Tritonetelephone

Don't forget to post on the result page, ejuliast and hardboiledegg. You'll be sure to break some hearts :wink:, but people will want to know

LOL. I like you, misterpat. Your posts are always awesome.

Wow!!! Congratulations, you're in! That's amazing, I don't have to tell you how hard it is to get into Wiconsin-Madison. I didn't apply there but if the department "recommends" you for admission, that means you're admitted. The graduate school isn't very involved in making big admission decisions, it's up to the department. They're probably just reviewing your file to make sure the department didn't accidentally admit you with a GPA below the minimum or something, as I understand it. Does anyone disagree?

It looks pretty now, but that's only because 800 is all by itself

UCSD has an online status page (https://graduateapp.ucsd.edu/default.asp), but their system sends an email when it updates. I still check it every few hours, just in case. I haven't heard anything, but since we're in different departments, it really doesn't matter.

Yes, they often "guinea pig" new questions/formats after you finish the real test. I liked the new format of the experimental section, but I started to rush through it because I was so anxious to see my scores. Then I started to worry that it would somehow count for something (it doesn't). http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menu ... l_CBT_Test

Oh, absolutely! I took the stats course because my adviser said that even in his Stanford cohort, soc students would do really well until they got to the upper-level stats - there they would fail and get kicked out of the program. So if you can prove that you've already survived it, that's a BIG plus to adcoms.

Your dad does sound hilarious! Come on, guys - with all the energy we spend waiting for these stupid letters, we deserve to laugh at ourselves.

You'll need some middle/lower-tier schools to balance out the ranks of those. Try looking at the rankings of soc programs, and pay special attention to the schools that are in the top ten for your subfield but NOT in the top ten for sociology in general. That's where you'll find your safety schools - and they'll be just as good of a fit. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... ocsci.html (Scroll down to see the options for subfield) Also, if there's one particular person in the field whose work you admire, you can email them and tell them what you want to study and ask what graduate programs they recommend. I did that and it was a great start. I'm not sure if you want to use the prof's you've already contacted, though...

Based on that, I guess I would argue that quantitative is the most valid... so maybe the most critically examined... which would make it the most important. Ok, nevermind. You are absolutely right that we'll need to master linear regression before finishing our PhD's... that's why I already took a doc stats course at my UG univ, and did very well in it. And my Q GRE score isn't nearly as stellar as juturnas. So maybe that would knock another point of the "validity" scale for adcoms?

I was wondering that, too. Maybe if they have 2 students they're trying to decide between, they can call up the other schools and ask if one of them was given an offer? Something like that? Wishful thinking, I'm sure. Both of the schools that asked me that barely gave me enough character space for the initialisms of my other 9 schools... so maybe they just want to know if they are your one and only shot? I also thought that they might expect to see certain schools on your list, based on your research interests, so maybe it would confirm how well you picked schools based on fit? We should ask this in the general applications boards.

Aww, I used to want to be an actuary, too! I went from calculus (HS) to music theory/composition (1st year) to sociology (BA), for similar reasons as yours. But I really miss the calculus. I think if I had been born 5 years later, I would have gone into engineering or chemistry, with all the "girls in the sciences" initiatives they have now. Any other women feel the same way?

I noticed several threads on this subject last April, so I wanted to get the ball rolling before people make the same mistakes and start panicking. I'm hoping to avoid either situation, personally... It seems some people get really excited and immediately accept an offer of admission at one of their top choices as soon as they receive it, even though they are legally allowed to wait until April 15th. Many of them end up regretting it when they receive another offer of admission, perhaps with better funding, from a school they weren't expecting to make the cut for. So, other than NOT accept any offers until April 15th (or until one has heard from every school and is sure of their decision), what is the etiquette for this situation? Is it possible to withdrawal your acceptance of an admission offer? Also, what do you do if one school has accepted you and wants your decision by April 15th, but an even better school has waitlisted you and you won't know if you're in or not until after April 15th? Anyone else have advice/ideas/concerns to share before everyone starts receiving decisions?

Lol. I 100% agree with misterpat.

I never really saw a PhD as one of my goals in life (my parents were both corporate), but when you love sociology and you want to do research, there really isn't an alternative. As one of my profs explained, outside of academia, sociology is "consumer trends of mushroom soup." Not to mention, I was a big GLBT activist as an undergrad and always envied the people that produced the data that I would use to support my positions. (I'm doing gender/sexuality)

Ignore the polls on this site - they are not representative. The GRE Powerprep software has graphs of the distribution of scores for each discipline, and sociology is noticeably lower than most. Here's a table of score distributions: ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/gre/generaldistribution.pdf Sociology is on page 7. Mean Verbal score: 483 Mean Quant score: 536 Mean AW score: 4.5 One of my profs/advisers (recent Stanford grad) suggested that a 600V and 700Q is "good" for sociology, so that's what I aimed for. Your scores are fine. But of course, GRE scores will only get your foot in the door, at best. In our field, program fit is huge. Research experience is a big plus, too. If I were on an adcom, I would take English proficiency into account... is your TOEFL score decent? (not that I know a thing about TOEFL)

Is it New Zealand? Do I win?? (Thank you, "Flight of the Conchords")

I declined an acceptance w/o funding last year by saying, "I have thoroughly researched the aid options available throughout the university, and unfortunately, for financial reasons, I am obligated to decline the offer of admission at this time." They were VERY understanding - they know that funding plays a MAJOR role in which school you choose. Lesson to all: if you applied to any depts that don't guarantee funding for all, NOW is the time to apply for scholarships at those places. Most scholarship app deadlines are April 1st, so you might not want to wait until you are already accepted.

Those were fun! Here's some more of my old favorites... Ball Droppings! Worth the small download. " Balls fall from the top of the screen and bounce off the lines you are drawing with the mouse. The balls make a percussive and melodic sound, whose pitch depends on how fast the ball is moving when it hits the line." You can get some really interesting rhythms going... http://www.balldroppings.com/ Weird Japanese flash game, Nanaca Crash: http://nanaca.narr.as/ The Ambition series (negotiation flash games by a psych student): http://zapdramatic.com/dramas.htm

Tell me about it. Here, I'm happy to feel average

Jeez, I wouldn't have made the polls if I knew it would cause so much stress! Graphs of the distribution of scores for each field are on the GRE powerprep software - that should ease a lot of anxiety around here. These scores are definitely not representative of who you're competing against - only those with the resources to have found gradcafe. Here's a table that google found for me... ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/gre/generaldistribution.pdf By the way, has anyone else noticed just how many people are voting? Certainly seems like more than the number of people posting in the threads :wink:

Yeah, my bf is in Electrical Engineering. He's not going to grad school, but he would take my practice tests just to feel good about himself. :roll: Then again, if he were to try the verbal...

I think it's best to assume that the suggestive language wasn't intentional. In that position, it's very hard to control your language so as not to get someone's hopes up - believe me, I know (I work with grad scholarships). It sounds like she caught herself saying something you might misinterpret as admission, but tried to dampen the blow by saying something encouraging. I've been there.

Really?? So many people have 750-800? Is someone going to call shenanigans on this?

If you have taken the GRE more than once in the last 5 years, choose the highest of your quantitative scores.