Lev Bronstein

1. If you plan on doing research in the coming year (say Winter/Spring/Summer 2012), can this experience be documented on an application, although it is presently unrealized? Yes 2. Are applicants coming right out of undergraduate programs at a severe disadvantage without such research experience? I hear "research experience" said so much, but I think it's more so that programs are looking clearly understood interests, socialization to the profession and discipline, and evidence that you can handle graduate work. Networking helps a lot, too. These are all things you can gain through research experience, but they can be obtained otherwise. I think the most important thing to do is to read the lit in your subfield, and by doing so you will refine your research interests, understand the various academic movements, find faculty and schools for targeted applications, and possibly network. 3. How should I go about gaining such experience, apart from contacting professors at my university and begging to work for them? Is that essentially my only option? Read the lit, go to office hours to chat with faculty, get a job after undergrad. Also, take the best paper you've written and submit it to a grad or undergrad roundtable at ASA. 4. Is it worth waiting a whole year to gain experience in order to get into a better school if I'm ready to go now? What jobs will look good? Where to look for such jobs? Yes. I waited three years, and it sure helped. The best looking jobs will be working with sociologists in an academic setting. These will be not only at "U of ____ Social Research Institute" but also at med schools, b-schools, policy departments, etc. Search for "research assistant" or other grunt jobs at every school you can think of. You can also look at policy research orgs such as Urban Institute, RTI, MDRC, and Rand, but surprisingly, a fair number of sociologists haven't heard of them. 5. Master's Program first? Anyone have experience doing this and know about how it effects Ph.D. admissions? I didn't go this route, but I've looked through thousands of CVs and it sometimes appears to help (if you do well!). Lambspam above suggests it for all of the experience that he/she gained, but I've done all of those things through my jobs. I suggest pursuing all three routes -- apply to PhD programs, MA programs, and look for a job. Regarding RollRight being such a downer -- he didn't get into top schools because he joins complete sentences with commas. I think that with well developed research interests, some networking, and an amazing statement you would have a good shot at top 25 schools. My GPA is substantially lower than yours, and I got into 25-ish schools, and if there were any schools in the top ten that were a close fit, I would have gotten into those, too.

I'll be there tomorrow and the next day -- any overlap?

WHAAAAATTT?

Was the wait list notification unsolicited? I haven't heard anything yet. I expect that Michigan's waiting list is short. It's a good program with lots of funding sources.

I stare at my task bar waiting for it change from "Gmail - Inbox" to "Gmail - Inbox (1)".

What are your interests?

For me too, my first statements are always the worst. I submitted some on Dec 15th, and when I did, I thought they were perfect. By Jan 15th, I thought those statements were horrible. A similar thing happened when I did applications two years ago. The first app I submitted was on Dec 10th, and my statement was totally garbage. I said some ridiculous things! Ironically, I got in there. It was a fairly decent program, and the third highest ranked that I applied to. Even more ironically, I had refined my poorly-developed interests by the time I visited, and it wasn't a good fit so I didn't go. I had a solid statement for the last program I applied to in that cycle, and the school was a great fit and lower ranked than the one I got into, and I got rejected after two weeks. There's a lot of luck in this. There are variables that applicants can sort of control, such as a lot of stuff in their apps. But there are also variables specific to the department, such as professors that have too many students, a reputation as a horrible advisor, or are trying to move to another school ASAFP. Funding is a huge part, too, both at the department and faculty level. If you don't get in, there is a pretty strong possibility that it's because of things that are beyond your control, and that the adcom is doing you a favor. I mean, you could get in this year and your advisor could go to a low-ranked school next to a beach the next year. In any case, if you don't get in, take time off. I took off a year before my first round of apps, and another two years before this second round. The experiences I've gained have been invaluable, and if I'm on an adcom in the future, I'll look at applicants with no time off sort of skeptically.

I'm fifth author on an article in an unrelated discipline! But seriously, I don't think folks coming from undergrad are expected to have publications. Grad students -- maybe a book review or co-authorship. The profs I talked to from 11-30 ranked schools seemed to be impressed that I had roundtable presentations.

Whoa, your statement and accomplishments look awesome. I'm glad we aren't applying to the same programs.

CUNY?

I've seen a lot of work from the political economy of the world-system folks that is rigorously quantitative. Most of the critical theory and Marxist work seems comparative/historical. Has anyone seen any factions of political economy other than world-system that are quantitative?

lawlz

I generally agree with socviv, but don't completely dismiss an MA. You could build stronger relationships for letters, gain a better grasp of the discipline and literature, and probably take a quantitative methods course which might offset your GRE worries. And of course, successful sociology coursework at IU would look good. From looking at lists of grad students, an MA seems to bolster a so-so phd applicant. My professors have agreed (I'm thinking about it too). But, on the other hand, MA programs might have also weeded out the people that didn't want to or couldn't do a phd program. But that isn't so bad. I guess it depends on your specific application/profile. And if they are funded. It might be worth the $200 or so to apply to a few of them. But you should really talk to faculty about this.

sounds good..

Saturday after 8:30 pm or so would probably work for me. Or Sunday after 5 pm.

Bump.... so is anyone interested in getting a drink? I'll be there tonight (thursday).

Anyone up for a grad cafe drink one evening?

I don't work in those areas, so only two faculty members come to mind: http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/robinson/ http://sociology.msu.edu/dwiley.html I don't think it would be hard to put together a committee with historical/comparative, movements, and education faculty members. Those are each huge areas. In that case, Wisconsin, CUNY, Indiana, Ohio State, New Mexico, NYU, and plenty of other schools would fit. Who do you read? I think that's the best way to find schools. And check out the ASA sections in those areas. It may help you understand the academic movements. The sessions for the upcoming annual meeting might have some good info on what is going on right now.

I'd check the program online first. You can search by name,

I've been looking at the sessions for the upcoming ASA meeting, and there seems to be some exciting stuff going on. I'm thinking about going. Does anyone else go that isn't presenting?

I haven't seen anyone doing work on the austrian school, or I think that's what you are talking about. It seems like most political economy work in sociology is based on historical materialism. Some discussion/correction here would be great. If there is a sociological movement in this area, I'd be interested in seeing who and what departments are there.

This is a bit late. IUPUI is a commuter campus. The campus has several large parking lots built into the plan and there are four lane roads running through. Its not pedestrian friendly. While driving, traffic isn't bad except for at rush hour. Indy isn't much of a "big city". There is a one mile square in the middle that is urban, and then the rest of it is quite suburban. It has a unified city/county government, and this creates misleading population statistics. Its about the same size as Louisville or Birmingham, and smaller than Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Cincinnati. From IUPUI you can be in a rural area in 15 minutes.

I've been looking at a Masters program at Lund University in Sweden. They have a young scholar doing some awesome work in my discipline. How does Lund compare to some US universities? Is it a Swedish Berkeley or UNC? Or is it more like Indiana or Iowa? I'm wondering if its totally out of my league.

Yeah, thats a big one. I forgot about that. Does anyone at Binghamton do quantitative methods? It seems comparative/historical.