Current JD candidate - Religion undergrad - questions!

[leftyjb]

Hello Sociology forum,

 

I am currently entering my third year of law school at a top-5 university. I'm interested in applying for PhD programs, most likely in Sociology, yet have never taken a Sociology course. In undergrad at a small liberal arts school I was a Religion major but also graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. 

 

My questions are: 

• What should I be considering when thinking about Sociology as a field? 
• What should my expectations be with regard to top-30 universities for PhD programs? I definitely need a fully-funded program.
• One of my career / research thoughts is to study criminology and criminal justice from a sociological standpoint. I have done work in this area in law school.
• Another possible area is urban planning, which personally I think is connected to our current criminal justice system.
• Re the GRE: I took it five years ago and got 163, 163, and 5.0. Is this decent enough for the elite spots? Particularly when I might not have much publication/research experience? 

Bottom line: am I positioned to be at all successful in being accepted to a PhD program?

 

Thanks very much. 

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

I think you should be fine. At my past undergrad institution (a top-30 public flagship university) there was a guy who was a JD in the PhD program. He never took any sociology classes but his research interests were deeply complimented by his training in law. You can write in your SOP about why the sociological perspective is the way you want to answer your research question and then talk briefly about the tools you already have to develop them further and what you will need in the future.

 

Your GRE score is great, but it was 5 years ago, you might have to take it again (they expire after 5 years).