juano20

Hey, I've been following this without commenting, but wanted to jump in here. For @lkaitlyn or others thinking about reapplying next year in order to try to get into a better program or one in a more desirable location, I feel you, and have myself even thought about this, though only for a second. Here' why I think it would be a real risk, and ultimately a bad idea. I think you have to consider the quality of the program you got into, and weigh it against the chance of not getting in *anywhere* next year. If you got into a top 30 program, I would 100% jump on it. Sociology and other social sciences and humanities programs have gotten extremely difficult to get into recently. As we can see from some people's admissions results on this thread, programs ranked between, say, 11-30 seem to be almost as hard to get into as those ranked 1-10. I say this because there are plenty of people who were admitted to a given program and then rejected by a bunch of schools ranked *lower* than that program. The coming recession will make the competitiveness of these programs even more pronounced, as more people will apply to PhD programs in order to secure even the small stipend and health insurance that comes with it. This will be a simple economic decision, as the only alternative for many really smart people will be to work a minimum wage job, live with their parents, deal with unemployment and extreme precarity, etc. Given the very, very competitive nature of the application process, and the likelihood that it will continue to intensify, I think anyone who would give up a spot at a top 30 program this year, in order to try to get into a better program (or a program in a city that they like better, is cheaper, etc.), has to seriously weigh the risk of applying next year and not getting in anywhere. If cost of living is an issue, you can take out student loans to top off your stipend, and make do. It's not ideal, but it's a whole lot better--it seems to me--than working a dead end job and making less than you would as a grad student. Hope this helps. Good luck everyone.