SocHope

Congrats, UCLA acceptances! Was it a personalized email from a professor or admissions person, or an email to check your application status?

Even a slew of rejections tomorrow would be great, just so we can actually start making firm plans. The waiting game sucks!

I don't think I've yet come across a post where someone said there was NO one doing anything within their research interest, but I have seen quite a few "Well, there was only one person who fit my research interests" which is still quite a risk. I was careful to select schools that matched my overall research interests and that had a number of faculty working within such areas or closely related areas, even though I didn't name or contact them.

Thought I'd start a new "just for fun" topic. So, if you could pursue the research you want to do, what research methodology would you prefer using? And why? I'm especially interested in those of you who choose mixed methods - how would you do that with your research topic(s)? EDIT: Hm, I thought I made it so the poll wasn't public, but it might just be lagging right now. Hope that doesn't stop folks from voting!

I didn't contact anyone at the schools to which I applied. In fact, one of the programs I applied to, Berkeley, states on the department website: "It is not necessary or encouraged to contact the faculty with whom you are interested in working with, nor is it necessary to know who would be a perfect match for you and your research interests. A suitable advisor will be assigned to you as your goals and interests become evident throughout the program."

Thanks for the info - did you contact him/her directly? UCLA has a pretty late notification date considering their application was due 12/1.

True, but poor UCLA doesn't have its own thread yet...haha.

I'm kind of surprised by how few people (who post regularly) have applied to UCLA. You didn't include it in your list either!

Did you get a sense at all if Berkeley decisions were made for just the soc. dept. or also the joint demography/soc. program? I realize that's a very specific question, but thought I'd ask, since a few of us are in the joint program boat (which is done through the demog. dept). And congrats on your acceptances!

Hang in there! (I didn't mean to sound flippant about my rejection - and I'm immensely grateful I have one offer.) I thought my fit with Princeton was pretty good (migration/demography), but I think I was a bit lacking on the quantitative side for them. It would have been a prestigious program, but the idea of living in Princeton wasn't at all appealing to me, though I can't name any specific reason for feeling that way.

Another Princeton reject! I'm not particularly bitter (it was the bottom of my choices), but I will say two things about their application process that made me snarky: - Spelled recommendation incorrectly when they notified me that a letter of rec was submitted - Rejection email had 2 different fonts. One for each paragraph. I promise, I'm not bitter!

Cue dramatic gasp and faint.

Gol' durn it.

Generally, yeah, although I think there was one (UCLA? Princeton?) where I had to calculate my major GPA. Which was terrible, because I double-majored AND transferred colleges.

Usually the departmental website will have some information about how many/types of courses done at the graduate level (e.g., courses taken while completing a MA/MS) can be applied toward the PhD. Some departments are more strict in that they only accept graduate coursework done within the specific field of the doctoral program, while others are more flexible. In almost every case, you need to provide documentation and petition the department to have the credits applied.

Oddly enough, looking at the map makes me feel provincial for using "soda." Then again, maybe the people who responded to that survey just had very, very strong opinions about what soda ought to be called. "It's tonic, gol' durn it!"

I just sent test emails to the accounts I listed on my applications, because you know...what if something got lost in the "mail"! Officially.Need.To.Stop.NOW.

Kind of a slow day for notices. And February is supposed to be the busiest month for that sort of thing. Argg...

Yep, that's why I qualified it by saying it's anecdotal. Everyone I've spoken to about it seems to take it as a matter of fact though.

I've heard a lot of anecdotal evidence that people are applying to graduate school in droves because they can't find a job (thank you very much, economy). The director of my MA program said yield rate has increased fairly dramatically since 2008.

I wondered the same, and then depressed myself by going to the website, where I read: Our faculty committee will meet in early January for an initial review of the files. We will make some admissions decisions at this point but may need additional time to make all admissions decisions. But I'm trying not to obsess over it...much.

Good gourd, 400! Now I'm really hoping demog/soc applicants are not put in that pile. Sorry about the news...sometimes a waitlist is worse than just a "no"...

Augh - someone just posted that they were waitlisted at Berkeley! I thought they had to do acceptances before waitlists! The worst part is I'm fairly certain that the demography department operates on a different timeline than sociology.

I don't think you're coming off as an a-hole. And I think you're spot-on - do what you love, but don't kid yourself in thinking that that's enough to sustain you in a healthy and happy way. My take, anyway.

Not to hijack the conversation or stir up a hornet's nest, but I'm truly curious, how many of you are 100% certain that 1) you'll actually get to do the research you WANT to do and 2) you'll have the opportunity to do so? It's all well and good to have something you are passionate about and would dearly love to research, but research costs money. Even if you accept a piddling salary, there are other costs involved in research - data collection, entry, and analysis, IRB, site visit costs, incentives, etc. that make it almost impossible to do acceptable research without funds. Whether you work in academia or in a private setting, what you research in your field can be very much determined by what government, corporations, and foundations are willing to fund - and they have their own agenda. I'm not trying to be negative, and I know I can be quite a cynic, but I think there is enough collective wisdom in this board that we shouldn't discount these realistic assessments of just how hard pursuing a career in research can be.