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macska

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Everything posted by macska

  1. I had a colleague who did a Fulbright the same year that I did, and when she was rejected from all the PhD programs she applied to (in Art History), I remember her saying "What is the point of this prestigious Fulbright, if it can't even get me into grad school?" So that is to say that so much goes into an acceptance than a name of a prestigious fellowship or school. In my experience, the research experience and ability, (publications, ability to write grant proposals, etc), good letter of rec and statements of purpose are much more important than any single name on a resume. If anything, the most important thing for any PhD application is fit, both for your acceptance to a program and your success as a student
  2. Just got a UMN rejection. C'est la vie.
  3. Just wanted to say that I emailed the UMN coordinator today and she said that she hopes to email out notifications at the end of this week.
  4. I have a bachelors in Literature and a masters in International Relations, and I've taken two sociology classes before applying for PhDs. (Before applying to MAs, I had taken zero political science/international relations courses). I think that it is possible to get in without classroom experience, but I think that one of the things you'll have to make very clear in your SOP is "why sociology" and not some other discipline. I think also you should talk up your life experiences outside of school that prepared you for this program, your training in quantitative methodology, and also how an economics background better prepared you to tackle your research topic. Additionally, I recommend reading some sociological texts/ articles before any interviews you might have (I've been asked both "who's your favorite sociologist?" and "what's your favorite sociological article on your topic?" during PhD interviews). Also as for your question about MAs: just a note, if you want to do a PhD in Europe/UK, it is a requirement to already have a master's degree. I will say as someone who switched disciplines, the first semester/ few months can be a little bit rough. There's a lot of catchup that you'll have to do during that time with the new theories, new sociologists, methodologies etc. I think that it's totally worth it in the end to be in a program that better fits your project/interests, but when I first switched, there was a certain level of imposter syndrome due to the new-ness of some of the content in my courses. Some programs will have lists of things you should have read or had contact with before starting a program, and I highly recommend reading and familiarizing yourself with formative texts/theories in sociology before starting to make that transition easier.
  5. Hmm, I'll give that a try next time I have to call my grandma or yell at someone political office! Thanks for the tip!
  6. I'm guessing you already know this, but my tip to everyone who wants to call internationally is to use Skype to Landline (as long as you have a solid internet connection). I use it all the time to call family, the bank and my senators, etc. in the US. It's like a couple cents per minute. I also understand not wanting to spend any money on an international call, but figured I'd mention it as an option generally lol
  7. Yeah it is a wild one for sure! Also not my first cycle, but so far I feel that I'm handling the stress way better this year than last time. As for UMN, I am really confused as well. Their acceptances generally come out in January and they usually send rejections after acceptances, if the results page is correct, which means this year is a total aberration. Still holding out hope tho!
  8. When I start logging in to the individual application portals, that's when you know that the anxiety is really getting bad.
  9. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about research interests, but the short and sweet version is that my project primarily tackles international North/South tourism. As for your question about European schools, it's kind of complicated. There's a lot that goes into it, but I will say that if you are applying for master's programs, European programs are so much cheaper than US ones, and the cost of living in a lot of European cities is less than in the US. I actually got my MA at CEU in IR, which is partially why I am applying there again. I will say that to apply to PhD programs in the UK/EU, you generally need to already have a master's degree, whereas to apply to PhD programs in the US, you only need to have a bachelor's degree. For me, before attending CEU, I already had been living outside of the US for 3-ish years, which I think is partially why I'm looking at European and US programs. I do agree that if you have your heart set at teaching in the US, then getting a degree from a US school is probably more important because there definitely is a US-bias. CEU is accredited both in the US and Hungary/Austria, so I'm not sure exactly what that would mean for the US job market. But it definitely is something to keep in mind when picking schools. In addition to those points, the application process for EU/UK schools is completely different than the US process. (it's also way cheaper/free depending on the school) It took me a couple weeks to put together a preliminary list of schools to reach out to. I wasn't doing it full time though, just during free time, so if you had time you could probably make a pretty good lists in a couple days if needed. The people that I identified as potential supervisors were a mix of people. Some were great methodological matches, some were more thematic matches and others were both. I didn't apply to every program that I reached out to, though, as some programs were not as great a match when I reached out or the professors I wanted to work with were leaving, etc. There were some schools that I also just decided were too far (sorry Hawaii and anything in Australia)
  10. I know that last year ND held online interviews in late January and in person interviews in mid-Feb. I wonder, however, how this year will differ from previous years since everything will be online (presumably). My research is about North/South international tourism and development using ethnography and interviewing. ND seems to have a really strong interdisciplinary tradition, which would be great for a project like mine that utilizes theories and traditions from both political science and sociology. Crossing my fingers that we all get good news from them!
  11. Woke up with an interview invitation at Aberystwyth University in Wales for International Politics! I know some other friends off of grad cafe who got invitations there today too, if anyone else is waiting to hear from them. Hoping that this is a good omen for the rest of the week
  12. I also haven't heard from ND yet. From the results page it looks like two people emailed the grad coordinator and she stated that they're meeting to discuss this week, and that if we don't hear this week then it's best to assume it's a lost cause. I'm the one who asked if that person had any more to elaborate, but I think they must not be checking the forum or at least didn't post. I'm looking forward to hearing from ND though, as they are one of my stronger fits
  13. Good luck to everyone as we enter into this new week of results!
  14. Hello! I'm currently applying to PhD programs in both poli sci and sociology, with a project that employs ethnography and interviewing. I think that when you want to do ethnography in political science (especially in the US), it is vitally important to find a program that has strong qualitative traditions/ researchers. In the US, most poli sci programs have a pretty positivist tilt, and as an ethnographer, it can be hard to find a good fit at a pretty numbers-heavy program. I think one of the best tips that I heard while applying was to only apply to schools that have at least 2+ professors that you'd want as an advisor. In the UK, most programs require you to have two advisors, and this is good advice for the US as well because you don't apply to work with specific advisors, so there's a chance that you won't get your first choice advisor, etc. As for how to find potential advisors, there are several ways to go about doing this. Firstly, I would recommend talking to your current advisor to see if they have any schools that they think you'd be a good fit for. Secondly, I would recommend looking where the authors of some articles/books that utilize similar methodology on similar topics work. These are some of the people that you can later contact when it's closer to the time for applications to discuss your project/ departmental fit. The last method that I used to decide which schools to apply for was a bit more time intensive. I made a list of schools in places that I was willing to live for 3-6 years and that had programs that were around the ranking that I was aiming for. Then I went through the professors/faculty list to see if they had professors who would fit as an advisor for my project and looked at the set up for classes/program. I think on top of these three ways, it is important to also know some keywords for professors research interests. I'd look for people who state that they do ethnography, qualitative methods, alternative methodologies, creative methodology, etc. On top of that, if you find someone who is thematically aligned with your research, then I think it's worth reaching out to them to discuss methodology etc before you apply. As for if ethnography is on its way out in political science, I think that that is harder to answer. I would say that on the whole, unlike anthro or sociology where ethnography has a long established history, it is only just now starting out in poli sci. I would recommend looking at schools with political sociology, poli sci schools with qualitative emphasis, or schools that really focus on interdisciplinary support. That's just my two cents tho! Best of luck
  15. I also generally refer to the QS rankings https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2020/sociology Although, (I guess as a word of caution) I think that a more important thing to look at when selecting a school is your fit with a specific program. There is very little difference between programs with similar ranks, and on top of that the rankings are somewhat arbitrary. This piggybacks on how when applying to PhD programs "safety schools" are less of a thing than for undergraduate programs because even schools ranked 25-50 are highly competitive and will generally also rely quite heavily on fit.
  16. Me too! I had my interview last week and woke up this morning with the official offer. Definitely crossing my fingers that the ESRC pulls through. Congrats !
  17. I feel like this year it's even harder to trust the results page than past ones.. Seems like there's been more trolls than last year and also some schools are releasing results earlier than previous years, while others are releasing later, so it's been hard to guestimate when results will come out too.
  18. Also anyone claiming the Delaware acceptance? I saw someone else in here mention they were applying to Delaware, so wondering if it was them
  19. I reached out to 2-3 professors at the schools that I applied for back in November. Some professors didn't respond or gave responses like "sounds great!", while others gave some pretty in-depth feedback on my proposal. The ones that gave the most feedback are so far the places that I've had positive responses from. When I was applying last year, I found it helpful because even when professors were retiring or leaving the department, they often gave solid advice on other people to reach out to either in their university or elsewhere. But I also agree with others that reaching out now is probably too late! If you end up applying in a future cycle, I'd recommend to avoid reaching out during school breaks (summer/winter) and instead reach out late spring (if you're really ambitious) or in early fall (if you're just regular ambitious).
  20. Yeah I graduated in end of June and I'm having the same struggle.. the job market is killer right now. And it's not helping my confidence that now I'm applying for part time internships as a 28 year old haha
  21. Well glad to hear my colleague was misinformed, I guess things have changed since she had formed that opinion!
  22. This is what happened to me last cycle (at a different school though). My advice is to just make sure that you make it clear that you are excited about the offer and that you want to remain on the waitlist for funding. Not sure if it helps all that much, but definitely helps to show the school that you're still interested. Best of luck and hopefully you get the funding soon!
  23. FWIW I've heard from some colleagues who are professors in the UK that the supervisors for the Poli Sci PhD at LSE are notoriously hands off and it's not uncommon for you to meet with supervisors very rarely because they just have too many students. Not sure how true that is in practice, but I definitely took supervisor schemes/expectations more seriously after hearing that.
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