entdeckung

Interesting-- it says here on the grad. housing website that we were supposed to get contracts by the end of May: https://hres.princeton.edu/graduates/my-housing/apply-housing But I guess no one else has been emailed about a contract/offer yet so we shouldn't worry? I wish they notified us sooner rather than later so that we know if we got assigned furnished or unfurnished housing :/

It seems that a lot of people do something else for 1-2 years between undergraduate and applying to PhD programs that may help you with applications and don't require going into debt. I know NORC is always advertising research positions, as well as mathematica policy research and the urban institute. Those are programs that give you tangible skills you can bring to a program (e.g. learning SAS; learning STATA better) if those are weaknesses in your application. The other thing I would recommend is if you have a senior thesis or other original work from undergraduate, trying to submit it soon for publication somewhere. I think having publications helped me overcome some weaknesses in my application (e.g. undergraduate gpa). And publication is something that can be done with advice from your mentors even if you're doing something completed unrelated to sociology or research next year to earn money. Hope it helps! As the previous poster said, I think if you have some idea of weaknesses in your application, either from the DGS at somewhere you applied or from other mentors, then you can be more strategic about what opportunities next year will best overcome those weaknesses. But 4 programs is also a very small number-- most people I talked to applied to 8-13 -- so it may just entail applying to a greater number of programs.

iPads have some great attachable keyboards that retail for $50 i think that make note-taking really easy -- I could definitely not take good notes using the build-in touchscreen, but with the keyboard it's very doable. I still am not able to really work on full substantive papers on an ipad however because I haven't yet found a good program that allows you to edit text-heavy footnotes.

Accepted my offer at Princeton. Very relieved to be done with this stressful process!

Which schools if you guys don't mind me asking (or pm me)? I am planning on declining a few offers today or tomorrow.

I can claim one of the Brandeis offers. I am aiming to make my decision after I go on some other visits the first week in April (so by Monday 04.07 at the latest). Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions!

I'm not sure at the program level, but here as some faculty/future faculty I have encountered who work on intersections of art and economic sociology and work/occupations: Larissa Buchholz-- now at Harvard society of fellows. Did her PhD at Columbia. Focuses on international art circuits of buying/exhibitions from an economic sociology perspective. Alison Gerber-- graduate student at Yale. Focuses on the economic valuation of artwork and also the definition of "being an artist" as a work/occupational category. Robin Leidner- professor at Penn. Recent project focuses on stage actors and how they define their identity in relation to their work given that many of them support themselves via other forms of employment. Hope this is at least marginally helpful!

Hello! The michigan visit days are March 31st/april 1st. Hope it helps.

Does anyone know if Columbia sociomedical sciences conducted interviews this year? It seems like they did last year (perhaps for some tracks but not others?) but I haven't seen any postings about it on the results page.

Sadly I have no idea. I am also wondering about that for late-notification schools-- especially since it'd be convenient for schools clustered in certain areas to combine visits but it's difficult to plan if they space out their notifications substantially. Oh well!

I have no clue about its impact. I've been accepted at 4 schools thus far-- 2 of them I contacted faculty, the other 2 I did not (so a bit of a natural experiment? Though I can't guarantee that the schools I contacted versus did not were randomly assigned to a condition! haha). I was told during the application process that I had very specific research interests and that it would be a good idea to check at certain schools to make sure those interests would be supported, which was my reason for e-mailing faculty members at some schools. At other schools, it was clear that I would find support for my research interests based on faculty members' existing work so I did not contact faculty at those schools. But who knows how it affected my chances!

I'm hoping to focus on health/illness and organizations/occupations. Good luck to all!

I applied! I haven't heard anything back though-- it seems like they may come out later though?

I've seen this discussed more generally in past threads on visit days, but what is your guys' perspective on how to handle visit weekends that completely overlap and for which you haven't already rsvp-ed/committed to one? I know it's fairly common for this to happen. But I guess I'm struggling with how to prioritize which school to visit during the scheduled visit days versus which school to visit at another time. I don't know how much schools read into the fact that you are missing their visit weekend for another's schools. I also am wondering about strategies for how you as a prospective student can pick up on things like the level of graduate student satisfaction and other more opaque aspects of a school outside the context of formal visit days if you schedule a visit at another time? Anyways, it feels a bit weird to complain about conflicts that result from having choices that you're really grateful for, but let me know if anyone has any thoughts on the matter!

I haven't heard anything and have gotten a couple acceptances from other places. Based on the results board, it seems that they sometimes conduct phone interviews. I wonder if they will do the same this year?

Finally a thread has popped up regarding these sorts of programs! I've applied to/heard from: Harvard Health Policy - interview invitation, based on the timing in relation to someone's posting on the results board, it seems that invites were definitely not necessarily sent out all at once Columbia sociomedical sciences- waiting/no word

It seems that based on the results pages from previous years, the larger programs especially seem to send acceptances out in stages (I was considering making a histogram of date v. number of acceptances for various schools but refrained!) Anyways, I think there is definitely no reason to worry at this early point in time

I recently was accepted somewhere and the acceptance email gave the dates for the visit days but didn't mention a travel stipend. When emailing with the administrator about travel arrangements, is it impolite to ask about the availability of a stipend (especially since I'm coming from the opposite coast and don't think I can afford to attend otherwise)? I know people have been saying that the school usually proactively mentions the stipend in the inital email so I didn't know the etiquette for asking if they don't bring it up themselves. Thanks for any info from those who went on visits last year!