Advice on pursuing a Masters in Sociology?

[MimiG]

Hi everyone,

 

I recently graduated with an undergrad degree in Writing, but am giving serious thoughts to pursuing my long-standing interest in Sociology. On top of my undergrad background being completely unrelated, I also do not have an exceptional GPA (3.02), so I feel like I stand at a great disadvantage moving forward. Hence, I'm looking to apply to a few Masters programs as a stepping stone to a potential academic career path and would love to know if you guys think I stand a chance to get into a decent Masters program with my background. As long as it's a reasonably priced program, my parents would be willing to sponsor me. I know a few programs still have not passed their deadlines, so I was wondering if I could get some insight on whether applying this year or the next would be a better option for me. I haven't yet taken the GRE, but plan to do so ASAP. Any advice on how to proceed forward would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance! 

[Darth.Vegan]

Might I suggest applying to some Canadian programs? doing your MA separately in Canada is the standard so most programs offer modest funding. I was offered fully funded offers from both Simon Fraser and Victoria, 2 out of the 3 Canadian programs I applied to. In all honesty, I applied to 5 MA programs and was offered funding to all of them, some offers were extremely generous. My point being, don't assume that you will have to carry the cost, funding for MA's is possible. On another note, most Canadian programs don't need or care about the GRE. You might also want to look into some one year programs. At UCI we have the DASA program which has a pretty good track record in terms of placing students into PhD programs and it is reasonably priced. On top of that, I know a number of DASA students were offered at least 1 quarter of TA'ship that covered the cost of the program + healthcare and stipend. 

best of luck to you. 

Edited February 19, 2014 by xdarthveganx

[onehardtaco]

In terms of funding opportunities for terminal Master's programs, I know that Clemson offers a full tuition waiver and a 10K stipend. The University of Mississippi offers a 75% tuition waiver and a 4K stipend. These programs do not have PhD programs, but place their students into good programs (or jobs) after graduating. Oklahoma and Lehigh also offer a good (or at least decent) funding package for their MA program. Pitt, New Mexico, and (maybe?) UConn are other options. 

 

Some terminal MA programs do not usually fund their MA students. That I know of, Virginia Tech, Florida State, and Tennessee fall into that category. 

 

There's a thread somewhere on here about terminal MA programs that has good information.

 

I'm currently in a terminal MA program and I've had a great experience. I was not ready for the commitment to a PhD program out of undergrad, so an MA program was perfect for me. I also had a weak UG GPA (3.28), so the MA program helped me significantly improve my application.

 

Good luck.

[Darth.Vegan]

Oklahoma is not a bad option (OU), they offered me over 30k a year with fellowship and TA'ship combined, and cost of living and graduate housing is cheap. 

[gilbertrollins]

Some people are able to achieve significant upward mobility with an MA.  Depending on your preferences, I would say it's totally worth it if you're confident that you can get it done without going 50k into the hole and you can crack the top20 afterward.  I wouldn't recommend it if you think you're going to end up in the t50 or t40, and potentially experience downward mobility from there, which will likely mean almost no research, enormous teaching, and not much money when you hit the job market (lower tier liberal arts college or state satellite campus).

[Marcone]

I went for a terminal MA in religion (as that's my main area of interest) and have received offers from some competitive PhD programs in sociology. I am positive that my MA had everything to do with where I am now as I also didn't have the smoothest undergrad experience. I'm in a lot more debt but that doesn't seem to be an issue for you. The terminal MA path sounds like it might be exactly what you need. Also, depending on your research interests, you might want to consider a terminal MA in a field other than sociology. If such a program also offers training in methods, stats, and applicable theory, all the better. 

[tardisblue]

I have a terminal master's degree in sociology that was fully-funded, so that's definitely something that's out there. Funding for master's programs, at least in my experience, can be pretty competitive though since very few programs fund all of their master's students.