uselesstheory

Does anyone have any examples/links to successful NSF GFRP grant proposals in sociology (or even the social sciences, more broadly)? Can anyone offer advice or perspectives on applying for this grant as a sociology graduate student?

the fact that i am still on this website after accepting a funded phd offer like i thought i could quit this place, but it is like an addiction probably because everyone on here can understand aspects of my experience that most people in my real life can't, to an extent, but i was anticipating being "free" and alas, i remain also, why am i still smoking cigarettes after i quit smoking cigarettes? but i don't smoke them like i did before (chain smoking) and it's just sort of once a day but it makes me angry with myself and i don't understand my own vices...

SECONDING K-CUPS. I think Keurig coffee is really watery (I like extremely strong coffee) and the individual cups are just wasteful. I like to be able to brew excessive amounts of coffee at once and do not have the patience to brew one cup at a time...plus "normal" coffee is cheaper and that's always a good thing

In the later spring, summer, and fall, biking is great! In the winter, it is nearly impossible, if not entirely, but if you are just going between the two campuses, the UB bus system is pretty efficient and free for students.

hi -- i've lived in buffalo my whole life so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me things. i have not personally rented, but i have many, many friends who have. re: the amherst vs. elmwood village discussion: amherst is not very full of life and is quite suburban; you would need a car, but not to get to campus (more to get around the city and to do things, more generally, but you would be much closer to campus). the elmwood village has a lot to do, a lot of culture, activities, young people, events, etc. but is not close to campus. however, if you have a car, it's not far at all, though if you only have street parking, it will be a nightmare in the winter. the elmwood village is also getting a lot more expensive, both with regard to housing and food/entertainment (etc.), while amherst is actually pretty stable, and certain areas right outside amherst that are still safe will be much cheaper. there is a bus system, but it's not that great, and if you want to use the university bus system, you really need to live right around either campus or along the bus routes (google and you can find them). PM me for any information. i am basically a buffalo expert, and i want to help!

Visiting is probably the best way to get a sense of what a department can do for your research interests and how you will experience your time there. If the differences in your experiences at each visit were truly significant, I would choose the department that you felt is most accommodating and welcoming, beyond, of course, the academic issues at hand. If the only reason you would attend Brown is for the name recognition as an Ivy, I would not attend Brown, but obviously, I do not have all of the information necessary to actually tell you what to do. Rankings-wise, they're so close together that it really does not make a difference (it would be different, for example, if one were in the top 20 and the other lower).

i am so sorry you're in this situation; words are not adequate and they make me sound disingenuous. you are not incompetent, and as others said, it is a crapshoot. there are also real factors at play, factors that value certain interests and devalue others, and i get the sense that departments have a strange aversion to 'political' and 'radical' interests. i certainly think navigating that problem has been a significant barrier for me personally, and that says a lot about the field: perhaps a field that is unwilling to help a scholar who comes from a marxist and perhaps radical perspective is a field that needs to be questioned, that needs critical examination. i'm being vague, but what i'm trying to say is that the rejections show more about academic sociology than they do about you, and while i know that is no consolation, i hope it will help you consider that you are intelligent and determined and full of worth, and maybe it is academia that needs to be rejected rather than do the rejecting....

just a small anecdote, but the campus culture is quite fragmented and mostly comprised of very wealthy and snobby undergraduates. it will be very difficult to get by without funding in that area of dc, though the metro is efficient and you can live a bit away for cheaper, i'm sure. i think it is a place that is not entirely conducive to sociological research and thought (more poll sci/econ focus, and i'm sure research grants and funding will reflect that there) so i would be cautious. that being said, i have a very brief experience with the school and not as a phd student, so take my commentary with a grain of salt. i just do not think it is a very warm place, taking place as a very broad and space-specific term. the department is something with which i am entirely unfamiliar, and i hope that someone who is will offer a better and more comprehensive perspective. feel free to pm me if you want to talk more.

The program I'm attending specifically said that if you haven't taken an undergraduate statistics course, you must do that before coming to the university in the fall (or you'll have to take an undergrad stats class there, which will take up time you could be spending on your graduate coursework, etc.). This is a requirement I've seen from a lot of departments, so it would be a bad idea to completely avoid taking a statistics course, unless you simply cannot do it, for some reason. That being said, an introductory undergraduate stats course is pretty basic and will leave you plenty of time and math-related brain space to prepare for the GRE in a way that will yield a satisfactory score. If anything, taking one stats class will help your mind get back into that type of mathematical thinking and will make familiarizing yourself with GRE math/concepts a bit less painful.

Congratulations! I felt the same way when I made my decision and accepted my offer, but it was totally nerve-wracking and surreal. All of a sudden, five or six or more years become definite in some way before us, and that is inevitably full of conflicted feelings of excitement and trepidation.

now the obsession over apple products is basically either mere commodity fetishism or because apple users are accustomed to using apple products (making a switch to other operating systems more difficult)

As soon as we post even remotely identifiable information online, especially on an online community so related to out future careers, we pose the risk of our employers reading what we post. That being said, everything I post on here isn't objectionable, and my interactions on this forum helped me learn about compiling an application and everything that comes with that. Conduct yourself like a pleasant human and don't gossip, and you shouldn't worry.

This is very interesting to me. Say Columbia and Indiana are tied at 12 (which they are, on USNews, at least): does the name/status of a certain institution and/or private versus public status play into job placement? I'm guessing yes, but if yes, how so? Are there substantive, explainable reasons, or are these phenomena limited to the strange subjective world of the prestige of the Ivy League, as opposed to the status of the public institution? Basically: how do equally ranked public and private schools offer PhDs advantages or disadvantages, and are those advantages and disadvantages based on prestige and name alone (which comes with certain networking and recognition privileges) or are there actual mechanisms in place that determine these differences/outcomes?

Absolutely take a stats course, maybe two. If you're preparing for the GRE, find a cheap but good tutor who can help you understand the ways the test tries to trick people (otherwise, the math is pretty basic; the tricks are what gets people).

MAPSS went out today, with scholarship information.

The first time I stumbled upon socjobrumors, I actually felt physically ill. It's that bad. That being said, you'll hear a lot of reiteration on there of "Wisconsin is on the decline", which echoes a lot of thoughts on Wisconsin from earlier in this topic.

Congratulations on Boulder! That's awesome.

I'd go with McGill. It sounds like the best program for your future intentions.

Someone downvoted you, but I don't know why, since this is very good imo, and very realistic.

I know multiple people who have returned to their undergrad institution for their PhD, but I get a sense that their reasons mostly involved location/being around family and home. The main benefit of going elsewhere is definitely networking (as well as the fact that there's a better chance to "move up" from undergrad to grad school than there is from the PhD to a faculty position). More schools = more connections and perspectives (to simplify, of course).

That makes four of us, then...

THE IPHONE I have one, but god, is it an overrated commodity...

really cruel, heartless, somewhat sociopathic individuals who have been able to climb the ladder(s) of academia popping up everywhere in my life that remind me of all the reasons i should run as fast as i can from an academic career that is what i need to vent about. i get excited about a program but then have to realize that academia is not just this static 'thing', but in its very nature, an interconnected, tangled web of individual and departmental networks that invariably leave me connected to the very people i was so excited to flee... so we have to 'play the game' forever? and by that, i mean tolerate people, watch your back, 'publish or perish' etc.? i know this is the reality of academia, and that there are always concessions one must make, but it would be nice to be able to walk away from certain people (or even types of people or specific departments) as i go forth into this thing called 'my future'

I changed my major three times, though my core interests didn't really shift dramatically (political science, health and human sciences interdisciplinary, sociology). Being able to change my major was crucial to my intellectual development. I never believed people who said I'd most likely change my major, because I felt so set on law and politics, but they were completely correct. When undergraduates ask me for advice re: college, the main thing I tell them is "change your major as many times as necessary".

Also, while social work can be a really difficult and unglamorous field (no offense to MSW people; it's just rough starting off, is what I mean), without MSWs, we basically wouldn't have accredited, trained social workers. The reason why social work can be a difficult and unglamorous field is because social workers are always needed. It's a very necessary field, a very necessary job, and thus, a very necessary degree. It seems the article conflates worth of degree with economic worth, salary-wise, but we'd be screwed without social workers, and it's hard to refute that.