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tt503

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Everything posted by tt503

  1. Honestly, I'd be very happy to attend any of the programs to which I'm applying. I'm interested in a couple of trajectories, which basically include religion and the sociology of scientific knowledge. If I had to rank in order of preference, it would clearly be Yale, Chicago, Harvard, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Brown. We will see what happens.
  2. I thought we were just suggesting readings for the summer, not necessarily post modern approaches. My bad.
  3. Something I really enjoy is "Re-assembling the Social" by Bruno Latour. It's pretty accessible and an easy read.
  4. I love the Manhattan math books. They've helped me understand the concepts so much better than Kaplan or PR. You can buy the books on Amazon...I'm not too worried about my verbal score (I'm already practice testing at 98% and not taking the test until August), but their math prep is awesome.
  5. You can apply to 3 programs (http://www.grad.wisc.edu/education/admissions/faq.html). The information listed on the sociology site is just specifying what your degree will look like if you are admitted to the environmental track or the sociology track. For someone who has spent two years researching programs...this should've been a basic question. ;-p (I'm just kidding...it is kind of confusing based on the sociology dept.'s website.)
  6. I think any relevant additional experience can be a plus. I highly doubt that any program would think less of you for getting an MLA related to sociology, especially if you do good research when you're in that program. I took an "easy route" to get into a more respectable school/program after my first MA (at an unranked, no name institution) because people didn't consider my previous program to be "academically rigorous" (their exact words) and therefore, questioned my abilities due to my low undergraduate GPA (this was after spending 3 years "proving myself" --having a great Master's GPA, publishing, presenting, and teaching two college level classes as an adjunct). Since being in this program, I've heard nothing but positive feedback from my professors who probably have higher hopes for my PhD applications than I do, have done excellent research, got even more experience as a TA, and taken way more classes as electives (another intermediate language, taking statistics and GIS in the fall 'for fun', three graduate courses on social theory (one 700 level), having "known" professors give me letters of recommendation...I feel that this program has made me an infinitely more competitive applicant, without which I would not be taken seriously at the programs I plan on applying to for a Ph.D. I say, if you're not paying for the MLA, go for it! TL;DR: More relevant coursework and more experience are almost always going to be beneficial.
  7. I'm going to be 31 when I matriculate (hopefully in the fall 2013). I don't know how much "age" would play a factor in admissions. Generally speaking, I don't really think it's like law school where they admit a huge wave of cookie-cutter applicants, so they need to 'diversify' the applicant pool. I've heard positive things for older applicants (e.g. they seem to know how to manage time/responsibilities better, they are more focused) and negative things (e.g. the job market will be tougher because as one colleague said, "who wants to hire a 40 year old when they can invest more into a career of a 30 year old?"). I think being older has made me a more competitive applicant, with two master's degrees under my belt and loads of teaching experience. However, there are a lot of impressive undergraduates out there. Personally, if I was on an adcom, I'd select me over any undergrad ten times out of ten, but that might just be my own bias creeping into it. ;-)
  8. You just do it. It gets easier the more practice you have. The first semester is a little rough (you'll probably learn more than the students do), because you're just trying to find your groove. Don't take the assessments to heart (if they are bad)--you'll get better. If you don't know the answer, there's no shame in saying, "I don't know offhand, but I'll find out." You're not expected to know everything, but chances are you'll know more than your students. My first teaching experience was teaching English to 30 students and I didn't have a Master's degree in it. It is intimidating, but I'd suggest you search online for good tips. I like to play games during some discussion sessions (think Jeopardy), or bring in relevant YouTube clips to help start discussion. Most students seem to appreciate when you don't have the same lecture style every week, because it's not as boring. :-) This week I have to lecture to 70 students on a subject I know nothing about. I'm not sweating it. (This comes after 5 years of teaching.)
  9. Why don't you contact the POI at the school and explain what your position is and ask if you should receive a Fulbright, if you could defer your enrollment for a year?
  10. It depends on the extra curricular activities. Nobody is going to care if you're part of ____ club or fraternity/sorority (generally). Teaching, researching, and those types of activities are generally going to be a plus. I suppose you could make anything appealing if you were to tie it in convincingly to your application through your personal statement (community organization stuff could be strong for sociology, nonprofit internships and the like). It's really up to you to sell yourself and your qualifications regardless of how impressive or meager they may be. I think I have some pretty kick ass ECs, but there's no rubric or threshold or magic EC of what gets you "in."
  11. Applying and getting in are completely different things, as I'm sure I'll find out first hand in the next year. ;-)
  12. You're also at one of the top programs. I wouldn't say that sample is representative.
  13. Presenting, organizing panels, the like. Some people present at graduate student conferences, which are (generally) easier to get accepted to and don't require as rigorous of a methodology as a national conference for a discipline. There are lots of variables, but generally advisers don't want students to present right away because they want them to have a good working knowledge of theory/subfields to apply to academic inquiries and many people coming from undergrad just aren't equipped to do that. Plus, their work is associated with the adviser. After comps/exams is when that kind of stuff is generally encouraged (especially after language exams when you can do research in French/German/etc.). I'm not saying this is applicable in every case and I'm sure there are many talented people in this thread. I'm just trying to depict a realistic picture of the first year of graduate school.
  14. Ordinary grad student, yes. Ordinary first year? No. You might take a year of theory and stats while TA-ing. But not many first years are doing conferences or publishing. Andt most of the first years who are doing these things are either savants or incredibly underprepared. There's not a lot of middle ground on that.
  15. I never said it was the case with all grad students. It obviously depends on the funding package. This has just been the standard in my experience, and I've been in graduate school a long time (six years).
  16. It differs by program and funding package. Most programs I've seen seem to only let students TA after the first year (sometimes, not until the third). TA positions are usually indicated in your funding package contract (or how TAships are negotiated is generally listed by the department on their website). Participation is most of your grade in discussion-based courses (this doesn't count classes like statistics, etc..) If you don't phrase things tactfully, people will probably not like you very much if you're confrontational. You should establish a good rapport with your cohort because you work together for a lot of it. For example, one of my courses was 3 hours long and we (the class consisting of 5 people) were responsible for the entire class (one student assigned as moderator each week). This isn't entirely uncommon. Mostly, you try to (1) sum up the article/book by looking at themes and authorial voice (2) compare/contrast readings (other assignments, author's earlier or later works) (3) discuss implications of the work on the field/future study/your work. It shouldn't be a personal attack, though there are times where disagreements are had (e.g. if you think Durkheim was a positivist). The papers are more of just a synthesis of what you talk about, basically if you've done the work, you can write a 12 page paper on it. Nothing to it, really.
  17. I am not a student at Purdue. Currently, I'm a graduate student (terminal master's) at Cornell. Essentially, there are no such things as "safety schools" when it comes to Ph.D. admissions. I feel like I have a good chance at some places, and a snowball's chance in others...but I'll be genuinely surprised if I get in anywhere since it's all a crap shoot.
  18. Seriously? Here's the life of a typical first year: You take classes and get paid for it. That's it. You have about 500 pages of reading a week. You might have some response papers due, but it's mostly your job to generate discussions about the readings. You might have a midterm paper (not always true), you'll almost always have a final paper. Most of my classes aren't lecture based, they are discussions. I can't wait until my "first year" in a Ph.D., because after working throughout my undergraduate and two Master's degrees, it'll be the easiest year I'll ever have. Wait until later when you're doing the same amount of reading AND grading 70 papers a week AND preparing for discussion sections that you TA for AND writing conference papers AND preparing for your exams. First year is a dream. :-)
  19. She might be able to get a job at Cornell, though unlikely in an academic position. I have friends whose spouses worked in libraries, which isn't too terrible. Check this site: https://www.hr.cornell.edu/jobs/positions.html One thing from experience is that you should apply to all the jobs you remotely qualify for. I was looking for jobs before I got a TAship and was rejected from most of them, even though I had way more experience than what was necessary (e.g. 5 years of administrative assistant experience for an entry-level job). If you plan on moving to Ithaca in the summer, now is the time to apply for jobs. Depending on the situation, Syracuse wouldn't be a bad choice (if you didn't have classes every day, or if you could cross-register and take some business classes @Johnson). I'd probably speak to someone at the business school and see what cross-registration options there are, and then apply to the schools on that list. Otherwise, it's over an hour one-way. Rochester is even farther away, and I really wouldn't recommend that.
  20. Did anybody get accepted to this program? Anyone know anything about this program (I'm looking particularly at the Society and Culture track) and feel comfortable sharing? It seems like the admit a LOT of people from the Divinity School. I'm just trying to understand my chances as an outsider.
  21. I go to Cornell and live in Ithaca. Ask away.
  22. I never said that you cannot be truly interested in your non-soc major or that it can't expand your academic horizons, rather the time put into meeting all the "required" classes for a double major can be used more wisely.
  23. The answer is that it will be unlikely to help you stand out, if you are just taking classes. If your GPA shows an upward trend and you have fantastic GRE scores/other great things (did you present at conferences? are your research interests well defined? do you have amazing recs and writing samples?), these things (like the research for the professors you mention) would help you far more than an extra year of just taking classes. If adding another year adds both a higher GPA and more research experience AND gives you more time to develop your application AND you don't mind doing it, i don't see the harm in it. You might want to discuss this with a professor you have worked with, and get their take on what you should do. It's nice to have allies in this process, and they can likely discuss your options.
  24. One of my professors (at top school) advised a student on this very subject....I'll paraphrase his words: Don't double-major. It's not that impressive, and nobody cares if you did, unless you do vastly different things like chemical engineering and art history.* Why would you limit your educational opportunities like this? You spend most of your time filling the (mostly boring) requirements of two majors and you don't have time to actually expand your academic horizons with classes that truly interest you and or potentially give you the opportunity to learn about other things that you might become passionate about, but just don't know it yet. ---- *though I suppose they wouldn't be vastly different if you plan on going into art preservation. From my own personal experience, I double majored in undergrad. It really hasn't given me any sort of benefit or leg up on the competition. Ultimately, it is what you do during your undergraduate career that matters, including your GPA and your research experience.
  25. Yes, it should cover full tuition. You can inquire (I'm sure they won't think you're an idiot...it is always a good thing to double check finances) and see if there is money for a stipend. I've never received a FLAS, but people I know who have, have generally received tuition + stipend to live on.
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