misterpat

For fast delivery, I've been using the Postal Service (USPS). Their 2 day delivery is pretty cheap, $4.50 or so and then tracking. I would consider it a three day delivery to be conservative. Their overnight is like 16.50 though. It's supposed to be pretty reliable, but one of my packages got this round of apps. But a week is plenty of time in the postal world (though ideally you want to allow time for mistakes).

Yeah, one of my recommenders submitted his letters late for some of my schools. Haven't gotten my results yet, but he made it sound like he explained it in the letter and that it shouldn't make much of a difference.

Ha. You would be the Detriot Lions of PhD applications at 0/16.

I don't know if the Rutgers Criminology program is a distinct entity or part of the larger sociology program, so I'm hesitant to say too much. But your GREs are pretty low, so Fullbright might help you get into a better program.

There are plenty of sociologists doing Ethnography and Qualitative research. While it is true that the big Sociology journals like ASR are overwhelmingly dominated by Quantitative articles, ethnography is by no means a rarity in Sociology. And NYU is still pretty competitive. Maybe less so than the other programs you applied to, but still not a definite admit in any case. I agree that you should apply to at least one backup school, if only to transfer after you complete an MA.

It probably doesn't make much of a difference how it's classified since the members of the Department may not have control over that. There's probably people who consider it both in most departments, but I feel like the majority opinion is that it's proper home is in the humanities. I suppose if someone is doing a more Quantitative-based style, like Economic History, they might be more likely to describe what they do as a Social Science.

0%. New School provides no funding. (Sub-topic: Is that what makes its the New School?)

Minnesotan, did you just make that Pedantic Man thing up right here, or do you do that all the time? Seems like a great way to soften the blow of being an asshole and correcting someone. I have also heard that 2 is true. As for number 3, one Professor told me that a classic negative LOR is "He was in class." Not to disagree about the first LOR point, but I had a Professor from a top History program write me this in an e-mail earlier this fall: "I would be happy to work with you. I am a big fan of Professor [deleted]'s work. A strong letter from him would go a long way towards addressing any issues that might arise over your GPA"

Daaamn, a book review? That's intense.

Is anyone here living in the new University apartments specifically for graduate school?

1. Ask specific questions that you would like answered. 2. Check back shortly afterward. 8)

Any of you kids actually end up at Temple for this year? If so: your thoughts?

Ha. That would be an interesting paper. But yeah, I was encouraged to apply by nearly every professor I contacted (the notable exceptions being someone at Harvard and someone at Penn, where I was ignored). I don't imagine I'll get into some of those programs, so it might not mean much.

Stony Brook has a lot of Gender faculty members, like Michael Kimmel. It doesn't seem they have many faculty members doing economic sociology, though.

First off: New School doesn't fund their students. Don't pay for a sociology degree. Rutgers is a great program. I've read a lot of books by their faculty (I had a great professor whose PhD is from there, Wayne Brekhus, who assigned me a number of them). Eviatar Zerubavel is great, especially if you're into Sociology of Culture. If you like the work of Erving Goffman, you'll like Zerubavel. Yale has a few excellent faculty members, most notably Jeffrey Alexander. Most people I've talked to consider it an A- program. It's behind Harvard, Princeton and all those top schools, but it's still a great program. You kind of get to ride the reputation of Yale being one of the best universities in the country despite the fact its ranked 20 or so, I've been told. The two main areas are comparative/historical and culture, so it looks like a good fit for you. Go for it. I don't know anything about GC-CUNY. Princeton, NYU and Columbia were all excellent choices. Best of luck, you should fare well in the admissions process. Congrats on your GREs.

Rising_star is usually full of good advice, so still apply. But, and I'm sorry to say this, 300 is really really low. I just looked it up and thats about 5th percentile. I've been worried about my 58th percentile AW score catching the wrong person's attention. You might have scored better had you answered A for every question. If you have a copy of an old math test somewhere in your house, maybe include it in your supplementary materials so they know that you are capable of adding and subtracting.

Sounds like you know something I don't. What situation are you referring to?

Be prepared to pay for that New School degree, should you be accepted. They don't fund their students. I have no idea how competitive York is, but you really should look into a school or two that aren't top tier. You should get a little bit of leeway on your Verbal and AW GREs since you are an international student, but with a 460 and a 3.5 you need a lot of leeway. Those programs turn down many qualified applicants each year; they're going to be looking for ways to make the pile of apps smaller, so despite what they may say about GREs being only one part of your application, it might be the nail in your Berkeley coffin. If your published articles are good, I suppose you aren't out of the running. Do consider some second-tier programs, though. A UC campus other than Berkeley, UCLA or Sanata Barabara would be a good option. Check out UC Davis.

I would think this would be tough, given the amount of people with History degrees who are facing a tough academic job market. But you never know.

Princeton is a cool economic sociology program, so you might want to check that out, too. Deadline is the 15th. I also think that with your GPA, you could even aim a little higher than those last couple schools (or save your money). I don't even know if those schools are in the top 100. I think University of Illinois-Chicago has a decent economic sociology program, and it isn't too competitive. Also, Georgia is supposedly a very underrated program that you might want to check out.

Isn't Texas the best Latin American program?

With an economics major, I think you should be fine switching over to sociology. It's a cousin discipline, and a lot tougher of an undergraduate major than sociology (at least I imagine so, I majored in History and Sociology). WIth only one course in sociology, Madison, Rutgers, Cornell and Indiana might be a stretch. But I would bet on you getting in somewhere, provided that you write a convincing statement of purpose and have a good writing sample. Also, I would play up the fact that you are looking to do Quantitative sociology. If you sell yourself as a Qualitative sociologist, your application might have a higher risk of ending up in the hands of someone who doesn't appreciate Economics very much. I assume this is your goal anyway, with the Econ background, but you definitely don't want to write your SOP about how you don't have much experience in sociology. Talk instead about how relevant your Economics coursework is for what you want to do as a graduate student.

Though I am not in your field, my guess would be that your verbal GREs will hurt you. Perhaps try and find a program that doesnt require them (Northwestern doesn't, but they don't have an ancient history specialization). Otherwise, definitely vary up the tiers of schools you apply to. Your experience with languages makes your verbal score somewhat surprising. It might be a fluke. Did you take it too late this fall? I'll bet you could do better, at least if you prepared a little more.