ColonelKurtz

Anyone who went to the ND interview last year, what were some of the things the department asked you about?? Were there any particularly hard questions, or questions that caught you off guard? How many people did they make offers to?

Awesome thanks for that advice. Not only does it make complete sense but they are also amazingly calming.

From what I have gathered Rice and ND are the only two that do visit days that I know of. Maybe Emory too??? I know its not many though. I am scared though, I do not know what to expect. Can anyone provide any insight as to what we will be doing and how they will be "evaluating" us? I am guessing those two days are essentially a giant interview that probably weighs very heavily on our admission. Will there be formal interviews or is the whole event casual? Between this recent invitation and student teaching I am quite stressed right now, lol. But... I will admit, an invitation felt very good and helped me gain a lot of confidence about my app.

Yes, I can confirm that ND notifications are for visit day only. Still stoked that I received an invite itsa one of my top choices. A bit nervous at the same time, I don't know what to expect.

I was planning on student teaching and graduating with a high school teaching certificate in May 2013. Due to a miscommunication with my department of education, my prior Tuberculosis test was expired and I missed the deadline for a new one therefore postponing my student teaching till Fall 2013. I have a competitive application and have applied to 15 schools already. Given this I am going to just go ahead and graduate with a vanilla History degree rather than a History-Education degree and turn my Sociology minor into a Bachelors, and if i don't get into grad school I will just student teach next fall. But... on my CV and transcripts it shows that I am a History Social Sciences education major. Should I inform my schools about this change? Or should I just let it be? If i do get accepted into a PH.D program this spring I will definitely be more than happy to take that offer and skip out on the teaching certificate, it was more of a worst case scenario decision anyway. The only thing I want to know is if I shoul contact all 15 departments to tell them about this change on my transcripts. I don't want to look like a liar when my transcripts and CV state I will be graduating with a slightly different degree than I put down, plus I will have a double major in Sociology rather than just a minor so that might help me. Sorry for the ramble, it was a disheartening day to say the least, don't want this affecting my grad school plans in a negative way.

Thanks guys for your input I was getting a little nervous about my prospect as a grad student but looks like a have a better shot than i previously thought. Looks like i'll do some research into some top 25 programs and maybe apply to 3 or so then apply to 7-10 mid-low tier programs. Anyone know of any decent programs that accept Masters only students so I have a few safety programs? Also, any good recommendations for sociology of education or technology programs?

So I am currently finishing my last year of undergraduate study for a BA in Social Sciences Education which includes a BA in History. I also have a minor in Sociology. I was wondering which "tier" of schools I should be applying to with my stats if any at all. I have a 3.5 undergraduate GPA (3.8 in the last two years.) GRE score of 310 (160 Verbal 150 Quant) 5.0 AW. I am actually retaking the GRE in about a month I did zero studying for it the first time around and I already feel like I can improve my Quant score to around 160. I have 3 great letters of recommendations and a great writing sample. As far as research experience goes, I am confused as to what counts towards "research experience." I am currently a research assistant for a Professor in my department. I had a senior thesis paper that was 25-30 pages in length. I am also doing an independent study this semester that will culminate into another 25-30 page paper. I will also have a decent amount of teaching experience, I am currently a TA at a local high school and occasionally teach a class here and there. Next semester I will be student teaching, which means I will have a whole semester of managing my own class room. How much will these experiences help? My almost Alma-Mater is very well known for its educational research and teacher preparation. The History faculty is pretty well established also. But... it is not known as a "top-notch" school in general, definitely not a top 50 school yet. Also, how are my chances coming from History? As of right now I am just aiming for middle to lower "tier" schools. A few examples are: University of Illinois, University of Illinois Chicago, MIchigan State, Iowa State, Colorado State, and Southern Illinois University. Interests are sociology of education, technology, and social stratification. Any recommendations would be appreciated.