Darth.Vegan

I think it simply means a paper that provides a critical analysis of a particular topic. Any sociological research paper worth its weight should have this. The methods used in collecting research data have no bearing whatsoever. Hope that helps.

That honestly seems crazy with the work load. Besides, PhD programs provide funding because you are expected to be in the program on a full-time basis.

Someone said the Hillcrest shuttle is no longer going to be running, anyone have any info or confirmation on this?

Rent in Norman is insanely cheap. You can get a 1 bedroom for $500-$600

If it helps, I found out the first week of April last year.

I'm in the same position at Santa Cruz. I'm sort of curious as to whether I will get off the wait list but it is unlikely that I would attend.

From what I've seen recently, even if you've declined all of your other offers and know where you want to attend, there is a little advantage in accepting an offer before April 15th. Some schools will continue to apply for fellowships and funding opportunities for folks that have yet to accept. I say hold out at least until the 1st week of April.

I get what you're saying and that will be my likely course of action. On top of that, I'm not able to visit Michigan because the travel stipend is about $115 short of covering the actual cost of the ticket. Interestingly enough, I am even considering giving up UCI for UCSD even though UCI is better ranked and more importantly has a strong upward trend. However, faculty at UCSD were very cordial, extremely familiar with my application, and the location is basically to die for. At this point I feel like I am just waiting on UCSD to make a funding offer I can't refuse. I was really hoping Oregon would make me fall in love and it almost did. Eugene is amazing, and I have great friends both in Eugene and Portland, however I was really turned off by the departmental visit. Everyone was really nice but it was just SUPER impersonal. Also the funding for years 2-4 is scary low.

Officially declined my offer from University of Victoria. I am still waiting to hear from Simon Fraser about a large entrance fellowship they applied for on my behalf, but I will likely be declining there as well. At this point it feels like my decision is between the PhD programs at Oregon, UCSD and Irvine, as well as the M.S. in Environmental Justice at Michigan (they offered me very solid funding, $2200/month for the first year and I can apply for it again in the 2nd year). I am still strongly considering Michigan both because the program seems awesome and I would love the opportunity to work with Dorceta Taylor. However, I am struggling with the logic of doing a masters program at this point. My top choice programs were Wisconsin and Cornell and while the program at Michigan may help my chances of getting into either Wisconsin or Cornell in my next application season there are zero guarantees in this crazy process. I also feel I would need to strengthen my quant score before applying again and dread the idea of both studying for the GRE and going through the application process again. I am also quite happy with my PhD offers at the moment, both in terms of the faculty I would work with and the relative prestige/and or recent job placements. If anyone has any thoughts on the benefit of doing a terminal masters, I'd love to hear from you.

Also still waiting on Toronto. I don't think they've made decisions for international applicants yet.

I have gotten off of 2 wait lists already, hang in there y'all!

Accepted to UCI.

I decided to decline Oklahoma today, it was hard because it was a lot of money haha.

Seeing UCSD drop bums me out :-/

The MS program at Michigan made me a very competitive funding offer. Tuition, health insurance and a stipend of $2200/month. Unfortunately, I see little benefit to doing a masters program at this point. I am considering visiting though.

I known where I want to go now, I'm just waiting a better funding offer that is supposedly in the works.

If UCSD comes through on their promise of a multi-year funding offer, a spot may be opening up at Oregon in the near future. Don't give up hope.

If you reapply next year, try and apply to 10 programs if possible and you obviously don't want to apply to programs you wouldn't consider going to but disperse them a bit in the rankings if you haven't already.

US News.

This seems like it could be a huge mistake. I think it would be better to submit a writing sample from a discipline you are the most familiar with, but then again, I'm not an adcomm member.

I received an email from the co-director telling me that they are hoping they will be able to make me an offer in the next couple weeks.

Turns out I was wait listed at UCI, they are hoping to make me an offer in the next few weeks. Interesting!

Still waiting to hear from my top choice, also waiting to see what sort of better funding package UCSD can put together for me. They say it will be forthcoming but I may have to wait until the end of the month.

Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed my UCSD visit today.

Ya no kidding, it said please see the attached document for information regarding your initial funding package and then there was no document, haha. They did also say that they are still hoping to put together a much better multi-year funding package and that the info they sent today was just their initial offer while they continue to work on it. I emailed the graduate coordinator and asked him to resend it.