rising_star

If you can't afford to take the GRE again and you are concerned about improving your writing sample, maybe you should wait, rather than applying this year.

Hi @Funkiehippie, this forum is for people applying to or already in graduate school so your questions aren't appropriate here. To get sound advice, you may want to reach out to social workers and/or potential employers in your area to see how they would view an online program and Ashford University in particular. Given the emphasis on developing good interpersonal skills in social work programs, I'd guess that many employers will want to see someone who went to an on-campus (or perhaps a hybrid) program.

Hi @Shehryar90, this forum is for those applying to graduate school or already in graduate school. It is not a forum for these seeking help with their homework. Good luck!

You should be thinking about the people whose work you've been reading. Who are the scholars whose work you enjoy reading and who you frequently cite? Start there and by reading recently published articles in your area(s) of interest to see who is publishing on the topic. I think most PhD programs are places where "cutting-edge research is conducted" so that's not something I'd mention in emails to departments or POIs if I were you.

I wish I could easily find one of my old previous posts about fit but, here goes the abbreviated version. I found both MA and PhD advisors who shared my general interests, theoretical framework, and methodology, rather than focusing on specific topical fit. That is, my PhD advisor and I both worked within the same broad subfield (let's just call it "organic agriculture"). However, we studied different practices (PhD advisor did large-scale farmers, I did small-scale) and in different contexts (PhD advisor did Australia, I did Albania). But in terms of methods used, the methods we use are similar because it's all work done within the same subfield, with the same underlying theoretical framework. I had committee members with expertise in the Balkans, another who worked with small-scale farmers in the US, and a third who specialized in some of the methods I was using. All of this is made-up, obviously, but my point is that you don't need an advisor who works on exactly the same topic as you. In fact, I think it's better (in the social sciences) not to have someone who does exactly what you want to do because they won't necessarily ask you the same kinds of questions as someone coming at the subject as a bit of an outsider.

What do you mean by feminist? Are you looking for scholars who use feminist methods, engage with feminist theory, or something else? If you want a list of women's studies associations, you should check out NWSA's online resources. They have an institutional directory, which you can search to more easily find departments. http://www.nwsa.org/AF_institution_Directory.asp Without knowing more specifically what you're interested in, it's hard to tell you what departments you should explore.

If you're concerned about fit, then is it enough to find someone who focuses on legal studies in sociology? I'd start my search there and then gauge interest in your more narrow topic.

If you're applying straight from undergrad, you should list any publications that you have, including those in journals published by your college or department. As you advance in your career, these should be removed.

Honestly, you don't even have to be home for that part. When I was in grad school, my mom would renew a bit early (her birthday is at the end of the month but she'd renew at the beginning) and then mail me the registration and sticker for the tag so that I could put it on my car. This worked smoothly for us for a number of years.

So, I'll just be honest here as a faculty member. I work a 9 month a year contract (that is, I don't work or get paid from mid-May to mid-August). Consequently, I don't check my work email that often and don't answer anything that isn't urgent (so, right now that means emails from the registrar about course-related matters and certain emails from my chair). The rest can wait until I start getting paid again in August, at which point some may be lost because of how many emails have come in thus far this summer. Just something to think about when you're timing your emails... I would wait until early September (after Labor Day in the USA) to send emails.

For a dissertation proposal, I would ask your advisor/committee what they're expecting in terms of length, format, etc. because this varies widely by department and even by advisor. And then, in terms of guidelines, I'd say give them what they expect, don't try to innovate, and don't promise more than you can deliver. The diss proposal is often described as a contract in the same way that a course syllabus is so don't bite off more than you can chew. Good luck!

In general, I advise taking courses you're interested in for your electives. You might also check the requirements for jobs you're interested in to see if they specify any specific courses or experience.

You don't actually have to go home to do the inspection, just to the state of Texas. El Paso, Amarillo, etc., are way less than 17 hours from anywhere in Arizona.

If you don't know what you're interested in studying, then it doesn't really matter what a department specializes in. You need to do a lot of independent reading (a gap year could help with this) so you can figure out what particular areas of sociology interest you. Without that, your chances of getting in are lower, even at less competitive programs.

I had a bunch of evening seminars (running either 4-6:30 or 5-7:30pm) while a PhD student. My strategy was to eat a healthy snack beforehand (so half an hour or so before seminar started), have another healthy snack available during, and then have a slow cooker meal or leftovers waiting for me when i got home. After being on campus from ~9:30am until 7pm, even a 20 minute meal was more cooking than I was interested in. And, I always had a healthy frozen dinner or two in the freezer (bought on sale) as a back p in case there weren't leftovers, I didn't get things in the crockpot, etc.

The CV will definitely be longer than one page as your academic career builds. Take a look at the CVs of current grad students and junior faculty online and you'll see that many are two or more pages.

@Calgacus, there's excellent advice over in "Officially Grads" that you may want to check out:

No, it wouldn't look weird at all. When I applied to PhD programs after doing a MA, I had all three of my thesis committee members write my rec letters because I'd taken grad seminars with them and they'd overseen my research. If you have two from your committee and a third who can speak well of your abilities from the classroom, you should be fine.

The consequences for early termination should be spelled out in the agreement you signed from the Fulbright Commission. Have you checked all of the documents they've given you to see what they say?

From everything you've said, it sounds like you're in the USA. If that's the case, then it's important to realize that most programs have a minimum amount of coursework that must be completed in residence (that is, on their campus). Because of that, it's unlikely that you'd just be able to start from the dissertation proposal and move forward from there. That said, there are other potential options aside from those already mentioned. Would it be possible for you to do an exchange where you're a visiting grad student at a different campus for a semester or year? Could you find and obtain a dissertation research or writing fellowship where you could choose where you want to do your work (e.g., ACLS Mellon, NSF DDRI, etc.)? (Obviously the possibilities for each of these vary from one field to the next but they are an option for some grad students depending on their field.) Is there a chance that you could conduct dissertation fieldwork/lab work on another campus that's in a location you prefer? None of these would require a formal transfer but they each could enable you to live near your SO and still get your degree from your current university. Depending on your SO's job status and country of origin, there could be yet another option. Would it be possible for you to pursue your degree in your SO's home country/area? In Europe, it's much more common for students to be admitted with a proposal, do the dissertation (aka, thesis) and then graduate. Is going to school abroad in such a system an option for you? If you decide to go that route, you should look into getting some sort of terminal degree from your current program... Best of luck! Please keep us posted. If you have more questions, I'm sure we'll be happy to answer them.

No one is going to look into your application until after the deadline. So, apply whenever you feel most comfortable.

Have you considered sending a brief introductory email (a few lines about yourself) and asking if it would be possible to have a longer chat when you're in the area? Perhaps the two of you could meet for coffee when you come to town to search for housing (I did this with my PhD adviser the summer before I started the program) or meet during orientation week for lunch or coffee to have a longer conversation? This way you're not relying solely on email and have a chance for a more natural dialogue about your interests, course planning, etc.

Over in the sociology subforum, there's an AMA where this question was asked. I realize it's not your field but this should give you a sense of how grad director's think about this: I think that in math and stats it's probably even less common for an applicant to appear somewhere in the author list on a publication.

To whom is the justification being submitted? For what purpose? Without this additional information, it will be difficult for anyone here to help you.

Spending money on visits before you've been accepted isn't a good use of your financial resources unless you're independently wealthy or have a trust fund. Similarly, I would skip the open house. To make a connection, you could send emails and arrange a Skype or phone conversation to further discuss your interests (assuming the POI is interested in that). Once you've been admitted, there's usually funding to assist with a visit where you could meet the POI in person, tour the lab, etc. Also, why are you applying in September if the applications don't close until December? There's no benefit to applying early when it comes to PhD program admissions. Applications are reviewed at the same time and that review won't begin until after the application deadline. Moreover, in September, labs may not know about the status of pending grants, which can change whether or not they're even accepting new students.