earlgrey99

This post moved me, and I am frustrated by the obstacles that we, in a structural sense, allow parenthood to create. I also deeply admire your grit, courage, and perseverance. I am currently involved in motherhood penalty-related research, and WOW does your situation hit home, especially "I guess I thought from an ideological standpoint, the ONE place that would be supportive of a working mother would be a Sociology dept but alas, nope nope nope." I obviously don't have influence in the outcomes of this app cycle for you, but I do have tremendous respect, admiration, and frustration for your situation.

@proctorvt I have felt like I've been in this with you-- still rooting for you. I just got in to NYU! Apparently they didn't send the emails all at once. The email said they "anticipate" the cohort will be 9 students, so I would imagine they have/will accept more than 9 if they expect that will be their yield.

Also (im)patiently waiting on NYU-- radio silence here!

Wow, thanks for this! Very helpful and thoughtful, and will certainly become a part of my calculations if I can manage to get ahold of some folks. Right now I'm deciding between two programs, and while it initially felt very overwhelming, I've gotten a lot of information in the past couple of days that has helped make me feel much more certain about which way I'm leaning. I'm currently working in a research position, and I'm really keen on continuing to research. TAing isn't something that sounds thrilling to me (and I don't really have aspirations of staying at a university to teach, so I'm not overly concerned with gaining experience teaching-- I'm sure at some point in the 5-7 years I'll give it a go, but not my top priority). Both schools have offered me roughly the same amount of funding, but one has offered me a research assistant position out of the gate. I've been in touch with a grad student at the second institution, and they've indicated that it's a huge rarity at that institution to get a full RA position. Even before the RA position was offered, the 1st school was offering me the same amount of money for less work--summers funded with 0 strings. What all this adds up to me is opportunities to hone my research skills, work with data, and potentially publish, which are all only going to help me in the long run to get more funding (through school grants, as well as outside grants like maybe the NSF GRFP?) and land a job on the other side of this whole thing. My point in all of this is, if this is a consideration that makes sense for you (obviously there are lots of things to weigh!), think hard about what you're being asked to do to earn the funding you're offered. I imagine that we're going to have a lot of demands on our time, so if there are options that seem neck and neck, but one is offering you the same money for less work (or more appealing work), that's something to think on, as it might allow you to build up your CV in ways that will have short term and long term payoffs.

Second this for folks who are feeling anxious about schools that they've applied to contacting people, but not them. I had totally written off UNC, assuming they'd have sent everything out by the end of the week last week, and was stunned to get an acceptance via email yesterday. It's not over until it's over! Hang in there, friends.

Oof, y'all, I'm feeling the stress too, especially upon seeing the UNC acceptances come in-- that's the first I've seen from places I've applied. Sending positive vibes into the universe at all of you. Here's hoping we can make it through the next few weeks without completely losing our minds!

Following suit with the other lurker-turned-posters. Applying to grad school for the first time this fall to PhD programs in Sociology, with interests in social stratification, reproductive health, and survey methodology. 3.82 GPA from a political science/public health degree with strong background in research as an undergraduate (completed a thesis that was awarded some substantial prizes), 168V/161Q/5.0AW GRE scores, 3 years in health-related research. I've got letters from my undergraduate thesis advisor as well as two PhDs who I have authored papers with (the papers have had a public health bent, though one of my recommenders has a degree in Sociology). Feeling MOSTLY good about my applications, but nervous about the general feeling that the whole thing is a bit of a crap shoot-- it all depends on who is on the receiving end of my materials! Applying to: Stanford, UT Austin, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Michigan, UPenn, Harvard, NYU, and Maryland. I've got three apps in, and hoping to roll through the rest of them in the next week. Good luck, all! Looking forward to when we've gotten everything submitted and start hearing back.