awesome3141
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Posts posted by awesome3141
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5 hours ago, Xyz2022 said:
Hi everyone. Reporting my current situation for my PhD application this year circle! Ha!
- Simon Fraser University (Accepted)
- University of Michigan (strong REJECTION)
- University of Alberta (Rejection)
- University of Washington (confused REJECTION)
- UT Dallas (Waitlisted)
- Georgia Tech (Waiting for Rejection)
- Monash University (Accepted)
- UTS Sydney (Accepted)
- University of Minnesota (Accepted)
- Northeastern University (Still waiting)
Not sure if I want to go claiming the acceptance this circle.
I am thinking to try for applying again next year to
- Cornell (wish I applied in 2022 circle)
- University of Washington
- NYU
- UPenn
- CMU (wish I applied in 2022 circle)
What are your interests?Without knowing your interests, I would probably recommend you take the Minnesota offer. Minnesota is a very good program, is well-respected, and has good placement- people that go to Minnesota can place anywhere if they do the right things.As someone that got in to Minnesota and Washington this year- I wouldn't waste a second year trying to get in to Washington. Their stipend is TINY, despite having a very high cost of living. In my opinion, I'm not sure people can actually afford to attend Washington without having to find other financial means. Additionally, in my experience, Minnesota is way better respected than Washington in Sociology, despite the fact Washington ranks a little higher right now.Cornell, NYU and UPenn are all better schools than Minnesota but they are also all very hard to get into. Cornell's acceptance rate hovers around 10%, NYU's is closer to 3%. IDK what Upenn's is but I'm sure it's no higher than 10%. You might get in to one if you applied, but just because of how competitive they are there's a very good chance you just don't get into any. And other schools you got in to this year (e.g. Minnesota) will be hesitant to give you a second offer if you don't take the first.I don't know anything about CMU. -
1 hour ago, Fatkiller said:
It's indeed a huge achievement! Congratulations!
As much as I love the inspiration, I think I have to ask (or say) something that might sound harsh, and actually this is also something that I'd love to hear your perspectives on.
What are your strategies to participate in the research projects? And a follow-up question: to what extent do you think your strategies (for research opportunities, PhD applications, etc.) are applicable for other applicants?
In my opinion (and I can be totally wrong), your status as an American citizen (I suppose) contributes much to your achievements. For instance, international students/applicants for sociology PhD programs have much fewer opportunities (e.g, for research opportunities) than you do because of visa/working restrictions. That is, for those international students who share similar background with you, they may not have such opportunities at all even if they want to do something to strengthen themselves or to prove they are competitive enough for a PhD program or a job position in a research team. Please forgive me for the extreme language - I was trying to draft an example.
The reason why I ask the questions and comment on the status is that I have many fellow amazing international students who are studying sociology and want to do more research. I worked with many of them and they are really brilliant in their distinct fields. But just because they are international students, they lose many opportunities - primarily in job market or application. In addition to other prevailing forms of discrimination (racism, sexism, meritocracy [about ses, GPA, ed background, GRE, etc.], etc.), I start to think the biases (either as causes or results) towards international students really hinder their potential development as a researcher. They can work, study, or do research in their own countries indeed, but I think sociology is a sort of "meritocratic" domain itself, especially for the US academia (reference: https://scatter.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/who-hires-whom/). If one ought to dedicate to sociological research, PhD programs/research positions in the US will probably be their top, if not only, choices. So, just for the sake of applications or the so-called "background boost", I would love to hear about your strategies to get start with research jobs/work and opinions on international students/applicants.
Again, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your efforts and inspiration for us and am genuinely happy for you. It's just I can relate to many international students who express these concerns and want to know whether there is a way for them to chase their dreams.
Thanks for your reply.
First off, I'd like to note that the majority of my comment was not meant as advice so much as just a description of my experience. I stand by my one piece of general advice which is that I encourage potential applicants to try and get research experience if they can.There are a ton of barriers that structurally disadvantage international students in academia, I absolutely agree.My research experiences all started from either cold emails or as referrals from professors that know me from cold emails. I actually didn't benefit at all from experiences/knowing people at my undergraduate institution. I have pretty specific interests in sociology and in order to find people to work with, I literally had to cold email people that had no clue who I was at various institutions I had absolutely no relationship or affiliation to. I sent 10-15 cold emails right after I graduated undergrad. I've found that many professors are actually pretty receptive to wanting voluntary research help! That's another thing to note, is I have been not paid whatsoever for helping professors. The understanding is the experience is mutually beneficial, as the professor gets help with a project and I get the experience of conducting research out of it. I've been "working" with about 5 professors for 2 years. The funny thing is because it's all virtual, I have not met a single one in person! My main point here is that I didn't directly benefit from institutional affiliation, job options, pay for labor, or geographical location at all in my research collaborations.I can't give an expectation to if other people will have the same success as myself if they try this strategy. I fully acknowledge I benefit from certain privileges given I am a domestic student. I will just broadly state that I got my opportunities from cold emails to total strangers- I hope others are able to try and be successful at this strategy. My general advice for cold emailing is: 1. pick a researcher whose work fits what you can already do (as much as research can be a learning experience, professors are more likely to go along with letting you work with them if you can already do much of the skill they need). 2. don't pick anyone that's too famous. (really well know professors will not respond to your email). 3. look for less famous coauthors of really famous people (oftentimes these people are doing the exact same research but because they are not famous they have no students to work with and are more open to cold emails). 4. Say that you want to go to grad school. (if professors know you want to go to grad school, they'll better understand why you want to work with them and are more motivated to give you a worthwhile experience)Anyone can message me if they want proofreading or more specific help/advice on cold emailing professors.- yugi666, deadinside, RDaneelOlivaw and 1 other
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21 hours ago, CinnamonCream said:
If you would like, could you please share with us what you did in between two cycles that you think better prepared you and increased your chances? That is an impressive record.
100% research experience. I don't have anything else going for me. But I am a very motivated person and I really enjoy research and I think it's what I am best at. Beyond that though, quantitative research is where sociology is increasingly moving towards, despite in my opinion not nearly enough sociology undergraduate students being strong quantitatively. Computational/big data sociology is an even more increasingly popular component of sociology, despite only a very small number of sociology undergraduate students having computational/programming skills. So I think just by being a quantitative/computational researcher, I have a bit of an admissions advantage.
I in general just have a ton of research experience. I'm barely not in poverty and have worked a menial hourly job for the last two years but have worked my butt off research-wise and used all my free time to work virtually with a bunch of different professors. As I've gained more skills/methodological experience, professors have networked me in with other professors and I've worked with some top-notch sociologists (multiple NAS members). I have a ton of varied serious research experience on my CV. I also have multiple very high-impact publications (articles in Science and PNAS). I would say I probably had very good LORs (but IDK because I haven't seen them), because I've worked with well-known profs and they really respect and care about me. But my SOP was definitely absolute garbage, and besides finding and replacing school names was not at all customized to any school I applied to. I didn't even adhere to word/page limits in most cases, or follow prompts at all. I did explicitly state my research experiences and articulate my intended future plans though.My advice for anyone thinking about a Sociology PhD is to try doing serious research. Most undergraduate research opportunities are drudgery. See if you can have a serious role in collaborating with a professor and if you can publish with them. If you enjoy the experience, great- you should go to grad school! Because that's basically ALL grad school is about, people don't care about test scores or how well you do in classes then. If you don't like doing research, you should 100% not go to grad school, because you're not going to enjoy it, and you're taking someone's spot that would. I'm a huge proponent of social justice, but just because you like social justice, doesn't mean a sociology PhD is for you. IMO, a Sociology PhD is for people that are proponents of social justice AND want to use research as the vehicle to support it.An additional note for low-GPA applicants. I'm straight out of undergrad and have a sub 3.0 cumulative GPA. I applied to three schools that had STRICT 3.0 GPA cutoffs for their graduate school admissions and I got in to two of them! So I would encourage most people to ignore those policies, either they're not totally enforced or there are steps the admissions committee can take to get around them for applicants they really want. -
7 hours ago, Klutch2381 said:
Cycle is definitely winding down. There’s only a few schools I haven’t heard from and they’re places I don’t expect to get in at (e.g., Cornell). I received HELLA rejections, a couple acceptances, and a waitlist. I’ve been fortunate overall. If you haven’t gotten in anywhere — don’t despair too heartily. There’s still a chance you get in somewhere this cycle. I was told by schools like Washington (Seattle) that they will most likely dip back in to their applicant pool, which is why they haven’t sent out rejections, yet. Even if you don’t get in this cycle… keep going. Do what you can that’s feasible to bolster your profile for next cycle. A lot of people are second or third time applicants. Hell, I’m a second time applicant. It’s a brutal process that has a way of making you feel utterly inadequate, but it is ultimately one that I will see you on the other side of.
The cycle is certainly winding down! What is up with Princeton and Cornell? They both are pushing it in my opinion.
It has been a tough cycle overall. I've heard that the number of admitted students is down still significantly from COVID. There's also apparently a growing number of applications. I encourage people to try again though. There's no shame. I am in my second cycle and utterly failed my first time- I was like 0 for 15 when I tried two years ago. So far this year I'm at 8a/1w/6r and I only applied to top 25s! My undergrad GPA is also a 2.9 cumulative due to some personal challenges I had in undergraduate. A lot of people, especially professors, have made me feel horrible about myself because of my bad undergraduate performance. I've had terrible self-confidence and depression in large part because of it. I worked for years to try and prove myself. I truly feel on top of the world finally getting into schools this year. To those of you that didn't get in this year, if you really want it, do not give up!- Klutch2381, deadinside and CinnamonCream
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7 minutes ago, Beeman said:
I know we’ve talked about ranking here, but how much does minor differences in rank matter. Like if you were accepted to a rank 16 and a rank 25 - is that substantial enough that the rank 16 should be your decision? (If you can’t tell I’m struggling)
If you feel comfortable, could you share the names of the two schools you are deciding between, what your area(s) of interest is/are, and what your long term career plans are.
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Are all Harvard acceptances out? Saw one acceptance and waitlist in results. It seems like more should be posted in results if they released them all, but I also don't feel like they split acceptances up temporally.
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7 minutes ago, patientlywaiting86 said:
Anyone heard anything about the harvard gse Ed. LD interviews?
This is a sociology thread.
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8 minutes ago, Klutch2381 said:
Got my first acceptance. It’s quite the relief. Now, I’m not feeling like I’m going into my interview with an all or nothing game seven energy lingering over me. With that being said, pleaseeeee Michigan. Pleassseeeee. I’ve been trying to go to UM for 11 years. Lol
I'm waiting on UM as well. I'm a little bit freaked out to see their acceptance rate last year was THREE percent.
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2 hours ago, wzzzzzz said:
Not that I'm worried about getting called by them, but why calls lol.
Probably because they are an elitist institution and want to set themselves apart from other schools by better dramatizing offers of admission.
That being said, I'm personally hoping they are doing another day of calls (only 1 person posted an acceptance) and that I still have some small chance of getting in. -
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Hello! I'm sorry to hear that this cycle's been tough so far. I think a lot of us empathize with that.My general advice to anyone is to not do something just because your family/parents want you to do it. It is inevitable to value their opinion but don't give so much weight to it that is significantly alters your life plans from what you would desire yourself.That being said, I would really recommend accepting the offer and not re-applying. If it's really a good program and you would enjoy being there, why not take it? PhD admissions are increasingly competitive and having the mentality that you should wait another year because you can do better is dangerous. For one thing, few PhD students actually go to their dream dream school (the school they would go to in a perfect world with infinite possibilities). It's easy once you get an acceptance, to say well how much better can I do? But the tradeoff of waiting and taking another chance is very risky and really not worth it. PhD admissions have a high degree of randomness and if these two public schools are really top-tier, your admittance is going to be far from certain, no matter how spectacular your application is. It's really a huge risk. Your post is somewhat vague about it, but if you were already rejected from your two dream schools, I would really really really not recommend applying again. Unless, something radical happens before next admissions cycle, they're going to feel the same way about you next year as they did this year. While admissions committees generally change year to year, the DGS has the most influence on admissions and they mostly stay the same year to year.If you turn down this schools' offer to you, it's going to be difficult to get another offer from that program. Students that turn down PhD offers are less likely to get a second offer from that program.Frankly, your likelihood of getting accepted into any program I think is reduced because you are already a PhD student elsewhere. This is generally a red flag for admissions committee and unless you have transparently exceptional circumstances, I think might limit where you can get in. I've only known two people that have transferred between PhD programs and in both cases they went to a far lower ranked program because of better fit. And by far lower, I mean they were students at a top 10 sociology PhD program and went to 30-50th ranked schools.The limitation of all this advice is of course that I don't know the full details of your personal circumstances. I also don't know what any of the schools that you're referring to are, so am making assumptions there too.Tl:dr my advice is take the offer, but not just because your dad said to. If you already got rejected from these two programs this year (which it sounds like you did) I would really really recommend not applying again and suggest you just take the current offer.
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18 minutes ago, Beeman said:
One of those! I decided to try and not apply to too many "super competitive" (in quotes because I think we all have different metrics) schools, which may seem counterintuitive to some. I applied to 6 schools in the top 20 and for my other 9 I tried to vary throughout the rankings (granted rankings change and are often not reflective of the current things happening in a department). I've been lucky to get contacted by a majority regardless! I feel very privileged in this process compared to the Fall 2020 admission cycle when it seemed like everything was going wrong
That's a good strategy and similar to mine. My mentor who is just starting as junior faculty at R1 school told me to draw a line at top 25 by usnews standards if I want to go into academia given the current job market. He said anything below top 25 and R1 is virtually impossible and tenure track anywhere would not even be a guarantee. He said that I should go to the highest ranked school I possibly could. I can't say I totally agree, but I deferred to his judgement and applied to 17 schools (thank god for fee waivers) all in the top 25, with most of those 17 concentrated towards the bottom of the top 25 since I don't want to waste time on rejections. I'm still waiting to hear back on 6 programs but have gotten in to 1 top 10 program so far. I'm having an existential crisis though because I feel like that top 10 program is actually a really bad fit though and several of the lower ranked programs I got into seem like a much better fit. I feel like my mentor will push me to take the top 10 program offer though. I'm grateful to have gotten in anywhere considering how difficult this season is, but starting to think about making decisions now is extremely nerve racking.
Tangential- but this is a really interesting analysis on programs and placement in sociology: https://scatter.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/who-hires-whom/- Hebe, wzzzzzz, CinnamonCream and 1 other
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5 hours ago, RDaneelOlivaw said:
So, based on ongoing observations, how does this cycle compare to last year / pre-pandemic in terms of competition?
A professor on admissions committee at top program tweeted that "the pool was RIDICULOUSLY strong this year" and that she had heard the same elsewhere. Her guess was that "this is mostly a temporary effect of pent-up demand"
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Sorry to hear about the rejection! First off though, keep the hope up though! You've only been rejected by one program. There's so much randomness in the application process, one rejection doesn't signal much.
I'd additionally note that based on what I've heard from professors, this application season is possibly one of the most competitive of all time! Most programs are seeing huge increases in the number and quality of applications.
Overall, your profile looks great! The unfortunate truth though is that publications/fruitful research is by far the most valuable quality for applying to PhD programs. An applicant can literally have a garbage application otherwise but have significant research and they will get accepted. In your case, since you have an MA, admissions committees may be concerned that you don't have any published research, since going to graduate school already you have had more opportunities to engage in serious research. Many grad programs really really value students having a clear research trajectory before they apply. It's a weird truth that helps some applicants and hurts others. PhD programs are ultimately mainly about research, so students that do have done research before applying are more likely to be a better fit for getting a PhD. Students that haven't gotten research experience beforehand may ultimately not enjoy PhD programs and leave the program. Almost all applicants increasingly have some research experience (often in some drudgery role), so admission is increasingly about who has the most research experience, who has had the most serious roles, and whose research has already resulted in papers and how high impact were those papers.
If you don't get in this year, I would recommend trying to publish a paper or working with some professors on a research project where you have a serious role.
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2 hours ago, Beeman said:
Only three schools left that I haven’t heard from regarding interviews, acceptances, or rejections. Starting to finally feel like I can relax, phew?
I'm guessing those schools are some subset of Princeton, Harvard, Michigan and Northwestern...
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13 minutes ago, MadnessPink said:
OK, I was just rejected by Berkeley, totally fine. Still waiting for Michigan, since other PhDs that I applied to are not that fit for my research topics, otherwise I'll probably go to regional studies or quantitative methodology masters.
What are your areas of interest?
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1 minute ago, islandpoppy said:
Hi everyone, hoping I can get some answers here
I had my interview with Penn State 2 weeks ago. It went really well and my POI emailed me a few days after saying they were nominating me for acceptance (yay!). I didn't hear from the program or the university until today when they sent out an invitation for a virtual recruitment event.
I'm not sure how to approach the event. There was no mention of interviews, but they did say we have the opportunity to meet with faculty 1:1. Thinking of reaching out to faculty I haven't already spoken to, so I can get to know other professors. How much preparation should I put into this? Is this event them trying to get me to go to the school or am I still trying to convince them to offer me admission?
That's intriguing. I got accepted to Penn State but didn't get the invitation you're talking about today. I had a phone conversation with faculty member on Tuesday and they told me official acceptances, funding offers and information on visit event (which will be in-person) wouldn't be going out for a couple weeks.
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5 minutes ago, Chen2022 said:
Congratulation!! Because they email me early December to told me I forgot to submit the application after I pay the fee, Then they told me to resubmitted the application. I am not sure whether they just skipped my file. (LOL)
Oh no! That's unfortunate. Good luck wherever else you applied!
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2 minutes ago, Chen2022 said:
Any update from UW ( Seattle )? I have not hear from them since I submitted my application. Should I call them to check my status?
They definitely have already sent out all acceptances. I was accepted and have already gotten official admit and funding offer. They also have asked us to already RSVP for virtual visit day. Sorry ?
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Did Duke release all their rejections? I saw a bunch of people posted in the results that they got rejected, but I haven't heard anything. Should I get my hopes up????
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I'm looking for recommendations for grad schools. I believe I am an overall solid applicant, but have one significant weakness. I'll highlight a few of my strengths as an applicant first though. So I currently attend what's considered a public ivy and is consistently ranked anywhere from #1 to #5 best sociology program in the US and the world. I have a significant amount of sociology research experience (I've RA'd for 5 different projects in total). I've also lead-authored 2 papers in lower-level but reputable journals, and have a third paper pending publication in a very respectable mid-tier journal. My GRE scores are pretty good (165 Verbal 168 Quantitative). I've further taken a huge breadth of sociology coursework including graduate seminars. My school has some very top-notch Sociology faculty that I have good relationships with too.
My weakness though: my GPA is terrible. I'm a double major in Mathematics and Sociology and my school has a heavily grade deflated math department. My current cumulative GPA is 2.8. Most of that is a result of math courses however. I would have something like a 3.3 GPA if my grades in math were not included, and about a 3.3 again in sociology coursework. As a result of my low cumulative GPA however, it has become increasingly clear that there's a lot of places I cannot apply to due to programs that have strict GPA cutoffs.
So here's my question: what specific sociology graduate programs treat GPA less significantly in looking at applicants?
2022 Fall Application: Chat, Share and Support One Another
in Sociology Forum
Posted
Not sure about Georgia Tech, but I do know Carter Butts went to CMU. So they have trained top-tier sociologists.
That is a good point though, this person might not be a sociology applicant!