Darth.Vegan

The lines also get blurred between anthro, soc, and political geography.

Ha, you can't ignore Foucault. A lot of recent critical sociology is based off of Foucault's concepts.

Foucault.

I think I zeroed in on this little tidbit: and completely missed the other section that said you could apply to 3 programs with the same application.

Hi avdarling,you applied to both development studies and the soc department at Madison? I thought that Madison did not allow submitting more than one application per cycle!?

Thanks for the suggestions, I already have about 7 or 8 faculty that have offered to look over my SOP and I will be taking them up on those offers.

I am working on getting a GRE score to match my GPA (3.95). Everything else is in order and hopefully I am applying to enough programs to get 2-3 offers. I hope so anyway, my greatest fear is not getting in anywhere!

Yes. Community colleges however may only have 1 or 2 tenure faculty per department.

Ill be happy to get a tenure track job offer anywhere in the US, or possibly Canada and UK. I really don't care about prestige job wise, but the direction of the academic job market worries me. My fear is that in 8 years from now, we will be lucky to get tenure track jobs anywhere regardless of where we got our PhD from.

Yes. Javier Auyero got his PhD from the New School and now works at UT-Austin. Also my friend that got his PhD in poli sci from here (unranked program), is a visiting professor at Williams. But he has yet to get offered a tenure track position, so keep that in mind.

I understand. I was simply making the point that you won't be the only one in a particular age group at any given time in a program.

I'm sure you did great, congrats!

True, but the specifics of Hawaii are very different. I can tell you that the sovereignty movement does like not being lumped into the whole native american narrative. I learned that the hard way when I got here.

30+ is pretty common for a PhD in Sociology actually. You really don't find all too many 27 year old assistant professors.

The point was that you may be looking for tenure track jobs in very unfamiliar places if you get a PhD from less known program. While some people may be fine with that, I would personally rather have more options not less. It's one thing to choose to take a job in a particular place for xyz reason, it's another to be forced to take one because you don't have any other choice. Also no, my "there" was clearly very specific. I am friends with the individual I was referring to and get regular updates. These weren't just "speculations about Africa" but very specific things that happened to a very specific person, in a very specific university in a very specific country in Africa. If you actually read my original post on the topic you would realize that instead of just jumping into some condescending rant. You're barking up the wrong tree here, I more than understand the politics of colonization, not to mention the fact that I currently live somewhere that continues to be illegally occupied by the United States.

My understanding is that older applicants are preferred and most definitely viewed favorably, others may have heard otherwise but that is my understanding. At least I hope so, I will be 29 when my applications are submitted and 30 when I matriculate.

Ummm, I was not referring to Africa as a whole. I simply did not specify where to protect the privacy of the individual involved. You are jumping to HUGE conclusions based on spurious assumptions about my intentions.

The electricity goes out for 4-8 hours everyday and there was threat of civil war recently. No thanks.

Giacomo, I agree with that. Except that in certain cases lack of prestige can hamper you even more depending how much it is lacking. I have seen PhD's in Poli Sci from my school get stuck in visiting positions (and not just for 1-2 years), or having to take tenure track jobs in Africa because they didn't get any other tenure track offers. In the visiting professor case, he has connections with very well known people in the field and as of yet has not gotten a tenure track offer. I'm hoping his luck will change this year, he is quite brilliant. Outside of job placement factors, I really don't care about prestige. There are brilliant people doing really great research in programs up and down the rankings and at unranked programs. For job placement however it does matter, and I am not talking about placement at prestigious schools, im simply talking about tenure track placement anywhere. The other thing are the resources available to grad students, generally speaking the higher ranked programs have more resources research wise than lower ranked ones, although there is some variation between public vs private as well obviously. Edit: Also, I guess I also just want to feel that all the work i've done was justified! I decided to spend an extra year gaining research experience, have kept an almost impeccable GPA, honors thesis and I am on track to graduate with high or highest honors. I am somewhat embarrassed to say this, but I guess I just need to feel validated to some degree. I know that is kind of stupid, but that is just me being as honest as possible.

I think it depends on whether one wants a full-time tenure track job or not. That's not to say that it's impossible to get a tenure track job outside the top 40, but it does get exceedingly difficult.

Generally no, my intention in making this list is not to suggest that people apply directly to any of these programs. I simply want to help other applicants who may be unaware of the programs that even offer terminal masters. The only likely scenario I can think is in the case of a program that doesn't "fit" that well. An MA program does not have to be extremely tailored to a person's interests in the way that a PhD program should be.

Ok, I would love this thread to stay on topic as I am sure this is much needed information for a lot people. I am grateful for the advice, but I think you all are taking my response the wrong way. I am well aware of the risks, I am very aware that there is a good possibility that I will get rejected from every single one of the schools that I am applying to. At the end of the day, I need to be happy with where I end up. I also don't think that applying to programs with poor job placement records is a very good idea. If my post came off in some way as over confident that simply isn't the case. I am not entirely confident about my chances, especially at 14 of the 16 schools on my list. I am ok with that. As far as a backup plan is concerned.. I don't need one other than finding a job. At the end of the day, without reliable job placement prospects, a PhD is simply not worth it.

Given the abysmal state of the job market I have zero interest in getting a PhD from a school outside the top 30, and i've spent 2 years putting this list together. There aren't that many programs that offer MA's and the New School is the only one that fits enough of a niche to make it worth my while. I feel very good about my chances at The New School and Victoria. I even feel pretty good (as much as one can about a 3-5% acceptance rate) about my chances at Madison given my advisers close personal relationship with a number of well known faculty in the department. Edit: I apologize if I came off the wrong way. I just wanted to make the point that I am aware of the competitiveness of the process, but the schools I am applying to are very much intentional. I have considered applying to the MA at Boston College, but I don't think that is much of a safety either.

Can we compile a list of ranked terminal masters programs? I know that I have certainly had trouble finding information on this, and even the ASA guide to graduate departments has some incorrect information regarding program offerings of different departments. Here is what I have so far: University of Chicago (MAPPS) Columbia Boston College Brandeis The New School Florida State Fordham

You're welcome. Feel free to PM and we can also become friends on facebook. It would be nice to know some people ahead of time!