To 7:04: As a mid-program grad I might have asked the same question, but it's really not the right question to ask. Traditionally Olin has been considered somewhat more prestigious than Belfer if for no other reason than Olin's decision cycle was earlier, so it got its pick of the pre-/post-docs. But I haven't noticed any significant difference in placement among Belfer, CISAC, and Olin fellows. And for that matter, the hottest IR candidate last year was a Brookings fellow. Any of these or others (such as CDDRL) look good on the CV, so prestige isn't really the issue. You probably won't get to pick and choose between fellowships because awards (at least in the past) are announced at different times (weeks/months apart). But if you could, the questions to ask are (i) with whom do I want to work (eg, Rosen at Olin or Miller, Lynn-Jones, and Walt at Belfer) and (ii) do I want to work at a smaller, more intimate, more coherent program (eg, Olin), or a larger one (eg, Belfer). I'll leave it to others to discuss CISAC. In any case, if you get one of these as a pre-doc, you have every chance of getting another one at one of the other programs in the subsequent year.
Here's a new postdoc program, Tapir, or Trans-Atlantic Postdoc in International Relations. It's an excellent program, more geared to think tank and policy than to academia. It offers two years at three renowned think tanks with at least one station in Europe. It's announced on SWP's and Carnegie's websites: www.swp-berlin.org www.carnegieendowment.org
my understanding is that steve rosen at olin sorted out alternative sources of funding. it may be that this fell through but up until recently it seemed clear that olin would continue under a different name. if your information is only an inference from the fact that the olin foundation has wound up then you are likely wrong.
i am arriving late in the process--defending this spring and looking now for an i.r. postdoc (i do ethics and war) is there a list of all/most of the relevant postdocs in one spot?? i have no idea where to start, and it's christmas so there is nobody available at my uni. i see from the thread belfer, olin, cisac, brookings, is rand still a possibility? could you please direct me to a comprehensive list or just scribble a list down for me? many many many thanks for your help...
ohio state (mershon), notre dame, usc; perhaps brown, penn, duke, dartmouth (they have had some in the past, although most of these latter four all involve teaching obligations). I believe the deadline for belfer already passed, but you can try to submit late.
RAND doesn't offer postdocs itself, but it does participate in a consortium that sponsors the Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellowship for International Relations and Security. Information about that postdoc is available at http://www.rand.org/about/edu_op/ fellowships/transatlantic/.
I have one more year of guaranteed funding and am halfway through writing the dissertation. Many of the pre/postdocs accept partially funded fellows. Any sense of how much better ones chances of getting a predoc fellowship are when applying with partial/full funding, as opposed to applying for the postdoc without external money?
Regarding when decisions about postdocs are announced: first, does anyone know when cisac, olin and mershon will announce? Second, assuming that the others will announce in March why did Belfer want applications a month earlier?
I haven't heard of anyone receiving notification yet, but that may just mean that I am not a recipient and not that notifications haven't been sent! Still, it would be helpful if people report offers as they come.
Belfer has definitely sent acceptances for intrastate conflict, but they often stagger -- the "generic" ISP fellowships came out later than the intrastate conflict fellowships last year, at least.
For the person interested in what kind of people Belfer selects, I recommend looking at the bios of the previous recipients of Belfer fellowships. I think they tend to be more policy-oriented than Olin for example. They often have a strong regional focus.
Remember, Belfer has different programs so you may want to apply to multiple programs as you could be partly funded by International Security and partly by one of the other programs. There are a fair few international fellows at Belfer, a number of them with some specific international experience. I think a number of Belfer people I would describe as having quite specific regional or country expertise.
no, belfer in the past has simply not contacted those on the waitlist. sometimes, it could be over a month before they get clarification on acceptances. If rejections go out and you have still not heard, the chances are that you have a chance, probably small but a chance nonetheless. Olin, by contrast, seems not to have a waitlist or lets them all know upfront.
I don't know who has inside information on Belfer as far as whether all their offers are out or not. I will say, I received a fellowship elsewhere and emailed Belfer ISP to ask if they could tell me my status. Basically I was asking them to confirm I hadn't gotten a fellowship. They wouldn't do this. They said there had been some delays on their end and couldn't tell me more at this point. I got the impression all their slots had NOT been filled yet. That doesnt mean they haven't sent out first round offers but it could mean they also have a second slate of people they aren't rejecting yet until they hear back from the first round. So, no, I don't think it's safe to assume you have definitely been rejected from Belfer at this stage.
I received an Olin post-doc but haven't heard from Mershon, where I also applied. To all the other Olin folks: I wonder if we could somehow share names? I'm still on the fence, and it would be nice to know what the cohort would look like. Is it possible to do this offline?
For those who are looking for revealing information here (good luck), it would probably be a good idea to look at last year's fellowship string. While some of the insights aren't going to carry over--Belfer apparently tightened things up--it does give the sense that this is likely going to drag out.
Any news on Princeton PIIRS International Security or Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdocs? Anyone has received an offer or rejection? Thanks!
Anonymous said... Belfer has made decisions across the board and it is even contacting alternates because some people cannot take it. 2:24 PM, March 05, 2007
Anonymous said... Belfer ISP decisions have not been made. 1:22 PM, March 21, 2007
Hmmmm. Anonymous, you are a slippery one! No more riddles. Source(s)?
Any news on Princeton PIIRS International Security or Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdocs? Anyone has received an offer or rejection? Thanks!
For those who may not have scrolled down, or visited in the first place, the wiki has a fellowship listing. http://wikihost.org/wikis/polsci0607/wiki/start
RE: 8:26 The post-doc I received is from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). It is open to individuals in all fields who wish to do post-doct research in Germany.
I am one of those who has not yet heard from Belfer ISP. Presuming people in a similar situation have been wait-listed, any sense of how many of us are out there?
A line from the CISAC reject letter: "Many leading scholars have thrived without receiving our fellowships and we wish you great success." Signed Lynn Eden
My goodness, what an ego! You mean that failure to receive the blessing of cisac does not necessarily mean failure in life? surely not.
Lynn's a wonderful person. She's just being nice, even if her wording does connote some of the things you object to. Keep in mind that there's never a good way to phrase rejection letters.
To: 12:38. Remember, you still have a future. It's possible to be fulfilled even without CISAC. Hold on! ;)
To: 11:08: Sure, there's no good way, but there are certainly better ones. The "many leading scholars..." ought to read "the vast majority leading scholars have not had a CISAC fellowhip." Which would make the same point, be more accurate, and avoid the condescension and solipsism.
To 1:49 from 12:28... Thank you very much for the kind words. Sometimes one wonders what they are looking for - after my years at SAIS, Oxford, and Harvard I obviously still was not the one... Will keep tryin' though... Dum spiro spero...
I guess those of us at trying-to-be-prestigous R1 really don't stand a chance.
It is strange, the decisions on most of these postdocs have been out for a month, but I still haven't even received the rejection letters from Yale (Conflict, Order, Violence), Olin, or CISAC. Someone else got a rejection letter from Yale weeks ago... I am feeling really small (and rather poor from lack of funding) right now!
Hi, I'm new to this discussion and the whole PhD thing and don't know what the acronyms stand for or where to find out what type of pre- (and eventually post-) doc opportunities are out there. The link someone posted to fellowship info took me to the job positions wiki. Help? Anyone? Is there some sort of agregator for this type of fellowship info? Thanks!!
Assuming that previous postings are accurate, and Olin has made offers and doesn't have a second round, what possible reason is there (other than indifference) that it takes that long to mail out rejections?
Running a mail merge should take an hour, signing the letters, and postage, about that much. It's been a month since the first offers went out. Why leave people who have invested a significant amount of time preparing applications waiting weeks unnecessarily? There's no excuse.
I have to confess, rejection letters would be wonderful at this point. Adjunct positions are filling up, and it would be nice to be able to close the book on the jobs and postdocs for the year. Out of 6 job and 5 postdoc applications, I have only received 3 rejection letters so far. I actually like receiving the rejection letters, particularly when I am already 99% sure the jobs are filled after reading the various wiki and rumor mill postings.
Has anyone checking this rumor mill applied to the Colgate postdoc? They supposedly started reviewing applications today, which is rather late. If anyone hears anything from them, I would be eternally grateful for a posting.
Whew, impressive! Congrats to your many offers. I am a Ph.D. student, and wonder how you obtained such an attractive professional profile. Based on your experience, what is the "magic bullet"? Do you have more than 2 peer-reviewed articles, a doctoral thesis on a "sexy" topic (such as terrorism and homeland security), and an affiliation to a top US university? I fall short on the latter points, but I am seeking for ways to improve... Many thanks.
To 5:29: I don't think that 7:35 was implying that a lack of rejection letters equated to acceptance. An honest mistake for someone who hasn't been on the market: an unreasonable percentage of schools simply don't send out rejections or do so at such a late date as to be useless. Ergo IR Rumor Mill. And, you can have all of those things, peer pubs, sexy topic (but I am not sure that homeland security would qualify), and have a 60 inch vertical leap, there is no magic bullet. It comes down to prestige networks, methodology, publications (if you have less of the first two), work quality, and best fit... in no particular order.
Um...to 5:29...I think you read my post wrong. Sorry! I was adding to the complaints about the slowness of programs in sending out rejection letters - I have only received 3 out of a possible 11 letters. I did not get any of the jobs or postdocs I applied for and I have read rumors that all the searches are complete. Nonetheless I have a hard time accepting adjunct teaching gigs until I have received the confirmation provided by a rejection letter, and time is running out to find funding for next year. Hence the complaint...
Oh, I am very sorry for misunderstanding your email... English is not my mother tongue (obviously;-) - I apologize for the overly optimistic mis-reading... My pre-doc fellowship applications were all rejected, so I have to grab my savings and use them up until I am finished with my dissertation... I also guess it's unlikely that prestigious US universities fund students based at European universities, like me... Good luck to you though, and I hope you find additional funding (beyond your adjunct teaching). Many thanx also to 8.01 AM - good to know!
re Olin applications: I emailed the administrator and received a reply in less than five minutes. It seems the decisions are made but there has been a delay in sending out notifications. Given that their website says that they would reach a decision by mid-March, for anyone waiting to hear it may not be a bad idea to just email and get a direct reply almost instantly.
To: 8:23. Thanks, that's good practical advice. Those who read this blog should know by now that they haven't gotten it. I don't believe that this year is any different than last year (see last year's string). The delay isn't extraordinary, it's habitual. And that's the point, it shouldn't be necessary to e-mail them. They could easily e-mail a list without prompting. That's the decent thing to do.
Has anyone heard whether decisions have been made for the Peace Scholar Fellowship (US Institute for Peace) or the Miller Center Fellowship (U of Virginia)?
CISAC, Mershon, and Belfer offers are definitely out. I know scholars in my department (Berkeley) that have accepted fellowships at these places for next year.
Has anyone got an offer from Yale's Order, Conflict and Violence Post-doc? I know rejections have been out for sometime, but I have not gotten one and am wondering whether they have some kind of a wait list
Re: Belfer - at least as far as the ISP fellowships, all offers are out and were accepted (source - admin person at Belfer). At least one Mershon offer has been turned down (by a friend of mine) so if you're on the waitlist there is hope At least one CISAC was turned down (also by a friend of mine) so same as above TAPIR should be coming out next week - they just made decisions on Friday (source - I talked to the admin person there)
I called USIP about two weeks ago to try to get some kind of an answer about my status. I was transfered to someone's voice mail, so I left a message, asking for someone to call me back to let me know whether any decisions had been made regarding my application. I never received a reply to my message.
Does anyone know what happened with the JR Vincent Post-doctoral Fellowship in International Relations at Oxford (in association with Magdalen College)? Did they make an offer?
just a suggestion for the IR Rumor Mill folks to consider - perhaps we should put the newbie's post (8:24, July 19) in the Jobs rumor thread as well b/c some more people are likely to see it there. just a thought.
The rank of the university where you got your PhD is important, but not determinitive, in obtaining a prestigious post-doc. The connectedness of your advisor/committee members--and their willingngess to advocate for you--are both very important both on the post-doc and job market. Other factors include the qualiy of your prosal (including the "sexiness" of both the topic and/or the research design) and the quality of your letters of recommendation. I would say that a prestigious post-doc boosts any candidate's record, whether s/he comes from a Top 10 program or not. What is unclear is whether hires from "not-so-high-ranking" institutions can obtain tenure at highly ranking universities, even if they are etremely competent scholars. However, everyone has a tough time getting tenure at such places.
My post-doc strategy suggestions: begin writing and honing your proposal early. Consult your advisor about ways to frame/sell your proposal. Focus on the distinctive features of your project and how they would fit into the post-doc institution's mission. Make sure all of your faculty references are up for writing solid letters. And if one of your committee members or faculty acquaintances knows a member of the selection committee, ask them to introduce you or to call on your behalf. Then seek funding from alternative sources as well (i.e. private foundations; there are plenty out there, and they have a prestige of their own). Of course, others may feel free to disagree with all of my assessments. Good luck!
my understanding is that most US schools wont really look at hiring people trained outside north america. does this apply to postdocs too?
as someone finishing a phd from a top IR dept outside of north america, and with a couple of peer reviewed publications, but lacking a really strong grounding in social scientific methodologies, would i have a shot at landing a postdoc in the US? or would it just make more sense to focus my energies elsewhere?
Re 3:33, Belfer at least typically has a number of fellows from overseas (and is generally the best, if still highly uncertain, bet, given the higher number of slots), and at least this last year Olin had several. It helps to be engaged in the American poli sci debate as it is understood by people there -- interpretivists will have more trouble than traditional realists, for example -- and to be doing policy-relevant work. If by "social scientific methodologies" you mean quantitative skills (as many in the US do), that's certainly not a problem. On the other hand, if you're not engaged in traditional social science (empirical question -> theory -> empirical tests), that will be a bigger issue. In general, you can get a sense of how open different places are to different kinds of work from the bios of current and former fellows.
It is worth noting, however, that my impression is that at places that offer both pre-docs and post-docs, the latter tend to be somewhat harder to come by (since the post-docs cost the institution more). That said, the amount of effort involved in applying isn't tremendous, and the payoffs in having a free year to research in an environment with a lot of smart people around you is significant, so I see no reason not to apply.
How does one find out about post-doc opportunities?
There are the big names like Belfer and Olin, and the big institutional grants like USIP, etc., but I also know of people who have gotten great gigs at Williams, Dartmouth, and elsewhere. You teach a little bit but mostly you get to do your own work, not on a tenure clock. It seems like a good deal but I always hear about them out of the blue.
Is there any way to learn about these besides looking school by school?
Also, is there something wrong with taking a year or two to do post-docs? It seems like there are a lot of advantages to it, but if you do them, do people assume it's because you couldn't get hired? Does it wind up hurting you on the market later? Does it impact tenure prospects positively or negatively?
How does one find out about post-doc opportunities?
There are the big names like Belfer and Olin, and the big institutional grants like USIP, etc., but I also know of people who have gotten great gigs at Williams, Dartmouth, and elsewhere. You teach a little bit but mostly you get to do your own work, not on a tenure clock. It seems like a good deal but I always hear about them out of the blue.
Is there any way to learn about these besides looking school by school?
Also, is there something wrong with taking a year or two to do post-docs? It seems like there are a lot of advantages to it, but if you do them, do people assume it's because you couldn't get hired? Does it wind up hurting you on the market later? Does it impact tenure prospects positively or negatively?
Taking a year or two for postdocs is a great opportunity. At best, a postdoc allows you to publish, network, and mature as a scholar and teacher. At worst, a prestigious postdoc signals that you are considered a hot commodity by the sponsoring program. All of these conditions can only help a department looking to fill a junior slot.
As for whether it signals that you couldn't get a job....actually, it's common for new hires to take a leave during their first years of tenure-track positions because they received postdocs after they accepted their job offers. This is common and is something to negotiate about when a job offer comes. For instance, when you receive a job offer, if you have outstanding postdoc applications, you can let the committee chair know that you would like to accept a postdoc for a year if you receive a postdoc offer. Not all programs will respond the same way to such a request, but again, it's usually negotiable.
On tenure prospects: depends on the program. While interviewing on the job market, ask the hiring committee whether publications produced during a postdoctoral fellowship will count toward tenure. This will vary. Once you get a job, however, you should immediately revise your forthcoming publications (if possible) to reflect your new affiliation. This will satisfy the promotion and tenure committee regardless of where you were when you wrote the piece.
165 comments:
Anyone? Bueller?
Harvard Academy calls have been made. Interviews are next week.
I would love to know people's thoughts on two related questions:
1) What's the 'prestige ranking' of the various pre-docs and what explains that ranking (which will presumably vary across people)?
2) What's the difference among the better-known pre-docs (Belfer, Olin, CISAC)?
This is not intended to start a flame war; I'm simply a mid-program student trying to get the lay of the land. Thanks for any thoughts.
To 7:04: As a mid-program grad I might have asked the same question, but it's really not the right question to ask. Traditionally Olin has been considered somewhat more prestigious than Belfer if for no other reason than Olin's decision cycle was earlier, so it got its pick of the pre-/post-docs. But I haven't noticed any significant difference in placement among Belfer, CISAC, and Olin fellows. And for that matter, the hottest IR candidate last year was a Brookings fellow. Any of these or others (such as CDDRL) look good on the CV, so prestige isn't really the issue. You probably won't get to pick and choose between fellowships because awards (at least in the past) are announced at different times (weeks/months apart). But if you could, the questions to ask are (i) with whom do I want to work (eg, Rosen at Olin or Miller, Lynn-Jones, and Walt at Belfer) and (ii) do I want to work at a smaller, more intimate, more coherent program (eg, Olin), or a larger one (eg, Belfer). I'll leave it to others to discuss CISAC. In any case, if you get one of these as a pre-doc, you have every chance of getting another one at one of the other programs in the subsequent year.
Very helpful, thank you 7:51.
Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on CISAC...
What about OSU versus Nuffield versus other "non-top" (i.e., non-Stanford / Harvard) post-docs?
Is there any truth to the rumor that Olin is running out of money and that they may not be offering fellowships in the near future?
I believe this coming year (as in, people currently applying) will be Olin's last.
Here's a new postdoc program, Tapir, or Trans-Atlantic Postdoc in International Relations. It's an excellent program, more geared to think tank and policy than to academia. It offers two years at three renowned think tanks with at least one station in Europe. It's announced on SWP's and Carnegie's websites:
www.swp-berlin.org
www.carnegieendowment.org
On Olin (the Foundation):
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/politics/20OLIN.html?ex=1166158800&en=8eb2754120157bbc&ei=5070
my understanding is that steve rosen at olin sorted out alternative sources of funding. it may be that this fell through but up until recently it seemed clear that olin would continue under a different name. if your information is only an inference from the fact that the olin foundation has wound up then you are likely wrong.
No inference, just information.
i am arriving late in the process--defending this spring and looking now for an i.r. postdoc (i do ethics and war) is there a list of all/most of the relevant postdocs in one spot?? i have no idea where to start, and it's christmas so there is nobody available at my uni. i see from the thread belfer, olin, cisac, brookings, is rand still a possibility? could you please direct me to a comprehensive list or just scribble a list down for me? many many many thanks for your help...
ohio state (mershon), notre dame, usc; perhaps brown, penn, duke, dartmouth (they have had some in the past, although most of these latter four all involve teaching obligations). I believe the deadline for belfer already passed, but you can try to submit late.
RAND doesn't offer postdocs itself, but it does participate in a consortium that sponsors the Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellowship for International Relations and Security. Information about that postdoc is available at http://www.rand.org/about/edu_op/
fellowships/transatlantic/.
Does Princeton offer any IR related post-docs? Are there teaching obligations?
I have one more year of guaranteed funding and am halfway through writing the dissertation. Many of the pre/postdocs accept partially funded fellows. Any sense of how much better ones chances of getting a predoc fellowship are when applying with partial/full funding, as opposed to applying for the postdoc without external money?
Has anyone heard anything from the EUI about the Max Weber post-docs?
Anyone know when Belfer plans to decide on applicants?
Belfer will decide in March.
the EUI has made offers for some postdocs - whether they have more than one kind I have no idea...
Regarding when decisions about postdocs are announced: first, does anyone know when cisac, olin and mershon will announce? Second, assuming that the others will announce in March why did Belfer want applications a month earlier?
princeton cgg should announce soon.
olin is traditionally in mid march
cisac is shortly thereafter.
belfer has been very late in recent years; one assumes that is why they brought their deadline forward.
no idea on mershon
Belfer has already decided and should be informing people shortly.
How has Belfer informed recipients in the past (email; snail mail; telephone)?
Has anyone received a response yet?
e-mail.
When is "shortly"? Have recipients already been notified?
Does anyone have any insight on the type of candidate Belfer typically looks for? For example, is policy/government experience valued?
I haven't heard of anyone receiving notification yet, but that may just mean that I am not a recipient and not that notifications haven't been sent! Still, it would be helpful if people report offers as they come.
Belfer has definitely sent acceptances for intrastate conflict, but they often stagger -- the "generic" ISP fellowships came out later than the intrastate conflict fellowships last year, at least.
For the person interested in what kind of people Belfer selects, I recommend looking at the bios of the previous recipients of Belfer fellowships. I think they tend to be more policy-oriented than Olin for example. They often have a strong regional focus.
Remember, Belfer has different programs so you may want to apply to multiple programs as you could be partly funded by International Security and partly by one of the other programs. There are a fair few international fellows at Belfer, a number of them with some specific international experience. I think a number of Belfer people I would describe as having quite specific regional or country expertise.
Any more news on Belfer acceptances?
I don't know about Belfer, but Olin decisions are starting to come out.
Has anybody actually received an offer from either Belfer (ISP) or Olin?
What about Belfer/MTA?
Yes, I have received an offer from Olin, and I know of one other person who has as well.
Olin - is it for pre-doc or post- doc?
I have also been notified today that I have received an Olin pre-doc.
The 3 Olins I know of are pre-doctoral
Congratulations to the Olin recipients! Is there any reason to think that the pre- and post- are decided separately?
Belfer has made decisions across the board and it is even contacting alternates because some people cannot take it.
If we haven't heard from Belfer at this stage, is it safe to assume that we won't be receiving an offer?
no, belfer in the past has simply not contacted those on the waitlist. sometimes, it could be over a month before they get clarification on acceptances. If rejections go out and you have still not heard, the chances are that you have a chance, probably small but a chance nonetheless. Olin, by contrast, seems not to have a waitlist or lets them all know upfront.
I don't know who has inside information on Belfer as far as whether all their offers are out or not. I will say, I received a fellowship elsewhere and emailed Belfer ISP to ask if they could tell me my status. Basically I was asking them to confirm I hadn't gotten a fellowship. They wouldn't do this. They said there had been some delays on their end and couldn't tell me more at this point. I got the impression all their slots had NOT been filled yet. That doesnt mean they haven't sent out first round offers but it could mean they also have a second slate of people they aren't rejecting yet until they hear back from the first round. So, no, I don't think it's safe to assume you have definitely been rejected from Belfer at this stage.
Just for clarification, has anyone received a formal rejection from Belfer or Olin? I haven't heard anything from either.
Has anyone actually received a Belfer ISP offer?
I received an Olin post-doc but haven't heard from Mershon, where I also applied. To all the other Olin folks: I wonder if we could somehow share names? I'm still on the fence, and it would be nice to know what the cohort would look like. Is it possible to do this offline?
FWIW, we have NO problem publishing the names of people who have received post-doc and pre-doc offers :-).
Any news on the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Post-Doc fellowship? Does anyone get the notification?
Olin recipients: How did you receive the notification (via regular mail or Email)? Thanks.
last year olin notified by phone call. Belfer notified by email. If you get a letter in the mail it means you didn't get it.
Has anyone heard from Mershon?
So, we've established that Olin doesn't have a wait list, or that it lets people know right off that they are on one?
Alex Weisinger and Mike Glosny from Belfer are moving over to Olin for next year.
For those who are looking for revealing information here (good luck), it would probably be a good idea to look at last year's fellowship string. While some of the insights aren't going to carry over--Belfer apparently tightened things up--it does give the sense that this is likely going to drag out.
OK. So, the Olin offers are clearly out. Has anyone actually received a Belfer ISP offer yet?
Rejections for Stanford's CDDRL pre and post docs are out.
Rejections for Stanford's EAS post-doctoral
fellowship in Chinese studies are out.
Any news on Princeton PIIRS International Security or Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdocs? Anyone has received an offer or rejection? Thanks!
CISAC made offers last week.
Re 8:47:
Out of curiosity, what is your source?
Harvard An Wang Postdocs may be out.
Source: Rejection letter received today.
From the Minnesota Poli Sci web-site:
Songying Fang: Princeton Fellowship
Congratulations to Songying Fang for receiving a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Princeton.
March 6th, 2007
http://www.polisci.umn.edu/index.php?entry=70089
Not sure which, doesn't specify.
Has anyone received an acceptance or rejection from Belfer's ISP program?
Has anyone received an acceptance or rejection from Mershon?
Nothing from Mershon. But if you look at last year's string, it may be a while.
Haven't heard one way or the other from Belfer.
Re: 8:47
I know someone who got a letter from CISAC saying that he or she is an "alternate."
Belfer ISP decisions have not been made.
Anonymous said...
Belfer has made decisions across the board and it is even contacting alternates because some people cannot take it.
2:24 PM, March 05, 2007
Anonymous said...
Belfer ISP decisions have not been made.
1:22 PM, March 21, 2007
Hmmmm. Anonymous, you are a slippery one! No more riddles. Source(s)?
I am a current fellow in Belfer and I can tell you that if the decisions were made they are not out yet.
Any news on Princeton PIIRS International Security or Princeton-Harvard China and the World Postdocs? Anyone has received an offer or rejection? Thanks!
Still no information?
Any further news on CISAC? If people on the "wait list" have in fact been notified then presumably recipients have been notified as well?
I received a rejection from Belfer's ISP program after contacting them because I had a pending offer from another program.
re: 5:33 Condolences (Belfer) and Congratulations (unspecified other program). Is it one the community might like to know about?
For those who may not have scrolled down, or visited in the first place, the wiki has a fellowship listing.
http://wikihost.org/wikis/polsci0607/wiki/start
The word is Andy Kennedy (current Olin pre-doc) has an offer from China and the World fellowship...
RE: 8:26 The post-doc I received is from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). It is open to individuals in all fields who wish to do post-doct research in Germany.
Brookings' Foreign Policy Studies Program has extended offers.
Received a Yale (Order, Conflict, Violence) rejection letter.
Regarding CISAC: are rejections AND offers out yet? I have received neither so far... Or do they send an email?
At least some Belfer ISP offers are out (source: a candidate who received one)
Regarding the Belfer offer, is it only with ISP or a joint fellowship with another program? And congrats on the offer!
I have received a rejection letter from Brookings FPS.
re 1132h:
CISAC will send out notifications via snail-mail this week.
I just received an MTA rejection.
Sorry about the rejection from MTA. How did they notify you?
MTA?
MTA means "Managing the Atom"- a program within Harvard's Belfer Center
Anyone hear from, have news on, the Princeton Project on International Security? They had it wrapped up by this time last year.
Any more on Belfer ISP?
Regarding CISAC information from 2:35 PM, March 28, 2007 - What is your source?
Belfer ISP rejections out via email
If we haven't heard from MTA/ISP at this point, does that mean we are on a wait list?
To 6:05.
You are most likely on a wait list.
I have been on one in the near past until mid May... but then got the fellowship. So good luck!
Anyone get a rejection (or acceptance) from Princeton PIIRS International Security? If so, how?
I am one of those who has not yet heard from Belfer ISP. Presuming people in a similar situation have been wait-listed, any sense of how many of us are out there?
Re 8:29:
I'm in a similar situation. Not sure how many others are. But I agree that it would be useful to know.
A line from the CISAC reject letter: "Many leading scholars have thrived without receiving our fellowships and we wish you great success." Signed Lynn Eden
My goodness, what an ego! You mean that failure to receive the blessing of cisac does not necessarily mean failure in life? surely not.
Lynn's a wonderful person. She's just being nice, even if her wording does connote some of the things you object to. Keep in mind that there's never a good way to phrase rejection letters.
Did CISAC notifications come through e-mail or snail-mail?
Sadly, I also got a rejection from CISAC (snail-mail). Very sad.
To: 12:38. Remember, you still have a future. It's possible to be fulfilled even without CISAC. Hold on! ;)
To: 11:08: Sure, there's no good way, but there are certainly better ones. The "many leading scholars..." ought to read "the vast majority leading scholars have not had a CISAC fellowhip." Which would make the same point, be more accurate, and avoid the condescension and solipsism.
To 1:49 from 12:28... Thank you very much for the kind words. Sometimes one wonders what they are looking for - after my years at SAIS, Oxford, and Harvard I obviously still was not the one... Will keep tryin' though... Dum spiro spero...
"after my years at SAIS, Oxford, and Harvard..."
*choke*
I guess those of us at trying-to-be-prestigous R1 really don't stand a chance.
It is strange, the decisions on most of these postdocs have been out for a month, but I still haven't even received the rejection letters from Yale (Conflict, Order, Violence), Olin, or CISAC. Someone else got a rejection letter from Yale weeks ago... I am feeling really small (and rather poor from lack of funding) right now!
A colleague informed me that he/she received an offer from Belfer this week. I think it was a joint fellowship with two of their programs.
The Oxford, Harvard, Blah blah thing is just proof that having all the connections in the world won't help if you're not what they're after.
CISAC took on someone this year from a far less well-known program (Maryland), because his work was stellar.
Big ups to CISAC, I say.
I am wondering why the wiki fellowship list is so sparse. Confirmed offers can be listed there with little harm. Have at it.
http://wikihost.org/wikis/
polsci0607/wiki/start
Did anybody hear from global economy and development program of BRF (Brookings Research Fellowship)?
Hi, I'm new to this discussion and the whole PhD thing and don't know what the acronyms stand for or where to find out what type of pre- (and eventually post-) doc opportunities are out there. The link someone posted to fellowship info took me to the job positions wiki. Help? Anyone? Is there some sort of agregator for this type of fellowship info? Thanks!!
Assuming that previous postings are accurate, and Olin has made offers and doesn't have a second round, what possible reason is there (other than indifference) that it takes that long to mail out rejections?
Running a mail merge should take an hour, signing the letters, and postage, about that much. It's been a month since the first offers went out. Why leave people who have invested a significant amount of time preparing applications waiting weeks unnecessarily? There's no excuse.
Re: 10:48 Olin Rejection Letter
Cannot agree more! Feel so unfair and disappointed...
I have to confess, rejection letters would be wonderful at this point. Adjunct positions are filling up, and it would be nice to be able to close the book on the jobs and postdocs for the year. Out of 6 job and 5 postdoc applications, I have only received 3 rejection letters so far. I actually like receiving the rejection letters, particularly when I am already 99% sure the jobs are filled after reading the various wiki and rumor mill postings.
Has anyone checking this rumor mill applied to the Colgate postdoc? They supposedly started reviewing applications today, which is rather late. If anyone hears anything from them, I would be eternally grateful for a posting.
to 7.35 pm:
Whew, impressive! Congrats to your many offers. I am a Ph.D. student, and wonder how you obtained such an attractive professional profile. Based on your experience, what is the "magic bullet"? Do you have more than 2 peer-reviewed articles, a doctoral thesis on a "sexy" topic (such as terrorism and homeland security), and an affiliation to a top US university? I fall short on the latter points, but I am seeking for ways to improve... Many thanks.
To 5:29: I don't think that 7:35 was implying that a lack of rejection letters equated to acceptance. An honest mistake for someone who hasn't been on the market: an unreasonable percentage of schools simply don't send out rejections or do so at such a late date as to be useless. Ergo IR Rumor Mill. And, you can have all of those things, peer pubs, sexy topic (but I am not sure that homeland security would qualify), and have a 60 inch vertical leap, there is no magic bullet. It comes down to prestige networks, methodology, publications (if you have less of the first two), work quality, and best fit... in no particular order.
Um...to 5:29...I think you read my post wrong. Sorry! I was adding to the complaints about the slowness of programs in sending out rejection letters - I have only received 3 out of a possible 11 letters. I did not get any of the jobs or postdocs I applied for and I have read rumors that all the searches are complete. Nonetheless I have a hard time accepting adjunct teaching gigs until I have received the confirmation provided by a rejection letter, and time is running out to find funding for next year. Hence the complaint...
Oh, I am very sorry for misunderstanding your email... English is not my mother tongue (obviously;-) - I apologize for the overly optimistic mis-reading... My pre-doc fellowship applications were all rejected, so I have to grab my savings and use them up until I am finished with my dissertation... I also guess it's unlikely that prestigious US universities fund students based at European universities, like me... Good luck to you though, and I hope you find additional funding (beyond your adjunct teaching).
Many thanx also to 8.01 AM - good to know!
re Olin applications: I emailed the administrator and received a reply in less than five minutes. It seems the decisions are made but there has been a delay in sending out notifications. Given that their website says that they would reach a decision by mid-March, for anyone waiting to hear it may not be a bad idea to just email and get a direct reply almost instantly.
To: 8:23. Thanks, that's good practical advice. Those who read this blog should know by now that they haven't gotten it. I don't believe that this year is any different than last year (see last year's string). The delay isn't extraordinary, it's habitual. And that's the point, it shouldn't be necessary to e-mail them. They could easily e-mail a list without prompting. That's the decent thing to do.
Olin Rejection letter is received today (snail mail). Sad...
I also received an Olin rejection letter in the mail today.
Wondering if CISAC sent out pre- and post- letters separately since I still haven't received a postdoc CISAC rejection letter.
Just received CISAC postdoc rejection letter today, and the Yale (Order, Conflict, Violence) rejection letter.
Tis the season!
Has anyone heard whether decisions have been made for the Peace Scholar Fellowship (US Institute for Peace) or the Miller Center Fellowship (U of Virginia)?
When I applied for USIP Peace Scholar Fellowship several years ago the offers were very late - either late May or early June if I remember correctly.
Mershon postdoc offers out (first round at least). Via email. (I saw it with my own eyes.)
To 11:36, Does this mean you received a Mershon fellowship?
Does anyone have an update for those of us still waiting to hear from Belfer?
CISAC, Mershon, and Belfer offers are definitely out. I know scholars in my department (Berkeley) that have accepted fellowships at these places for next year.
china and world offers are out and rumor is the recipients have until this week to accept.
Re: China and the World Post Doc.
Based on what I heard, China and the World postdoc offers have been out for a month. Could you clarify your information a little bit? Any source?
Has anyone heard about the TAPIR fellowships?
Has anyone got an offer from Yale's Order, Conflict and Violence Post-doc? I know rejections have been out for sometime, but I have not gotten one and am wondering whether they have some kind of a wait list
Matt Kroenig and Jonathan Monten going to Belfer. Zach Zwald going to Mershon.
Was there an Yale Olin post-doc this year?
Re 4:56 - I believe it was discontinued but not sure. Anyone else?
TAPIR hasn't been discontinued. They will be announced this week, as far as I know.
7:10 - you misunderstood. The discontinuing did not refer to TAPIR.
Any idea when Belfer's final rejections will be announced? Based on previous postings there are a handful of us on the wait-list.
Any further news on China and the World postdocs? When will they send out rejection letters?
Any news on Belfer? any new/recent invitations off of the wait list in case there really is one?
Re: Belfer - at least as far as the ISP fellowships, all offers are out and were accepted (source - admin person at Belfer).
At least one Mershon offer has been turned down (by a friend of mine) so if you're on the waitlist there is hope
At least one CISAC was turned down (also by a friend of mine) so same as above
TAPIR should be coming out next week - they just made decisions on Friday (source - I talked to the admin person there)
Same goes for Belfer Intra-state - all of those offers went out, and the deadline to accept was ages ago (source: administrator)
Any news on the John Tower Center postdoc?
Some TAPIR offers are out... and if Belfer offers are all out, why have some people still not received final notice?
All of the TAPIR offers are out and have been accepted.
Has anyone heard anything about the Peace Scholar Fellowship (US Peace Institute)?
USIP will not notify applicants for at least several weeks.
2:17: you sound confident re USIP timing, what's your source or are you within USIP or their selection committee?
Has anyone heard anything lately about USIP or other fellowships?
I called USIP about two weeks ago to try to get some kind of an answer about my status. I was transfered to someone's voice mail, so I left a message, asking for someone to call me back to let me know whether any decisions had been made regarding my application. I never received a reply to my message.
USIP: Last year, I got a rejection letter (by email) on June 19. They seem to decide very late.
Does whoever posted the 2:17 on May 7 have anything new to report re USIP?
USIP made offers - source received an offer
USIP rejection received today by email
Does anyone know what happened with the JR Vincent Post-doctoral Fellowship in International Relations at Oxford (in association with Magdalen College)?
Did they make an offer?
Any other reports on USIP? No rejection or acceptance to report here, almost a month after the last two posts about it.
Questions from a newbie...
How important is the ranking of your PhD-granting institution in terms of getting a really good post-doc?
How much does it all depend on your connections/ who your supervisor knows?
Does a really prestigious post-doc "cancel out" a not-so high-ranking PhD when it comes to the job market?
just a suggestion for the IR Rumor Mill folks to consider - perhaps we should put the newbie's post (8:24, July 19) in the Jobs rumor thread as well b/c some more people are likely to see it there. just a thought.
Dear newbie,
The rank of the university where you got your PhD is important, but not determinitive, in obtaining a prestigious post-doc. The connectedness of your advisor/committee members--and their willingngess to advocate for you--are both very important both on the post-doc and job market. Other factors include the qualiy of your prosal (including the "sexiness" of both the topic and/or the research design) and the quality of your letters of recommendation. I would say that a prestigious post-doc boosts any candidate's record, whether s/he comes from a Top 10 program or not. What is unclear is whether hires from "not-so-high-ranking" institutions can obtain tenure at highly ranking universities, even if they are etremely competent scholars. However, everyone has a tough time getting tenure at such places.
My post-doc strategy suggestions: begin writing and honing your proposal early. Consult your advisor about ways to frame/sell your proposal. Focus on the distinctive features of your project and how they would fit into the post-doc institution's mission. Make sure all of your faculty references are up for writing solid letters. And if one of your committee members or faculty acquaintances knows a member of the selection committee, ask them to introduce you or to call on your behalf. Then seek funding from alternative sources as well (i.e. private foundations; there are plenty out there, and they have a prestige of their own). Of course, others may feel free to disagree with all of my assessments. Good luck!
my understanding is that most US schools wont really look at hiring people trained outside north america. does this apply to postdocs too?
as someone finishing a phd from a top IR dept outside of north america, and with a couple of peer reviewed publications, but lacking a really strong grounding in social scientific methodologies, would i have a shot at landing a postdoc in the US? or would it just make more sense to focus my energies elsewhere?
cheers
Re 3:33, Belfer at least typically has a number of fellows from overseas (and is generally the best, if still highly uncertain, bet, given the higher number of slots), and at least this last year Olin had several. It helps to be engaged in the American poli sci debate as it is understood by people there -- interpretivists will have more trouble than traditional realists, for example -- and to be doing policy-relevant work. If by "social scientific methodologies" you mean quantitative skills (as many in the US do), that's certainly not a problem. On the other hand, if you're not engaged in traditional social science (empirical question -> theory -> empirical tests), that will be a bigger issue. In general, you can get a sense of how open different places are to different kinds of work from the bios of current and former fellows.
It is worth noting, however, that my impression is that at places that offer both pre-docs and post-docs, the latter tend to be somewhat harder to come by (since the post-docs cost the institution more). That said, the amount of effort involved in applying isn't tremendous, and the payoffs in having a free year to research in an environment with a lot of smart people around you is significant, so I see no reason not to apply.
How does one find out about post-doc opportunities?
There are the big names like Belfer and Olin, and the big institutional grants like USIP, etc., but I also know of people who have gotten great gigs at Williams, Dartmouth, and elsewhere. You teach a little bit but mostly you get to do your own work, not on a tenure clock. It seems like a good deal but I always hear about them out of the blue.
Is there any way to learn about these besides looking school by school?
Also, is there something wrong with taking a year or two to do post-docs? It seems like there are a lot of advantages to it, but if you do them, do people assume it's because you couldn't get hired? Does it wind up hurting you on the market later? Does it impact tenure prospects positively or negatively?
How does one find out about post-doc opportunities?
There are the big names like Belfer and Olin, and the big institutional grants like USIP, etc., but I also know of people who have gotten great gigs at Williams, Dartmouth, and elsewhere. You teach a little bit but mostly you get to do your own work, not on a tenure clock. It seems like a good deal but I always hear about them out of the blue.
Is there any way to learn about these besides looking school by school?
Also, is there something wrong with taking a year or two to do post-docs? It seems like there are a lot of advantages to it, but if you do them, do people assume it's because you couldn't get hired? Does it wind up hurting you on the market later? Does it impact tenure prospects positively or negatively?
To 1:59...
Taking a year or two for postdocs is a great opportunity. At best, a postdoc allows you to publish, network, and mature as a scholar and teacher. At worst, a prestigious postdoc signals that you are considered a hot commodity by the sponsoring program. All of these conditions can only help a department looking to fill a junior slot.
As for whether it signals that you couldn't get a job....actually, it's common for new hires to take a leave during their first years of tenure-track positions because they received postdocs after they accepted their job offers. This is common and is something to negotiate about when a job offer comes. For instance, when you receive a job offer, if you have outstanding postdoc applications, you can let the committee chair know that you would like to accept a postdoc for a year if you receive a postdoc offer. Not all programs will respond the same way to such a request, but again, it's usually negotiable.
On tenure prospects: depends on the program. While interviewing on the job market, ask the hiring committee whether publications produced during a postdoctoral fellowship will count toward tenure. This will vary. Once you get a job, however, you should immediately revise your forthcoming publications (if possible) to reflect your new affiliation. This will satisfy the promotion and tenure committee regardless of where you were when you wrote the piece.
to 3:40 from 3:33.
thanks for the thoughts. much appreciated.
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