Fatkiller

It's indeed a huge achievement! Congratulations! As much as I love the inspiration, I think I have to ask (or say) something that might sound harsh, and actually this is also something that I'd love to hear your perspectives on. What are your strategies to participate in the research projects? And a follow-up question: to what extent do you think your strategies (for research opportunities, PhD applications, etc.) are applicable for other applicants? In my opinion (and I can be totally wrong), your status as an American citizen (I suppose) contributes much to your achievements. For instance, international students/applicants for sociology PhD programs have much fewer opportunities (e.g, for research opportunities) than you do because of visa/working restrictions. That is, for those international students who share similar background with you, they may not have such opportunities at all even if they want to do something to strengthen themselves or to prove they are competitive enough for a PhD program or a job position in a research team. Please forgive me for the extreme language - I was trying to draft an example. The reason why I ask the questions and comment on the status is that I have many fellow amazing international students who are studying sociology and want to do more research. I worked with many of them and they are really brilliant in their distinct fields. But just because they are international students, they lose many opportunities - primarily in job market or application. In addition to other prevailing forms of discrimination (racism, sexism, meritocracy [about ses, GPA, ed background, GRE, etc.], etc.), I start to think the biases (either as causes or results) towards international students really hinder their potential development as a researcher. They can work, study, or do research in their own countries indeed, but I think sociology is a sort of "meritocratic" domain itself, especially for the US academia (reference: https://scatter.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/who-hires-whom/). If one ought to dedicate to sociological research, PhD programs/research positions in the US will probably be their top, if not only, choices. So, just for the sake of applications or the so-called "background boost", I would love to hear about your strategies to get start with research jobs/work and opinions on international students/applicants. Again, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your efforts and inspiration for us and am genuinely happy for you. It's just I can relate to many international students who express these concerns and want to know whether there is a way for them to chase their dreams.

LOL I heard that US universities do not like to admit students from the same institution, is this correct? I kinda got this info from some of my professors and admission consultants. It both does and does not make sense in my view, but it does sound a bit weird. It's like the universities reject their own educational outcomes lol.

Nothing from Madison or Michigan at all. As for NYU, all I know and can say is that they already started reviewing materials and that *perhaps* they started reviewing materials as soon as applicants submitted the applications regardless of the deadline. So, if you submit your applications far earlier than the deadline and haven't received any news, I would regard this as a good sign because it might suggest that you could be in a short list. However, since they haven't sent any rejections, I would wait a bit longer.

Those who have been rejected by IUB, gather here! ? First rejection received!

Silence is better than flooding rejections, isn't it? ? I just received an interview invitation from Iowa and am preparing for it. Finger crossed for all!

@Klutch2381 @Meroki LOL if you saw an earlier post of mine about a uni that did not bother updating application status... However, a piece of possibly good news is that I sent the office an email in early December (after I submitted my application) to ask for some clarification for the materials in case I need to update some. They replied and said I wouldn't need to. So I think they might check all materials in December and will start reviewing in January? Also, for those who applied to University of British Columbia and McGill, both unis started to review applications in this week. I received emails from UBC and my application portal of McGill shows "under review". Tbh, I have literally little expectation for this cycle because the pandemic isn't getting any better and I believe international students will be put in a disadvantaged stance in application review due to funding issues. Anyways, good luck everyone!

@CinnamonCream I submitted my application to NYU on Nov 28th, and the admission office contacted me in early December about my materials (one of my transcripts is unofficial). They also said they would review my application as soon as I uploaded the official transcript. So I think the email implies that they start reviewing applications when the application is complete and all materials are ready to be reviewed.

Hi all! Just an update: I received emails from Indiana Bloomington, McMaster, and NYU saying that they already started reviewing materials. Also, I sent an inquiry message to McGill, and the admission office said they would start reviewing the materials soon (if not already started). If you've applied to these programs, good luck! Also, some programs where I applied allow/encourage (for example, Columbia and University of Iowa) applicants to update their transcripts when the grades in the fall semester are available. I think my fall grades can help so I updated mine. You can check your application portal(s) to see whether you should/need to/want to do that. Btw, the link below is an article that I find helpful to do some mental preparation in advance. I hope it helps to you as well! https://s-michael-gaddis.medium.com/a-reflection-on-rejection-c57b8806b463 Again, fingers crossed for all!

Most of those results are for engineer/science subjects, so I think they have a different style of admissions? Believe it or not, some of the programs I've applied haven't started reviewing my applications ?... not saying which uni, but I submitted all my applications on Nov 28th, and the application status of the uni is still "application complete" rather than "under review", even though there is a status called "under review" lol. It might be that most sociologists at unis need to read LOTS of essays as final exams, so they won't start in December. I'm expecting them to review my application in early January, and let's see how it goes.

I am not an expert in admission but was in a similar situation as yours. My intuitive reaction is that you should explain your low grades in your SoP. Admission committee will not do it for you. You also need to apply some strategies in your explanation (tones, word choice, logical cohesion, etc..) and avoid any "red flag" marks. Then, you need evidence that proves your scores/GPA does not represent your (academic) potential. By evidence, I mean LoRs, projects, extracurricular events, etc.. I will use myself as an example. My undergrad GPA is very low. I explained the reason and showed what else I did (with evidence of achievements). My LoR writer is the dean of my faculty. Despite my low GPA, he acknowledges my potential based on our interaction and my extracurricular accomplishments. After graduation, my achievements within my job also prove my competency. I ended up in a master program in a top30 university. So, I think the very basic rule here is that use plentiful evidence of your potential to compensate for low GPA. The more, the better. You need to do (and I did) much more than those applicants with high GPAs to prove your potential. Also, there are plentiful successful applicants with sub-3.0 GPAs in the thread below. You can see how they succeeded.

Thank you! Now having a larger cohort of PhD students sounds more logical to me, also because not many MA/MS students would dedicate themselves into assistantship either. Finger crossed for this cycle!

That is actually good to know! Thank you and @THS. My follow-up question is that if they decided to hire MS/MA students or advanced undergrads to do the TA/RA job this year, It appears to me that they could continue hiring those students for the jobs in the following years because doing so should be much more cost-efficient than funding a larger cohort of PhD students, assuming that the MS/MA students and undergrads did their job well, correct? I do not have much experience in the US academia though, so I'm wondering how much the labor shortage would contribute to the decision of accepting/funding more PhD students. Perhaps they could offer more semi-funded MA/MS opportunities with TA/RA rather than accept more fully funded PhD students?

Really? Because last year was so crazy? My "CI" told me that she believed that there would be even more applicants this year because she had more students consulting her this year than last year. But there indeed is chance that some students decide not to apply after they consult and know about last year.

Columbia, UCLA, Duke, Cornell, Ann Arbor, Toronto, McGill, UBC, NYU, Wisconsin Madison, Rutgers, Indiana Bloomington, McMaster, Alberta, and Iowa.

Good luck, y'all. Just submitted some of my applications and will submit the other tonight. 15 programs in total, and I actually have a feeling that I will need to do another round in the next year as some of my friends (who work as an admissions counsellor or director in universities) told me that the number of applicants this year is crazy. So... finger crossed and good luck, every one!