Paul Allen

Penn is highly ranked in both Demography and Sociology, so you can't go wrong there. I'm not sure about Let me also suggest you look at Penn State's joint program in Sociology and Demography. Full discretion, I'm attending PSU this fall and planning on completing the dual-degree program, but that said I think I can still speak to it's thoroughness and quality. For PSU, you apply and get accepted into the Soc. program and then opt into the Demography program housed by the Population Center. Beyond those two programs I don't know of any that have joint degrees but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Good luck.

yeah, I'm almost certain I'll be at PSU. I just have to sign the form.

I'm happy for the both of you. It's funny, i was checking this site frequently and looking for updates from the both of you as well as much as news about schools.

I just called today because it's the only school I haven't heard back from and they said I was waitlisted, but couldn't tell me where on the list. It was confusing because I hadn't heard anything from them one way or another. Then they also said the earliest I'd be able to hear back would be April 15th.

Yeah, I was poly-sci and had some success.

I got waitlisted a while back, I think around the very start of February.

yeah, I'm in that boat too. I heard from two separate sources that they already sent out their acceptances (it could just be their first round though, who knows) so the best we can except is a waitlist. A prompt rejection is evidently too much to ask for.

I did, I got two years funding. I'm not sure, but I was told by a guy who was considering going there last year that this is the best offer they give and the other offer is no funding (half get it, half don't usually, so this person said). First year is a fellowship, the second year is a readership I believe. After that they say you're on your own to get a teaching assistant or readership from Sociology and it's not guaranteed, and you may and probably will have to look outside of the department for readerships or assistantships. They say while it's not guaranteed, most students have had success finding readerships or TA positions in other social science or humanities based grad programs there. There's also about a $550 fee every year after the first two. To me this does not seem like a viable method to keep your grad program running. That's just me, I know they're facing budget issues and they don't have a ton of money to offer, and this may work for them if they convince the student to go through with it without the guarantee. I would just imagine that they're losing talent because of the precarious situation they're offering. To me it would make more sense to shrink the number of admits and guarantee them funding, but I don't have all the information in front of me. To the person who posted about reallocation, yes, the letter states to let them know if you're going or not so they can reallocate. I plan on letting them know at the end of March if I'm sure I'm going to attend or go to another program. Best of luck for those still waiting.

yup, got an offer, 2 years funding, then you're on your own. The offer was actually quite confusing, I'll need to read through it again, but you could tell from the offset that it was bad.

I may have just finagled a way to get back and go too, woohoo! WE ARE, PENN STATE!

Thanks to all, it was my second after UCSD but given the state of their funding and the likely fact that I wouldn't be able to go there if they didn't give me funding, this feels like my first real acceptance! I probably won't be able to make it to the weekend because I'm out of the states for the year, but I couldn't be more pumped. Best of luck to the rest out there!

Sweet day in the morning! Accepted at Penn State today with full funding, what a weight off my chest. I'm going to school, baby!

and i just got the admit weekend email, March 31, yikes, i hope we don't have to wait that long to hear about funding.

I too am out of the country and won't be able to make it to the weekend when they decide to have it.

wait, UCLA has sent out rejections already? Man I am so confused.

Ah, I finally found that part about them not funding on the website. "FUNDING We do our best to offer competitive funding or support to students we admit, with the most competitive funding in the form of fellowships, awards, or employment, going to applicants who are best matched to our program. Unfortunately, we are unable to match a support package to every single admission offered. Without a guarantee, we strongly encourage applicants to consider additional resources and supplemental forms of Financial Aid." Man, that is not encouraging.

Ah, this frightens me seriously. I still have never been able to find the page on the UCSD grad website that says they don't provide full funding, please someone send a link. As far as the financial package, I guess there's nothing I can do but wait, since I haven't been accepted anywhere else. It just feels like a fake acceptance since I can't imagine anyone that could go without remission and a stipend. There's no way I could or would take out the debt so it would put me back at square one.

Hi, I'm throwing this question out there to anyone who might have helpful info. I've been looking on this forum for a while and I can't seem to find anything that addresses it. I'm curious about the funding package that UC San Diego offers. I found a few threads that had links to surveys that listed that for sociology they offer RA'ships for 21k but did not list years for funding. Then I found another thread in sociology that compared funding and mentioned that UCSD only gives 50-75% tuition remission (can that be possible?). Another thread addressing the UC funding concerns mentioned that in the past UCSD had cut their students from 5 years funding to 4 years after a contract was signed. What I'd like to know is, does anyone go to UC San Diego or have firsthand knowledge to shed light on what type of financial packages they usually offer? I'm only stressing because so far they're the only school that's accepted me and if they don't give me full funding I may be screwed right now (if that 50% remission thing is correct). They said they'll be sending funding info down the road but the wait is killing me since I won't be able to go to school if I'm not fully funded, so essentially it's as though I've received zero acceptances since I don't know whether or not i'll be able to go or not. Any help is appreciated, but I swear I've looked through every possible related thread in Sociology so no need to post old threads. Thanks!

Got my waitlist email from Penn State yesterday (i can't believe it, i mean, I can, but I can't - it being my homestate and all). Said it was a short list and if I get in it's fully funded, but it still stings. The email was very nice and it at least addressed me by my name (unlike those Ivy Leaguers at Princeton). Should I be ok with this or pissed off about it, I can't tell?

I echo those sentiments, I'm waiting to hear back from three and I know they've accepted and rejected people, so it makes no sense. Out with it already!

Just got my rejection from Berkeley this morning (email link to website, always a good sign). Not that i needed to give them reasons to reject me but i had a blatant typo in my SOP (they would've rejected me anyway), but whatever, I've wasted 70 bucks on less productive things. Still waiting to hear back from UCLA (i hold out hope) and Penn State (my home state, come on). Fairly sure I've been rejected from U Penn.

Bah, I did. I guess the silence is bad news. Is this true for all programs that have already admitted people but not sent news? I'm still waiting back from Berkeley (yeah, i don't care, i know they're rejecting me), UCLA (i hope), and PSU (Come on!)

I can commiserate. After reading my statement to Berkeley (as if I needed to hand them a reason to reject me) about ten times and having others do it as well, I found a typo in the freaking FIRST sentence. I saw that and immediately thought "$70 down the drain".

yeah, i mean the pay-off is huge if you get the offers and it's easy to put into context. Of course, if you don't get accepted anywhere, not only do you not get to go to school that year, you also got to pay $1,500 for people to tell you that you weren't good enough, which is a tough pill to swallow.

Yeah, all told I'll probably have spent 3k on everything (paid for a stats class). If we get in and get funded it's a small investment that will pay off, but if we don't it's just another blow to the solar plexus.