mfafiction2019

Thank you so much! And yes, UT was the second school. Stanford (like you've shown and like I've read) is way too quant-y for me lol

I'm honestly more interested in ethnography than anything (and only switched over from anthropology because my interests align more theoretically/thematically with sociology than with anthropology), but I've heard people say that if you focus exclusively on qual/ethnography, people won't take you seriously as a "social scientist" in sociology/will wonder why you're applying to sociology programs (this is also why I kept talking about my UG stats class). In some cases, I named quant professors who share similar thematic interests (i.e. a quant professor that does soc of education or social movements) as POI, but should I not do that, since my quant score is mediocre? And coincidentally enough, I'm planning on applying to the two schools that @European Lumpi mentioned

Thanks for your advice! I was wondering how I should approach stats in my SOP. Part of me was thinking that showing some interest would be good, but now that I've reflected on what you've said, perhaps emphasizing that I'm a qualitative person/ethnographer would be better (I come from anthropology and have a lot of experience in qualitative/ethnographic research). I guess my only question would be about your comment about funding...I've heard that's very much based on GRE scores and like most people applying to PhD programs, I won't go to a program that's unfunded, and some schools don't even admit people they can't fund. So I hope that my profile/scores/etc are good enough to get into one place (perhaps not a Top 5 school) with decent enough funding (even if that means TA/RA work). I've been accepted to another Master's program (in an unrelated discipline that's more professionally oriented) but they didn't give me enough merit scholarship money (I'd have to take out like $50k in loans....yikes), so I'm hoping that I get in with funding at least somewhere.

I'm applying to Sociology programs (in the Top 30 roughly, and a couple of Top 5 programs as well, because of fit/research interests). Most of the programs have ethnography/qualitative methods well represented (some more than others). I'd like to get into the highest ranked program possible (obviously fit is important, but I'm not applying to any programs where I can't make a case for why my research would be a fit there).

So I took the test today and got 163V/150Q, which met my personal goal of getting at least 160 on verbal and at least 150 on quant (I feel pretty proud of my quant score since before I started studying, I would score in the low 140s on quant). I know that most programs like to see better quant scores but one of my LORs is from my undergrad stats professor (I made an A in the class; stats is actually the only kind of math that I'm fairly good at/don't mind) and in my SOP I talk about wanting to learn statistics, even though I'm primarily a qual person/ethnographer (so I guess I show initiative)? I've read a lot that excellent GRE scores don't necessarily get you in but bad ones can keep you out, so I hope that my scores pass whatever cutoff that departments might have. My cumulative UG GPA is mediocre (3.3) but the last 2 years of undergrad are 3.75 (my UG didn't do + and -, so if you got a B, that showed up as a 3.0 on your transcript, even if it was an 89.9) and my GPA for my Master's coursework is basically a 4.0. What do you guys think? Everyone around me is telling me these are good scores, but I'm still extremely nervous, based on my UG cumulative GPA.

DId the PowerPrep practice exam (the "paper" version in PDF) today and this is what I got: 165V/154Q that's more what I'm talking about....

Haven't taken the real test yet (I do in a week, yikes!!) but I scored far better on the Manhattan practice test (the free one) than on any PowerPrep test. I don't know what this should tell me about the real test, but I guess I hope it's more similar to Manhattan than to whatever's on PowerPrep. PowerPrep 1: 159V/149Q PowerPrep 2: 160V/147Q Manhattan: 162V/153Q I'm applying for Sociology programs in the top 20 or so and I hope to get over 160V and over 150Q

Despite a previous post stating that I wasn't applying for programs this cycle, I eventually decided to and now I'm in the process of writing my SOP. I already got a friend (who's in another discipline) to look over it, but I'm wondering if there's anything Soc-specific that I'm missing. Shoot me a PM if you're interested!

Hi everyone, I've already made a few posts on GradCafe about Phds in Sociology or Anthropology, but now that I'm thinking about it more, I'm not so sure I want to pursue a career in academia. I am almost finished with my current master's degree program in Anthropology (all I need to do is write/defend my thesis). However, this is a master's degree from a non-US/UK institution (very well-regarded in the region; my thesis director did her PhD in the US and is someone who is very well known/well regarded in the field, at least in the region), so I was wondering if I needed to do another Masters degree in the US (either in Latin American Studies, since my first master's degree will be from a Latin American institution) or in Public Policy--or a combined MA in Latin American Studies/MPP, like the one that UT has), in order to have a graduate degree from a US institution (if that matters...I'm not sure that it does, but I sort of get the sense that it does). My ultimate goal at this point is to enter the Foreign Service (I plan on applying for the consular career track), which everyone says should always be a plan B as opposed to a plan A, and I know that on paper, the Foreign Service doesn't require any advanced degrees, but I've read that the pay is higher for those who have a masters degree. Thanks in advance for any and all advice and comments!! (I'm posting this in the interdisciplinary studies section because the degree I'm considering applying for next year--fall 2018--is Latin American Studies, but if I need to post it in the MPP section, I will) ETA: if I pursue the MA in Latin American Studies in the US, I plan on focusing on a different country/somewhat different themes than the ones I did my first master's degree in, so it wouldn't be like a repeat of what I did abroad.

Thanks for the replies/suggestions! Yeah, that's what I appear to be noticing as well (that schools generally don't take MA credits from outside of their institution so it's pretty much impossible to cut down on the number of years it would take to finish). Obviously the #1 criteria for choosing to apply to X program would be fit, so if the fit is great at a four-field program then I'd definitely apply to that program, but I was just curious to see if there were any other programs that had an exclusively socio-cultural focus.

Hi everyone! I'm planning on applying next fall to PhD programs (since this year I'm finishing up my Master's thesis that I intend to defend sometime next year), but I'm just curious to know if there are any more anthro departments that solely focus on sociocultural anthropology? I'm aware of Johns Hopkins (and it's basically #1 on my list because of that), but I was wondering if there were any others. The reason is that, though I understand the logic behind the four fields approach, I've already spent 2 1/2 years on my master's coursework and i don't want to spend another 3 years in a PhD program doing more coursework (when I'm pretty set in what I research). Also I plan on working or doing postdocs abroad so the importance of one's formation in the four-field approach in the US academic market isn't *that* important to me. Thanks!

Oh wow, thank you all so much for your advice/suggestions! @qeta Berkeley would be like a dream for me (as I'm sure it is for most potential Soc PhD students lol) and I might apply just to see what happens (with the idea of if I don't get in it's not a big deal b/c most people don't get into Berkeley anyway). And yeah, we should definitely chat about interdisciplinary type-stuff!

w/r/t Social Movements, I'm mostly interested in youth or student-oriented movements. And w/r/t/ higher ed, I'm mostly interested in access to and democratization of higher ed, as well as socialization of university students in particular higher ed environments/within different models of higher education. For example, in the country where I'm currently living/studying, public undergraduate education is tuition-free and the only admissions requirement is a high school diploma (grades don't matter) and public universities are considered the best/most rigorous universities (it sounds really strange, but it's true), yet they remain out of reach for a lot of poorer or working class people and the political movements within the public colleges have as a big part of their activism attempting to remedy this (so that would be something I'd be interested in researching the reasons why possibly). Hope that helped some!

Hi everyone! I come from Anthropology (clearly Sociocultural, which in many places, including the place where I did my undergrad, is put together in the same department as Sociology - I technically have a B.A. in "Sociology/Anthropology, Emphasis in Anthropology") but I'm interested in perhaps doing a PhD in Sociology, since I've obsessively read the faculty bios on the pages for the Anthro and Soc departments for many of the top Anthro and Soc PhD programs and have come to the conclusion that people in Sociology have research interests more aligned with my own (right now I'm in a masters program in Social Anthropology abroad - I have very specific academic reasons for this, as well as for doing it in the country where I'm doing it - doing fieldwork for my eventual masters thesis, which will be essentially an ethnography of political activism in a particular university in the country where I'm studying, mainly from the point of view of one political group (my "informants," so to speak). We study traditional anthropological theorists but we also spend quite a bit of time on people like Durkheim and Bourdieu. Also in this program, there are a ton of people who come from Sociology, like who did their undergraduate degree in Sociology and who now have crossed over to Anthropology). So I guess my question is, where would I fall (with my academic background) in Sociology and especially, Sociology in the US (Sociology in the country where I'm studying appears to be way more theoretically oriented and quite Marxist in its orientation)? Definitely on the more qualitative side of things, though I'm not opposed to quant research either (stats is the only type of math I actually like and am good at, as shown by the A I got in the required stats course for my undergrad major). Also I'm not opposed to more "big picture" or macro-type research either (though I know Anthro is very micro and small community oriented). My research interests include political activism and social movements (obviously), but any and everything having to do with higher education as well (both abroad and in the US). I know that social movements and activism are big in Sociology but is my background too Anthropological/qualitative for most US Soc programs (since I see a lot of emphasis placed on quant methods and research)? Also what readings would you all recommend for me to like "get my knowledge level up to par" in my area of interest in Sociology? I'm on vacation now from my masters program so I have plenty of time to read interesting stuff! Thanks in advance!! ETA: I'm at least a year away from applying to PhD programs, but if any of you know of any Soc programs that would fit my stated interests, I'd love to know them (I have a few ideas, but I'd just be curious to see if they get validated lol).

Like I've said before in another thread, I won't be applying for PhD programs for at least another year (Fall 2017 would be the absolute earliest, though it's probably more likely that I'd be applying in Fall 2018), but I'm just trying to figure out where I should go/what I should do after I finish up the masters degree I'm working on. Like I said in that other thread, I'm currently working on a MA in Social Anthropology at a university abroad (though I have a very good reason for it, as in, my program is located in my geographic area of interest and it's much, much easier for me to do fieldwork there while living/studying there than it would be to just go during the summers like I would if I was studying in the US - my fieldwork is located mostly in universities that would either be in the middle of exams or on vacation during that time), but my research deals mostly with issues surrounding higher education (right now I'm researching student political activism in higher education in the country where I'm studying, but I'm interested in basically all aspects of higher ed, both in this country and in the US, but examined through an anthropological lens). I was trying to search for sociocultural anthropology PhD programs in the US, but I didn't find too many people interested in education or higher education, so I expanded my search for PhD programs in various graduate schools of education (the UCLA HEOC program looks amazing and there's a professor/potential POI (?) there who has written an article on something very similar to what I'm currently researching). I also have checked out the Columbia Teacher's College program in Anthropology and Education, which also looks excellent. I was just wondering, I guess, if there were more of those types of programs out there, or even anthropology departments with people who research higher ed. Thanks!! ETA: I'd also be interested in any similar programs in Canada (I'm not strictly limited to the US)

I guess I just assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that someone who shared my regional interest would be more interested in my work than someone who only shared my topical interest but specialized in another region, but I'm open to any and all programs that have people with my topical interest.

Thank you so much for your reply farflung! It's good to know that about Cultural Anthro in the US, so I'll definitely be taking a second look at those programs. Also good to know that about Sociology. Now I'll be definitely focusing more on Anthro! Yeah, in terms of my search, I've been looking for at least one faculty member who has my regional interest, even if it's not the same country that I work in (that would be perhaps narrowing things down too much lol) and one faculty member who has similar topical interests ("social movements" I suppose, or "youth" or "education"). But shared regional interest is the most important to me. In terms of undergrad GPA, mine is sort of on the below-average side for academia (3.4), but I've lived for 2 1/2 of the past 5 years in the region that I work with, and I'm basically fluent in the language of the region (since I'm doing my current masters program in that language and not in English). Also I haven't taken the GRE yet but I generally test well so I hope that helps...I know that fit and professor research interests are more important than rankings but should I apply to top 20 programs (with professors who share my interests, of course)? Or should I apply to mid-tier? Or a mix?

I posted this thread in the Anthro subforum already, but I figured I would post it here as well. Feel free to delete one or more of the threads if they're out of place somehow. This is pretty far into the future (as in, I probably won't be applying for programs until the fall of 2017 at least), but I'm just curious as to what kind of program I should be looking for. Currently I'm abroad (originally from the US) doing a masters degree in Social Anthropology, and my research interests can basically be boiled down to "political ethnography" "ethnography of political activism" (right now I'm working with specifically with university student activism, as the country I'm studying in has quite a unique culture of student political activity in colleges and that is basically the reason I chose to study here). I'm also interested in the general study of higher education and the university as an institution (though like I said, right now I'm focusing on political activism, but I'm also interested in non-political aspects of higher ed as well, especially "youth culture" in the university environment). However, I've been looking at Phd programs in the US in Anthropology and haven't found many that have professors that share my interests, whereas when I searched for Sociology Phd programs, I started to find more (like "social movements" or "political sociology" or "education," and even sometimes "higher ed," obviously using ethnographic and qualitative methods). So I guess my question is, are there any programs in Anthropology in the US that have professors that work with similar themes? Or am I better off looking at qualitatively/ethnographically focused Sociology programs? Also, I know that Social Anthropology isn't as popular in the US as Cultural Anthropology, so I've sort of been eliminating programs that just say "Cultural Anthropology" as opposed to Sociocultural or Social-Cultural...should I be doing that or not? Thanks!!

This is pretty far into the future (as in, I probably won't be applying for programs until the fall of 2017 at least), but I'm just curious as to what kind of program I should be looking for. Currently I'm abroad (originally from the US) doing a masters degree in Social Anthropology, and my research interests can basically be boiled down to "political ethnography" "ethnography of political activism" (right now I'm working with specifically with university student activism, as the country I'm studying in has quite a unique culture of student political activity in colleges and that is basically the reason I chose to study here). I'm also interested in the general study of higher education and the university as an institution (though like I said, right now I'm focusing on political activism, but I'm also interested in non-political aspects of higher ed as well, especially "youth culture" in the university environment). However, I've been looking at Phd programs in the US in Anthropology and haven't found many that have professors that share my interests, whereas when I searched for Sociology Phd programs, I started to find more (like "social movements" or "political sociology" or "education," and even sometimes "higher ed," obviously using ethnographic and qualitative methods). So I guess my question is, are there any programs in Anthropology in the US that have professors that work with similar themes? Or am I better off looking at qualitatively/ethnographically focused Sociology programs? Also, I know that Social Anthropology isn't as popular in the US as Cultural Anthropology, so I've sort of been eliminating programs that just say "Cultural Anthropology" as opposed to Sociocultural or Social-Cultural...should I be doing that or not? Thanks!!