lkaitlyn

Hey! There's an entire Sociology forum on the site under Social Sciences. I recommend posting in there on the Fall 2020 Venting thread.

Question to everyone: one school wants me to commit to the open house before I hear back from four schools releasing the second week of February. What's the appropriate thing to do? Commit to the open house and back out if another program I care about more conflicts, ask for a deadline extension ... ? Or does anyone know the visit dates for some of the schools releasing mid-February? I don't expect to get into any of them but hey, you never know.

Congrats! See? Never give up hope! Out of curiosity, what did you ask the POI to elicit the admissions decision?

Agreeing with everything said above. I will add that if you’re interested in programs in Canada and perhaps some other countries, you do need a MA. For programs in the US, you can look at the CVs for their grad students and see who had a MA. It might be random but it does vary a bit from program to program.

I haven’t heard anything. I imagine if Michigan Soc were out, we’d have a lot of data from people on the Results page. And Mich tends to send acceptances and rejections at the same time for Soc.

Wait just saw in your signature UMich (as green/accepted)! Was that Soc? Either way, congrats!

Maybe this is because the site was crashing, but Berkeley people, please post on the results page! Three is a small number, and I need it to hit home that I need to let Berkeley go/accept the implied rejection. (Also, you should be celebrating! ♥️)

I love you all but if anyone here is posting on the Results page about UCLA asking when it will come out, please ask questions in the forums (here!) instead. It's giving me a heart attack to see UCLA on the Results page when people are actually just asking a question meant for the forums. ♥️ But in answer to that question, it seems like no one has heard. Enough of us have applied that I'd imagine someone would post in the Results area if they got accepted!

Congrats to the Berkeley admits!

Yeah. We obviously have schools we're more likely to get into than others but in undergrad admissions, safety schools are schools you have a 95% chance of getting into (and I help kids apply to college so I'm used to that terminology). I wouldn't say that about any program that I want to fund me, but if that's what people mean, fine. It was just confusing.

Just because something isn't first in the (very subjective) rankings doesn't mean it's not a great program. I still maintain that anyone who calls a program safe doesn't realize the importance of fit and having a genuine interest in what the program has to offer, just like the people who apply to programs that are ranked highly just because of the ranking. What's the point of applying somewhere if it couldn't genuinely support you and make you happy? Or if you don't even know who you might want to work with there? I really don't understand. Also, what I've gathered in my years of lurking, including this year, is that there are many amazing applicants and fewer funded spots that exist in comparison. And so much of it is totally outside of our control. It's easier to think we can control the process or predict the outcome than accept we might be good enough, smart enough, interesting enough — but not get in because X faculty member doesn't have room for new students, or the committee was feeling grumpy when they happened to discuss your app, or someone with a slightly better fit just so happened to apply the same year, or something else random. You're all worth it, and those fortunate enough to have acceptances can and should be proud of anywhere they get in! It's a huge accomplishment.

"Safety" is all relative, and arguably does not exist for funded programs. Personally I think calling anything "safe" is a bit much, but that's just me.

I'm being driven crazy but the lack of Berkeley news, too.

I'm going to ditto this. It's about fit, and if a so-called "safety school" senses that you're not actually interested or not a fit for the department, they'll turn you down. And a lot of people tend to unconsciously or consciously put a lot less effort into apps for schools they assume they'll get into. (Not criticizing — it's a human thing to do!) If UMich is your best fit and your U of Delaware app (I almost applied there — not throwing shade!) doesn't make it clear that you'd really want to be there and have really thought about the connection between your interests and faculty interests, I'd put my money on you getting into UMich over Delaware. Just my two cents.

Thank you! Rooting for you. At least in Sociology, the interviews were totally informal — they'd already made admissions decisions — so I certainly would take it seriously, but not stress! I'm literally responding to this thread in the middle of a class. I'm so distracted, it's ridiculous.

I'm an undergrad so I'm enrolled somewhere, but all classes of consisted of for me the past few weeks is scrolling through GradCafe.

Phone rings with Bay Area zip code Me: *frantically answers with excitement and shock, wondering what school it is* Person on phone: “Hello, this is Daly City Toyota.” ?

I mean I think the other link is that these schools are all super difficult! Maybe varying where things are in the rankings might help, even if just a little, if you do go another cycle? Your profile sounds super strong but these schools are so subjective, so having slightly easier to get into schools you love and could thrive at might be helpful. But rooting for you with the remaining! I’m waiting on Berkeley and Michigan too. ?

Historically the equivalent of this week (eek!).

Hey, don't give up hope yet. You applied to some crazy difficult schools where admissions is ridiculously subjective and worthy applicants are rejected all the time. I know many incredibly brilliant grad students who didn't get into Wisconsin or Chicago or UNC, so it's really not a reflection on your worth as a scholar. And as @PoliticalSociology said, many people end up having a bad round of applications due to bad luck and applying the next year or the year after and getting into tons of schools (including schools that previously rejected them — I know someone who got rejected from Berkeley, applied the next year, and then got in). But I still think there's hope, because as I said, the schools you listed as rejections are some of the ones that turn down the most qualified applicants of any schools in the country. If I had applied to Chicago/UNC/Wisconsin/Vandy/etc., I'd be sitting on 6 rejections too!

Congrats! Same. Did it have funding info? Mine didn’t say anything about funding.

Re: UCLA: in past years, it has been the equivalent of the end of this week (eek). Fingers crossed.

I didn't, personally, but I know many do!

Stanford emailed applicants and told us they were trying to release decisions the second week of February, so I doubt they’d come out this week.

I almost wish there was a single day when all decisions came out, but then I'd probably be even more nervous for that, so I'm not sure if that would help anything.