sociologygrad

Why is that again? At least 1 of the places I applied said the opposite, they cared more about my ma and other grad school grades than undergrad ones, otherwise why ask for the transcripts from any grad level coursework? Fine, maybe they are "inflated" and of little use to you, but I wouldn't just dismiss them as "unreal." Plenty of undergrad programs have grade inflation as well (see Harvard for ex). And ultimately, at least if I was on an adcomm, I'd be more interested in someone's numbers if they have previous grad level coursework since it's frankly more likely to be closer to the type of work my dept would expect of them than what they've done at the undergrad level (at least hypothetically speaking). I'm not saying how many adcomms in sociology or other social sciences operate that way, nor that it should necessarily exclude those w/good gpa's who only have bachelor's degrees, but you're argument seems to go too far.

I thought I got in and the situation is complicated, but basically I'm still siting on a waitlist, so I was wrong. The interview I had was confusing in that regard. IM me if you wanna know more.
 
 
 
Thanks, I appreciate all you've said and you're basically right. Sociology in the US isnt that field, w/a few exceptions, I've learned that the hard way. I've found the right field, sociology in Canada or elsewhere or some areas of human geography (for my interests anyway) but then the cost becomes job market viability upon graduation and funding to get in. There's a mass student strike spreading across Canada atm which has held up my application, which has aggravated the situation. What it comes down to this is this, I can't do my research if I don't get that silly degree. At least then I'd have  the makings of the kind of manuscript in the dissertation that I want to write and hopefully publish somewhere eventually, b/c I know what I want to do, even if that means after the phd a non-academic career. And to me finishing my education is a big deal, key life goal. Anyway, now I don't know, such is life. Good luck to everyone who has gotten in somewhere.
 
 
Thanks, hugs and best of success to you as well!

As the famed sociologist T. Swift would say, haters gonna hate, shake it off shake it off

Contact current graduate students.  They have to live somewhere and they will be very candid as to whether they like or dislike where they choose to live.  Also look at the citydata forums for Chicago.  It's a great source of information although I have found that a lot of people visit that site to convey negative information which may reflect only one incidence and not the whole. 
Google Earth is friggin fantastic.  If you know the location of the apartments, you can use Google maps or Google Earth to roam about the neighborhood using street view.  You'd be surprised how much you can learn from using that! 
I moved across country for grad school so I used all of these methods while researching places to live. 

Thank you! Many of us really needed this. 

Ah!  Well that is a totally different question altogether.  I'd hate to de-rail this thread, so why don't you PM me and I can try to help out

i am so sorry you're in this situation; words are not adequate and they make me sound disingenuous. you are not incompetent, and as others said, it is a crapshoot. there are also real factors at play, factors that value certain interests and devalue others, and i get the sense that departments have a strange aversion to 'political' and 'radical' interests. i certainly think navigating that problem has been a significant barrier for me personally, and that says a lot about the field: perhaps a field that is unwilling to help a scholar who comes from a marxist and perhaps radical perspective is a field that needs to be questioned, that needs critical examination. i'm being vague, but what i'm trying to say is that the rejections show more about academic sociology than they do about you, and while i know that is no consolation, i hope it will help you consider that you are intelligent and determined and full of worth, and maybe it is academia that needs to be rejected rather than do the rejecting....

Couldn't have said it better myself. The process is a crapshoot, and results are not indicative of intelligence or worth.

P.S. I meant to upvote, but accidentally clicked the red arrow. Don't know how to change it. -___-

Please don’t say that. I am sure you are a wonderful student. Your worth is not determined by a Ph.D. program, and you can always try again. Maybe this happened for the best. I know many grad students who are very unhappy in grad school, and not everyone who made it is deserving. I am sure you will do great in whatever you will do in the future.
*Hugs* 

Please don’t say that. I am sure you are a wonderful student. Your worth is not determined by a Ph.D. program, and you can always try again. Maybe this happened for the best. I know many grad students who are very unhappy in grad school, and not everyone who made it is deserving. I am sure you will do great in whatever you will do in the future.
*Hugs* 

Please don’t say that. I am sure you are a wonderful student. Your worth is not determined by a Ph.D. program, and you can always try again. Maybe this happened for the best. I know many grad students who are very unhappy in grad school, and not everyone who made it is deserving. I am sure you will do great in whatever you will do in the future.
*Hugs* 

Please don’t say that. I am sure you are a wonderful student. Your worth is not determined by a Ph.D. program, and you can always try again. Maybe this happened for the best. I know many grad students who are very unhappy in grad school, and not everyone who made it is deserving. I am sure you will do great in whatever you will do in the future.
*Hugs* 

The rankings of graduate programs are almost always completely different from the rankings of undergraduate universities. While some schools are consistently strong in a variety of fields (Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Princeton, etc.), some schools have a few top notch programs in random disciplines (University of Rochester is GREAT in Political Science, University of California--Santa Cruz has a really strong Queer Studies program). For list Then again, some schools fare surprisingly poorly in the rankings. There is not only the US News and World Report, but also the more well regarded (but dated) National Research Council report.

Let's compare three rankings to see what is consistent between them. Anyway, public schools are in italics, ivy league schools are underlined, other elite private schools have no formatting.

Sources: USNWR 2009, USNWR 2005, NRC 1995
(Sorry for the inconsistent naming--I really didn't feel like changing all the NRC rankings to fit.)

I agree with most of what has been said in this thread. I know, based on ASA research on the employment of sociology graduates, that those with an MA usually do much better than those with a BA. Those with a PhD in sociology also do very well, although their employment may fall outside of the university. State agencies and corporate research groups usually hire the soc PhDs who aren't absorbed by the university.

However the odds of finding employment are conditioned by the skills you develop while working on your MA and PhD. If you're purely qualitative, the odds of finding employment are much lower in comparison to someone with mixed or quantitative expertise.

Frankly, if you go to USF, you should know that a PhD from a low tier school such as USF will put you at a comparative disadvantage in the academic job market. So, you probably won't have an easy time finding a professorship. You'll probably wind up working as an adjunct for very little pay.

I think it may be worth it to go to USF and building a mixed method or quantitative skill set. Those skills will allow you to be competitive in the corporate world, or in the government sector.

I know this because I am working on a PhD at an unranked program. To make up for that disadvantage I've studied historical comparative methods, ethnographic methods, quantitative methods, and geospatial methods, while also studying classical and contemporary theory very closely. These skills have allowed me to find employment with research organizations and institutes in my area, while also allowing me to coauthor comparative historical manuscripts and quantitative manuscripts which deal with the topics that interest me.

Adopting a similar strategy (yes, the work will take over your life) might help you find employment in the corporate or government sector, which typically pay more than academic positions anyway. The extra income will help you pay off all of that debt! And trust me, you'll probably accrue more debt while working on your PhD. I certainly did.

I was just at Binghamton and got a lot of information from professors and grad students. PM me if you need info.

I'm a current undergrad at Riverside (I've also been accepted here) and I know too much about this program. Message me any questions you have about the department--I'll try to be as honest as possible. I also know plenty of current grad students, so I generally know how they feel about the program. 

I have a friend who was able to add $10K to her stipend plus a sweet apartment in NYC by basically putting two top programs in a bidding war. She's a great person and a very good candidate for a bunch of reasons (including being Af-Am, totally acing the GREs, and having awards and a high profile in her previous profession). I think she will be extremely marketable when she goes up for jobs and would be surprised if she doesn't get 1) a top university press for her first book and 2) competing offers at top 10 programs. So, to get to a 40K stipend and sweet apartment in the East Village, that's the kind of candidate one might have to be.

Not sociology, but an interdisciplinary field, btw.

I have heard of other people who tried it and got nothing, but also didn't suffer any negative consequences.

Hey why the downvote? I'm not saying that's what everybody should do, but i thought it might be helpful to know that at least one person succeeded with the bidding war strategy.

Well, my Fall 2015 season is over. Looks like I'm moving to either Ann Arbor or San Diego. I wouldn't wish this application process on my worst enemy! I'm glad it's over, happy to get back to real work, and very excited and pleased with my prospects.

I think, in the end, thegradcafe made me feel anxious more than anything else. Either way, I'm excited to see what this next generation of sociologists has to offer and I hope to see you all at ASA over the next years.

BOSTON UNI WHYYYYYYYYY GIVE ME A RESPONSEEEEEE. *proceed with rain dance

Harvard - a university so good they have to reject you by mail AND online...

Political Economy, theory, and globalization.  

Political Economy, theory, and globalization.  

Just going to leave this here. Have a good day. 
 
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/02/university_hiring_if_you_didn_t_get_your_ph_d_at_an_elite_university_good.html?utm_content=buffercf3ee&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Just going to leave this here. Have a good day. 
 
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/02/university_hiring_if_you_didn_t_get_your_ph_d_at_an_elite_university_good.html?utm_content=buffercf3ee&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer