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[scheherazade]

Honestly, I think in many programs, your grad GPA will matter far more than your undergrad.  Good luck!

[tidefan]

Honestly, I think in many programs, your grad GPA will matter far more than your undergrad.  Good luck!

This is kind of what I am counting on, but it is such a crap shoot anyway.  At Michigan they get around 400 applications a year for 20-25 spots.  You would think that 1/2 of the applicants are perfectly qualified for acceptance, so I would imagine that more than 150 perfectly qualified appicants don't get in every year.

[vardahilwen]

Honestly, I think in many programs, your grad GPA will matter far more than your undergrad.  Good luck!

This is kind of what I am counting on, but it is such a crap shoot anyway.  At Michigan they get around 400 applications a year for 20-25 spots.  You would think that 1/2 of the applicants are perfectly qualified for acceptance, so I would imagine that more than 150 perfectly qualified appicants don't get in every year.

Tis true.  And there's an arbitrary element to the selection as well - our cohort was told that for every one of us that was admitted, 15 were turned away.  Many of those were technically "qualified", but they also looked at assembling a cohort that reflected diverse research interests, etc.  So there's some "picking and choosing" going on, even among the qualified - in other words, being qualified won't guarantee acceptance.  Kinda sad, but there it is.

[tidefan]

Guess I am not in such a fix after all, got accepted into a top 25 program today, fully funded for 5 years.  Is a good sign for things to come...

[scheherazade]

Congratulations!

[dubitocogito]

Congratulations!!

[tidefan]

Thanks, I am so freaking excited!  Wish I could start tomorrow...

[dubitocogito]

I'm very happy for you, and I'm also more hopeful - I had previously posted a similar question within the admissions process thread.  Hope my schools also believe that one can progress in wisdom.  God knows I've worked hard to prove it.   

So, was this your first choice?  Or are you still holding out? 

[tidefan]

For this go around I limited my applications to schools in the top 25 of US News and World Report.  This is school number 22 on that list, and ranked fifth out of the seven schools that I applied to.

That being said, they have a very strong international security program, and I could be very happy there.  So if this is the only one of the seven that I get into, then I am fine with that.  The schools ranked above this one are all either ivey league, or UMich, so the likelihood of getting into those schools is small, even if I am qualified to go there, just based on the sheer volume of applicants...