socio1251

If you're aiming for PhD programs in the US, I think it's generally better to do an MA program in the US. If you want to do MA in Europe, Science Po's MA program has a higher yield rate for PhD programs based on my limited impressions. In general, I think it's really helpful to get an MA from a prestige university (such as Chicago, Michigan, UPenn, NYU) in the US before applying to PhD programs, at least this is the case for international students. It's certainly not impossible to get in without an MA as an international, but it's been very hard these days.

I'd like to propose CUNY Graduate Center, since I feel that at least half of the core faculty are qual. In fact half of my cohort specializes in political sociology or gender issues now. There are several qual workshops organized by students or faculties, including a society and protest workshop. The department also has a historical analysis course and a couple of qual courses in the department every semester. You can simultaneously get a Women Studies or Critical Studies certificate offered by the Graduate Center(open to all phd students), too. One more plus, you can take ANY related course in other departments within the school or the consortium universities (Princeton, Rutgers, NYU, New School, etc).

I'll say stick with the one with smaller cohort, greater attention from faculty and ideally a two-year one to get your research ideas ready for PhD programs. The one-year Columbia program sounds more like a cash cow to me. If I were in your shoes, I will choose New School over Columbia.

Last year I heard back from the director on April 13 that I am next in line so be prepared for that......As far as I remember, 11-12 people attended Open House. PS: I didn't attend bc the person they were waiting for response eventually accepted the offer. Director then told me to reapply and I did, and being rejected this time lol A depressing experience for me...

I think it is only the case for Cornell, which is super weird this year. Other schools and programs may view objective measures differently, don't worry!

I am also the other rejected person that posted on the results page. Now I guess it's because we are all international (?) not based on objective measures... GRE 162+166+4.0, GPA 3.8, TOEFL 106...

I have lived in Brooklyn in a townhouse room for $550 (with wifi included, hydroelectric and heating are charged separately). You still can find a room under $800 in southern Brooklyn, Queens (forest hills or Elmhurst) or Little Italy (near Chinatown), if you really want to budget a bit. Cooking can save a lot of money, too. For me, I spent $2,400 a month without cooking. I even went small gigs a lot with this budget. So this was my personal experience as a grad student four years ago. I know most people will spend much more in NYC. Living in the city is definitely expensive, but if you work really hard, you may still be able to make it.

I think your GRE writing score should be okay if you are aiming for quantitative programs (based on your descriptions). What about your TOEFL speaking section? The only possibility of the cut-off is the speaking score (over 24 or 26) for some schools.

Brown, U of Washington and probably Boston College too

Me too! Would love to gain more insights from all of the successful SOPs! With no offer in my hands right now, I am considering re-applying in the upcoming circle. And I would really appreciate it if you are willing to share your SOPs via message! Thanks a lot in advance!

I emailed UC Irvine admission office last week asking about their decisions. The DGS told me that it is not clear at this point if there will be subsequent offers made or when that might occur. I think for all of us not having received UC Irvine decisions, there may still be chances (or just silent rejections in the end).

I received an email from the graduate secretary from Indiana Bloomington, attached with a rejection letter three days ago. Last week I emailed the department asking about when the result would come out, and it seemed that they made decisions already. Perhaps you will hear from them soon, good luck!

Hug hug* It is definitely a hard time for us. Hope we will eventually find the right place despite all these struggles!

Hug* I'm an international student too and I didn't have time to get a better TOEFL either. For UCs, I've heard that UCI doesn't like international students because of a lack of funding while UCSD usually takes several international students. Hope we can all find the place worthy of our hard work and waits!

@tobe_newbee@SocFreshI posted the UCSD rejection. It was a generic email from DGS in midnight (it was a weird time to send an email, so maybe they're still deciding the waitlist?) Good luck to you both! BTW, I received rejection emails in three subsequent days, so I feel you all. I thought I would be okay after thinking over the worst circumstances at the beginning of this week, but it was still hard to deal with this. I am always unconfident about myself and this whole process exacerbates my self-recognition.

TBH, MA is way too expensive for everyone to afford, and nowadays most MA programs are one-year, which is too rush and leaves little room for students to hone a paper to be published. As someone who struggles through the one-year program with plenty of papers and a 50-70 page MA thesis to work on, I strongly recommend only applying to two-year programs, and quantitative ones would be better.

Sadly no BU result for me I was really looking forward to BU...Guess PhD is just not for me

The whole connection thing is exactly what I'm thinking about. I didn't have any friends/seniors in sociology field because of my weird language background and a one-year MA degree with only 4 cohorts ( and I am the only international student in that program). I did all the applications by myself without any person to seek advice. My graduate program has history, literature and philosophy professors, but not really sociology professors. I actually found out Grad Cafe after I submitted all of my applications, so it's already too late to make any significant change. I regret not knowing this forum earlier and making friends in sociology field too. I used to resent any circle but now I wish I could at least be part of them to keep myself more informed. Will you apply again if this year's results didn't work out? I don't know if I can survive this whole exhausting and longly application process again anymore...

Same here. My background is not as strong as you guys tho. undergraduate in a extremely rare Eastern European language major in my home country, a MA degree in the US, no publications or conferences presentations. I don't even know how I can enrich my profile if I apply again in the upcoming circle, because there are no possibility to engage in research work in my current job, or even an academic job in my home country, given that I am a language major. I am extremely down recently since I really need a PhD to get rid of my current work, and I really want to study in the US. I am from East Asia too. I guess the whole application things are harder for international students, and for students who don't have a quantitative background...

Thanks! And UT Austin is definitely a great choice!

I am waitlisted for funding too. I am not attending the campus visit day because it is too expensive for me to make international travel and I have a full-time job, but I may attend the Skype session. Not sure how the waitlist works for us, hopefully we can both hear some good news from them soon!

Thanks for letting me know that there's still hope! I am waitlisted for funding by Rutgers as well Which school will you attend? Just curious And congrats!!

Hope you'll hear from your POI soon! At least they should notify their decisions instead of keeping us waiting...

I just hope to hear back from the schools that I saw accepted result posts (UCI, UCSD, SUNY Albany, UChicago)

Best luck to you!! I hope we all hear something good today