2010international

Hi, I did my MSc at LSE as well, so maybe I could be helpful. I don't know that there is any minimum threshold, and i think it's much more about you overall (ie work ex, publications, statement of purpose etc) than just being confined to GRE and your grades at LSE. that said, i would think that if you're aiming for top 25 then you should probably be aiming at 65+ to make a strong case for yourself. i don't think a low merit would have that kind of a cache, just because about 80% of the MSc students at LSE get a merit anyway, so the higher up in the 60s you can manage, the better (ie upper 60s - since distinctions are notoriously difficult. i remember in my department only one out of about 75 got a distinction). however, a MSc grade of 60+ would probably be countered for by great and relevant work ex (or a very strong dissertation grade, especially if your area of interest at the PhD level is very linked to your dissertation topic). hope this helps!

financial aid

My summer is kind of cut into three distinct blocks. June: holiday (yes!) - so just a lot of lazing around, spending time with family, reading, watching movies and so on July: work for a month (back to the place where I am currently working). August: first two weeks: relax etc again, and then go off to grad school. I'm someone who needs a schedule for everything, so I was actually kind of freaking out about having this 1/1.5 months off during the summer. But I am so happy about it now - I am literally dreaming of lovely sunny days, reading by a lake/river and just doing whatever I please. That said, I have looked at the '10 books every sociology student should read this summer' thread and since I am not from a soc background I feel like I def should read at least some of them. So I'm trying to figure out what a good balance would be. I know I'm going to be reading a lot of soc stuff over the next five years so a part of me wants to wait until sept to start, but the other part is terrified of falling behind...

love life

pink eye

That's a pretty hostile comment there. I don't think this is either so very audacious (ie. asking to be paid for working - is it really so audacious?) or illustrative of a sense of 'entitlement'. I would say it's a very practical way of going about things - since funding grad school for 5 (or even 2 or 3) years would be a major undertaking. I personally would not have considered a PhD at all if I had to pay for it, just because the kinds of employment I can get afterward don't guarantee that I could pay off my debts. I would hate to leave school with debt sitting on my head for 10 years. Not to mention the fact that one would be accruing this debt while working really hard. That seems like a loose loose situation to me. One way of looking at grad school is as a (low paying) job, if seen in this way the comment makes perfect sense.

no grounds

elephant man

two minds

hot box

drive in

fresh faced

heart break

This may be a little off-topic, but I thought I'd ask here anyway. I've come across mentions of stuff like 'Dropbox' and 'Zotero' as well as 'Endnotes' and so on - programmes which seemed to be designed to assist in note-taking/collating and so on. They sound like they would be useful, but I have VERY limited knowledge of anything beyond the basics- like word, excel and powerpoint. I want to explore my options for digital note-taking (I have a MacBook Pro) and was wondering what programmes you all would recommend (for someone trying to bridge the gap from handwritten notes to electronic) as a starting point. Any info on the prices/how to get the programmes etc would be great too!

This is ridiculous. To score in the top 10% for math you would need to get an 800. And since you are applying for English - this is highly irrelevant (even in the social sciences, where math is required, but not that much - the given reason would be utterly ludicrous). I think they have given a bogus reason for why they denied you admission, and if I were in your place, i would bring this to light and ask to be told the actual reason.

"I'm not going to name school names, but... I know of at least one program, competitively ranked, that has a reputation for passing "blindly" over applicants who receive multiple top-10/ivy offers, even when those applicants feel they are a strong fit. " I'm curious to know how these programmes are aware that their candidates have multiple top-10/Ivy League offers. I would think discussions of which other schools/depts a candidate is considering would happen AFTER an acceptance has been made, not while the application is still under review? I find the OPs question a very legitimate one. My own situation was somewhat similar where I was accepted to two programmes that are both ranked higher for my field, but rejected by a third (let me point out that though quite a few places lower in the rankings than the other two, this third would still be seen as a top school) which i absolutely had my heart set on going to and thought i stood the best chance of getting accepted into. evidently not. it really seems like luck plays some part in this too - or some factor which we can't be aware of outside the system.

tank up

i found barron's really useful. they have a 'short list' with the most frequently occurring words on the GRE, and a longer list of about 3000 words, with definitions as well as a sentence that gives you an idea of how the word is used contextually. they also have short quizzes testing you on about 15 words each which is helpful. But yeah, generally just read and make sure you check up words that you don't know, since for analogies etc the GRE can use secondary meanings of words

here you go:

Hi, I'll actually be attending Penn this fall, also in sociology, and I thought I'd address your concern about it being much less qualitative. The feeling that I actually got is that it can be very qualitative. This is a concern from me too because Im coming from a complete non-quantitative background (and by this i mean the last time i took a math class was in high school. my under grad was in lit and the other courses i had to take were history and philosophy, my masters was in development - again not quant at all, just theoretical more like). im interested in demography (one of the things i mentioned in my sop) and i talked to two profs from penn who were incredibly nice. when i raised my concern about my lack of quantitative background and how that would factor into the demography bit for instance they told me that that would mostly be upto me. that i could take the more quant course in demography (which again, requires a fundamental understanding of quant side from what i gather - and no prerequisites for most) or i could focus on the theoretical courses they offer. so i mean this is something ill look into once there - to see how much math etc i can handle! i think what IS required are some stats courses - but honestly i don't think that ANY other doctoral prog in sociology would let a student get away without at least SOME stats background. i didn't apply to Northwestern, so unfortunately i can't help you compare the 2. but hopefully you found this useful! Also, I just saw your thing about the emphasis on publishing, someone actually calculated rankings of different sociology depts vis a vis academic publishing and Penn was pretty high up on that. i would think this means that students too get a pretty good chance to publish under whoever they are working - though i am not too clear on this. let me see if i can get that link for you

UPenn

I'm not sure about the US, but I do know that most universities in the UK have Masters in Development Studies (and variations thereof: ie Gender and Development, Religion and Development etc). These are almost always one year courses so they definitely cut down on the amount of money you spend. I actually doubt there would be a stand alone Masters in Development Studies in the US, because development studies seems to come under the rubric of sociology here. I don't know what kinds of requirements the US would have for admitting you but I know the UK is pretty flexible (ie people with an undergrad in English Lit or Philosophy, with community service etc on the weekends/holidays, have been admitted to some of the top programs). Hope this helps.

I did my Masters in the UK, and from what I can gather University of East Anglia is outstanding for 2 areas: creative writing (alumni include ian mcewan, kazuo ishiguro, anne enright and writers of that caliber), and development studies. in the latter - while it is one of the best in terms of research i think students would still pick something like IDS (in Brighton), or LSE/SOAS over it because it doesn't command the kind of prestige as the latter do. Other than in these 2 areas I think it's fairly average Royal Holloway and Bristol are decent - I don't know that much about either, honestly, but England can be fairly expensive so it makes sense to go to the one with a financial package. That said, Royal Holloway's location (from what I know) on the outskirts of London means that you have the 'quiet' side, but you can easily come into London and enjoy all the offerings there.

School B seems the obvious choice to me - better climate AND better prestige factor (I'm all for the brand name). The drawback to it seems to be that it also has some inflated egos, but a few of those will probably be found in most places, and as long as they don't hamper YOUR work it shouldn't matter! Congrats on being a position to have these options in the first place though!

Other than the fact that it had my name it was pretty generic (ie did not refer to my application/areas of interest at all)