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Coindinista

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    2015 Spring

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  1. I think the key take away is to be strategically oriented, and ask yourself if this is a stepping stone in that direction. If I did not get accepted into my preferred programs (and even if I got accepted into programs I wasn't really in love with), I'd opt for the MA if it kept me in the trajectory toward those goals. At the end of the day, it's Columbia--and despite the nay-sayers in the soc forum, it's an elite establishment with a selective MA. You have accomplished something by being admitted into that program--but the important thing here is to make it mean something as well. You do that by ensuring that you're not taking it because you don't know what else to do, and coming at it with everything you have. I wouldn't worry too much about what the soc forums say. 1) Soc people are generally the most pissy bunch of bratty students (look at the rejection results for comments to qualify that) 2) Most of the people downing your accomplishment have racked up a healthy load of rejections and bitterness 3) "Elite" anything gives them the willies 4) MAs aren't 'money making schemes,' it's how a lot of universities pay for the PhD students' funding--and we don't see anyone with funding complaining about the ethics of that So go, research, write, publish, learn and thrive in a wonderful location with outstanding faculty. Good luck--and you should probably stay off these boards if you're seeking some sort of positivity in your life or any sort of relief from anxiety.
  2. Whatisyourhistory--I don't believe you can accuse one of fortune-telling, then pose an alternate future. If you guys truly think that your only hope upon PhD completion is hopping from adjunct to adjunct position, it would seem idiotic to continue pursuing a PhD--yet you are and do not seem to be idiots, which makes your argument unserious from a critical realism standpoint. Perhaps you're right. Good luck with the searchcoms.
  3. Tenure is only diminishing now because it can--right now, what used to get you tenure might not even get you a job, just like UGs are half expected to publish before applying to grad schools. When the boomers retire there will be a sudden flux requiring lucrative offers to attract the best qualified candidates. The quickest way for academia to implode is to resort to adjuct dominant policies which would ultimately cut out their own source of revenue. Bear in mind, students pay money to schools to ultimately work at schools--if working at schools is no longer an option, then they will likely not pay the money to schools. Any pessimistic claim on the future of academia is likely espoused by embittered candidates.
  4. It's true, right now it's a bit rough. States are cutting funding, the slow pick up from the recession, etc--but demographically, the baby boomers are preparing to retire which should open up a significant amount of jobs in the future. It'd be foolish to base your job prospects 7 years from now on the job market of today.
  5. I agree with that... I mean sure, everyone secretly hates LetsTalkShop and Maxine for their over-achievements (kidding)...
  6. Jule, It's partially true... funding is super competitive from what I understand, but certainly not impossible. There aren't really any straight soc TAs from what I've heard, so funding comes primarily in the form of grants for which you apply and/or compete. I would caution you against going there unless it's something that you really want (i.e. it's exactly the program that you're looking for with access to the types of workshops etc you seek). Bear in mind that most people admitted to the NSSR are admitted as Masters students these days and after Masters may apply for PhD candidacy. I think most people get through by adjuncting at other universities which tends to stretch out the length of their stay within the program.
  7. I love how you corrected him in the snottiest way possible, even italicized "the America's." Quick question though, what is America possessing in that statement that requires the apostrophe? Perhaps you should relax your response to someone who likely isn't a native English speaker, when you're still struggling with grammar.
  8. I can only caveat to what Cheff already aptly stated, but the division is also marked by philosophical underpinnings and theoretical positions. Essentially, once the cultural turn began to swing at the close of functionalism and structuralism, it opened up for a broader division between the disciplines. As Cheff said, soc doubled down on reductionist (empiricist) philosophical underpinnings in an attempt to turn social science more into a psuedo science (rather than the general European idea of science as the organized knowledge of a subject). Following the cultural turn within soc, this led to interpretivist (hermeneutic) modes of inquiry most prominently featured in Cultural Sociology and more open-ended post-modern and post structuralist modes of inquiry in Cultural Anthropology. Ethnography can be (and is) implemented in both, but its really about the mode of analysis and explication of meaning, and of course, upon what are they brought to bear: the structure, the population, or the agency. As far as jobs, that's really how you mesh your mode with your interests to create the most broad you that you can. I'll say that culture and comparative are pretty down in the chips as far as the job markets are concerned right now. This is largely due to the fact that everyone 'does culture' in some way.
  9. I suppose you could say it came from a pretty good source.
  10. It's not so much that age is explicitly a factor in the program, but the bias against--say, a 47 year old--trying to find a job upon completion of the program. So it's not some stigma that old dogs can't learn new tricks, but rather the likelihood of diminishing statistics in that you may not be able to find employment at the end of the road. Perhaps some departments would find it unethical to take your money or you time toward such a potentially possible end. Though such a perception exists, I don't think its enough to galvanize an individual toward a perpetual rejection pile, rather that much more of a hurdle to establish relative value and fit. At the same token, I think there's enough bias against the young to balance everything out. That's as I understand it, anyway.
  11. Prestige matters to a degree, but it can quickly be rendered obsolete by demonstrating strengths. In your case, you come from a non-english speaking culture with alternate perceptions but clearly possess the ability to relay those perceptions in a manner that's (unfortunately) superior to native English speakers in most American universities. This sort of dovetails with your other concern of research. Research in and of itself is really just a preference of data collection whether its your typical preference to immerse yourself in tomes of theory, digitized reductions of numerical statistics, or performing ethnographic observations among a population. What sort of makes research useful is when it's put into action--written and published. A solid article (even if unpublished but submitted as your writing sample) demonstrates your preferred method of collection, your ability to review the literature and identify the inadequacies in the ideas you're quilting together, and your ability to harness both theory and data (from your research interests) and place them into action in order to say something new. In this sense, its not about time or a faculty name under which you labor. It's certainly not about how many independent study credit hours you might rack up--in the states these are usually used to cop a quick A, anyhow. It's about the good that has come of it in a presentable (hopefully publishable) way that will set you apart from your peers. Don't sweat the poly sci undergrad--but do take the initiative as I stated above to immerse yourself in the literature. You are behind, but there's nothing preventing you from blowing past the local competition come application season. When more theoretically grounded, you may determine that education isn't necessarily what excites you, anyway. If it still does, try Columbia. And you should probably stay off these boards--they're full of folks like me that pretend to have the answers. Good luck!
  12. Read the classical cannon--and follow the intellectual momentum that propels your chosen field to current literature. I know that seems a little open-ended and daunting if you haven't been reading much social theory, but it's sort of like how you eat an elephant (one bite at a time). Check out Yale's open courses on social theory and theory of literature. There's about 24 hours of lecture available per course. When you're done with those, tackle whatever tickles your fancy from Berkley, Yale, Harvard, Wisconsin, etc. Kiss your music good-bye--this should be the din that scores your life. Understand the trends and major epochs in social theory and how they pertain to your desired field--whether functionalism, structuralism, post structuralism, post modern etc--what did they mean to your field and how did they shape the thinking. Understand what holes they left in the shift--all perspectives are a trade off in some way. Start writing something sigificant--publish it if you can. Your writing sample will be especially crucial coming from a non-English speaking university (so will your GRE score for the same reason), but more importantly it demonstrates the type of research you like to do, how you go about it, how you understand the theoretical lay out of the land, and how you plan to fix its deficiencies. Don't worry about publishing with someone--just write a solid publishable piece that's sufficiently critical, analytically insightful, and theoretically strong. Workshop it if you can with some choice faculty, and get it submitted. Blind reviewers will hopefully offer some insightful comments.. the better the journal, the better the reviewers (in a perfect world). Incorporate those thoughts into your writing, and you've just had your writing sample critiqued and workshopped by the best minds in the industry. I would certainly reach out to any faculty you admire now--not come application season next December or whenever you intend to apply, but now. Read a lot of their material and simply open the dialogue asking questions. Try not to waste their time, you're essentially getting something for free that others pay 150k for--so don't bother asking questions that you could look up, rather ask them for their interpretations on certain works in the particular field or to disambiguate something they have written. Show them that you can not only pick up what they're putting down, but are critically sound enough to identify their sleights of hand. The intent here is not to grease the wheel, or maneuver toward self interest, but to [hopefully] establish a mentor-protoge relationship that will enrich your thinking that will perhaps enrich the field. Lastly, you'll probably need a bit of good fortune--but everyone does. I have no idea who would recommend taking 3 to 4 years off between UG and grad school--but i'd just apply while your understanding is presumably at its freshest and you still have faculty who can associate your name, face, and productivity enough to write a decent LOR.
  13. Those things help, but if those are the things that a potential professor relies on to secure a job, she or he likely won't amount to much in the field anyway. There is no substitute for innovative thinking, frequent publication, and perceptive research--these are not things that are necessarily acquired in an institution.
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