heyitsthatguy

First, I would contact the director straight away. Since you've talked to him before, you're more likely to get a response than going through the secretary. I would be straight forward with him. You can say that you would like to attend their program, but that you have another offer and need to know the status of your application. However, the other program should not be telling you they want a decision ASAP. Be polite and tell them you will be in touch as soon as you can, but if they are anything like any other university, you have until April 15th to make a decision. Best of luck!

I would guess that this varies widely. From my experience, you can expect fees to be anywhere between $200-$500 a semester. If you are worried about finances, I would talk to a Maryland student regarding the cost of insurance. I am currently in a program where the school has reduced health insurance costs, but I still pay about $2k a year. Many students opt to get insurance through the ACA (Obamacare) as it can be cheaper. Best of luck with your decision. I am also weighing financial issues in my decision, so much to consider.

FYI - I was accepted to SUNY Albany today (that's me in the results search) and declined the offer, in case anyone is holding out on them, good luck! Several really great faculty there. I will also be declining my offer to Penn State soon, so again, best of luck to those interested!

Hi, there is a link at the top of the search page to "submit your results."

My opinion is that these sorts of rankings should rank relatively low on your list of why you want to attend a program. It is only part of a very complex picture, and there is a lot of debate over which ranking system is most reliable. What are your interests? Are there professors in the program who publish widely/are cited widely in that area? Will you have opportunities to actually work with them? Do they have ongoing funded research projects? At the end of the day, you could attend a low-ranking program with all-star faculty in your sub area and do well, or you could attend a highly ranked uni with not as good of a fit and less available profs and do not so well. TL;DR: Fit > Ranking

I was waitlisted for Michigan for the Fall 2013 admissions season. The director hinted at the fact that I was at the top of the list, and they would notify me as soon as something changed. It ended up that every single person offered admission took it. I will say that this is probably rare. Most people accepted to Michigan will get into other top programs and have to make a choice. The waitlist process is just waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. Generally you won't hear anything until late March, unless someone is certain they won't be attending early on. Just sit tight, try to stay positive and let them contact you. It is also in their best interested to get a hold of waitlisters as quickly as possible. Good luck!

Recruitment weekend is quite late in the season - March 28th. It's hard to tell if they're done yet or not, but there are 4 acceptances posted in the results search. Best of luck!

Claiming a Penn State acceptance! Has anyone else heard from them? Anyone planning to attend the recruitment weekend?

I haven't posted these in the results search, as it seems rather inactive for crim/CJ programs but I also got the call from UC Irvine with an acceptance! I also got into the CJ program at Rutgers-Newark. Did anyone else get in there, and if so, will you be attending the visitiation weekend this month?

Has anyone gotten an official rejection from OSU? I see several people have reported acceptances on different dates, so I'm not sure if my application is truly still pending (as the website claims) or if they just haven't gotten around to rejection notifications yet.

That would be my guess. It is possible that they have a waitlist, but I would assume that those who made it to the interview stage but are not immediately accepted would be at the top of that list.

Looks like I will be meeting you at Irvine! I was also accepted at Rutgers. Also applying to UMSL. Decent chance we might end up in the same cohort, haha. Best of luck!

Hi all, It doesn't seem like this board gets much traffic, but I thought I would start a decisions thread. So, if you've applied to Crim/CJ programs (or crim subareas within sociology), let us know where you have applied and if you have received any news. I'll start! Criminology: UC Irvine, UMSL. Criminal Justice: Rutgers Sociology with Crim focus: Penn State, SUNY Albany. If anyone is wondering I can confirm UC Irvine has sent out invitations for visits/interviews, and I will be among those attending. It is still rather early to be hearing from the others. Hope to hear from some of you, best of luck!

Everyone has had good things to say. I agree with the idea of taking a year off, especially if you are not in an ideal "mental state." I'm an older student and I feel my work has been made better both because I took years off to travel and live in the real world (though I disagree with the suggestion of getting a soul crushing job, take time to do what you want), and because when I went back to school I had a better idea of what I wanted to do and could fully commit myself to it. That said, my interest is also in urban sociology/demography. I would suggest getting a subscription to journals like City & Community, finding researchers whose work interests you and digging into it more. Another good starting point is Rob Sampson's latest book "The Great American City" which is a great read and some of the hottest stuff in the field right now. A word to ease your mind though - many people who find satisfaction in very successful careers later on in life had periods of uncertainty and hesitation, many of them changed fields, so do what feels right.

I'm waitlisted at U of Michigan. I was accepted with full funding at my undergrad institution (Bowling Green), and accepted at Temple - still waiting to hear about funding. As of now, UofM trumps all if I get in, though I'd much rather live in Philly than Ann Arbor.

Ugh, yeah every program has had an "unusually competitive year." I suspect that every year, every program claims an unusually competitive year. While some programs have been gracious and to the point about rejections when I've inquired about them, some seem so afraid to hurt an applicant's feelings that they beat around the bush. I contacted a program which I thought was an easy in as they are ranked lower than the other schools I got into, and the DGS said they had made their decision, my name was on the list of applicants (um, of course it was), and that there was no way to be certain if I were admitted or not but because there were over 80 applicants (way fewer than the programs I got into which had 300+), and I should assume I didn't get admitted. Would have appreciated a straightforward answer along the lines of "we aren't offering you admission."

Thanks for your input. If you don't mind my asking, is your focus still demography?

My end goal is a career in research, whether that be at a university or at an independent think tank. The funding for the PhD program is yet to be determined, and that's really not helping the decision process. The MA program is fully funded with a stipend, with the added benefit of living in a home I own free and clear. Again, the downside is adding two years to the whole process...not to mention I don't want to live here anymore (though I'm willing to disregard that in favor of setting myself up for success down the road). Yeah, what you've mentioned is exactly my situation. I have research that could be submitted for publication after some more work/tweaking and am confident if I were in the MA program there would be opportunities to collaborate on projects with my current mentor in the program. Though, you do make a good point, the process of submitting for publication and actually having a peice published is quite long these days. I would have the benefit of having an MA thesis to submit with applications. I appreciate your feedback. Really, it will work out either way, but I don't want to sell myself short by jumping into a decent PhD program now when I could qualify for a better one in two years.

Did anyone else apply to Loyola in Chicago? I just emailed the director and she informed me the adcom will be making final decisions tomorrow - hopefully that means notifications on Friday.

I know you are allowed to defer payments while in school, and a PhD program should qualify. If not, there are a lot of other ways to defer - economic hardship being the principal one I've used while out of school. On a completely different note, I'm wondering if anyone can offer some insight to the question I might be facing. Save for a chance at being pulled off the waitlist (which I feel I have a shot at), at a high ranked program, my options seem to be limited to a fairly low ranked PhD program and the MA program at my current university, ranked fairly low (50's I think) overall but high (20s) in "productivity." I'm pushing 30 and would rather go straight to the PhD program but here is my question - would it be better for my career down the road to stick with an MA program where I know I'll have lots of faculty support and am confident I can get at least a couple journal publications under my belt, with the hope of getting into a high ranking program afterwards, or just work hard in the lower ranked PhD program and see what I can make of it? Any applicants with MAs wanna take a stab at this?

Yes, the lone JHU acceptance on the results search page gave me hope that they didn't do acceptances in bulk. JHU was my 'dream program.' A tiny part deep inside of me still hopes someone declines their offer and I'm on that magical unofficial waitlist.

Claiming the Johns Hopkins rejection and the Temple acceptance. I called the grad director at JHU and she said all 7 acceptances have been sent out, though admits have yet to accept offers. She alluded to an unofficial waitlist. I say unofficial because she never used the word wait list but mentioned there are people in line if someone declines and she didn't have that list available to check my status. Also, I emailed the Temple director and he emailed me back with an acceptance, though they will take a few weeks to let me know of available funding packages, if any exist. Hopefully this info is helpful to someone since the forum and results search have been rather quiet for these schools.

So I made the UM waitlist (for Sociology, not the Soc/Public Policy program) and am wondering everyones status who got accepted? Is anyone considering declining their offer? Also, are any waitlisted folks accepting offers elsewhere? I know I'll find out for sure eventually, but the waitlist wait after the initial wait is brutal.

I sure am...JHU is my top choice and one of three schools I have yet to hear from.

Netherworld, too true! Based on the timing of other acceptances/rejections I have a feeling I'm gonna land on a lot of waitlists. It would be nice to secure one more acceptance other than my safety so I can *kind of* relax. Speaking of which - anyone know what happens as far as visitation weekends for waitlisted folks who end up getting accepted down the road? It could end up being a late decision on my part if things keep up the way they are.