2017-2018 Application Cycle

[artibasos]

1 hour ago, possibleirphd said:

Also waiting to hear back from them. I hope they announce soon! I still think its a great program. Its definitely the quant that gives NYU the upper hand though. 

Interesting to hear from people that would choose NYU over Columbia.  I am in the opposite position - where I am obsessively checking to see if Columbia has announced.

NYU was a last-second addition to my list - love the quantiness, less happy about NYU housing options* - and I got in somehow?

i am currently living in fear that the January Yale and Columbia admits were real and that’s all they’re going to accept.

 

* lesson from two years in a physics PhD program: do not underestimate how much housing matters to your general well-being 

[toad1]

6 minutes ago, artibasos said:

i am currently living in fear that the January Yale and Columbia admits were real and that’s all they’re going to accept.

I promise you, those were trolls.

[SDMSK]

Haven't been contacted by Vanderbilt for an interview. Should I assume a rejection?

[Clytemnahstra]

1 hour ago, Albert01 said:

Anyone waiting for Columbia? Given the records of 2017 and 2016, it may announce today or tmr.

Plus, what happened to the school's reputation? I heard some of my profs discounted  it (one told me that if I get in both of Columbia anf NYU, I "definitely" should select NYU - fyi, he is not from NYU) which I think a great institution and having prominent faculties such as Jon Elster and Michael Doyle. (I dont want to start a stupid debate on which is better between the two - both are great. NYU is just an example here.)

Furthermore, I see not much of Columbia applicants here. Is it 'unpopular' at least among the cohort of here? If that's the case, why?

I'm applying to Columbia for Theory!

[Clytemnahstra]

4 hours ago, megabee said:

UCLA rejection at 5 AM, North Carolina acceptance at 8 AM. Now a member of the "acceptance and rejection on the same day" club. The whiplash is real my friends.

Congrats!

[encyclopediabrown]

I am on an admissions committee this year. Two things. First, you are an EXTREMELY impressive bunch. It was a pleasure to read through the applications. I was floored. You're much, much more accomplished than I was when I applied. Second, it is completely true that in the end so much of this process is random. There are so many outrageously talented applicants we're making wild guesses about who will be a good fit in our program. These guesses are often way off base. If you're feeling dejected at not getting in, I get it. (I got rejected from nearly every program I applied to and I remember the feeling well.) Try to remember that it is NOT a reflection of your self worth, smarts, or ability to succeed. I know that's easier said than done, but I can tell you from the inside, it's true.

[skhann]

16 minutes ago, Qw23 said:

Haven't been contacted by Vanderbilt for an interview. Should I assume a rejection?

I already did assume one 

I'm assuming the interview scheduling mails are already done and over with by Vandy. Good that they weren't giving any false hopes by detailing the process ahead of admissions deadline.

[CandyCanes]

Is the C in CHYMPS for Berkeley or Chicago or Columbia?

[luminalcoin8]

 

5 minutes ago, CandyCanes said:

Is the C in CHYMPS for Berkeley or Chicago or Columbia?

Cal Berkeley

[Albert01]

13 minutes ago, CandyCanes said:

Is the C in CHYMPS for Berkeley or Chicago or Columbia?

I had a similar question and many have assuredly answered that it is for Cal Berkeley.

Edited February 8, 2018 by Albert01

[apolloscreed]

2 hours ago, Kathleen517 said:

This is probably a reach, but did they give you any details about the admissions timeline?  I'm still waiting on a decision.  I assume at this point that it's going to be a rejection, but I can't figure out why they would wait to send out rejections if they have already emailed those who are accepted or wait-listed and are no longer considering anyone else.

I don't exactly have any helpful info in that regard. I received an email from the director of the doctoral program, she also happens to be a POI of mine for what that's worth. The email seemed relatively personalized, but who knows. 

I do know that individuals posted acceptances and waitlists for SIS's PhD on the results page on the same day, but I have not seen any rejections. Couldn't hurt to contact them at this point! 

[deutsch1997bw]

2 hours ago, PoliSci-freak said:

Any Indiana-Bloomington Comparativist admits? In my email communication with the graduate program coordinator, she told me the committee was going to meet later during the week (that email was the same day some people posted admittance letters which is weird). I guess it may be done by field, so any Comparativists who were admitted?

 

Perhaps we will hear from them tonight (though probably not), tomorrow, or early next week. 

[Kathleen517]

1 hour ago, apolloscreed said:

I don't exactly have any helpful info in that regard. I received an email from the director of the doctoral program, she also happens to be a POI of mine for what that's worth. The email seemed relatively personalized, but who knows. 

I do know that individuals posted acceptances and waitlists for SIS's PhD on the results page on the same day, but I have not seen any rejections. Couldn't hurt to contact them at this point! 

Thanks for letting me know!  I contacted the office earlier, but no one has responded yet.  I assume they're receiving tons of emails right now.

[Wiesbaden]

6 hours ago, ArcierePrudente said:

...Can we play for a bit?

It sounds like the Jigsaw's saying.

 

6 hours ago, ArcierePrudente said:

So I won't question your assertion that your abilities do play a role in whether or not you get into grad school, but I will question your assertion that whether or not you get into grad school is a verification or invalidation of your abilities writ large.  

 

OK. In a nutshell, you want to question that how getting into grad school, which has many coincidental areas, can prove my abilities. Am I right?

Both of us agreed with the fact that there are so many contingencies in getting into grad school. And also, we know that we cannot control them. However, we both have different ideas about "fatalism" I think. I just excluded them and leave areas of my abilities since no one cannot control them. Yes. Someone may be luckier than me this year. However, if they cannot be controlled or we can foresee the impact of them, I just want to focus on my controlled areas. we can talk about the proportion of contingencies but I think this question is another one to talk later. 

 

Based on this, "getting into the grad school" is not one situation, but kinda "accumulated situations." Why? Because being a Ph.D. student is a prerequisite for my success, surviving at this jungle. I have studied for this objective. If so, getting into the grad school can deserve to be the most important event and is the result of my accumulated behaviors. I do not satisfy this answer since I think there are more things to discuss with. By the way, why two USCs do not release their results...?

 

Edited February 8, 2018 by Wiesbaden

[Kewen89]

3 hours ago, Qw23 said:

Haven't been contacted by Vanderbilt for an interview. Should I assume a rejection?

Wait til the end of next week. That's what the DGS told me when I asked him on Monday. Unless, of course, he was just being coy. 

[SDMSK]

13 minutes ago, Kewen89 said:

Wait til the end of next week. That's what the DGS told me when I asked him on Monday. Unless, of course, he was just being coy. 

Thank you for the information!  I hesitated for five times today whether I should call him to check if the reach-out has ended. At least I can pretend that I still don't have to cross it off the list for another week.

[csantamir]

Anyone waiting on CUNY?

[polisciallday]

5 hours ago, BobBobBob said:

Since people are probably planning their campus visits:

https://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/51130-questions-to-ask-during-your-visits/

The OP of that post also wrote another thread that might answer a lot of the questions people here seem to be asking. I wish I had chanced upon this prior to application season, tbh. Here's the link for anyone interested: 

 

[buckinghamubadger]

What are one's odds of being admitted off the wait list at any given program? Is it legitimately 50/50 or does it tilt 60/40 or 70/30 in one direction or the other?

[polisciallday]

1 hour ago, buckinghamubadger said:

What are one's odds of being admitted off the wait list at any given program? Is it legitimately 50/50 or does it tilt 60/40 or 70/30 in one direction or the other?

The link to the thread in my previous post has an answer to this, kind of. It has details on the OP's experience with students that get wait listed at his/her/their institution and the number that make it off the wait list in his/her/their experience. It's the post by the OP on March 17, 2013 at the end of page 2.

[ilyosha]

^ For convenience I will just quote that here so people don't have to dig it up.

Wait listing: So most of my experience with wait listing actually comes from my involvement in other aspects of the department rather than the adcomm. There wasn't much discussion of a wait list, because I think that we admitted a number of people that should yield the cohort size that we want. (This again was kind of murky, directed mostly by the DGS. We were given a number and we admitted that many) I could probably make an educated guess about the people who were on the wait list, but I have no idea what would have to happen for one of those people to get in. I also have no idea if the DGS contacted a number of people and told them they were on a waitlist.

In the past, we have invited 1-2 waitlisters to recruitment events. Every year that I've been here (6) we've had someone get in off the waitlist. Most people know who they are, and I don't get a sense that they are thought less of. That's why I keep emphasizing some of the capriciousness of this process, because I think that all of the variables involved in admission change from year to year and even month to month during the recruitment process.

Another comment about your last point: "Finally, are faculty and students equally as excited to have formerly wait-listed students join the department as they would for first round accepted students?" This might seem awful, but I wouldn't say that we're excited. Maybe faculty are, but rarely do future admits really impact what I do in the department. I'm friends with a lot of people in other cohorts, but at this point, I only meet 1-2 people out of each cohort and since I'm leaving soon (fingers crossed!) I don't have much contact with them. Also, I've found that level of excitement about a candidate rarely translates into results. If you'd looked at our cohort coming in and picked out the "top students" those are usually the ones that burned out. The person who came in with an article in ASR/AJS/SF dropped out and the person with the super low GRE score is now a superstar. I've noticed this trend a lot and as a result have quit worrying so much about my own comparative status in grad school.

Sorry I can't be more illuminating about this topic! Wait listing and notifications seem to be the two subjects that give people the most anxiety and they are still black boxes.

[Coffee114]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:28 PM, deutsch1997bw said:

I feel like Indiana is staggering the release of acceptances this year by subfield.

I'm IR and still waiting.... I must  admit uncertainty is worse than rejection 

[Coffee114]

On 2/7/2018 at 8:13 PM, poliscibi said:

I can claim one (AP).

Congrats ! Im still waiting to hear back (IR) 

[Coffee114]

Any updates on when UC Santa Barbara will be sending out results 

I believe the 16-18th Feb weekend is going to be very crucial 

[Applesandbananas]

23 hours ago, Applesandbananas said:

Yikes, I just checked my app status and received this message: 

 

To date, no decision has been made on your application.

Please note that most decisions on graduate admissions for fall term are made in the months of March and April and therefore you should not anticipate a decision much before that time period.

 

I'm hoping they at least viewed my application?

For anyone on the edge of their seats over this, I got an email today and the link was updated with a rejection from UCLA. At least now I know.