So, I'm also going to apply this year. I'm a foreign student, 31 years old, got a BA in history from the Israeli Open U, and finishing an MA in the Hebrew U., mainly researching migration, but in the history dep. and by the end of the year I'll have a BEd from a local teacher college - was a 1 day a week program I started like five years ago, when I thought I'll be a teacher, which I'm now finishing, half for the sake of finishing and not wasting that money. My GPA is 4. My GRE is V:161 Q:156 W:3.5, and I'll try to improve it in two weeks. was sick at the day and English is not my first language. I believe I can get two good recommendation letters, and one less good, but ok. I have some research experience, worked as a policy analyst for a while (mainly unpublished works for NGOs and politicians) but one study got published. worked a bit a journalist for a local news site (but the news site was stillborn because of dispute between the owners), and I got my Master thesis which is an inter-disciplinary look at Israel's immigration encouragement policies and their effect in the last 20 years. have a lot of experience in education, and transnational\diaspora education specifically (was a program director for a while for an International Jewish educational center. even won an InnoCentive challenge for designing a transformative hybrid (half online) education program for non-traditional students. My interests are Transnationalism and Diasporas; Ethnicity, stratification and ethnic social systems (like welfare system); Demography; Current Jewry, Non-Formal social structures. I would like to go to: Princeton (supposedly the best sociology program and has a very good retention rate), UPenn (supposedly, best demography program), NYU and Colombia (not for a very specific good reason, except them being good schools and not the top of the top). I don't know if I got a chance getting in, do I ? (I don't know how this works, honestly to get into my MA, I just like walked into one of the professor's room, told him I'm going to research this and that, and I need a place to do it. - it worked. don't think it would work the same in America) I don't know where else to apply. Any input would be welcomed. And Linton, That's sound harsh, working and studying together is really hard (been there myself), and working and not being able to make ends meat, being foreign and studying sounds too hard. I feel you. I don't know, maybe you should think of doing an MA it might help getting into a PhD later, but I really don't know. Good Luck