ewurgler

No, I haven't read the book and probably won't. Harvard Kennedy school seems to turn out a lot of ridiculous conservative scholars. Gross. Dowd does annoy me, but I do find some of her more snarky columns pretty funny.

So, I thought us soc folks can appreciate the disgustingness that is David Brooks' column today. Does anyone else enjoy reading Brooks and Kristol to gross you out or make you depressed about the world?

Haha...I am just curious. Why do you assume linden is a missy?

Well, I am on the west coast, so as most schools I've applied to are east and central time, I give up by 3pm as well. BUT, a friend of mine heard from berkeley last week at 4pm pacific time.

Funny you assume linden is a "missy." How did you reach this conclusion?

I too have been cooking, but making TONS of soups and trying to perfect a french baguette with my pizza/bread stone. But, I don't end up eating very much as I feel really anxious/sick ALL the time. My pants are starting to hang off of me and my faced has thinned making my emerging wrinkles pretty apparent. Does anyone else feel like this process has caused them wrinkles? I'm 22 and I have seriously been noticing wrinkles in the past 6 months. Perhaps it is my stupid wrinkly anglo-saxon roots. I have also been going to the movies like CRAZY!! For an escape film: definitely slumdog millionaire. For a sad and heart-wrenching film: THe Reader.

I completely agree. I start threads and reply to posts because I am crazy and I want to make sure everyone else is just as crazy as me, and it is also nice to sort of get to know people in your prospective field.

CApolisciPhD: I got that car warranty thing too, and I was shaking and had that "i'm going to throw up" feeling. It sucked. Those bastards.

I am curious to know what other peoples' days look like during this waiting period? Me: I am on gradcafe pretty much 24/7 at work, only occasionally actually working. I refresh the results page every 10 mins or so, refresh my email about every five minutes, have my phone right in front on me, and word document open with all of the area codes of schools I am waiting on. Anyone else?

I absolutely think having someone/anyone from the faculty on your side is always good. I've talked to a few profs who have served on adcoms who say that often faculty will come in and "claim" someone they want to work with, or adcoms will send out profiles to possible research fits, asking that prof if this applicant is someone they would want to take on. If the personal friend your prof contacted is someone YOU mentioned you want to work with, I think it will be very good. Also, the fact that someone who wrote your LOR went to the program also helps...he knows what that programs entails/expects, and can speak to your ability to flourish in it. I am in a similar situation....someone from the faculty on my side, but not on the adcom. Perhaps I am just hopeful this stuff matters. But, there is also someone who wrote me a LOR who is a hot shot, and was heavily courted by and will be moving to University X in the department I applied to next year. This will be good, right?

No matter why they remembered your name, I think it is a good sign. If you were tossed off the pile in the first cut, there is no way they would remember your name or bother setting up a visit for you, in my opinion. Good luck!! I hope you make it in!

Ok--thats about what I am used to.

Oh god, your usual undergrad courses were ~30! I am so jealous. Other than senior seminars, I had around 70 to 100 in a class. But, I usually had mostly journal articles in my undergrad courses--how many pages per week in the grad courses? Sorry for all of questions, I am curious

I think the biggest advantage I have seen from going to a pretty well respected research undergrad is the ability to develop relationships with and get LORs from the hot shot professors all adcoms will know. But, it does suck that we were really not allowed to take graduate courses. You had to petition, but virtually all grad classes had undergrad equivalents in terms of subject matter, so it wasn't usually granted. They didn't want lowly undergrads dumbing down the PhD seminars, as there are no terminal master programs for the most part. I think that is a big advantage for those who went to liberal arts schools. For those who were able to take grad courses in the social sciences, was there significant difference in terms of assigned reading? Or just tougher grading of papers and higher levels of discussion and expectations of comprehension?

I've been meaning to ask people how seriously they took the diversity and motivation statement. Do you think the adcoms in soc even read them? There was very mention of them on the website, and it almost seemed to be optional, but the coordinator said "they must be completed in order to submit your online application." Did you guys work hard on this? Do you think it will matter? Mine were both pretty bad, as I really hate these undergrad-like questions. I really hope they don't matter much.

I hope undergrads matter. Mine is pretty good.

I won't hate anyone on the sociology forums--they all seem as anxious, periodically insecure/confident as I do. But, if I get rejected across the board, I'm sure I could muster up some serious hatred for those with more than one offer + full funding Or, if I am on the waitlist and jerks are taking their sweet time deciding, then i will hate with shame.

I didn't go here, so I have no idea how much grad housing is. I would guess it is partially subsidized, but ask the department and check against craigslist. When I say the air is brown, its not like right in front of you it looks brown. It is more like when you look up, or when you are on an elevated highway, there is a brown haze covering that valley.

I've lived in southern california for a while now, and I a few comments for you. I didn't go to UCR, but have a few friends who are and am familiar with the area. Riverside is in a valley, and thus gets a lot of LA pollution. This means on bad days, the air is brown. In the summer, it gets REALLY hot with very little air movements--no wind. It is dry though, no humidity. While the cost of living in Riverside is much cheaper than the rest of SoCal, it is still more expensive than similar areas in other states. To get an idea, go to craigslist for the area: inlandempire.craigslist.org. Also, a lot of people who live there commute because of cheaper cost of living, thus traffic can be horrendous. If I were you, I would not live very far away from campus. If you don't know southern california traffic, it means a 15 mile drive can take an hour (average) during rush hour, and up to 2 if there is an accident. As for the school, my friends who have gone there have had a great time, and the area around the campus is considerably lively. Just as a last note, in terms of the area and how much you will spend for what you get, I wouldn't do it if you get a better offer. It is not a pretty area. Definitely not the california you see in the movies.

I think it will happen this week. They've had our stuff almost 2 months. Time to make some decisions!

Yeah, I too applied top programs, but if I get rejected across the board, I will take a step down next time around. I personally care more about the strength of my graduate institution than the prestige of the university I eventually work at.

Yes, it seems they are much less concerned with that type of thing. I can tell you (as I worked in fundraising at UCSD for several years), they are very concerned with prestige, as they want you to bring in research dollars, alumni giving, and want you to publish under their name and with their university press. I guess it really depends on where you want to teach/do research.

Hopelessly_neurotic: I looked at placement and on the market PhDs on the websites off schools and programs I was interested in. You will find that many new grads at top 5 programs take jobs at university of not so great state school. (I know the names, but I don't want to offend anyone), or not well regarded private liberal arts institutions where they will be taking on TONS of teaching. (this is all in social sciences). I also say this because of grad student friends at UCSD social sciences and humanities (comm, soc, literature). Not top ten program, but pretty up there. One girl: tons of awards, research grants, excellent work, teaching experience, applied to around 30 positions at varying levels of prestige, NOT ONE INTERVIEW. Additionally, I look at where top programs' recent hires have come from--only other very top programs (at least in soc, where I am applying). Berkeley has a newbie from UNC CHapel Hill, Penn has a relative newbie from Berkeley, etc.

waitinginohio: Yes, I do find it really weird and suspicious that the top soc program (according to US News) doesn't fund. What I have found more common is programs pulling funding for 4th and 5th years, knowing they have a much better shot at landing TA, RA or fellowships than 1st years. THis happened to my boyfriend at UCSD, and to everyone in his cohort during their 5th year. Because they knew people and had established themselves a bit, they had no trouble picking up sections or research assistantships. But, as a first year, this would be difficult. I don't know. I was browsing through wisconsin's grad student list, and it is freaking HUGE. Perhaps they just take on tons of students.

What type of school was your undergrad institution? Liberal arts, research. etc?