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I got my admission to UMD deferred last year, so I am just waiting to hear about funding now. The only other school I applied to this year was SUNY-Albany, and after a phone interview I am basically waitlisted. The dean told me they are admitting 6-7 depending on funding and I am number 8, so my chances are fairly good. Yay! After year working in the criminal justice system, I am ready to head back to school.

There's really no telling how long it will take...I think the minimum is probably 2 or 3 years, and the average is probably 4-5 years? I think that if you work hard you should be able to finish in 3 or 4 years, no problem. Good luck!

I thought some of you might like to know that I called UMD and asked them to defer my admission for a year. I'll have to reapply for the assistantship, but oh well.

Finally have time to answer your question! I was hoping to work with Green, Raghavan, Mooney, or Salfati. My main research interest is in crime and the media, but I'm also interested in gender and crime, rape and homicide, capital punishment, criminological and sociological theory, and racial/class disparities in the justice system...Okay, I'm kind of interested in everything CJ-related. What about you, what are your research interests?

When I was applying, all of my professors told me to ignore rankings and look at other things like location and fit. And so my main criteria when looking at schools were location and research...I didn't even consider schools in the Midwest or the South, and I thought I'd really like the Northeast, so that's the area I looked at. CUNY was my first choice because I immediately fell in love with the Criminology and Deviance specialization in the master's program, although I ended up applying to the doctoral program. And I recently visited NYC and fell in love with the city, too. I applied to UMD because it was ranked first and SUNY because it's second and also because a couple of my professors went there (albeit many years ago) and told me great things about it. I applied to the University of New Haven because one of my heroes (Robert Keppel) teaches there and it was also a sure thing and the application was free. So I had a lot of different reasons for applying to each program that I picked. As for picking which program to enter, I think fit is my main concern, followed closely by funding and then location. If I end up getting accepted to CUNY (which is doubtful at this point, but if they've rejected me I wish they'd just send me a letter already!)...well, I don't think I could pass it up. The reason I say that is because I think I'm going to call UMD and ask if they can defer my admission for a year...I feel terrible doing it, but I just got a job as a probation officer and I'd really like to get some real-world experience while I have the chance. In the next year I'd also like to get married and save up money before I'm a poor student again, so those are my reasons for putting off grad school. I definitely intend to go next year, though! I think I would only go to grad school this fall if I got an amazing offer from CUNY or SUNY...Maryland is an incredible program and I'm thrilled to have been offered a research assistantship there, but I don't think I can do it right now with a stipend of only $15,000. As far as why IUB is #22, maybe this article will help answer your question: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-graduate-schools/2009/04/22/how-we-calculate-the-graduate-school-rankings.html?s_cid=related-links:TOP And as for your big question, I think that you'll just know what to do. I've made several pro/con lists for work vs. grad school, and they all come out equal, but then I realize that I've kind of already made up my mind without meaning to...if that makes sense. Also, I don't know about everyone else in the field, but the professors at my school don't pay any attention to the rankings because it's hard to compare programs when they're all so different. So I would think that it's better to go to a lower ranked school if you'll be a good fit there and have more opportunities to further your own research rather than go to a top ranked school if you might not have those opportunities.

Thanks, everyone! Now I'm just left waiting on my first choice, CUNY...of course they would be the last to get back to me, haha. highanxiety, I was also worried about being rejected everywhere with just an undergrad degree, but I guess there is hope! snshn, I graduated in December with a B.S. in criminal justice, a B.A. in psychology, a minor in sociology, and a 4.0 GPA. My GRE scores were not that great: V 630, Q 610, AW 4.0. But my letters of recommendation were excellent, although not from people well-known in the field since I went to a small and fairly unknown undergrad university. Hope this helps, and good luck! Along with highanxiety, I am also curious about where you've applied.

Congrats, and I got waitlisted at SUNY too! Since they only accepted 7 and waitlisted 6, and since they're ranked 2nd, I'm pretty happy about it. Not to mention the funding for people who do get admitted.

Thank you both! I'm always looking for this kind of info and I rarely find it. I wish all the schools would make this information available; it would make it a little easier to compare the programs.

Thanks so much! Where else have you applied, and where are you hoping to go? I wish the schools would notify me of their decisions already! I'm still waiting on CUNY and SUNY and the open house for UMD is March 22, so I'd like to be able to make a decision ASAP... blah annoying.

That would be me, and thank you! Congrats on your interview with CUNY - I'm jealous! They were my first pick, but I haven't heard from them yet. Oh well, Maryland's not so bad.

I just got an acceptance to the doctoral program at UMD. I was also offered a research assistanship with a stipend of about $14,000 and tuition remission. Yay! I'm excited, but now it's even harder for me to make the grad school vs. work decision.

I haven't heard from SUNY either... littlegirlvik, I'm guessing you got the generic e-mail from Maryland asking you to wait to make a decision until you hear from them? So...have you heard from them yet? I guess this is the week.

I probably should've applied to Irvine, but I missed the deadline and in the little time I had to work on applications, I was focused more on schools in the Northeast. Oh well...I will probably end up working for a year or two before going to grad school anyway, if I do ultimately decide to go. I originally planned to go into academia as well, but I just keep hearing that there aren't very many teaching positions, especially with the increase in PhDs on the market. And as much as I'd like to help change the system, it's kind of hard to believe that I could do much as a professor since policymakers seem to pay more attention to what the general population wants rather than what the experts suggest. As for my stats, I graduated in December with a B.S. in criminal justice, a B.A. in psychology, and a minor in sociology. My GPA was a 4.0 and my GRE scores were not so great - V 630, Q 610, AW 4.0. My letters of recommendation were great but not from people well-known in the field because I went to a small and pretty much unknown university. Let me know if you were wondering about anything else. sba2016, are you planning on academia too?

What are everyone's career plans? I would love to go to grad school because I just love learning about this stuff, but it seems that there aren't very many positions available for CJ professors or in government research, and I don't really know of any other job options with a CJ graduate degree. I will hopefully begin working as a probation officer soon (I've had 2 interviews, a drug test, and a psych evaluation, so I'm just waiting for the official job offer) and I think I'll probably work for a year or two and then reapply to grad programs, but I'm not sure if it will be worth it. So what are your plans and thoughts on the matter?

Yay, so there is some hope for undergrads getting accepted to doctoral programs! That makes me feel much better...most of the stuff I've read has been about an unwritten rule to only accept master's students.