ZeChocMoose

I'll be honest: I disagree with this. Why? Because it's a question people should not be asking. No one asks white men who study anything other than white men why they chose to study X group (whether that's women, Latinx populations, etc.). So sure, maybe @Adelaide9216should have such an intellectually reason for herself. But to the people asking? My response, if I were Adelaide9216, would be to ask them why they don't study the same population they're part of (making sure, in advance, that they don't). When they respond with surprise that you'd ask the question, then you can point out that it's simply the same question they asked you.

I agree. This is generally what students in my PhD program were encouraged to do as well especially for trying out topics for our comprehensive exams and for the dissertation.
I mean, you can't generally take your class paper, do no extra work on it, and then turn it into your thesis because that would be odd and probably wouldn't pass because it is not comprehensive enough - but it's a great jumping point as @fuzzylogician describes.

Careful there. My advisors actually encouraged me to write on topics related to my research (qualifying papers, dissertation) for my class papers. The idea being that instead of spending some time researching and writing on something that I'll never touch again, I could use the time to work on stuff related to my research that would benefit me in the longer term. I've seen both undergraduate and graduate students develop class papers into a thesis all the time -- I've also advised and co-advised them myself -- and I wouldn't think about it twice. It's one of the most natural way to develop research topics at an early stage of one's career. 
OP, I think you need to have this conversation with your advisor. It'd be very silly if you couldn't use these data and analyses from your class paper in your thesis, as they're directly related to the work. I would be surprised if they didn't let you use them. I don't know of any way to cite such work, as it's not published, but since we're talking about an internal document anyway, I think it's sufficient that your advisor/committee know where they came from. They may then decide that you need to do X amount of additional work, since this part wasn't originally developed for the thesis. But either way, this is something to be worked out directly with your advisor and committee, in consultation with any official rules and requirements on the thesis. 

As you will no-doubt read elsewhere on this forum, for a PhD, you apply more to a person than a place. Do you have specific research matches at those listed institutions? That will matter a lot in their judging of your application.
Hard to say how competitive you will be--applicants are judged by experience and GRE, yes, but perhaps more by writing and content of research/interest statement, so focus lots of attention there.

Zillow is pretty decent, in my experience. 

We all want what is best for our friends especially when we think that they are making choices that are going to make their situation worse not better for them.  Since you mentioned that you have already talked to her about the pros and cons of changing programs and it presumably did not change her mind - I think that is all you can do.  She knows your opinion on the matter and she is choosing to change programs because of valid reasons to her. Perhaps they are not logical or make no sense or aren't going to work.  But like you have said, it's her life and it's her choice to make.
While I don't think there is anything wrong about being worried about your friend, I do think you need to respect what her decision is and stop trying to get her to see your point of view/change her mind/etc. It wasn't clear from your post whether it was one discussion or multiple discussions that you kept on having with her. If it is multiple conversations, you need to drop it. Ultimately, she doesn't need your permission to change programs and trying to convince her that she is wrong and you are right may drive a wedge in your friendship. Instead, I would ask what she needs to help her with the transition.

We all want what is best for our friends especially when we think that they are making choices that are going to make their situation worse not better for them.  Since you mentioned that you have already talked to her about the pros and cons of changing programs and it presumably did not change her mind - I think that is all you can do.  She knows your opinion on the matter and she is choosing to change programs because of valid reasons to her. Perhaps they are not logical or make no sense or aren't going to work.  But like you have said, it's her life and it's her choice to make.
While I don't think there is anything wrong about being worried about your friend, I do think you need to respect what her decision is and stop trying to get her to see your point of view/change her mind/etc. It wasn't clear from your post whether it was one discussion or multiple discussions that you kept on having with her. If it is multiple conversations, you need to drop it. Ultimately, she doesn't need your permission to change programs and trying to convince her that she is wrong and you are right may drive a wedge in your friendship. Instead, I would ask what she needs to help her with the transition.

We all want what is best for our friends especially when we think that they are making choices that are going to make their situation worse not better for them.  Since you mentioned that you have already talked to her about the pros and cons of changing programs and it presumably did not change her mind - I think that is all you can do.  She knows your opinion on the matter and she is choosing to change programs because of valid reasons to her. Perhaps they are not logical or make no sense or aren't going to work.  But like you have said, it's her life and it's her choice to make.
While I don't think there is anything wrong about being worried about your friend, I do think you need to respect what her decision is and stop trying to get her to see your point of view/change her mind/etc. It wasn't clear from your post whether it was one discussion or multiple discussions that you kept on having with her. If it is multiple conversations, you need to drop it. Ultimately, she doesn't need your permission to change programs and trying to convince her that she is wrong and you are right may drive a wedge in your friendship. Instead, I would ask what she needs to help her with the transition.

The best advice I ever received and did not take: DO NOT GO TO GRAD SCHOOL UNFUNDED!!!

I just finished my first semester unfunded and it is the worst. The work is demanding and thankless and it sucks to put your heart and soul into it all and not have a dime coming in for all of your efforts. It sucks having to choose between eating or heating your place.

It's just not worth it. Try again next year, apply for more grants and such but it's just not worth it. I thought i wanted this more than anything and I didn't care what it took to get here and here I am miserable I did not accept good advice 6 months ago.

Have you got to talk to the current students of the new program?  Have they mentioned any pros or cons?  My guess is as a new program there will be more uncertainty about program offerings/process; the faculty might be more inexperienced compared to other programs; lack of reputation (or knowledge) of the program might hurt your job prospects.  I think all of these can be mitigated - but the program needs a strong plan to address these issues so I would ask them what their plan is and how they are adapting it as things change.
On the flip side - the faculty might be more invested in the students since you are the first classes and they want to ensure that you all will have jobs after you graduate and be relatively satisfied with your time in the program.  There also might be starting funds that the program can leverage from the university to have more resources - which can translate into a lot of different ways to impact the quality of life in the program. 

I'll offer another perspective.  I did a 3-paper format for my dissertation, but it tends to take longer than those who do the more traditional format.  Part of the reason is because of what TK2 mentions, you end up having to write and rewrite your articles so that you have a very tightly written argument in each of your papers, and you throw out a lot of the work that you did that doesn't end up fitting in with this narrative.  It is a more marketable product in the end assuming you are in a field that emphasizes articles, but it takes much longer. 
I wouldn't suggest a 3-paper format for a master's thesis!  Unless you can get away with doing one publishable article or you can co-author some of the articles because trying to write three publishable articles as the solo author in a master's program sounds like a recipe for being 4 years in and still not done. Don't do that to yourself.

I have hired a professional mover twice for my cross state moves.  First one was from the East Coast to the Midwest and it was around $2,300 for a 1 bedroom apartment.  I had a great experience - no damage and they were very professional.  They couldn't give me an exact date for when the stuff would come, but it was a range of a week I want to say, and they call you the day before to say what they are dropping off. It took about 2 weeks for my stuff to get there. 
The second move was from the Midwest to the South and it was about $3200 for a 2 bedroom apartment. My professional movers actually packed it in cubes instead of putting it on a large truck.  They were able to tell me the exact drop off date which was nice, but it was still about 1.5 weeks from when they picked up.  Unfortunately, they didn't pack the cubes very well so there was a lot of damage to my stuff.  I got reimbursed for all the damage (around $1K) but it was a lengthy process because I had to fill out a lot of forms, document the damage, and have insurance adjusters come by to see what can be repaired and what could not be.
My advice is you need to do a lot of homework on each company - get an in-person quote, make sure the company is licensed, bonded, and insured (at minimum), ask for a binding quote if you are not going to do cubes so they can't change prices on you, and ask for references from the company of recent customers.  They should also give you free boxes or a stipend towards boxes.  I always got 3-4 quotes and then chose a quote in the middle that seemed to have the best reputation. 

My grad school would not let graduate students enroll in classes if they had not received their immunization form so I would check to see what the policies are for your school and not assume that they will be lax on it - especially since this is a state law and not an internal policy.

I know that you said the funding packages are the same - but what is the median time to degree for both programs?  If it is over 5 years - how do students fund themselves?
Sociology PhDs can get positions in ed schools, but usually those people have full-time experience in education, which you are not going to have. I see this being a bigger problem at smaller schools especially if they have their professors teach across different programs e.g. in teacher education and education policy, but this won't be doable for you since you never worked in K-12 education. Another option if you chose the Sociology PhD - there are some public policy schools that hire sociologists assuming that their research interests align well.
I would also take a look at current job postings for assistant professors in each field to see what they are looking for and whether each program will help you gain those experiences.  I would also look at non-academic job postings just so you can get a sense of what is out there in case academia doesn't work out.  Education is ripe with non-academic jobs.  I am not familiar with what sociology PhDs do for non-academic jobs.
I also think you should think about what types of courses that you would want to teach and what type of theories/theoretical frameworks that you would want to use in your research. Also - which core curriculum is more interesting/exciting to you?

I know that you said the funding packages are the same - but what is the median time to degree for both programs?  If it is over 5 years - how do students fund themselves?
Sociology PhDs can get positions in ed schools, but usually those people have full-time experience in education, which you are not going to have. I see this being a bigger problem at smaller schools especially if they have their professors teach across different programs e.g. in teacher education and education policy, but this won't be doable for you since you never worked in K-12 education. Another option if you chose the Sociology PhD - there are some public policy schools that hire sociologists assuming that their research interests align well.
I would also take a look at current job postings for assistant professors in each field to see what they are looking for and whether each program will help you gain those experiences.  I would also look at non-academic job postings just so you can get a sense of what is out there in case academia doesn't work out.  Education is ripe with non-academic jobs.  I am not familiar with what sociology PhDs do for non-academic jobs.
I also think you should think about what types of courses that you would want to teach and what type of theories/theoretical frameworks that you would want to use in your research. Also - which core curriculum is more interesting/exciting to you?

My grad school would not let graduate students enroll in classes if they had not received their immunization form so I would check to see what the policies are for your school and not assume that they will be lax on it - especially since this is a state law and not an internal policy.

Um, why did you apply to these schools if they are "doing nothing" in your research area?
OK, so I think the I know the answer to this question based on your other posts. Let me start off by answering your initial question - $50,000 for Columbia is worth it for YOU and and YOUR SITUATION.
So here's my guess (and if I am significantly off, disregard the above advice). Since you are an international student who is not particularly interested in pursuing a career in research in the US (why else would you apply to schools "doing nothing" in your research area and salivate over Columbia which is pretty mediocre for Mech E), your primary goal is to get a prestigious sounding degree . Now, there is nothing wrong with this. A lot of foreign countries (well, companies in foreign countries) are overly fixated on "IVY!" and it makes sense to play to your eventual employers. Plus, there is the added social capital the accrues to someone with an Ivy League degree in Asian countries.
Thankfully, a lot of the lesser Ivies (not Harvard, Yale, Princeton) have noticed the opportunity to lend their prestige for a price of $50,000-$100,000. This is usually a good deal for the schools because it doesn't truly water down their reputations. Most of the people getting these degrees do not usually end up pursuing a career in pure research and ruining the school's reputation among academics and researchers. A good chunk of the students entering these programs already have their sights on management, finance, or the field-of-they day (data science/machine learning). Furthermore, the schools bank tens of millions each year in exchange for handing out glorified participation trophies (Columbia makes $50-100M/yr from its Masters students). The way you know a school fits this category is that they graduate 10 times as many masters students as they do PhD students. Columbia is something like 10:1 (1366:142, link). If you're a masters student looking to get an RA or a TA to defray your costs, you are competing with a ridiculous number of students who are in the same boat.
If the transaction Columbia is offering makes sense given your goals (prestige for foreign employers or employers outside your major field), go for it. Just don't plan on getting too much money out of them. I mean, look how they are treating you - you get two weeks to make a huge decision and have to pay a $1,000 deposit. No student on a research track is treated like this. They usually get funding, pay no deposit, and usually have months to consider their decision (April 15 deadline).

p.s: With a little digging, Penn (9:1 MS:PhD ratio) appears to also be offering similar M.S degrees and to a lesser extent Cornell (6:1). Harvard (0.5:1) and Princeton (0.3:1) are definitely not yet open for business.  Hope this helps.

Sometimes postdocs are not advertised well or at all so networking can be a key component to securing one.  So attending conferences, presenting your research, getting to know faculty outside of your school, etc. can be really helpful on the job market.  Also use your dissertation committee and their networks to the best of your ability.  They may be aware of additional opportunities/research groups/grants that may be of interest.
In terms of preparation - I would just keep doing what you are doing to secure a TT position.  Oh, and also have a viable plan B in case you are not successful in your first round on the job market. 

Sometimes postdocs are not advertised well or at all so networking can be a key component to securing one.  So attending conferences, presenting your research, getting to know faculty outside of your school, etc. can be really helpful on the job market.  Also use your dissertation committee and their networks to the best of your ability.  They may be aware of additional opportunities/research groups/grants that may be of interest.
In terms of preparation - I would just keep doing what you are doing to secure a TT position.  Oh, and also have a viable plan B in case you are not successful in your first round on the job market. 

I'll offer another perspective.  I did a 3-paper format for my dissertation, but it tends to take longer than those who do the more traditional format.  Part of the reason is because of what TK2 mentions, you end up having to write and rewrite your articles so that you have a very tightly written argument in each of your papers, and you throw out a lot of the work that you did that doesn't end up fitting in with this narrative.  It is a more marketable product in the end assuming you are in a field that emphasizes articles, but it takes much longer. 
I wouldn't suggest a 3-paper format for a master's thesis!  Unless you can get away with doing one publishable article or you can co-author some of the articles because trying to write three publishable articles as the solo author in a master's program sounds like a recipe for being 4 years in and still not done. Don't do that to yourself.

Since the position is with one of your advisors - you can use the knowledge of his past behavior to decide how forthcoming you should be.  How has he treated students who have graduated and went on to pursue careers in industry?  If it is neutral/positive, I think you can be more forthcoming about using the postdoc to figure out your ultimate direction, but emphasize that you are really excited about the position because of X, Y, and Z.  If it is negative/unknown, you might want to be less forthcoming about your uncertainty, mention that you are interested in academia (which is true!), but don't try to quantify how interested, and focus on the positives of the job opportunity.
Personally - one of the best things about doing a postdoc is being able to have that time and space to ensure that I do want to pursue an academic career.  I was honest about being uncertain in my interviews - but I said that I was leaning towards pursuing an academic career which is still true. However, I am in a field where a good proportion of graduates pursue non-academic positions so I don't think it's too surprising to faculty when students mention this.

During coursework - I didn't notice much of a difference between my master's and PhD. I started to feel more as an independent scholar during my last 1-1.5 years of my PhD when I was finishing my dissertation, talking about my current and future work, and was going on job interviews.
A lot of how you feel (my guess) is going to depend on what you did pre-PhD.  I worked for 5 years before attending my PhD program so there were definitely some frustrating times when I felt I was professionally in limbo. I also took a 2/3rd pay cut in my annual salary so that eventually got really old as my program kept on stretching out.  As other posters said above, you can definitely structure your time so it is more of a 9-5 job though.  I found that it made it easier to connect with friends/family who were working more traditional hours to try to keep to some kind of regular schedule each semester.

I would suggest to have a frank conversation at least with your advisor.  Assuming you have a decent relationship with the person, I would be straight forward with talking about your concerns.  Have they seen your job market materials?  If not, I would have at least one person - ideally two people on your committee look at them.  I also would talk to alumni that graduated recently and have been on the job market in the last couple of years.  These are the people that can really give you insight about what the market is like and the nature of T/TT jobs that you could get.  
When I was on the job market last year, I applied to academic and non-academic jobs and figured that it would sort itself out.  Non-academic jobs in my field pay more and generally have a better work-life balance so those that really decide to stay in academia tend to be more dedicated about it since they sacrifice money and time. 
And if the TT/T job is not possible and you want to stay in academic - what is plan?  Apply to postdocs?  Visiting assistant professor positions?  Assistant research professor positions?
I suppose this could happen - but it seems really unlikely.  Most of the professors who act like this/think like this are not shy about their feelings towards non-academic jobs. Don't discuss this with people who won't be at least neutral towards the idea. 
And I won't worry about feeling that your spot was wasted or that your university made a poor investment decision when they chose you for admissions.  Those are things that are honestly not your problem and no admissions committee thinks that all the PhD students are going to stay in academia!  That is not possible - there are not enough jobs!  And if you are feeling guilty about it because there can be a weird emotional process when you seriously consider leaving - staying and making yourself miserable is really not the solution here.
I actually don't think these reasons will reflect poorly.  Being concerned that you won't be able to secure an academic job and having doubts about whether you want to do academia are fairly solid reasons to look for alternatives! Not sure what field you are in the humanities, but job prospects at least in History and English look bleak and I doubt will approve in the next couple of years.
And it is possible that you may get offered an academic job or several (who knows?!) , but it won't be ideal for various personal and professional reasons.  Speaking from experience, that is a hard decision especially when you are neutral about whether to stay in academia or not.

I agree with the above posters that spending 75% of your stipend on housing is not a good idea.  Is that to live in a one bedroom apartment?  Are there cheaper university options where they assign you a roommate?  Alternatively - have you looked into subleases?  Usually those are cheaper and shorter-termed.  If you can sublease for a month or two (or even the Fall semester) and then you can move into a more permanent accommodation for the Spring semester once you have a better understanding of your city/town and will know more people to find roommates/ask for housing leads. 

It doesn't really matter if the school isn't prestigious on the undergraduate level.  It matters if your particular graduate program is considered good.  I also say as someone on the academic job market right now - the topic of your dissertation and how well known your advisor is and other faculty that you have worked with is extremely important.  You want them to be well connected so they can call up their colleagues in other schools and advocate for you/get the inside scoop/find out about non-posted opportunities when you are on the job market.  Academia is super competitive at this level so I would lean towards your first option if you are considering an academic career unless the graduate program there is known to be not well regarded.