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2017-2018 Application Cycle


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7 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

I expect WashU-STL and Univ. of Washington any day now, perhaps even today. USC next week, Notre Dame and Michigan the following and Brandeis in the last week of Feb/first week of March

Regarding University of Washington, I think sometime next week is the earliest we'll hear, and given their historical results I don't think the week after would be too shocking. Looks like they shifted from the 1st week in February to the 2nd week the last two years.

That said I don't think they did as many interviews in previous years given the results page, so it's fair to say they may have changed things up a bit so who knows. Is your estimate based on anything in particular?

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Not to get back to that tedious conversation on rankings, but I was just wondering if anyone has an opinion on the hierarchy within CHYMPS? My current understanding is that it could be sorted into tier 1: HPS and tier 2: CYM. (And also C being Berkeley - not Columbia).. I could be completely wrong though. Any thoughts?

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@toad1 I almost feel at that point that it depends on what one's specific interests and sub-subfields are, though generally, I would generally place them HS>P>M>YC. It's also tricky because I know at least some of those schools have multiple polisci-oriented programs (ie GSB at Stanford, Political Economy and public policy PhD programs at Kennedy at Harvard)

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7 minutes ago, toad1 said:

Not to get back to that tedious conversation on rankings, but I was just wondering if anyone has an opinion on the hierarchy within CHYMPS? My current understanding is that it could be sorted into tier 1: HPS and tier 2: CYM. (And also C being Berkeley - not Columbia).. I could be completely wrong though. Any thoughts?

Please no. Create a new thread.

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31 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

I expect WashU-STL and Univ. of Washington any day now, perhaps even today. USC next week, Notre Dame and Michigan the following and Brandeis in the last week of Feb/first week of March

I want USC should be today...A  gap between Dec 1 to today is so long... 

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Does anyone know anything about negotiating funding packages? There are a couple of programs I applied to (Univ. Of Washington and CU Boulder (where I have been accepted)) that are very good programs, but seem to offer poor funding relative to the cost of living. If they threw me, say, $5K more than they throw most attendees I would consider them, but if not, they simply aren't viable options. I don't want to live in Seattle on a funding package that equates to less than minimum wage. Boulder's funding seems to be equally bad if not worse.  So are these things that flexible or is it difficult to change your offer?

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11 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

Does anyone know anything about negotiating funding packages? There are a couple of programs I applied to (Univ. Of Washington and CU Boulder (where I have been accepted)) that are very good programs, but seem to offer poor funding relative to the cost of living. If they threw me, say, $5K more than they throw most attendees I would consider them, but if not, they simply aren't viable options. I don't want to live in Seattle on a funding package that equates to less than minimum wage. Boulder's funding seems to be equally bad if not worse.  So are these things that flexible or is it difficult to change your offer?

Have you heard anything from UW-Seattle, or have you been in touch with anybody there? Were you invited to an interview? I am wondering if they will be contacting admits soon.

On negotiating, you should negotiate, and make sure they know about other offers you have (if they are better, comparatively). Pay attention to health insurance as well, not only your actual income. I would even go into the health insurance in detail and look at your co-pays and premiums. Your income is something you can negotiate, but not your insurance, so if that's extremely important for you, it will be a deciding factor...

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9 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

Does anyone know anything about negotiating funding packages? There are a couple of programs I applied to (Univ. Of Washington and CU Boulder (where I have been accepted)) that are very good programs, but seem to offer poor funding relative to the cost of living. If they threw me, say, $5K more than they throw most attendees I would consider them, but if not, they simply aren't viable options. I don't want to live in Seattle on a funding package that equates to less than minimum wage. Boulder's funding seems to be equally bad if not worse.  So are these things that flexible or is it difficult to change your offer?

You can always ask! It helps if you have an offer from another school that is seen as a peer and that has a better deal. Then you can go to the admissions committee chair and outline your concerns, as long as you are reasonable and polite about it.  Of course, some requests (increasing your stipend by a huge amount) may be less reasonable than others (asking for summer funding for one or two years, or help with moving costs). Anyway, when I got into graduate schools I tried to negotiate and it didn't work, so don't be discouraged if nothing comes of it. Many schools don't have flexibility.

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5 minutes ago, PoliSci-freak said:

Have you heard anything from UW-Seattle, or have you been in touch with anybody there? Were you invited to an interview? I am wondering if they will be contacting admits soon.

On negotiating, you should negotiate, and make sure they know about other offers you have (if they are better, comparatively). Pay attention to health insurance as well, not only your actual income. I would even go into the health insurance in detail and look at your co-pays and premiums. Your income is something you can negotiate, but not your insurance, so if that's extremely important for you, it will be a deciding factor...

Thanks to @Encyclopedia Brown and @PoliSci-freak for the helpful info and tips.

As for Univ of Washington, I have heard from people with inside info that they will be releasing decisions soon. I was not interviewed, but I've been told not to read too much into that. Best of luck.

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5 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

Thanks to @Encyclopedia Brown and @PoliSci-freak for the helpful info and tips.

As for Univ of Washington, I have heard from people with inside info that they will be releasing decisions soon. I was not interviewed, but I've been told not to read too much into that. Best of luck.

Thanks for the info! I heard similar things from an insider about decision timelines at UW-S, so it's good to know we're being told consistent things...

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26 minutes ago, buckinghamubadger said:

Does anyone know anything about negotiating funding packages? There are a couple of programs I applied to (Univ. Of Washington and CU Boulder (where I have been accepted)) that are very good programs, but seem to offer poor funding relative to the cost of living. If they threw me, say, $5K more than they throw most attendees I would consider them, but if not, they simply aren't viable options. I don't want to live in Seattle on a funding package that equates to less than minimum wage. Boulder's funding seems to be equally bad if not worse.  So are these things that flexible or is it difficult to change your offer?

Hard to negotiate with public universities. Not much flexibility in stipend or TA allocation. 

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3 hours ago, boomah said:

What's the current view on Berkeley? How is it doing in its various subfields?

Strong across the board, just like all the other top 6 (except maybe Michigan). Great placement, strong faculty, good methods training. Funding is a little low in comparison to the rest of the top 6 (especially when taking into account living costs), but it still has very competitive packages and plenty of internal funding resources to tap into. 

Edited by Comparativist
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