sociologylouise

Wisconsin-Madison and Penn State are known for being heavily quantitatively focused.

Anyone claiming that Penn State acceptance from last week? Does anyone know if they've already sent out all of their acceptances?

Religion, Culture, and quantitative methods!

Invitation to Notre Dame's visit day today! No word on any others, though.

While most graduate schools I am applying to give those writing letters of recommendation the ability to submit letters before the actual application is submitted, Penn State's system will only send out recommendation requests once I have submitted the application. So, what I'm wondering is, does this mean I need to submit my end of the application ahead of time, giving my professors enough time to submit letters by the January 10th deadline, or can I submit my application by January 10th and let them turn in the letters a few days later. I only ask because my college is on break from December 15th to January 12th. I do not want my professors to have to do anything on their break, so this means that if the recommendations are due January 10th, this means I need to complete my end nearly a month in advance. I'd really love an extra month to work on my writing sample to make it perfect, as Penn State is my top choice at the moment. Does anyone know when recommendations need to be submitted by? Specifically, those that applied to Penn State, when did you submit your materials?

Although obviously it's most important to find a researcher with similar interests and methodology, because I'm almost exclusively interested in quantitative methods, I don't particularly want to apply to programs where the department as a whole is mostly qualitative. That being said, it's difficult to find out the feel of a department without actually going there. Does anyone know if UCSB, Minnesota - Twin Cities, Virginia, UCSD, or Vanderbilt are mostly quantitative, mostly qualitative, or mixed departments?

For those of you currently in Soc Ph.D. programs, how many hours on average per week would you say, between classes, graduate assistantships, studying, etc. do you spend working?

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how to determine if a school focuses on Quantitative or Qualitative methodology? I'm primarily interested in Quantitative, but very few websites actually explicitly state which way they lean. Currently, I'm looking at Duke, UPenn, Penn State, UNC Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, UT Austin, Notre Dame, U Virginia, and Rice. I hope to specialize in Culture and Religion. From what I've gathered, there are people at Penn State and Notre Dame that deal with survey data and quantitative methods, but I've no clue about the others. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks!

I'll be applying as well. I plan on taking the GRE in September, and although I have a long list at the moment, I plan on narrowing it down to 8-10.

Hi all, To start off, I am a current undergraduate at Ohio State in the honors program with a double major in Sociology and Psychology. I have had my sights set on graduate school, specifically an MA/Ph.D. program for Sociology, since day one of undergrad, and as I'm nearing the application process (for a hopeful start in Fall 2015) I'm hoping I can get some advice on what schools I can realistically get into. As of right now, I have my heart set on Notre Dame; there is a professor there whose research interests line up shockingly perfectly with mine, but I am also thinking of applying to Baylor, Brandeis, Purdue, Penn State, among a few others. I hope to focus on Religion. -I have a 3.5/4.0 overall, and a 3.6 in my Sociology major. -Although I haven't taken the GRE yet, my practice tests have all been in the 65-70% verbal, 75-80% math range. I've historically done very well on standardized tests (34 on my ACT) -I've worked as a research assistant 5 times over the course of my undergrad -I'm completing an honors thesis on national and religious identities in Northern Ireland, by traveling to Belfast this summer and conducting about 25 interviews -My letters of recommendation come from my advisor whom I've taken several classes from, my thesis advisor, and a professor I am a research assistant for -And lastly, in case this boosts my application, I am a varsity athlete and have gone All-American for academics twice. I am mainly concerned by GPA is not high enough. I keep hearing stories of applicants that were already published and still got rejected, so I'm concerned as to what caliber of school I, an unpublished undergrad, can get into. Any advice y'all can lend would be great! I just want to know what my chances of getting into Notre Dame are, as well as any other schools with a Sociology of Religion program I can get into. Thanks!