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sa854

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  • Interests
    the sociology of gender, gendered medicalization, the gendered organization of health
  • Program
    Sociology PhD Programs

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  1. congrats everyone!! i am in too! university fellowship. anyone in the science studies cluster? i am going to try to get there for the visiting day but i'm not sure i can make it. i didn't check the online app but got a nice email with the funding attachment.
  2. Hi Romaniac, If you really like Wisconsin, try to negotiate with them. That is what I have been told by all my faculty advisors and friends--this is the only time in your graduate career where you have any leverage! I would call/email Wisconsin about it--tell them that you'd love to go to Wisconsin but you've got a family and a child and it is not feasible for you to go anywhere without funding. Tell them that UNC is offering you X and that you are interested in going there because you need to be able to support your family. If Wisconsin can't scrounge around and find you some funding after that, then your choice is made. good luck! SA854
  3. Hi! i too have applied to Northwestern. do we know how they get back to us? phone? email? it's a great program, i would love to work with steven epstein good luck everyone! SA
  4. Congrats everyone!!! i also woke up to an email for admission to UCLA!! yay!!!! does anyone know about their funding options? i know we're supposed to hear back by the end of the month but i'm just curious
  5. Regarding GRE's: I think they say it takes them 5 business days to send the scores...so, presumably, they would arrive 8-10 days after you call/submit the online request
  6. Ask them questions about the resources available at the institution for you to pursue your research interests, the strengths of the department, other faculty they think you should speak with, and graduate students who work with him/her that you could contact.
  7. I am in a similar situation. I agree with captiv8ed, I think if it's a good fit you should definitely still apply and see how you feel after you have offers. If you want to teach, placements are difficult at lower-ranked schools so keep that in mind. best, SA
  8. Hi, I am also obsessed with UCSF, it's a fantastic, fantastic program. I think it is fairly competitive because they only choose students that fit well with their faculty. I would recommend you get in touch with the faculty members there and make yourself known to them, it will definitely help you get in. Make sure you have a medical sociologists writing a rec for you if you can, that will help as well. I was speaking with the chair of the admissions committee on the phone recently and he highly recommended UCSF's medical sociology program, which has been echoed by my advisors and several other faculty members at other schools. If your grades aren't great but your research interests work well with the UCSF program, it may not be an issue. But definitely get in touch with the faculty and talk about your research interests with them. Be forewarned--they don't offer money (no undergraduates so no TA positions). UCSF is housed in one of the best medical schools in the country and has an excellent school of public health as well though so graduate students can get on research projects in those fields to fund their education. Best, SA
  9. I have been speaking with faculty all over and I also feel that this is contrary to my experience. Moreover, my current advisor chairs the committee of the doctoral program at my current graduate program and while she has certainly not minimized the importance of GRE scores, they are by no means the most important factor in the process. She has placed FAR greater emphasis on grades, LoRs, and SoPs. She chairs the committee at one of the best schools and is a world renowned sociologists, so i place much weight on her opinions. Maya, I am in a similar situation: I do not have representative graduate work because I have not had the same opportunities to engage in original work in my graduate studies. I have decided to submit my undergraduate thesis as well (parts of it) because it is my strongest piece of work. I think they want to be sure that you are capable of scholarly writing and critical thinking. I do not think they will think it suspect if you submit an undergraduate thesis over graduate work. And, as socialcomm has mentioned, they will have access to your graduate transcript and will therefore have a sense of your graduate coursework and skills.
  10. Herbert Gans still teaches qual at columbia, i hear his course are excellent
  11. I am applying this round as well and I have had great success contacting professors. I sent them an email with a brief statement about my background, a few lines about what I am currently doing, and a few lines about my research interests. I introduced the email by saying that I am just trying to assess my fit at __ school and am interested to learn more about the program. The only school where no one got back to me after a few emails was UCSC. I received emails (sometimes almost immediately) from everyone else I emailed (I emailed one to two people at every school to which I am applying) and spoke with all of them either in person or on the phone. The professors I contacted at Stanford all got back to me within minutes of my email! It was quite reassuring but I have found that the professors who were not as quick to respond were just as willing to speak with me and equally as helpful. I have found these meetings and phone conversations to be incredibly useful in my personal statements. I have been able to say a lot about my fit with each program in the essay as a result of speaking with faculty. It's definitely a good idea to speak with them. I sent between one and two emails, depending on whether there was more than one person with whom I wished to speak. Oftentimes I the faculty member whom I contacted would suggest others with whom I should speak and sometimes even set up meetings for me. Definitely still apply if you think you're a good fit, don't worry if they don't respond. I would not recommend asking them of your possibility of getting in. good luck!
  12. Thanks SO much, this is really helpful. I truly appreciate all your advice!
  13. Thanks so much to both of you for your responses. Spaulding: is this the cite to which you referred: http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_r ... tml#area41 ? I clicked on Sociology to find the top soc. programs. I have one lingering question though: I intend to do research at the intersection of gender and health. I have been speaking with faculty all summer to assess their resources for doing this kind of research and it appears that there are only a handful of schools that have true gender scholars who also work in medical sociology. UCSF is one such school but it's technically ranked at 51 on the NRC list. Should I be weary of the quality of my training there, even if it appears to be one of few institutions that could support work i want to do? I am applying to several schools within the top 50, some within the top 10, but I think if I get into UCSF, I would love to attend because it uniquely offers me two scholars that can support and advise my research. Most of the other programs have medical sociologists and gender scholars but it is rare that an institution houses a scholar who works in both areas--and even rarer that it houses two (as UCSF does). Should I rethink my first choice based on these rankings? I want to make sure I get adequate and strong training but I also want to make sure I go to the institution that can offer me the best advisement in my particular area of interest... Thanks again, I so appreciate your help sa
  14. Hi, I am applying to doctoral programs in Sociology now for (matriculation in) the fall of 2010. I have been meeting with professors around the country to learn more about programs and find the ones that I feel are a good fit for me. When I was visiting with a professor in the soc department at Stanford, she kept talking about "the top schools" and I really do not fully understand how this "top" status is determined and by whom. I know that US News ranks all the sociology programs but I have looked at their methodology and I am surprised if anyone would give those ratings much credence. I was/am under the assumption that the "top" schools in Sociology should be individually determined, based on your disciplinary interests and the faculty/resources that institutions have to offer. That being said, I want to make sure I am applying to a range of schools to make sure that I can get in somewhere. I am aware that some programs take far fewer students and some programs fund all of their students while others take many and do not offer funding. Are these the only measures that I may go off of to better understand these ranking distinctions? Is there a more credible ranking list from which I may draw? Does anyone have any general advice on this front? Thank you so much! best, sa
  15. Hi, I am applying to sociology doctoral programs now for the fall of 2010 and I can't decide what kind of writing sample to send. I am currently in a public health masters program and i have had the opportunity to take a doctoral seminar in gender theory/the sociology of gender (one of my serious interests for sociology). i wrote a few papers for the class and i am trying to figure out which of these to send as a writing sample. one paper is a short one--5 pages double spaced--that i wrote comparing the analytical frameworks used by two different authors discussing the same subject. the paper was for the gender seminar referenced above. the paper is one of the best i've ever written but the problem is that it's very obvious that it's was an assigned topic, not a research paper or thesis. it references two books and one theoretical text that i cannot presume the professors on the admissions committee will have read. the second paper is a much longer one (maybe 18 pages?) and it is an original, research paper that is in an even more specific area of sociology that i am interested in. it was for the same doctoral seminar and i got the same grade on the paper so i know my profs liked it but it is not as well written as the other, shorter paper. however, i am revising this paper over the next few months and will hopefully be submitting it for publication with my advisor so it's definitely a start. the paper will also become my masters thesis so again, it has potential. the issue is that it would be hard to edit into a paper that is as well written as the short one and it will certainly not do for those schools that require shorter writing samples...also, the paper has potential but it's not going to be 'ready' for a while--i won't be ready to submit it for publication until maybe january and my thesis won't be completed until may... any advice? when they say writing sample, do they mean research paper/thesis/original work? would a paper for a doctoral seminar that is clearly an assignment be poorly received? thanks much for all your help! sa
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