hobokennojokin

LOL (mixture of nervousness/indanity)... So it begins.

It's my sense that private universities seem to fund their students much more comfortably. I just read a funding offer from a private school I was fortunate to get into this cycle. My reaction--- "Is this real life?"

I wanted to collect this forum's thoughts on the differences between public and private universities for getting a Ph.D. in Sociology. Specifically, how do funding opportunities generally differ? Do you guys think this is something that can be generalized across public and private universities, or do you think it's more of a department to department type deal? Thanks!

Anybody that got interviewed want to venture a guess as to when we'll hear back about final decisions?

Speaking from POV of having attended the interview date last year, suit is definitely overdressing. Nice pair of khakis/dress pants and a button down shirt will be fine. Tie wouldn't hurt either although I don't think it's necessary.

The first duke post aka "vindication and relief" was from me. Super excited. Received an email from from Duke University Graduate School notifying me to check my status by logging in with my ID and PIN. Not a message from the DGS or a POI but an acceptance nonetheless! Likely to hear from them in the coming days I imagine

Tell me about it. This whole week has been slow. It's killing me

Gradcafe makes you check a box for the 2nd question, even if none of those are your grad schools. You should have an option for the 2nd one such as "none of these are my dreams choices"

I had a great time last year. The grad students and the faculty were very cordial and engaging. And now that I think about it, it was only actually one of my interviews that was pretty intense. The others went well. Still, can't be over prepared.

I'm not trying to put too much information on the forum (feel free to PM me) but in a brief anecdote: rejected across the board last year (waitlisted then rejected at ND), was able to land a great position where I gained quality research experience, news recs, and the opportunity to write a brand new writing sample from an active data set, and expended all energy imaginable and retook the GRE's and raised my GRE score by almost 200 points. I figured if there were ever an opportunity to land top 20 this was the cycle to do it. I've sent out applications for Fall 2012 and although still pretty early, am already faring much better this time around.

Why a Ph.D, why now, what the specifics of my research interests would look like, how I would go about defining independent/dependent variables, etc. I think a lot of people on this forum could probably handle those questions but as an undergraduate senior, I don't think I was as prepared.

I was invited to Notre Dame's interviews last year. From what I recall, they brought in about 20 students and accepted about 10-12. I remember the DGS telling me that they had a particularly high rate of acceptances last year, so they may be shooting for small cohort this cycle. Maybe not though. You do 3-4 interviews, one with someone on the adcom and the rest with POI's. I would be prepared-- I remember getting grilled pretty intensely last year by one of my interviewers. Good luck!

With speculation of Berkeley and Wisconsin-Madison notifications on the horizon, my anxiety levels will quite possibly reach all time highs within the next 10min-24 hours

Indiana had a casual phone interview. I know Rice is flying applicants in for a weekend before making final decisions

Interview requests went out last week. Final decision to be made sometime at the end of this week or early next week

Felicidad, thanks for the post and stats. Was the email from the DGS? I'm hoping against hope I get an email later today.. bah

Hate to ask but can whoever posted the UPENN acceptance claim it and provide some additional information? UPENN is one of the schools I think many of us on this thread are anxiously waiting to hear from. Thanks!

Just had my interview as well. DGS was great and like newsociologist said, conversation was really casual. Told that final decisions would be made by the end of this week/early next week.

There are paid internship positions as well. I think post-baccalaureate research positions are becoming more common among R1 universities, which is great because the exposure to research and publishing is great as well as the fact that you get paid and receive benefits as well. You also have the opportunity to gain new letters of recommendation, as well as possibly writing a new writing sample from scratch with available datasets. I think its one of the more rare opportunities to completely revamp and strengthen applications without being strapped with further academic debt.

I think maximus is spot on.

Yep, was the DGS for my email

One of them was me. 89% V, 84% Q, 5.5 Verbal, 3.3 GPA at Undergrad Institution (small liberal arts college), currently working a post-bac research internship at a R1 University. Rejected across the board last year so I'm hoping Indiana pulls through!

I'm pretty sure any adcom in the country knows this. At the same time, it's an unfortunate reality with so many different types of factors pulling at the committee--university rankings, department prestige, etc-- all of which incorporate GRE scores of students into account. Not a huge factor, but a substantial one given its generalizability

I remember loyola (Chicago) had a really late deadline last year. Actually as I'm typing this I feel like it was the first of February. That said, I think their app is free

Cal berk Wisc mad Princeton Harvard U chicago Northwestern Penn Indiana Nyu Duke Minnesota Yale Ohio state Rice Needless to say, crazy list. The way I saw it though, cast as wide a net with top tier schools, hope you catch 2 or 3 acceptances. An investment of sorts. My fellowship helped pay for about half the fee costs so I had more flexibility on that front. That said, it was a bit more stressful than even I could have ever imagined.