any5
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Posts posted by any5
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When declining an offer what exactly do you say in your email (and to whom? the DGS?)
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Wisconsin sociology has a great agro foods subspecialty. Cornell also in dev. Soc. And thru their ag school
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4 hours ago, puton said:
What?? Really that many??Is it a reliable estimation...??
well they sent out one email that wasn't bcc: regarding a neighborhood tour, and counted no less than 40 to: addresses..
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For those of us Wisconsin admits planning to attend visit day, I hope to find you among the *40* prospects who are going
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I am the opposite.. I am "dropping out" of the 'real world' to go back and get my PhD. I have done well for myself over the past 15 or so years working full time in a lucrative industry, but which was ultimately not very personally rewarding or beneficial to society (i.e. capital markets), and where technology was every day creeping in to shunt the mental capacity of its workforce, or eliminate workers (and entire departments) altogether.
The grass is always greener on the other side, but the grass is always brown.
That said, I know what it is like to work and be self-motivated. I did complete an MA (evenings, but classified as full time) while working days full time. I understand the competition in the labor market.
But the competition in this labor market is little different from others. "White collar" jobs are increasingly outsourced to foreign labor or to technology. My brother is a lawyer, went to a great law school and works at a decent firm. He hates every single living minute of it. But he can't leave because he'd never find a job again save start his own practice and struggle in competition with all others who did the same. My best friend growing up is a doctor. Very successful, but never sees his family or friends, is constantly exhausted, and has been so traumatized by stuff he has seen as a medical student and then resident in an ER that he openly admits it has sapped his humanity. His sister is a dentist, that should be better right? Maybe when she has paid off the $275,000 in student debt & professional insurance premiums she owes.
Even computer programmers are unable to (often) move up the ladder and get stuck doing the same old repetitive coding on the same sort of projects day in and day out.
I rather have the potential for intellectual reward and academic success than have a manager telling me what to do, and who can fire me or downsize me at any moment. Worse, I could be the manager who makes a bit more salary but is even more self-loathing (ask any mid-level manager you may know to confirm or deny).
I understand the awkward financial position that many new straight out of undergrad or out of entry-level work find themselves in. The grass has to be greener working for a stable corporation. Right? Perhaps stability (financial or otherwise) is a fair trade for monotony, under-appreciation, and slim chances of breaking through the glass ceiling. At my last job, everybody had at least a Masters degree. It's needed just to get the interview these days. At least with a PhD you can figure out a little bit about how the world works. Or not- but at least you tried and maybe even got paid to do it. Otherwise, exchange that stimulation of the mind for a cubicle, commuter traffic, and truly depressing happy hours
- lioneironaut, FeelTheBern, Hecate and 3 others
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Is it worthwhile to ask for a "relocation stipend" instead of asking outright for more academic stipend?
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26 minutes ago, sociology767 said:
Any5--I'll be at the Northwestern visit day. Have you already done the travel agent thing?
I'm going for MORS + Sociology program (joint with bschool).. Its more an on campus interview.. I booked my flights and they'll reimburse up to a certain amt
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14 hours ago, Katastrophe said:
I got invited to the visit as well, but I have been waitlisted. Just tossing in that info
Ok, looks like I am in the same boat. I was supposed to get a waitlist email last week but for some reason they never sent it..!
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4 hours ago, any5 said:
with that did NYU invite you to their visit days?
So weird.. I didn't get an acceptance or a rejection email from NYU, but today I got an email inviting me to their Open House visit day.. I called the dept. admin and she said she can't give decisions over the phone, but that somebody should've contacted me days ago... so strange - did they forget to notify me? I am still not sure if I've been accepted..
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1 hour ago, michaelalexiss said:
Got my alternate acceptance to NYU's MA program. Still no word on CUNY. Considering calling the office today and asking for a status update since they seem to have sent out a few of everything already (acceptance, wait-list, rejections). Has anyone else had success doing this?
with that did NYU invite you to their visit days?
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9 minutes ago, HopefulSocPhD said:
It's heartbreaking enough to get rejected, but this... This is just awful. I hope someone gets fired for this. My sympathies, friend!
This is something to bring to the attention of the media.. it's really a bad mistake..
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41 minutes ago, mm3733 said:
Hey! I'll be at the Cornell visit day on 3/14.
I forgot to mention where I'll be: Northwestern/Kellogg on 2/29, Wisconsin-Madison on 3/11, Cornell on 3/14
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It appears that many of us will be potential cohortmates.
It may be a nice idea to coordinate meeting up with each other on visit day(s) so that we at least "know" some people there.
Maybe post on this thread your planned visit days and then we can pm each other to coordinate
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@kelris, what were your stats so we can give better advice?
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1 hour ago, Katastrophe said:
I got about 150$, I think I am close enough that they realized I could take a bus instead of a plane
Oh nvm I see my travel stipend.
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6 hours ago, jdot104 said:
Hi all!
I'm new to GradCafe, but it's already proven to be quite the useful tool for a newly admitted grad student. I'm happy to say I was admitted to Vanderbilt's PhD program in computer science! Still waiting to hear back from other schools, but it's a big relief to know that at least one offer has come through. I was emailed February 3rd and got my official notice from the University a week later.
I am glad you are relieved, but take your computer science sweating it out over to the appropriate thread. (I thought engineers were good at following directions?)
- jdot104 and 2016Applicant
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8 hours ago, Shamon said:
Have UW-Madison folks been reached out by professors? I haven't heard from a single but I've heard from other schools. I'm thinking if this is an indication of my desirability in that department, which in turn factors into my decision-making. I would much rather join a department where professors are eager to work with me than one where I've been admitted but the faculty are lukewarm about my project. Anyone else reasoning along these lines?
I too am waiting for JHU!
I have received two or three emails from UW-Madison admin folks encouraging me to reach out to professors. Out of the 6 emails I've sent, 5 have written back eager to set up an appointment. So, I would suggest the heuristic is you need to take the initiative on that and it has no bearing on your 'desirability'. If they didn't want you they'd have rejected your application.
BTW did Wisconsin offer you travel money for its visit day? (I didn't get any)
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Something else to think about is how much health insurance (& other benefits) is subsidized. Especially relevant if you also have a family, how much they'd be subsidized. This can be worth $10,000+ a year
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3 minutes ago, brokenwindow said:
Whoever advised you to make this choice gave you terrible advice. If your goal is a tenure track job at an R1, being in a top 10 program will give you enormous advantages over anyone at Brown. It shouldn't be that way, but that is the way it is.
There is actually a thread on a message board for sociology professors in which they are discussing how sorry they feel for you for making such a terrible choice. If there's any way for you to still accept those Top 10 offers, I highly encourage you to reconsider your choice. I don't think it's too dramatic to say that you are on the verge of ruining your career before it's even started.
Choices aren't binding until April 15. If you make a (perceived) bad decision you can always change tack. Unless you've outright rejected other acceptances in order to clear up their wait list. But you are by no means beholden until April 15th .. this is a tacit agreement that the Graduate School Council (or whatever it's called) has mandated.
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12 minutes ago, gingin6789 said:
@any5 Thanks for serving up some mindful truth! That's good, RESPECTFUL advice, and I do appreciate it.
that wasn't meant for you specifically. It is general words of wisdom. Take it with a grain of salt, coming from an average advice giver.
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15 minutes ago, kelris said:
gingin I think this is key. checking in and weighing the options with the people who care about you and that you personally trust.
The decision itself is a distribution. On average, you are average (you will learn this when you take stats maybe;) But seriously you can be a 5 sigma star at a 25-50 school and blow everyone away. But on average you will be average. At a top 10 program on average your distribution is just better. You can be a 1 sigma achiever and place where you'd need to outperform by 5 stdevs below. Not that you can't - statistics say you CAN, but that on average you wont. But maybe you're not average. You might be below average. By definition some of us are going to be below average. It's safer to be below average at a top10 because they have a better distribution. These distributions aren't normal curves either, but who cares what shape they are. You're probably, on average, average. So am I. But some of us are going to be way above average.
In summary, if you are an average person aim high, the distrubution at the top will benefit you. If you are above average, you will likely succeed at places below (given the same opportunity set!). If you are below average and got into a top10, go there and cross your fingers.
The average person self-reports being above average. Keep this in mind.
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16 minutes ago, kelris said:
Here: starry-eyed hopeful naive and excited
There: jaded tired frustrated realistic experienced
The grass is always greener, my friends. And the grass is always brown.
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48 minutes ago, SocPhDreamer said:
Has anyone heard back from Northwestern?
I've been invited to flyout interview for NW-Kellogg joint PHD MORS+Soc.. unsure if that decision timeline corresponds to the Soc program by itself
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2 minutes ago, pi515 said:
Congratulations @Port Lake! And thank you for the info. When you say that some programs like Stanford advised against contacting individual professors, did you learn that through your informal contacts or were you able to find that information somewhere on their website or application materials? Congrats again!
Another quick question: has anyone successfully gotten into a phd sociology program without having any LORs from sociology professors? (my recommenders were anthro and poli sci professors so I'm wondering if that has contributed to the deafening silence on the application front)
All my LORs were from economics dept.
Sociology PhD Spring 2017
in Sociology Forum
Posted
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