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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.

I am desperately hoping to do so, though I have to say that I'm not optimistic about my chances at this point. But I've been told that it's good to go somewhere else, to meet new faculty and build new relationships in the field. I've taken that advice to heart, even though I'm hoping to stay where I am, and in fact if I had gotten into my alma mater AND my #2 choice I would have had to think about it pretty carefully.

Does this help or hurt you? Or does it just depend wildly on what program and the circumstances? What is the commonly held wisdom about this?

Bumping this with news just in case anyone cares: the committee met today. Expect some news in the next couple days/early next week.

Multiple dreams, all about acceptances. Very vivid. Waking up was absolutely heartbreaking. It's nice to know I'm not the only one.

I THINK that's who I spoke to. I was in the car at the time (not driving) on a poor cell phone connection and the guy had a bit of an accent so I'm not 100% sure of the name (I heard "Rutgers" and my mind went a bit blank). However, I sent him a followup email afterward, so if that isn't who I spoke to I look pretty silly right now. I think it was a trap! Seriously, I think they had to be expecting something fairly informal if they were calling at 9 at night. I was asked about professors I wanted to work with, and not being in front of a computer (and having written my SoP how many months ago now?) I couldn't pull any names off the top of my head. :oops: I didn't get any other information about cohort size or what specifically they're looking for (I should have asked). The questions he asked about my research indicated to me that he was just interested to see how well-grounded I was and how truly interested I am in the program, and how much thought I've given to fit. .

I graduated this past December. Between high school and college I bummed around for two years trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to do, which is why I'm kind of in an odd in-between state. This is possibly the main reason why I would consider it seriously, if all we're looking at is application strength. Because I know I'll never do great on it, but yes, as you say, if I studied hard for a bit I'm pretty sure I could bring it up at least some. And yes, they absolutely do require at least some proficiency in quantitative methods, even if in your research you generally stick to the qualitative side of things. Which is why I feel like the score is giving the more competitive programs pause. If they don't think I can do at least decently in graduate level stats... well. I think I could, with some tutoring and extra hard work, but it's not like I can conclusively prove that to them. Yeah, absolutely. I have a friend with dyscalculia and she's told me in no uncertain terms that having a formal diagnosis can be invaluable at times, particularly where exams are concerned. All very good advice (thanks!), and I've been thinking along similar lines. I mean, we'll see--still haven't heard back from the remaining four places so something might come through. But having calmed down somewhat, I'm no longer so uncomfortable about the idea of putting it off a year. I'd rather go into grad school well-prepared and in a program I'm excited about than just going because I'm afraid to be patient.

I'm at Penn, and what I hear from my contacts in the department is that application reviews started a bit late this year and the process has been somewhat hectic (I don't think they even really started until early-mid February). I wouldn't expect to hear anything else for at least another week, though I might be wrong. They apparently also have a good number of slots to fill, so good luck to everyone waiting.

I don't know for sure if this is even the right subforum, but I'm having a bit of a freakout so any advice would be really appreciated. So I've applied to seven sociology PhD programs, heard back from three, been rejected from two and offered full funding at another one. I still have yet to hear back from four other programs, but I'm feeling very pessimistic about two of them (basically just waiting for the rejection letter from Chicago), not optimistic about funding from the third, and I'm having serious second thoughts about the fourth, regardless of whether or not they accept me. The one place that has accepted me with funding is absolutely at the bottom of my list. I'm going to go to the visiting day and give them a fair shot, but I'm keenly aware that they might be my only feasible option this time around--and I'm really not that enthused about them so far (not sure where I'd fit in the program, not sure who I'd work with, honestly not even sure why they accepted me). So I'm considering--granted, without full info as yet--just giving the whole thing a miss this year and trying again next year. Is this a terrible idea? A little bit about my profile: I'm coming from one of the Ivies with a fairly solid GPA (3.44, 3.75 in my major, A's in the several graduate courses I took, graduated cum laude), I've done a good bit of TA and RA work, I had very good LoRs (as far as I know) and I wrote a senior thesis which I'm very proud of and which is up for an award this spring (a chapter of which was my writing sample). On the flipside, my GRE scores were HIGHLY mixed: I got a 750 verbal and a 5 on the analytical writing but a 480 in the quant. section. I've been getting this kind of spread since my first standardized test many moons ago and I'm pretty sure at this point that I have a mathematical learning disability, though I haven't been formally diagnosed (it's hella expensive to do that and as far as insurance covering it: hahahahaha). I feel like my GRE quant score might be keeping me out of some of the more competitive programs--it sucks, because I know I can do good work, but it IS a reason to reject me and sort of a glaring one at that. If I bust my ass studying I think I could do better on it, but it's a bit of a bet. I also feel like I kind of flubbed the whole process this time around--while I did apply to programs I liked the look of, I rushed into it a bit as I was finishing up my BA (graduated this past December) so perhaps next fall I'd have a better idea of what I really want to DO in grad school and I'd be able to select programs with a better eye towards that. But I'm still not sure. Is it a catastrophically bad idea to walk away from full funding, if I'm not that enthusiastic about the program and I think I could do better in the next round? I'll be 25 in a couple of days--should I get my butt moving on this and get my doctorate, or should I really make sure I'm going somewhere great first? Am I overvaluing the importance of the GRE in my application? Should I just get a grip and go to a bar or something? HALP PLX THNX also jeez whoa sorry about the essay :shock:

Ahhh, budget problems. Okay, then, I'm slightly hopeful. Really, just to know that they think enough of me to put me on a waiting list would absolutely fantastic, regardless of whether or not they accept me in the end. Good luck to you in your decision.