Tritonetelephone

Haha. Polumetis got it right. Except it's "she."

Oh, Bourdieu <3

I had almost the opposite problem - I gave all my recommenders their information packets in September and one of them emailed me less than 24 hours later to say that they'd all been sent. That's almost just as nerve wracking - I'll never know if he'd already had a letter prepared before I gave him the packet, or if he just sent in a generic letter that's going to end up being a huge detriment to all of my applications. I had a chance to peek at one of them (a sealed copy that I ended up not needing), but damn these ethics! Had to return it to him. At least I know my other two recommenders were careful and personal :roll:

Just submitted my app. For the record, I DID end up including it. It took me a while to word it right , but it ended up giving me a chance to really list all the things I've done in such a short amount of time - now I kind of wish my other SoP's took advantage of the same format. Oh well.

I did 4 last year and 10 this year. 10 with experience was just as difficult as 4, without. I'll have finished them all within the next few days.

Last year, I did not do enough research in the beginning and applied to 4 schools but only really wanted to go to one of them (all eggs in one basket = bad idea). This time, my plan at the beginning was to pick 9 schools and allow myself to drop up to 3 of them as I was doing applications if I found that they weren't worth it anymore. I ended up picking 10 schools that were all much more exciting and much better fits than I thought I would find. Even with the wide range of prestige between my schools, I could honestly go to any one of them, if accepted. So as of now: no regrets. But we'll see how I feel when I start hearing back.

I considered applying at NYU and found that it wasn't for me. However, I tried to really dig deep when finding out about programs before applying - which is why I found your post particularly ironic... Did you happen to notice that at least three of the soc prof's at NYU don't even have a PhD in Sociology? One of them only has degrees in Physics: http://sociology.as.nyu.edu/object/davidgreenberg.html His bio was particularly memorable:

It's shocking to me that you don't think these things were worth more than a line on your resume. I only have research experience since July 08, but I explained in my SoP what the program does and how I've been able to contribute. It's not directly relevant to my subfield, but it's been a sociological learning experience (then again, what isn't?). As usual, I don't know much about the specific universities you're applying to, but I would definitely think you'd be accepted to at least half of them.

Arizona's site posted all of the "suggested readings" for their qualifying exams, and that was a big reason I liked the school... I was familiar with a good deal of the articles listed and like them a lot.

Thanks, guys. I did finish my BA the spring after I was waitlisted, so most of my SoP's say "since graduating with my BA in sociology..." which is what I was considering changing to "since being waitlisted..." But after reading over the terrible SoP I sent in last year, I'd almost rather have them not remember me. :oops: I did have to put on the grad school's application whether or not I applied before, but it only then asked whether or not I was accepted, which I had to say no to. Part of the FAQ for the grad school also says that if you've applied in the last 12 months, you need to contact the program. I think I'll leave it out of the SoP, unless the grad secretary specifically says that I need to mention it (I'll call her in the morning. Also need to ask about whether or not the enforce a 500W length requirement - something I noticed last-minute in the depths of the application instructions from the grad school). Thanks again!

I'm still very interested in attending a school that waitlisted me last year. I've done a lot to improve my application since then, including raising my GRE scores, taking grad classes, getting GRA and TA experience, etc. So will they remember me, or should I drop a mention on the SoP? ("Since being waitlisted by XYZ in spring 2008, I...") Or should I leave it out and contact the grad secretary to make sure she knows? How do they usually perceive 2nd time applicants? I'm leaning towards leaving it out and letting my exp speak for itself.

Most of my schools do. Namely: UT Austin, UCSB, UC San Diego (although they notify by email when your status is posted), FSU, and Arizona. Although some of the rest, such as USC and UMass, have a status update on their application, I'm not as confident that it will update before I hear from them directly. If you're not sure about any of your schools, you can go to the results search and look at last year's results to see if they found out by website. That's what I did.

Dude, we don't know. It's only a couple months, maximum - you'll find out. (Seriously, though, I wish I could help but I don't know anything about those schools or political/environmental soc.)

I also agree that you have nothing to worry about. That's a very simple mistake - they won't hold it against you. I think the "spelling-and-grammar-death-sentence" is more about showing enough carelessness to make it obvious that you didn't even read over your SoP. And your GRE scores aren't that bad! Have you seen the scores distributions for Sociology? If not, it's on the PowerPrep CD. A 600V and 5.0W is what they'll be looking for (Edit: according to a soc professor of mine). They're used to soc students who are much weaker in math.

My general SoP is 3 full pages (~1,500 words) and IU has a 500 word limit. And they have the highest admission standards of all my schools. That SoP has been a challenge, to say the least.

What I did was first find schools based on fit. If they had less than 2 faculty members that I would love to work with, they didn't make the list. I looked at their funding stats and made a few more cuts. Then I narrowed the list down to make sure that I had at least 2 reach schools, 2 medium schools, and 2 safety schools. So my safety schools are still a really good fit - which is really what matters in the end. FSU may accept 76% of applicants and 2 of my recommenders know people there, but I'm applying because I loved at least 6 of their faculty members (and they fund). I think that's the best way to get the maximum quality out of your graduate work. ADD: Also, keep in mind that the "top 10" ranks for your subfield might not be in the "top 10" list for the field overall. That's how I found schools that would be good matches initially - FSU is #10 for sex/gender but #39 for sociology overall.

I think that it does not include title page/endnotes. I've only been counting what they'll actually be reading. This is coming from the opposite end of the spectrum, though - making sure I meet the minimum. I wouldn't send in a 10-pg document if 3 of the pages were endnotes and tables.

As I understand it, a typical funding package is a tuition waiver plus a 14,000 - 19,000 stipend (depending on the school and COL of the area). What I gather from my school's websites is that the stipend is contingent on the TA/RA position. If they're asking you to work for it, I can't imagine them still forcing you to work if you try to decline. They might be happy to offer the stipend to someone else. Delaware's application gave me the option of asking for a tuition waiver only and no TA/RA/Fellowship, so maybe other schools will let you choose the same after enrolling. It's hard to know for any of us who are also only in the app stages. Your safest option is to just call each department you're applying to and ask. Shouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks all! I didn't think it would matter much also... until I started to think about just how many SoP's these committees are reading at once. If mine is read immediately after one that used different rules, I want to make sure mine used the "correct" rules. But it sounds like we're all on the same page, more or less. I won't worry.

This has been driving me crazy, and I keep finding conflicting advice. What's the verdict here?... Do you capitalize the name of the field you're applying to, if it's not a foreign language? (i.e. "I would like a PhD in Sociology.") Do you capitalize the names of subfields? (i.e. "I would like to specialize in the Sociology of Knowledge.") Do you capitalize job titles? (i.e. "I have been employed as a Research Assistant." or "I was the Student Activities Officer of my university's SGA.") I have been doing yes, no, and no for the most part.

Thank you, that's very nice! I do come from a bottom 10% undergrad institution, though, so I'm constantly fighting against that. I was much more optimistic last year and didn't get into the school that I was most invested in - so yeah, I'm just trying not to make the same mistake. I'm hoping to get accepted with funding from at least one school, but I think Indiana's my biggest stretch. Good luck to all!

I think you have a decent chance at some of those schools, depending on your SoP. Research experience is a big plus. Honestly, UW Madison is probably way out of the question, and Indiana seems unlikely as well. I don't think that I'll get into Indiana, and I have a 660V 690Q 5.0W, 3.96 GPA (Jr/Snr yr), BA in Soc, research experience, and community experience. Like others said - your biggest challenge is leaving the committee feeling like you will stay committed to Sociology after only 1 intro course. Have you received any advice from your recommenders? A UT prof once told me that most of their applicants want to stay far away from math of any kind, so they highly value SoP's that mention a preference for quantitative methods. A recent Stanford grad also told me that some PhD students in the program with him would do really well, up until the advanced stats courses. Then they would fail and get kicked out of the program. So yes, quantitative skills are a plus. Your best bet is to sell yourself on your quantitative skills/interests, but I'm concerned that your GRE scores might balance it out. 670 seems a little low for an Econ major (Sorry - I'm not trying to be harsh!). Last year, I had a 550V 690Q 4.5W and didn't get into the schools I wanted (UT and Stony Brook - nowhere near as tough as Madison). The advice I've received since is that each section needs to be at least 600, and writing needs to be at least 5.0. If you're selling yourself mainly on quantitative skills, you might need to back it up with a 700Q at least. (I know it's probably too late now, so let's hope I'm wrong.) I don't know much about a lot of the schools you listed, but it might be a good idea to choose another safety school or two to balance out those reach schools. Mine are FSU and U Delaware. Delaware isn't due until February 1st. Remember also that, although Soc. programs are perceived as being easier than most to get into, when the economy is down people go back to school!! I'm expecting to be competing with people who have already been successful social workers or researchers for 20 years and are suddenly concerned that they'll need a PhD to survive the current job market. Every school I applied to last year said sincerely that they had an "unusually high number of applicants" - and the economy got so much worse this year just in time for people to start thinking about applying. One more hint: Stony Brook loves community experience! I'm still hoping to go there myself.

That's actually not true at all for Sociology. For us, schools do tend to highly value community experience, especially if it directly relates to your discipline - and it shouldn't be hard to argue that it does. I got pretty far (though not far enough) on my extracurriculars alone last time I applied to schools, considering that my GRE scores weren't that good, I had no research experience, and I come from a very low-ranked University as an undergrad. But I was an officer of my campus GLBT group and I'm applying to specialize in sex and gender. It depends on the school of course, but I would strongly disagree that extracurriculars are "unimportant." Although research experience is important, too. That certainly is true. If you can't specify what you have in common (regarding research interests) with any of your prospective professors, a good GRE score will not be enough. I've also only seen GRE data on specific department websites - you just have to dig a little (usually it'll be in their FAQ). There is some helpful data on http://www.petersons.com and http://graduate-school.phds.org/ but I don't think they have GRE scores, and they're definitely not as up-to-date or accurate.

Last year, I studied intensely for a few months, focusing on the math (only because I like math more). My scores weren't good enough for the programs I wanted... 550 V 690 Q 4.5 A I barely studied at all this year. My new scores: 660 V 650 Q TBD, but felt better about it What I did differently was ONLY use ETS's PowerPrep to study the day before, which resembles the actual GRE test exactly. I tried to control my environment so that the real test wouldn't feel too different from the practices, and I would advise anyone to do the same. Since I didn't have time to study this year, I didn't learn any new words or significantly increase my verbal ability. I looked closer at the strategies for the Verbal questions and the writing section because I was told those needed to improve, but I never practiced the math. A composite 1340 isn't going to hold me back this year like 1230 did last year.

Coming from another end of the spectrum, I can't really help to tell you if you're qualified or not. I applied to PhD programs my senior year before finishing my BA in Sociology, had a similarly good GPA, but I still didn't get into the schools of my choice (didn't even try for top 10). I had a lot of weaknesses, too, though - coming from a very weak UG school, not-so-great GRE, etc. [bTW, you probably already know this, but if those GRE scores are over 5 years old, you have to retake it.] My best guess is that since you've been out of school for so long, they're going to want to know more about your work experience than your academic experience. Marketing actually sounds like an ideal field to be coming from; you can probably easily explain the sort of experiences you've had with large groups of people and how that has influenced your interest in Sociology. And, like rising star said, you're going to need to really prove that you're serious about wanting and needing the degree for your future goals. That will all be in your personal statement. The writing sample requirements that I encountered said that it had to be academic and it had to be sociological. 10-20 pages was the limit, so I wrote 14. That was actually the hardest part of my application because I didn't have any papers that long to submit, so I just re-wrote and expanded a qualitative study that I did for my gender class. I guess it still wasn't that great. You're going to be competing with people who already have publications in journals that they can submit (mine was definitely not publishable), so keep that in mind. But some schools won't require one - you can check their websites. No matter what, I wouldn't worry about your age or family status as much of a factor in Sociology. Some fields (especially medical) do strongly prefer younger applicants, but I work for a graduate school and there are plenty of students like you in both the Library Sciences program (where I work) and the Sociology program. In fact, when I was talking to professors and advisers about applying to PhD programs in Sociology, I got the feeling that my age was much more anomalous. They would always ask how old I was (21) and not really understand why this was so important to me now. Some schools even have a question on their FAQ page about applicants with families. UTexas's site says, "Is your department child and family friendly? -Yes, very much so. Many faculty, staff, and students have children." Hope this helped! Don't forget that this has all just been my experience, I could be way off on what you might encounter!