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Undergraduate student looking for advice


sjh2970

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Hi, I'm currently a third-year undergraduate student studying political science at a top-10 university in Korea, which, of course, isn't ranked very high in international rankings. I'm 100% certain that I want to pursue a PhD after graduation, so I'm looking for advice on how to prepare adequately. Although I haven't decided on the major yet, right now it seems like the best fit for my academic interests lies in sociology. So I just have a few questions.

 

1) How much research experience is recommended? - There are few opportunities for research during the undergraduate studies in Korean universities: virtually none in the undergraduate curriculum. To get some research experience, I have just started working as a research assistant for one of the professors. Assuming he continues to let me work with him, I'll get barely a year of research experience by the time I graduate. I am assuming that is not enough.

 

2) Is it a good idea to apply straight to grad school? - Reading through the applications, it seems like most of the applicants took at least 2,3 years off after graduating from university before applying for grad school. I would prefer to go straight to grad school after graduation, but I'm wondering if this would be a disadvantage.

 

3) How do you get into the top programs? - I'm still naive and innocent-perhaps i'll get a reality check few years from now- so I'm dreaming of going to at least one of top 10 grad schools in the U.S. My grades are good, probably around 3.9 range using the American GPA scale. Assuming I get an epic score on the GRE and amazing LORs from my professors, is it possible for me to get into one of these programs? I'm worried because my current university isn't very renowned internationally, but I heard some say that the prestige of your undergraduate institution doesn't matter much. Although I don't think that's true.

 

4) Is switching from political science to sociology possible? - I am aware that there is another thread that asked the same question. But my situation is more complicated because I don't think my undergraduate studies relate to what I want to study in grad school at all. I am specifically interested in sociology of education. None of what I'm studying or researching right now seems directly relevant.  

 

5) Any other advice for the newbie? - Anything I can do to raise my chance of getting into top programs. If going straight to grad school isn't feasible, what should I do after graduation, etc...

 

It seems like it's application season for everyone here. I'm sure I'll be going through the same things a few years from now. Good luck everyone in your application process, and I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Edited by sjh2970
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The answer is very often it depends.
 

1). What kind of research are you doing for your professor? How good is your professor? Is it relevant to what you want to do as a PhD ?
 

2). It depends. Are you ready for gradschool? What are doing these 2,3 years?

 

3). Luck is an important factor. Is there faculty available for your topic? How good are the other applicants that year? Don't underestimate the GRE, especially if you are not a native speaker. Also, LORs are very important. Many foreigners don't know how to write them (and even some Americans don't know how to write them). Even if they are very positive about you, they may not be great writers.

 

4). Depends on what you want to study. It won't help much if what you are stuying now is irrelevant to what you want to study as a PhD.

5. Yes! Getting a PhD is not about getting a title from a top 10 program. You should be passionate about your research and apply to schools have a great reputation in your subfield. Don't go to the websites of sociology programmes and check whether they have faculty that you like. It is the wrong approach! Only apply if you have read a substantial amount of work by scholars in your subfield and then check whether they are at universities with a PhD program (what their graduate students think of them, where their graduate students ended up, if they have funding, what the school offers etc). 

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Read the classical cannon--and follow the intellectual momentum that propels your chosen field to current literature.  I know that seems a little open-ended and daunting if you haven't been reading much social theory, but it's sort of like how you eat an elephant (one bite at a time).  Check out Yale's open courses on social theory and theory of literature.  There's about 24 hours of lecture available per course. When you're done with those, tackle whatever tickles your fancy from Berkley, Yale, Harvard, Wisconsin, etc. Kiss your music good-bye--this should be the din that scores your life.

 

Understand the trends and major epochs in social theory and how they pertain to your desired field--whether functionalism, structuralism, post structuralism, post modern etc--what did they mean to your field and how did they shape the thinking.  Understand what holes they left in the shift--all perspectives are a trade off in some way.

 

Start writing something sigificant--publish it if you can.  Your writing sample will be especially crucial coming from a non-English speaking university (so will your GRE score for the same reason), but more importantly it demonstrates the type of research you like to do, how you go about it, how you understand the theoretical lay out of the land, and how you plan to fix its deficiencies.  Don't worry about publishing with someone--just write a solid publishable piece that's sufficiently critical, analytically insightful, and theoretically strong.  Workshop it if you can with some choice faculty, and get it submitted.  Blind reviewers will hopefully offer some insightful comments.. the better the journal, the better the reviewers (in a perfect world).  Incorporate those thoughts into your writing, and you've just had your writing sample critiqued and workshopped by the best minds in the industry. 

 

I would certainly reach out to any faculty you admire now--not come application season next December or whenever you intend to apply, but now.  Read a lot of their material and simply open the dialogue asking questions.  Try not to waste their time, you're essentially getting something for free that others pay 150k for--so don't bother asking questions that you could look up, rather ask them for their interpretations on certain works in the particular field or to disambiguate something they have written.  Show them that you can not only pick up what they're putting down, but are critically sound enough to identify their sleights of hand.  The intent here is not to grease the wheel, or maneuver toward self interest, but to [hopefully] establish a mentor-protoge relationship that will enrich your thinking that will perhaps enrich the field.

 

Lastly, you'll probably need a bit of good fortune--but everyone does.

 

I have no idea who would recommend taking 3 to 4 years off between UG and grad school--but i'd just apply while your understanding is presumably at its freshest and you still have faculty who can associate your name, face, and productivity enough to write a decent LOR.

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Wow, thank you for the responses. As you might infer from my post, I'm still a bit clueless about the entire process. I am not applying til' next year, so I still have quite a bit of time left, but I need to do a lot more work. A few more follow-up questions.

 

1. How much does the prestige or reputation of your undergraduate university matter? - I know I keep obsessing over the "prestige" of the university, but it's really hard to ignore it coming from a country where prestige means everything. I was wondering if coming from a relatively unknown foreign university will be a disadvantage.

 

2. Once again, how much research experience is needed? and what is a good "research experience"? - As I mentioned already, there aren't a lot of opportunity for research in Korean universities, like independent research projects common in American universities. I keep hearing again and again that the research experience is the most important part of the application, but I don't really get what would be a good research experience in Sociology. I would appreciate it if someone could clarify what would be the best approach for the next couple of years for me to get quality research experience.

 

3. Does my undergraduate study have to directly relate to what I want to study as PhD? - I don't think sociology of education, which I'm interested in pursuing in grad school, is directly related to anything I'm studying right now in poli-sci. Will this count against me in the application process? I was wondering if it would be better if I quickly did a minor in sociology or perhaps education in the last couple of years. Of course trying to do a minor in just 2 years is a pain in the ass, I would much rather not do it, but I'd do anything to get into a better program.

 

Any advice will be much helpful. Thanks!

Edited by sjh2970
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Prestige matters to a degree, but it can quickly be rendered obsolete by demonstrating strengths.  In your case, you come from a non-english speaking culture with alternate perceptions but clearly possess the ability to relay those perceptions in a manner that's (unfortunately) superior to native English speakers in most American universities.  This sort of dovetails with your other concern of research.  Research in and of itself is really just a preference of data collection whether its your typical preference to immerse yourself in tomes of theory, digitized reductions of numerical statistics, or performing ethnographic observations among a population. What sort of makes research useful is when it's put into action--written and published. A solid article (even if unpublished but submitted as your writing sample) demonstrates your preferred method of collection, your ability to review the literature and identify the inadequacies in the ideas you're quilting together, and your ability to harness both theory and data (from your research interests) and place them into action in order to say something new. In this sense, its not about time or a faculty name under which you labor.  It's certainly not about how many independent study credit hours you might rack up--in the states these are usually used to cop a quick A, anyhow. It's about the good that has come of it in a presentable (hopefully publishable) way that will set you apart from your peers.

 

Don't sweat the poly sci undergrad--but do take the initiative as I stated above to immerse yourself in the literature.  You are behind, but there's nothing preventing you from blowing past the local competition come application season.  When more theoretically grounded, you may determine that education isn't necessarily what excites you, anyway.  If it still does, try Columbia.

 

And you should probably stay off these boards--they're full of folks like me that pretend to have the answers. Good luck!

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Prestige matters to a degree, but it can quickly be rendered obsolete by demonstrating strengths.  In your case, you come from a non-english speaking culture with alternate perceptions but clearly possess the ability to relay those perceptions in a manner that's (unfortunately) superior to native English speakers in most American universities.  This sort of dovetails with your other concern of research.  Research in and of itself is really just a preference of data collection whether its your typical preference to immerse yourself in tomes of theory, digitized reductions of numerical statistics, or performing ethnographic observations among a population. What sort of makes research useful is when it's put into action--written and published. A solid article (even if unpublished but submitted as your writing sample) demonstrates your preferred method of collection, your ability to review the literature and identify the inadequacies in the ideas you're quilting together, and your ability to harness both theory and data (from your research interests) and place them into action in order to say something new. In this sense, its not about time or a faculty name under which you labor.  It's certainly not about how many independent study credit hours you might rack up--in the states these are usually used to cop a quick A, anyhow. It's about the good that has come of it in a presentable (hopefully publishable) way that will set you apart from your peers.

 

Don't sweat the poly sci undergrad--but do take the initiative as I stated above to immerse yourself in the literature.  You are behind, but there's nothing preventing you from blowing past the local competition come application season.  When more theoretically grounded, you may determine that education isn't necessarily what excites you, anyway.  If it still does, try Columbia.

 

And you should probably stay off these boards--they're full of folks like me that pretend to have the answers. Good luck!

Thank you for the advice! I think I have a much clearer idea of how to prepare for the next couple of years. Good luck to you too~

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