and ask what percentage of applicants are successful at reapplying to Yale. If it's high, then it depends on how the money situation is for you and if you have any time sensitive goals like a family or whatever. Although, I do have to say Madison is a great city and program, so you're in good hands either way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brouhaha Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Thanks for the advice, everyone. Obviously, I need to wait until I hear back from other programs, but I'm tempted to take it if the rest of the top 10 depts fall through. Finishing my PhD at 30 or 31 as opposed to 29 isn't a huge difference, in my book. Also, with the job market as it is, I'm inclined to aim for as highly ranked a program as I can, as stupid as rankings are. I do, however, wonder what kind of sign this is in terms of what I should expect from the other top 10 depts I applied to. It's certainly better than a rejection, which I was expecting from Yale, so I actually am sort of excited, as weird as that might sound. How are you feeling, brouhaha? I am feeling amazing. I'm still an undergrad so I went around and told pretty much the whole political science department. They were all extremely happy for me and advised me to go for the master's unless I get a ridiculously good PhD offer from somewhere like Columbia, so basically what you're saying. I visited Yale this summer and absolutely fell in love with the place so it'll be really hard to convince me to take even a funded PhD with the prospect of going to Yale. I expected a rejection 100% so I'm just in giddy shock. I'm in East Asian Studies for what it's worth. I'm still really young as well so I'm not worried about taking the extra year- in fact it sounds smarter to me so I can better figure out what it is I'm doing with my life. I'm still open to plenty of options; I just know I love political science and I love East Asia, so really no harm can come out of this other than debt. My numbers are far from perfect and my research experience is rather lacking so this is completely unreal to me. I'm sure we'll end up making the right decisions though. I just hope I get some sort of formal acceptance from the master's soon. I'm scared this excitement will turn into a let-down, but I want to think Yale wouldn't lead us on, especially by the tone of the e-mail I got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brouhaha Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 That's good to hear about the profs in your department. Since you're in East Asian studies, I'm assuming we were sent to different master's programs? I also think we both have excellent chances of being admitted to those programs. I'm just hoping for FLAS funding. Anyway, good luck with the rest of your apps and I might see you at Yale next year! Yeah, I'd definitely say they're different master's programs. I really hope we get in, and yeah, the funding would be fantastic. Best of luck to you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carrar Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 That's amazing that they reached out to you both! I have no advice, really, just congratulations! Finishing my PhD at 30 or 31 as opposed to 29 isn't a huge difference, in my book. Watch it with this, though. Some of us will be starting our PhDs at 30 or 31. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keller65 Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 (edited) I must say, I would not suckle at the teat of Yale's cash cow, no matter how great the name cachet. If one is to go on to the Ph.D. (often earning as much as a Taco Bell shift supervisor as a graduate student), I would ferret away as much money as possible. Edited February 1, 2010 by Keller65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunuwyn Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 brouhaha, I just wanted to say that I also am very interested in East Asia and consider it my area of expertise, focus on Japan. I knew that would be a hard fit for most PhD programs so I did not advertise it on my SoP. Programs I was specifically told that would be a problem at were Yale and UT which we both applied to. For future cycles you might want to consider leaving that out as I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franglaisish Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Hate to break up the discussion of Yale's MA program, but thought I'd stop obsessively lurking and join in the fray. Since we're a week or two (or three... or 5 for Cornell....), I'm getting realllly nervous. I'm applying for Fall '10 on the IR/comparative border. My totally unrealistic list of schools is: Cornell, MIT, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, and UCSD. Since apparently Stanford sent out their acceptances last week, I figure that I'm out of the running there. No huge shock. So, hi all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmp34 Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 brouhaha, I just wanted to say that I also am very interested in East Asia and consider it my area of expertise, focus on Japan. I knew that would be a hard fit for most PhD programs so I did not advertise it on my SoP. Programs I was specifically told that would be a problem at were Yale and UT which we both applied to. For future cycles you might want to consider leaving that out as I did. Do you mean a focus on Japan is a hard fit for Yale and UT or a focus on East Asia in general? Is this because they don't have faculty to support the research? I would think East Asia is huge in most polisci depts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmp34 Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Btw Cpaige - did you get the email about the Yale MA program today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunuwyn Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Do you mean a focus on Japan is a hard fit for Yale and UT or a focus on East Asia in general? Is this because they don't have faculty to support the research? I would think East Asia is huge in most polisci depts... Yeah, shockingly its really not. Princeton does it, and a few others but its really not all that common. Everyone seems to do Europe and the Middle East though. Also I didn't mean Japan, I meant the whole region. Japan is just my language of study and nation of most knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunuwyn Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Not to revel in your rejection, but maybe that's a glimmer of hope for those who didn't get a similar email today from Yale? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curufinwe Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Everyone seems to do Europe and the Middle East though. hehe I study Middle East and I perceived it as if the number of faculty that studies East Asia was much more than those who study Middle East But I might be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tskinner Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 I'm regionless, and I say Middle East is more common than East Asia. But this may be because everybody seems to be applying to study democratization in the Middle East. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Certain_Entropy Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 I'm regionless, and I say Middle East is more common than East Asia. But this may be because everybody seems to be applying to study democratization in the Middle East. Y'all missing the cool region. South Asia is where its at. good food, pretty place, and a diverse large N, plus rich source for qualitative research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curufinwe Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 (edited) this may be because everybody seems to be applying to study democratization in the Middle East. hehe it is like studying "aliens living in mars" I know, I know, I didn't mean to provoke anyone Edited February 1, 2010 by curufinwe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahab Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Thanks to everyone for posting your results here. I'm more nervous than I was before I stumbled on to this thread but it's still good to hear that acceptances are coming back. Here's what I'm waiting on for comparative politics (primarily East Asia): Duke, UNC-CH, Wisconsin, Washington, Maryland, Michigan. I skipped the ivies because they just seemed so far out of reach but I'm regretting that decision just slightly. Anyway, there are some great people in my field at each of these schools so I should end up doing OK. On a completely positive note, I was notified this weekend that I am a finalist for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Taiwan. It will be interesting to see whether or not I make the final list. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keller65 Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Well folks, I have some positive news for those of us waiting on the UNC front. Word from on high is they are not finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lev calderon Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Hmm, it could also mean you were outright rejected, but you never know Yeah, the fact that the AdComm knows who it's taking/not-taking already indicates that they could call who they've admitted. P.s. congrats to those offered the funded MA at Yale, that's really impressive. p.p.s. why didn't Yale choose to WL? p.p.p.s. anyone try calling the admissions offices for decisions? ladedodaday and lev calderon 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brouhaha Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 cpaige, any idea when we're supposed to hear something official about the MAs? Ideally decisions will go out for everyone including those this week. I'm just so anxious and I don't want to start the "Yalebration" quite yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Y Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 I'm really looking forward to hearing from Stanford. Even though it seems somebody already got in, I feel that there are still some more places. I contacted the office weeks ago, and they said that we'll be notified in "late Jan. or early Feb." I hope I can know the result this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrimsonBlue Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 I'm really looking forward to hearing from Stanford. Even though it seems somebody already got in, I feel that there are still some more places. I contacted the office weeks ago, and they said that we'll be notified in "late Jan. or early Feb." I hope I can know the result this week. It looks like they are going over subfields in a certain order, so let's hope for the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladedodaday Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 (edited) It looks like they are going over subfields in a certain order, so let's hope for the best. Hm, I can't see them letting in many more people. I mean, if they are shooting for a class of 12-15, they must only let in 20, and 5 of those have been claimed on the board. I dunno, maybe I'm underestimating the influence of this forum, but do more than 1/4 of applicants post their results? Either way, I'm super curious about the political analyst with the 2.99 and sub-600 GREs. Edited February 2, 2010 by polisciFTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrimsonBlue Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Hm, I can't see them letting in many more people. I mean, if they are shooting for a class of 12-15, they must only let in 20, and 5 of those have been claimed on the board. I dunno, maybe I'm underestimating the influence of this forum, but do more than 1/4 of applicants post their results? Either way, I'm super curious about the political analyst with the 2.99 and sub-600 GREs. While some of the posts seem legit, you can't assume the same for all the posts. Congratulations to those people who got accepted, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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