EdPolicy

My best friend is doing a Master's in sport sociology at Miami University in Ohio, as coffeeology suggested. She has had a great experience. I know the other main program she applied to was Ohio State, but I think the focus was somewhat different than Miami's, if I recall. There are some broken links on Miami's page, but I am sure you can contact the sport studies department for more information.

Great idea for a topic, jacib. [An aside: jacib is even cooler in person than on these forums, if ya'll can believe it. We ate cheese fries.] As a successful applicant this year, here are the things I think made my application work. (1) RESEARCH EXPERIENCE: I had a boatload of it. I have worked as an RA for three years at a public policy think tank. The work was very relevant to sociology and the skills I gained will make me a really strong RA for some department in grad school. Particularly if you want to do quantitative work, the role of experience with programming and researching cannot be over-emphasized. I believe I would not have been a particularly special applicant without this experience. I may have gotten into a couple of the schools I applied to, but certainly not five. I agree with other posters who have said time off is important - working as an RA can be a great option. (2) TAKE A GRE COURSE: It's a sad reality that GRE scores matter the way that they do. If you have the financial resources, take a course. It raised my score significantly. (I received a 730 on V and 760 on Q. Certainly people have higher scores than me on this forum, but I am confident that my GRE scores were never the reason my application was rejected from any school, and that peace of mind is well work $1,200 to me.) (3) DON'T APPLY TO SAFETY SCHOOLS: If you fall in love with all of the top schools, apply. I didn't apply to any safeties, my safety was in numbers. There are so many fall back plans that are wonderful opportunities - the MAPSS program at U Chicago, working for another couple of years, etc. - that there is no reason to "settle" if you know you want to go to a top school. You must, however, be willing to do something other than school and re-apply if needed. Those are the only nuggets of advice I can think of. This will likely be my last post as well, although you can always DM me if you think I have something specific that would be useful to you. GradCafe was very helpful to me in the application process this year, and I am more than willing to repay this favor to future generations of GC applicants!

I'll message you....

I'm also attending visit days. Like pl0x, I'm concerned about funding but am trying to keep an open mind! Hope to see some of you there.

Yes, "OP" = original poster, so that refers to you.

Yes, I'm going to both via Chicago, which was a bit cheaper. If you haven't booked your tickets yet, that's an option to explore!

Anyone want to claim the wait list for Social Policy & Sociology on the results page? That's super impressive, congrats whoever you are! Everything is so spread out this year - I just want to know either way at this point!

Thanks, jacib, that was definitely interesting. I had done something similar, comparing my schools to where I live now. My conclusion? I'm going to be poor. I'm so excited to be going to school with nerds like you all next year. (I mean that in the most loving way possible.)

Congratulations, astronautka and focused! I also got accepted to Michigan, though I applied for the Public Policy & Sociology PhD program, which is a joint venture between the Soc department and the Ford School. It is a phenomenal fit for my interests, and I'm really overwhelmed and excited. I plan to attend the visit days, even though my work has to be pissed about the amount of time I am taking off in March.... Hope to see some of you there!

Harvard's Social Policy & Sociology program, for sure. They take approximately 2 people per year, from what I've heard, so I have no earthly reason to be hopeful about it - but somehow I still am! In celebratory news, I was admitted into an interdisciplinary predoctoral training program at Stanford last night. (I had already heard about the sociology department, but this was big for me.) I really hope news picks up for all of us!

I also received a nice email from a faculty member who I'm interested in working with. It was clear she had read my file carefully and really knew my interests and understood what I was looking for. I'm interested in education policy research, inequality/stratification, and quantitative methods. The visit day is coming up so soon! We should all definitely exchange PMs and get each other's names so we can look out for each other.

I have not heard about financial aid but I have booked my plane ticket to LA!

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone think today is too quiet?

Thanks for answering on my behalf, everyone! And congrats to deckard. Well-deserved.

Waiting for Berkeley is killing me!!!