lkaitlyn

Happy to help if you DM me but don't want to give out my email. FWIW, please don't be hard on yourself if you didn't get in this cycle. Watching from the outside, this cycle looks ridiculously brutal for everyone.

The here and now absolutely matters. One should never go to a PhD program that they cannot afford. But whether or not the name of your school impresses random people you meet outside of the field you're being hired in shouldn't even be on the radar.

No offense, but if you're going to get a PhD so people think you sound "impressive" because of the prestige of your school, there's a much deeper issue there. Yes, though, the stipends are cushy there. But if your goal is R1 placement, forgo the cushy stipend to go somewhere livable but higher ranked than Yale.

The rankings are so out of date at this point that honestly it's a bit hard to know what is where. Things have shifted in the last 5 years, but U.S. News hasn't updated things since 2017 (based on a 2016 survey). Look at placement. That's a better indication of what's going on than what was happening in U.S. News five years ago. And don't focus on Ivy vs. not Ivy — what sports league a school is in has nothing to do with placement, and you'll find that at least half a dozen public schools (if not more) place better than Yale (and Cornell).

Not far enough along to truly answer the first question satisfactorily so you're going to need to ask people who have finished their degrees or are almost done. Re: the research — there are many people who do research around these topics. Keep in mind that there are really strict IRB requirements about how this research can be done, so you'll need to look into IRB guidelines around qualitative research if you plan to say anything about the project itself. Re: what motivates — it's different for different people. Generally some combination of intellectual curiosity and desire to do research/stay in academia.

I applied last year. Sorry for the confusion. Currently at UCI, hence knowing the info about this year's acceptances. (FWIW, last year I got email rejections from both Cornell — just Sociology — and UMich.)

I think UCI admits most of those they interview. (It's not a hard rule that I've heard of, and I'm sure there have been exceptions over the years, but the interview is really informal, and they don't have the staffing capacity to interview tons of people they aren't genuinely interested in.) In terms of whether or not interviews are required, all the extra recruitment funding at UCI requires that an interview be part of the admissions process, so I think they interview everyone; they really try to get everyone extra funding in normal years. Again, perhaps there have been random exceptions, but even someone in my cohort who got in super late had a phone call with the grad director before admission. (This person heard nothing until March, to my knowledge.)

Hey all. I saw someone ask a few pages back about UCI but no one responded so just to give an answer: at the faculty meeting a week or two ago, they said that they had extended 34 offers with the goal of getting a cohort of 11. They also said that there were serious cuts to recruitment funding, especially diversity-focused recruitment funding. (Everyone should still get the baseline funding package, though, thanks to our grad union — grad unions are awesome; this is specifically about one-time stipend top-ups.) If you've been admitted, congrats and feel free to reach out if you have questions! If you haven't heard, know that UCI has a history of ghosting people for a while rather than formally waitlisting, so hang in there for a little bit longer. ?

Was waiting for someone to start this thread! Applied for predoctoral; hoping to just get honorable mention or constructive reviews.

FYI, I had never taken a single sociology class before applying and wound up with nice funding at UCI, so it's really not a big deal. All my recommenders were from Gender Studies (maybe one English professor?). They don't care as long as you can articulate your research interests, fit with the department, and present strong recs.

I'm not sure the protocol for academic books in this regard. Your advisor should be able to help out.

MA programs normally don't have funding packages so honestly not sure how to answer this. For PhD offers, there's another thread where I wrote a long post on how I negotiated that you can check out, but just know that your leverage for MA negotiations is likely going to be far less than for PhD because they know most MA programs offer nothing.

They haven't done the rankings since 2017 so it's really anyone's guess at this point. Edit: That said, it's safe to assume the Top 10 includes Berkeley, UMich, and probably still Harvard/Princeton.

Rather than go into debt for an MA, find a school near you and email professors asking if they have a need for a volunteer research assistant. If you write a thoughtful (and brief) email and demonstrate the connection between your research interests and the professor's research, you should get someone to bite. Very few people in academia turn down free labor. You can also do internships at nonprofits that do research or similar organizations. While both of these options are likely unpaid, it's better than actively going into debt, which is what would happen with an MA. I'd certainly only recommend considering the MA path if you can find one that's fully funded, and there are very few that are funded.

If you can afford to apply to several schools and have the time to work on your apps leading up to the application cycle, applying to many programs can be a good thing given how competitive admissions can be. If you can devote time into all those applications, I say go for it. Right now, your list is at 12, which would be hard to do all in the fall but seems doable if you work on your materials over the spring/summer.

Glad it helped! Note that I was pretty lucky in how things worked out. Especially during COVID budget cuts, I'd imagine fellowship funding will be more scarce at different schools, including my own. But definitely at least try! There's no harm in asking for things, especially fellowship quarters, which are much easier for the school to give you with decreased undergraduate enrollment.

Absolutely negotiate. But wait until a bit later once you have all your offers in hand, as your best leverage will be other offers. I negotiated ~$33k extra money in total over the initial offer (so a touch over $5k/year), plus three fellowship quarters (a.k.a. three quarters with no teaching). My program is very open about negotiations being acceptable, so keep that in mind. First, "reasonable" is relative. The cost of living at my program is ridiculous. If the program is in the Bay Area, LA/Orange County, NYC, or Boston, you will need more money to live off of than if you go to OSU just for rent. The $19k (roughly) stipend I was offered at OSU was plenty to live off of; the $22k stipend I was offered at UCI was not. Research the cost of housing in the area so you know how much more you need in order to survive. I knew I needed roughly $2k extra per year in order to make it through the program given various medical expenses and the like, so that was my baseline. However, I also know that you don't want to start with your minimum — figure out something reasonable you can ask for that's a bit above what you'll settle for. So here's what happened: I had two extra offers to use to negotiate, both in programs in other related fields. I only wanted to negotiate with my top choice program, because if they give you what you ask for, you better commit. It doesn't look good to have them give you what you want and then turn down the offer. I kept my program informed about competing offers after getting in, including sending them the actual offer letters. I did this because they asked. If your program doesn't ask, I'd send the letters in a negotiation email later. When I knew I wanted my program, I sent a very nicely worded email discussing that I really wanted to attend the program, but had some concerns about the cost of living. I also brought up that in order to advance my research, I was concerned about having to teach every quarter. (Both of my other offers came with at least a semester of fellowship, one of them with two full years.) I asked for a year of fellowship quarters, including at least one of them in my first quarter at the school so I had time to adjust. I also asked for a $4k stipend top-off a year (or summer funding — I said I didn't care how it was labeled, as long as it didn't come with additional work). The school countered with the fellowship quarters I asked for and a $5k one-time stipend top-off. I sent a follow up thanking them and telling them I'd have to consider my options and whether or not that amount was doable. Then I waited. As you get closer to decision deadlines, programs get more desperate to have you. Two days before the final deadline, I followed up to ask if anything changed. They said they'd look into it. They countered with another $8k distributed over 2 years, bringing the offer to $13k total. I said thank you, and I'd see if that worked and hoped I'd be able to attend. The next get I got offered an additional $20k from the grad division. Who knows how that happened. Either way, before they took it back, I accepted the offer. So in summary, be super nice, explain that you really want to go, and gently mention something like cost of living that will be difficult. I also recommend asking for fellowship quarters if they aren't a default in your offer.

I want to echo this. I remember last year people posting Michigan weeks in advance of when decisions actually came out. Also note that schools do make decisions at different times. I thought I was rejected from the school I ended up attending because I got my interview notification roughly a week after tons of other people. Someone else in my cohort didn't find out she'd been admitted until after Welcome Weekend because of a tech glitch in the acceptance email! Until you get a rejection, you aren't rejected. ?

Following because I'm curious.

There's a whole committee that makes decisions so if you don't get in, I doubt it's anything you did wrong. Fingers crossed you get in, though!

Stan is on the grad admissions committee (not sure if I'm supposed to say that or not) and is such a sweet person. He's super supportive of his students so definitely a great person to talk with! Always feel free to message me if you have more questions.

SCHOOLS NOT ACCEPTING APPS RUNNING LIST (A-Z) Boston University: https://www.bu.edu/sociology/graduate-programs/admissions/ Brandeis University: email Brown University: https://www.brown.edu/academics/sociology/programs/phd Columbia University: https://sociology.columbia.edu/content/admissions-0 Northwestern: https://sociology.northwestern.edu/graduate/admissions/ Penn: https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/graduate-program Princeton: https://sociology.princeton.edu/graduate-program Temple: https://www.cla.temple.edu/sociology/ University of Arizona: https://sociology.arizona.edu/graduate/apply University of California - Berkeley: https://sociology.berkeley.edu/prospective-students University of California - Santa Barbara: https://www.soc.ucsb.edu/news-events/item/fall-2021-grad-admissions-deferred University of Colorado - Boulder: https://www.colorado.edu/sociology/apply#graduate_students-109 University of Maryland: https://socy.umd.edu/graduate/information-prospective-students UMass - Amherst: https://www.umass.edu/sociology/graduate/admissions University of Missouri: https://sociology.missouri.edu/grad/graduate-program University of Pittsburgh: https://www.asgraduate.pitt.edu/admissions Washington State University: https://soc.wsu.edu/graduate-program/prospective-graduate-students/applying-for-admission/ SCHOOLS REDUCING COHORTS NYU (1/2 normal size) University of California - Irvine (target size of 12 instead of 15) University of Minnesota (only admitting a few demographers)

Hey! First, don't worry too much about your stats — they care a lot about research experience and fit with faculty, regardless of your stats. My experience has been a bit all over the place, but overall, positive. The positives: I absolutely love my cohort. We literally do Zoom hangouts several times a week just to catch up or help each other with stats homework or share memes about one of our less than ideal professors. Even though we're socially distanced, we do things like on my birthday, someone from my cohort dropped off cupcakes outside my apartment, and people are always happy to help each other with fellowship applications. Everyone's research interests are so different but interesting, ranging from people looking at teen dating violence to the experiences of first-gen college students. I truly couldn't ask for a better, smarter, more interesting group of people. I also love my advisor, who was instantly willing to help with fellowship applications despite just meeting me, and most of my professors, who are super accessible and always willing to help. I was a bit concerned due to the size of UCI about support coming in, but the faculty are truly super connected with graduate students and will go out of their way to help you with things. I also love that the undergrad students we get to teach are 50% first-gen and we're a Hispanic Serving Institution, so you get to TA students who are truly motivated and have a host of different life experiences. (Trust me, this will make your time in grad school much better than it would be if you were TAing snobby rich kids who don't do the work; as a graduate from a school with lots of the latter, I'm so thankful I get to teach the UCI undergrads instead of the type of students I went to undergrad with.) As for the negative, we've been hemorrhaging gender studies faculty, and it's a big problem for me and the other gender-focused researchers in the program. Fingers crossed we hire someone new, but it's a big issue, so if you study gender, I'd caution you to wait to see if we hire another gender scholar. (We really have three right now — two plus one who kind of does some gender stuff, so if even just one leaves, it will be a problem.) Our first year theory course is also notoriously terrible; it's like some bizarre hazing experience from the department or uncomfortable rite of passage. The good news is with the quarter system, that's short, and grades don't matter in grad school. Another huge issue is we literally only have one Black faculty member in the department right now (Sabrina Strings, who is incredible), which is ridiculous. As someone who incorporates Black feminist theory into my work, that limits what I feel able to do, and I live in a constant state of fear that Sabrina will leave. The good news is we're hiring 1-2 faculty members this year, so hopefully some of these problems will be ameliorated a bit. So overall, despite Zoom, I do really love my program, but there are obviously things that need improvement. If you're looking for a really supportive, not-competitive atmosphere where mental health is truly valued and there are faculty spanning a ridiculously large number of research interests, UCI is a great place. We do well with placements and fellowship applications relative to ranking, such as someone getting TT at Wisconsin last year and several current NSF-GRFP fellows, so you'll have plenty of opportunities that you'd get at one of the top 10 programs. If you're super focused on feminist theory and want to be in a department where there are lots of faculty who can advise you on that, we might not be the best fit right now. I see that you're interested in immigration and inequality, and those are definitely topics our department is fantastic in (immigration in particular). Feel free to ask more questions if you have any! Also always happy to recommend faculty to people if you're looking for who might be a good advisor.

Going to answer here too so people can see: UCI has historically done this. You meet with a professor (generally one that you mentioned you wanted to work with, and in my case, turned into my advisor!). It's very chill. Mine actually hadn't read my application due to VPN issues (oops), but normally they do before the interview. The interview ranged from discussing my research interests to comparing pets. My impression of the interviews is that it's really just seeing if you mesh well with people, not a super serious weeding out process. Honestly I think it was helpful, because I learned I'd feel comfortable working with this person and asking them questions. Also interviewed for a gender studies program. That was more formal — it was me and then the grad director, my potential advisor, and another person, which to me felt a bit more intimidating. They were nice but I was more nervous about it and they asked more "real" questions (like, "tell us about a time when you got into a conflict with someone; how did you resolve it?" and stuff like that). I got into this program as well, but the interview was a bit more intimidating just because of the number of people than with UCI. So TL;DR: it really depends on the program! Make sure that you think of questions to ask about the program and just be open and honest about your interests and it will be fine. If you interview with a potential advisor and the conversation feels awkward, that's something to take seriously when you're deciding where to attend, because if you're going to work with this person for at least your first couple years (if not longer), you want to be able to talk to them comfortably.

UCI has historically done that! The interview was very chill (though perhaps that's a function of the professor I talked to?). Mainly just asking about my research interests, etc.