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Acceptances/Rejections/Decisions


sociology27

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Okay, i just called the UNC Graduate office and was told that the admissions committee is still reviewing files and decisions won't be out for another month.

??? What is that supposed to mean when people are obviously getting acceptances right now. It seems like from past results, all the acceptances went out late January/first week of February.

Sorry for the negativity. I am just getting really frustrated and annoyed. I didn't give my name when I called because I don't want my name associated with annoying neurotic phone calls but I feel like this process is unneecssarily stressful. Why can't all applicants just be notified at the same time? I have no idea how I am going to make it to next week without going certifiable.

I've heard from some people that what they'll do is go through the few hundred applications and every so often they set aside 1-3 that are "for sure admits". I'm sure those people that are the definite's they are just contacting now. It doesn't mean though that there might be a pile that they're going to look at to pick more people out of.

It could also be that some people applied way before the deadline and just got their applications reviewed first.

The one thing my mentor told me is that graduate admissions are very mercurial. It's hard to compare or even guess what any department wants in any specific year and/or how they go about their routine.

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Out of curiosity, is anyone getting hits on their academia.edu page? I usually get emails when someone is checking out my account. I kind of expected to have a bunch of hits during this time (assuming the committees are searching me on google). But I haven't received any. I'm wondering if anybody else is?

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Out of curiosity, is anyone getting hits on their academia.edu page? I usually get emails when someone is checking out my account. I kind of expected to have a bunch of hits during this time (assuming the committees are searching me on google). But I haven't received any. I'm wondering if anybody else is?

i haven't received many either. but honestly, many of these professors are using academia.edu also, right? so they know we would get notified... if i knew that people on facebook could see i visited their page, i wouldn't visit it... especially if i already had their CV anyway and would probably not get any additional information from the profile. i wouldn't worry about it too much.

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congrats!!!did u apply super early?

No, I actually submitted right at the deadline. I have no idea why UNC is sending out acceptances bit by bit. For anyone who has felt anxious because of it, I'm sorry, and I can totally relate!

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It also seems that from past years, there seems to be a set of students that are "on hold" for a few weeks for whatever reason... they also seem to not get as great of funding as the "4-5 year" packages we are hearing about right now.. its sort of like an unofficial wait list that isn't announced. After reading all of last year's forum, it seemed that no one really got off of official wait lists to get in, but there were students who for some reason heard of admits later than everyone else. Its almost as if the "wait list" is a gentle rejection, where the true wait list is during the month of Feb-March, where people don't hear back immediately and their application is "on hold".. any thoughts? Maybe I'm reading last year's forum posts wrong.. but I was surprised that almost no one got off a "wait list" and that people heard back from schools surprisingly at very different intervals.

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I was the first one. 3.1 undergrad GPA at a large State school, 4.0 MGPA at another large state school (in final semester), 660V, 770Q, 4.5W. Never done one of these before. I'm interested to see how it goes.

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in terms of an "unofficial wait list" i have heard this may exist. a read a post from someone in another thread who said that at their university, the dept sometimes needs more time to look at certain applications and that is why some individuals hear back about acceptances much later. although i don't know anything about the chafes of getting in off the wait list.

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Someone shared a few days ago that they heard the department is phasing out religion students. Religion was one of my main focuses, along with social movements and theory, so I kind of saw this one coming.

Still a bummer nonetheless! Just preparing me for a ton of more denials that I know are surely to follow.

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I've brought this topic up before, but since we have more people reading/participating, I'd like to ask again: Does coming from a non-sociology background with no MA significantly decrease your chances of admissions? I'm coming from Poli Sci and Econ. I've learned a difficult language and definitely have the "stats" for a great program. I also believe I picked really good fits. My LORs are probably so-so, and none of the profs are sociology. So I guess I'm just concerned my lack of sociology background is gonna really hurt me--in both the top top ranked programs, and those in the 30s-50s. Thoughts???? Don't be gentle, I need brutal truth right now.

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I've brought this topic up before, but since we have more people reading/participating, I'd like to ask again: Does coming from a non-sociology background with no MA significantly decrease your chances of admissions? I'm coming from Poli Sci and Econ. I've learned a difficult language and definitely have the "stats" for a great program. I also believe I picked really good fits. My LORs are probably so-so, and none of the profs are sociology. So I guess I'm just concerned my lack of sociology background is gonna really hurt me--in both the top top ranked programs, and those in the 30s-50s. Thoughts???? Don't be gentle, I need brutal truth right now.

I am coming from a non-sociology background (but I did major in a social science). From what I've heard from grad students in sociology and from department web pages, they are pretty open to students from other disciplines, especially other social sciences. You should make it clear, though, why you're making the change. Some even recommended playing up my background and saying how it will contribute to my study of sociology: are there particular methods or insights from your current discipline that could be refreshing or useful to sociology? Just my $0.02.

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In my experience, all departments want to be able to claim interdisciplinary approaches as a key "innovative" thing they do, so I don't think coming from a non-soc background is an automatic black mark. But I do think your SoP should show why/how you plan to approach soc using what you've learned from other fields. The quant skill set is great, but I don't think it's enough if you don't have a clear sociological research goal.

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