next »

[beginner]

I plan to apply to PhD programs in political science departments for entry in fall 2007.  I'm currently a student (finishing law school, and yes, I'm sure I want a PhD), so my fall semester will be quite busy.  I might be able to submit some applications early, but others I might not be able to submit until days or weeks before the application deadline.

I plan to contact professors at each department to which I am applying, both for the purposes of establishing a relationship and also for (hopefully) helping my chances of admission.

Do departments evaluate applications before the admission deadlines?  Are they fairly sure who they will take before the deadline has even passed?  Or am I OK waiting to submit my applications until closer to the deadline?

Thanks for your responses!

[rubyslippers]

I was told by a college professor that early applications just got tossed into a file drawer until the actual deadline approached!

Now, that may be hyperbole, but I had to send in my applications by overnight mail in order to make the deadline, and I was accepted into my current program with funding.

It's my observation that faculty are so overworked that very little gets done before deadline, so I imagine you'll be just fine.

[seniorscholar]

In my department, each application is evaluated by two faculty members, one of whom is the person with whom it seems the student would most probably be studying given the field(s) and focus provided in the personal statement. We have an application deadline of January 15th for fall semester. The secretary gives completed applications to the graduate director, the director looks them over and jots down the names of two faculty members inside the manila file folder, the secretary puts the applications in the first faculty member's mailbox as soon as they're returned to her by the graduate director and works hard to make sure that every application has been read by both people by the time the admissions committee meets, usually during the second week in February. We have to have our provisional rank list made by February 15 so we can try to find university funding for people at the top of the list, and we have to know how many people will be granted money from the university fellowship committee before we then decide who (among the remainder) to offer teaching assistantships to, and who (beyond that number) to put on the waiting list. We race like mad to get the 150+ applications read be February 15 and the lists done in time to get letters out on March 15. But no early decisions are made -- because the committee makes the decisions, and the time between January 15 and February 12 or so is spent furiously reading materials when there's time, and no one person will have read more than ten or a dozen of the applications before the meeting on February 12 (or thereabouts). There may be programs where the director has actually read all of the applications, but there is no one here who could make the decision before each field has listed its best candidates, and there are tradeoffs all down the line.

[monkfish]

I've never heard of professors reading applications before the deadline (no "early admissions"). In fact, if you send in your application before you have struck up a conversation with professor(s) in the program, it may actually hurt your chances as there might be subtle ways to tailor your application that you only would know of through such conversations.

And in my experience (in a different soc. sci), establishing some rapport with a professor or two at the program is absolutely crucial, especially if you have no reason to be on their radar already (i.e. your a former student of a good friend of theirs). This can be as simple as a brief email conversation. In my own case, there was a direct correlation between a favorable reply to my graduate school application, and the existence of a prior exchange.

[beginner]

Thank you for your responses.  This helps put my mind at ease.