lenin333 Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 You know, I know what it takes to be totally committed to research. I have been there. My dream wasn't to be an academic to twaddle my thumbs for some university and make sure I brought funding to some department. All I wanted was to contribute and to find a home among friendly environs. But maybe university life is not about just the search for knowledge. I have no name. I have no connections. I have always read what I liked to; damn the books and articles that bored me. The game that is academic acceptance is not one in which I am adept. For those who go on - remember us who failed, remember the graveyard of applicants who didn't know any better and threw our hat in. Work hard, but remember us. Too many of us.
Canadianpolsci Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 i'm assuming the rejection posted is there because the person didn't get an acceptance email. no other mention of rejection emails on the results page that i saw. i'm pretty sure they're done. don't sweat it...i mean, you've got harvard. some of us have nothing. Yes, thanks, you are right on all counts. The rejection post is someone who didn't hear anything then -- as you said. But I would still say wait list decisions may be pending.
ampersand Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 Hey ampersand, how did you find out about Maryland? Was it a mass email? And when did you find out? Thanks! iulixa, they sent me a letter at the beginning of February. It was actually dated only a few days after the application deadline. A letter from the graduate school and a letter from the department (with my funding package) were sent to the permanent address I indicated on my application (which was my parents' house, so I made them send the letters to me so I could open them myself). I've also emailed back and forth a couple of times with Irwin Morris, the director of graduate studies in the department. I have no idea if they're still making acceptance decisions, although no one's posted a rejection on the results page. Hope this helps.
zephyr Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 anyone know much about the SAIS hopkins PhD program?
Canadianpolsci Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 anyone know much about the SAIS hopkins PhD program? You have to have an MA from SAIS already. There is no direct entry. If you are asking, I doubt you are attending.
zephyr Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 You have to have an MA from SAIS already. There is no direct entry. If you are asking, I doubt you are attending. or a masters from a comparable institute. they're supposed to meet in the next week or two to do admits. anybody have thoughts on them? obviously great for policy work, but what about academic stuff?
grtgmeloser Posted March 1, 2008 Posted March 1, 2008 From the SAIS PhD FAQ: Can holders of a Bachelors degree apply directly to the Ph.D. program at SAIS? In order to apply for the Ph.D. program, individuals must hold the SAIS M.A. degree, be a resident SAIS student who has completed at least twelve courses toward the M.A. degree, or be a student or graduate who has comparable academic qualifications from another institution. Holders of Bachelors degrees are encouraged to research the SAIS M.A. degree. Which advanced degrees are considered to produce graduates with academic qualifications comparable to those of SAIS M.A. graduates? How successful are individuals with law or business degrees in the Ph.D. admissions process? The Ph.D. Committee accepts applicants who have completed the Master of Arts in International Relations degree at SAIS, as well as applicants who have completed M.A. programs at other institutions. Competitive applicants who have not graduated from SAIS will often hold M.A. degrees in the social sciences, especially in the disciplines of international relations, political science, or history. Such degrees require graduates to have achieved competency in theoretical studies, research methodology, and extensive academic writing. Advanced professional degrees such as a Juris Doctorate or a Master of Business Administration cannot act as substitutes for advanced work in international affairs. An advanced degree in strategic studies from a military institution would not be considered appropriate for admission to most Ph.D. fields but is sometimes acceptable for admission to the Strategic Studies field at SAIS.
eve2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 hi guys. not sure why i posted in the other subforum. Hoping you might weigh in: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=13285
Purgatory Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 hey guys, I got admitted into my dream school and am certain that I want to accept them. Even though the package hasn't arrived yet and i have yet to see the actual funding offer, I've already gone ahead and told them I want to accept them. I'll also be turning down my other offers (even those that haven't come in). I'm going to Princeton, my dream for the past 4 years and I never imagined that I would have this once in a lifetime opportunity. Its been nice talking to you guys on this forum, thanks for helping me maintain some of my sanity by knowing that I was not the only person clicking refresh on applycorner and yuster every hour for the past 1 and a half months. I love your jokes and we should totally meet up and have a gradcafe reunion at APSA or something . Take care, this is Purgatory logging off and going over the moon to heaven.
Canadianpolsci Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Anyone here in pol. theory apply to Social Thought at Chicago?
zephyr Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 From the SAIS PhD FAQ: Can holders of a Bachelors degree apply directly to the Ph.D. program at SAIS? In order to apply for the Ph.D. program, individuals must hold the SAIS M.A. degree, be a resident SAIS student who has completed at least twelve courses toward the M.A. degree, or be a student or graduate who has comparable academic qualifications from another institution. Holders of Bachelors degrees are encouraged to research the SAIS M.A. degree. Which advanced degrees are considered to produce graduates with academic qualifications comparable to those of SAIS M.A. graduates? How successful are individuals with law or business degrees in the Ph.D. admissions process? The Ph.D. Committee accepts applicants who have completed the Master of Arts in International Relations degree at SAIS, as well as applicants who have completed M.A. programs at other institutions. Competitive applicants who have not graduated from SAIS will often hold M.A. degrees in the social sciences, especially in the disciplines of international relations, political science, or history. Such degrees require graduates to have achieved competency in theoretical studies, research methodology, and extensive academic writing. Advanced professional degrees such as a Juris Doctorate or a Master of Business Administration cannot act as substitutes for advanced work in international affairs. An advanced degree in strategic studies from a military institution would not be considered appropriate for admission to most Ph.D. fields but is sometimes acceptable for admission to the Strategic Studies field at SAIS. right...they're picky in terms of what they'll take, but it doesn't have to be a MA from SAIS. i talked this through with them a few months ago. so...anybody have thoughts on their PhD program? they seem to have some damn impressive faculty there. and their theory and history PhD track sounds the same (in terms of what you study) as any other top PhD program. thoughts?
sundaymonday Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 This was posted in another thread. It's a link to a peer-response ranking for IR, published in Foreign Policy magazine. It doesn't say anything specific about SAIS, but ranks JHU pretty high. I think #2 in the US and #1 in Canada for a terminal masters in IR. I know you're just asking about the PhD, but this might speak to something for you. http://www.wm.edu/irtheoryandpractice/t ... t06-07.pdf
hoopz Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 does anyone have any idea if brown has made all their decisions/notifications yet?
nina gorman Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Anyone got word from CUNY poli sci? - my last shot, my last one of three tried. Dumped in this crapshoot by U of AZ poli sci and U of Md soc. Stats: 3.84 John Jay psych degree, 3.6 temple for soc, about 20 credits undergrad poli sci and 9 credits grad. GRE: Q- 560 (38%), V- 600 84%, A/W 6.0 / (think my math screwed me, along with the ivy and published competition?),but I have more than 20 years of teaching experience as psych/soc teacher, including 4 yrs f.t. at HBCU, a few years research exp., several presentations but no publications. CUNY takes about one of three but I wonder if I have a shot or if anyone knows how intense the competition is for this program?
nina gorman Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Anyone know which page of this thread is listed the post on the ranked list of PhD programs in poli sci (don't want to browse the whole 48 pages) or where on web is listed. U.S. news rank info must get via subscription- no?
JordanJames Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Anyone know which page of this thread is listed the post on the ranked list of PhD programs in poli sci (don't want to browse the whole 48 pages) or where on web is listed. U.S. news rank info must get via subscription- no? U.S. News rankings 1. Harvard University (MA) 5.0 2. Stanford University (CA) 4.9 3. University of Michigan
rtrm Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Someone please tell me why Notre Dame is ranked 41st in the general rankings despite being 18th in Comparative Politics and 10th in Political Theory. That doesn't make too much sense, does it? Then, within Comparative Politics (my field) there is certainly variation on which region each Department is the strongest: Europe, Asia, Post-Commie Eurpoe, Latin America, Middle East. Any Latin Americanists or other "Area Studies" people out there that might want to share their comments on which Universities are the "best" for each region? We should start a different forum for this, don't we? Can someone help me with that, I'm just a newbie... Reynaldo
sundaymonday Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Anyone got word from CUNY poli sci? - my last shot, my last one of three tried. Dumped in this crapshoot by U of AZ poli sci and U of Md soc. Stats: 3.84 John Jay psych degree, 3.6 temple for soc, about 20 credits undergrad poli sci and 9 credits grad. GRE: Q- 560 (38%), V- 600 84%, A/W 6.0 / (think my math screwed me, along with the ivy and published competition?),but I have more than 20 years of teaching experience as psych/soc teacher, including 4 yrs f.t. at HBCU, a few years research exp., several presentations but no publications. CUNY takes about one of three but I wonder if I have a shot or if anyone knows how intense the competition is for this program? I received an email notification at the beginning of last week from an administrator at CUNY saying I was waitlisted. My impression was that decisions had already been made, but it wouldn't hurt to call or send an email at this point.
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Someone please tell me why Notre Dame is ranked 41st in the general rankings despite being 18th in Comparative Politics and 10th in Political Theory. This is a common problem with ranking systems, especially those that try to weight the reputation of journal articles. Sometimes the overall ranking is based on different methodology than the subfield rankings. In other rankings, the distance between #10 and #100 in two different fields can be quite significant, so when the rankings are combined, it skews the result in favor of programs that are far ahead of other schools in a particular field. Other rankings try to get an overall picture of the department's reputation in ALL subfields. So, even though ND may be good for Comparative and Theory, its relative weakness in other categories hurts it, especially considering how far down the list it is in some other subfields.
rtrm Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 This is a common problem with ranking systems, especially those that try to weight the reputation of journal articles. Sometimes the overall ranking is based on different methodology than the subfield rankings. In other rankings, the distance between #10 and #100 in two different fields can be quite significant, so when the rankings are combined, it skews the result in favor of programs that are far ahead of other schools in a particular field. Other rankings try to get an overall picture of the department's reputation in ALL subfields. So, even though ND may be good for Comparative and Theory, its relative weakness in other categories hurts it, especially considering how far down the list it is in some other subfields. I thought so. I know that ND is not so strong in American Politics, Methodology, or IR. In that case, "overall" rankings are fundamentally flawed. I'm not saying that they do not matter at all, because they definitely do but saying that Harvard is better than, say, Berkley just because of the "prestige" or better placement record, etc, will make potential PhD candidates unsecure on whether they were accepted to the best school rather than being concerned with which school is the right one according to their specific research interests. Reynaldo
Canadianpolsci Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Another comment about rankings: because people (including myself) do like looking at lists, numbers, etc., rankings are popular. But they are not like ranking of computer monitors, for at least one simple reason: you cannot just buy the monitor you like. They are also not like law school rankings as they cannot be easily tied to earnings, etc. In short, graduate education is not easily quantifiable. The single most important element of the rankings is obviously tiers. In each sub-field there are clearly a top-top-tier, a top-tier, and everything else. Frankly, sorry to say, job placement from "everything else" -- below top 15, aprox. -- is not good. So you are training to get a PhD, that is, to teach, but you will not likely get to do what you are trained for -- at least, not at a very attractive place. At this stage in the admissions cycle is ANYONE using rankings, detailed rankings, to determine their choices? When you can review professors in a program, placement (including by subfield), funding, and last but not least, whether you actually GOT IN, what are these rankings good for? I suppose the only thing they are good for is convincing you that a school you like is just ranked TOO LOW to make it reasonable to choose it over better known schools. Obviously it is not the other way around. No one is finding on the rankings: 'Oh wow, Michigan doesn't suck! And hey, Yale is top ten!' No, rankings are cheering us up, or reminding us of what we likely already know.
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted March 3, 2008 Posted March 3, 2008 Overall rankings are meaningless anyway, because no one studies "political science" in general at the graduate level. No one is placed or published based on overall rankings, and they don't really do anything but help lay people get an idea of which schools are the leaders.
AllFiredUp Posted March 3, 2008 Posted March 3, 2008 Canadianpolisci, are you going to TA for Sandel?
UndraftedFreeAgent Posted March 3, 2008 Posted March 3, 2008 Frankly, sorry to say, job placement from "everything else" -- below top 15, aprox. -- is not good. So you are training to get a PhD, that is, to teach, but you will not likely get to do what you are trained for -- at least, not at a very attractive place. I would have said top 20-25, but yeah, below that, placement opportunities get scarce in a hurry.
Canadianpolsci Posted March 3, 2008 Posted March 3, 2008 Canadianpolisci, are you going to TA for Sandel? How do I know you are not Michael Sandel himself, "AllFiredUp"? If you are: I would be reasonable fired up as well.
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