Marcone

Rice is great for soc of religion and you can pick up quant skills from other profs that aren't necessarily in your substantive field. You're interested in quant so you don't need to worry about ending up in a department that doesn't have any quant support/people. Rather, there are departments where you can get literally no support in terms of qual methods. Looking at some faculty lists, these departments should be fairly easy to identify.

Hi sociologylouise! I'm sociology of religion guy that just finished an MA in religious studies and will be entering a PhD sociology program this fall. Your background seems excellent for what you want to do and I agree with gingin that your thesis project/research will really standout. As for advice, I only have a few thoughts 1) Think about applying to terminal MA's in religious studies rather than soc along with PhD programs. If you end up falling short on the PhD programs, you can fall back on a terminal MA in religious studies for the time being and you can get that MA soc later on your way to your PhD. Also, an MA in religious studies will really make you stand out if you continue to pursue sociology of religion. 2) You list of schools is interesting and I'm sure you've researched it plenty but I would also consider Rice with Elaine Ecklund, Duke with Mark Chaves, and Princeton with Wuthnow to name only a few. 3) Your background seems great. Apply to top programs. No matter what anyone says, it matters. 4) Leave room to consider how your interests might develop and how you're going to market yourself after graduation. I'll skip sugar-coating it and just say the market isn't great for "sociologists of religion." The advice I've gotten, and I think it's good advice, is to consider developing yourself as a scholar of social movements or collective identity formation etc. that has done work in religion. That way, you can grant yourself more flexibility and think about working with a wider range of professors. Your thesis project, for example will appeal not only to religion people but to identity scholars as well. That's all I got for now. Let me know if you have any questions!

As someone with an MA in religious studies that will now be attending a PhD sociology program, and that has been in this exact dilemma before, I will say that I think even being in this position strongly indicates that you should be in a sociology program. For my part, I think Jacib makes great points and that the job market for sociology phd's is much stronger than religious studies. This is not necessarily because sociology in general is doing better (although it may be) but because in sociology, one has a better opportunity to develop tangential expertise and emphases that can contribute to how you market yourself. For example, you can be a social movements or immigration scholar or identity person that does religion stuff as part of these broader interests, allowing you to develop your interests in ways that keep you motivated but that also align with how the job market is evolving. My guess is that this would be much harder in religious studies. Also, in most places the opportunities to be trained rigorously in a variety of methodologies, which add to your value as a scholar and teacher, are better in sociology than in religious studies. I'm not saying these things to bash religious studies. I mean, I have an MA and think it's an incredibly important discipline. There are a lot of amazing religious studies scholars that just couldn't do what they do in sociology. If you can, though, my bet is that you will be happier, and have a better shot at a good job, in sociology.

I went for a terminal MA in religion (as that's my main area of interest) and have received offers from some competitive PhD programs in sociology. I am positive that my MA had everything to do with where I am now as I also didn't have the smoothest undergrad experience. I'm in a lot more debt but that doesn't seem to be an issue for you. The terminal MA path sounds like it might be exactly what you need. Also, depending on your research interests, you might want to consider a terminal MA in a field other than sociology. If such a program also offers training in methods, stats, and applicable theory, all the better.

Really really appreciate you posting this. Was getting close to emailing myself. Thank you!

Not that anyone cares but I'm unable to edit my previous post where I mistyped my stats. I had 165 not 155 on verbal. Just in case anyone was scratching their heads. Sorry about that. I know people come here to get accurate info.

It was an email to check status on website where there was a general letter. 155/165/4.5 GRE's. MA in Religion w/ 3.9 GPA. Two pubs under review and one presentation at a national conference.

I'll claim a Duke acceptance. Email to check the website and my stats are posted. A lot of relief after a few rejections and eerie silences. Good luck to everyone still waiting to hear!

I'm actually listening on repeat now. It's helping

Swine flu?! I thought we defeated that along with AIDS and racism. Get better, best wishes, and fingers crossed!

love the username riverscuomo

Oh no guys, I downloaded the app Gradcafe Paranoid. I'm officially an insane person.

I kind of like Emile as a dog name.

As far as I can tell, and I'm sure I'm missing some here, Rice, Virginia, Notre Dame, and UC - Boulder do interviews/visit days. I also know that being invited for interview/visit days is a good sign but it doesn't mean you're a lock.

It doesn't look like things are particularly slow compared to recent years: http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=sociology&t=a&pp=250&o=&p=1

I actually checked that and couldn't find anything so I don't think so.

Rice sent out interview notices about a week ago.

I'm applying to PhD Soc programs with a focus on ethnographic methods, sociology of religion/irreligion, and social movements. I will have a MA in Religion from Duke going into the program (god willing). I'm in the 95th percentile on verbal and 41st on quant. Anyone want to comment on how that quant score might be a red flag for some programs? Debating whether I want to devote the resources at this point to taking it again.

This is all very helpful. Thank you everyone. I've submitted said paper to both the SSSR and AAR. Fingers crossed!

Hey all, Thought I'd post this here because I think the answer to my question varies considerably discipline to discipline. So I have a paper that I think ain't bad. I've submitted an abstract to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference. I was thinking of maybe submitting something (whether this same paper or another) to the Association for the Sociology of Religion and even the American Academy of Religion (which I understand is less invested in social science). What have people found in their experience submitting identical abstracts to multiple conferences and the potential pitfalls? Am I better off simply submitting my paper(s) to one conference at a time? Thanks for any help!

Wow, thank you! Actually, Mark Chaves is my adviser at the moment. He gave me advice very similar to yours jacib; that is to think about doing social movements rather than straight sociology of religion. He also strongly urged me to beef up my background in quantitative methods. Jacib, this is an amazing response and I'll consider everything you said very seriously. I was already planning on getting in touch with some of those UNC folks and it's nice to hear I was on the right track. Thanks again!

Thanks, dawgle! it's good to know that i don't need to cram too much stats into my MA curriculum. Just to be more specific, I didn't mention I'm interested in soc PhD programs.

Hey folks, I'm currently in the MA religion program at Duke and am finding myself being pulled rather strongly in the direction of sociology. I'm studying contemporary American atheism/humanism and am increasingly finding that sociology is where the action is. I'm also finding my study is more rewarding when considered in the context of social movements. I'm curious if anyone else here has made the jump from religious studies to sociology, what difficulties you may have gone through, and any advice you might have. More specifically, if anyone has any insight on how sociology departments might treat a departmental transfer like me in the application process, I would appreciate it. As someone currently in humanities who was an undergrad english major, I've already begun considering the inevitability of statistics and quantitative methods. Won't be fun but I get it. Anyway, thanks for any advice.

So thought I'd throw a feeler out there to anyone who will be moving to the Durham/Chapel Hill area and see how everyone's coming along in finding a place to live. It seems there's a lot of gated communities, apartment complexes, etc which isn't something I'm too excited about. What I am excited about, moving from Boston to Durham/Chapel Hill, is some of the prices I'm seeing. Anyway, thought I'd ask and maybe get a conversation going. In what I'm sure is a common grad school phenomenon, I'm assuming I know less about this right now than everyone else...

Hey Porcupine, I'll be heading to Duke in the Fall along with jdmhotness alan farnes up there. Would love to chat with all of you about where you might be living etc.