2017-2018 Application Cycle

[SerenityNow!]

@skhann apologies for the inappropriate post! It was absolutely not my intention to increase other's anxiety level or make light of the feelings that have been expressed on this forum.

[skhann]

6 minutes ago, SerenityNow! said:

@skhann apologies for the inappropriate post! It was absolutely not my intention to increase other's anxiety level or make light of the feelings that have been expressed on this forum.

No need for apologies.Of course one wants to dress appropriately for the visiting weekends. It is important to seek advice. I just wanted to mention a couple of people who were/are teetering on the edge due to multiple rejections. Congrats on your acceptance and wishing you the best for the visiting weekends and beyond.

[PoliSci-freak]

To those who are/were anxiously waiting for UW-S, their rejections were just sent out (at least mine was). I knew from a POI last week, but now their formal letters have been sent by email.

[buckinghamubadger]

Just rejected from Seattle. Not a surprise. It was already off my list anyways. The thing that did surprised me is that Michael McCann, ho is a giant in judicial politics and public law, wrote the email. 

Accepted: Notre Dame, Missouri, Colorado, UC Irvine

Waitlisted: WashU-STL

Rejected: Princeton, Michigan, Univ of Washington

Pending: Brandeis, USC

[PoliSci-freak]

3 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

Just rejected from Seattle. Not a surprise. It was already off my list anyways. The thing that did surprised me is that Michael McCann, ho is a giant in judicial politics and public law, wrote the email. 

Accepted: Notre Dame, Missouri, Colorado, UC Irvine

Waitlisted: WashU-STL

Rejected: Princeton, Michigan, Univ of Washington

Pending: Brandeis, USC

Michael McCann didn't write the email, it was written by the admin staff and sent by them, he is the interim chair of the department which is why he is signed on this email...

[buckinghamubadger]

7 minutes ago, PoliSci-freak said:

Michael McCann didn't write the email, it was written by the admin staff and sent by them, he is the interim chair of the department which is why he is signed on this email...

Makes sense. I was just kinda surprised to see the name

[PoliSci-freak]

Whoever posted the acceptance from UW-S today, I am reluctant to believe them...

[NCPolPsych]

On 2/6/2018 at 11:23 AM, possibleirphd said:

Did you get an email first that your decision was ready?

Yes, I did.

[skhann]

4 hours ago, buckinghamubadger said:

It means they've accepted you but they don't have funding for you yet. They probably want you in their department but they aren't dumb and realize what not offering you funding would mean

Can you expand on that a bit please? Does that mean an assumption by the school the applicant will withdraw? What if someone bites the bullet and accept it? Really confused on such conditional offers.

[deutsch1997bw]

I can claim a rejection at UW-Seattle. I'm not disappointed about this. I didn't fit with the department very well.

[hs2011]

9 minutes ago, skhann said:

Can you expand on that a bit please? Does that mean an assumption by the school the applicant will withdraw? What if someone bites the bullet and accept it? Really confused on such conditional offers.

I can't speak to the assumptions made by the school, but if someone accepts the offer, they would be paying full tuition with the hope that funding would become available to them at some point.  I've heard that some schools don't offer un-funded acceptances at all, some do quite frequently and others, of course, fall somewhere in the middle.

[skhann]

8 minutes ago, hs2011 said:

I can't speak to the assumptions made by the school, but if someone accepts the offer, they would be paying full tuition with the hope that funding would become available to them at some point.  I've heard that some schools don't offer un-funded acceptances at all, some do quite frequently and others, of course, fall somewhere in the middle.

I see. So from your experience/knowledge, do these schools actually offer funding later on? Which schools are known for this behavior? A couple of people here mentioned Georgia State. I didn't find any other school doing that on the results page though.

[arctic_ice]

A rejection letter from the University of Washington (Seattle).

[hs2011]

3 minutes ago, skhann said:

I see. So from your experience/knowledge, do these schools actually offer funding later on? Which schools are known for this behavior? A couple of people here mentioned Georgia State. I didn't find any other school doing that on the results page though.

From what I've heard (all friend of a friend kind of stuff), they typically do if they stick around long enough, either because of more funding/different types of funding becoming available or other people leaving the program and opening up "funded spots".  The likelihood probably differs a lot from school to school depending on the reason they don't have the funding.  I heard Columbia used to be pretty notorious for it and it would cause a very tense, competitive culture.  The professor who told me that is pretty removed from the program now, so didn't know if it was still the case there.  He did suggest that it's a good thing to gauge with the current students (either specifically or when asking about the culture of the program).  I've heard about it at a few other as well, but can't remember off the top of my head.

[skhann]

5 minutes ago, hs2011 said:

From what I've heard (all friend of a friend kind of stuff), they typically do if they stick around long enough, either because of more funding/different types of funding becoming available or other people leaving the program and opening up "funded spots".  The likelihood probably differs a lot from school to school depending on the reason they don't have the funding.  I heard Columbia used to be pretty notorious for it and it would cause a very tense, competitive culture.  The professor who told me that is pretty removed from the program now, so didn't know if it was still the case there.  He did suggest that it's a good thing to gauge with the current students (either specifically or when asking about the culture of the program).  I've heard about it at a few other as well, but can't remember off the top of my head.

Thanks for your input. Sounds like a bad situation especially the possible negativity with all that competition. Surprised that Columbia used to have the same arrangement. They have a massive endowment to begin with.

[hs2011]

4 minutes ago, skhann said:

Thanks for your input. Sounds like a bad situation especially the possible negativity with all that competition. Surprised that Columbia used to have the same arrangement. They have a massive endowment to begin with.

No problem!  To each their own, but I would agree with you there.

From what I hear it was more of a money hungry "sure, if you really want to come here, you can pay to do it" thing than a "not having enough money to fund everyone" thing

[proctorvt]

I can claim a UPenn interview. 

Fwiw this person said it would be "a few more weeks" before things are sorted out. I assume that means rejections will go out at the end of Feb and a couple waves of acceptances will be released in the interim. This has been the case, historically, for several years.

 

Good luck all. (Don't bomb your interviews!)

Edited February 9, 2018 by proctorvt

[redfive]

hey, i have a Upenn interview on monday -- anything in particular you think i should prepare for? sorry it went poorly for you. this is all truly hellish and i am excited for the process to end. best of luck moving forward. 

[buckinghamubadger]

1 hour ago, skhann said:

Can you expand on that a bit please? Does that mean an assumption by the school the applicant will withdraw? What if someone bites the bullet and accept it? Really confused on such conditional offers.

You certainly can accept it, but most wouldn't advise going into debt to pay for a PhD. They understand that without funding, most will probably not accept the offer. You could, however, look for external funding such as non-department fellowships sources under which scenario going to the program in question may be advisable. 

 

You have been accepted to the program, but it's really only advisable to go if you have some sort of funding source.

[proctorvt]

8 minutes ago, redfive said:

hey, i have a Upenn interview on monday -- anything in particular you think i should prepare for? sorry it went poorly for you. this is all truly hellish and i am excited for the process to end. best of luck moving forward. 

I should be clear: I'm not sure whether it went badly or not. It simply wasn't as directed and detailed of a conversation as I expected. The questions and concerns that you end up addressing will be specific to the nature of your application. So all I can tell you is what you already know -- be ready to talk about your research interests. 

What's your major field? I'm American.

[arctic_ice]

Has anyone applied to Rochester? Have you received any news from this University?

[redfive]

4 minutes ago, proctorvt said:

I should be clear: I'm not sure whether it went badly or not. It simply wasn't as directed and detailed of a conversation as I expected. The questions and concerns that you end up addressing will be specific to the nature of your application. So all I can tell you is what you already know -- be ready to talk about your research interests. 

What's your major field? I'm American.

i'm theory. i've got some questions ready and i've read up on the interviewer's research and so on, and he is the POI for me at penn so i think it should go OK. pretty nervous tho! 

[proctorvt]

3 minutes ago, redfive said:

i'm theory. i've got some questions ready and i've read up on the interviewer's research and so on, and he is the POI for me at penn so i think it should go OK. pretty nervous tho! 

Oh, you'll be fine, then. My interviewer was neither my POI nor would he be even remotely affiliated with my committee. Perhaps that is what made things difficult. I know my POI very well -- we talk regularly. He's not on the admissions committee, unfortunately!

Good luck! I'm rooting for you.

[Sheldon2017]

6 hours ago, buckinghamubadger said:

It means they've accepted you but they don't have funding for you yet. They probably want you in their department but they aren't dumb and realize what not offering you funding would mean

I would call it a polite rejection

[StudyinMountains]

Seeing as it's past 5 pm on the East Coast, I'm assuming no more decisions are coming out today. Anyone else dreading another weekend in application purgatory?

2a / 3r / 0w / 8p