samoth

Hi there, Tillyfan. First of all I do hope you'll be surprised with an acceptance from one of the remaining programs. However, if you do decide to reapply one thing I'd strongly recommend to you is to email the departments you were rejected by and ask if they could comment on what would make your application a stronger one for next year. Some of them won't answer, but even if one agrees to give you some feedback it would be much more helpful than anything we could say on this forum. Some departments / admissions offices actually have an address in their FAQs for people who wish to know more about their rejection. In other cases, an email to the department registrar could do the job. In any case, I am sure that a well written (not reproachful!) email would get some attention from at least some departments, especially if you state your intention to reapply. Best of luck!

1. Sociology 2. International, but quite known (made the Times' top 100 universities). 3. 3.98 4. 680v 680q 4.5 5. thesis, 2 articles forthcoming 6. 1 year RA + ad hoc work in my department 7. 3 recommendations from well known professors who know me well got accepted to 3 out of 5 programs I applied to with full funding.

Do you know how many students were admitted this year?

Yeah, that was me! I have acceptances from both Annenbergs! I know a lot about Penn Annenberg, but much less about USC,and I will probably not attend visit day (I'm literally on the other side of the globe). It sure took me by surprise!

Well... maybe the process hasn't ended yet (a "rolling" admission). Have you considered just calling the department?

I'm sure you're right. Harvard GSAS claim on their website that last year's applicant pool was approx. 6500, and I guess Yale's was the same. Considering this year's economy which is a great incentive to apply to grad schools which offer full funding for 5 years, the larger number makes sense. Last year they had 175 applicants and 11 enrolling students at Yale's sociology department (http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/acad ... ology.html).

You're right, I assumed that this was a recent development and I now see that it is old news. I was also surprised by the relatively low ranking, considering the long list of prominant names this department boasts.

I think the ranking varies significantly according to sub-fields. For example it's ranked fifth in cultural sociology ( http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... of_culture ). Also, they've just recruited two prominent faculty members from other universities. I think it's safe to say that their ranking is expected to rise.

They also have a strange admission process. Did anyone else find it weird that they don't bother to send an email confirming that they have received the supporting material, that they don't post the materials' arrival on the application site and that the admissions office rarely answers emails? (at least in my experience) They were nice and helpful once I managed to get them on the phone (an international call, mind you). However, answering the phone only between 2 and 5 when there are thousands of anxious applicants isn't very efficient.

Harvard claim to send decisions only by mail, which is probably why those who were accepted received phone calls. I'm not very optimistic at this point...

On the first page you see after you log in scroll all the way down and there should be a link to your decision. Maybe they haven't finished updating the applications, which could explain why there was no email notification.

I see the decisions were posted on the application website, but no email was sent to announce this (I only got an unofficial email from the DGS).

Thanks (that was me)! No word about funding yet. I haven't received the official letter from GSAS yet, only an email from the DGS.

Well, the committee has spoken!

I'm not familiar about the department itself, but there is a thread about Ithaca in another forum. viewtopic.php?f=27&t=196