SgtDonut

Don't feed the troll.

I wish you could tactfully and silently keep your toxic energy off this thread.

Yeah, no one here is gonna agree with you. Getting rejected sucks, but raining on other people's parades rather than cheering their success is counterproductive. Also, maybe that person is a first-generation college student or has overcome tremendous adversity to make it this far, so they're overjoyed to see their hard work pay off. Your comment was unnecessary.

I think of the top five as the highest tier, then 5-15, 15-25, 25-35, 35-50, and then above 50. I don't have any justification for this, except the top five seem so unattainable to me that I view them as "the end of the line" as far as my chances go. And so far my assessment has been spot on. Lol For me, after the top 15 I worry that I won't have a shot at a good academic job. The lowest ranked school I applied to was Emory, and I know I would get a great education there and have five to seven years to study what I love! But I know it would seriously curtail my career opportunities. I wish rankings didn't matter so much, but there's a huge surplus of PhDs and a shortage of jobs to go around...

I was looking at the US News rankings to see if any other schools are punching above their weight for placement, and I decided to take a look at the rankings methodology. This is what it says... "Rankings of doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to academics in each discipline ... These are the number of schools with doctoral programs surveyed in fall 2016: economics (138); English (155); history (151); political science (120); psychology (255); and sociology (118). And these were the response rates: economics (23 percent), English (14 percent), history (15 percent), political science (24 percent), psychology (14 percent) and sociology (33 percent)." So... the rankings are based entirely off random professors' opinions of other schools at one out of three sociology departments. And these professors probably don't know much about most other schools. How ridiculous!

I feel similarly. So far the only places I've been admitted are UCLA and UT Austin, and it's a really tough call between the two. That data makes me even more sad about not getting into Michigan lol

I definitely agree with this advice. The lower-ranked programs tend to place more people in adjunct or lecturer positions, which have typically have low salaries and weak job security. However, I think going into a lower-ranked program with your mind open to non-academic jobs could be smart. If you don't get an academic position, a sociology PhD can be a useful credential in all sorts of roles/organizations across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. So yes, it's risky and potentially a "bad investment" but the degree itself can help you advance your career, even if you don't go into academia. But to your point, let's compare some placement records from previous years. A grad student at Northwestern sent me this thread from another forum a couple months ago that has these data (apparently the forum is a total cesspool aside from useful information like this, because some schools don't list their placement records on their websites) .The list doesn't include postdoctoral positions, so this is just tenure-track jobs. Last year, UCLA placed students in jobs at Toronto, New Mexico, Loyola Marymount, Barnard, Ohio State, CSU Channel Islands, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Hunan University in China. Wisconsin placed graduates at University of Denver, Copenhagen Business School, Tufts, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Colorado State. We can debate which school has a better record in this particular year, although I would probably rather work at more of the schools where UCLA placed its graduates.This all varies year to year by cohort size of course, but I think it can be helpful to look at the "caliber" of where grad students actually end up after they finish their PhD (even though the sample size is small and there are so many variables influencing who gets what job where). You can also look at placement across the last five years or so to get a better idea of postgraduate outcomes for different school. There is a lot of variation among lower-ranked schools. Last year, Emory appears to have placed one person in a tenure-track position at Utah State. UMass placed graduates at Missouri State, South Carolina, and Sam Houston State University. But then you have Vanderbilt placing five people at UNC, Rutgers, VCU, George Mason, and Arkansas (arguably a more desirable list of schools than Wisconsin). Just something to take into account when deciding where/whether to go. I definitely plan to ask about placement and professional development at admitted student days.

I wouldn't worry yet. There's only a couple up on the board, and they might be from POIs, not automated letters. So anything can still happen

UChicago and NYU acceptances on the board... looks like it's gonna be a rough day.

Omg I can't imagine doing this all again next year...

Means that you should tell them you haven't gotten in anywhere yet and you'd give your left kidney to attend! Lol

I still haven't. Refresh refresh refresh

That's so awesome!!! I really considered applying there. I feel like UCSD flies under the radar a bit but will probably be more up-and-coming in the years to come. Congratulations!

Porque no los dos though

Still haven't heard from Columbia. Any minute now. Come on rejection email, show yourself!!!

In my rejection letter, they said there were only five spaces. But they accept more than five people because not all of them will end up coming. So it seems like they admit ten and expect half to come. Hopefully only four accept their offers and you'll hop off that waitlist

So much exciting news the last couple of days. I know it's hard for those of us who haven't received any acceptances yet or have been rejected from some of our top choices. Not to be one of those "self-care!!!" types, but I wanted to ask if anyone had some positive tactics for dealing with the rejection and disappointment that comes with this whole process. I am a little worried about my fellow posters who may not be happy with their results so far. I feel joy for those who have been accepted to these top-five schools while simultaneously feeling bad that I wasn't chosen. It's not like I really expected to get into Michigan or Stanford, and I know that the process is essentially random depending on who's in the room when your application is read, etc. And I know that there are far too many qualified candidates who could thrive at those places. I guess I'm in good company. I'm very fortunate to have gotten into two places, so maybe I should just be grateful for that. But it's still hard to understand how somewhere like Stanford picks like 5-10 people out of hundreds to accept.

Wow, what a tremendous accomplishment. It's clear your hard work has paid off. Good luck and give 'em hell!

I feel you, bud. I got three consecutive rejections from schools I thought were really well-aligned with my interests. How many do you have left to hear from?

Wow, we're in the same boat. I'm in at UCLA and praying for Northwestern.

Aghhh wish I hadn't read this! Lol

Don't worry! I know you'll get in somewhere soon

Yesssss congrats to all the Michigan admits!

Also I'm pretty sure they just process incomplete/unsubmitted applications. That happened to me with undergrad when I started the Common App for a school but then ultimately didn't want to pay the fee and never submitted the application.

Lol guess their system is janky