PRivera

Thanks, and good luck to you, too! And congrats on the programs you got into already.

Hi, is anybody pursuing computational sociology? If so, what background do you have? I minored in math undergrad (at an Ivy), and have taken sociology classes, but am otherwise self-taught as far as my computer skills. For example, I took online classes in Python -- any recs for other languages? Or other things I should be pursuing or learning? I applied to PhD programs in 2 research areas (computational sociology and an unrelated topic in a related social science). I only got into 2 of these programs, in the unrelated area, but I am MUCH more interested in computational sociology. I'm struggling with whether I should get a Masters at my local, well regarded, big-city public university instead, or if I should just enter one of the funded PhD programs despite not being as interested in the research area. FWIW, one of the two programs I got into is also at a big university with one of the major computational sociologists, but I wouldn't be in his department. This is a bit of a rambling, "please tell me what to do with my life" kind of post, which I apologize about, but I would love any feedback from anybody pursuing this area... !Gracias!

Hi, I haven't heard a peep from Cornell yet (Sociology PhD for Fall 2014). I see that there were already some acceptances and rejections on the results board, and it's the tail end of March, so I don't understand what's happening. I called an administrator who told me that they were making decisions next week, but that's also what she told me 3 weeks ago. I didn't want to annoy her, so I just politely thanked her rather than pushing it. Has anyone been told they're on a wait list? Were you interviewed? I haven't gotten an interview, but I see in previous years that accepted and wait listed students refer to interviews, so I am assuming the worst. Yet the lack of communication leads me to have a glimmer of hope that maybe I'm on the wait list. I got a perfect verbal score on the GRE (and a quant score in the 160s) and have a couple peer-reviewed pubs. My actual research interests fit the department, but my pubs are in a different (but overlapping) social science on a different topic, so I dunno if I made the case strongly enough that I would be a good fit. I would like to do computational sociology and/or social networking analysis, but don't really have any experience in it (though I have some programming skills, which I taught myself over the past year via free online classes). Thanks for any clarification from anybody who has actually made it through the gauntlet! Even if the info is that everybody wait listed gets an interview, that would bum me out in the short term but would also at least allow me to cross Cornell off my list and focus on the two programs I did get into. !Gracias!