tsengch77

Certainly, there are some professors in the top 20 programs who came from lower tier programs. There are several possibilities, since some lower tier programs are relatively niche and being known for their specialties in several subfields (take BC and environmental sociology for instance), and individually, some people have good publications and/or connections. From my point of view, prestige (for like top 50-60 programs) works like a threshold that affects the bar for job candidates, but it does not fundamentally limit or permit a person's chance on the job market. But, generally, I would say that once the rank got lower, one should be more strategically planning their way to stay in academia.
As for outside of academia, I tend to think that it is like a different career path/ lifestyle preference, whether it is IOs, think-tanks, HRs, or consultant groups, it requires different connections and skill settings. There are people that graduated from top 20 and still chose to go outside of academia. Job placement page on each program's website is a good start to understand where do their graduates go.

There are two aspects that I will consider not only for the cycle but also for the (hopefully) future doctoral journey. Extrinsically, I have also been working in other related fields for years (social movement/policy/politics), and if academia does not work out for me, I would go for other intended careers; in other words, I think that limiting yourself to only one possibility is never a good idea. Intrinsically, I also agree that you should not blame yourself for any rejection; rather, I would take that like fieldwork and consider what I have learned from the cycle, and what I shall do in the next cycle to increase my probability of getting acceptance, such as start applying for funding earlier, networking earlier, etc. Considering the competition may not fall down in the upcoming years as long as the pandemic is still looming, I would urge myself to turn the anxiety into preparing earlier next time.

I have applied to those two, and no updates yet. I think that from the previous record BC typically send out acceptance letters at the very end of January, while Northeastern conducts interview around late January.
I also did the interview earlier today with my POI in UC Irvine, who said that it was his mistake for the late interview. It was very chill, chit-chatting about weather in Asia and the US, and most of the time it was me asking questions about the program rather than being asked.