eu4ria

OK, awesome. Thanks for the info. Yeah, my mom was, so I think it is a leg up . I don't know exactly that I want my research focus to be, though, and I know I'm passionate about teaching, so really I'm more focused on placement than on exactly what each professor at any given university is writing about. I pretty much feel like I'll find something interesting to research wherever I go, and the professor here with whom I've talked most in person about this basically told me that focus is super overrated and that he wouldn't really recommend even doing a soc PhD if one doesn't get into a top ~20 ranked program. I mean, this is coming from a Berkeley grad, so there's definitely some snobbery there, and if I only get into one program I will sure as hell go there even if it's nowhere near top 20, but... I'm getting very mixed messages and am not going to disregard rank entirely just yet. I mean, half the people on this board seem to think it matters. Why--how--am I supposed to stop thinking about that? I'd rather go to the higher-ranked school where every graduate gets a good professorship than worry about fit. Is that so wrong? Edit: And as for UA, it says specifically on the grad admissions webpage that UA grads get special consideration, so I do believe them that there is a 'leg up'. I am still trying to figure out how grad admissions are different from undergrad, but so far all I've really done is take a practice GRE, and that seemed exactly like the SAT--and then there's GPA, the final 60 units of which count more. And then research/work experience, right? So, the three main factors are the same, no? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this and not conceptualizing this process as highly similar to the undergrad process.

Also, just how much more competitive are the top 10 schools vs top 20 vs 20-40 vs 40-60? Am I right to think that with the leg up I have at UA and Yale (dad, mom, and grandpa studied/worked there), those are targets, anything above ~20 is a reach, and 40-60 are "safeties"? How safe would, say, Northeastern be for me, if I'm a decent fit?

OK, OK. Just how extensive does said homework have to be, though? For instance, if I were applying to a program in Deviance and talked about my classes in Juvenile Delinquency, Deviance Theory, Criminology, and Soc of Law and about the independent study I did that talked a bit about how racism is institutionalized in the penal system in both Cuba and the US, would that be enough, basically? What else is one supposed to do other than talk about the classes one has taken and maybe about particular theorists one finds interesting, maybe read a couple of papers the profs at the school to which one is applying have written ... ?

Thanks for all the help, you guys. Good point, SocGirl! So, fit is really, really important? I actually had my best professor tell me that every department has more or less all of the basic subfields, and that fit is "overrated"... I find it so damn hard to decide on a specialty this early! I've taken a Criminology class, Deviance Theory, Juvenile Delinquency, and Soc of Rights, Ethics, and Law, so I have somewhat of a specialty in criminology/deviance? And then, with the LAS and Spanish, an Africana studies class, and that independent study I did, I'd say my second specialty is race/ethnicity. I guess those would be my comps if I chose now. But I'm also interested in urban sociology and sex and gender. Can someone tell me more about how to determine fit? If I haven't exactly figured it out totally by grad school, will my GPA and GRE really not count for shit without fit?

So, I've had a tremendous amount of difficulty finding average GPA/GRE scores and admissions ratesat many PhD programs. I only found stats for Duke, which were pretty encouraging for me. I've harassed all my professors and told them my stats, research, story, etc., but they all seem pretty hesitant to talk specifics. So, can anyone with experience applying to a bunch of PhD programs give me, like, a ballpark figure of the kind or rank (top 20, 30, whatever) program into which I can probably get, with a percentile odd guess, or something? It was really easy to find this kind of information for undergrad, so I feel as though I'm totally in the dark here. Obviously, fit is more important for grad school, right? Can anyone give me more info about that, as well? So, going into my third year (I was going to graduate in three but decided to stay on for a fourth year because I've blown off stats and want to strengthen my app with a couple 500-level grad classes and hopefully more research), here are my stats: 3.84 GPA cumulative with 109 units done at University of Arizona Honors College (not a super impressive school, I know, especially considering the elite undergrads from which a bunch of applicants are coming, but I got a full ride here for my National Merit Semifinalist award) 167/160/5.0 GRE practice test (with no studying, so presumably I'll score around there when I take it later this year. I did well on the SAT, and honestly it seems like the same exact thing with more advanced writing.) Edit: 3.89 Soc GPA, 4.0 Latin American Studies GPA, 3.67 Spanish GPA My research is mediocre at best: I did transcribing and open note coding during my first semester for 2 units. During my study abroad in Cuba, I did a 3-unit honors independent study (a 35-pager that was honestly not that heavy on the independent research, mostly just literature review), "The Afro-Cuban Experience vs. The African-American Experince: A Historical-Materialist Review". I submitted it to a couple undergraduate journals, but no luck yet... Finally, I did interviews (some in Spanish!) and transcribing for the Mayor's Commission on Poverty here in Tucson for a 3-unit class. All pretty light-weight crap, I know. I should have a good recommendation from Jeffrey Sallaz and then from the prof for whom I do my Honors Thesis (and that might end up as a publishable paper/ at least a better writing sample than my Cuba paper, I hope). Overall, most of my classes have been with grad students, a couple of whom I have great friendships with, but I only have decent relationships with a couple of the faculty here. I'm working on that. Other than Stats and the Honors Thesis, I'm already done with the Soc major requirements, and also am almost done with my Latin American Studies major and Spanish minor. I hope to do research in Latin America, maybe Cuba, if I can improve upon my Spanish a bit more. Also, I'm (half) Chicano. Does that still help? Should I be sure to take a bunch more Soc classes during my final 60 units? Just how important is that? I mean, obviously I don't want to go into grad school having taken mostly LAS and Spanish classes during the past two years. I am taking two Soc electives now. My story: I come from a family of academics. My mom was a philosopher of film before she died when I was young. I've always wanted to teach. To be honest, I want to teach more than I want to research. I know that's kind of taboo, so I shouldn't admit that, right? I would be happy if I can get tenure anywhere, even a community college but preferably a LAC. Am I aiming too low? Is it wrong to value teaching over advancing the science? I expect people will answer that in the affirmative. Also, I love the West Coast, but would prefer to go home (grew up mostly in New Haven, dad works at Yale) to New England/NYC. The future mother of my children is a couple of years younger and goes to Northeastern undergrad. Is the Northeastern PhD, ranked 62nd, below me, or a decent safety? If I get into Yale or Harvard, I'd go there (I went to UA with my ex-fiancee and lived with her my first year here; obviously it didn't work out. I'm going to try to not make the same mistake with going to a lesser school to be with a girl but obviously am super in love...), but, yeah, just how much worse are schools ranked 40-60? Do they still offer good funding? I got a full ride to undergrad and have money, so I'm not too too worried about funding. But obviously it is a factor, and I shouldn't make a hundred thousand dollar investment in the relationship, or whatever, plus future loss in earnings, or whatever... But money really isn't that important to me. I know that was a lot of questions for one post, but help me out!