SOCphd15
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Posts posted by SOCphd15
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I'll be there with several classmates. Poster and presentation, Friday and Saturday, respectively.
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I've only seen one program require that you come early (Nebraska). If you did not take undergraduate statistics or if your grade was below what they wanted, they require you to come early to take a course before starting their program.
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Which OSU? There are three...
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I graduated from and have a publication with a faculty member there. I may be able to answer some of your questions as well.
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University of Houston. I did not pay a dime and Houston is affordable. Great, well known faculty and they're bringing in younger, up-and-coming people. They are always looking to improve the program and the student to faculty ration is small. They also have strong ties to Houston for research or if you're interested in applied sociology, it's a great place to be.
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I agree with Roll Right. Engage your peers and mentors on their writing styles to learn how they approach writing. You can always integrate, change, or disregard someone else's approach, but it's helpful to figure out what best works for you.
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Yes, that's a great writing sample. I would also include a bit of your literature review to also indicate engagement with previous literature on your topic. Include a cover page indicating information about your thesis and you might mention it in your statement of purpose.
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I have spoken to professors, PhD candidates, first and second year graduate students, advisors, department chairs...everyone that I know and all most all of the advice contradicts that of the others. I thought that soliciting advice from people with experience would help my anxiety about this process but it has only emphasized the role of chance, luck, and uncertainty. I think knowing that I can't predict the future has helped, because now, I just have to do my best work on every part of the application and hope for the best, which will hopefully make me feel less at fault if I am not successful, but I can't believe how contradictory the advice I have received was.
Preach... everyone has a different opinion or something contradictory to say about the process. You just have to put your work out there and hope for the best. Quite the suck-tastic situation, but it is what it is: luck and chance.
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Sometimes libraries will have the current ASA grad school guide, you might check that out.
I went to OU for undergrad @lyrehc.
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If they don't say outright, there are often context clues; many use percentages or some have pictures of cohorts that may be referenced. Otherwise, it depends on year, funding, etc.
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Yeah, not to overstate it, but your professor is full of shit.
Go look through the AMA I did on getting into grad school (stickied at the top of this forum) on more info about fit.
If you have a stellar GPA/GRE we might let you in if fit is just okay, but not if fit was out and out bad. We also didn't like to admit students who didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted to do, even if it was just an area.
Fit can refer not only to your interests as an academic, but personalities within the department, too. If an adcomm doesn't think you will get along with your peers, this may factor into their decision.
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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.
(...)
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?
The fact is that nobody has ever gotten into a top 20 program because he likes teaching and the best way to get a job is to be in such a program... Those programs are all research oriented. They could tell you: "If you like teaching so much, why not a master or another kind of degree? Why a Phd?."
They are not going to "hire" you just because you would like to be hired. And for your own sake, don't ever say aloud "I am sure I will find something interesting to research wherever I go".
I suggest that you read more the posts in this forum and most importantly talk to more people in the field.
By the way, some Phd programs have a "teaching track" for sociology. I know there is one at NYU. It could be worthwhile to check those out.
To add to this, some schools are more teaching rather than research oriented anyway, Kansas is the first to come to kind. Once you've received an MA, you can teach at least a community college or lower.
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This article is helpful:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/sociology-jobs-stay-stable-with-a-caveat/83863
There was a discussion about this over the summer at ASA. To recap: there are job openings, but not necessarily in the areas people are interested in. The two fields that are posted the most are positions in health and criminology. However, people applying for these positions may be interested in a variety of topics and still get the jobs. If no one applies for these spots, more often than not they will hire the best candidate regardless of areas of specialization.
Fall 2015 Acceptances (and Rejections) Thread
in Sociology Forum
Posted
Message from University of Washington:
"We have not released or completed all our decisions, and yes, we do this in phases here for a variety of reasons."