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I will be attending the University of Maryland-College Park. Deciding factors: They're the only program that accepted me and offered full funding. The faculty is awesome, there's a lot of research dollars floating around there, and the campus is lovely and not too far away from my family.

Absolutely no info. It was a pretty brief communication. I'm kind of unimpressed. Sorry I can't be of more help.

I heard (rejection) but only after I emailed to ask. I'm not sure what's going on with that department.

Can anyone provide any information as to when the apartment markets really open up in the College Park area/surrounding areas (Takoma Park, Silver Spring, Rockville, etc.)? Is there a best time to be looking? I'm aiming for a lease starting August 1st, ideally.

Anthcat, thank you for your informative and thoughtful reply. You're kind of articulating a lot of what I've been thinking anyway--There are so many things, on paper and off, that make UMD seem like the best choice, and at the same time I'm going through that awful WHAT IF I MAKE THE WRONG CHOICE phase, not really having as much info as I'd like on MAPSS (though you've helped with that a great deal) and CHICAGO is lighting up in neon in my head a bit. But as you say, it probably isn't worth it, and what I have now may serve me very well. So I will probably not be in the competition in a year or so.

So after this whole slogging process, I find myself with two acceptances, one to the sociology PhD program at University of Maryland-College park, and one to the MAPSS program at University of Chicago. For various reasons, I find myself going back and forth a bit. UMD is offering me full funding for five years, tuition remission, $15,500 yearly stipend, health insurance. It's a very good program and there are some neat faculty. Maryland would be fairly close to home and to the families of both me and my fiance, which would make our planned marriage next spring possibly easier to wrangle (he's moving with me wherever I go and we want to get married here in Pennsylvania). I've found an area I think we could enjoy living in, and DC is a great city to be near. However: UMD was not my first choice, and Chicago was frankly higher on the list. Chicago is offering me 2/3rds tuition remission and no living stipend, so I would definitely have to go into debt if I wanted to go that route. In addition, I've read some bad things about MAPSS in other places on this forum--hard to get an advisor, lots of people don't finish on time, etc. However, my thesis advisor has been asking around and apparently it's not uncommon for people in MAPSS to move on into the soc PhD program, which would be great--it's one of the best sociology programs in the country and there would be some advantages inherent in that. But on the other hand, it's very far to move, there's the debt, I think it would be a rough year or couple of years, and I do have my fiance to think about. I just don't know. Can anyone tell me anything more about MAPSS? Should I just stick with the safer and more convenient thing in this case? :? I'm visiting UMD soon in any case so I'm not looking to make a decision now, but I think I should be thinking about this stuff pretty seriously all the same.

Bumping this to ask for some info: it's highly likely that I'll be attending UMCP in the fall. I'll be moving out there with my fiance and our two cats--he'll have to find a job (which I'm nervous about). I'm getting a $15,500 stipend for the academic year, plus health insurance. We're hoping to get a largeish 1 bdrm or a modest 2bdrm. Right now we live in a 1 bdrm apartment with a small den/study, which is pretty ideal. I would like to not spend over $1200 on rent if it can be avoided. Our main issues are safety and quiet, especially the latter for me. I've done the loud college area thing and I don't really want to do it again (apparently at 25 I have become an old crotchety person). Transportation is another factor: my fiance has a car, which he would probably use for whatever job he gets. I do not drive and currently rely on public transit, so proximity to that is important. I'm fine with a bit of a commute. Can anyone recommend any especially good areas to be looking at? By the same token, can anyone recommend any areas to be avoided at all costs? I've been looking pretty seriously at Silver Spring and I've heard some good things and some not so good things, so any more details anyone can provide there would be great.

Wow. I didn't know that--that definitely makes me feel pretty good. I'm sorry to hear you're on a waiting list--that sucks. At this point I think I'm probably going to UMD, but for the sake of the waitlisted, I'll try to make a definite decision ASAP. I didn't get into Penn. Sigh. I was an undergrad there and they have a strong bias against admitting their own people. Oh, well. Such is life. Best of luck to you as well. I hope you end up somewhere great, wherever that ends up being.

Well, I'm out. Got an email from a professor in the department who I'm working with. Disappointed, but not that surprised. Good luck/congrats to everyone else.

Yeah, I'm looking at the results page and only two people have reported hearing back. I realize that not everyone who's contacted is running straight to thegradcafe to report it, but it does seem strange that no one else has said anything. I wonder if that means that they're still going through the process of contacting people. This is absolutely killing me. :|

ewurgler, did they give you any information on cohort size or how high on the list you are? I'd urge you to take another offer :wink: but I don't even know if I've been rejected outright or not so it may not help me anyway.

0. schr

Well, I'm a little weird, honestly--I did my senior thesis on social interaction and narrative theory in an online RPG. I have some interest in gender, primarily in how it contributes to the formation of identity. I'm interested in what makes people feel connected to their communities and what happens when those connections fail. I'm interested in disability and identity. I'm interested in religion. So kind of all over, and looking to narrow things down, but I'd like to do that in a department that can accommodate a little bit of oddity. It may be that I could find a place with all of that at UMD--I will certainly ask when I visit. You live in Philly? So do I! I absolutely love it here, which is one reason why I'm looking to stay at UPenn. Good luck and I hope you hear good news from UMD soon.

I got a call from Jeff Lucas back... man, I'm not sure of the exact date, but it was sometime towards the end of February. Got the packet in the mail shortly thereafter. I haven't noticed many people reporting acceptances OR rejections from them; it's a little strange. I should have asked how big their planned cohort is this year but it didn't occur to me. I know how it feels to have things hanging over you--I'm waiting for my number one choice (UPenn) to get back to me (pretty sure it's a rejection), and I've been told unofficially that my number two choice (Rutgers) is planning to reject me as well, but it isn't official yet so I can't stop myself from hoping... it's absolutely killing me (and my poor long-suffering fiance). I'm very pleased to have gotten into UMD, though I have to admit it wasn't my first choice and I'm feeling a little iffy now (not about the quality of the program but about my potential fit within it). But I'm hoping to find out more about it (especially when I visit; admitted students' day is March 30th) and hopefully hit upon something that will make me fall in love with it. So let me ask you: why is it one of your top three choices? What about it makes you feel excited about potentially going there?

So it's looking more and more like I'll be going to UMD, if anywhere. Still waiting on a bunch of official rejections, but believe me, I'm fairly sure of what they'll be. So can anyone tell me anything about it? I mean, I've done plenty of my own research, but if anyone's had any personal dealings with the sociology department/faculty there and can give me any info I'd appreciate it.