Roll Right

socimages is probably one of the more famous soc blogs. Pretty good posts.

uh....sociology of media?

Guys, lets stick to sociology.

Maximus is right, you'll have to do probably a year of coursework over. A MA program is good if you want to sort out your research interests especially though. Make sure you do it for the right reasons. Its costly, but if you'd really like to go on to a PhD and worry about your GRE scores, or don't get accepted first round and don't want to take a break...go for the MA.

Alright, did you really just break down this thread into sentential logic statements? LOL man, I hope you're a Beck supporter or a philosophy minor or major. But of course, you're logic is correct.

I'd argue that by attacking a well known sociologist (who was once president of the ASA), you're also attacking the discipline by proxy. It would be one thing to disagree with her work, but to put her in the middle of a conspiracy to destroy the fabric of America through sociological inquiry is not only damaging to her image, but damaging to sociology in general. I suppose I just dislike this guy more than the average person, so that pushed me to post this story on the board. I thought it might piss off some other sociology students that Beck is stepping into sociology and throwing his weight around, as if he had a solid idea of what he was talking about. Sociology is already looked upon with a skeptical eye by the public (mainly because no one actually knows what it is). Now we have a highly popular "entertainer/enlightenment thinker" blasting one of the best sociologists in the past several decades with wild accusations that at least a portion of the public obviously believes. So, how is this not attacking sociology?

I'm not surprised to see this, and frankly I'm wondering why he didn't start attacking sociology earlier. http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101250016 That is an article discussing Beck's attacks on a world class sociologist - Francis Piven- who is somewhere in her 70's right now. She's done a lot of work on poverty and how to alleviate poverty....Beck thinks she's party of a conspiracy to tear down America. He's been harassing her for a year on the air, and now she's receiving death threats.

UMO is a great institution, did my undergrad work there and I miss the hell out of it. I studied sociology there and had so many opportunities for my own research, while also having a variety of rare classes that you don't always find in a soc undergrad. I don't know what you're studying, but you should know UMO is a top notch institution when comparing state schools. The food is what you would expect from a state university - its meant to feed mass amounts of people, not wow people with culinary skills. There are tons of amazing places nearby. I lived there for 20 years of my life. Mount Desert Island, Rockport, Old Orchard Beach, Portland, Blue Hill...etc. Cost of living is minimal - you can easily rent a place with roomies for like 300 bucks a month (your share). Tons of apartments near campus. Very small "downtown" area - with only 2 or 3 cool bars. If you're looking for a crazy night life this isn't the place for you. House parties are what happens in this town. What else do you want to know?

I highly recommend UNC Wilmington. Excellent department, lots of research opportunities, and if you're interested in non-profit work there is a good chance here. Dr. Leslie Hossfeld is a very well known public sociologist and the director of graduate studies. I know her well. I believe there is a late deadline here as well. Plus, its a beach town.

I applied to PhD programs in 2008, and was rejected from every one of them. I'll tell you what I had running against me: GRE score was terrible, and the GRE service split my test dates into two files (I took it twice) and only sent the worst set of test scores to schools. GRE screw deal.. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do for research, so I wrote some half assed SOP about social movements and applied to schools that were mostly in the top 30 of US News and World Report. I sent out a shitty paper on the history of southern violence in relation to western films. It was not good sociology. Emory is a very good school. Don't be upset if you don't get in. I probably wouldn't get in even with a 3.9 gpa, a masters degree, several paper presentations and multiple quantitative papers on religion and pending publications. Here's what I suggest: Apply to an MA program right now before the deadlines pass./ Late deadlines include Louisville, UNC Wilmington and a few others. Consult the ASA Graduate Handbook of 2009 for more information. Traditionally, those who are rejected from PhD programs apply to MA programs to "prove" themselves worthy of graduate work. You get in, rock the program, get good recs, have solid research, publish something possibly...then you get into the PhD. If you're worried, get on this right now. The deadlines won't have passed. I polished up a thesis proposal from undergrad, wrote a better SOP and got into a masters program that is very good. I've been able to nail down my research interests as well during graduate work. If I'm accepted to PhD's I'll be able to go right into a dissertation. Its a good way to wet your feet.

Well, I haven't heard from any schools yet, but the college of arts and sciences at my institution wants to interview me about my research for their annual publication. I didn't think anyone cared!

I'd like to get thoughts on my blog: www.ghostofmarx.blogspot.com Spread the link around or whatever if you want.

Yeah, don't start worrying about rejections. There is no reason to be alarmed yet. Its only January. If you don't hear something by April then things may be bad.

Does anyone else here blog about sociology or graduate school? I'd like to get connected with some other blogger sites and maybe get a network of idea-sharing going.

Results show an acceptance at Purdue with full funding and insurance - who was this? ZoeWeber?

Paper presentations here as well. No research pieces as of yet in any journals. That may change soon, fingers crossed.

Good work. I believe that SOP's really are dynamic. While the forums suggest a specific formula, you want it to have your voice and your style. You've done well explaining your interests and career goals. I'm sure you'll catch someone's attention with it.

Qualitative departments will often have a strong emphasis in theory, with at least one professor specializing in the writings of a particular social theorist.

Congrats my friend, glad to hear of your early acceptance!

Well, you can listen to this face-melter by Black Label Society while you wait: Crazy Horse!

Alright, we're all waiting. List your top 10 movies to kill a small amount of time. Here's mine: 1. Apocalypse Now 2. Seven 3. Aliens 4. Training Day 5. The 9th Gate 6.; Heat 7. Valhalla Rising 8. Dawn of the Dead 9. Step Brothers 10. Hellraiser: Hellseeker

Yes, but you're also at a prestigious department. This is classic cultural and social capital theory at work. Gotta walk the walk and talk the talk to fit into prestigious groups, and someone better vouch for you. This is certainly not going to be the case at the majority of sociology programs in the country. If that were the case, there would not be enough faculty to go around. Imagine how many colleges have sociology programs, let alone large scale universities.

No it's not rare to see criminology PhD's teaching at a sociology program. Every sociology program is going to have someone who does crime/law/deviance. Criminology is simply applied sociology, so a good crim scholar is by default a good sociology scholar. There are a large number of crim PhD's teaching at my institution, and while it is a CRIM/Public Sociology department, I've been taught sociology courses by crim PhD's. I'm not saying that a crim phd will get you a job in a soc department as easily as a soc PhD, but I don't think you'll have trouble getting a job just because you've gotten a crim degree. If you like crim, do crim. Don't do soc to fit in. I'm a soc guy and wanted to do a side project on the social correlates of serial murder (if there were any)....professors steered me away from that, they thought it would take the focus off my sociological work. You'll get research methods and so on during your studies - criminology is the sociological study of crime. It relies on sociological methods, in other words. If you aren't getting methods in a criminology program then its likely a criminal justice program, not a criminology program. I've found criminology to be very quantitative, most of the research uses secondary data analysis in order to analyze criminal acts which would otherwise be hard to observe. That requires methodological rigor.

I wouldn't put too much weight on name and prestige later - down the road. It's really going to depend on the name you make for yourself with research. I'm sure name and prestige make some difference, but when it comes to hiring a new professor, programs are going to want someone who has produced impressive research in their chosen areas of specialization (and the connections you made at other universities while doing that research will matter). Top schools are great if you get in...but its not going to determine whether or not you get a job after getting a PhD. Your work leading up to your PhD will. So, people are nervous. Notre Dame is probably jammed up with apps. I applied as well, we'll see what happens in the coming weeks. The funding is amazing there. Good luck to everyone.

Hmm, while this pairing system is interesting...I don't think it's going to give you a real measurement. This is opinion based, which eliminates the possibility for a standardized ranking system. Your not getting usable data here. I still think the US News and World Report are the best rankings. This ranking system is too subjective.