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juiceboxrampage

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Everything posted by juiceboxrampage

  1. Everyone I have talked to says that you are WAY more likely to get a job with a sociology degree than a women's studies degree, even if you're looking to work in a women's studies department. Folks in women's studies departments are claiming that there is a increasing trend to hire a larger percentage of WS PhDs than in the past, but programs are still much more likely to hire disciplinary PhDs. Who knows what this situation will look like in 4-8 years when you're going to be graduating, but right now, it seems safer to go with sociology. As a sociologist, you can work in a sociology department OR a women's studies department, while you are limiting yourself to only working in a women's studies department with a women's studies PhD. Since the job situation is so crappy right now, there's a huge trend for folks to work in different departments than they got their PhDs in (e.g. soc people working in anthro departments, anthro people working in legal departments). You can take advantage of this with a soc degree, but probably not with a women's studies degree, since disciplinary fields usually do not hire interdisciplnary PhDs. Most schools also offer certificates or emphases in women's studies, so you can still work with the women's studies department while getting your PhD. I feel like having a women's studies certificate or emphasis will make you competitive in the departments that are jumping on the trend of hiring actual women's studies people, as well. Of course, this is all based on the professors I have talked to, and so other people might have different views based on the people they've talked to. As for your concerns about quantative study in sociology, it doesn't really matter if there are more quant people in the U.S. If you want to do ethnography, you can focus on ethnography. Depending on the department, you might have to take a general methods class in your first year that will include some quant methods, but no one is going to force you to use statistics in your work. I personally feel like quantitative and qualitative methods are generally pretty well balanced and respected, though this might be different in different programs.
  2. I literally just accepted their offer! I'm going to be in the sociology department. I'm super excited -- Santa Cruz is so lovely. Are you wanting to live with roommates or alone?
  3. All but one of the schools I applied to have a foreign language requirement, but I've heard it's quite easy to pass their profenciency test with very minimal studying. The test is usually translating 1-2 texts with full use of a dictionary. So you don't necessarily need to know how to speak, listen, or write; you just have to be able to read for comprehension. There's a bunch of different books called "X Language for Reading" (e.g. French for Reading) that help you with this type of comprehension. Many folks say you only need to study for 1-2 months to be able to pass. So, yes, many schools have a foreign language requirement, but not all do, and it's absolutely not necessary to minor in a language or even take undergrad language courses. I'd say it really depends on what you want to do. If you want to complete an ethnography in another country, then absolutely you should take some classes that focus on pronounciation and listening comprehension. If you want to analyze texts or data in another language, then you should take some reading classes. If you have zero interest in ever doing any sociology work in another language, though, then I'd skip the language classes and just pass the profenciency test. It's better to minor in something you're actually interested in or something you can actually use later on in your career. For example, if you want to study domestic violence in the U.S., you're way better off getting a minor in women's studies than you are getting a minor in German. Of course, you should definitely look into the specific universities you want to go to, because many don't require it. If you're having trouble finding that information, most of the language requirements are kind of hidden in their long list of PhD requirements. There will be a section on classes you need to take, comprehensive exams, blah blah blah, and then they sneak in the language requirement.
  4. I spent so much of my life trying to force myself to eat tiny amounts of super healthy food, while occasionally doing little baby aerobics work outs. It sucked. I never had enough willpower to reduce my calorie intake enough to maintain my weight, and I was extremely weak and stressed. Now I do intense workouts a few times a week and let myself eat whatever I want. I feel great, I'm the strongest I've been in years, and I've been dropping pounds steadily. I do strength workouts with weights now, instead of just using my body weight, and oh my god what a difference it's made in my muscle composition. I like to lift in my room in my pajamas watching TV, so it's easy to make time for it. I also try to bike as much as possible. Since it's just a mode of transportation, it doesn't really feel like exercise, and it's made my legs SO strong. The last thing I do is the hardest one. I'm training for a thru-hike, so I put bags of cat litter in a backpack and walk up and down the stairs in my house for about an hour. I listen to music to keep my mind off the task. It's rough, but after only three times of doing it spread out over a week or two, I noticed a visible change in my legs. Crazy. Basically the moral of the story is I am so much happier doing intense workouts, being strong, and getting to eat whenever I want, instead of trying to force myself to look and act like some frail wispy fashion model.
  5. I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge about how current graduate students have been affected by UC's recent budget struggles. Has anyone heard of someone losing their funding? Is it harder to get a TA/RA position? Are cohorts getting bigger, with more competition? I'm considering a UC school, but I'm worried about how the funding situation will look a few years down the road. One of my friends has told me that "guaranteed" funding really isn't actually guaranteed, and they can cut your funding if they want to.
  6. One of my most helpful and wonderful advisors hates his job, wishes he never got a PhD, and actively advised me not to get a PhD for any reason. I think it's helpful to be realistic about how crappy the whole process can be. You're going to work your ass off for not a lot of reward. Yes, there are benefits, which is why we're all doing this anyway, but I'm sure he knows what he's talking about when he talks about the drawbacks of the program.
  7. Since Santa Cruz is in a housing crisis right now, I've heard from many locals that the only way to find decent housing is to know people personally. Try visiting the area, ask your friends if they have friends there, and get in contact with student groups that you have interest in. You can use Craigslist and other online postings, but I've heard that each Craigslist post gets tons and tons of responses, so it's rare to be the one they pick if you don't have connections. Just make sure you're writing detailed emails to craigslist ads to show how you're a great applicant and make you competitive. This is true if you're trying to find housing anywhere, but especially when housing is scarce, sending a one line "hey can I move in thx" email won't cut it.
  8. I emailed the director of my undergrad university's department asking which school I should go to, and she flat out told me that I'll only be able to get a job at the higher ranked school. There's been a ton of research about hiring practices within academia that shows that the lower a school is ranked, the harder it is to get a job. You could email the director of the math department at your old school and ask their opinion. A lot of people will give you the sugar coated "go where feels right!" talk, but If your goal is to work in academia, your best bet is probably the prestigious program.
  9. I was having this issue, so I emailed a director at a different school asking which one I should pick. Her answer was a very clear, very precise "It is a no brainer that you should choose X school if you want to become a professor." So, you know, that helped me a lot.
  10. Ostara, a family friendly co-op in Boulder, has 2 rooms opening up. Rent is $582-$628 per month. Here's a link to the craigslist post: http://boulder.craigslist.org/roo/4860458836.html And to their general website, which has much more information about the house: http://boulderhousingcoalition.org/houses/ostara/
  11. I think you should aim for higher GRE scores. If you must, pay the stupid rescheduling fee to give yourself more time to study. With a low GPA, you need to be able to show that you're still an exceptional candidate, which you can do with exceptional GRE scores. You could also ask whoever is writing your letters of recommendation to explain the difference in grading. Good luck!
  12. For both of the schools I got accepted to, I won a fellowship worth $24,000 a year. The TA salaries range from $17,000 to $24,000. I'd definitely check out the websites of the schools you'd be interested in going to. Some have a flat rate fellowship that everyone gets, some have different fellowships with different amounts of funding based on how competitive you are, some have fellowship matching (meaning if you win an external fellowship, they will match that level of funding for you for a certain number of years), some have unionized student workers (which generally means better salaries and benefits, and you have bargaining power if the school is screwing over TAs), and some have almost no funding. It really just depends. I think paying off student loans is totally possible if you're living frugally. There are some folks who have families, who have cars, who want to live in a one bedroom apartment right next to campus, etc. etc. that would probably have some difficulty saving money on $17,000 to $24,000 a year. How I live now, though, ALL of my expenses (rent, food, gas, bills, everything) come to around $500 a month. The cities I'm going to be moving to are going to be a bit more expensive, but I can't imagine spending more than $600 or $700 a month. Obviously this isn't possible for everyone, but it sounds like you're willing to make it work. Get as many roommates as possible (maybe live in a co-op), budget your food expenses wisely (maybe start a bulk food ordering share with some other folks), get a bike or a bus pass, research cheaper companies for your bills (I use Ting for my phone service and pay around $17 a month), and get yourself used to not having as many luxury purchases.
  13. I use Google Flights and Kayak to search for cheap flights. There's also a few cheap airlines that are not offered on sites like Kayak, so I search on their websites individually (Southwest, Spirit, and Jet Blue are a few I can think of). Many folks have recommended putting your browser in incognito mode when you're buying tickets, since there's rumors that websites will increase your ticket costs if you've been browsing tickets for a while. You can use couch surfing websites instead of getting a hotel. If you're going somewhere for a conference or a university visit, you can also ask the organizers if they can put you in touch with folks that can house you.
  14. If your school doesn't post placement records, you can use google search to help you get an idea of where PhDs from your department wind up. Enter this in the search bar: For example, I was trying to find Sociology professors who got their degrees from UC Santa Cruz, so this is what I entered: (Entering site:.edu makes sure only university pages come up in the results. Entering -site:ucsc.edu makes sure the results aren't bogged down with pages from UCSC.) The results are faculty pages of Sociology professors with degrees from UCSC who are teaching at other universities. Hope this is helpful to someone else!
  15. I am absolutely clueless on many very important aspects of grad school. Folks on this forum are generally really helpful, but there seems to sometimes be a culture of "oh my god how do you not know this use the search feature I'm not going to answer this kiddie stuff you should have learned in high school." I've tried searching for this stuff so many times and I still cannot find any simple explanations, or the simple explanations I do find don't seem to apply to me. So I just go along with everything because I don't want to look like an idiot and I don't want to make people mad by asking a silly question. I can't tell if I am actually an idiot, or if everyone else is doing the same thing. For example: I have NO idea what grants to apply to. Zero freaking clue. "The Bank" section is just filled with random acronyms and people talking in code and none of it makes sense to me. I went through a bunch of lists of grants that I apparently should be applying to (listed on grad schools' websites and different topics on here), but I didn't feel like I met the criteria for any of them. Almost all of the grants I found when I was looking were for PhD students already advanced to candidacy. The few I found for first year students required very, very detailed research proposals, but I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do yet, and I was under the impression that grad students don't start doing research until year two or three. I'm so confused about how everyone else knows where to apply and what they applied for and how they applied! It's overwhelming and frustrating. And I'm sure someone will now direct me to a super obvious post that I should have been able to find on my own already. Boo.
  16. This is why I'm excited for grad school. I love reading, writing, grading, and studying. For me, school is fun, while going to parties is extremely boring. You have only reaffirmed my commitment to go to grad school!
  17. I'm not an international student, but my department offered me a very, very small travel budget at first. I called them and told them the cost of my flight, and they immediately offered me more money and an extra night in a hotel. It seemed like they set the small budget at first to avoid folks taking advantage of it if they lived close to the school? I'm not sure. Anyways, you should call them and tell them your situation! Say, "I'm really excited to come to the open house, but flights from my country are close to $XXX." Hopefully they'll understand and help you out.
  18. When I was in middle school, I saw that guy that played Beans on Even Stevens at a theme park. He had two tall scantily dressed models with him. It was weird.
  19. Thanks so much everyone for your responses! I'm still very torn, but it's great to have more information and insight. UC Santa Cruz (better program) does not have much in the way of additional funding. They are completely, completely broke right now. Like I said -- even working as a TA I would still owe the university money. I don't necessarily think it's because they don't value their students. I think the UC system is just struggling right now and Santa Cruz is apparently not dealing with it well. I will definitely ask about options for networking with other schools and professors. The good thing is that since the lesser ranked school has a ton of money, they can help pay me to go to conferences and do cool projects and things like that. I'm also considering the culture of the programs. Since I wrote this post, the lesser ranked school has had multiple professors and current grad students congratulating me and offering their assistance. The better ranked school, on the other hand, only sent me the initial acceptance email and has not really been responding to any of my emails since. I know I advise other people to defer all the time.... But I'm not going to defer. Objectively, yes, it'd be smarter, and I know it'd work out better in the long run. But I have a million personal reasons why I don't want sit around for another year, and I'm going to value those instead of being all logical. Realistically I think most people who get accepted to grad school would do better to take another year off and work on their CV, anyways. You can almost always do better when it comes to grad school.
  20. I forgot to add: I cannot learn vocab by just trying to memorize a word. If you can't, either, try using mnemonic techniques. I personally try to find parts of words that explain what the word means, or create an image in my head of the word. I noticed that words I didn't do this with, I had to relearn ten times before I could remember them. Words that I used this technique with, I only had to teach them to myself once or twice before I got them down pat. Find something that works for you. Example of my technique: Acrid (definition: sharp or pungent): looks like "acid", which would be biting or would smell bad Polemic (definition: strong verbal attack on someone): I imagine someone screaming into a "mic" about how bad they want to hit someone else with a "pole" Maladroit (definition: clumsy): I use my hands to remember the French words for left and right. Left is gauche because I can make a little g with my left hand, and right is droit because I can make a little d with my right hand. So with "maladroit" I think of myself being bad (mal is French for bad) at making these hand signs because I'm so clumsy.
  21. The best ways to learn are to (1) quiz yourself, (2) teach someone else, and (3) incorporate what you need to know into your life. My advice is to take at least a month or two to study and use a wide range of studying techniques. Take tons of practice tests that replicate the GRE. Quiz yourself on vocab. Make flashcards. Write stories that use your new vocab words. Read articles from newspapers that use the vocab words (Magoosh has a list of ones you should read). Actually use the vocab in your everyday life. Tell a friend (or your dog) something you learned everyday. Make outlines for the essay questions as quick as possible (the full list of all the essay questions that can/will be used on the GRE is online). Practice writing thesis statements for the essay questions. Write out whole essays several times, and get them graded online for a fee to see what you're scoring at. Do NOT just try to read and memorize a list of vocab, or just look over answers to questions. These are super ineffective ways to learn. I read somewhere that people do much better on the GRE the more times they take it, even if they haven't studied more. Getting used to the exam and getting over your anxiety is huge. I'd recommend taking several full length practice tests. Try to replicate the testing setting as much as possible -- see if the testing center you'll be taking the GRE at has free practice tests. Go at the same time that you signed up to take the test at. A lot of the GRE is learning the most effective way to study for it. Don't just force yourself to memorize thousands of words at random -- Magoosh has flashcards of the most frequently used words on the GRE (for free!). I only learned those, none of the "advanced" or "uncommon" words, and I got a 168 on verbal. Some people have a lot of success at learning the roots of words, so they can figure out what they mean without actually knowing the word. I did not enjoy this technique, but it might work for you. The essays are graded by a computer, and only briefly checked by a human to make sure the computer didn't mess up. You do NOT need to learn how to write a good essay. You only need to learn how to get a good score. The most important things are length (the longer the essay, the higher the score), using GRE vocab words, structuring your essay to have at least five paragraphs (intro, three body paragraphs, conclusion), having transition sentences, and using phrases that signify critical thinking (e.g. "Despite the fact that..." "Nonetheless..."). I spent way too long trying to write really good essays that would earn an A in a class, only to have them graded at a 3. I got pissed off, and wrote a sloppy, dumb essay that followed the above rules, and immediately boosted my score to a 5. Seriously, learn how the system works. For whatever reason, a lot of GRE study materials are not that great at preparing you. Most of the people I know that only did one study guide (e.g. used one Kaplan book or whatever) said there were a ton of questions they weren't prepared for. I used a few different sources and still had a ton of math questions that I had never seen before. Magoosh seems comprehensive and accurate, but it's pricey. Try to use many different websites and books to cover all of your bases.
  22. I don't know anything about math, but I live in Boulder, and it's gorgeous here. I know many, many people who chose to come to CU Boulder solely for the location and none of them have been disappointed.
  23. The better program has funding for only three years. After three years, I can TA, but a TA position only partially covers tuition -- meaning that I would still owe the university money on top paying for living expenses. This means loans, unless I can get an external fellowship. But their placement records are decent for my field (not a top ten school but definitely better than the other program). The not-as-great program has full funding and lots of benefits for five years. But it is not as prestigious and the department's placement records are pretty subpar. So the options are: 1) Potentially go into debt, but have better job prospects later. or 2) Have all funding taken care of (and then some), but have worse job prospects later. Thoughts? Where would you go? Let's just assume that all other factors are constant (e.g. location, fit, culture) to make it easier.
  24. I think the difference is you were able to negotiate your unfunded offer into a potentially funded one. I think if someone was in your shoes, tried to get some funding or a TA/RA position from the department, and they were denied, it's improbable the department would turn around in a month and give them a full tuition waiver and stipend. I don't want to sound mean or make assumptions, but if a program is not willing to fund you at all (even after trying to negotiate and/or trying to get a TA/RA position), you're probably not a strong enough applicant (either in general or in comparison to the other students in that department) to get funding in the future. Yes, you can wing it and hope you get some money later, but I feel like a department refusing to fund someone is a pretty clear message, even if they accept you. I personally would much rather take a year off and spend some time improving my application, then re-apply to different schools that tend to have better funding packages for students, rather than jump into an offer, immediately go into debt, and spend my free time frantically applying to fellowships. In the long run, one extra year off school is not as big of a deal as being tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
  25. Yay Santa Cruz! Anyone have any info for 2015? Here are my weird hippie questions, but really any insights into the city or campus would be great. What are the housing co-ops like? Any info on the general culture or vibes of each co-op would be great. I've heard rumors that there's a big tree squat up in the forests of UCSC somewhere. Is this true? How is the alternative food situation? It seems like there are some food co-ops -- are they the type that have cheap bulk food, or the type that have very small packages of super expensive gluten free organic food? I've heard dumpster diving has become harder with more stores getting compactors. Is diving still feasible? Are there other cool alternative, co-op-y, radical things in the area to get involved in? Thanks a ton!
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