cogcul

Generally, I don't think that what courses you choose are too important. But since you don't have a background in sociology I would also recommend taking Classical sociological thought. Theory is important in sociology since its such a dispersed academic field; these approaches are one of the things that tie the field together. Methods is another one of those If you can take methods this or the next semester I would recommend that. Cultural theory may be very important at your university, but its not a very common title for a course, so it will not affect your chances for admission in other universities. Lastly, if the courses you take can help you back up your statement of purpose, that might also be helpful. So choose classes you are genuinely interested in. In other words, I would definitely recommend politics and society, but then again, I don't know what other alternatives you have for the next semester or how committed you are to your social movements plan; so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.

The wikipedia page on the gre-test has an approximate conversion from the old to the new system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Record_Examinations#Scaled_score_percentiles Here are the stats for Duke: http://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/admitsoc.htm For them it looks like a high verbal score is appreciated (or at least common among admitted students), whereas a good quant score is good enough.

I wouldn't be too worried, but I would try to get to know one or two of your sociology-professors well by going to their office hours as often as you can. Letters tend to be very important to separate you from all those others that have done everything right. Since you are doing a senior research seminar, perhaps you could try to do some preliminary preparation for it, and ask one of the profs that you get along with well for advice on it? This would give them an idea of your interests, and would let them know that know that you are serious about sociology, which would help them write a good letter for you.

If you have done well in the sociology courses, and especially if you have a sociology professor that knows you well and can write a reference-letter for you, then I don't see any problem with applying in the next application-season. You can mention what courses you are taking in sociology in the spring 2013 semester together with your interests in your statement of purpose. You should know that it's incredibly competitive at some sociology-programs in Canada for international students. Often they can only admit one international student, and they tend to get as many international applications as they do domestic applications. For this reason I would apply broadly, not only at UofT and UBC. University of Alberta I know is quite respected in Canada, so is obviously McGill (but I have heard mixed things about their program), York is especially good for radical sociology, and there are many other good universities too.

I know someone has mentioned before that some universities have a cut-off score for GRE; that this is one of the indicators they use to weed out the applications they don't want to look at: Perhaps someone else can comment on that? Keeping the possibility of a cut-off score at some schools in mind though, this is my take on applying with a low GRE-score: While those scores are not great, that's usually OK. In fact, those scores are not very different from mine, and I got into a program that are ranked as a top 20 program. While it is great to be good on every part of the application, it's not necessary. As far as I understand, you will need to show that you are great by some other indicator though. Great letters of recommendation might be the most important, and having a great writing sample (like the research you referred to) could also really help you. Your experience as a TA and RA looks good by itself, but if you have done a good job I would imagine the professors you worked for are able to more confidently recommend you for a Ph.D. program. All in all, I wouldn't be too worried, if you think you can raise your GRE-score that might be helpful, but do make sure to polish your writing sample and ask for letters of recommendation (early) from people that know you well and like you.

I would agree with Ladril, his response was my first hunch to. Especially as a second author, I think they would mainly see it as proof that your efforts in that collaboration was valued enough that they thought it was reasonable to put you as second author. Seen from this perspective it is a positive thing. Also, if the first author is somewhat famous or the institute you are at is somewhat famous, then a publication with these people would associate you with them, which is always good because it means you have learned their view on these topics from the inside. I think there is little risk of this being negative for you, unless the publication causes a lot on controversy (and even then, as a junior author...).

I think there is a big difference here between academic influence and influence on for example policy or more generally, how the public understands what is going on in society. If we are talking about policy (etc.) then its probably the administrative sciences such as economics and political science. Economics especially has been perhaps the main discipline for delivering the premises for public debates. If its makes economic sense according to standard theories of how the economy works there is a good chance it will be carried out, in some cases even if the public really would prefer it not to happen. The typical example here is some welfare good (or labor regulation) that has to be cut because it makes economic sense. As for academia, I don't know, I think sociologists might be the best at applying insights from other fields. But I often find theories or discoveries in linguistics, anthropology and psychology to be the great at creating those initial insights or ways of looking at the world that make it possible to explain something new in sociology.

That must include living costs for Oxford? I got up 13.200 pounds per year for tuition (so 26.400 + the price increase until next year) by using page on Oxford's website: http://www.ox.ac.uk/.../search/launch/ Boston seems to be more expensive than that, this webpage suggests 40000 dollars a year: http://www.bu.edu/re...+f-1112reg.html A pound is worth about 1.5 dollars, so 26.400 * 1,5= 39.600. About half that of Boston University for two years. The living costs should not be very different in the two places. If costs is an issue, you should ask them whether they offer TAships with any chances of getting tuition remission, I think Boston might do that. Or whether they offer scholarships for students in their second year, or whether they suggest that you apply for certain scholarships. I know very little about these two places academically. I don't think neither Oxford nor Cambridge are actually known for being very good in sociology (I think the Guardian ranks sociology departments), but since the M.Phil. is a stepping stone to a Ph.D. degree for you; name recognition might play a bigger role than normally. Edit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2011/may/17/university-guide-sociology Turns out Cambridge and LSE is in the top of the British sociology programs, but for some reason I can't find Oxford on there.