Help please!!
Program: PhD in Sociology (but also a few odd masters programs)
A very preliminary list of schools I'm interested in (in no particular order): UW-Madison, Princeton, Columbia, UC-Berkeley, University of Michigan, UT-Austin, Harvard, LSE (for their Taught MSc in Sociology/Gender & Social Policy), UChicago's MAPSS program
Expectations/what I'm looking for: Programs with strong poverty/gender/family focuses
Interests: Big topics include Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Race, and Class, Education, Social Policy. More specifically I'm interested in the feminization of poverty. Most specifically, I hope to research the impact of welfare work requirements on parents' ability to engage with their children's education.
Undergraduate Institution: UW-Madison
Undergraduate Major/Degree: Sociology with certificates (minors) in Gender & Women's Studies and Education Policy Studies (Graduated with distinction)
Other undergraduate notes: member of Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Kappa Delta, public service intership scholarship, attended school on full tuition music scholarship, member of UW Symphony Orchestra
Graduate GPA: 3.93/4.0 overall, 4.0 within my major/certificates
GRE estimates courtesy of Magoosh: V 167/ Q 157, hoping to get quant up to 160 and get as close to 170 as I can for verbal
Age: 22
Languages: English
Work/Research Experience:
> Currently working as a digital political consultant.
> Previous work experience: City Year Executive Office internship, worked in the district office of my Congresswoman
> Research experience: Student researcher with a policy analysis lab during my senior year, involved in a planning grant for a center for reproductive health research, have completed multiple research projects and presented to the WI Department of Public Instruction on my proposed research focus (impact of welfare work requirements on parental school engagement)
SoP: Finally finished a full draft and have sent it out to a few professors to look over.
Concerns: I don't have a ton of research experience compared to others, but I have a really high undergraduate GPA, will hopefully get above average GRE scores (very confident I'll get a high verbal score), have a research focus I've already explored extensively through classes, and have good relationships with professors writing my letters. I've convinced myself that those offset each other well enough to be competitive, but I'm looking for more opinions. I'm also planning on looking for a research-focused/policy-oriented job in late 2018, early enough to put it on my CV for applications - this is partially for personal reasons but also because I think it'd be a good resume booster.
I'm also torn over what to submit as a writing sample. I believe my best work is an extensive research paper on the history of segregation in Milwaukee's public school system. It was for a history/education policy studies class, so it's obviously not sociological; however, it relates to the area I want to focus on within sociology and certainly shows my writing and critical thinking abilities. I have several papers from soc classes that I'd be comfortable submitting as a sample as well, but I'm not nearly as excited about those.
Any thoughts/suggestions/other schools I should look at would be appreciated!
