Darth.Vegan

That's huge and super exciting, congrats!

Just a word to the wise, no one uses umbrellas and people will immediately know that you aren't from Oregon if you do.

Where are you finding an apartment in NYC for $1000? Queens? Anyway, in my experience Philly considerably cheaper than both DC and NYC. Congrats on the great acceptances though, super exciting!

I actually feel like Norman (politics wise) only gets better, even in recent years. Just FYI, the Whole Foods is officially open in OKC and has been for a few months. My mom went to check it out a while back and said it was amazing, she's been waiting for a Whole Foods for a while. In town, Dodsons is probably the best place for "natural foods" and if you're used to any of the nicer places like I was it can be pretty disappointing. Dodsons is also super christian so keep that in mind. They will order almost anything you might want if you ask for it specifically though.

As I said to you over PM, EC's have to be extremely relevant to your discipline to really matter IMO. For example, junior year I taught an intro soc course for an entire semester in a seminar style with 10 freshmen and under supervision from senior faculty. I would argue that is an EC that is relevant to my application and will probably help me. I have also started two non-profits doing environmental/animal activism. I am going to frame my applications in such a way that these experiences give me a unique perspective on conducting social movement research. If you can really make a case as to why your EC's are relevant to your application then I think it is worthwhile.

Of course it does, but many of the applicants are so close together in qualifications that is a pretty weak argument to make.

Dammit, just noticed that.

. Word. I feel the same way.

What the hell? You certainly don't belong in this discipline. I hope I don't end up in a cohort with anyone that has an attitude about sexuality and gender identity like that. WHOA, I am actually dumbfounded by this. Edit: to the OP, I would imagine you would be fine in most places, I know it's scary having to come out "again" but it seems like you'll feel better if you do.

@chrisscoff, If you are at Purdue already why not just go sit down with some folks in the department that can answer all these questions directly?

I don't have specific advice, but in the social sciences there are a number of one year MA programs.

You can always walk right up and introduce yourself. That's what I usually do!

Wow, I am not even going to state my opinion of the OP as it might get me reprimanded. To those wait-listed and freaking out, try and calm your nerves and don't take the callous comments of the OP to heart. Some people simply have NO TACT.

I hear it's gorges in Ithaca

sweet! See you there!

Anyone else here apply for this? I just found that my paper was accepted today, I am SUPER EXCITED. Awesome. Anyone else apply for this or going to the ASA this year? After two NSF internship rejections I needed this!!!!

As far as I understand it, this is a normal feeling. I've met people that went to Ivy's and top 10 liberal art's colleges that feel this way too.

The amounts for assistant, associate and professor seem right. However, something tells me the average for lecturer and instructor is being skewed by outliers. I would like to see the median for those.

@spunkrag, Really? Michael Young and Javier Auyero are doing amazing work in social movements and latin america. There are plenty of great faculty at UT-Austin not doing work in demography. Frankly I think demography is boring as hell.

You didn't say this on your apps did you? did you make sure to specifically tailor each application?

Is it bad that I am already getting nervous about this whole process? Haha, oh well, getting ready to leave for a soc conference in San Diego.

I will echo the research experience as well. I will have 2 years of research experience. I have worked as a qualitative research assistant and developed 3 independent research papers as well. I hope that's enough for T20.

I am basing this off of advice from faculty. That way when I go to conferences in the summer I can connect the names with faces for POI's. Also, I am not suggesting sending only one email, I intend to keep regular contact with faculty that seem so inclined. It's all about building relationships. I plan to submit my apps late October and early November, I don't think I can build any kind of even superficial relationship in one to two months.

I am going to wait until mid-late april once all the decisions for this years cohort have come in.

About the SOP. I think this really depends. I have had very solidified research interests for the past 2 years, and I doubt those will change between now and the fall. Will I be gaining more experience between now and then that I will want in my SOP? Sure, but it doesn't hurt to have a draft written now that you can show to professors to get comments. It's honestly not that hard to revise an SOP and add in your most recent experience. The initial structure and design is the most difficult IMO. Also while I would echo asking professors for advice, I would also say that even young professors tend to have dated advice. Example: One of my most trusted letter writers is completely confident that I will get into a top 20 program, based on my experience, maturity, grades and research focus. She is relatively young, finished her PhD in 2007 from Wisconsin-Madison. When she applied in 2002 the acceptance rate was upwards of 35%, these days it is around 4-8% depending on the program. Things have changed considerably just in the last 10 years. I would take any advice from here with a grain of salt, but I would suggest the same about taking advice from faculty who may not be as familiar with the process today. If you're lucky enough to be at a T30 program already and can get advice from people on AdComms that would be ideal, but most of us are not that lucky.