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I think negotiating fellowship semesters/quarters is quite common. I’ve also heard of people being offered non-monetary incentives like office space which might be negotiable.

Good luck with the decisionmaking!

That’s great congratulations! I’m sure I’ll see you around whichever program I choose.

Is anyone else still deciding between programs or is it just me at this point?

Throughout my life I’ve ended up attending universities in the most expensive global cities...here’s to being poor for another 6 years aha! Congratulations and good luck with everything!

Ah Okay so it's not completely weird for this to happen then aha! Still haven't received an email but have checked on the portal and there is now an official offer letter from the Dean of Graduate Admissions available. Ah yes my mother also said that if they don't admit they should still give me the money, ah if only that could be the way! Although the fellowship was really really low though which surprised me (it shouldn't surprise me as its a public university) and it actually had a shortfall to meet visa requirements.

Weirdly I haven’t had an email about acceptance to the Sociology program at UC Riverside (in fact haven’t heard at all from them since applying) but have just received a funding offer from them, doesn’t say anything about acceptance just “here’s the money” which I found a bit weird. I’m presuming I’ve been accepted then though?

Sending good vibes and crossing my fingers you hear back soon! It's so exhausting waiting when you want something so much! All the best

I have experience staying in graduate housing at UCI (not a student but my partner is) and I would say it’s definitely worth it and the graduate housing definitely doesn’t feel like a dorm. More of a planned neighbourhood apartment style kind of thing. There’s a Target, Trader Joes and Albertsons between a 5-15 minute walk depending on what housing lot you’re on. The former two are quite small but the Albertsons is decent (I’m not from the US so honestly can’t say comparably whether it’s big or small). Other supermarkets like Whole Foods or Costco will require a car(pool) or an Uber. I believe there are cars to rent on campus for when you need them for short/medium journeys.

Out of interest how many programs are people still waiting to hear back from? I’ve still for three to go. One of them I have presumably been ‘unofficially waitlisted’ from and the other two no clue!

I don’t know for sure and I don’t think I’ll be asking for feedback but I think how I’d go about it personally is either email the program coordinator or the POI if I had a good relationship with the latter or had an established email chain with them. You haven’t got a lot to lose and as long as you’re polite you won’t look silly!

I'm all up for being more talkative! I just didn't want to be annoying and overload the thread aha

I hope so! I had a bad experience during my undergrad socially that got much better during my masters but I’m still worried it might happen again. I’m currently torn between two programs, one which doesn’t have a visit day so I can’t gauge how sociable it is, but my gut is that it isn’t as the number of PhD students seem really small and slightly older (late 20s/30s) aka people with lives. Unfortunately career wise I think this would be the best fit for me but the social side is really getting me down about it.

I agree with what everybody’s mentioned they’re all on my list! I especially think making connections with other prospective students is really important and something related to this that I am definitely asking grad students there is what the social life is like. As in are cohorts/cross-cohorts usually quite close/sociable outside of academic hours etc? For me I’ll be moving a continent away and five years is a long time to be lonely if it turns out nobody wants to talk after class!

This was me too aha! Luckily I heard back from my top school so I’m so longer stressed and don’t bother staying up any more.

It was the former, sorry for not clarifying! Oo thank you for this. Thank you for this. Weirdly I actually own this book, I'd just never noticed. Will definitely start reading this!

Hi all! A non-admissions question but was wondering if anybody had any reading suggestions on social networks? I’ve got quite a lot of free time for the next few months and I’m starting to become more interested in this research area so wanted to do some reading to see if I want to take this area further.

I applied for the Population Health and Place PhD program between the Sociology, Preventative Medicine and the Spatial Institute départements. Historically they’ve given out acceptances in mid-late February. I know this isn’t the Sociology program though but could just be the department reviews things later

I don't know what went on but it could be that the commitee made their decisions but university policies means that departments can't/don't want to release 'unofficial' decisions until the graduate department officially process these? Potentially? I could be widely off the mark

When I spoke with several POI and some mid/ranking universities they said it’s not super common to come with a master’s degree, I can’t speak for super competitive programs sorry. A master’s degree gives you some advantages in that it gives you more time to work on and articulate your research interests, as well as more opportunities for research/conferences/papers etc. It’s by no means ever a prerequisite though I wouldn’t be daunted by this!

That’s good to know!

I'm also an international student and definitly had this mentality at undegrad/masters. I ended up not studying in the US because I only got into a (very very good) liberal arts college and my teachers and headmaster were like "but it's not Harvard". I ended up going to a top university in my home country that is higher ranked and more prestigious, but I always regretted not going to that US school given that my friends that did go to liberal arts colleges had amazing and life changing experiences, I think I missed out on a lot when I prioritised pretentiousness. Having valued that for so long, I made a deal with myself when it came to this PhD cycle and honestly prestige hasn't figured in at all with my choices this time around (a lot of that is to do with personal circumstances though). I literally threw an application to Berkeley in under pressure from loved ones when my class rank for graduate school came out and I was top, but I have told myself this time, I make this decision for me and not on league tables!

Aha me too

I currently work in a research environment that's dominated by economists and I have to say it's been a real motivator to not do an econ-PhD because of how narrow minded the problem-solving can be there! Aha good luck with everything!

That’s so interesting! My background is also in international development with a regional focus on Africa, the field is obviously really interdisciplinary and like you I have worked across these fields during my academic degrees. I’m just glad I’m not alone in crossing disciplines to sociology! It was a worry of mine that I’d be disadvantaged when I applied, but a POI I met and I had a long conversation about her career which involved a very similar disciplinary shift during graduate school!