Fall 2010 applicant stats?

[hip2btriangle]

I debate a lot about sharing applicant information on forums, not really because of security but because I'm not sure how helpful it is in the long run in terms of determining admissions' decisions. Very few top schools (besides UW, I think) release detailed information about applicant averages for admissions/denial/etc., and for this reason I do think it's helpful to start creating an anonymous history of info about applicants so that future generations can get a sense of where they should apply and where they shouldn't waste their money.

Does anyone have an interest in starting a thread that lists our info? Maybe roughly rounded GRE percentiles, GPAs, what kinds of institutions we come from (private, public, well ranked or not), if we have research/presentation experience, research interests, etc? And maybe a ballpark of the kinds of schools we're applying to? If others want to do this, I'll join in.

Edited December 28, 2009 by hip2btriangle

[carolina45]

This could be interesting I'll go first:

GPA: 3.6 -- kinda low I know, but I did go to a top liberal arts school (I feel like it's kinda sketchy to say where you went so let's just say it was either Amherst, Williams, or Middlebury)

GRE: 800 Q, 570 V, 5.0 (I'm really worried about my low verbal--eek!!)

Reasearch experience: Received highest honors for senior thesis, served as a research assistant for a women's studies professor

Research interests: Gender, sexuality, queer theory

Applied to: Boston College, Yale, Santa Barbara, Berkeley, Brown, UMass-Amherst, Cornell, Maryland, SUNY-Albany, U of Michigan, U of Chicago

Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

[ineedcaffeine]

I'm an international student that did his undergraduate in another country, finished his M.A is a not well ranked school and is doing his Ph.D in a ranked program. However, due to personal reasons, I applied to transfer to another program.

U/GPA = 3.88

MA/GPA = 4

PhD/GPD = 3.96

GRE: V/630; Q/630; AW/5.5

Applied to Minnesota, Boulder, CUNY, UIC. Fingers and toes crossed!!!

[hip2btriangle]

As promised:

U/GPA: 3.2, unranked private, went for full-ride but then it all sucked because of discrim. issues at school

MA/GPA: 3.9, top ranked private, presented my own research at ASA and publishing other research with prof. from this school in spring

GRE: 60%Q/80%V/90%A (failboat; hoping my research experience and top grades in methods classes [stats, qual methods, measurement eval] will somehow lessen this blow)

Research interests: gender/sexuality, education

Applied to: schools with strong depts in gender/sexuality that have good fit faculty for my interests -- includes some of the schools listed above ;]

[jacib]

U/GPA: 3.28 (3.57 in major, Religious Studies) at usnwr top ten university

very little actual social science work ugrad.

GRE: q/780 v/800 w/6.0

research interests: Sociology of Religion, Political Sociology, possibly Historical/Comparative Sociology

applied in Sociology: Berkeley, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Northwestern (where I have to change my statement to comparative political sociology because no one does religion...)

also applied: several religion programs with quasi social science sub-fields like "Religion and Society" or "Religion and Modernity" or even "Anthropology/Sociology of Religion"

Personal note: I like how you felt a need to apologize for a 3.6 GPA, Carolina; I predict that will be within .1 of average for the people who post on this thread. But we shall see...

[luar de ouro]

I went to a decent state school and majored in English, GPA: 3.56 (it's pretty much one bad semester can do )

GRE: V:740 Q:730 AW:4.5 (that writing score is pretty sad for an English major)

Research interests: Sociology of culture, immigration, historical/comparative sociology

Applied to: Princeton, Northwestern, U Chicago, Columbia, Rutgers, NYU, Harvard (looking at this list, I think I applied out of my league, so I will gather my resources for that very real possibility of applying for an MA program and then reapplying to the Ph.D later)

Edited December 29, 2009 by luar de ouro

[hip2btriangle]

I went to a decent state school and majored in English, GPA: 3.56 (it's pretty much one bad semester can do )

GRE: V:740 Q:730 AW:4.5 (that writing score is pretty sad for an English major)

Research interests: Sociology of culture, immigration, historical/comparative sociology

Applied to: Princeton, Northwestern, U Chicago, Columbia, Rutgers, NYU, Harvard (looking at this list, I think I applied out of my league, so I will gather my resources for that very real possibility of applying for an MA program and then reapplying to the Ph.D later)

oof, i knew starting this thread would be humbling. with your GRE scores, i'd say you're in the running for those schools and the rest lies with your application. i might add another rutgers-esque school or two to your list of programs; i'm not entirely sure this forum has demonstrated that having an MA really helps dramatically.

[EdPolicy]

Undergrad: Good liberal arts school, sociology/economics double major, GPA ~3.8

Interests: quantitative methods/statistics, social policy applications of sociology, soc of education

GRE: 760Q/730V/5.5AWA - don't have the percentiles in front of me at the moment

Research experience: 3 years as an RA at a policy think tank after graduation (not sure if this is applicable?)

Applied to: Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Wisconsin, Chicago, Michigan, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard (sociology and social policy & sociology) and UPenn

I'd also like to add that for a long time, I wanted to attend a Ph.D. program in economics. There is a very active forum at http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/ that I referred to during that time, and people are very open about posting their stats as we are trying to do here. In economics, it seems like there is a very defined Q score you need on the GRE (800) and other than that, people sharing their stats did little to help me understand where I stood in this process. I think it is a noisy and random process, so please no one get discouraged by the different stats that people are posting here. It's hard to quantify your writing sample, statement of purpose, and letters of rec, and we all know that these are important parts of the application.

[luar de ouro]

I went to a decent state school and majored in English, GPA: 3.56 (it's pretty much one bad semester can do )

GRE: V:740 Q:730 AW:4.5 (that writing score is pretty sad for an English major)

Research interests: Sociology of culture, immigration, historical/comparative sociology

Applied to: Princeton, Northwestern, U Chicago, Columbia, Rutgers, NYU, Harvard (looking at this list, I think I applied out of my league, so I will gather my resources for that very real possibility of applying for an MA program and then reapplying to the Ph.D later)

Oh dear >_< I wrote in the wrong GRE score....how embarrassing. I scored V:700 not 740. (I wish I got 740). Stupid edit option on the forum, I totally missed my window

[tinuvielf]

Okay, here goes...

I'm international. I live in Jamaica.

GRE: V-730, Q-770, AW-5

Undergraduate degree in English completed at an unknown, unranked university in the US. GPA 3.82

M.S. in Education completed at a low-tier US school: GPA 3.97

Currently working on an M.Phil in literature in Jamaica--no GPA system but basically B+ average... not great-looking but that's actually a high score here. Let's hope ad-coms will believe that...

No publications, just a literature conference presentation.

Research interests: Literature and Science, Modernism

Applying to UC-Davis, Columbia, Emory, Yale, Harvard, University of Reading (UK) and Brown.

Sometimes I'm freaked out by the process, and at other times I feel like it's all a dream and I'm really not applying anywhere.

Good luck to everyone and happy holidays.

[maximus82]

I graduated from a small liberal arts college in Maryland, with a double major in psychology-sociology and religious studies.

Undergraduate GPA: 3.7

GRE Scores, round 1: V. 450, Q. 730, A. 4

GRE scores, round 2: V. 630, Q. 780, A. 3.5 (i have no idea why my essay scores were so low, I never had any issues in college with writing/. Since english is my second language I hope they don't pay much attention to this part).

Since graduating in 2006 i've been working for the American Sociological Association (I hope that helps).

My interests include migration, religion, population change, and development.

Research experience: At ASA, I've been involved in three NSF funded research projects for the past 6 months doing network analysis.

applying to: Duke, Indiana, UPenn, Princeton, Northwestern, Cornell, and who knows what else.

in 2008 I got waitlisted at Duke and Indiana.

Good luck to everyone.

[qberta]

here's my basic profile:

GREs: 760v/780q/5.5 (4 year old test scores from when i applied to my MA)

top-15 ranked undergrad, 3.8 gpa, highest honors for senior thesis, interdisciplinary major

top-15 ranked grad school for counseling psych masters, 3.9 GPA

about 10 years nonprofit work experience, loosely related to my interests in social movements, sex/gender, crime/incarceration, and emotion

very little formal sociology background (but i do have a recommendation from a respected sociologist who i've worked with on community projects)

no publications, some research assistant stints with social science profs

no contact or connections with profs at my hopeful programs (i know, i know... i just couldn't write an email that felt right...)

i'm applying at schools like UPenn, Columbia, NYU, CUNY. I limited my schools to the northeast for family/partner reasons.

in addition to soc programs, i'm also applying for one interdisciplinary phd in a program with strengths in sex/gender, social movts, & oral history

we'll see how it goes! everyone sounds so compelling...

[hip2btriangle]

here's my basic profile:

GREs: 760v/780q/5.5 (4 year old test scores from when i applied to my MA)

top-15 ranked undergrad, 3.8 gpa, highest honors for senior thesis, interdisciplinary major

top-15 ranked grad school for counseling psych masters, 3.9 GPA

about 10 years nonprofit work experience, loosely related to my interests in social movements, sex/gender, crime/incarceration, and emotion

very little formal sociology background (but i do have a recommendation from a respected sociologist who i've worked with on community projects)

no publications, some research assistant stints with social science profs

no contact or connections with profs at my hopeful programs (i know, i know... i just couldn't write an email that felt right...)

i'm applying at schools like UPenn, Columbia, NYU, CUNY. I limited my schools to the northeast for family/partner reasons.

in addition to soc programs, i'm also applying for one interdisciplinary phd in a program with strengths in sex/gender, social movts, & oral history

we'll see how it goes! everyone sounds so compelling...

if anyone watching this thread has UNDER a 1500 combined GRE score, don't be ashamed to post general stats. i'm hoping there are more people (like myself) with more colorful applications.

[APHI224]

Hi, I've been lurking around trying to gauge my chances at getting in anywhere and I'm feeling more and more disheartened. I'll post my stats on here and let people give me their honest reactions. I'm currently a senior and finishing up my undergraduate.

UGPA overall 3.13 (from a small, moderately prestigious private liberal arts school)

In major GPA 3.37

GRE: 570V 630Q 3.5AW

I am conducting a research project at school and sent the schools a copy of my proposal (it has to do with crime perceptions)

I have very good relationships with my professors and I have 3 that have given me glowing LOR (not that I've read them but they told me)

I know my AW score is really low, I don't know what happened I guess they just didn't like my writing but I know my writing is generally strong and I've submitted several writing samples. My school is known for grade deflation and they do send a letter with all transcripts explaining that but I'm just worried that my GPA is too low to even get me considered. As a result I've applied to 10 places and am planning on applying to several more because I really need to be in school this coming fall.

I've applied to UMD, UVA, American, GW, BU, Brandeis, Penn State, UNC Charlotte & Wilmington and UDel

Any suggestions? Thank you

[hip2btriangle]

Hi, I've been lurking around trying to gauge my chances at getting in anywhere and I'm feeling more and more disheartened. I'll post my stats on here and let people give me their honest reactions. I'm currently a senior and finishing up my undergraduate.

UGPA overall 3.13 (from a small, moderately prestigious private liberal arts school)

In major GPA 3.37

GRE: 570V 630Q 3.5AW

I am conducting a research project at school and sent the schools a copy of my proposal (it has to do with crime perceptions)

I have very good relationships with my professors and I have 3 that have given me glowing LOR (not that I've read them but they told me)

I know my AW score is really low, I don't know what happened I guess they just didn't like my writing but I know my writing is generally strong and I've submitted several writing samples. My school is known for grade deflation and they do send a letter with all transcripts explaining that but I'm just worried that my GPA is too low to even get me considered. As a result I've applied to 10 places and am planning on applying to several more because I really need to be in school this coming fall.

I've applied to UMD, UVA, American, GW, BU, Brandeis, Penn State, UNC Charlotte & Wilmington and UDel

Any suggestions? Thank you

i've known people with similar backgrounds that have been admitted to schools ranked similarly to those you listed, so don't give up hope. i think my hope with this thread was that we might be able to create a more realistic spread of applicant stats so future applicants can sort of gauge their chances a little more accurately, but i should have realized that only stronger applicants would lay it out. too bad thegradcafe results page doesn't ask people to anonymously submit details about their application (even just GRE or GPA).

[jacib]

i've known people with similar backgrounds that have been admitted to schools ranked similarly to those you listed, so don't give up hope. i think my hope with this thread was that we might be able to create a more realistic spread of applicant stats so future applicants can sort of gauge their chances a little more accurately, but i should have realized that only stronger applicants would lay it out. too bad thegradcafe results page doesn't ask people to anonymously submit details about their application (even just GRE or GPA).

Perhaps people could be encouraged to make an account that they only use once? Like a SocFall2010a SocFall2010b etc. in order to post their stats in a truly anonymous way.

Maybe this data gathering could also be retried AFTER admissions?

From what I could gather, AVERAGE GRE score at most top 20 places seems to be 1300-1400. Considering the number of people on this who, yes, do have a GRE that is above 1500, I can conclude three things: 1) high GRE does not guarantee you admission. 2) Figuring a few of the 1500+ people get in, there are probably quite a few people admitted in the 1100-1300 range. 1) and 2) lead me directly to supposition 3) GRE scores really don't seem to make that much difference in admittance. Certainly they are not a barrier which cannot be overcome, and equally certainly they do not ensure admission.

[hawk]

GRE scores do one thing: keep your application from getting thrown in the trash. For more statistically aware adcoms, a higher GRE score might get special attention because they want to have a higher average GRE score and outliers at the higher end help that. Everyone (adcoms included) knows that the GRE is only marginally useful and doesn't adequately predict future performance, so the best they can do with it is make a minimum cutoff based on applicants in a given year of which ones not to bother looking at because the performance wasn't good enough. The best indicator of future performance is always going to be past performance, so that is what adcoms will be interested in far and above beyond the GRE and it is in your interest to convey your past performance in the most positive light possible. The things that will give you the best 'edge up' will be research, writing abilities (which will be conveyed in SOP and writing sample), and your academic history (course diversity, academic performance, interests, etc). Letters of recommendation are also extremely important. I know this is said so often but for some reason people keep falling back on the GRE's as the end-all be-all of admissions and it just isn't the case. GRE and GPA keep your applications out of the trash. If that's strong enough to survive the first cut, the rest of your application needs to be strong.

[coffeeandtoast]

Hi everyone,

I don't have a sociological background. My background is in engineering (undergrad) and theology (masters). I know... odd combination.

B.S. GPA: 4.0

M.A. GPA: 3.9

GRE: 610V/670Q/4.5AW (I'm an engineer and I thought that the Q section was absolutely ridiculous; verbal was much easier than I expected although still hard, because English is not my first language)... FWIW I think the GRE should be made illegal, because it is the worst test ever

Undergrad institution: Public

Grad Institution: Private

I'm not an international student.

Research Interests: immigration, racial stratification, political and economic sociology, labor

Applied to two top 10 programs and Notre Dame.

My best wishes to all of you and may this be a good admission cycle to all of us

[coffeeandtoast]

Oh and it seems that no one here is applying to the same schools I'm applying to.

[hawk]

Oh and it seems that no one here is applying to the same schools I'm applying to.

Are you geography restricted? Your chances look pretty good to me (at least if i were on an adcom I'd find you pretty interesting) but you should have applied to more programs, in my opinion. I mean, nothing is a 'guaranteed in' so there is a chance you wont get into any of the ones you applied to, even having english as a second language and performing so well on the GREs, coming from an engineering background with stellar GPA's in undergrad and grad school -- none of that guarantees you admission though all of it helps and you are going to be an extremely competitive candidate. All I'm saying is I would have applied to more programs to increase chances of being admitted to some.

Edited January 4, 2010 by hawk

[coffeeandtoast]

Are you geography restricted? Your chances look pretty good to me (at least if i were on an adcom I'd find you pretty interesting) but you should have applied to more programs, in my opinion. I mean, nothing is a 'guaranteed in' so there is a chance you wont get into any of the ones you applied to, even having english as a second language and performing so well on the GREs, coming from an engineering background with stellar GPA's in undergrad and grad school -- none of that guarantees you admission though all of it helps and you are going to be an extremely competitive candidate. All I'm saying is I would have applied to more programs to increase chances of being admitted to some.

Hi Hawk--Thank you for your kind words. Actually, yes, I'm restricted geographically, because my husband is a philosophy grad student enrolled in a very good Ph.D. program. I really would've loved to have applied to more schools... oh well

[newday123]

Research interests: Gender, sexuality, queer theory

Applied to: Boston College, Yale, Santa Barbara, Berkeley, Brown, UMass-Amherst, Cornell, Maryland, SUNY-Albany, U of Michigan, U of Chicago

Interesting. I wasn't aware of the fact that Chicago has faculty members working on gender and sexuality.

I was chatting with a non-sociology Ph.D. about the issue of fit. I asked, which program would be a better fit for me: a school that doesn't have declared specializations in my areas of interest but a number of potential mentors versus a school with relevant specializations but fewer potential mentors. He said what really matters is the reputation of your advisor because you will be known as his/her student. So don't worry about the specializations of the school.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the issue of fit?

Edited January 4, 2010 by newday123

[hip2btriangle]

Interesting. I wasn't aware of the fact that Chicago has faculty members working on gender and sexuality.

I was chatting with a non-sociology Ph.D. about the issue of fit. I asked, which program would be a better fit for me: a school that doesn't have declared specializations in my areas of interest but a number of potential mentors versus a school with relevant specializations but fewer potential mentors. He said what really matters is the reputation of your advisor because you will be known as his/her student. So don't worry about the specializations of the school.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the issue of fit?

chicago has kristin schilt; she does a ton with sexualities and has done research on trans topics. i have heard generally, though that chicago is a bit more on the conservative side gender/sex though.

[newday123]

My turn -

Background: Graduated from a well-known public university. Have many years of corporate experience under my belt.

GPA: 4.0 in sociology (also took 1 grad course), lower overall GPA. Did not major in sociology when I was an undergraduate but recently went back to school part-time to strengthen my credentials. I feel lucky to be living close to another respected university.

GRE: 1520 (750 V, 770 Q), 4.5(?!?) AWA. Thought about it for two days and decided to not re-take the exam.

Teaching: Three years of experience. Also experience and training in public speaking.

Research: Several research assistantships - some paid, some unpaid. Most are recent.

Publications: Sociology conference presentation. Several non-sociology publications - some academic, some work-related.

LOR's: I requested recommendations from my research methods professors. They were really on the ball about getting their letters out well before my first app deadline! I'm very grateful to them. I did well in their courses so I hope that my letters are good.

Contact with potential advisors: I e-mailed professors at about half of my schools to express my interest. I think that I have good rapport with one of them.

Research interests: Culture, social psychology, life course, work.

Schools applied to: Several top 5's, top 10's, top 15's, top 35's, etc. A number of my schools have already been mentioned in posts on this thread. Twelve schools total.

I look forward to hearing about people's successes, lessons learned, and experiences visiting schools. Good luck everyone!

Edited January 4, 2010 by newday123

[ineedcaffeine]

is it just me that is feeling the heat? almost everyone that has posted so far have outstanding GRE scores! damn if i knew this was the competition, i shld have saved my money.