twolucky

some schools (such as maryland) wait a ridiculously long time to notify rejected applicants. like, i don't think i heard from maryland until early april last year about being rejected. some schools (such as cu-boulder and oregon) notify applicants the day they send out acceptances (or 1-2 days after). i've never emailed to ask, but that's because i spend my own money and time on applying, so the least a department could do is send me a templated rejection letter on their own time.

@sugarplz @ohnoherewegoagain @michigan girl I really appreciate your insight and encouragement to chill. The funding that I received is a 5-year no-service fellowship from the university, in addition to my department assistantship. I guess I feel a little guilty not accepting right away, in case they have students on a waitlist for the fellowship. But I am going to pause on decision-making and continue meeting with a few people from the university. 
Thank you again for helping me and others navigate a murky process. I'm not sure that I have much to reciprocate, but I wish you luck!

Don't give up if your name is on the waitlist! Openings will become available when candidates begin making their decisions next month. Keep in mind that candidates who receive numerous offers can only ultimately select one school. It's possible that you won't get a status update until the end of March or perhaps April. A waitlist option is better than a rejection!

don't give up hope! you just need one acceptance. i was in your same spot last year.

I am just joining this conversation and reading everyone else's posts is wild. Each and every one of us are having very different experiences and it goes to show that the admissions process really is varied from program-to-program.
For those asking about IU, I was offered admission to the program just a day ago (along with a formal letter from department head and funding package offer). I am beyond overjoyed as this is my third wave of applications (1st wave back in 2018 and 2nd wave in 2021). Third time's the charm, I guess! ?
I was also recently admitted to the University of Kansas, waitlisted to University of Minnesota, and rejected by U-Wisc Madison. I am still waiting to hear back from 3 more programs I applied to.
This whole process is...very daunting. I can't help but check my phone and emails constantly while at work all day. I will be checking back frequently for updates. I wish everyone the best of luck on getting into their programs as we eagerly await results over the next week or so (most programs send out notifications mid-February, from my past experience of applying). Cheers.

If you (or others who might read this) do have to reapply (I’m in my 3rd - and last - cycle), my biggest advice is doing a deep dive. Deep dive every single program that is remotely interesting to you. (It looks like you applied to a lot of top schools; it’s great to aim there, but there are hundreds of applicants for a handful of spots. Take UChicago, for example. Their soc program in 22-23 had 259 applicants [I was one] with only 18 admissions and 6 enrollments - google UChicago PhD program data - the odds of admission are astronomically low.) This is the same across a lot of top programs. 
 
This cycle, I selected cities I wouldn’t mind living in and did a deep dive on every faculty member’s publications in the last 10 years and recent grants (use the NSF/NIH/whatever agency grant search). I only chose to apply to schools where my fit was absolutely clear. Also, look into the coursework, the colloquia, recent talks, unique methodology used by the faculty and write that into your SOP. 
 
Also, from my conversations with faculty I’m hearing a lot about the increase in the number of applicants with a masters degree.
 
Anyways, I say all this for one point. Don’t give up hope until it’s clear there are no options left. Then, take some time and remind yourself that you’re qualified and intelligent and can do it. 
 
TheRedHeadAcademic has some excellent resources on her YouTube channel on SOPs and grad admissions. She used to have some good priced PDFs about writing SOPs, too. She also runs a consultancy (that’s very expensive, but seems to have good results.) and she’ll be releasing a grad admissions class soon. 
 
Anywho- I’m wishing you the best of luck! Remember to take care of yourself- rejection sucks. 

Not sure how many more rejections I have to endure before getting a real offer. But it's Feb already I am expecting to be overwhelmed by results in the coming days. Best of the wishes to you too!

Same here. My second rejection after UChicago. Neither is a good fit for me so it's kind of expected. I still got 11 programs that have no news at all. Hope we all have some good news in Feb! It's an exceptionally competitve year. It seems that most programs got more applicants and many of them are also accepting fewer students this year. 

Same. Kind of knew it was coming when I didn't get an offer yesterday. But anyway good luck to the both of us with the rest of applications!

I feel like all bets are off for when to expect results this cycle, which is really really messing with my slightly-OCD mind. Hope everyone here is staying sane and (mostly) distracted!

anyone from here has had interviews at Yale sociology? DGS told me they were coming back to interviewees in the next two weeks. How was your experience? I'm on my nerves. All good vibes to everyone applying there and other unis (special love to those UChicago rejections)

I see the rejections for UChicago. My heart goes out to all of you. I was in the same boat two years ago. For those who got interviews…do you think there will be two rounds of rejections then? Or are the interviewees probably going to be admitted/waitlisted? 

Hi folks! Just wanted to say hi and wish everyone the best of luck in the coming weeks/months. I'm a first time (PhD) applicant straight out of undergrad with a degree in sociology, but only two of the programs I'm applying to are soc (both of which are on the west coast). Heard nothing so far yet but based on previous years that's to be expected. Super nervous but trying to channel that energy positively!

(If anyone is curious, my research interests are in the realm of gender/sexuality, culture, ethnography, and health/illness.)

OMG! So happy for you! Best of luck!

Same! Good luck to us both!

Hey all, just wanted to share that I just received an invitation for interview a Rutgers! Literally shaking lol. 

If you're looking for work on graduate admissions specifically, Posselt's book is the best resource. I've included some good citations here, too (in no particular format -- I also dont include links, as previous posts of mine with links got removed):
Posselt & Grodsky. 2017. Graduate education and social stratification. Annual Review of Sociology 
Posselt. 2016. Inside graduate admissions: Merit, diversity, and faculty gatekeeping. Boston, MA:Harvard University Press
Woo et al. 2022. Bias, Fairness, and Validity in Graduate-School Admissions: A Psychometric Perspective. Perspectives of Psychological Science 
Pieper & Krsmanovic. In press. Journal of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies 
These are a couple of key and couple of recent articles to check out! If you're interested in a discussion of the GRE, specifically, see the Woo et al article. If you want evidence that grad admissions are socially constructed and not predictable, see any of the others! :) 

This just feels like torture. Applicants in other disciplines have started to hear back but not sociology

Hi everyone! 
I just sent my two applications for my PhD's as well. Super nervous. I applied to other masters programs, but my top two PhD's were Georgia Tech and University of Toronto. 

In my case, I enrolled in a statistic course at one of the top 2 Chilean universities; tough in Spanish, I published a book review from a U.S. professor, a collective paper was published, got my second experience working as an R.A., led a course at University. But, to be honest, the most important thing that changed was my SOP: it is completely different from last year's. (I got a lot of help from a professor from a certain top 10 U.S. University and also from @lkaitlyn) Also, I sent another W.S., a work-in-progress paper from interviews I've done on my own. 
In any case, I still don't know if this worked.

No, it’s not typical. There are a few that do; I believe I’ve seen UVA and Emory, but I know that only from the results section of this website. 
Schools like UGA, for example, do an interview weekend, where they invite their shortlist to campus and it’s like a group interview type situation. 

In short, plan for results over interviews  
@ayitao

Hey everyone!! I'm back at it (again). I applied in the Fa21 cycle, no PhD admits, but I got into a funded masters program. I wanted to transfer so i didn't waste time in classes that may/may not transfer into a PhD, so I applied in the Fa22 cycle (no offers).
I took advantage of a ton of research opportunities in my current grad program and now have 1 publication, several conference presentations/posters, and a couple papers under review. This is my third (and final) application cycle! If i don't get any offers this time, I'm calling it quits -- I've done everything I need to do (research, good grades, wrote a thesis).
I'm also casting a wide net this time. I'm applying to full time job opportunities in addition to the PhD programs! 
UGA, Harvard, Northwestern, Ohio State, Emory, FSU, Johns Hopkins, Boston University, UVa, and I applied to the NSF GRFP. Here's to the third-time's-the-charm-luck! I'm happy to discuss life in grad school or if anyone wants advice on having patience!

lol let it be known i overreacted and everything was fine the stress is getting to me i'm just glad to be officially done :') ❤️

Hi everyone!
Applying to Yale and Notre Dame, as well as Boston University and Princeton Theological for Theology. Applying for sociology of religion! My interest is the rise of extremist traditional Catholics as it relates to the rise of general white Christian nationalism in the US and also how it's mediated by the internet. 
I'm currently getting a Masters in Theological Studies at BU, and I also have a bachelor's in Economics from UMass Amherst. I'm hoping econ + theology = successful soc of religion application. 

hi everyone! i'm applying as a transfer applicant/reapplying as a first-year phd student this cycle.
applying/already applied: UF, UMiami, CU-Boulder, UOregon, Pitt, UVA, Maryland, BU, BC, CWRU, UArizona, WUSTL, Penn State, JHU, Cornell, and Yale
may apply: Stony Brook, Columbia (master's)
i wish all of you so much luck! the process can be grueling, but i'm hoping for the best for all of you!