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For those of you planning to go to IU, I would recommend watching Breaking Away (coming of age story; it is a classic made in 1979, forgotten by most and revived thanks to Long Tail and Netflix). It is a great movie and I remember looking at the campus and loving it. Of course, the movie should appeal to everyone; so, if you feel like a good movie, netflix breaking away! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078902/ http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Away-Wid ... B0009HLD0K PS: Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children; 2006) gives a good performance as one of the teenagers (Moocher). It also has Dennis Quaid as one of the teenagers with some issues about students in IU.

I took slothy's statement about Marx/Weber/Durkheim to mean that once you move on to a specific sub-discipline of sociology (beyond comps) there is an "argument" to be made about how much their insights are used/applied in that sub-field, For the original poster, yes you do want to read the original works, but I would advise that you start with a broad overview (a grad. level reader) to help get oriented better. even if you do not have any background in sociology, it is possible to catch up with the readings during your first year. Of course, you will be working harder, but in my mind it is easier to synthesize the readings once you have the broader perspective (that you acquire from a reader).

When uploading my application materials to Princeton, I distinctly remember the system messing up my uploaded information. After uploading all documents, I noticed that one of the files were missing (I don't remember if it is the writing sample or CV). I noticed it while previewing my application. I sent an email to Tech support; I also deleted all my files and then uploaded them before I got all my materials in the system! Perhaps, something similar happened to your application.

Thanks...

Hello All: I was wondering if you are familiar with the range of funding options available for a typical PhD program in Sociology (I am applying to Columbia, Princeton, NYU, GC-CUNY and Rutgers). I will be interested in obtaining tuition waiver as I certainly do not wish to pay tuition. Do I also have the option to decline RA/TA/Fellowships but just request tuition waiver. I know the question might sound strange, but I would like to have the option to decline funding with the exception of tuition waiver (for ethical reasons). Thanks. PS: I posted this in the sociology sub-forum, but thought that I'd post here as well due to the relevance of the topic.

Hello All: I was wondering if you are familiar with the range of funding options available for a typical PhD program in Sociology. Thanks.

Also wanted to add my experience... 710 V, 800 Q and 5.0 in AWA. I was very surprised at my AWA score as I thought that I had done a good job. In preparation, I dusted up my quants fundamentals, took about 7-8 practice tests each in Verbal and Quants and the powerprep computer based tests from ETS (in my defense, I decided to apply for Fall 2009 only around Nov 15). Since I was reasonably confident about my writing (while I make the occasional grammatical errors, I write well), I did not practice for AWA and spent the little time I had on the other two sections. I did not know that one of the scores for the AWA would be generated by a computer system! I disagree with ETS's choice in using a computer based system to rate the essay to cut costs and I think that it decreases the validity and reliability of the AWA scores (lower reliability as the human raters may simply adjust to the parameters used by the computer based rating system; formulaic writing is probably the best bet to get 6.0 - not very surprising for a standardized test, I guess!)

Thanks for your help... Just submitted my application to Rutgers. Good Luck to everyone.

Thanks for the information... I will be adding Rutgers to the list of schools. Regards.

I hope I am not too late in adding my reply... My wife got into many ivy league schools (Columbia, Harvard, Stanford) with a GRE score in Math around 300. She ended up attending Harvard (Romance Languages) and was told that the admissions committee really liked her writing sample (a term paper she wrote for masters level course). so, I wouldn't worry if your department is more in the humanities side as math scores have little relevance (in my judgement) to what you want to pursue. Hope this helps and good luck.

Hello All: I only recently decided to apply for a PhD in Sociology (Nov 15)... I am an outsider to sociology with scant knowledge about current program rankings (but know enough about the subject matter to be intensely interested in the field). Unfortunately, I am constrained by geography and have to apply within the Metro NY/NJ area. I was wondering if anyone could throw some light on the Sociology programs at Rutgers and Yale (as I am trying to decide if I should apply to them). Any information on GC-CUNY would be appreciated (as I know some professors in GC and generally like the school). I would like to acquire a strong background in three sub-areas - comparative and historical sociology, economic and org. sociology & sociology of Culture - before picking a dissertation topic. Thanks