Darth.Vegan

Re this question: What in environmental sociology interests you? If you give me a better idea I may be able to point you in the right direction.

Development Sociology at Cornell, Brown, UCI, and Northeastern come to mind. I would also look into geography programs and anthro programs depending on what your specific interests in environmental soc are.

This seems extremely short sighted for anyone hoping to get a tenure-track position. You won't be able to have any geographical preference in the job search so why have one now?

How about you tell us where you are hoping to get in? It's my experience that the GRE is somewhat overemphasized on these boards, but it really depends on the program and what the rest of your profile looks like.

book reviews, book reviews, book reviews! Pretty easy to get published in either academic journals or academic databases. My advisor actually suggested it and made it happen by offering to co-author (but she let me write most of the review and be first author).

Glad to hear it amlobo!

Uh, I don't think any of those things describe Josefmoore, he mostly just trolls the various sub forums and gets in flame wars. He's been suspended from the forum various inappropriate behaviors in the past including down voting posts for no apparent reason.

This just begs the question of why you chose a program with no funding over ones with funding?

I applied to 2 top 10, 2 top 20, 2 top 30, 1 in the 30-40 range and 2 in the 50-60 range plus a number of funded masters programs. Of the 9 PhD programs I applied to I received 4 offers. Certainly apply to top 10 programs but I would disperse your applications across the rankings while making sure to only apply to schools you would seriously consider attending.

It wasn't even the OP that became defensive.

I will also be attending UCI this fall for the PhD program in Sociology. I am actually from Orange County originally so I am going full circle so to speak. I am planning to live on campus but if anyone has questions about which areas to live in or where to look for affordable housing feel free to send me a PM.

Do you mind me asking where you got in and what the rest of your application looked like?

I think you're underestimating the competitiveness of top 30 programs. Most of these programs have acceptance rates between 3-10%. I saw the stats that you posted and I would just like to point something out. First, Pitt is a unique program to say the least and I would imagine they have a more forgiving and holistic approach to PhD admissions then some other programs. Second, they are not top 30 anyway, not even top 50. That said they are a very good program, especially in social movements and likely on their way up. Third, the Rutgers stats you posted were a high split, high splits can help buffer the impact of a low GRE score because it gets your application noticed. 165 on verbal is not exactly common, and is well in the 90th percentile. The only one really worth a notable exception is CUNY, and I would venture a guess that getting into CUNY with scores like that is an anomaly to say the least. Obviously there are other factors that will weigh with admissions committees if one is lucky enough to even have their file reviewed with scores that low, one of which is having a very strong letter from a well known scholar in the field. I know at least one applicant this year that got into a top 10 program with lower than average GRE scores (lower than the average top 10 accepted applicant anyway), but they were no where near as low as these scores. I know you said you're planning to retake but you were also giving what I would consider poor advice to the OP in regards to his scores. As Tahoma pointed out, this process is competitive enough, why give an adcom a reason to hesitate on what may otherwise be a strong application? I would also direct you to this thread by FertigMort, who served on a top 20 admissions committee this year and found out just how important GRE scores were in the admissions process.

I know it has been said already, but with scores that low you need to retake if you want a chance at ranked PhD programs in sociology, never mind in the top 30 or 50. My suggestion has always been 70th + or a high split score. Head over to the GRE sub forum if you need help with specific questions or sections.

Congrats!

Just remember that community colleges have very few full-time faculty positions. If you go to Irvine and get a PhD you have much greater likelihood of getting a full-time/tenure track faculty appointment somewhere.

How'd you know that!? Honestly, it came down to funding and the fact that Irvine is super organized and on top of their stuff and kept in constant contact with me at all times.

Accepted my offer to UC-Irvine.

Wooooot.

I mean this in the best way possible, that sounds perfect for you. Congrats!

People apply cross-discipline so I doubt methodology would be a determining factor of anything. I really think the most important factor is that it is well written, sociological and provides an in-depth critical analysis of the findings.

Hey y'all. Just wanted to let you know that I officially declined my offer from University of Oregon. Hopefully one of you makes it off the wait-list, take care!

Interesting that they finally updated that page with the new GRE scale. Looking at the nowhere near representative sample of folks on Grad Cafe that got into UT-Austin though, it seems those "averages" for hard stats are a little low, and I had always assumed they were outdated, guess not!

I didn't apply there but I know at least one person who got in and is very likely going elsewhere. So hang in there!

To the Oregon folks, I apologize but I am still waiting to hear back from a couple of my acceptances about revised funding offers before I can make an informed decision. I don't mean to make you wait unnecessarily.