rogue

Roller derby death match. It's the only way I might have a chance, as I suck at most of those other things.

I can't quite tell from your avatar, but it looks like you might have a westie? I have two of them. One freaks out when he hears the mailman coming, runs to the door and assumes the position: paws on either side of the mail slot, mouth open and waiting. As the mail comes through the slot, he rips it from the guy's hand and shakes it like some sort of prey he's trying to kill. When my mail guy finally saw the dogs one day, he laughed and said, "that's it?" He thought I had rottweilers. I probably should have noted this on my applications somewhere--"Don't send mail, just call or email!"

Damn, did those get taken down already? I saw one earlier today, but missed the rest. Boo.

Not to be contentious, but there's a difference between tolerating and being happy. I'd rather be happy; life's too short. YMMV, obviously.

Congratulations! That's great news!

I avoided replying to this earlier because it seemed like tensions were rather high. But I wanted to say that it's never too early to start thinking about things and weighing your options. This is a MAJOR life change. The sooner you start thinking seriously about it, the better. I personally have a mere (compared to the OP) two acceptances and one rejection, and am still waiting to hear back from seven more schools. And I'm even factoring in some of the ones I haven't heard from in my current mental wrangling, because I need to think about which ones could be more compelling than the offers I have in hand. I'm not good with decisions. Take me to a diner and I will stare helplessly at the menu for an hour because there are just too many things to consider. I feel like that now, only with much higher stakes (sadly, not steaks). That said, I mostly agree with those who said to go where the funding is. Of course, in my "what if" game, I am sorely tempted to accept an offer of $18K/year for five years over a hypothetical $23K/year for five years (assuming that one even pans out), which might mean I'm not taking my own--and everyone else's--advice. But I don't have a wife and kid to worry about, either. And one final thought: (almost) everyone here has been really helpful and supportive during this entire nerve-wracking process. I hope we can all stay that way, through our various ups and downs. Cheers and good luck to the folks who are faced with tough decisions, and hang in there, everyone else. You'll probably get good news soon.

I just checked too, and just got rejected too. Ah, well. I'm actually a little relieved, as it makes my decision easier. An offer from UT would've been a serious contender, and it helps a bit to have narrower options, considering how indecisive I can be. (I like to look on the bright side. )

This thread isn't so much questions as things to consider, but I think there are a lot of things listed that you might want to ask about, or at least investigate on your own.

You're probably right. I'm old(ish). I've also lived in probably 20 different cities/neighborhoods in six different states on both coasts and in between. Between life experience and all that moving, I've got an informal list of things I can't or wouldn't want to do without, as well as things I don't want to deal with (like being buried under snow four months out of the year). I was probably more willing to sacrifice in the spirit of adventure when I was younger. Now, not so much. Also totally agree with your concept of fit.

My dogs like to eat the mail. I'm deathly afraid they'll shred a letter before I get to read it, and I won't know if I was admitted or rejected!

Call the schools and explain the situation. Ask them whether they'll still consider you, and if so, how much of a grace period you still have to get the letter in.

Congrats! That's great!

Congratulations!

I must respectfully disagree with this. Personally, I can't imagine spending 5+ years of my life in a locale that didn't make me happy. Sure, your focus will be on school, but you should still be concerned with your quality of life outside the classroom/lab/library. Would you be happier in a big city or a small town? Do you want access to certain things, like the great outdoors (beaches/lakes/mountains/hiking trails in the woods) or cultural stuff (theatre, museums, etc.)? Do you hate the cold (or the heat)? Do you want to be able to get by without a car? What kind of social scene are you looking for (e.g., are you single, do you have kids, etc.)? This stuff matters--maybe not more than academics, but it still counts for something.

Wow, it's a big day for soc admits. Congrats to everyone who got good news!

That's a great list, too. Thanks for sharing! I'm adding some of these to my rapidly-expanding spreadsheet.

Congratulations! That's awesome!

This is a great thread. I have a similar concern; my potential advisor at one of the schools I applied to is someone I know socially as well. I've been a little worried about what that would mean if I went to that school. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments, everyone--definitely reassuring.

They're near the top of my list, too. Those stats are a little disheartening, but I guess we'll see what happens in a couple of weeks. Good luck to everyone!

All other things being equal, I'd probably go with B as well. You don't want to be left without an advisor if the one prof at A leaves.

Those are all great, and I hadn't thought of some of them. Thanks!

I already live in one of the cities and like it very much, and I've been wanting to move to the other for over a year now. I've spent a fair amount of time there over the past ten years (it's just a couple of hours away) and have friends in both places, so I think I'd be happy either way. I guess I'm trying to figure out if it's a bad idea to let location be the deciding factor, when all other things aren't quite equal. If they were equal otherwise, I'd have no problem using location as a tie breaker. And, again, I'm also curious what factors other people are taking into account. Maybe there's something important that I completely overlooked.

Agreed, 100%. I have visited the two main programs in question and I like them both! I've been accepted to one and (though I don't want to jinx it) believe I'll be accepted at the other as well. I just don't think I'll hear from program A with much time to spare before I'm suppose to respond to B's fellowship offer.

This whole application process has made me spreadsheet and list happy. Now I'm working on comparing different programs at which I've been accepted or given a good indication that I would be accepted. Some of the things I'm considering are: 1. Amount of funding, along with cost of living in that city 2. Profs I could work with (how many and how close their interests are to mine) 3. Placements for recent graduates 4. Rank 5. Average time to degree 6. Location (i.e., how much do I want to live in that city?) The problem that I keep running into is that I'm not sure how much weight to give to the location factor. If there's a great program in a city that I like and a very good program in a city I'm dying to live in, I find myself trying to justify choosing the slightly less awesome program based on its location. Is anyone else having this problem? Also, I'm curious how others are approaching the decision-making process (or planning to approach it, since we're still so early in the game, results-wise).

You're not the only one; lots of people in various threads have mentioned switching fields, though engineering -> theology -> sociology is definitely one of the more interesting paths I've heard of. That's got to be worth something, right? I have a BA in communication and an MBA, and I applied to nine sociology programs and one communication program. Sometimes you have to try different things to figure out what you really like.