theoryoftheories

A lot of people will disagree with me but I suggest starting with (one of) the foundational text(s): Talcott Parsons' The Structure of Social Action.

Unfortunately no one has compiled this kind of information into a searchable database (hey -- there is a fun research project!). As has been mentioned, pouring over CVs and bibliographies remains the best method of collecting this data. Good luck!

Is anyone else still waiting to hear from UC Irvine, Riverside, or the Columbia MA program?

Thanks for the link!

The application deadline for the Columbia MA program just past recently (or is coming up very soon), I know they have not finalized decisions. I can't say re Toronto. Looks like were in the same anxious boat!

Congratulations to the UCLA admit. What a great surprise so late in the game. Here's hoping!

Can anyone point me to a fellowship or scholarship database that has been useful? Please send me a message if so. Thanks!

Thank you for the info!

To anyone who doesn't have a financially supporting family or the professional means to mitigate "the disgusting cost" of an MA please consider the following. An MA from Chicago or Columbia certainly improves your odds of finding gainful employment relative to, say, that BA in gender studies and postmodern literature that you incurred debt for in the first place. Top firms from all fields recruit from top tier schools, what you actually studied ("bourgeois fields" included) playing a largely minor role. Depending on where you live, how you live, etc., a year or two outside of academic work may go a long way to mitigate the $75,000 price tag. It might, it might not, there are a lot of factors at play. There may be an even higher opportunity cost of not attending an MA program. If you have academic aspirations but have never been in a graduate environment, dealt with academic politics, etc., etc., you may find that you really dislike the academic world. Now if you're a few years into a Ph.D. program, and especially if you have completed it, you may not have incurred any debt, but you're not going anywhere else professionally. And, like Marx's capitalists, you've dug your own grave. Get comfortable there. If you haven't noticed the American public is only slightly hostile to science and intellectuals of any kind. I think most people would rather be buried in debt than having a doctorate and (minor but meaningful edit) taking fast food orders or being otherwise miserable for the rest of their natural lives. I could be wrong. Now if you find that you do love academic work and you really want to research, teach, and publish at a (major) university, then these MA programs are, in the context of the long run, an incredible opportunity to advance those life-long goals. Nothing is guaranteed, sure, but that is the nature of life. These opportunities are almost entirely what you make of them. (I can say this because I largely squandered mine the first time around.) So to anyone out there considering the MA route please feel free to contact me. I'm happy to help in anyway I can.

I'm curious: will anyone be taking the Columbia MA offer? I'm surprised at the unenthusiastic reactions so far. I have an MA from Chicago and I'd be thrilled to get the offer.

That's the impression I get as well. I'd need to double check some bibliographies before I made any definitive remarks though. But I think the only "traditional" social scientist in the "BACH" group is Axelrod, who works in the political science department. http://www.lsa.umich.edu/cscs/aboutus/bachgroup

The Ph.D. program in computational social science at George Mason is amazing. Pioneering scholars, cutting-edge work, really interesting stuff ... sadly, no funding. I think it will be a really formidable program in the near future.

I'm interested in computational methods as well, but there is not much (as far as I can tell) work being done at the intersection of computer science and sociology. Which is really too bad. There is a lot of scholarship done with networks, but (again, as far as I can tell) not the type of networks that are dealt with in complexity theory or computer science. The one exception I can think of is the Human Nature Lab at Yale which is affiliated with the sociology department.

I hope not. I was rejected from the Ph.D. program weeks ago. But the impression I was given via e-mail earlier this week is that since the admissions deadline is not until the end of March for the MA program, admissions will be rolling. So all that angst and bile we've been choking on is probably going to remain there until April. Yay!

I spoke with the Graduate Affairs office and the fat lady isn't singing yet.