night wind

Congrats, smaturin! Can I ask you one question: you said you status hasn't changed. what is your online status now? Is it " sent to program" or "sent to graduate school for final review"? My online status changed from the former to the latter yesterday as well. I do not know what exactly that means except that we are going to get the admission result very soon. Thank you!

I just finished my master in sociology at a program ranked about 40-50 and will continue for Phd there. My MA thesis is about social network and inequality in China. My major professor is mainly interested in social networks. I have also done some research on religion in China with a Chinese professor in our dept and find it interesting. We are required to choose the chair for our dissertation committee by the end of next semester, but right now I do not know which professor to choose and what topic shall I focus on. I majored in another subject during undergrad and I switched to sociology with little background in sociology. When I switched to soc, I had a broad interest in social inequaltiy and Chinese societies. I thought I would figure out what specific subject I am mostly interested in studying along the way. In the past two years when I was working toward my MA, I have taken courses and done some research on social networks and religion. I find social network and religion in China interesting, but the problem is that I am not sure whether I am interestd enough to write my dissertation on it/them. I feel like I have not find my identity as a scholar in sociology. And there are not many professors/areas of interests to choose from in our dept. So my questions are: How did you choose your dissertation topic/major professor? Did you have a perfectly clear idea before you start grad school or did you figure it out along the way? Have you done a lot research on relevant topics before you decide your dissertation topic? Can you offer some suggestions to me on how to narrow down my interests and prepare for my dissertation? When the interests of the professors in your dept were not a perfect fit with yours, to what extent do you "pander to" the interests of your major professor or stick to what you are interested in? I guess there are enough questions. I am really worried now and I would appreciate any helpful comments or suggestions. Thank you for your time!

I guess ...the graduate school is in charge of all the uploading information things on the applicatio system. So the graduate school would upload all the receptions and rejections to save the dpet the trouble of sending out tons of rejection letters. So...I am still happy that I have not been rejected so far... We will see. Good luck to you too!

I just noticed that you are majoring in sociology. Are we talking about the same school-- U Minnesota? One official at graduate school admission office told me the resutls shall be out "in the next a couple of days". Good luck for both of us.

It really depends. I suggest you call the department to find out. Today I checked gradcafe and found students reported rejection via website from one of the programs I applied to. I checked and found my application is under "graduate school final review"!!! I was super excited because I know that some programs only pass on the files of the students they admit to graduate school for review. I almost believed that I was admitted. HOWEVER, when I called the department, they told me that they send the files of all the students for final reivew and then the grad school would send out decisions. So... it turns out the "final review" means nothing... I want to say...Don't play with me like this... So definitely check with the department. You may have been admitted, or not. Good luck!

I emailed the DGS at Duke and he replied as following. I am sorry to report the bad news. They must be receiving tons of email like this everyday, so I thought I might as well post his reply here if some of you want to know the application status. Duke is my number one dream school. I feel sad. ____ Thanks for checking in; sorry I don’t have better news, but if you did not get an invitation to interview we will not be able to admit you this year. We are a small program, and thus have to turn away even very qualified applicants. The formal announcements should be going out any day now, I apologize for the informal nature of this note. I wish you all the best in your future studies, Jim Moody Duke DGS

I emailed the secretary last week. She said the committee has started to meet and they would make the decisions soon. The admission results of Cornell sociology were out Feb 16th last year. So let's wait and see... Good luck.

It is a very useful piece of information. I am a little nervous now... Thank you! And good luck with the interview.

Congratulations to you two! And thank you for sharing the information! If you do not mind, could you tell us a little more about the interview? Did they mention when they will make the final decision? Thank you!