going crazy

I have a divinity degree as well (from a seminary that is extremely conservative-evangelical). I don't think that where you got your degrees will be the thing that kills you. Here are some things about what you communicated above that raise some red flags in my mind, and I'm certain they would raise red flags for adcoms. Just things to think about. First, I'm getting the feeling that your choice of grad schools had more to do with location than with whether those programs have folks doing serious work in the sociology of religion. In my opinion, you need to kiss that kind of thinking goodbye. If you want to be a professional sociologist of religion, you need to be committed to going to the places that have folks working in that area (UT Austin, Baylor, Rice, Purdue, Notre Dame, Princeton, Duke, Minnesota, Yale, UC San Diego, Boston U., etc.). Second, because sociology of religion is a popular area of interest, it's competitive as hell to get into the good places. That said, you NEED to take the GRE again. You particularly need to get that quant score up. You've got time. Study up, take the class, do whatever you need to do. Third, I WOULDN'T discuss anything regarding your religious background, church experience, or ministry training in your SOP. It should be a non-issue. Focus on your substantive research interests, where you see the gaps in the literature, how your dissertation would fill those gaps, and why you know that particular program can offer you the training and resources to develop you professionally. Think about it this way. You're trying to convince the adcom that you want to be a professional sociologist and not (1) some person who couldn't decide what they wanted to do with their life so they decided they'd get a PhD in sociology of religion, or (2) some minister who wanted a secular PhD to seem more relevant. See what I'm saying? Just my thoughts. Hope that helps.

Thanks to all. Really good thoughts. In the end, I concluded that the fit was better at Chicago. Also, my wife (very fortunately for me) has the sort of professional training where she can pretty much pick up a job wherever. That will allow us to weather the two years of no stipend without resorting to loans. Also, having looked at housing in both New Haven and Chicago, I found Chicago to be quite a bit cheaper. Anyways, thanks again for the thoughts!

so what school did you end up going with? I thought you were leaning toward UNC? Just curious.

Thanks. One of the blessings of being married is having a partner to make otherwise debilitating funding situations work out okay. And good luck at UT Austin! Probably see you around at ASA in August I guess.

Turned down Yale, going to Chicago. Feels like the right decision.

I was accepted off of the wait-list at Chicago, but the funding wasn't what I'd hoped for. It's the 2nd tier funding package where they provide full tuition and healthcare for 5 years, but they don't provide a stipend until after the first 2 years. I'm also in at Yale with terrific funding for 5 years, but it is decidedly lower in the rankings. My fit with either program is about the same. So what would you do in my shoes? Other things being equal, would you go to the lower ranked school with the awesome funding? Or go to the really high-ranking school with the less-than-stellar funding? Help give me some perspective here.

At first glance, your stats seem fine. Your undergraduate GPA and GRE scores are better than several of the folks on the forum (including mine) who got into several top-25 programs. I guess your quant score could be a bit higher if you want to go somewhere in the top 10 (720+ is pretty typical I think), but I certainly don't think you'd be just wasting your time and money with those scores. Also, your research and publication experience should make you a strong candidate. I don't think adcoms really care much about the volunteer and leadership experience. That's more of an undergraduate concern. Adcoms are more interested in research experience, and you should frame your volunteer/leadership experiences as life experiences that helped develop and confirm your current research interests and desire to be a sociologist. It might help others on the forum evaluate you if you communicated your research interests and what sort of undergraduate institution you are currently attending. Edit: On the terminal MA idea, I think you should apply to PhD programs and terminal masters programs (UChicago and Colombia have these types of programs) and just see what works out. No sense in doing a terminal masters degree if you are satisfied with the offer you get from a PhD program. Just my thought. Good luck!

Officially turned down offer from Rice today. Totally painful. The funding package was incredible (27k for 5 years) and the faculty were extremely enthusiastic. In the end, I couldn't get over the newness of the program (I would have been in the inaugural cohort) and the apparent caste-like tendency for top-20 sociology departments to hire one another's graduates (http://www.jstor.org/stable/3593086). Not complaining about my options. It's just hard when both options are great.

Very cool topics of interest, joops! Sounds like you'll have to incorporate a lot of historical data, of which there should be ample amounts. I just finished "God and Race in American Politics" by Mark Noll. A fascinating and short read on the topic. I've heard Omar McRoberts at UChicago has been working on a historical study along lines similar to yours. Also, if you plan on traveling down the "race and religion" path of scholarship, I'd suggest pursuing relationships with Michael Emerson at Rice (just started an incredibly well-funded PhD program), Korie Edwards at Ohio State, Gerardo Marti at Davidson (close to where you will be), and Penny Edgell at Minnesota. Good luck!

And I hope that someone is me!

Congrats, Roll Right! Who will you work with? Lester Kurtz is awesome. Very excited for you.

I knew you would. Congrats! Fantastic place to be!

So have any more decisions been made out there? I'm still waiting out wait-lists and up in the air on my decisions.

If you apply to UChicago and don't get accepted, they will most likely offer you a spot in the MAPSS program (a one-year Master of Arts Program in Social Sciences). From the results page, they seem to offer financial support in the form of 1/3, 1/2, and 2/3 tuition remission. It's no doubt a huge cash cow for the University, but they are supposedly pretty successful at getting their graduates into funded PhD programs, and it's only a year, so that might be an idea (if only to use as a backup if you don't get a better offer when you apply). Several other posters have recommended Masters programs around the country so maybe they can provide you with other options.

I have several thoughts. First, you're way further along in your thought process than most applicants are, so be encouraged. I think you're thinking through things in the right way, for the most part. The only reason I say "for the most part" is I'm curious as to how you're selecting the schools you're applying to. At first glance, and this is just my thought, it looks like you simply picked the 10-15 most prestigious schools and decided those would be the best places to apply. If so, that's more like undergraduate thinking than graduate-level thinking. I agree with previous posters who emphasize fit. That needs to be the way you select schools. Which scholars at those schools are doing work that is specific to your interests? Second, and this is just my opinion, I would deemphasize your desire to teach in your SoP, or just don't talk about it. Rather, just talk about your desire to contribute to your field through research and publication. My thought is that adcoms aren't too impressed with folks who sound like they want to live the lifestyle of a professor. They'd rather hear that you are passionate about your research interests and being a great scholar. Third, I agree you should probably shoot for at least 1400 on the GRE for those schools (definitely above 700 on the quantitative score). Basically, you don't want them to have to accept you in spite of your GRE score. You simply want your GRE score to be a non-issue, something that doesn't immediately raise a red flag for them. In my opinion, below 700 quantitative scores raise red flags for these folks. Fourth, your undergrad is definitely more respected than my generic state school, so I doubt that will be the thing that kills you. I think it's kinda cool, in fact. Finally, I'd try to send a personal message to socme123 on this forum (hope he doesn't mind me recommending him). He had a pretty successful application year and he could probably give you some pretty great advice on how to tweak your SoP, etc. He's also a little older, if I'm not mistaken, so he may be able to speak to that. If you want to go beyond this you could send a personal message to several folks on this forum who had really successful years (barilicious, socme123, dreaming 1, goodmp, etc.). Good luck! You sound like you're in great place! I'm sure you'll be successful.