Prospective Soc Student

Three suggestions: 1) Instead of using just your enrollment in the class as your "hook," consider discussing something you learned in the class. You run the risk of looking out of touch if your main point is that you encountered criminals for the first time and just being around them opened your eyes to xyz 2) You overuse the semicolon for dramatic effect, which makes the essay choppy. Check your sentence structure to make sure that it varies. 3) This is minor, but I am personally turned off by the promise to stay after class for further discussion. As a practical matter, nobody really has time for that, and those are usually the people we all don't like, haha. The sentiment is good and genuine, but going to that length is not really necessary.

Perhaps others had a different experience, but I was surprised at how many schools I got into in the top 20 and, overall, I think I under-shot things. Definitely apply in the top 25. Hell, apply in the top five and see how it goes. Have a couple back-ups where the fit is perfect and your stats are competitive, and maybe you'll get a great funding offer in case it doesn't work out with higher-ranked schools. My stats were very similar to yours (same GPA, quant score was 780 but 680 is still in the very good range). This seems like an intimidating process--but just don't sell yourself short or you'll be disappointed. As for contacting profs, I always followed this: 1) Intro sentence: hi, I'm so-and-so, I graduated from this school in this year and I'm applying this year 2) Couple sentences about my interests 3) Your research looks exciting--would you mind telling me what you're currently working on and whether there's anything cool going on in the department? 4) Here's my CV (I found this to be key because it legitimizes you, use PDF format) All the profs I e-mailed responded quickly and were quite helpful.

I was a policy major and got into several top schools. I didn't address it in most applications, but when I was asked to do a "why sociology" bit, I just talked about how I was more interested in research and academic discourse than policy analysis. My major was pretty sociological, though--I wasn't a hard science major or anything.

One thing that I don't think anyone else has mentioned so far: I think you come across as more of a practitioner than a researcher, i.e., you sound like someone who should be applying to MPP, MEd, MSW, etc. degrees versus a hard-core research degree. When you spend a lot of time talking about government programs and outcomes, it gives the SOP a focus that isn't totally applicable to the world of research. Many programs with FAQs specifically address the fact that they don't exist to create policy-makers--they exist to create researchers. Especially the part about how you hope to use your research to improve the public schools--I don't know if that's your role here. Others will disagree, but I think it makes you seem like you don't belong in a research program. Just a thought.

I didn't mean it so much in the context of schools communicating with each other (though I have heard of that with undergrad schools and law schools), but on the off chance you get into both schools, turning one of them down could be less than pleasant. A big thing I've taken away from turning down offers and visiting is that it's important to be candid and genuine with everyone you talk to--you never know who you'll be asking for a job down the line. Just a thought.

I wouldn't tell multiple schools that they are "by far [your] top choice"...

Does anyone know why Emory isn't included in the NRC rankings? I've been compiling my "short list" off of those rankings and didn't even consider Emory because it was absent, but now I'm interested. Any ideas?

Hi, everyone, Another lurker making a first post. I'm applying next year and am interested in your thoughts on where to apply. I'm interested in social mobility generally, but specifically within the education, labor, and policy sub-fields. I have some ideas, but am always looking for more input from people going through the same process. Thanks in advance for your help.