ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid

Bump. This board has a ton of lurkers who have made accounts but never post. If you're reading this now start posting! We're interested in where you're applying and what your interests are too. I feel like I refresh this board 15 times a day to see (maybe) 2 or 3 new posts.

Me too and I checked it from my phone so the preview just said "I'd like to call..." My initial reaction was and then I opened the email and went

Click "Survey" at the top and search Sociology

Wow.... I'm curious what that persons stats were

I think you can still end up in a Research 1 university (even if its not a PhD granting one...there are R1 masters granting universities). That's my main goal is to end up in a R1 so that I can pursue research along with teaching and not have to be committed to teaching 4 classes a semester (that would suck). And yes, hypocritical and ironic is the best way to describe it too I feel. I'm astounded by the recreation of stratification and a brave new world caste like system that is built in the discipline. Even further than just job placements, wait until you start attending professional conferences. I have had my own experience and the way they peruse through people scanning everyones name tags to find who is from prestigious universities is pretty ridiculous. I was introduced to a few people from elite institutions and, without saying names, I can say they were some of the most smug people I've met. Granted, I met them through a proxy but 1) I hardly got a minute of their time even though it was a reception and 2) when they tried to make conversation they talked through the person that introduced me to them rather than to me directly. I was so turned off by that that I decided not even to apply to one of the universities because of the smuggyness I felt. He was asking the lady that introduced me to him questions about my university, where I went, what my interests were, without just asking me directly. Never made eye contact with me and basically just brushed me off. I felt so disrespected. Anywho, don't be discouraged completely. Sure, there are some people with gigantic heads and a handful of curmudgeons but I have also met tons of people who are extraordinary. The professors that I have worked with at my university have been astounding and have provided very valuable insight. I won't name my school but it's not a tippy top elite program but it's not the lowest caste either. Out of curiosity, what schools are you applying to and what are your interests?

Oh, also, since you're into religion, here are some universities I applied to that are good in religion (my areas of interests are theory, religion, and social movements) UPenn PSU Yale Purdue Notre Dame UTexas-Austin Princeton

It's not weird if it's true. I probably wouldn't mention in a SOP that you have a profile or any of that but I've read on here that they might be googling our names....there's a strong chance the academia profile might pop which wouldn't hurt you by any means.

Well, I can see it being a small issue in that you're going to have to take some extra courses that someone who has already got a bachelors or masters in sociology would have taken but other than that you seem very well qualified. Also, you're going to want to take into account rank/prestige of your university. I find sociology as an ironic (possibly hypocritical field in a sense) in that it is a discipline that studies the effects of stratification/unequal opportunities and the like yet it is a field that highly reinforces and recreates this stratified culture basing so heavily off of prestige. What are you looking to do with your PhD? Teach and research? If so, the higher ranked university the better. If you're going to take a year off I suggest possibly getting in touch with some people you're going to want to work with in the future and get some advice on your situation (not having a sociology background). I can't see it harming you THAT much when you have such an extensive background as you've listed though.

Sure sounds like it.

I think you would find this post on orgtheory pretty relevant to your question. http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/low-status-graduate-students/ Although I wouldn't necessarily say that 20s and 30s is "low status". There are some professors whom I am applying to work with (in my lower ranked schools) that graduated in the mid 2000's from 20th ranked universities. The universities they placed at are around 50-60, so, assuming you get into something around the 20's and 30's I don't think you're going to end up at a community college or something. You can probably still get into a ranked university. I'm in the same predicament. Out of 15 schools I'm applying to 8 are top 20 (princeton, univ of chicago, penn, nyu, utexas-austin, penn state, yale, univ of washington, seattle). 3 are top 40 (ucr, ucsd, uci). and 4 are 40-60 ranked (purdue, boston u, notre dame, uc boulder)

You might want to e-mail the department. Some places are slow on updating the accounts because so many applications come in and it turns into a long drawn out process. The same thing happened with my UT-Austin application. I had everything in but it was listed as incomplete for a while. I e-mailed and then a few days later it moved to completed.

Well, I'm interested in theory and religion so I'm pulling pretty hard for Yale. Yale's a top 20 but I don't know how well your interests are represented there.

I did a last minute substitute: University of Washington, Seattle for UI-Chicago. Keepin' my fingers crossed for a top 20 I'm also curious when this forum will pick up the pace with more people.

^^^ Looks like somebody is an orgtheory reader, eh? http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/low-status-graduate-students/#comments Discussion similar to this in the comments of that post.

...there's little money in all of academia.

theory, religion, social movements princeton nyu yale upenn penn state boston university notre dame univ of chicago univ of chicago illinois uc boulder utexas austin ucr ucsd purdue