captiv8ed

It is so difficult. If you have the option, try to keep scheduled hours at your office on campus. It helps keep a line between work and not work. I don't have a good work space at school, so I am home a lot. :/

As a person who probably has undiagnosed ADD, research alone has been hell. No structure, lack of built in socialization, less in common with a group of people, these things have made it more difficult now. Plus, there is not the excuse of coursework to put off research.

Hello all, Quite a few years ago, I was on this board, gaining lots of insight on the application and waiting process. The info and support was invaluable! I am now a fifth year graduate student, working on my PhD. WooHoo!! For my dissertation, I am learning about how recent college graduates get their first jobs (or get into grad school ) out of college. I have surveyed recent college grads. Now I am in the process of interviewing parents. I am looking for parents of children who graduated with a BA from an American University between 2008-2014. If you are a parent: did your child graduate from college between 2008-2014? Are you willing to sit for a phone interview? If you are a recent college graduate, do you think one of your parents would be interested? Or do you know anyone else who fits the bill and might be interested? Please message me! The interview takes about an hour and happens over the phone. Interview subjects have seemed to enjoy the interviews, as it is a chance to talk and reminisce about their kids. I will give you more information via message. Thanks for your consideration!

Hi everyone, I am 42 and I have been in grad school for 3 years now. I got my master's in Jan and I am pressing on for the PhD. Probably 3 years left. I was a stay at home mom who decided to try college at 35. The impostor syndrome is strong: I was a stay at home mom with no career experience, and my husband has always been in restaurant work. So, no money, no business capital. It has been hard but I love it. My boys are 12, 15, and 16. We are homeschooling the youngest two this yard, because I guess the whole thing wasn't difficult enough already? This semester had been the hardest of my life. Hopefully next semester is better.

I guess definitions of cohort vary by program. I am in a cohort based program. All that has meant in my experience is that we are on roughly the same timeline. We had three required courses per semester the first year (1 of those was 1 credit) that everyone in our cohort took, but sometimes those classes would have people from outside our department in them. Each semester we also got to take one elective. After the first year, we were no longer bound to any class requirements. I would go for months without seeing certain people from my cohort in my 2nd and 3rd years. And our cohort was 9 people, so not huge. We never had any cohort specific group work. There has been one class that had group work, and that was an elective class. The nice thing about a cohort is that I have had people in the same place as me, working on our thesis at the same time, now taking exams at the same time. So we can commiserate.

Bigwords.com checks lots of different sites including half.com, amazon, abebooks, textbooks.com, and several others. They figure in shipping and give you the best combined price. I use a combination of purchased books, rented books, and library books to bring the cost down.

I will share some more of my favorite apps. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/listomatic/id507098896?mt=8 I love this one because it has a very simple display and I can add photos, so I put pretty pictures as a kind of a reward and incentive to check my to-do list Health Habits. I snagged this one when it was free one day. In grad school, it is so easy to let things like exercise and flossing falll by the wayside, so this is an easy way to stay on track/ http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/healthy-habits-premium-health/id436854069?mt=8 Speaking of which-Calorie Counter. Track food and exercise. And it scans barcodes and saves meals. awesome program http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/calorie-counter-by-fatsecret/id364140848?mt=8 I love Paper so much. I can create beautiful pictures while listening to a lecture http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-by-fiftythree/id506003812?mt=8 Nightstand. Best alarm clock ever http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nightstand-central-for-ipad/id392480771?mt=8 Apps Gone Free. Every morning, the best free apps. Bargain hunting! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appsgonefree/id470693788?mt=8 Extreme Agenda is my calendar. It syncs with ical and google calendars, and I can add cute icons. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/extreme-agenda-calendar-contacts/id397983960?mt=8 OfficeTime Lite. I use this to clock time, whether it is writing a paper, grading, or working on my thesis. Makes me see my producitivity. And cry a little when my hourly billing rate is $0 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/officetime-time-expense-tracking/id446200101?mt=8 WeatherHD. Most beautiful weather forecaster ever. however, it is a space hog. I have a 16 gb, so I downloaded Weather Live, which does the trick as well. SkyGrid and Flud are amazing news apps. Fotopedia, Smithsonian, Audobon, and 500px are gorgeous and make you happy about the iPad's amazing resolution/ More later. I promise I DO NOT work for Apple. I was totally overwhelmed with choices when I first got mine, so maybe this will help people navigate

Like this? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myscript-memo/id446368116?mt=8 I use this and it understands my horrible handwriting!

I don't write full papers on it, I can't use zotero, and I too like to have many windows at once when writing. However, I will write entire pieces of a paper on it and then save to dropbox or email it to myself and finish on the laptop. I am not in math and science, so I can't speak to that.

I got my iPad the first day the new ones came out. It has been my main take-to-school computer. For pdf reading, I use GoodNotes. I can highlight, write, or type on any page, in the margins or on the text. I can also add blank (or lined or graph) pages in the document for more notes. It has a nice looking bookshelf. For in class notes, I use Notability. I can handwrite my notes, type them, or speak them. I find handwriting to be the quickest. I have a Bamboo stylus that I love. With Notability, I can also hit the record button and record the professor so if I miss something, I can listen a second time. It has many pen colors and widths, as well as a range of highlighters. I can also take pictures or import images directly into a page. It is a really sweet app. For writing papers, I love IAWriter. Smooth, clean, simple. I do not write full papers with my ipad though, just chunks of it and then move to Word. I have a Onlive, which is a fully functioning Microsoft Office tool, which was free. Ask me any other questions. I love my ipad.

I have 3 kids and a husband who came along for the ride. My kids are older, the youngest was in 4th grade when I started. It is tough but doable. The bad part is the cost of living. I got into a sweet program in Chicago but turned it down in favor of middle of nowhere. It was about the same stipend but there was no way we could afford Chicaog on it. Which was a bummer because it was a better program.

Hi, I don't have time to read the whole of your statement. But I am not crazy about your opening and closing paragraphs. The first two sentences come across as awkward to me. Also, in your first sentence you say you are beckoned by sociology. Of course you are, that's why you are applying to graduate school! And the last paragraph sounds like you are kissing up and giving too much information. Good luck, the application process is a horrible one!

I am a mile and a half. I walk to school most days. I am also on the bus route. The things I love about my neighborhood: it is NOT in the college area. My town is really small and dominated by the uni, but even at my distance, I am out of party and trash strewn zone. I am in an area with a lot of houses and most of my neighbors are families or singles who work at the school. There are some students, but it is a really quiet area. Also, I am a block from downtown. This gives me the ability to go to bars, shops, and restaurants that are not affiliated with the campus (although usually full of students and faculty). It helps to get that separation.

I just finished my first year of a soc degree, so I will take a stab at the answers. Understand though, that the answers are really specific to your program. My department hooked us up with mentors, maybe yours will do that as well. If not, try to get in touch with a grad student (you could email the dgs and say you have questions and ask them to recommend a grad student to email)to ask them. 1. My first year we were to take three graded classes and a p/f professions course. The graded courses were in theory, methods, stats, and an elective. After the first year we don't really have any course load requirements. 2. In our department, they don't accept people unless they can fund them or the student has outside funding (fellowship). I would suppose that you could volunteer to TA/RA. Most professors will not turn away free help. 3. My first year: 20 hours (or less) of TA duties, 10 credit hours of coursework. Busy pretty much all the time. 4. Talk to lots of faculty and grad students to find out what they are working on, read tons. Don't be shy about setting up appointments with faculty members to chat about their research and your interests. They may be able to point you in a good direction. Don't be afraid to say no if they are trying to morph your interests into something that isn't you, though! As far as producing quality work: Read, listen, take notes. Be prepared to feel completely and utterly stupid and unqualified. And don't let tons of "constructive feedback" get the best of you. That part was pretty shocking to me, who was used to getting lots and lots of praise for my writing in undergrad.

Mine is every two weeks. The first one was quite a ways into the first month so a lot of people were sweating it. We only get paid nine months.

I think that might be program specific. Everyone I have talked to in my program says the first year is by far the worst. The course load is high, we need to form our committee and get a research proposal together, and a lot of the cohort has had to teach 101, which means learning how to teach, getting a syllabus worked out, and the extra hours. After the first year, people have much more self directed time.

I took 15 years off before getting my undergrad degree. In the meantime, I worked retail and had babies and raised them up a bit. I went from stay at home mom to college student to grad student. The transition has not been difficult. Sometimes I am sad that we don't have more money, but I think my kids have a pretty cool life with lots of opportunities afforded them from living in a college town and having a flexibly scheduled mom. I am not the oldest in my program (although I am one of a handful), and there are a lot of people in their mid- to late-20s, and that age gap doesn't seem insurmountable. I have a lot of friends and feel respected in my program. Life gets crazy, but it seems worth it.

1. I wish I would have fully grasped how busy I would become. It is so much more work than undergrad. 2. In that vein, I wish I would have done more prep work, gotten more freezer meals cooked and frozen before school started. 3. I got excellent advice from a friend: Set a time limit and don't go over it. Let's say it is 40 hours or 50 hours or whatever. When you reach it, STOP! Even if you haven't finished the reading. There are times when you have no choice and will have to break it, but try your best to stick to it. 4. Find a place you love and when it gets too much, go there and stay there until you have gained perspective. It could be the ocean, the forest, or our back yard. 5. EXERCISE! I have stayed sane by walking to school most days and taking walks with my husband at night. It gives us a chance to reconnect and let's me look away from the screen. 6. Learn to focus and cut out distractions. I installed Rescue Robot and it lets me know how long I have spent on each site and how productive I am. It is a free app and you can put it on multiple computers. I find it wonderful because so much of my time is spent on the computer or at home reading, so it is very easy to get sucked down rabbit holes. I have canceled my social media accounts as well, to cut down on mindless surfing. 7. Try to move to your new place early if you can. Having a couple weeks to settle, unpack, and get your bearings before you are hit with school is wonderful. 8. You will no longer be the smartest person in your class. Get over it. Also, don't be intimidated by other students. Remember they have had different training and preparation. One of the hardest things as a first year was to be thrown in a class with students who already have their master's and are studying for their qualifying exams. The only way I survived was that one of my classmates pointed it out to me and said to keep reminding myself of it. 9. One of my biggest breakthroughs this year has been learning to take criticism without automatically assuming it means I am stupid. Important lesson! 10. Have fun and remember you are in an incredibly privileged position. I think 5% of Americans have an advanced degree.

This is my second application season. I read the forum almost every day but have been really busy with school and so have avoided even signing in to force myself to keep my participation to a minimum. Now that I am almost done with my first year (yay!) I think I will start hanging out a little more interactively. I have found this board to be great, both as an applicant and as a grad student.

Zotero is free, but I think it might only run with firefox. Although maybe it is expanding. Basically, every time you are on your library's catalog and find a journal article of interest, you click the zotero and it makes a citation. You can put it in folders so everything is tidy. When you are getting your books on Amazon or at your library, you can save from there too. Your zotero is stand alone so you can use it at any computer and sync your results. And it works with a host of media options. That all said, I am horribly unsavvy with it and just dump citations into folders, tag them and will figure out what to do with it all later!

Yes this happens. I had written to the chair of the dept on a Sunday. He is possibly the most famous person in his subfield. He wrote me back within a hour. On a Sunday. Very interested in working with me. Reject I went down and spoke with the dean of College of Arts and Sciences who is a pretty prominent sociologist at another school of interest. He is a friend of my mentor, he sent along a personal note to the committee, assuring them he would be personally interested in advising me if I was accepted. Rejected. At the school I am at now, I don't think I spoke to ANYONE before I got in. Crapshoot I tell ya!

I suggest reading some super fluffy fluff now because it will be the last chance for awhile. But if you must: Classical Sociological Theory by Ritzer (aren't we all big Ritzer fans here!) Read some historical looks at your field of choice. For instance, if you are interested in families: read some of Stephanie Coontz' books on it. If you are interested in race, look at Slavery by a Another Name and Sundown Towns. History helps you understand the broader picture but you might not get a chance to read them in grad school. Finally, I suggest browsing ASR from the last ten years, finding topics of interest and reading up on them in there. And use your Zotero to start building your library.

Contact the department. I did this and got a firm reply that they wanted it within the limit. Some look at it as your opportunity to be concise. Others treat it as a loose guideline.

I emailed a professor at my absolute top choice school. It is one of the best in the nation for my field (top 3). I emailed him on a Sunday afternoon. He emailed me back within an hour! On a Sunday afternoon. Very nice note, would be very interested in working with me if I was accepted. He was the chair of the dept at the time. I got a rejection letter from them in early Feb, so it wasn't even that they held my application for further evaluation.

Right, I was just trying to reassure that there are students who are your age.