SocProf

Jdsj, Email the first school to say thanks and let them know it will take some time before you are able to commit. Then use your offer from the first program as leverage to try to get the others to speed up their decision making. But unless the first offer is an "exploding offer" that is void after a certain period of time, you shouldn't feel too much pressure to take it immediately. Just be sure to communicate with the profs at the first school you're considering working with so they understand your situation. Best of luck! Gabe

Cpoco, It may be difficult to find exactly the kind of program you have in mind, but Jeffrey Alexander and Phil Smith's cultural sociology center at Yale might work out well: http://ccs.research.yale.edu/ Or consider working with someone like Isaac Reed at UC-Boulder. It might be a good idea to check out the culture and theory section newsletters and google names you find to see if there's someone who might make for a good mentor. http://www.ibiblio.org/culture/ http://www.asatheory.org/newsletter Best of luck! Gabe

Namilis, You definitely should apply to top sociology PhD programs, but also to a couple of masters programs as a backup. But keep in mind that some programs are friendlier to people with non-sociology backgrounds than are others, so your pattern of acceptance/rejection may end up looking haphazard. In any case, here's a possibly useful post from Fabio Rojas: https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/foucault-kids/ Personally, I fancy myself one of Fabio's "Foucault kids" and would like to see many more of them in our discipline! Gabe

Espresso Shot, See my response to Robes above. Regarding age, I'm not in a position to generalize, and committee members will never want to be accused of agism. But on the other hand, PhD programs are usually money losers for universities, but can be seen as a long-term investment if program X's PhD alumni say nice things about program X and encourage their own undergraduate and masters students to apply to program X. But for an older student, the window for doing this is obviously much smaller. It's just hard to make a case that committing scarce resources training a student in her/his 50s-60s makes sense for the department or university, although I'm sure there are exceptions. Regarding your last question, yes, you should definitely contact the dept with your updated grades, scores, or whatever. It shows commitment and energy, both of which are a plus IMHO.

Robes, That's how it works at my institution, but A) I'm sure things are done differently elsewhere, and universities change their policies and procedures regularly, particularly when new deans, provosts, presidents etc. are appointed. For example where I work we had a university-wide GRE cutoff that ended this year, and now departments receive all applications regardless of GRE scores. I'm not sure what the latest policy is with regard to GPA.

I think most admissions offices will recognize the GPAs as separate, but might apply a minimum cutoff to the lowest one. If your application makes it from the admissions office to the department, the dept admissions committee will certainly look at all 3 GPAs and will look closely at your transcripts as well. Hope this helps. Happy holidays! Gabe

You too Mi.Sun!

I think if you explain your situation clearly in your personal statement, you should be fine. In reality your situation is not that unique, and I'd expect most of the admissions committee members to be pretty understanding. and I don't think you're necessarily at a disadvantage relative to applicants who are not already enrolled in graduate programs. The truth might be the opposite. It's just hard to say.

Mi.sun, Yes, you're pitching it correctly. 1-2 sentences is just right, and the tone should not be negative toward your current program. What you're doing is normal and good for everyone involved: you have a right and responsibility to find the program that is the best possible fit for you, and the faculty and administrators at your current program will eventually have to be responsive to their graduate students 'voting with their feet,' which is pretty much the only power graduate students have in academia. Best of luck! Gabe

This is a tough one, coming as it does from a different field. I'll guess that engineering profs will value work experience more for a masters applicant who is likely to finish and reenter the workforce, and GPA more for a PhD who is more likely to stay in academia. If you know what concentration you want, you're in good shape. You can figure out the thesis topic during the first 1-2 semesters of coursework. Hope this helps! Gabe

Fruitbat, Hard to say as it's a very personal situation, and depends on the prof's time commitments. But it's possible that the professor has more advises now than five years ago, especially if his/her department has a grad program.

Fruitbat, If I were on an admissions committee reviewing your app I'd look at your GREs, GPA(s), research experience, recommendation letters and personal statement, and wouldn't pay much attention to your transfer history. Admissions committee members shouldn't play amateur psychologist. And arguably your transfers are a good thing that gave you valuable experience, wisdom and arete. But I'd consider applying to a relatively large number of programs, since there's a chance committee members in some programs might take a negative view of the transfers. But you wouldn't want to enter such programs anyway. Best of luck! Gabe

They might do that at the committee level, but the cutoffs would be soft. But at the university level if they have cutoffs at all I would expect them to be very low. You should be safe from those.

Akashpatel, I think your research experience will offset your GRE scores, which are pretty decent anyway. For an English or history PhDs you'd expect top GREv scores, and for math-related fields you'd expect top GREq scores. But for bio I think the scores probably aren't quite as critical. I'd be surprised if you don't get into a couple of top places. Best of luck! Gabe

Jujubea, Because in many PhD programs there are students in their 40s-50s who want the degree for personal as much as for professional reasons. Plus they're already established in their fields, often have kids in college, and can afford to pay tuition out of pocket. You see this in education PhDs, but in sociology, psychology and other fields too. Hope this helps! Gabe

MastersHoping, First, regarding PhD funding, Google "The Ignatow Principles of PhD Funding" (TheGradCafe isn't letting me paste in the url from Academia.edu here). Second, if you're in your 20s, only pursue a PhD if you're 100% committed to a career in research and teaching, and if you're offered a funding package that includes tuition and some cost of living stipend. Otherwise the masters is the smarter move in terms of cost/benefit. Good luck! Gabe

Lifelong Player, Sorry for the delay, but I didn't realize this discussion had flipped over to a second page. It sounds like you're in a position to be a competitive applicant for many good programs right now, but would be more competitive for top-flight ed school PhDs with some teaching experience. Are the interdisciplinary programs you're thinking about housed in Arts and Sciences, or in colleges of education? Gabe

They're pretty important, and can be critical for borderline applicants. There should be at least one LOR that is really glowing. Yes, but in my experience only if a member of the committee already has a relationship with the letter writer and there is something in the application that needs clarification. I've never seen a tax report in a grad school application, but healthcare admin may be different in this regard than sociology. You might be overthinking. As a committee member I'd rather see 4 years in a family business than a four-year hole in the application. It sounds like you do stand a solid chance based on your GMAT. Yes, major GPA is more important than overall GPA, assuming the major is related to the field to which you are applying. If you're applying to English Literature, nobody cares how you did in Physics 101. Good luck! Gabe

This is my dirty little secret, but I never took a sociology course as an undergrad. But I think this model only works in programs with at least a couple of open-minded profs who are interested in interdisciplinary work and in investing in the long-run intellectual vitality of the discipline rather than in hyper-local status competitions. Fabio Rojas refers to us as "Foucault Kids," which has a very nice ring to it: http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/foucault-kids/ I love being a professor, although at this stage in my career I like having one foot in the private sector too. In terms of advising, grad students are a lot like talented undergrads, but you get more time with them and so can invest more in them. But if you like working with people and seeing them succeed, you'll like serving in advisor/mentor roles. Hope this helps. Gabe

ok cool. Glad to be of some help.

If you do well in the program and are geographically flexible you can expect to be competitive for tenure-track jobs at teaching institutions with 4-4 teaching loads. That would be par for the course. But if you aren't geographically flexible and/or don't excel in the program (in terms of publishing, making connections with faculty, finishing expeditiously, and gaining teaching experience) your ceiling will probably be lecturer positions or, worse, adjuncting. If you are exceptional in your program, and especially if you study a topic that is in demand, you should be competitive for tenure-track positions with 20-40% of the workload for research and a 2-3 or even a 2-2 teaching load. Gabe

Right, I'm clear on your situation. But I'd say probably not, as in most cases the semester credit hour requirements are mandated at the state and national levels. The answer should be in the fine print in your university's graduate catalog. If it's not there, or what's there isn't clear, you may be able to ask to waive some of the course work requirements or replace them with independent study hours if you can find a willing prof.

I don't think there would be much overlap in terms of course numbers and titles, but depending on the size of the department, there could be nontrivial overlap in terms of content. Many depts cross-list masters and doctoral courses, after all. Hope this helps. Gabe

Any time. It sounds like you're on top of things. Best of luck!

Useless theory, My apologies for being so late on this. I know it's too late now, but for future reference I'd list theory as a second or third interest in your SOP or CV, and make sure you give the impression that you won't have a problem surviving the department's stats/methods sequence. Having an active interest in theory is seen as a plus by profs, but only if it's not interpreted as 'doesn't like math.' Best of luck! If it's not too much trouble, let me know how it turns out. Gabe