SocioEd

Not sure if it's too late, but Harvard actually is an okay fit for you. Brinton and Killewald are family demographers. Also, consider it a department strong on spatial demography, e.g. Sampson and Western. Anyways, in case you applied and got an offer, you should seriously consider it.

Personally I think shown/research ability + match are the main things that count. If the projects you've doing look interesting to sociologists, then you are already ahead of the vast majority of applicants--do aim at the best. And if the projects are more at the policy side, perhaps also take a look at social policy programs (e.g. at Harvard and Penn) too. And since GRE scores can be selected nowadays, and quant scores are not that difficult to crunch (guessing from your background), perhaps it does not hurt to take another shot?

I think Wisconsin Madison is definitely strong in education.

Madison's soc dept has a syllabus archive, from where you should be able to find something you want. http://ssc.wisc.edu/soc/courses/syllabi.php

There is a thread in sociology too:

All of a sudden there are no real deadlines in my life. I wonder what did people do after April and before August, which might be the last long vacation in the foreseeable decades? Btw, for those of us starting PhD programs in fall, there is a long journey ahead--maybe it's best to be prepared? Recently I found this webpage: http://mattdickenson.com/professional-development/, which contains links to various career guidance for students in Political Science. While many of these read quite useful, are there anything out there for sociology?

Thanks--i know it's unlikely, but still it makes me feel better to hear people say so : )

I have a question about declining the offers... I have declined three offers through emails, and two of them kindly replied and wished me good luck. But the third one--despite my emails to the DGS and department secretary--never replied. I also did not find a response form in their package, so I cannot possibly send a response form instead of emails. So what could have happened? Could it be that they are so angry with my decision that they decided to ignore my emails?

I did MAPSS last year, and I have talked to several prospectives/admits about this. Here is my personal take on the questions. 1. Money--as far as i know, many students get partial tuition waivers. Yes, it is still very expensive. Whether it is worth it depends on what one does during the degree. Everyone is offered the same resources that are "out there" in the program and the university, but people turn out to be able to tap on very little or a lot of the resources, mostly depending on how persistent they are. 2. Most MAPSS students apply not in the first year, but after they finish the program. I did this. By then one will have had over a year to interact with faculty members and written an MA thesis and developed more sense of sociological research, which will help you decide if PhD is the right choice and, if probably yes, how to persuade adcomms to send the offer letters. Btw, UChicago is a tough intellectual environment, and after MAPSS, a lot of students I know did find other routes of career make more sense to them--which I personally think is a good thing. 3. What one gets out of MAPSS highly varies by the person. MAPSS is not a highly structured program--the student gets to choose 8 of the 9 required courses, and write a thesis of her own choice. You can imagine that one can choose the more advanced courses or easier ones, do extremely well or so so in these courses, find an awesome thesis adviser or an okay one, produces a great publishable thesis or pull up whatever to get the degree. Some people go to a number of workshops after the courses, while some do not go at all. Some work as research assistants during or after the program, while some do not. One person repeatedly told me: what is important is not the decision, but the work after the decision. Because MAPSS is such a flexible program, I think this idea is especially true in this case. If one just wants to get a degree and think this will help with the application, then I think this person is almost set to fall short of the expectation, because a degree per se is not going to help much. If you see a lot of things you want to do during MAPSS, then perhaps to go is a wise choice.

Your profile looks like kidding! European universities have late deadlines. German universities seem to have a lot of funding and more doctorate positions this year. Not sure if exactly how late these deadlines are though.

Thanks for the info! Yes, it should not be the deciding factor--still it's kinda of interesting to see how departments treat their students financially. So NYU's offer seems best in the nation...

Will you consider to go to the UK schools if you get into there? If yes, it is probably worth doing. If not, personally I think (in the context you described here) the way "not to burn the bridge" is to share the info with the UK professors as soon as you decide that you will not go to these UK programs anyways, and terminate the UK application process asap. Earlier this week when I received a more or less ideal offer, I immediately declined three offers that are not in competition with this offer. The professors typically replied saying that they thank me for letting them know about the situation, and look forward to see how my work evolves in the future. It is somewhat painful to say no to professors I really like, but delaying this decline will only cost them more.

Purely out of curiosity--heard that Harvard's package is around 30k; so how big is Stanford's package, if it's much bigger than that?

You are right. The research master option is typically available at European-style universities; except for Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore also have such options.

I did a masters with thesis but mainly coursework, before applying to PhD. For my case, I did not get enough exposure to sociology/social research in undergrad, so I was neither prepared nor reasonably determined to do a PhD in sociology. So I believed it wise to do a Masters. Though some professors ask why I did not go straight to a PhD from undergrad, I still believe it was a reasonable decision--if financial conditions permit. I had a research master option two years ago, but chose a master mainly by coursework (with a thesis) instead. I have been thinking about whether this choice is reasonable. For now, I feel what I get from course (especially intensive seminars) is important for me, because they exposed me to what sociology and sociological thinking are like. Yet, building on that, thesis is extremely important--the process of writing a thesis taught me a lot about actual research and became a (the?) key component in my application. I would like to share one experience: after I did the thesis (spanning over nine months..), I found the most difficult courses are so easy. Original work is harder than critiquing, and critiquing is harder than just reading/listening. The experience of producing knowledge helps a lot with the ability to learn knowledge. So definitely do research, and do it consistently and relentlessly, even if you don't feel prepared.

Your plan may be doable, depending how you define "good" programs. However, personally I advise against going to PhD program without research experience. It costs a lot of time and energy to get to a PhD program and adapt to a foreign environment. With these time and energy, one can do a lot of things. Research experience will not only strengthen your application; far more importantly, it will help you decide if it is worth the time and energy to pursue a PhD. I strongly suggest that if possible, actively seek out opportunities to do at least some research before applying, whether in sociology or social sciences in general. Sociology professors sometimes need people to help with surveys, so if you ask them (I asked several professors before landing on something), it is possible that they will give you some work. Try!

Okay! : D

I was wondering if anyone has received a formal offer letter from Indiana Bloomington? Or if everything is still kind-of informal yet?

Isn't Berkeley soc one of the "best of the best" soc depts?

I think the weed-out design might still apply to econ at Chicago (not sure). But definitely not sociology.

I read through these and took a few notes. Thanks for all the insights!

Thanks for the input. So being quantitative gets a PhD student to courses/workshops just as being qualitative to the field/archives? Is there a field where there are real summer vacations? lol

Thanks! It is helpful to know :-)

Besides, I was wondering if it still helps to go to these summer programs when there is a long PhD training ahead? Don't PhD courses cover these topics too? And, anyone has advice/opinion to share about the cost-effectiveness of all these programs?

I actually went to Peking University-University of Michigan Joint Institute, a summer program in Beijing. I had courses in statistics for social research, which were simply great ( I think quantitative people have heard of Xie and Houser? They taught at this program). http://www.oir.pku.edu.cn/umich/english/teaching/teaching_program_2.html Now they also seem to have summer program on Chinese studies and social theory: http://www.oir.pku.edu.cn/umich/english/teaching/teaching_program_1.html Besides, the prices were very affordable when I attended three years ago.