Happy to be here

-Get to know as many faculty as possible your first year. Just at least know what every one in the department works on.

-Develop a good study schedule. This is worklife 1.5, not undergrad 2.0 (this honestly shocked me a lot, and was the biggest adjustment. I was expecting to sit back and drink much more than I am able to).

-Know that your grades don't matter. Like, at all. Extensions are also easy to get. Stress about doing good work, don't stress about doing work on time. Learn to prioritize which work is important.

-Explore your first year. You may never have the chance to again. If you're a quant person, look at qual things, and vice verse. At the very least be sufficiently comfortable with other methodologies to evaluate "this is good" and "this is crap" so that you may cite appropriately.

-Go to TONS of talks. Again, this is a first year luxury. You're not really expect to produce work. Find out what good work looks like.

-If there is someone you want to work with, meet with them, talk with them, don't annoy them, get their advice. Start trying to establish a relationship, and figure out how your relationship works. My relationship with my adviser works best when I have something to present her, which is different from my undergrad adviser who I used to abstractly discuss ideas with. The sooner you figure out what relationship works for you, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits.

-Know your cohort, do social things together. You will be together for years to come. Be friends with your colleagues, hopefully. Be polite them in all situations, at the very least.

-Make sure you have enough time not working in school to stay sane.

-Older students are the best place to learn about everything. No, seriously, everything. From the department gossip, to department drama, to what you should be doing, to what classes are legit, they know a lot. Be friends with them as soon as possible. I seriously benefited from being a smoker (gasp!) and being able to be friends with the other three (older) smokers in the department. They clued me in on a lot of things.

-Yes, maybe for the first time in your life, everyone in around is genuinely smart. Including you. Never forget that you were chosen among many, many qualified candidates. You are there for reason. You deserve to be there.

I agree with a lot of what has been said here, but I do want to point out that it's entirely possible to get into Top 15 and Top 10, and indeed, Top 5 schools with a GRE score below 1300. I got into Yale, Michigan, NYU, and Harvard and only had a 1290. I really do think that the "total package" is all that matters during the process... once you reach a certain threshold, I don't think a school will reject you. SOP and LORs are much more important. And I agree with the previous poster--don't apply to "safety schools." Apply to where you want to go and have a back up plan if you don't get in--why waste your time in a program that you don't like?

I've been down this road twice, and finally I'm at a phd program that fits my interests. Its been a long process. Well worth it however.

I won't talk too much about GRE's, GPA, or personal statement. You obviously want a good SOP, a high GPA and a high GRE score. We don't live in fantasy land, however. Realistically, tons of people have mediocre GRE's, GPA's, and off the wall SOP's. I had a terrible GRE and probably a crazy SOP. This post is for people like me.

First of all - don't consult lists like the U.S News and World Report. This is the same as playing the prestige game. You don't want to go to a no name institution, but you don't need to go to an ivy league institution either. It would be nice to be at Harvard, but you will still have a job if you go to Wayne State. Consider this - it may be better to be a star in a small, up and coming program than an average student in an ivy league program. This decision is ultimately yours, but don't feel like you have to apply to Princeton or Cornell because they're well known (Not bashing these school at all either, just providing some insights from my experiences. I'm also not telling you to avoid these schools. Just don't apply to them because they're the 'smart' schools.).

Read the work of professors you'd like to study with. Go to the library and look for their publications. Then email them and introduce yourself, and discuss your interests VERY BRIEFLY. You should be networking with these people long before application season begins.

Get an early start on apps. Especially GRE admissions. These constantly get lost in the mail, and ETS is so slow when sending them out.

After you send your application in, email every professor you mentioned in your SOP. Tell them your app is in and let them know you're very serious about the possibility of working with them. Copy the graduate director to this email so she can see this.

Don't be afraid to contact the director of grad studies with questions. This is what they're there for.

Most importantly - consider the economy and current social climate in the nation. This is important, and we're sociologists - we do this best. This obviously plays a role in the chances of acceptance. Right now it will be hard to get into a program because of the growing interest in high education. The economy sucks - people want to go back to school. I suggest applying to an MA program as one of your back ups. This allows you to have a chance to enter a grad program and improve your chances of getting into a PhD while waiting for the next application season you're eligible for.

There's so much more to say, but that's all I can think of for now.

This topic made me ask myself again: "Why am I applying to the PhD, given all the stress, issues, uncertainty, etc.?" Here's my answer.

One thing that I keep going back to is that I have simply enjoyed the research aspect of sociology. Papers written specifically for courses are sometimes hit or miss on whether or not the creativity or thought involved is really captivating, but for the most part I would rather do this than many other professions. So, doing research and teaching others about interesting topics in society seems fun to me. All the other BS is just that, BS. Whether it's stupid departmental dysfunction, application stress, or the unknowns of actually landing a decent job in academia--those are indeed problems, but I guess every job has drawbacks. I've held several different jobs throughout undergrad and high school and guess the one that really keeps me interested is sociological research. It's the one thing so far that I could actually be content with doing it the rest of my life. Now, there's good and bad ways to deal with the stresses involved, and one thing that helped me get through my thesis prospectus defense was the idea of "ritualized hazing." In all reality, I think a lot of people "make" (or should I say, socially construct) the difficulty, stress, and uncertainty into the academic career. And why do they do this? I think it's to give it an edge, a sense of worth, to make it something that not everyone can do and subsequently is more valuable as a result. Upon finishing getting grilled for almost an hour and a half at my thesis prospectus and having to bow to ridiculous egos and satisfy lame concerns--I go back to my grad carrell, stare at the wall for a few minutes, take a few deep breaths, and realize (again) that this is simply ritualized hazing. It's all a part of the act, and I play along with it so I can continue moving through it. Now, when I have uncertainty of PhD applications, I think to myself again--this is all a part of what "makes" being a professor great. They've been through all kinds of stuff and their reward is a very secure job where they get to research and teach stuff that they're interested in. For me, I'm willing to go through all the nonsense to get there, and recognizing it as ritualized hazing. Now, I have to say that not all of it is of this flavor--many of the difficulties of graduate school are for our own betterment and are a part of the learning process; however, I do think that some of the difficulties, uncertainties, and stresses are unnecessary and seeing things in this perspective has helped me tremendously.

Maybe I'm just rambling and this is nonsensical, but just thought I'd throw this out there. That's how Sue "C's" it.

I've actually thought a lot about this., so here it goes graduate applicant community. If we were to look for all the parallels of the Harry Potter world with the PhD application process, there's a few arguments I'd like to make.

First, I think the sorcerer's stone should definitely be hidden in New England somewhere. I first thought that Stony Brook would be a fitting university, hence stone and everything, but I wanted somewhere more prestigious. Maybe some scandal where some goons from Princeton or Yale pansies took it from there and kept it locked away with some three-headed dog hiding it. I can see some of the Ivy League schools paralleling the house of Slytherin and pulling some Quidditch stunt like that.

Second, I think that if I were to be accepted at Rice University, I should receive said notification via Owl. Their school mascot gives them a leg up in this category.

Third, I thought about which professors resemble Hogwart's faculty. I would go out on a limb here and say that Hagrid probably has the best parallel in Chris Ellison at UT-San Antonio. Both very nice and helpful, but also both thickly bearded. I also see Mark Regnerus at UT-Austin as a kind of young Severus Snape. Just sayin. As for Dumbledore, perhaps Bob Wuthnow at Princeton? Both of them are semi-retirement age and vastly superior to all who stand in their way. I wonder who would be a good parallel for "he-who-shall-not-be-named"? I mean really, who is the ultimate evil-doer out there in Sociology PhD-dom? Can someone help me find a supervillain out there fitting of this title? Surely there's some wicked secretary, or screw-you-out-of-life faculty member out there who when they are not publishing, teaching, and making their grad students lives miserable, are hell bent on destroying the universe as well.

Your advanced statistics class=arithmancy. Seriously, look it up.
D.A.D.A (that's, defense against the dark arts for all you muggles out there) probably parallels any Professionalization Seminar. Think about it.

So, to answer your question Lizzla, I think the sorcerer's stone is probably kept safe somewhere for a reason. DONT go looking for it, seriously. I can definitively say that Wisconsin does not have it though. I look at them as the stupid all boys school with that one guy who disrespected Hermione at the Christmas ball.

Any other Harry Potter-Sociology PhD parallels out there?
-I am Happy to be here, and I really am.

I've actually thought a lot about this., so here it goes graduate applicant community. If we were to look for all the parallels of the Harry Potter world with the PhD application process, there's a few arguments I'd like to make.

First, I think the sorcerer's stone should definitely be hidden in New England somewhere. I first thought that Stony Brook would be a fitting university, hence stone and everything, but I wanted somewhere more prestigious. Maybe some scandal where some goons from Princeton or Yale pansies took it from there and kept it locked away with some three-headed dog hiding it. I can see some of the Ivy League schools paralleling the house of Slytherin and pulling some Quidditch stunt like that.

Second, I think that if I were to be accepted at Rice University, I should receive said notification via Owl. Their school mascot gives them a leg up in this category.

Third, I thought about which professors resemble Hogwart's faculty. I would go out on a limb here and say that Hagrid probably has the best parallel in Chris Ellison at UT-San Antonio. Both very nice and helpful, but also both thickly bearded. I also see Mark Regnerus at UT-Austin as a kind of young Severus Snape. Just sayin. As for Dumbledore, perhaps Bob Wuthnow at Princeton? Both of them are semi-retirement age and vastly superior to all who stand in their way. I wonder who would be a good parallel for "he-who-shall-not-be-named"? I mean really, who is the ultimate evil-doer out there in Sociology PhD-dom? Can someone help me find a supervillain out there fitting of this title? Surely there's some wicked secretary, or screw-you-out-of-life faculty member out there who when they are not publishing, teaching, and making their grad students lives miserable, are hell bent on destroying the universe as well.

Your advanced statistics class=arithmancy. Seriously, look it up.
D.A.D.A (that's, defense against the dark arts for all you muggles out there) probably parallels any Professionalization Seminar. Think about it.

So, to answer your question Lizzla, I think the sorcerer's stone is probably kept safe somewhere for a reason. DONT go looking for it, seriously. I can definitively say that Wisconsin does not have it though. I look at them as the stupid all boys school with that one guy who disrespected Hermione at the Christmas ball.

Any other Harry Potter-Sociology PhD parallels out there?
-I am Happy to be here, and I really am.

Thought I would chime-in. I'm one of those people who looked on here everyday, but never posted anything in the forum (I do post in results). I have two accptances (UPenn, PSU) and one rejection (Wisconsin). Now that I know I got in a few places my insecurity is beginning to dissipate and I feel more comfortable reaching out. Good luck to everyone and a big thanks to those who are active here (especially @Happy to be here, @Rollright, and @jacib). I'll be happy to answer questions, and help other people through this process. Good luck to everyone.

No Notre Dame invite here either. I think sometime this week I'll walk up to some kid eating ice cream, smash it into his face, and say, "You will remember me forever."

No Notre Dame invite here either. I think sometime this week I'll walk up to some kid eating ice cream, smash it into his face, and say, "You will remember me forever."

Guys, lets stick to sociology.

I think you misspelled 'expertize'. I think it's 'expertise.' Rest looks good to me.

Is one of them a "diversity statement" type thing? And the other one about your research interests? Different schools use different terminology and its more or less interchangeable for the most part, but some (most? all?) state schools (and perhaps some private schools) want a biographical "diversity statement" in additional to the more typical "statement of purpose". If it's not that, I don't know what it is. I get the impression that the diversity statement can only help you, but it will not hurt you. I don't know how big a deal diversity statements are, really, and I don't know if they will be read with your other statement of purpose.

As as I know, usually the graduate committee gets a file on every person, so I believe the adcomm would see it all together, rather than see 600 test scores, then 600 statements of purpose, then 600 diversity statements, then 600 writing samples. On the forum last year, some people mentioned going to schools and actually seeing their files (some of them mentioned printed out emails to the graduate secretary). I would guess that they are read together, but it might be useful to have some crossover between the two so that they compliment each other because its still easy to imagine circumstances where members of the adcomm might read things separately. Obviously, different schools would probably select people differently.

If you're apply to a UC, look at their diversity statements and if Michigan's "personal statement" sounds similar, then treat it as the same thing. I have no idea how much universities take into account diversity, especially invisible diversity (like economic background) that can't be published in little charts, when selecting students. There are a lot of theories on it, and if you search "diversity" or "diversity statement", you can find out more. And as SocialComm says, when in doubt, read the website more carefully. If that fails, email the graduate assistant. If it's confusing, post it here and someone might be able to help you. I remember there was a lot of talk about what to write in diversity statements last year, and what individual guidelines wanted (I remember I was particularly frustrated and confounded then... but to be honest, until right now, I had forgotten they existed).

Dear Duke Sociology,

About every week I get an email from you that reads in the subject line "Duke Graduate School Enrollment Services" or something wildly important sounding. You tell me that you've received my transcripts, my GRE scores, my letters of recommendation, other documents, and that you're still processing my application. Why do you do this? I think it is "just to be sure" or something like that. Hey, I'm fine with receiving an email saying, "We got all the crap you sent, so hang tight, because we're deciding whether or not to accept your sorry ass." But when you send this same email on a regular basis it makes me nervous. REALLY nervous. Every time I open my email and I see this one with its subject line staring back at me, my heart races, I get anxious, and then I find out the same thing you told me last week. Just go ahead and give me your rejection and stop teasing me with these emails. (seriously, 5-6 received already, I mean, WTF?) I hate you already and would rather be ambushed with a rejection during the appropriate freak out times (late Jan-mid Feb) than to get these every week. I swear, some office ass-clown thought this would make the applicants more comfortable, and the email probably would if received ONCE. Not weekly ever since mid December. Seriously, guys? Seriously? Just slap me in face, pull down my pants, and push me over into the mud already.

Signed,
Happy to be here, a 2011 Duke Sociology applicant.


Thoughts?

According to the the report page, last year the first admission came from Chicago, which was a super early admission. It is, too, this year. However, the majority of U Chicago admits will not appear until Feb.

Lat year, U of Chicago was the only institution which sent admission before Jan 2010. Later on, An (yes, only one) admission to Brandeis was reported on Jan 1, 2010. Again, there's only one admission reported.

The wave of admission got it's real start by the end of January. The first institution which sent a batch of admissions at once was CUNY, accompanied by several single admissions to Berkeley and UNC Chapel Hill. After several days (by the end of January as well), another big new was about UW Madison's admission released. UCSD, US Davis, UCLA, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard and UT Austin started to send admissions in early February. Afterwards, there were some Berkeley or Chicago admissions. Meanwhile, Duke was still interviewing people.

When it comes to other schools, my impression is most big names would have decided who they want by the end of Feb. Also, after the middle of Feb, you could see more and more rejections from the institutions which had sent admissions. Many top schools have no wait list reported.

So, for the top school applicants, there are not a long way to go. Just wait for roughly 50 days.

I'm currently in a PhD program and one of the masters students asked to look at my old SoP to have an idea of what a successful SoP looks like. As I was rereading it, I realized how much useless and extraneous information I was including. I justified all these things that didn't need to be justified. However, I still liked what I had written in my research proposal section. Word count numbers varied, and the schools I got into had the highest word count (2500) and the lowest word count (500). I think my 500 word one was the best because it forced me to get rid of all that extra crap and really focus on my core research ideas, and the 2500 word one I could just go wild and wow them with lots of interesting detail.

As I'm helping my friend write hers, I'm not telling her what to write or line editing or anything like that (yet), I'm just talking to her about what she wants to do and how she'd want to do it, and whether it is a good idea or not. She has two things (poverty and collective memory) that she is really interested in and is trying to connect using a research method and a particular site, she doesn't know the particulars yet, but she is clearly excited about poverty, collective memory, and certain methods. In my SoP I was much vaguer about a research method, or even if my study was going to be qualitative or quantitative (I implied that it would historical by who I asked to work with, and one could probably infer that it would use both quant and qual methods). But seriously, rereading the first few paragraphs, I cringe now seeing myself give so much biographical information*, but rereading my research ideas I think "Wow, these are much better ideas than I remembered. I should really do this." I think if you're applying at a top school, that's what you really want--research ideas that still sound good a year later, even if you're not sure you're going to do them (selling experience is also a bonus; I get that impression from others in my peers, but I didn't have any experience to sell besides language competency). And the best way to express your research ideas tightly in a statement will be to really have talked them through with lots of people beforehand. I had been talking about my idea for two years before I put pen to paper to write my SoP.

*Note: obviously you need some amount of biographical information.I can just say for myself, I needed half as much as I put in. At least at my school, from day one it's clear you will be valued first and foremost as a researcher and a thinker, far above anything else. You don't get in because you're interesting, or you're a nice person, or you're a passionate teacher, or you've done interesting things (unless it relates to your research). I switched from a religion department to sociology for my PhD and while I think I needed to justify that switch and my lack of sociology background, I think I spent too long on it. I could have been giving other cool pieces of information to show that, in terms of my proposed project, a) I had done a lot of legwork I was already forming a thesis and doing haphazard preliminary mental analysis, or at least engaging with the issues I would encounter c) I was passionate about this particular topic.

EDIT: I noticed that the other posts were not people in sociology. I mean this advice for sociology students and social scientists more generally. While I think it would be similar in other fields, I don't actually know.

Can't believe we don't have a thread dedicated to Chuck Norris!! No wonder life is boring as hell during the waiting period! (Why? Cuz Chuck Norris ain't here to keep us company, y'all!!)

Anyhoo, the obvious question to ponder about, while I/we are stuck in this limbo, is, how would Chuck Norris go through the application and admission process?

1. Chuck Norris doesn't fill out the application forms. He stares at them till they finish up and pay after themselves.
2. Personal statement of Chuck Norris: "Me".
3. Chuck Norris never accepts offers made by any schools because he is tired of being the only smart dawg on campus.
5. If Chuck Norris doesn't get accepted, he simply calls up the admission office and says "No".
6. Chuck Norris got rejected at all schools he applied to. But the adcomms haven't gathered the courage to break the news to him.
7. While on a campus visit, the graduate student who was supposed to pick Chuck Norris up from the airport didn't show up. Enraged, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the whole city and dropped it far away in the ocean. People say that's how the Liliput came to be.
8. There are no PoIs for Chuck Norris. There is only CNoI for the POIs.
9. When asked what his career goals are, Chuck Norris answered "To be Chuck Norris".
10. Chuck Norris didn't get into any Eco/Evo program because no professors was willing to buy the idea that the mass extinction of dinosaurs was due to chuck norrisaurus and no meteor.
11. Chuck Norris was instantly hired by the math program because he could divide by zero.
12. Chuck Norris doesn't wait during the whole application process. He goes back to the future and gets his degree.
13. Chuck Norris was let go from the immunology program. Not because he caught the diseases, but because he crushed them with his bare hands after catching them.
14. Chuck Norris once possessed satan. To investigate how, the religion program was created.
15. When applying for physical fitness programs, Chuck Norris was asked how many push ups he could do. He answered "All of them".
16. Chuck Norris was invited for recruiting weekend because, well, Chuck Norris needed to recruit workers.
17. Chuck Norris was once called to the Dean's office because the Dean was in trouble.
18. There is no 'Middle Name' form field in the applications given to Chuck Norris to fill out. Because the schools are smart enough to know that nothing should come between Chuck Norris.
19. Chuck Norris doesn't contact PoIs. He pokes them in facebook.
20. PoIs don't poke back Chuck Norris on facebook. Who in their right mind would finger Chuck Norris?

So, after about 5 months of lurking, I'd like to say hello! I'm not sure why it took me so long to officially join up, but better late than never. (And just in time to join in the month-plus-long therapy session of waiting to hear from schools...) Let me introduce myself:

I'm a December '09 undergraduate, with a double major in sociology and philosophy. I'm mainly interested in the sociology of culture, knowledge and stratification with a weakness for high-minded (and occasionally low-minded) theory inherited from my philosophy days. As far as applications go, I'm applying to programs mainly in the northeast (though also one UC and a midwestern school), as my girlfriend and I have decided to undertake the graduate school odyssey together (she's doing anthropology) and the northeast offers the most schools within commutable distances. I'm applying to a couple of top-20s (one of which is an ivy), a top-30 and three top-50s for a total of 6 schools.

So, I want to invite all of the lurkers out there to join up and join in. Introduce yourselves! It's quite liberating...

Also, I want to give a shout out to jacib and Roll Right, as their (your) comments have been extremely helpful in the lead-up to this madness. Thanks again.

Okay, back to touching up my last couple SOPs. (Did I mention I'm a procrastinator?)

I think a lot of people would think that in regard to others on this forum. To ease anxiety, I try to remember a few things. Let's make a list!
1. You are bound to find the cream of the crop on this forum because anybody who joins a graduate school application site is bound to have academics in the forefront of their life. As a result, they are probably fairly obsessive and probably FAR above average in terms of GPA/GRE/experience etc.
2. Competition never seems to be an issue among posters, so fear not. The entire community here is really supportive and encouraging, because we all know how stressful this is.

If all else fails...
3. You never really know if people are inflating their grades and resumes. (It's anonymous, after all )