KevinJHa

Hello Hello Hello It's been a while since I've been on here, but an approaching summer of unfunded insecurity has brought me to seek advice. I am a Sociology graduate student at Northeastern (Boston, MA), and was just denied the three summer positions I applied to for the summer. I do not have funding but also need to pay rent. Does anyone have any ideas or experiences on what they did in the summer? Thanks!

Hi All, It's been a while since I've been on here, but an approaching summer of unfunded insecurity has brought me to seek advice. I am a Sociology graduate student at Northeastern (Boston, MA), and was just denied the three summer positions I applied to for the summer. I do not have funding but also need to pay rent. Does anyone have any ideas or experiences on what they did in the summer? Thanks!

I've never heard of them revoking offers before either, that won't happen.

Sorry for the late reply. I guarantee she will NOT say that. You're just looking out for your own livelihood and there's nothing wrong with that. Just try to make clear you love their department and itd be perfect, but what can they expect you to do if you couldn't afford to come? In concluding the conversation, all you have to do is thank them (sincerely) for the information they've provided etc then tell them you need some time to deliberate. Then email them an hour or so late, thank them for the meeting and tell them you'll be in contact shortly. Try not to be too stressed about this, im sure 80% of phd applicants are doing this!

Try not to feel sneaky in thinking about leveraging offers, its a very common thing. If im understanding you correctly, you want to make it clear to your dream grad program that you are valued and being offered funding elsewhere in hopes that they will offer you funding. I don't think you should be implicit about it, I think you should be very clear. You are clearly valued and wanted as a graduate student or else you wouldn't have received offers elsewhere, just because its your dream school dont let them undercut your worth. The program I was accepted to, clearly stated that if I received any offers that were higher than theirs, they'd do their best to match it. These departments know you probably received attractive offers from places, and clearly stating that you already have BUT also making it clear that you would deny all these and go to your dream program if they could provide some more funding is something they expect from you. These people also know that graduate school is hard to survive without funding (its your livelihood), so they won't take it any other way than you're trying to secure the best possible graduate experience as you can. Just be clear, direct, and assertive about it! Good luck!

Hm, the only thing I could think of right now is getting yourself some professional society memberships in your area of interest. Ex. ASA, SWS, ESS, etc As far as software, I don't think you really NEED anything, but it depends on what you want to learn/do. But these licenses are generally very expensive. I'm also curious to know what people think in terms of books.

Right after my undergraduate, I decided to do a two semester graduate certificate program in research methods. I can definitely attest to the value of getting a post UG cert, it helped me secure a research analyst position shortly after and made me much more competitive for ph.d studies (i got accepted with full funding). During certificate studies, I met a research adviser who wrote me a great LoR and offered me a book review co-authorship. But then again you will have your MA already, so in your case a cert might be superfluous. In my case, I was targeting Ph.D programs all along and this was something i pursued in my gap year to make me more competitive.

Accepted Northeastern's offer. Glad this is all over and congratulations to everybody for surviving :).

I second the gut feeling thing. Professionally, I think CUNY has a lot more to offer me but I really don't get a good feeling from the department and the general atmosphere. On the flip side Northeastern, a much less renowned soci department, gives me such a good gut feeling and I feel I'd be happy there. PS @pinoysoc im really glad you found a department that suits you

Just called Boston University and was told I was rejected. I don't know why they haven't physically released decisions but if you're still waiting, give them a call.

I'm currently waitlisted for CUNY (my top choice), decision dates are so soon ahhh!

Yeah I definitely understand that frustration. Thank you!

Oh congratulations! Did you receive any notice or did you just call them out of curiosity? If they already have a waitlist I'm assuming they've sized up a cohort already.

Is anyone else waiting for Boston University? I'm not sure if its typical of them to take this long to make decisions but it seems so late, and I have to start making my final decisions. I've heard from all of my schools except them.

Yes!! download it and PM me your number, ill add you