Darth.Vegan

@meowth, It sounds most likely that they have a funding package for you if you were offered a spot. A lot of schools send funding info separately, just hang in there!

That's super exciting, congrats.

I get the feeling that this varies by department. In my process of negotiation started and ended with the grad directed who was in contact on a continual basis about their offer. They even gave me sage (even if biased) advice on my other offers, and asked if I had competing offers, and/or issues that made me hesitant to accept. I then expressed concerns over cost of living and explained the different offers I had from various programs.

2 years in a row we've had MAPSS students get into the PhD program at UCI. This year, said MAPSS student had a few good offers.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I read this in economic sociology

It was a pleasure having you Turbo. You have some great options in front of you and you should be able to do solid work wherever you go.

Phil McMichael, Jack Kloppenburg and Raj Patel.

From what I've heard, funding at CUNY is a nightmare

congrats ya'll

Irvine has sent out acceptances after the visit day before. Looks like the weather for the Irvine visit will be less than ideal. We have a beast of a storm headed this way in what is usually a locale with ideal weather. Oh well, California desperately needs the water.

Hey y'all, I did some digging and found that link with the stats I was talking about: http://www.asanet.org/documents/research/pdfs/2011_2012_ASA_Job_Bank_Survey_Brief.pdf

Reposting this from the official decision thread with some added info.... At UCI, and many other UC's, the initial funding package of a 5 year guaranteed TA'ship (with 17k stipend) and healthcare is offered to everyone that is accepted. That was my initial funding offer. Upon informing UCI of my concerns over cost of living in Irvine, and my competing offers from other programs, I was offered the deans recruitment fellowship which has actually been increased to $6000. In addition, I was given $3000 for my first summer, with no work obligations whatsoever. Some students that accepted early, got no additional funding, others got even better offers than I did (as a result of competing offers from top 10 and top 20 programs), including funding for 3 summers, or full year long fellowships with no work obligations. This wasn't isolated to UCI, the other program I was seriously considering was UCSD. Their funding works a little differently in that they don't guarantee TA'ships like Irvine does, their funding offers typically come with little to no work requirements, but often fall short of the full 5 year guarantees that students have come to expect. My initial offer was only for 1 year, with no work requirements whatsoever. They say they can typically fund students through TA'ships, readerships and RA'ships through 5-7 years, but they don't guarantee work related funding. Upon informing them that I had a 4 year guarantee from Oregon, they got me another year of funding with no work requirements. After I got the funding offer from UCI, they offered me a third year with no work requirements. In the end, I decided that UCI's 5 year guarantee, their constant contact throughout the recruitment process, and their job placement made them the best choice. So I would just like to add, my personal experience with this was not limited to California schools. I included UCI and UCSD because I felt they were the most directly comparable to each other and were the direct result of negotiations. Oregon also offered me this, a few weeks after the initial offer: Less comparable but still relevant: The environmental justice MA program at Michigan, came back with an offer of a 10k fellowship for the first year on top of a TA'ship University of Oklahoma offered me a 10k fellowship for 2 years on top of the standard TA'ship Victoria and Simon Fraser both came back with better funding offers as well. I realize that some of these do not have the same prestige and may be comparing apples to oranges. I am simply giving my personal experience so people can understand what is possible. It doesn't hurt to negotiate in my opinion, as long as you are polite and tactful in doing so. It may not work, but really, what is there to lose? For programs with stipends in the 10-20k range, trying to secure extra funding can be really important for your financial security. For those at private schools with larger stipends, this is less important. Anyway, I appreciate all the input on this. Every program is different, and it's important to remember that your milage may vary.

Definitely agree with amlobo's sentiment. Just wanted folks to know what their options are. For example many UC's have this: Source: http://www.grad.uci.edu/funding/fellowships-awards/internal/index.html On top of that, in my case the department actually appealed to the dean's office to get some more funding, including summer funding. They also applied for another fellowship on my behalf that I didn't get but I really appreciated the effort and attention they gave me during recruitment and it made my decision easier. I decided to add my responses to this post as to save space for people actually posting decisons. What the heck are you talking about? I got an increase of $9,000 from UCI in my first year, and UCSD offered me an extra 2 years of funding based on UCI's offer. How is that not successful? Also, in my first post I clearly outlined that this depends on the program You're right, that's terrible advice. Stop trolling. I really shouldn't oblige the troll bait, but I will this once for the sake of prospectives that might buy into your misinformation. at UCI, and many other UC's, the initial funding package of a 5 year guaranteed TA'ship (with 17k stipend) and healthcare is offered to everyone that is accepted. That was my initial funding offer. Upon informing UCI of my concerns over cost of living in Irvine, and my competing offers from other programs, I was offered the deans recruitment fellowship which has actually been increased to $6000. In addition, I was given $3000 for my first summer, with no work obligations whatsoever. Some students that accepted early, got no additional funding, others got even better offers than I did (as a result of competing offers from top 10 and top 20 programs), including funding for 3 summers, or full year long fellowships with no work obligations. This wasn't isolated to UCI, the other program I was seriously considering was UCSD. Their funding works a little differently in that they don't guarantee TA'ships like Irvine does, their funding offers typically come with little to no work requirements, but often fall short of the full 5 year guarantees that students have come to expect. My initial offer was only for 1 year, with no work requirements whatsoever. They say they can typically fund students through TA'ships, readerships and RA'ships through 5-7 years, but they don't guarantee work related funding. Upon informing them that I had a 4 year guarantee from Oregon, they got me another year of funding with no work requirements. After I got the funding offer from UCI, they offered me a third year with no work requirements. In the end, I decided that UCI's 5 year guarantee, their constant contact throughout the recruitment process, and their job placement made them the best choice. In regards to "Ivy Leauge" schools, my understanding is that many of those programs have fixed funding packages that can't be negotiated. As I mentioned earlier, this varies by program. Also, stop using "Ivy League" as a placeholder for prestige, last I checked, Brown is ranked the same as Irvine.

Honestly, it is expected that students will switch focus once they get into grad school. As long as your program can support your work, I think you're fine.

I would suggest looking at job placement of the programs you are applying to. If they don't offer this information on their website, ask for it. Irvine is one of the few programs that offers placement information for ALL of the students that complete their PhD's. A lot of the time, even when programs do have placement info on their website, they only show the successful placements. If you look at this page you'll see that for 2013 graduates, 5/6 got tenure track jobs 2012: 4/12 got tenure track jobs, 2/12 got post-docs, 3/12 took adjunct positions (2 of which were in California), and the other 3 got full time jobs in some sort of academic capacity. 2011: 7/8 got tenure track jobs, 1 got a post-doc The feeling in the department is that the placement is quite strong, particularly relative to the ranking and the amount of time that the program has existed (only been graduating PhD's for 10 years). There is also a general sense that students that are willing to be flexible in location, will typically find tenure track jobs. Many of the adjuncts are people who did not want to leave California for whatever reason. Anyway, job placement is an important consideration and was one of the main reasons I chose Irvine over other programs I was accepted to. http://www.sociology.uci.edu/soc_grad_placement

The ASA has exact data on this. From the last stats I saw, of all the social sciences, sociology had the best job prospects save for maybe economics. I don't have the link, maybe someone else here will. Job placement is rough for sure, but it's not that bleak. If you insist on getting a job at an R1 in a major urban city, your outcome may be bleak. If all you're looking for is a tenure track job, the outcomes are better if you go to a good program with a good history of job placement. Myself, I only hope for a tenure track job in either North America or Australia, I am not pickier than that.

Hardly. 4 of those were fully funded PhD programs and 5 were fully funded MA programs. I applied to 15 programs, and got rejected from all 3 of the programs in the top 20 I applied to.

Just a quick note... Sending in official acceptances early can hurt prospectives in funding negotiations. Programs want you to make a decision as early as possible so they can take folks off the waitlist, and this is definitely a kind and worthwhile thing to do. That said, you may end up with less funding if you make your decision too early in the process. Some programs offer the same funding package to everyone, others have bonuses they can throw in to entice prospective students into accepting their offer (such as summer funding, recruitment fellowships etc. ). What I did, was notify schools as soon as I knew for sure I would not be attending and held out on some programs that I was still considering until very late in the process. I didn't send in my decision to accept until April 14th and it paid off. That said, I did decline offers at 6 out of the 9 programs I was accepted to relatively early to make space for potential waitlisters and to free up funding offers for others.

I agree, I just feel like students with only minor teaching obligations have a distinct advantage when it comes to productivity as a researcher, which is probably the single most important component in terms of job placement. That said, as I alluded to earlier, having a deficit in teaching experience can limit one's ability to get jobs at teaching colleges.

I'm jealous of these private school funding packages with very little in the way of teaching obligations. I wonder how that might hinder one's placement at teaching colleges though. That said, I did turn down 3 years of funding with no teaching obligations for a 5 year guarantee.

Hang in there folks. I got off of 3 different waitlists last year, so if you haven't heard from schools that already notified or you've been waitlisted, there is hope!

I would also like to add that while prestige is a seriously important consideration in terms of job placement it isn't the only thing that matters. Some departments fill certain niches well and seem to have better placement than their ranking would suggest. That said, the old adage that you end up placed in a department a tier below the one you are in stands. Tenure-track jobs from lower ranked departments are possible though, look at University of Oregon, they seem to place quite well. You're not gonna get a job at a top 30, but a lot of their students get tenure-track.

Definitely agree there. Let me add, my experience has been positive thus far minus the inconvenience and long waits for appointments thus far. Talking to some older graduate students though, I've heard horror stories.

90% or more is great in my opinion. That said, I still think UCSHIP with the requirement to initiate care at the student health center is a real inconvenience (plus it can take a long time to get an appointment). I've had Kaiser and honestly, it's way worse than Kaiser.

Only problem with UCSHIP is that you have to initialize care at the student health center. That can be a real pain. Also, referrals have to be renewed every year.