Darth.Vegan

In certain circumstances I think it can be worthwhile personally. Just make sure that you can cover the cost using only federal loans, that way your eligible for the repayment programs that won't totally kill your finances later. I see it as potentially necessary to climb a prestige ladder and frankly given the PhD. placement of a program like MAPPS it seems to make sense. Is it a gamble? Sure. You could end up with loads of debt and not get placed in a PhD program, or not get placed in a PhD program that is ranked any better than one you may have gotten into without it. In that regard it is a personal decision. That said, I would imagine a masters from University of Chicago, or Columbia would greatly increase the likelihood of getting into a top 20 PhD program. This seems to me to be a very personal decision, and it really depends on your other options. That said, the monetary expense of a Masters seems rather small to the lifetime earning potential of having a tenure-track job vs possibly teaching adjunct (which is a fear a lot of us have I think). Personally I go back and forth on this a lot. If this time next year I only get into Santa Cruz or Oregon (both great programs but with questionable job placement), and I get into a partially funded masters at Chicago or Columbia I will certainly have a lot to think about.

Michigan I would imagine is not too bad either. Source: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/soc/graduateprogram/financialsupport

Wisconsin is no longer super competitive because they fund everyone.

I consider landing a tenure track job to be good job placement and I don't mean at Harvard.

We used these books for my theory class: http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Sociological-Theory-Craig-Calhoun/dp/1405148543/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330884882&sr=1-6 http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Sociological-Theory-Craig-Calhoun/dp/140514856X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330884882&sr=1-9

I have really radical politics and comment on things often but I keep everything to friends only so I'm not worried. I certainly wouldn't mind keeping in touch with some folks from here on Facebook. You can PM me if you're interested. I am not inclined to post it here.

what was your major btw? (if you don't mind)

You ask the professor if you can "audit." Essentially you sit in the class, participate and do the assignments but you don't get a grade.

Do you actually need it for the credit? or can you audit it?

What about the summer course in soc. theory at University of Washington? It's not online, but should work!

PM'D

My interests lie at the intersection of environmental sociology and social movements. So you are both correct. I am primarily interested in issues of food, energy, development and globalization. Then I am also interested in new left social movements such as the animal rights, environmental, anti-globalization. occupy and people's movements (such as ELZN). If Stanford seems to stick out a bit from the other 2 listed, it probably does. My choice of Stanford is based on work that Colin J. Beck did on the radical environmental movement while he was Stanford (now at Pomona). Oh and just fyi science girl, my intention is to apply to 8 top 30 phd programs Stanford Wisconsin Austin Michigan NYU Cornell Brown (maybe) UC Irvine I feel like I can make a strong case for each one being a really good fit for me (each for different reasons) Then I am applying to 2 or 3 lower ranked (#31 and #57) PhD programs and 4 or 5 MA programs (3 of which are funded)

@Chuck. I definitely understand the words of caution, but their placement record in PhD programs can't be beat!

Ya well I already have my top picks, and even though I feel I am pretty strong, I am still concerned with how competitive programs are. My deficits as I see them: My 30 credits from Portland Community College (3.2) bring what would be stellar GPA (3.94) down a bit (but still 3.7 cumulative). And seeing as I am looking to publish an article from my thesis in a professional journal, I will probably not have any journal publications by the time I apply, unless I try and publish my research paper for my social stats class (analyzing GSS data) in an undergrad journal. And while prestige does not matter that much, coming from the #158th ranked national university concerns me when I am competing with students from UC's and Ivy's.I also don't expect anything better than around the 1300's on the GRE. My partner and I fair about the same on the practice questions and she got a 1320 when she took it. I will feel better about my applications in the fall if I get one of the 2 NSF internships I applied for, guess I should know any day now. Wisconsin Madison Jack Kloppenburg (close friends with one of my letter writers, he was also her adviser and she thinks we would be a perfect fit) Katherine J. Curtis Michael Bell Cornell (Dev Soc) Phil McMichael Charles Geisler Stanford Doug McAdam Susan Olzak

Yeah, I thought about that, but it really doesn't fit my research interests that well. I figure for a Masters it doesn't really matter (plus MAPPS is interdisciplinary by nature), but I am not sure I want to go there for 7 years. I may change my mind once I am in the program and get to know faculty on a personal basis and see what they are working on first hand. Trust me, I go back and forth on this all the time.

I am still trying to gauge how competitive MAPPS is...? I plan on applying directly to MAPPS as a viable backup option, as U of C doesn't fit my research interests that well.

Sweet! Is this swaying you at all?

Aren't there some extremely competitive NSF grants for supporting graduate study?

Is there really a school in the T15 or even T25 that has terrible job placement? (2008,09 aside)

Thanks for the advice. I honestly don't have any idea how people get published multiple times while in undergrad, professional journal or otherwise. The timeline just doesn't seem to work! I have a couple smaller original research methods papers for methods classes that I can submit to undergrad journals. I think I still want to save any articles I develop from my thesis for professional journals. I was particularly looking at Mobilization.

Do you think it's better for my grad app to have a pending review for a professional journal or an actual publication in an undergrad journal?

I meant specifically for the research.

Don't forget to also apply for funding for original research projects, both from the university and outside sources. My university gave me 3k for my honor's thesis! I am sure funding for grad students is generally better than that.

It seemed that it was because book reviews were near the bottom and low impact journals were listed below high impact. But on 2nd look I think you are correct, any order as it's written may have just been subconscious or by chance. On 2nd look I would rank it in this order with the caveat again that single author on some of these may rank it above co-authored work. Book (peer reviewed, academic press) Special edition of a journal Journal with high impact factor Book (general press) Book chapter Journal with low impact factor Synthesis article/literature review Book Review (in a journal) Commentary

@Chuck I think your hierarchy as outlined in your first post is probably correct. My only caveat would be that single author is more valuable than co-author in some cases and move one up over the other. For example, I would rank a single author chapter in a book above a co-author journal article.