lkaitlyn
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Posts posted by lkaitlyn
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It sounds from your phrasing like you gave these random people a choice of submitting a strong, polished journalism piece or a weak research piece. Obviously polish is better in that case, but that doesn't mean that's better than submitting a strong, polished research piece. Submitting a journalism piece instead of demonstrating an ability to conduct rigorous sociological research will substantially weaken your application. Perhaps you can rewrite one of your articles to make it sociological? Add a literature review, craft a research question and argument, etc.?
It is especially important that you show an ability to craft a sociological argument/question given that it sounds like you do not have any sociology experience. (I say this as someone who similarly had no sociology background.)
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16 minutes ago, reCAPTCHA said:
They will notified as soon as all awardees accept their award. They do ask awardees to accept or reject the award by a certain date so in case someone reject because they got a better fellowship, they move down the list. Once all awards have been accepted they will notify the rest of applicants.
Gotcha. So congrats to the winners! ❤️ Excited to hear about the different research projects people are working on.
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1 hour ago, reCAPTCHA said:
It looks like they sent awards last week per someone who received the fellowship and announced it on Twitter. Congrats to them!
7 days agoRT @LittleBitK_Reyn: I am so excited to share that I've been awarded one of the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship awards! Shout out to the fam & friends for gassing me up during the application process and @feMNistProf and @ehphd for their top tier support since I started this program!Can't see the tweet. Not saying you're wrong, but I'd like to think they'll notify the rest of us too.
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Take the PhD offer, or apply again next cycle. Do not pay $50-60k for an MA.
- saffasrass and Alex_123
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53 minutes ago, making_waves said:
You get money for an HM?
Sadly, no. That person is mistaken. Rumor has it occasionally an HM will get the fellowship if enough fellows turn down the fellowship, but I haven't heard of that happening in several years.
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On 3/22/2023 at 2:43 PM, hamianghm said:
Hi,
I have just been admitted to one master's program after being rejected to many PhD programs. I am planning on applying next cycle for PhD also but I realize most of the deadlines would be around early December and I have so many questions.1. I have invested so much on my current writing sample which costs me one year to finish. If I applying next cycle, I would need a new writing sample. I am wondering during 2-3 months in the master's program, how can I pull off a better writing sample?
2. Knowing the deadlines for most programa are in early December, will my MA transcript be available for my application?
3. My GRE scores right now is 320 but I want to improve it, should I study and retake the GRE before I attend master's program?4. How can I improve my publications and CV under such short amount of time?
For those who have been applying for multiple cycles and from MA program, how did you manage it, what advices would you give, what do you wish you knew? I am collecting any pieces of advices possible.
Thank you so so much.
1. You only need a new writing sample if you think the old one was weak. If you don't have any new research in the works, I doubt you'll be able to have someone new and high quality so soon, so you might want to stick with what you had or maybe edit what you had more, ideally with the help of mentors in the field (professors). Make sure that you're demonstrating your ability to do sociological research.
2. Probably not, but you'll send it when it's available, just like college seniors send their semester grades after applying. It normally won't matter much unless you do poorly, or if your undergrad record was weak, in which case I'd recommend waiting a year to apply so you can show them a longer track record of academic success.
3. Not sure how your scores break down but if it's close to 160/160 (e.g., one of them is 157 or something), I'm not sure retaking this is a good use of your time, especially since most programs don't even require the GRE anymore.
4. Unless something has drastically changed in the last 2-3 years, most applicants to sociology PhD programs don't have publications, and if they do, it's generally not as a first author and in a lower-tier journal or an undergrad journal, so I wouldn't stress about that. If you have something you've been working on, see if you can submit to a conference. A lot of smaller regional conferences have fall and winter meetings with open submission deadlines right now. Also make sure you're getting research experience. In your MA program, that should happen naturally, but if you don't have anything else to do this summer while you're waiting, maybe get a research internship or help out a professor with a project of theirs!
I think forcing yourself to apply too soon is indeed quite limiting, as your questions indicate. I don't know the circumstances of your current application or situation, but if there were weaknesses and this wasn't just a fit issue (it may just be that you didn't apply to programs that were really good fits with your goals), you might want to wait to apply. That way, you can build strong relationships with new LOR writers at your MA institution (you'll want at least 1 to be from your MA institution even if you apply this year), work on a new writing sample, and expand the research experience on your CV. You'll also have an MA thesis to talk about in your application!
Oh, and if you developed any good relationships with professors at the schools you applied to, perhaps gently reach out to that person and ask if they have any feedback for what you can do to strengthen your application for the future. I'd only do this if you've developed a personal relationship, though — don't just cold email admissions.
And as a related aside, if you didn't develop any type of connection with professors, you might want to try that this time around; email a professor in each program in July/August with a personalized email about why you're interested in their research, a sentence or two about your work, etc., say you're interested in applying, and ask if they have time to talk about what they're currently working on. You'd be surprised at how many respond if you keep the email short, professional, and personalized. Even if they have no say over admissions, talking to them will help you be more specific in your SOPs about why that school is a good match for you and your research. And who knows? Maybe you'll work with them! (The person who I reached out to from the school I'm now at is still my advisor 3 years in!)
- saffasrass and hamianghm
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Check out the union's website for details on the new contract. That is the minimum you will get.
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Yes. The union's website on the contract is far more clear than UC's, though.
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Re: strikes at UC affecting offers (someone asked in the thread) - definitely. UC doesn't want to allocate more money to grad students, so they're trying to find ways to cut down the grad student population or try to get around the contract. For example, there's a rumor about UCI Social Sciences (school that oversees Sociology) trying to fuss around with fellowship-type funding because they're under the (mistaken) belief that it's exempted from the union contract (which is funny, because it's not, so you all might just wind up with more fellowship money with UC getting absolutely no financial benefit from it; karma!).
Can't speak for other UCs but I do know that has been affecting admissions here at UCI re: funding offers, how many offers can go out, etc., since the department is trying to figure out how much money they'll get from Social Sciences. In the department's defense, to be clear, they do not control this.
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Among the ones you listed? You probably have it about right. Generally selectivity correlates to ranking and better funding packages.
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4 hours ago, RGA126 said:
I saw on results updates that UCI sociology are starting to do their interviews and sending out emails. I wonder if all the interview emails are sent today, or would the process extend into a few more days? I am really worried to see them popping up with today's date and I have not really get one in my mailbox.
I got my invite a couple years back around a week after everyone else. I was convinced I was rejected at that point. Not trying to keep you clinging to false hope, but I wouldn't assume it's over until we're well into February. It also somewhat matters on professor. My advisor (who is great) takes a little longer than some others to do administrative stuff sometimes. Knowing him now, I'm thoroughly unsurprised that I heard later than others.
Edit: I have no real inside info on this, though. Just explaining my personal experience.
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5 hours ago, saffasrass said:
A lot of programs seem to be working a bit slower than last year already, which is interesting to see.
I'm mostly worried that some departments will be taking smaller cohorts since they're still dealing with the small 2021/Covid cohorts and then (sometimes) large 2022 ones, as well as potential funding concerns with all the talks of a recession looming.
FYI, I have heard that UCI is taking a smaller cohort this year, though I don't know the exact size. (But they're funding those people better than they funded people when they admitted larger cohorts, though I know that's not comforting for everyone waiting.)
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11 hours ago, anxiousbutalive said:
From what I've heard, not many universities interview. At least in t20 schools, and I may be wrong.
My take for what follows is trying to forget applications until late January. Then, well... sight.
Among the T20, historically UCI has "interviewed" (most of these converted to acceptances in the past/they were really informal) — not sure if that's changing this year or not.
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On 11/11/2022 at 12:50 PM, time_consume_me said:
A rare new opportunity for funds open to even international students in the US.
I think it was poorly advertised this year--that might give those that did apply a boost?
That would be nice (for me, at least!). ?
Seriously, to those who haven't applied, it's more money than NSF in a given year (40k stipend, 8k in research + PD funds, 2k for an advisor). Apply!
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Hi! Are you looking for Sociology programs? Just wanted to check because you tagged this post with Geography, which is in a different forum.
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Hot changes every year or two. Do what you want to do. The job market is crud no matter what.
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On 10/28/2022 at 2:58 AM, Alex_123 said:
Thanks a lot for your answer! Yes, I've been trying to contact my main advisor, who wrote me a recommendation letter last year. But for some reason, I am not hearing any reply from her even after multiple attempts.. Should I start reaching out to other professor I used to know during MA program?
Yes, I'd reach out to the other professor. If the first one eventually responds, great, then you'll have two letters from your MA!
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Okay, dying to know if anyone else applied for this. I have seen zero threads about it on any website.
P.S. If you're in the humanities and social sciences and in your second or third year, check it out!
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Yes, this will raise a red flag. There's no way to have your main advisor for your MA write a LOR, and let 2 of your undergrad professors write the 2 other ones? You presumably did an MA thesis, which requires interaction with someone.
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CeXra's advice is good. One big thing that I just wanted to extra-emphasize is the importance of having people from your current program recommend you. I know many people who have changed PhD programs, and almost all of them had multiple faculty from their current program write letters. There are rare exceptions to this, but it will make your life a lot harder. Make sure that you and your letter writers are on the same page about your narrative about you leaving. It should not involve you criticizing your department, e.g., mentioning the bad instruction. It should be about the subfield changing, the useful things you've learned, and what additional things you want to learn from a department with more people in your subfield. Stay positive about your current department and frame it as looking for specific opportunities that these other schools can give you.
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This won't hurt you at all! They don't admit based on income whatsoever — grad students all get paid the same stipend/cost the same for the school, so being low income isn't a disadvantage or something to worry about.
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Magazine writer and investigative journalist here—Would I be a fool to use journalistic work as a writing sample?
in Sociology Forum
Posted · Edited by lkaitlyn
I know what I said isn't fun-sounding, but I'm not going to say do the easier one just because it's easier. The writing sample is one of the most important parts of the application. It's doubly important when you need to convince the committee you know how to do sociological work because your background is not in sociology. I think not using this opportunity to demonstrate proficiency in writing sociological work by adapting an existing piece and making it sociological or writing something new will hurt you. You can choose to ignore this advice — you may get into your favorite programs anyway, and it sounds from your response like you're pretty set on using existing work — but I think it will weaken your application. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide.