captiv8ed

I keep saying I am not going to add more to this thread, but yes coya!! The one that drove me craziest is UW's. The school is half funded by Microsoft millions, but there are so many dead links on the sociology page, and the information hasn't been updated in who knows how long. There is one particular area of research that sounds interesting, and it is talked about as an upcoming project. It was talked about in that way last year, and they haven't updated! So is it happening now or not??!!

Yes! Or the complete hidden-ness of the electronic application itself!

Yes to the differences! Iowa was the most annoying. The grad school application portion had to be submitted by 12/1 (the earliest of any application) but all the supporting info, which included the statement of purpose, wasn't due until 1/1, and it had to be mailed. And they stated strongly that they didn't want a writing sample. But needed two full copies of transcripts, one for grad and one for dept. Another annoying thing was the need for the day of starting and completing a school. Month and year should suffice, and they all said if you didn't know the exact date, you could just enter the 1st of the month. So, why bother? One of the schools only let me enter 3 of my previous schools. I talked to someone in the dept who said to just choose 3 at random. And I also hated having to choose 2 research or work experiences and trying to explain them in 200 characters, since I was also attaching a CV.

Mine grabbed me and stalked me and wouldn't release me. I took sociology my first quarter. I was in love. So happy. But I was hesitant to pursue an "impractical" degree. My mother-in-law got a degree in anthropology when she was about my age and then worked as an executive assistant all her working years, finally retiring in poverty at the age of 70. I did not want to follow this path. So, I grabbed onto all sorts of more practical paths: library science, corporate trainer, teacher, career advisor, lawyer, policy analyst. And yet I kept finding myself incredibly jealous when I would talk to someone who was doing sociology or anthropology. So I began to think maybe it was the right path for me. Then one day I asked my mentor, "If you could play God, what career would you like to see me in?" She didn't answer at first, but then came back to it and said that she would love to see me as a sociologist. That was the first time I thought that I could actually go all the way with it. Up until then, I figured I would only be able to get a bachelor's and then have to apply it to a career. But with her confidence behind me, I realized I could try for the PhD and actually work directly in the field.

Joro, hackintosh? Off to Google! Also, I never like Avast. I think it would make my computer run slow, and it seems like it talked to me. I hate talking programs. I switched to Threatfire and have been happy with it. Do you have those issues with Avast?

I have assigned my 11 year old the task of finding the perfect grad school laptop for me. I gave him my specs and he is going to ferret it out for me. All those years of diapers and feeding, and buckling in car seats are definitely paying off

Thanks coya! It looks like a counterpart to Sundown Towns, with a look at modern societies. I put it on hold.

I went to bed on Dec 14th freaked out about this! But I can assure that if it just says Jan 1, then that means 11:59 on Jan 1, not Dec 31. Princeton's final deadline is Dec 31. I received this in an email from them: If you have not yet submitted your electronic application please note that the application will be turned off at 11:59 PM EST on December 31, 2009. Applicants who wait till the very last minute could encounter heavy internet traffic and run the risk of missing the deadline. DO NOT wait to submit your application as we are unable to turn the system back on and we DO NOT accept late applications. Also, both the applications I submitted on Dec 15 for that deadline were marked as successful. So, yeah double check for specifics but you should be fine.

I agree with rainy_day. Especially since this was your first post.

Melusine, I understand this! When I was a senior in high school, I was dating this boy. I was telling some of my friends about him in class. Nothing outrageous, just about the date and how much I liked him. It turned out that one of his friends was also in my class and sat behind me. She called him and told me that I was saying we were engaged (after one date!!) and that totally spooked him. he had known this girl for awhile and trusted her opinion so no amount of denials would change his mind.

glasses, I say this a lot too!! I have had to fight myself in SOP and emails to profs to not say, "I really really really want to go to your school and will wash your car every week for a year if you let me in. Please please please please!!!"

Well, I will compromise and tell about the general interests I put in my SOP and then some more specific interests that I haven't talked about, but hope to do someday. My general interests are the intersection of class and religion, and also gender and household labor. A few not-discussed topics: I did a really interesting survey on body image that left me with a lot of questions and I want to do more. Specifically looking at how media literacy has affected women's body image, and men's true thoughts on women of all sizes. I also really want to spend some time on the marketing departments construction of gender. I am specifically thinking of the pink movement in girl's toys, and also gender-specific toys (girl's bake ovens, girl's-can-draw books) and what affect that has on boys' desire to use those toys, and also the general public (kid and grown up) response to boys playing with those toys. And I want to study the marketing of Christianity. I am not sure what my exact questions are there yet though. Gee, maybe I should go to a place that has a strong sociology of marketing focus, if such a thing exists!! OK, just one more (and it is in the marketing field too): the homogeneity of places and people in America. It does not hold true for everyone, but you know how you can go to any town in America and see types of people? We talk about kid cliques, but it spills over into adults as well. I don't have any specific questions there yet, either. Alright that is it. Those are all secondary interests, so who knows if I will ever get to them.

I just emailed my midyear grades and got a long automated reply. I know some programs aren't due until the end of December, so I thought I would post this in case it might be helpful: The Graduate Admission Office will be CLOSED beginning Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 3:00 PM EST and will reopen on Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:45 AM EST for Christmas. We will also be closed beginning Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 3:00 PM EST and will reopen on Monday, January 4, 2010 at 8:45 AM EST for New Years. We hope that the information below will help to address your questions. If the answer to your email is below we will NOT respond due to the high volume of emails received during this time. Applicants who are writing to check the status of their electronic application should visit http://gradschool.princeton.edu/admission/applicants/status for information on how to check their status and manage their recommenders. Please allow up to 4 weeks for test scores to be received from ETS and matched to the electronic application. Subject scores as well as multiple sets of scores will be updated separately from the general scores so there may be a delay between when they are updated. Applicants are required to upload an electronic version of their transcript into the space provided in the electronic application. This does NOT have to be official and can be something downloaded from their school or it can be a paper transcript that is scanned and turned into an electronic file. Applicants who are scanning we suggest a resolution of 300 or less and in black and white to meet the file size limitations. Applicants applying to Architecture and Music MUST have their portfolios or music samples sent to be received by Thursday, December 31, 2009. All mail scheduled to be delivered when the office is closed will be held and delivered on Monday, January 4, 2010 and will be considered as received on time. Any mail received after January 4, 2010 we cannot guarantee that it will be processed in time for the application review process. The address to send portfolios and music samples is: Princeton University, Graduate Admission Office, One Clio Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544. Nothing should be submitted to the department. If you have not yet submitted your electronic application please note that the application will be turned off at 11:59 PM EST on December 31, 2009. Applicants who wait till the very last minute could encounter heavy internet traffic and run the risk of missing the deadline. DO NOT wait to submit your application as we are unable to turn the system back on and we DO NOT accept late applications.

I would just say, "Hello I have applied to your program and I am really interested in your work on blah, blah, blah." Give a short research proposal of your own and ask if your interests really do match and if that prof is taking students.

I am in this also. I have submitted 5 so far. I have one all done but a professor is getting back to me this week, so I am holding off sending it until after I hear from him, just in case. And then there is one that I haven't even started because I am going down to visit the school in January and the deadline isn't until Feb 1.

That is the way I am too, Serric!

That is so awesome! Nice work!

I haven't even thought to obsess over this yet. A few of my programs (or at least someone in the programs) have told me they don't start reviewing until sometime in January. I have the happy thought that one of the professors is getting back to me next week, and a secretary from another program will be getting in touch to set up a visit.

rising_star, did you get accepted at every school you applied to?

Right, I am sorry. Must be the Xmas punch, I am not thinking clearly! Are you sure that Penn State's people won't be back next week? One of the grad secretaries at Oregon is going to be back on the 29th. Maybe you can call and explain the situation and see what they say.

Can you fax the complete packet on the 4th?

Thank you! That is the kind of dream-crushing, depressing news I am looking for.

I understand those conditions and the fact that it isn't necessary. But I also know that there have been grad cafe'ers who have had successful correspondence with faculty, and I am trying to start a thread for us to obsess over what that means.

I am not saying that the act of contacting is what might put you over the edge. But the thing is, if you don't contact anyone and then you don't get in, you have no idea if someone was interested or not. Does that make sense? So I guess what I am looking for is stories of people who have applied in the past and have has faculty members say they are interested in their work but then that applicant gets turned down anyway.

That would be the best! I have no idea. For one school, I got in touch with the dean and he invited me to coffee to talk about the program. It isn't a formal interview. I had told my mentor about it and that is when she brought up the wearing of the suit. I told her specifically I would look sharp but not wear a suit for that one and she agreed but thought I should wear a suit for others. Which made me think there would be others. But we are at a liberal arts school, so we don't really know how the app process works. For me it isn't that I think the schools are better, but I am just concerned that they have different standards of dress. I have lived on both coasts and I know that in general, people dress and act differently in the northeast than they do in the south or west. I don't think the people there are different or the education is better, but if they expect a different dress code to interviews, I want to oblige.