AgumonIsAPokemon

Been through this application cycle three times (2017, 2018, 2019). This is my fourth time and hopefully the last time. One piece of advice I could give is: keep yourself occupied. The daily routine (possibly hourly) of refreshing my email/gradcafe never felt invigorating, at least for me. It mostly consisted of anxiety. 
During my previous three attempts, which were all unsuccessful (got into a masters course in 2017 though), the waiting game never did any good to me. I only applied to approx 4 schools each cycle but waiting is still waiting. Luckily, having applied to 11 schools this year, I have been pretty busy with work during the day. Hence, pretty successful in distancing myself from the waiting game (also, I currently live in East Asia so the time zone difference does help me). I do still check gradcafe say about 2 to 3 times a day, but keeping myself occupied with other things does alleviate the anxiety caused from the application process. When I am not working, I would go read a book, watch a movie, or improve on my cooking skills (still a terrible chef, but I am trying!). 
The waiting game will inevitably be somewhat stressful but do stay healthy folks. ? 

Been through this application cycle three times (2017, 2018, 2019). This is my fourth time and hopefully the last time. One piece of advice I could give is: keep yourself occupied. The daily routine (possibly hourly) of refreshing my email/gradcafe never felt invigorating, at least for me. It mostly consisted of anxiety. 
During my previous three attempts, which were all unsuccessful (got into a masters course in 2017 though), the waiting game never did any good to me. I only applied to approx 4 schools each cycle but waiting is still waiting. Luckily, having applied to 11 schools this year, I have been pretty busy with work during the day. Hence, pretty successful in distancing myself from the waiting game (also, I currently live in East Asia so the time zone difference does help me). I do still check gradcafe say about 2 to 3 times a day, but keeping myself occupied with other things does alleviate the anxiety caused from the application process. When I am not working, I would go read a book, watch a movie, or improve on my cooking skills (still a terrible chef, but I am trying!). 
The waiting game will inevitably be somewhat stressful but do stay healthy folks. ? 

Been through this application cycle three times (2017, 2018, 2019). This is my fourth time and hopefully the last time. One piece of advice I could give is: keep yourself occupied. The daily routine (possibly hourly) of refreshing my email/gradcafe never felt invigorating, at least for me. It mostly consisted of anxiety. 
During my previous three attempts, which were all unsuccessful (got into a masters course in 2017 though), the waiting game never did any good to me. I only applied to approx 4 schools each cycle but waiting is still waiting. Luckily, having applied to 11 schools this year, I have been pretty busy with work during the day. Hence, pretty successful in distancing myself from the waiting game (also, I currently live in East Asia so the time zone difference does help me). I do still check gradcafe say about 2 to 3 times a day, but keeping myself occupied with other things does alleviate the anxiety caused from the application process. When I am not working, I would go read a book, watch a movie, or improve on my cooking skills (still a terrible chef, but I am trying!). 
The waiting game will inevitably be somewhat stressful but do stay healthy folks. ? 

Been through this application cycle three times (2017, 2018, 2019). This is my fourth time and hopefully the last time. One piece of advice I could give is: keep yourself occupied. The daily routine (possibly hourly) of refreshing my email/gradcafe never felt invigorating, at least for me. It mostly consisted of anxiety. 
During my previous three attempts, which were all unsuccessful (got into a masters course in 2017 though), the waiting game never did any good to me. I only applied to approx 4 schools each cycle but waiting is still waiting. Luckily, having applied to 11 schools this year, I have been pretty busy with work during the day. Hence, pretty successful in distancing myself from the waiting game (also, I currently live in East Asia so the time zone difference does help me). I do still check gradcafe say about 2 to 3 times a day, but keeping myself occupied with other things does alleviate the anxiety caused from the application process. When I am not working, I would go read a book, watch a movie, or improve on my cooking skills (still a terrible chef, but I am trying!). 
The waiting game will inevitably be somewhat stressful but do stay healthy folks. ? 

I agree with your advice, it really helps to keep busy. I just wanted to add generally to people that might be frantically checking their email and the results search every so often that sometimes we have to accept what we can't control and trust the process. I say this as someone who has applied in 3 application cycles, finally got my first acceptance this time (waiting to hear back from 4). We have to remember that there are a lot of really qualified candidates fighting for the same limited spots so sometimes these decisions can be arbitrary. The entire application process isn't easy by any stretch of the imagination, regardless of the admission decision, the amount of work (that im assuming) folks put in to get to this point is commendable and I hope that bring you all a little peace of mind as you wait to hear back.    
 
 

Been through this application cycle three times (2017, 2018, 2019). This is my fourth time and hopefully the last time. One piece of advice I could give is: keep yourself occupied. The daily routine (possibly hourly) of refreshing my email/gradcafe never felt invigorating, at least for me. It mostly consisted of anxiety. 
During my previous three attempts, which were all unsuccessful (got into a masters course in 2017 though), the waiting game never did any good to me. I only applied to approx 4 schools each cycle but waiting is still waiting. Luckily, having applied to 11 schools this year, I have been pretty busy with work during the day. Hence, pretty successful in distancing myself from the waiting game (also, I currently live in East Asia so the time zone difference does help me). I do still check gradcafe say about 2 to 3 times a day, but keeping myself occupied with other things does alleviate the anxiety caused from the application process. When I am not working, I would go read a book, watch a movie, or improve on my cooking skills (still a terrible chef, but I am trying!). 
The waiting game will inevitably be somewhat stressful but do stay healthy folks. ? 

FYI, this is from Cornell's website:
"The Graduate Admissions Committee typically reaches its decision by making two passes through the pool of applicants. In the first pass, the committee rates all applicants on the basis of GRE scores, TOEFL scores, grades, and other “objective” measures of accomplishments. This yields a long list of 60-80 applicants. In the second pass, the committee’s focus shifts to a careful and holistic assessment of writing samples, statements of purpose, and letters of recommendation. Finalists are chosen based the committee’s assessment of their potential for engaging in systematic and rigorous sociological research in one of the areas represented in the Field. Occasionally, the committee will interview applicants via Skype or telephone prior to extending an offer of admission."
My guess is that they had created the long list. So yes, it is probably a "good sign if we haven't heard anything." But expect 60+ rejections as they will start narrowing down the long list to an admissions list.

FYI, this is from Cornell's website:
"The Graduate Admissions Committee typically reaches its decision by making two passes through the pool of applicants. In the first pass, the committee rates all applicants on the basis of GRE scores, TOEFL scores, grades, and other “objective” measures of accomplishments. This yields a long list of 60-80 applicants. In the second pass, the committee’s focus shifts to a careful and holistic assessment of writing samples, statements of purpose, and letters of recommendation. Finalists are chosen based the committee’s assessment of their potential for engaging in systematic and rigorous sociological research in one of the areas represented in the Field. Occasionally, the committee will interview applicants via Skype or telephone prior to extending an offer of admission."
My guess is that they had created the long list. So yes, it is probably a "good sign if we haven't heard anything." But expect 60+ rejections as they will start narrowing down the long list to an admissions list.

Hi! My question/concern is relevant to this post, so I'll drop it here. 
So I majored in Sociology at a liberal arts university/college. Did a fair amount of work on theoretical and qualitative content, but spent almost no time on quantitative methods/statistics.
My predicament/problem: I will be moving onto a UK Sociology Masters program, and the program consists of a statistics class. In the future, I would love to do a PhD; hence, I need to attain a high GPA. But I am worried that my lack of experience in statistics will become an obstacle at grad school. Sooo I was wondering if anybody can recommend  me a good introductory statistics/quantitative methods textbook/book. There is plenty of time till starting my program so I thought I could use this time to introduce myself to statistics. 
I will also ask my supervisor from my undergrad institution but I wanted to hear something from the GradCafe community.
Thanks!

Wondering if anybody heard anything from McGill. I know some received their PhD offers, but any MA applicants? 
Thanks!

From personal experience, it depends. Some undergraduates have the resume (a.k.a. summer research opportunities + a very competitive CV) and they get accepted to the programs they want. At the same time, there are people (like myself) who did pretty well as undergrad, but didn't get into PhD programs right away. IT gave me the chance to narrow my research interests and explore what field you want to end up in. In Sociology's (my personal opinion by the way) case, admissions committees want to see that you already have a clear sense of what your research interests are. In your case, your interests lie in crime and punishment. I think admissions committees are going to pick apart your personal statement and SOP as to what aspect of crime and punishment? Are you planning to examine the changing scope of incarceration in the advent of social justice? Are you interested in the degree of relationship between committed crimes and punishments received? Or are you looking at how social movements in the U.S. are changing the landscape how crime is defined and how punishments are given?
With work experience, you'll be able to asks those kinds of questions and eventually develop you personal research agenda. Working after getting you bachelor's degree isn't as bad as everyone thinks it is. Like my advisor told me, not every individual is the same. Sometimes you have to go with the flow and realized that what you want is still the same thing, but you're getting there from a different route than everyone else. 
 
Hope this helps and I'm sorry if it's drawing from experience... Sorry

Hi ZombieBirdhouse,

Out of curiosity- I've never seen a dept that states having an MA will make you inadmissible.  Or do you mean having work experience precludes you from admission?  Could you clarify and/or mention some programs that stipulate this?  Honestly, I'm a little nervous now!

Also, wise advice about waiting till you're sure about which life course you want  

I finished my MA in 2014 (Canadian university).  I'm applying this fall with hopes of starting my PhD in 2017.  Took the last 3 years to work locally, work abroad (Europe), and am now back home working and applying.  I was literally never once tempted to not go back.  Perhaps that's unusual?  I don't know, but I think if you're the type of person who isn't totally sure about grad school then those doubts will pop up whether you're in a program or not.  And of course, things can happen that preclude you from going back (I'm not sure what would've had to happen to stop me, but perhaps a serious financial misfortune??  Everyone's situation is different).

MA - Work - PhD is very common.  Again, I'm coming from Canada so perhaps my perspective is different (because MAs are always terminal), but many of my profs actually suggested I take a year before going from MA-PhD (my MA was only one year so I was having trouble narrowing down research interests) so that I could figure out what I wanted to do.  I ended up taking 3 years off because I wanted to 1) pay off some debt, and 2) fulfill some of my nonsense romantic nomadic travelling desires (I did and it was great).  I personally also value the perspective it has given me- the anticipation to get back in to a program is so great now I imagine I'll cherish it more than I would have had I gone straight from my MA.  Tangibly, I've also gotten some interesting life experiences I think will help me do work as a social theorist.  
If you want to work in industry after your MA that will absolutely help you out when/if you go back for a PhD (translating your own practice into theory- why wouldn't that be an asset!?).  
This is really the best advice I think.  No sense going aimlessly into a PhD program- you might end up squandering the opportunity accidentally.  

TL;DR: yes, MA-Work-PhD is common.  There are some benefits to it as well.  

A few years ago, I was firmly on the "go straight" side.  I felt (and still feel, to a certain extent) that one never knows what life may bring, and it's ideal to get the PhD done/under one's belt.  However, that has not been my path.  I took time off before the MS.  And, now I'm planning on going straight through to the PhD.  The benefits have been enormous.  While I am older, I have a very clear idea of WHAT I want to study and WHY I want the PhD.  I did not have this insight before; I would've wasted time & money (and/or been miserable)--grave mistake.
Take the time you need to find direction first.  Some people may find that starting at 22 is ideal.  But, this isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.

I just graduated from undergraduate so I may not know quite as much as someone who has gone through the whole thing but I feel like I can weigh in a bit. Getting your MA and going back to school is a perfectly legitimate life course, there's nothing wrong with getting a terminal MA and a lot of students do exactly that so there's no harm in doing either or insofar as a happy, successful life course. What I can say objectively is that if you're having doubts about being a professional academic or doubts about graduate life it may be more prudent to get your MA separately because it leaves a lot more room for exploration which it seems like you want to do. The main downside is time and that some PhD programs only accept students directly out of undergraduate, so you might find yourself limited from larger schools, but your work experience might make up for that in the remaining schools. I hope this helps!