td_ny

Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate it.

Hi all, I am going to be starting at a Geography PhD program this fall and am wondering how many courses would be too many? I am planning on doing an independent study and 2 other courses. I would like to add on another course but am worried that it may be too much. The program I will be doing runs on the semester system. I am coming straight from undergrad at a huge public university. I've taken a graduate class before as an undergraduate and it wasn't too difficult, but it was only a master's level course. We read half a book a week and 2 journal articles. I don't really know what to expect out of a PhD program. I saw a syllabus for one of my classes and we will be reading 17 books. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

The linmon desk is too short for my comfort. I'm short (5'5) and I can't get comfortable at it. I find myself slouching over to see my laptop or to read and take notes. I want to get wood blocks or bricks or something to put under the legs to make it higher.

Thanks everyone. The question of doing ethnic/africana/american studies isn't about population, but it's about the type of thinking that is required in this disciplines that is written off as "minority discourse" by the majority of sociologists. There are definitely sociologists who I could work with who are thinking in the ways that I want to be thinking. The program I was admitted to has multiple faculty members doing that type of work. The students and faculty there are really nice and everyone involved seemed so happy, but I felt that it wasn't as intense of an academic environment that I had wanted out of grad school. The funding is fair, but I will need to teach or TA from year 2 onward as part of the fellowship and I really don't want to teach that much as a grad student. Also the faculty I primarily want to work with are junior faculty so they can't chair my committee until they gain tenure. I would also have to move halfway across the US for this and if I'm going to leave everyone I love and where I've lived nearly my entire life, I need to be in love with where I am moving and I'm not. Human geography seems to be more politically minded than sociology is. The program I got into has some of the biggest names in human geography, but they all have over 10 students working with them. Some of the students there were 2-3 years in and didn't know what they wanted to do their research on, which is really troubling. I also would have a higher teaching load at this school with less money, but I wouldn't have to move. There are a lot of students here doing work on black geographies and asking similar questions that I want to be asking so I know that I will have a great intellectual environment, but I don't want to be 1 of 15 students my advisor is working with. If I chose to reapply, this would be the program I'd accept at because I won't have to move. Overall, I just feel pretty disheartened by all of this and am just trying to decide whether or not it's better to accept and reapply or to decline and reapply and try to look for work.

I was admitted to 2 PhD programs (geography and sociology) with decent funding, but after visiting both I cannot see myself being a student there. They are great programs with excellent people, but I realized I applied to programs in the wrong disciplines. I knew before I started my applications that I wanted to do Africana studies, Ethnic studies, or American studies. I major in sociology as an undergrad and many of my professors dissuaded me from applying to ethnic, american, or africana programs because it wasn't "strategic." I was waitlisted at an africana program, but am still waiting to hear back. If I don't get in, I have 2 decisions: 1) I accept the offer from one of the programs because I won't need to move. I will reapply in the fall to programs that I am better suited for. 2) I decline both offers and just reapply. I have no idea about what types of jobs are out there that would be as fulfilling as doing academic work is to me. I have heard mixed advice. Some people have said that accepting and then reapplying looks really bad, but others said it's fine. Some people said it's hard to reapply while you're in a program because of coursework, but if I do this, I plan to work on my applications before the semester starts. Does anyone have an experience with this? Thank you!

Received a rejection from Africana at Cornell today. Congrats to those who will be receiving their acceptances!

Can anyone else confirm that Brown sent our acceptances? I have some friends who have been rejected from Brown, but am yet to hear if anyone has been accepted. I had an interview almost 3 weeks ago and haven't heard back since.