gingin6789

I live in Pennsylvania which has strict alcohol laws. You can only buy wine and liquor from state-owned stores here, and very few supermarkets carry beer and have to have a special license to do so. One mainly gets beer from beer distributors and some restaurants that sell 6-packs. So, the thought of alcohol in supermarkets is mind-blowing to me! As for the thread, I'm more of a beer person than a wine person, but I do enjoy Moscato. Also, the waiting game is awful *whines*

@TakeruK, your post was also incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! =)

What do you mean by overlap, and why do you feel that you'll be rejected now? Which programs did you apply to? I'm a bit confused by your post. Whatever you do, don't panic until you've received official word. Easier said than done, I know!

Sure! I've attached mine to this post. Keep in mind this is based on data from the results page and isn't absolutely true/won't be representative. So, they are only estimates. But it gives me some semblance of an idea of the earliest dates when I *might* hear back (so, I used the earliest dates I from the Results page in my table)! I've only made the timeline for the programs I've applied to, but you can do the same by searching on the results page (http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php). Type into the search bar "program_name (sociology)" (f or example, "emory (sociology)" ) to narrow your search. Then find the dates accordingly. In my table, "I" means "interview notification," "A" means "acceptance." The letters in parentheses after the dates correspond to the days of the week. Also look back through past acceptances/rejections threads within the sociology forum for more specific posts. Hope this is useful to you, and I hope folks don't find me too weird for making a spreadsheet for this haha.

So much better than stress eating and drinking coffee. In terms of acceptances, interviews, and rejections, some folks on the results page have been saying their acceptance/interview/rejection emails have been going to Spam: So, make sure you check your spam folder, all!

Yes, it's getting quite real! It's a bit sad ... I have a spreadsheet with a timeline of when I *might* hear back based on three years worth of data from the Results page ... and I put the timeline into my calendar ... I'm glad school will start back up soon so I'm doing other things! Luckily, I also talked with my thesis advisor about things to do now that the holidays are over, so I have that to concentrate on instead of focusing on the waiting game!

Hi, all! The first sociology interview has been posted on the Results page, so I figured I'd kick off this thread. Post results here, should you feel inclined, and this can be general discussion on Acceptances/Rejections/interviews as well. So, anyone wanna claim that University of Virginia interview?

I agree!! around this time last year was when people started hearing back about soc programs... And while I likely won't be hearing back til around the 15th, I'll still be constantly checking @_@

I agree with rising_star. I would certainly write a new SOP to show how you've grown as a writer, along with outlining your experiences since you last applied.

Thank you, med latte! And thank you for that link! It will be really helpful! @ihatechoosingusernames, thank you for your advice, and I'm glad to hear the courthouse marriage and name-changing processes were fairly painless! @shadowclaw thank you for your input and for the information on the GREs ... hopefully, this will be my final application cycle and I won't have to send my GRE scores ... but, if something happens and I do need to send them out, I will remember this information! Thank you for the heads up! And, not to give too much info, but I feel it's most understandable if I am blunt -- my biological father emotionally/psychologically abused me and my family, and I currently bear his last name. But it's more than just getting rid of my biological father's name -- my fiance is the most caring, wonderful, respectful, beautiful person I've ever met. I'd love to have his last name more than anything in the world! =) Thank you very much for your concern ... I'm so sorry it's been difficult with a new last name for you! I've given this much thought, and I do wish to take my fiance's last name =) I'll keep you all posted on how the process goes, and I hope this thread is useful to people going through this same process in the future!

Hi, everyone! First, I apologize if this topic is posted in the wrong forum. Please move or delete this thread as you see fit, mods. If you delete it, please let me know where to re-post it though. For a number of reasons, my fiance and I have decided to get married soon, as in perhaps this week or next week. We simply want to get married at the courthouse. I also wish to take his last name (something I'm very adamant about). However, I have already submitted my PhD program applications under my current (maiden) last name. How will it affect the application process if my last name is different when/if I get accepted to PhD programs and enroll in one of those PhD programs? Should I simply wait a bit to change my last name, until I've heard back from all the programs/enrolled in one? (Is it even possible to wait that long after getting married to change my last name? I'd like to change my name soon after getting married, if at all possible.) I'm not sure what to do! Thanks for your help, all.

@hal, I totally agree!! My fiancé and I got each other gifts on black Friday and said "no more gifts, ok?" and we both kept the promise!! It was such a welcome relief to actually have someone say "no gifts" and mean it! It never usually goes that way though and it sucks.

Ugh, sorry to hear about the car crash... That's really scary and painful, too :-( I hope you are doing better now! That's exactly what it felt like to me: laying there for hours, thinking with my eyes closed! My favorite is when I mentally plan out these cool discussion points/lectures (not even a prof,just a TA) for hours... of course I'm never as cool in real life as I sound in my restless mind though, lol!!

Thanks for the suggestion, friend! I will have to pick some up from the store! That night, I was hurting quite a bit (had surgery December 4th, body is still recovering!) so I took a painkiller that did make me sleepy, but I find it also yields very shallow/light/not-deep sleep. And my mind was also racing that night! So I think this emergenzzz is something that could help in a pinch. Good alternative to my standby, melatonin :-)

All of this!!! I got so excited when this thread broached such important sociological issues in academia. Plus, I love sociology and talking about sociological topics, but I love teaching / helping others to get more background on these topics even more! I think that's why I'm overly cautious about my tone; when I'm trying to help provide more background on sociological issues, I never want anyone to feel excluded/spoken over. I had something similar happen with one of my students! A very soft-spoken athlete student came to my office hours to make up a lab, and he asked me what my research interests were in sociology and *why* I was interested in those areas... I just started glowing and we had a wonderful discussion about it! So exciting!

Like you said, universities are taking steps to improve diversity, which is great! Good first step: I look forward to how they reach further to emphasize equity as a step forward from equality. Also, kinda on a related note, kinda on a semi-vent note, I'm re-reading my post from earlier, and I don't like my tone. Mehhh. I hope it came across how it was supposed to come across, and if I misinterpreted anything anyone said, I apologize! I know everyone here is likely in a similar place as me though ... writing constantly to the point where you question whether the sentences you're typing are coherent at all ... I hope everyone's winter break is off to a good start, and that we all get a couple days (or hours) off!

Exactly! Even in fields like sociology that explicitly study inequality, inequalities like the kinds you mentioned are still an issue.

@highborn brings up a valid social problem in academia centering on race, gender, and weight. I'm a grad student in sociology, and these are among the intersectional issues we explore... Race, gender, and fatness are still major hurdles in academia, no question. I'm glad @highborn brought these issues to light. Highborn opened up an important conversation, here. Does that mean thin, white women don't face challenges? Of course not. Other grad cafe users who are thin, white, and female have felt safe in opening up about these very real struggles thanks to Highborn's post. Highborn was bringing up very real, challenging issues for her that people (NOT forum users here) tend to shut down because they think racism, sexism, and fatphobia are a thing of the past. And here's my story. Despite my nearly perfect academic GPA in undergrad and grad school, the fact remains that I'm still a high school dropout! Has that been a hurdle in academia? Absolutely! However, I also acknowledge my thin, white appearance grants me certain advantages, while my gender presents a hurdle!! I pass as the ideal image of an academic. because I'm a woman, students do treat me quite differently than my male colleagues, sometimes in very negative ways. Notice how, while I acknowledge these advantages, my struggle as a dropout and woman is not invalidated! So it's ok to recognize our advantages. So, the stories of thin white women in this thread do not invalidate highborn's struggle as a fat woman of color. Speaking bluntly, I am more advantaged being white and thin. I can comfortably acknowledge that because having advantages is important to recognize! And, bonus, acknowledging that doesn't undo struggles I've faced either Tl;dr, all of our intersectional stories are valid and important, and I'm SO glad we are talking about this! PS, I really hope this post comes across as *helpful* and not pompous or know-it-all-ish. I'm just hoping to help us understand each other, but my post may not make much sense because I'm running on caffeine now *rolls around thread*

Application deadlines for me ranged from December 1 to January 15. I always check my status thinking "oh it's been 3 weeks since the December 1 deadline! maybe results??" however, I know it will probably be until at least mid January til I near anything!

While it's a good thing sleepless nights don't matter much now that the semester is over, sleepless nights still suck. I'm sick of this.

I second this. I have met a few current grad students from some of the programs I'm applying to (mostly on Grad Cafe), and they have been so helpful! I met most of them on here two years ago when I was applying to MA programs, and now I'm applying to their PhD programs. I find these students are also very honest, encouraging, and enthusiastic about helping you!

Also had surgery towards the end of the semester! I thought "Wow, I'll have a few days to do nothing" but I had forgotten that recovering from surgery isn't like having time off, really ... much more pain involved than I remember (this is my fifth surgery of this type; I guess we tend to block out the bad memories)! There were a couple days off where I felt better than worse, and I am happy to report that I'm pretty much all better. Submitted the last of my grades yesterday, and I just sent the last of my GRE scores to PhD programs I'm applying to! Feeling relieved, yet not looking forward to the waiting game!

Amen to that!! When applying for MA programs two years ago, I found that the worst part was definitely the waiting. I had one rejection (only applied to three programs though) and by that point, I wasn't even mad because I was so happy that the waiting was finally over!

Right, @redhillgirl! All we can do now is wait!

All solid advice from @iemons. I don't have anything to add -- just wanted to wish good luck to @redhillgirl!