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pip

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    Sociology PhD

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  1. I can corroborate that ETS does not send AW essays to schools. I spoke with a customer service agent at ETS who assured me that the essays are confidential. I asked if this was a change in policy and she said it wasn't as far as she knows. Myth: busted.
  2. Good idea. And I am happy to add some colorful GRE scores to the mix. Undergrad: Good liberal arts college, double major in sociology & anthropology (but a very sketchy early college career) GPA: 3.83, 3.87 in-major GRE: V 640 / Q 440 / AW 4.5 Research, Presentations, etc: Senior honors thesis; second author on a publication in a well-known journal; researcher and co-author for a collaborative research project between the soc department at my school and a local organization; 2.5 years as a research assistant for anthropologist working on my general topic; research assistant for an NSF proposal; TA for upper division anth class; two regional conference presentations of my thesis Interests: Globalization, culture, theory, ethnographic methods Schools: Berkeley, Columbia, NYU I did not pursue relationships with professors at my schools beyond two perfunctory hellos. I've been told my LORs are stellar. What else. I know I'm shooting high. I'm very, very nervous.
  3. I did not include an abstract or title page. I also used 1" margins rather than the standard 1 1/4". So it was really quite a loose interpretation of ASA style. I wouldn't worry about it.
  4. Update: I haven't heard back from the grad admin, but I got an automatic email this morning thanking me for my submission. I'm taking that as good news.
  5. Yeah, I'm really hoping the low Berkeley showing on the boards reflects a larger trend. So what's the theory? Deterred by budget crisis? jacib: Columbia and NYU are my only other schools.
  6. Yeah, I think it's hard to make the fit paragraph work without tweaking other aspects of the SoP as well. Even though I discussed all the same research background in my SoPs, for each school I wrote a few transition sentences leading into slightly different research proposals. The aspects of my research proposal I that tweaked were based on two things: my perception of the school's overarching research agenda, and how well the proposal utilized the department's distinct faculty strengths. This approach gave me a segue right into mentioning faculty I want to work with in a way that made it sound obvious all along. It did kind of make me feel like I was pandering to schools, but I comforted myself knowing that I did not change basic elements of my proposal, and would be happy carrying out any version of the research I proposed.
  7. That's what it looks like. I'm not ready to upload my writing sample yet, so I can't say for sure. Give me a deadline of Dec 18th and I'll take it.
  8. I know, I am a horrible procrastinator. Four minutes before deadline, I was proofreading my writing sample. Three minutes before, I started trying to upload it. You know where this is going. The server finally cleared up at about five minutes after deadline, and I submitted anyway. Has anybody ever heard of a grace period for online application submissions? It's not my top choice school, but I'd still like a shot. I emailed the gsas admin while the server was jammed and asked him if there was any precedent for slightlylate applications being considered. I guess we'll see.
  9. For anyone else still writing, this email I just received from the Sociology department might allay some of your anxiety: ----------- Write about what feels appropriate in your situation. You can use either as a "prompt" [the sociology dept's prompt was slightly different than the one on the application]. It is rather fluid essay, so don't get too worried about which one you are answering. Use whatever parts of the questions maybe be useful in helping you think about your own situation or story. You can put your "gaps" explanation in whichever essay you feel that it fits most appropriately. Again, there are not fixed rules for these things. ----------- Back to work!
  10. I've just read the thread over in the other forum, and it sounds like we're on the same page. I'm writing about my experience of moving frequently with my family across geography and class boundaries, and how it shaped my sense myself as an observer. The whole narrative arc is that going from overstuffed, underfunded public schools in South Central L.A. to all-white private schools later in life gave me an acute awareness of constructions of whiteness and my own privilege, eventually leading me to sociology and to my specific research topic. What I'm still not sure about is whether this is the place to explain gaps in my transcripts. I gloss over the inconsistencies in my education in my SoP nicely, but I'm dealing with a ten year undergraduate career here, so I was hoping to use the PHS to explain inconsistencies more fully. If using the first essay prompt, they do seem appropriate to discuss; with the second, not so much. So I'm back to your question about how these essays are used by the adcoms. If they are just used for funding decisions based on underrepresentation or recognition of inequality, I don't want to spend much time on the medical issues that kept me in and out of school for years. Edited to clarify: Any opinions on whether the PHS is the right place to discuss personal challenges (ie: illness), or just challenges based in social/gender/some other inequality?
  11. I see two different personal history statement prompts for Berkeley, one on the department website and the other on the online application. The grad admin hasn't gotten back to me about which to use. #1, from the dept website: In an essay, discuss how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include any educational, familial, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges, or opportunities relevant to your academic journey; how you might contribute to social or cultural diversity within your chosen field; and/or how you might serve educationally underrepresented segments of society with your degree. or #2, from the application: Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how you have overcome barriers to access higher education, evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups. The difference for me would be between focusing on "experiences that made my academic journey unconventional" and "experiences that helped me understand barriers faced by others." Has anyone else run into this?
  12. The high school reference in the first sentence really threw me off. My actual thought was, Is s/he posting in the right forum? How about, "An influential teacher once told me that..."
  13. pip

    UCLA Drama

    Berkeley is still my top choice despite the budget problems. I do wonder how much the cuts affect grad funding versus the much publicized undergrad tuition.
  14. I think it would depend on the relationship between the two programs to some degree. If we're talking about demography and sociology, for instance, I don't think splitting your application would work against you. You'll probably end up being an asset in both areas either way, and the programs typically have a close working relationship. If it's a wider leap, like psychology and sociology, then yes, I think you risk looking indecisive (unless you make a compelling argument for your interest in both).
  15. Are you familiar with Anna Tsing? Her work sounds right up your alley. She's at UC Santa Cruz.
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