heathenist
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Posts posted by heathenist
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I accepted my offer from the University of New Mexico last night. Making a decision is so freeing at this point...
They seem to be heading in a really great direction, apparently they have 5 new faculty coming in for the Fall semester.
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When is it appropriate to ask about things like transfer credits if you're coming from finishing an MA?
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Easy, Chicago rules, Northwestern.
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Any speculation about Vanderbilt?
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There is tremendous consistency in the rankings. Because they're all about peer-review, and a lot of what people know is what they've read in rankings before, there's not usually much movement.
While I agree that departments mentioned above are on the rise, their movement in the rankings might depend on their approaches. For example, UMass, Notre Dame and others are building mostly with junior hires. Cornell, also, has great junior people. Traditionally assistant professors, regardless of quality, don't affect the rankings much. Because Duke and Irvine decided to focus more on recruiting senior stars, they might see more of a shift. Of course, this is all conjecture. Only time will tell.
Word on the grapevine is that UMass has hired a very prominent social movement scholar who will be starting in the fall.
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You might be a geek if you're really excited about this...
(I'm reallllly excited!)
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Accepted into South Florida's master's program with full funding!......and they have a doctoral program to stay around for too.
Congrats! Robert Benford was the chair at my current department before he left for USF (he left before I got here), but I think he is a pretty big name in social movements because of his contributions to the framing literature.
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Turns out I was wait listed at UCI, they are hoping to make me an offer in the next few weeks. Interesting!
Congrats! How did you find out if you don't mind me asking?
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OP- I'm not sure how privy you were to this information, but what do you think were the deciding factors when handing out fellowships (vs standard assistantships)? Are they just given to the student with the best GRE score or something like that, or is it more subjective?
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I'm about 98% sure where I'll be attending in the fall. I still haven't heard from 2 places that would maybe make me second guess my decision, and those are expected rejections. It's definitely nice to know where I'll be in the fall, now I'm just hoping my partner ends up getting accepted there too (in a different PhD program), but we won't know for probably another 2-3 weeks unfortunately.
EDIT: After checking my decision status on the UMass website, I'm now 99.9% sure I know where I'll be going in the fall.
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Yeah, I don't really know the etiquette behind submitting the same paper to multiple conferences. It seems like it would be frowned upon, but I really don't know.
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I recently got accepted in my top choice program and had an interview at anothe place literally 3 days after I recieved my acceptance. So my airfare, hotel, and all that was already paid for. Even under such short notice I still told program that wanted an interview that I was not interested anymore and that I did not want to take a potential acceptance away from someone who was 100% set on this particular school. While I felt like pulled a shit move for flaking out last second, they were actually very happy with what I did. So after that situation I totally agree that it's never really a bad thing or a bad time to withdraw application or decline offers when you are 100% sure about it. It is better than wasting people's time, and it allows for those who are interested a better shot. And thats what I think is most important about withdrawing/declining, it allows others who are interested but not in yet a better shot.
Absolutely. I recently told my graduate director I wouldn't be continuing on here for my PhD, and while it was a little awkward, I did it to free up funding for other people, and she seemed very appreciative of that.
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I know you are allowed to defer payments while in school, and a PhD program should qualify. If not, there are a lot of other ways to defer - economic hardship being the principal one I've used while out of school.
On a completely different note, I'm wondering if anyone can offer some insight to the question I might be facing. Save for a chance at being pulled off the waitlist (which I feel I have a shot at), at a high ranked program, my options seem to be limited to a fairly low ranked PhD program and the MA program at my current university, ranked fairly low (50's I think) overall but high (20s) in "productivity."
I'm pushing 30 and would rather go straight to the PhD program but here is my question - would it be better for my career down the road to stick with an MA program where I know I'll have lots of faculty support and am confident I can get at least a couple journal publications under my belt, with the hope of getting into a high ranking program afterwards, or just work hard in the lower ranked PhD program and see what I can make of it?
Any applicants with MAs wanna take a stab at this?
A couple of journal publications in the time it takes to get an MA? From my understanding if you were planning on doing that you'd already need some irons in the fire at this point. Doesn't it take quite a while to get an article published (even after the research has been done and the paper has been written)? I'm sure it's possible, but I'd imagine the only way to get 2 articles before finishing a MA would come by the way of 2nd or 2rd writer on a faculty member's article, and even then, the review process takes so long that they might not even be back for R&R before you finish.
However, if you have something you're already working on (senior thesis) that could easily be turned into a publication, then you could probably get one before finishing. Then offer to help a faculty member on their ongoing research and ask how you can contribute as a 2nd or 3rd writer, and that might put you in good position to at least have something forthcoming.
I'm finishing a MA at a PhD granting sociology department right now and I found my time here really rewarding. I was able to learn a lot and get a clear idea of my research agenda. I ended up getting into a top 20 university with a fellowship, which would have never happened 2 years ago (frankly I'm pretty surprised it happened at all). However, I'm only 23 so finishing in a super timely manner wasn't a concern of mine, for me it's worth the extra year or so to split up the MA and PhD if it means getting a degree from a top 20 university versus a university well out of the top 50.
I suggest if you go the MA route to do everything you can to build up your CV. Write papers in seminars that you can submit to conferences (and then go to said conferences), volunteer to help professors with research, serve on committees, write grant proposals, etc.
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UCSD sent me an email with funding info today but the attachment was missing.
Oh man, I can't imagine how frustrating it was when you realized the attachment was missing.
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Also, congrats to everyone who got acceptance calls/emails today!
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Anyone else still waiting to hear back from Vanderbilt? I haven't heard a thing and there have already been a few acceptances posted and a bunch of rejections.
Vanderbilt adcomm must have been reading this thread, just got an email from them a few minutes ago. My decision is getting easier and easier. But hey, you only need one right? Well, I guess I technically got three offers, but the other 2 are out of the top 50 and came after my acceptance to Arizona.
I think I'll go ahead and email Irvine and Amherst and put an end to this.
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Anyone else still waiting to hear back from Vanderbilt? I haven't heard a thing and there have already been a few acceptances posted and a bunch of rejections.
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I WAS ACCEPTED INTO UCSD!!!!!
Wow, what an awesome day for you, congrats!
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Its not another US holiday is it?! Too quiet...
Definitely very quiet. I'm guessing my chances of being admitted to Amherst or Vanderbilt are quickly diminishing.
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Yeah I haven't been "officially" rejected yet, but since people have posted official wait-lists I am not investing too much hope into the idea of being accepted. Sorry for a negative opinion, I just try to be as realistic as possible with this process, no need to create any extra distress when it could be avoided.
No extra distress for me, I've gotten an offer from a school I would have chosen over UMN anyways, and either way, at this point I've come to terms with it. I haven't yet given up hope on UMass or Vanderbilt yet though.
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Has anyone been officially rejected from Minnesota or contacted the department to see if they have been wait-listed? I'm in a similar situation.
I don't think anyone has been officially rejected yet, but I'm not sure if anyone has contacted the department. I thought I remembered some people posting that they had been waitlisted though.
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Minnesota was my first application and they were the first of the schools I applied to (and maybe the first sociology program in general) to send out acceptances, and as far as I know they still haven't sent out rejections. Part of me wants to send them and email and withdraw my name from consideration despite the fact that I'm 99.9% sure it's a rejection... just to have that satisfaction.
Tucson, AZ
in City Guide
Posted · Edited by heathenist
I've been here for about a year, and I get by just fine without a car, in fact, only two people in my cohort have cars, and I know a ton of other grad students without cars, it's very doable, especially if you live in West University, Pie Allen, Downtown, or Sam Hughes, etc (really any of the neighborhoods near campus). I live near downtown and campus is a very easy bike ride away, and I don't really find myself needing to leave the downtown/campus area very often.
The buses are not great. Crowded and they stop running very early. It makes going to see a later showing of a movie or anything like that, kind of a hassle. The biggest problem for me has been getting groceries, but I recently discovered that safeway (a bigger grocery store chain in the area, think Kroger, Fry's, Food Lion, etc) deliver's for a very reasonable fee, and if you are patient you can very easily get coupons for free delivery. I think the standard rate is like $13, but it's very easy to get that reduced to around $6-7 even without coupons. And speaking from experience, it's totally worth it just to avoid the hassle of dealing with getting grocieries on the bus. I really wish someone had told me about it my first semester here.
Also, Sociolite, feel free to pm me, I'm in the Soc department so if you have any questions let me know.