living_in_paradise

To all the sociologists (and aspiring sociologists out there): anyone interested in doing rural sociology, sociology of rural development, food/land systems or other agriculture-related topics? If so, it might be nice to learn about people's interests, where they've applied, where they've heard back from (positively or negatively), etc. As for myself, I'm interested in the social dynamics of sustainable agriculture, food value chains, and land use/resource management. I've been doing rural development work in Vietnam for the past year and a half, and hope to do my field research here in the future (if, indeed, there is a future). I've heard from Wisconsin (no fellowship or funding guarantee, though), and I'm waiting on Cornell (development sociology) and Washington (sociology).

Still waiting as well...

What a refreshingly stress-free thread! My non-research interests are language (I'm studying Vietnamese) and travel (I live in Asia and try to get out and explore as much as I can). Beyond that, it's food, food, food (mainly the consumption thereof, but I'd like to start growing it as well).

Best of luck, and don't get down on yourself about unimpressive GRE scores. I'm sure there's a probably a lot that's impressive in your application to counterbalance the GREs. And if this year doesn't work out for you, might I suggest applying to programs in Canada next year? To the best of my knowledge, most don't care about GREs, and if you're in the upper midwest anyway (as I would guess from your school selection), you wouldn't necessarily have to go too far.

Congratulations to hardboiledegg and ejuliast! Good luck with your remaining apps.

Got the same email, waitinginohio. Here's what I could find off the forums from last year: So there are definitely funding options, but I guess we won't have much clarity as to what those options are before April 15. I guess this is the time for sounding out profs and seeing what might be available in terms of TA and RA positions for next year? Either way, being accepted is a good thing (especially since its unexpected) though being accepted with guaranteed funding would, of course, be a better thing. Let's just see how those other apps go. And congratulations to hardboiledegg! Let us know if/when you get a funding offer.

I know - it is a bit freaky. But I checked the results page for last year, and there were 7 people who posted admits in late Jan and early Feb. And Wisconsin is a big program, with yearly cohorts of 25 or so (which means they admit... 40? 50? I really have no idea what their yield is, but the pool of admitted students must be fairly big). And, people who are on this forum are probably both bright and a tad obsessive, so it makes sense that we have a few people who've gotten the same message. I guess it's time to take some deep breaths, though. Have a great weekend, and keep hitting refresh on those inboxes! This particular agony will be over soon enough (and then the real agony can begin).

Congrats, waitinginohio! I just hope this doesn't turn out to be some sort of sick, sick joke. But I guess I wouldn't want to study anywhere that would be so cruel as to toy with our emotions this way. As for the FAFSA, I have no freakin' clue. I don't think there's much in the way of need based aid, but you might need it for loans. I have no idea about timeframe or deadlines, though. If anyone else could enlighten us on this issue, please do so.

Thanks for looking that up, ejuliast. I would like to think that I meet the minimum requirements of the grad school, so that sounds pretty good. Congratulations to you and to hardboiledegg as well. I'll post if I get some sort of confirmation from the dept or the grad school. And, yeah, the weather in Madison seems downright frigid. And I've been living in the tropics the last few years, which will make it even harder to adjust. But I'm sure the library and the department are heated (unless budget cutbacks have gotten waaaay out of hand).

Thanks for the encouragement, tritonetelephone, and good luck with your applications. It's a bit of a surprise, really. I only put in three apps this year (mostly because I'm broke, partly because I'm lazy, and also because I study Vietnamese, and only a few schools offer it at the advanced level). Wisconsin was my reach, so it bodes well for my other apps (to Cornell's development sociology program and to the soc. program at U.Washington-Seattle).

I checked my status online this morning (1/23), and it had changed from "application under review" to "Your department has recommended you for admission. The Graduate School will be reviewing your file. Please refer to this page for updates." Does anyone either a) know what this means, exactly or get the same message? I guess I should just sit tight and wait for an actual email from the department, but the suspense is killing me. Best of luck with your own applications!