AgumonIsAPokemon

Been through this application cycle three times (2017, 2018, 2019). This is my fourth time and hopefully the last time. One piece of advice I could give is: keep yourself occupied. The daily routine (possibly hourly) of refreshing my email/gradcafe never felt invigorating, at least for me. It mostly consisted of anxiety. During my previous three attempts, which were all unsuccessful (got into a masters course in 2017 though), the waiting game never did any good to me. I only applied to approx 4 schools each cycle but waiting is still waiting. Luckily, having applied to 11 schools this year, I have been pretty busy with work during the day. Hence, pretty successful in distancing myself from the waiting game (also, I currently live in East Asia so the time zone difference does help me). I do still check gradcafe say about 2 to 3 times a day, but keeping myself occupied with other things does alleviate the anxiety caused from the application process. When I am not working, I would go read a book, watch a movie, or improve on my cooking skills (still a terrible chef, but I am trying!). The waiting game will inevitably be somewhat stressful but do stay healthy folks. ?

FYI, this is from Cornell's website: "The Graduate Admissions Committee typically reaches its decision by making two passes through the pool of applicants. In the first pass, the committee rates all applicants on the basis of GRE scores, TOEFL scores, grades, and other “objective” measures of accomplishments. This yields a long list of 60-80 applicants. In the second pass, the committee’s focus shifts to a careful and holistic assessment of writing samples, statements of purpose, and letters of recommendation. Finalists are chosen based the committee’s assessment of their potential for engaging in systematic and rigorous sociological research in one of the areas represented in the Field. Occasionally, the committee will interview applicants via Skype or telephone prior to extending an offer of admission." My guess is that they had created the long list. So yes, it is probably a "good sign if we haven't heard anything." But expect 60+ rejections as they will start narrowing down the long list to an admissions list.

Applied to three schools. And got the AQR offer from NYU (rejected by the other two). If there is anybody out there who also got the AQR offer + considering accepting it, please message me. Would like to discuss about it. Thanks! P.S. I already have a Masters in Sociology (UK); hence, it is a bit complicated.

Hi! My question/concern is relevant to this post, so I'll drop it here. So I majored in Sociology at a liberal arts university/college. Did a fair amount of work on theoretical and qualitative content, but spent almost no time on quantitative methods/statistics. My predicament/problem: I will be moving onto a UK Sociology Masters program, and the program consists of a statistics class. In the future, I would love to do a PhD; hence, I need to attain a high GPA. But I am worried that my lack of experience in statistics will become an obstacle at grad school. Sooo I was wondering if anybody can recommend me a good introductory statistics/quantitative methods textbook/book. There is plenty of time till starting my program so I thought I could use this time to introduce myself to statistics. I will also ask my supervisor from my undergrad institution but I wanted to hear something from the GradCafe community. Thanks!

Considering your end goal, I would pick the school where you would feel more comfortable studying (especially collaborating with your supervisors). A smoother (and less stressful, if that is possible) academic operation would allow you to present more, and write more. Which adds up to your academic profile and enhances your future possibilities. That's what people have told me. Not to say school rankings are trivial; however, the 20 vs 28 matchup does not seem to constitute a major concern (at least for me). I would think about rankings if there is a larger margin (eg. 20 vs 86). Your situation is much more complicated than what I have implied (as you have mentioned: location, cost, social capital, resources, etc). But hopefully I was able to contribute to your question.

Hey! I'm trying to sort out my applications (and my future), so a reply from McGill soon would be great. Hopefully they will send something out next week!

Wondering if anybody heard anything from McGill. I know some received their PhD offers, but any MA applicants? Thanks!

Thank you for the reply surefire! I really appreciate it. I guess if I do get admitted (not only to U of T but in general), I should go through the basics and fundamentals in statistics. Fortunately, I am going to graduate next march (thats how the Japanese system works); hence, I will have about 4-5 months to study till enrollment in September. Your advice gave me a holistic idea on how I should approach my problem (short and long run). Thank you! By the way, would you mind if I PM to ask you about the specifics of the program?

Hi I am an international student majoring in Sociology. Currently a senior and will be graduating next march. So I am planning on moving to graduate school to study Sociology. I have been applying to several UK schools and will be applying for North American schools (USA and Canada) in the next two months. I am indeed worried my application but my biggest concern at the moment might be my quant background. I did somewhat pretty well GPA wise in undergrad (Overall: around 3.85 Sociology:3.9-ish). However, the problem is, I have not taken any statistics nor quantitative courses. I did cover quantitative material in "Approaches to Sociological Research" and "Principles of Sociology" (basically introductory courses) but that is about it. I have not taken any courses which focuses on statistics nor quantitative methods. Looking through graduate schools, most of the program descriptions have something like, "Applicants are also expected to have acquired basic research and statistical skills" (U of Toronto). I am aware that, most likely, I will be required to take an undergraduate statistics course if I do get admitted. But would my inexperience in statistics hurt my admission chances? How much are they expecting? FYI these are the schools I will be applying for: NYU (PhD: top choice), Harvard (PhD), Yale (PhD), Toronto (MA), McGill (MA). Yes, these are difficult programs to get into. But I did receive an offer from a Masters sociology program in the UK; hence, I am testing my luck here. Thanks!

Sorry for the delay! Thank you all so much for the response! It means a lot.

Hi y'all I am an international student from Japan graduating in 2017 March. I am thinking of applying to sociology phd programs in the US, entering in 2017 September. So this is my question. I was just looking at the sociology graduate website of Brown and this sentence came up, "Although a formal background in sociology is not a requirement for admissions, many of our incoming students do enter our program with Masters’ degrees in sociology or other related fields, and certainly a solid background in the social sciences and clear sense of direction is essential for early success." I understood that some universities do require prospective students to have a background in sociology. I have no problem with that as I major in sociology. But as soon as I read "incoming students do enter our program with Master's degrees in sociology...," I kinda freaked out. Do successful applicants in top tier programs/universities often hold a MA in sociology? I know holding a MA would bring along some benefits (publications, TA/RA experience, maybe some work experience) compared to a potential bachelor graduate. But "many of our incoming students"??? I am not focusing on Brown specifically, but how is it like in phd applications in general? Some input would be lovely.

Hi y'all I'm an international undergrad student majoring in sociology. I will be applying for sociology grad programs this fall. My interest falls into something related to crime and punishment (NYU's David Garland heavily influenced me). Not criminology or law studies btw! I haven't really narrowed down my possibilities as I am thinking of the UK, US, and Canada. For now, I am thinking of getting a PhD at some point of my life. Doing some research, I have noticed the US barely has any terminal sociology MA programs. So if I do apply for an American university, I will apply for a PhD program. If I do get admitted, I will go through the PhD program and hopefully get a PhD. My top-tierish schools I'm applying to are Wisconsin, Berkeley, UCLA, Northwestern, NYU, etc (subject to change). On the contrary, Canada and the UK has a lot of terminal masters program. If I do attend a MA program, I was thinking of working 2~3 years after attaining my MA so I can get some insight on my interest outside from of an academic institution/perspective. (I also considered this possibility as I may want to opt out from an academic career after experiencing graduate studies. And I feel like it would be harder to opt out after being admitted into a PhD program as the program is structured for a PhD student, not a MA student). After working for a few years, I think I will reapply for a PhD program. I could apply for a PhD program in both countries (Toronto looks really good) but for some reason I am hesitant about that. So here is my question. Is the latter case (MA→work→PhD) a legitimate life course? What are the pros and cons of both cases? I know this is all relative and context based but some sort of insight would help me out a lot.