nosleeptildoctorate

For those of you in the dissertation writing stage or getting ready to begin, the NaNoWriMo Rebels group might interest you: http://nanowrimo.org/forums/nano-rebels/threads/252281?page=1 Here's more information about NaNoWriMo: http://nanowrimo.org/ Happy writing!

Sociology folks, check your status in Fastlane. Mine was updated as declined, with reviews attached.

Anyone gotten word on Sociology?

Nailbiting, thanks for the reply. I'll keep my fingers crossed for both of us! Boomer, thank you for the information! Congratulations again on getting the grant, and best of luck with your research.

For Boomer and others who applied to Sociology, has your status in Fastlane changed? Mine is still listed as pending. I'm just wondering if that means anything.

Congratulations, boomer! That's fantastic! No word yet for me, so I'm guessing its' a no. :-/

Based on my obsessive rifling through this forum, I see that previous applicants were notified 7 weeks after the external peer review began. (Ebuckner on this forum posted that in 2011 review panels May 5-6, and applicants were notified June 24.) So, using that as a model, I imagine we won't hear until June 30. Oh, the torture!

Nope, unfortunately. Fastlane says external peer review began on 5/12/14. My proposal status just says: "This proposal is currently being considered by the above Program. Consideration of proposals usually requires up to six months."

Does anyone else who's waiting to hear back on Sociology still have a status in Fastlane listed as "Pending?"

Have any alternates been notified that they have been bumped up?

So, are there any fellowship finalists who are thinking of turning down their awards? Or, do you know of anyone who is opting not to accept it? Are there people who received multiple awards who might turn the Boren down if they don't get the amount of funding they requested? Just trying to get a sense of the chances for alternates to get bumped up...

Whoa. What happened to the spreadsheet?

I got alternate status, as well. It seems like there are a lot of alternates. Do they list how many anywhere?

I either read on their website or heard on one of the webinars that Boren doesn't have country quotas like some other fellowships, like Fulbright. So, the number of awards for a given country is based on applicants' interest in that country in a given year. That being said, their website also says that the regional committees forward a set number of applications for their region onto the national committee... I wouldn't say you're competing with other applicants in your chosen country, but perhaps in a sense with other applicants for your region during the application review by the regional committee. If you've made it onto the national review committee (and let's hope the dates email indicates that), my guess is that you'd be competing at that point with the portion of the general applicant pool that also made it to nationals. Fingers crossed! p.s. Total tangent, but when as I wrote "nationals," I couldn't help but think of this...

alexpen and cm125, I think there's reason for both of you to remain hopeful. Perhaps they've changed their procedures this year. The Boren staff told one person on this list that they've only contacted people they needed clarification from. So, maybe they didn't contact you about dates precisely because you have letters of affiliation that confirm you'll be starting your overseas program at a specific time..? Or, maybe only the people who received some sort of budget email are still in the running, and the dates email was just data collection like the survey. In any case, we're all just guessing at the moment based on the scant information available. You have as much reason as most of us to keep hoping. Don't get discouraged! Cheers, no sleep

Regarding the alternate theory, I think we still have reason to be cautiously optimistic. From the Boren website: "The regional panels meet in March, review the applications primarily based on world region, and recommend a set number of applications to be reviewed by the national nominating panel. The national nominating panels meet in April to review the results of the regional panels and make final recommendations.” The communications and information so far for the fellowship folks has been: Week of March 11: some people received emails asking them to correct some small errors on their applications or for further details on their budget March 21: Survey email to all applicants March 28-29: Selection Panels met (according to Djevojka’s post), and they would have recommended a set number of applications to be reviewed by the national panel. April 2: Some received dates email (some did not) April: National nominating panels meet to make final recommendations End of April/beginning of May: Final decisions go out Based on this information, my guess is that those who received a dates email on April 2 (or in aepafrica's case, a notification to select a new language program) were selected by the regional panels to be reviewed by the national nominating panel. So, I think receiving the dates email is reason to be hopeful at this point.

To add to Djevojka's post about 2012 stats... Here's a link to a statistical summary of the 2012 Fellowship awards: http://www.borenawards.org/document/download/boren_fellowship_summary_stats_42.pdf And the scholarship awards for 2012: http://www.borenawards.org/document/download/boren_scholarship_summary_stats_41.pdf In 2011, "944 undergraduate students applied for the Boren Scholarship and 152 were awarded, while 625 graduate students applied for the Boren Fellowship and 117 were awarded." In 2010, "925 undergraduate students applied for the Boren Scholarship and 138 were awarded, while 519 graduate students applied for the Boren Fellowship and 99 were awarded." In 2009, there were 499 applications and 98 recipients for the Boren Fellowships and 896 applications and 130 recipients for the Boren Scholarships.

Haha. Yeah, that would be odd. Sorry, I didn't see your original post, just others' responses. Well, there goes that theory. (Oh, and I just noticed you posted that above, too. Oops. Stress apparently impairs my reading skills.)

From mcelone and desmonster's posts, I'm wondering if the budget email from a few weeks ago went only to fellowship applicants who also applied for the AFLI program. Maybe that's why many of us who have subsequently gotten the dates email didn't receive that one? Paperhead and postidentity, did you apply for the AFLI?

Hi all, Just chiming in. I received the same email today as the other fellowship applicants: "We are emailing all applicants to make sure the dates you submitted are approximately correct. If they are, no need to reply to this email. If they are not accurate please send me your updated dates (see below) by the end of this week." Your guess is as good as mine if this is as positive a sign as the famous budget emails or if it's meaningless. Fingers crossed for everyone!

Hi Boren alums (and interested Grad Cafe folks), My questions are for those Boren alumni who conducted research toward their doctoral dissertations as part of their fellowship. 1) At what point in your dissertation proposal writing process were you when you submitted your Boren application? That is, had you just begun writing, written a substantial amount, already defended your proposal? 2) And, correspondingly, how detailed was the research plan you proposed in your application? Was it framed as preliminary research toward your dissertation, or did you outline a clear research plan for your dissertation work? 3) How did you fit the language requirement in with your research? For example, did you do 20 hours/week of language study and 20 hrs+/week of research? Or, did you front load your language study and then do field research? Thank you in advance for reading this! No sleep

Thanks, lambspam! Anyone else?

Hi Soc graduate students and soon-to-be Soc grads, We all know that Sociology departments' Web sites provide a glossy image of their graduate programs, but it can be difficult to find out what departments are really like without visiting schools and talking with current graduates. I know many people get the "dirt" on Sociology departments from their advisors at their undergraduate institutions. Now that I'm in grad school, I've heard a little about other Soc departments from my colleagues who did their BAs and MAs at other schools and a bit from faculty here and there. What I was hoping we could start a thread on is a source of information on what the departments are really like from a graduate student perspective. It can be a resource for those applying and also for current graduate students who just want to know what other departments are like. So... here's what I have heard through the grapevine through first-hand and secondary sources. [Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the accuracy of these statements, which may reflect the opinions or biases of the sources. And, I invite people to chime in with their perspectives to confirm or refute anything that may be written in this thread.] Emory - strong in music, political economy, good funding, 12 hrs/week RA/TA work. Johns Hopkins - strong in world-systems and health disparities, good funding, 15 hrs/week RA/TA work Stanford - there is in-fighting among some faculty. Apparently, there are certain faculty members who you cannot have on the same committee. Univ. of North Carolina - very competitive vibe among graduate students UC San Diego - strong in culture, funding issues with the UC system, 20 hrs/week RA/TA work UC Santa Cruz - very friendly, supportive department, but graduate students have to struggle to get funding (ditto with the other UC-system schools), 20 hrs/week RA/TA work Univ. of Washington - very quantitative-focused department. If you do qualitative work, you may have difficulty finding a mentor, but otherwise supportive. Please feel free to add any information you have about these or other schools... research strengths, department culture, faculty, students, funding, RA/TA work load, etc. Thanks! no sleep