lkaitlyn

Listen to your supervisor! (Sidenote, but that's the key to grad school, it turns out.) Personally, I like doing more empirical projects and yours sounds very theory-heavy at first. Is that what you're supposed to do, or is the thesis supposed to be empirical? Either way, I encourage you to simplify language when trying to describe your research so you fully understand what it is that you're doing. You mention maybe doing a content analysis of media portrayals of homelessness, which sounds super interesting to me and is empirical research. I'd sort out whether you're looking at how the pandemic has affected homelessness portrayals in the media (sidenote: pick a country, because it will be too complicated cross-nationally; also figure out how you're going to define "media" and which sources you'll use) or how the media portrays homelessness generally ... but not both. Also figure out what you'd look at within media (photographs? writing? article titles? videos?). One problem is I'm not sure how you'll show a causal connection between the media and changes in public stigma around homelessness. I think maybe rather than focus on how the media has changed stigma, focus on how the media does or does not stigmatize homelessness (and talk about hypotheses you have about how that might translate to real life), but be careful not to make a causal argument you can't support with your data. Your advisor should be able to help you sort out what you can and can't prove.

I'm not sure what programs you saw formally require stats. When I applied in 2020, that wasn't required for any of the T25 programs, though it's obviously, like taking previous sociology classes, a good idea. Some ways you can demonstrate stats competency: take a stats class and get a solid grade, nail the quant part of the GRE (not as good as the other options here), show a sample of your research that has (correctly) used statistics. Since it sounds like you can't do that third option, I'd focus on taking a stats course (even a short one — you can then update them on your grade in December) and nail the GRE. If you can't afford to take a course at a local community college or something similar, see if you can find something self-paced online that's meant to be a semester that you can get a completion certificate or grade for.

IMO it's worth joining ASA for the purpose of getting access to their resources, e.g. journals list, job postings, directory, listservs. Seeing the current jobs can help give you a sense of where the field is going, whether your target schools are hiring in a particular area of interest, and what schools are looking for in candidates (namely, what they look for in terms of commitments to diversity, etc.). You can echo these things in your SOP as long as it doesn't sound forced. I doubt joining affects admissions directly though.

This sounds great! Maybe check to see if Rachel Goldberg does anything relevant? Her work is about youth/life course/health, so I imagine technology might come in there.

YMMV, but if I were applying again, I'd showcase anything that involved original research, and maybe condense the lit review down as background. Have others weigh in, though! (And obviously check through the FAQs on school websites to see if schools have their own preferences.)

For migration-related things, I always recommend UC Irvine. It's not my specific subfield but immigration/migration is our main thing. We also have at least a few people who do political economy-type things in conjunction with the political science department (lots of faculty overlap).

Look up the Classical Theory course syllabi for the T20 programs and you should get several reading lists that will interest you. You can also look up Contemporary Theory syllabi if you want to branch out more. In addition to the authors you listed, in my institution theory courses and education-related courses we also read Weber, Marx, Du Bois, Bruce Western, Erving Goffman, Ragin, Collins, Foucault, Metz, Penner, Parsons, and Khan. For keeping up with the field generally, I recommend reading articles in the top sociology journals: ASR, AJS, Social Forces, and Social Problems.

I did this two different ways over two different years (was going to apply in 2019, but ended up going on last minute medical leave after emailing professors). First year, I had a 10% response rate. Second year, my response rate was 75%. Here's an example of one of mine from the year I got 75% responses, which is the format I used for every email (names redacted): ---- "Dear Professor X, I am a rising senior at SCHOOL studying Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and I am applying to Sociology Ph.D. programs this fall. I read your article, "ARTICLE NAME," when I was conducting research on RELATED TOPIC. I was particularly appreciative of your attention to SOMETHING IN THE ARTICLE. Your work appears to intersect with my research interests; I plan on studying MY TOPIC IN HALF A SENTENCE PORTRAYED IN A WAY THAT INTERSECTS WITH THE PROFESSOR'S INTERESTS. I know you are probably busy, but after reading about your work, I wanted to ask if you will be taking on new graduate students for Fall 2020. Thank you so much for your time. Best, MY NAME MY SCHOOL Class of 2020 email address P.S. I have attached my CV for your convenience." ---- That's it! The trick is to keep it short, and email one professor at each school instead of several (unless the first doesn't respond in a month, in which case change up the email format before emailing the second one). My first year emailing, my emails were maybe double this length with longer paragraphs on the professor's research, my research, etc., and the response rate was much lower. I also tried asking research-related questions, which could make me sound like an idiot much more easily, though feel free to go that route if you know what you're doing. Most responses I got included something like, "We don't admit by advisor" (which I knew), but many included invitations to do a Zoom or phone call, questions about my research, and other valuable information on whether or not the professor was leaving or overloaded with advisees. Also, I recommend emailing on a Tuesday or Wednesday during business hours at the professor's institution, preferably sometime in the morning, so it doesn't get lost in the weekend email backlog. If you have a .edu email, that is more likely to make it past spam filters. Attaching the CV is optional — if you do it, attach it as a PDF so virus scanners have an easier time okaying it, and make sure it is formatted nicely like the CVs of current grad students at the institution.

From what I know, there is no school where you will be able to comfortably live with 3 people on solely a TA or RA salary, especially with one of those people being a kid. (Kids are expensive!) Frankly, it's very hard in many less-rural places in the U.S. now to live comfortably with only one member of a household working, though obviously many do it. Since you're in a situation in which it sounds like you have another adult in the house, if they are able to work, that would significantly help the situation. On the bright side, many schools will allow you to have a spouse and child on the grad student health insurance, so make sure you look into that when deciding between places. Some schools also have housing for graduate students and their families that is cheaper than normal area housing.

Not applying this cycle, but wanted to wish everyone good luck! Always feel free to reach out if you have questions about the app process or want someone to scan over an SOP or something. Also happy to answer questions about NSF or UCI. ❤️

As of 2020 (so not sure if it exists right now), UMass Boston had one, as did UNC Charlotte? MAs in Canada are also funded normally to some extent, as their PhD programs are designed to be post-MA rather than including an MA component like in the U.S. Funded MAs will have similar competition to PhD programs because of the funding, unfortunately. Plus you'll have to redo the MA when you go to a PhD program after. I highly encourage applying to research-related jobs as a backup. That way, you get relevant experience without going into debt. If you are dead set on the MA, look at your local state school to see if they have an MA that's affordable.

I really discourage doing an MA unless it's funded, so if you want to get a PhD later, my advice is just wait and apply in 1-2 years and get some research experience in the meantime. (If you don't plan on getting a PhD, the MA serves no purpose whatsoever, so don't bother.) The online MA programs are also particularly not well suited to give you relevant research experience that would actually help your PhD applications.

All of those have Sociology programs that should be able to support your interests. That said, I'd encourage looking into Gender Studies at UCLA, and the joint program at UMich (but your main program would still be Sociology). For the purpose of employment, I'd probably do Sociology at Santa Barbara, but their Gender Studies program is great, too. Edit: Oh, also, I think Wisconsin has a funded MA program in Gender Studies. You could look into that, too, if Wisconsin allows you to apply to it along with the Sociology PhD program.

If you want to talk to a grad student, feel free to DM me. I was a non-sociology major who applied a couple cycles ago and am happy to help answer any questions you have!

Re: programs that fit your interests: UC Berkeley (if you want to do qualitative methods) UCLA UMich (basically does everything) UC Santa Barbara Wisconsin University of Helsinki (if you're open to things out of the country) You might also want to reach out to Radzhana Buyantueva and Emil Edenborg, two scholars who works a lot in the area of homophobia in Russia. They're not based in the U.S. but they might have suggestions for schools you should look at.

I got it in my first year so I'm using it year 2, 4, and 5 of my PhD. But if you'd otherwise be teaching in fall of your first year, I'd personally recommend using it first year. You want a semester/quarter to adjust to grad school without having to teach.

In answer to this (and as info for future applicants who have the same question): NSF uses z-scores to standardize the numerical scores that reviewers give applicants (which you don't get to see) — basically, if you get a reviewer who was harsh with everyone they reviewed, it adjusts for that, and likewise adjusts for if you got a reviewer who gave everyone high scores. This process is still a total crapshoot but the TL;DR is that the E/VG/G thing masks a numerical score, and that numerical score is further adjusted after the conclusion of the reviewing process. Also keep in mind that they try to award proportionally to broader subfields (social sciences, etc.) based on applicant volume in each subfield, so you might have just wound up in an unusually strong subfield pool.

Not my cycle but I noticed no one replied to this. Personally, I waited until the last minute (okay, more like 2 days before) to accept the offer I wanted because the school was known for throwing a lot of money at people at the last minute to try to get them to go. I did, however, turn down offers I knew I wasn't going to take as soon as I knew I wasn't going so they could offer to people on the waitlist. I didn't tell the school whose offer I was going to accept that I'd turned down other offers, though, or else they'd have no incentive to offer more money. ?

This is a Sociology forum.

DM me for mine. Also happy to share reviewer comments. The lack of sociology ones is tremendously frustrating. I also found people willing to share via email from the winner list, and used the psych examples online as a guide too.

Monday, March 22, ~11:30pm Eastern was when the list came out online; the email notification that I got was the next day ~8am Eastern.

Posted earlier in the thread. The committee met on Friday. It likely takes time after that to get grad school approval for admission (or interviews), and people were on holiday yesterday.

I don't know, unfortunately. It might be end of January depending on whether or not they interview and how long it takes the graduate division to respond.

FYI, UCI is discussing grad applications this Friday. Last I heard, they're aiming for a cohort of ~10 (smaller than normal).

If you score well on it, that will only help you, so I see no reason not to take a pass at it, and if you don't score well, just don't send it. But I wouldn't spend time and energy studying for it until programs decide to bring it back (which they might for next year).