European Lumpi

I wouldn't worry about it too much for master's programs tbh. Most people I know got into their MAs without talking to anybody beforehand. Think of it more as a bonus that could add to your application, but not reaching out to anybody shouldn't affect it negatively. The majority of PhD admits haven't talked to anybody beforehand either. If you have the time, absolutely go for it. However, if it's going to decrease the quality of the rest of your application materials, I'd advise against it.

Haha good to know I'm not the only one. I'm applying to Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Duke, and Indiana, but I'm also throwing in a few B-School apps at places that allow for very sociological work. Yeah, I'm trying to juggle my master's and all these apps at once right now and that is getting quite crazy as well. Ha that doesn't sound too relaxing either, but I'm envious nonetheless Also: Wow this forum is starting to come alive. I was quite surprised by how little traffic there was on here until recently haha

There's quite a bit of work to be done for me still. I'm probably going to end up with a lot of Thursday and Friday submission. Can't wait for this process to be over, although I already know that going from 100 to 0 is going to leave me in a mental hole for a couple of days. I keep telling myself to stop wasting time by checking this website several times each day haha

Depends on your writing sample and, assuming you're an international student, toefl, I'd say. Those should easily give you the opportunity to balance out your GRE writing. If those aren't that great either some programs might be hesitant to offer you a spot though. It's hard to say more given that we only know your GRE scores.

Hey @abenz, I would guess that you are planning on doing mostly qualitative work, is that correct? From what I can tell, the programs you are applying to are not super quant-focused, which would play to your advantage. Your V score is obviously superb, but the quant score could be concerning some people. Nonetheless, given that you have research experience and prior education with some pedigree, I think that you are aiming at the right schools. My guess is that you should be fine, but (especially since the process can be quite the crapshoot) you won't know anything until after you've applied.

UNC averages: 90th Verbal, 75 Quant

I wouldn't worry about that @nywnorb120191. There are certainly a few people/departments where qual is still not quite accepted, but generally that is not the case. At least I wouldn't worry about it during the application phase. I don't know whether you should mention those people or not. I think if you're planning on doing purely/primarily ethnographic research, you might want to consider other professors to mention in your statement. Not so much because of your GRE score, but rather of your fit. You mainly want to identify people as POI that could act as your supervisor I believe. So if the people you mention use different methods, they might question your fit into the program. You might still have reasons to mention them. I'm not sure. Just keep these things in mind. I hope some of this helps. Good luck with those applications. Both schools sound like they have incredible programs. Give it your best shot (I'm assuming you meant UT as the second school and not Stanford, right?)

Ah okay. The way I understood nywnorb is that he is mainly interested in qual/ethnographic research. This usually does not entail a lot of statistics and therefore the programs do not expect quite as much on the quant front. I know that everybody is going to be aiming at good schools first on here and, of course, you are absolutely correct in that one should apply widely. A couple of things I just want to stress again: I just really think that a lower Q is not as decisive of a factor as you might think if you target the right programs. Being above average in V and below average in Q, by a similar amount, probably means that you're pretty much on par for applications with a qualitative research preference. A better GRE would help, but it should mean that the GRE is unlikely to be the reason for your rejection. Don't just take the Magoosh scores at face value. They are aggregates and won't help with individual decisions. Just looking at their websites one can see that nywnorb's scores are not too far off Berkeley's, but rather far away (at least Q) from Stanford's. Both of these schools are bunched up (somehow) in the Magoosh rankings and following these to decide where to apply will leave one to miss out on opportunities (or overestimate one's competitiveness). Point 1 and 2 are the reason why I think that nywnorb has a shot with several T25 schools. It is going to be difficult, but that is unfortunately the nature of PhD apps. There is an argument to be made that a sociology phd below the T25 is quite a risk. The job market is incredibly tough as it is, even if you come from one of the better schools. I've heard many professors (and people on here) make the argument that it is much better to wait another year and try again than to settle for a T100 school. So while I would advise to apply widely, one has to think about how far down the list one would be willing to go. That is something everybody has to find out for themselves. And yes it sucks (!) to get rejected. And yes most people are going to get rejected. The game is tough for everybody, but don't let 4 missing points on the GRE be the reason you curb your enthusiasm. You'll need it to write your SOPs That you were accepted to a better school in the south is in fact interesting (I'm also a little jealous of the amount of help you've managed to receive from your letter writers hehe). I really wish there'd be more feedback on applications. Currently we all, more or less, seem to be relying on anecdotal evidence...

hey @cowgirlsdontcry, thanks for the input. As you rightly point out, I have not been referring to humanities and social sciences in general, but rather just to sociology. So the quant score is quite low, no doubt, but I don't think that should be in any way keeping @nywnorb120191 from applying anywhere (other than the previously mentioned stats-heavy programs). I would also recommend against using magoosh's GRE overview to that detail. The problem is that it bunches together too many different things and is not a lot more than a best guess. Taking Berkeley and UT-Austin as (very selectively chosen) examples (that help me make my argument): Berkeley (T5) average GRE scores 161V; 154Q, UT-Austin (T15) 159V, 151Q. While both quant scores are above 150, these are still averages. There's going to be plenty of people below that measure that got admitted. It would certainly not hurt to have higher scores, but I think it fit and motivation can make up for a lot of things. As I said before, for the qualitative schools scores of 163/150 will probably mean that you get your application looked at. From there on it is up to your SOP to seal the deal. Could you explain this again please? I don't quite follow why Q would be especially important if you're trying to focus on ethnography. I obviously can't venture any guesses into why the T25 schools you applied to didn't work out, but what I gather from working my way through all of these forums is that the amount of arbitrariness in admissions is quite significant. I'm therefore a little hesitant to make any specific guesses about which inferences to draw from your case about GRE scores.

It sounds like you're on the right track. Don't feel like you have to take out everything stats-related from your SOP though. You can still show that you're good at it and that your "low" GRE quant doesn't reflect your actual ability. Again, I'd just focus more on on qualitative work and structure around that. Woops, sorry if that was unclear. I meant to insinuate something along the lines of your scores and GPAs not being good enough either that they'll get you accepted right away, no matter the rest of your application (mostly since scores like that don't really exist, I believe/hope). So yeah, like you said, don't go anywhere that's unfunded, but overall that's something to worry about once you get some acceptances. You should get fully funded at most of the better schools (like you realized though, the amount of TA/RA work might vary). Also, as far as what I can hear from all of these message boards, there is obviously a strong correlation between scores/grades and the rank of the program, but the margin for error is quite enormous. Don't count yourself out anywhere!

@nywnorb120191 First of all: Congratulations for achieving the scores you aimed for! Every small victory along this strenuous process should be enjoyed I think you don't have too worry too much about your scores. Your graduate GPA should help and make up a little for your somewhat lower UG GPA (Berkeley even states that they are interested in the GPA of your last two years) and I'm sure a letter from your Stats prof will help as well. Now, my best guess would be that your GRE scores are fine as long as you are applying to schools that have strong ethnographers and you are making clear that you aim to mostly work qualitatively. If I were you I might be a little hesitant to stress stats too much in your personal statement (other than showing that you are decent at stats, if not the rest of the GRE math), because I could see your quant score becoming a bit of a burden should the committee think that you'd want to work primarily quantitatively. As long as that's the case your scores should be competitive. Your verbal might be around or just below average for the higher-ranked programs and should be above the average the further you go down the list. You quant will be somewhat below the average for the most part, but you might be able to make up for that with your coursework or it might not even matter that much. tldr: Considering your interest, most (qualitative) schools will probably not sort you out based on any of your scores. Neither will anybody jump to give you funding based on what you've written here. Apply for everything that interests you. You miss all the shots you don't take.

So what kind of schools are you aiming for? T25 schools with strong ethnographers? Different schools are bound to have different points they focus on during the application phase. People on here are going to be able to help you more precisely once they know what you are aiming at.

You'll see that sociology programs tend to be quite eclectic when it comes to backgrounds. As long as you can argue for why you want to move over to sociology (and preferably connect that transition to your previous degree/work), your academic background should not be what is hindering you. The other factors you mention will play much more of a role though. GRE scores in the 50th percentile range are not going to impress anybody and are probably below the cut-off of a lot of the better schools. Your GPA doesn't sound very exceptional either (at least if you're undergrad was done at a US school). If you're sure you want to do a PhD, I think the way to go might be to take some time to up those GRE scores and preferably gain some research experience over the course of the next year or so. At least for most of the T25 programs that would probably be needed to make a solid case for yourself. Depending on your time frame another masters degree (this time in soc) could be a way to signal your intent to move into sociology, help you figure out if it's what you want to do, and get you to do some research (just make sure not to take on debt for this ).

Hey All, This might seem a little frivolous, but I've been wondering what CVs for applicants typically look like. I know that in the US one page is usually the standard, but does that still hold true for PhD applicants. Or do you try and copy the format of academic CVs that professors usually have? Instinctively I'd be leaning towards the latter option, but it seems a little absurd, since there is little academic information (no published papers, etc.) that I can provide. Do I include any work experience and extracurriculars? I'd love to get some help on the headlines according to which a typical PhD applicant structures his/her CV. Thanks so much for the help Lumpi

Hey @Blue94, My sense is that you're on the right track by focusing on your SOP etc. Those scores are unlikely to be below any potential "cut off" from what I hear, so I'd really try and make sure that the rest of your application package is on point. Just keep in mind that I'm also just an applicant who is giving you this advice, so take it with a grain of salt. The only scenario I can see in which you should retake the test is if your scores are well below those you got in practice sessions and if therefore you're pretty sure you'll be able to increase your scores significantly without putting a lot of prep work into it again. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the work guys. We could just use this post to add all the ones we find over time. I also found this from Magoosh, but it seems super unreliable. I really thought there would be more data available. How do people judge their GRE scores in relation to schools then? Sort of just apply if you think you might be somewhere in the ballpark?

Hey all, Just been wondering if anybody has ever managed to find/compile a relatively up-to-date overview of GRE scores (cutoffs or median) that are available for various programs. It would be nice if we could crowdsource one otherwise, so that we don't all have to scour the internet for each school individually. (If I'm missing a very obvious address here, I would very much appreciate if one of you could just point me to it ) C'est ca. Best, Lumpi

Hey PonderingSoc, The PhD in Europe usually works a little differently, which is also why applications usually require other materials than in the US. I'm not doing a PhD here myself, but I know people that are. With PhDs (at least) in continental Europe, you are usually applying for a much more specific research project. This means, that most of the time you are also applying to a specific PhD position surrounding a certain field of research within sociology and that you are less free to completely change direction. Since this is the case, more fleshed out research proposals (compared to personal statements in the US) are usually expected from admissions committees. In regard to the competition, I would argue that it can vary immensely. Given that you are applying to a specific PhD position, you might get lucky in that it is a field not a lot of people are applying for. The opposite might just as well be the case though. As opposed to the US, you also mostly only take about a semester worth of classes and then start working on your research right away, usually leaving the PhD to be a bit shorter than in the US as well. As far as I know, GRE scores are hardly ever needed, even though this might be different in the UK. In genera, what I have written is probably more applicable to continental Europe, whereas the UK seems to stray halfway between the States and the rest of Europe. Hope this helps!

So I've been wondering if anybody in this forum could attest towards the differences of studying economic sociology (/ its synonyms and/or subfields) at a business school vs at a sociology department a little bit? E.g. how would MiT's economic sociology program compare to studying sociology with a focus on econ soc at, let's say, Berkeley or Harvard. Whilst browsing through forums, I've seen people hinting towards the b-school PhD's being rather rushed and more focused on organizational soc, whilst also having "better" job opportunities in the end. The classic departments on the other hand supposedly give you more freedom in choosing your (sub-)field, probably have you go through the classics more in depth, and, obviously, allow you to venture further outside into other realms of sociology as well. As far as I was able to judge (in my, granted, very novice understanding) most of the more renowned names in econ soc still seem to be found at the sociology departments (with potential secondary appointments at the b-schools). Has anybody here made firsthand experiences with the topic or talked to people about it? I hope other people are interested in this as well and that I haven't missed a blatantly similar post on the matter. -Lumpi