juiceboxrampage

Yeah I got that, too. But it's the same email they send to everyone, I think, since it was sent from Laney's Dean instead of someone in the department (and since we got the same one). Huh, I'm glad you knew that! I was so confused. Thanks for the information, I just added mine.

Yeah, I just got my rejection email from Emory. I find it funny that they didn't even send out a rejection email specific to the program. I cannot submit my results, though. Is anyone else having trouble with that? It keeps telling me there's an error in my data... I'm getting frustrated repeatedly entering in that I've been rejected.

Boulder, CO is great! It’s generally a very accepting area. There’s a facebook group for queer women to get together and hang out in Boulder (PM me if you want the name of it). CU Boulder has a very active LGBTQ resource center with a ton of groups (queer women in community, GSA, queer and trans people of color, etc.) The city also has OUTBoulder, which has fun events and Orange is the New Black screenings and stuff like that. There aren’t any gay bars here, if that’s your scene, but I’ve heard that’s because of weird city zoning laws that haven’t allowed construction of any new bars. Prop Gay is a monthly LGBTQ bar crashing party, though. There’s also gay and lesbian bars in Denver (Tracks is Denver’s most famous gay nightclub, Blush is a lesbian bar I think). Since we have a huge hippie population here, the stereotypical "lesbian" look is really mainstream. Lots of women with short hair, androgynous clothes, hairy armpits and legs, etc. One of my friends told me she had a hard time when she first moved to Boulder because she kept asking out straight women. She said back east, if you had short hair and dressed more androgynous, you were basically wearing a sign saying you were queer. But in Boulder, everyone looks like that. On the flip side, there's also more erasure of femme lesbians here because the "butch" look is so prominent. Still, it is relatively uncommon to see queer couples out in public, and depending on what part of town you’re in, you might get some nasty looks. Boulder is one of those places where everyone want to say they’re progressive and liberal, but they don’t necessarily act like it. Fun fact: Boulder’s clerk and reporter, Hillary Hall, starting issuing same sex marriage licenses last year, even though same sex marriage wasn’t yet legal in Colorado. She was ordered to stop by the attorney general, but she refused. The issue went to court. Although same sex marriage is legal in all of Colorado now, it was a huge deal here for a while! You can google “Boulder marriage Hillary Hall” to read about it, if you’re interested.

I've seen a lot more covert forms of oppression among my sociology / women's studies professors due to what you're saying. Some of them talk a lot about how accepting they are, how open minded they are, how horrible oppression is, etc. but don't seem to take the next step to learning how to actually be an ally. I've heard professors say extremely, extremely problematic and hurtful things during conversations and lectures about how oppression is wrong. I think part of this is also because they study the topic, so they're trying to fit an individual into this academic narrative. "No, you can't use gender neutral pronouns. It's not grammatically correct. And 'genderqueer' isn't a real identity because I haven't read an article about it yet." The best experiences I have had are with professors and other students who are also LGBTQ. The school where I got my undergraduate degree had a number of LGBTQ professors who were absolutely wonderful to work with, because they understood who I was without having to read about it in a book or preach about it to be seen as inclusive. So I tried to look for schools that had both the rhetoric of inclusivity and an actual population of LGBTQ students and professors. I know it's problematic to judge someone's gender/sexuality based on appearances, but when I was picking where to apply, I tried to see if any of the professors and students within the department "looked" queer. Which, obviously, I know someone can't really look queer. But if a school is only hiring and accepting folks who adhere to mainstream gender presentations, I think that says something about their culture (and I would stick out like a sore thumb). I also looked up if schools have a lavender graduation (a special graduation for LGBTQ students), and tried to see how many students and professors go each year. Finally, I looked up how large their LGBTQ resource center is (if they have one), and what sorts of things they have on their website. Are there resources available to report professors who are being oppressive? Do they have regular trainings that professors and students might attend? How active are they on campus? I think with any individual professor, it'll be hard to predict whether or not they'll be accepting. But I've definitely seen a culture of inclusivity within my department (sociology), and even if professors are messing up, they are at least trying.

Oh god, I have so many of these. Freshman undergrad telling his parents about his Sociology 101 class on parents day: "No, mom, it's racist to even call someone black or white. Race isn't real. So we shouldn't even be talking about race, because race is fake and it's racist to bring it up." Conversation between me, my freshman dorm roommate, and her boyfriend, on watching me pull out a jar of peanut butter (context: I'm vegan): Roommate's Boyfriend: "Ooooh! I knew you cheated on being vegan! You're eating peanut butter!" Me: "So? Peanut butter is vegan." Roommate's Boyfriend: "Not-uh! It's called peanut butter. It has butter in it. It's not vegan." Roommate: "Wait, butter isn't vegan?" Me: "No, butter is made from milk. But it's not in peanut butter. What did you think butter was made out of?" Roommate: "I don't know. A butter plant? I guess I never really thought about it before."

Oh gosh, I'm with you. Especially because I just read that AskReddit thread about why college admissions counselors have denied people in the past... I'm paranoid that I've made all of these silly mistakes, but I'm too nervous to actually go check and see if I did.

Someone in the Sociology thread told me they heard that the department has been super busy and won't be notifying people until today or Monday. So hope may still be alive!

I submitted my thesis for publication, but somehow completely missed an extremely important submissions guideline page on the journal's website that had all of the strict rules. I got a personal email from the main editor listing out every single thing I did wrong and telling me to read their submissions guidelines. I honestly just thought that I had lucked out by finding a journal that didn't have very many rules for submitting. Thankfully, the journal I originally wanted to submit to just released a call for submissions, so I'll be submitting there now. Good thing none of my potential schools are involved with that publication, as well!

Oh god, I have been glued to my phone this week. I'm glad no one else has gotten a call, I suppose. Good luck to everyone else hoping for an interview with Emory right now!

I'm starting to freak out about the fact that I didn't apply to many safety schools. My advisors were trash talking a lot of the safety schools I was considering and told me I wouldn't be able to get a job if I went there, so I just didn't bother applying... Now I'm worried I was too overconfident. I saw an Emory rejection for Sociology on the results page today... I was supposed to hear back from Emory's Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department yesterday. I'm assuming no news at this point is bad news? Their email said we'd hear back around January 13th or 14th, though. Ugh even if I was rejected, I just want to know! The waiting game is so hard. (Edit: Also, is it okay if I update on Women's Studies, since there's no separate forum for it and it's pretty closely related to Sociology? Did anyone else apply to both types of programs like I did?)