No Transitory

Hi c-n-s! After overcoming my initial lmgtfy reaction, I wanted to give you a more productive answer to your question. I know, as most of us here, you were just hoping to get the experience of people who have gone through the entire process before you. To add another perspective than the previous posters and throw in the obligatory warning about rankings, don't trust the rankings! Obviously rankings have an influence on a lot of outcomes including job placement and should be ONE aspect to consider in your applications. However, no ranking - not even the US news - can claim that (Sorry for misconstructing your argument Chris. ) - let alone their actual performance in training and placing fresh scholars. One of the biggest issues with US news, for example, is its response rate. 31 percent, in the case of sociology, does not produce the most accurate picture of program perception and particularly not one that can be compressed into a neat five point scale as US news would like you to believe. I recommend reading the ranking boycott statement of the German Sociological Association. Although it primarily targets the CHE rankings, many of the objections are similarly applicable to the US News and NRC rankings. If there is anything close to an "accurate" measure of academic perception, it might look something like Kieran Healy and Steve Vaisey's Department Rankings over at orgtheory.net. For one, it avoids assigning numerical ranks to departments, includes the strongly overlapping error margins every condensed single-axis ranking produces and provides some neat visualizations of department clusters and "the field" that departments play in. Additionally, it is based on pairwise department comparisons by more than eight times as many respondents (600+) as the US news (~73). Besides perception and performance, you might also want to consider student satisfaction, because this will be a major factor in your own performance in graduate school. As a final note, don't rely on rankings ONLY in your decisions but consider other factors like faculty, specializations, resources, department "vibe" etc. as well. After all, you would not want the ad comm to consider your application based on one aspect only. Anyway, since you've come to gradcafe to prepare yourself for the entire process, I am confident that you will make wise choices and wish you good luck for your apps.

Thx for pointing that out riverscuomo! That one acceptance totally slipped under my radar. We'll see in time whether your information is right I guess.

Congrats gingin, I have a feeling your heading for a perfect application season! I'm not sure whether it's actually moving slow or I/we just applied to the "wrong" universities. Then again, I'm only waiting for two more decisions and I have a pretty good idea what one of them is going to be.

I felt the same way as you, SheWrote. I was getting kind of bitter and also a bit sarcastic about the entire process in the last couple of weeks; and after not getting an email I just felt more letdown than ever. However, I checked the website and had a decision waiting for me... I can't promise it's the same for you, but I sincerely wish it is. I haven't felt so relieved in a very long time.

Congrats curiouslyoptimistic! Did anybody else see the Princeton/Stanford-accept + MIT-invite person? It doesn't surprise me with these stats. I have three thoughts though: 1. CONGRATULATIONS! That is a nice score and application record! 2. How do you score perfect on Q and V and "only" a 4.5 on AW (which is supposedly the most learnable part)? 3. Now that you "have" to decided, when is the interview or are you already going for one of the acceptances - either way, some waitlisted person might be very thankful for your impressive feat!

no rejections here; I hope to get clarification as the days goes by though.

Congrats to all admitted! Hope Princeton sticks to its tradition of sending out rejections immediately after acceptances. At least I can have the peace of mind of knowing in a couple of hours then...

I would basically agree with you SocGirl2013; however, I don't think I share your optimism concerning the "life" after Graduate School. Because there's the associate position first, then the assistant position, and then, if you're lucky/structurally advantaged/self-sacrificing enough to make it through all the hoops there might be a "life" as a full professor... But that's just my understanding, maybe there's not even a "life" as a full professor; but hey, we're scientists, let's find out! Back to topic; I think fit should be the most influential factor in picking good programs. I have been told over and over not to go into academia and I believe the experience of these ppl; so if you're going to start something without any prospects, you should at least satisfy your intellectual hunger - if you can still feel it over the pain of your empty stomach since we've got no money to buy food... P.S. Sorry for the sarcasm but it helps with the anxiety of waiting for decisions.

And so am I...

If you're going for a pun, how about R. E. Bark. Otherwise, I would probably go for Simmel. Let us know what name you decided for.

Hi All, I got a similar email from Stanford saying they expect to send results out in a month. (Wondering whether this says anything about how many applicants they got this year since last year they started notifying on February 1 - any opinions?)

Luckly, I was never able for a fee waiver anywhere so I'll have to prepare one more tops - if I decide to do it. I've got tons of things to do in the coming months so hopefully I'll be able to take my mind of the apps running in the background and hopefully I'll be done with things as soon as the decisions are made.

Well, the last application I submitted was to Northwestern (and I'v added the rest as a signature, thanks for asking ) - there were three seperate statements and I wanted to make sure I submitted the best statements I could produce. Will see if it was worth it.

I just hit the submit button on the last Ph.D. application - for this year at least, still not sure about one program with a January 15 deadline. It still feels a bit surreal and I not sure I am going to realize what this all means until the decisions arrive, or probably until the programs start. Just wanted to congratulate everybody also finishing their applications today and buoy up those still working on their apps for January 15! Good luck to you all and I'm looking forward to hearing about your admissions and decisions!

I really don't think you want to start waiting just yet. There'll be enough time to do that as soon as the deadlines have passed and adcomms are meeting to decide how long they can make you wait for your decision. ... I thought about suggestions for what you could do instead for a while now and didn't come up with a lot... So you might just as well be waiting.

Just for the sake of having posted it somewhere... Interest: Cultural and Economic Sociology (In particular their intersection.) Schools on my apply-to list: Stanford Duke Chicago Northwestern Michigan, Ann Arbor Columbia Princeton (Cornell) (The criterion for getting on the list was an expected rejection so I don't have to leave Europe. ) GRE(V/Q/A): low 90%/ mid 80%/ high 70% TOEFL: waste of my money (Maybe I should have taken a prep course so I could get the 120 and spend some more.) I haven't contacted any faculty but just realized that one of the professors I'd like to work with is a currently fellow at an institute close by - should I contact him? Hope everyone's applications are coming well.

Applications are going (too) slow - fortunately I got some extra work to do this week which will make the December 15 deadlines a breeze. I have submitted 3 (that were already due) and have another 4 to go (which are due this Sunday) - not counting the one that I still have to make up my mind about in January. I'm glad I'm not in the US having finals week atm though; that gives me enough time to finally register on this forum to procrastinate a little.