ohhello
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Posts posted by ohhello
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I know several people who were in your situation - poor fit, "top-notch" program - and they did well. More than half of my cohort came in with MAs (a few from PhD sociology programs).
There is absolutely no point in returning to your old program if fit and finding intellectual support is an issue, and you should state this in your application when you explain why you're applying to X particular school. Unfortunately, I don't think faculty care will care much about your SES and minority background unless it somehow relates to your work and/or is a point of reflexivity for your diversity statement.
You have a high GRE score, high MA GPA, strong written sample, graduate teaching experience and formal teaching experience, perhaps some conference presentation experience. In my opinion, academia tends to be a bit ageist (favoring older graduate students), but it's difficult to disentangle age from the relevant life experience that supposedly enriches our work.... I think you'll do well.
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Hi all. I'm completely torn between two programs, UW-Madison and Northwestern. Very different programs in very different towns (with VERY different funding packages.) I'm a "qualitative person" who does social movements, theory, politics, and culture. Both programs are very strong in all of these, yet I'm torn. Choose the so-called #1 program, but live on a really snug funding package for the next X number of years, or go the #10 school and live considerably more comfortably (even considering cost of living differences) with a much smaller cohort. Thoughts?? Thank you!
I may have some thoughts we can discuss via PM if you are interested - I was in your shoes last year in an identical situation in regard to USN ranking versus subdiscipline versus quality of life - but I would echo what has been mentioned so far.
- FertMigMort and La_Di_Da
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Thanks, socgrad2013! I'm glad to hear that the visit is a few weeks away. I'd love to be invited to it.
If you somehow find yourself in the Chicago area, you're always more than welcome to set up a visit with the faculty and graduate students (this has happened in the past).
Let me know if you have any questions - now is a good time to be asking.
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My first question may sound stupid.....is the stipend extra to the tuition, or do we still have to pay for the tuition using the stipend?
Besides, is the stipend different from the "graduate assistantship?" (http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/financial-aid/graduate-assistantship/index.html) Is there any compulsory TA/RA work attached to the stipend? If they are different funding types, can we still apply for an assistantship when we already get the stipend?
Oh by the way, dear La_Di_Da, could you please share with us when you get the feedback regarding the insurance issue? Thank you!
Tuition is paid for by TGS. Your stipend is your source of income.
1st and 5th year of the financial package are fellowship years (no compulsory work), while you need to either RA or TA in your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years (unless you get an external fellowship).
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Can you enumerate a few of those benefits? I have my own personal ideas of how I (and my research) might benefit from participating in a cluster, but I would appreciate the additional input. Thanks!
Oh, and does cluster participation begin in the first year?
I love the clusters.
Benefits: research money, (support) group to talk about your research, ability to learn about research in other disciplines, getting to encounter people who are not sociologists, encountering professors who are not in sociology, being a part of an intellectual community.
Costs: time spent attending cluster meetings, time spent attending cluster talks, time spent fulfilling cluster course requirements (this isn't really a cost if it adds to your research goals).
However, the costs/benefits depend on the activity of your cluster. Some are very active (weekly meetings) while some are less developed (monthly meetings). Do you have a specific cluster in mind?
If you are admitted as a cluster fellow in your letter, you're required to maintain cluster requirements. However, some clusters are limited to 2nd years and above, while some require previous coursework. You can always leave a cluster and join another (with some paperwork involved), and you do not need to be a cluster fellow in order to participate in cluster events (however, some events are limited to cluster fellows). Not surprisingly, senior graduate students participate less and less in cluster events as work piles on, but no one is hounding them with a stick.
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No worries, don't stress out! People on this site make the whole process seem scary and terrifying and dramatic. It is not. Academics are too busy or tired to monitor everything that is posted on this board (today is my non-sociology work day). You've been accepted, so do not worry about managing your professional image. Unless you burn the department down, I don't see how NU could rescind an offer.
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Maybe my POI meant something else by "take on," but the answer was in response to my question regarding potential advisors. Guess I'll have to add this one to my queue of questions when I contact the dept. next week.
p.s: As a result of the answer I received to this question from my POI, I thought perhaps only candidates had advisors and that students in the first three years of the program did not.
You're (purposefully) assigned a first year advisor whose research is peripherally related to your interests. In your second year, you have to seek out two readers for your second year paper (essentially, a publishable MA thesis). You do the same with your third year special fields paper.
You don't need to work with your first year advisor - it's mainly for formal purposes. You shouldn't limit yourself to seeking advice/input from only your first year advisor. The department wants you to explore.
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I'm an NU grad student. Ask away or PM your questions.
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If your field is concentrated enough, it's nice when a professor who has read your application can comment on the merits of the other programs/professors in the other programs. Otherwise, I don't think it makes a difference, unless whoever is reading your application believes students should only apply to programs based on research interests (as opposed to personal reasons).
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I did mean assistant professors. I'm particularly interested in anyone who can comment on sociology specifically (though I appreciate Chai's comments), because institutional structure, funding, politics, and incentives are so different among disciplines.
I would have to disagree with those who have said it's rude to ask a POI about their plans 3-4 years down the road - at least in the social sciences. What's rude about thinking about your dissertation committee? About planning your professional career? Faculty want students who have spent at least some time thinking about future academic plans.
Moving/parting with faculty also depends on whether you're applying to a workshop or original research school. I'm not so familiar with the workshop model, but if you're doing your main advisor's work, then it's logical that you might move with your main advisor. Speaking for the original research model, I know of professors who still serve on the dissertation committees of the students they've left behind. But it's also likely that some students are forgotten. This is something you will have to negotiate with your colleagues.
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Thanks a lot! Does this mean these schools do not accept interfolio?
If they request that your letter writer send in a LOR through their website (this is usually the case) then, no, these schools will not accept interfolio.
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Friends, upon learning where you've been accepted: "Oooh, you should go to [program], [city of program] is so exciting!"
Friends, upon learning where you'll go: "Congratulations! Now I have an excuse to visit [city of program]! I'm so excited!"
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I have no clue, but certainly not my 1st choice.
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Finally received my answer! Knowing is an amazing relief.
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I don't know what's worse: still being on the wait list for my first choice, or being kept totally in the dark about whether I will be admitted off of the wait list. Seriously, it's the 14th. I was told I was very high, but now that has changed to "not sure". Now I'm thinking of gambling my 2nd choice for my 3rd choice, since the deadline for the 3rd is the 16th...
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One can only undo a sent email in the next few seconds after clicking Send though...
I guess you could try using boomerang, but the undo feature is a bit more seamless.
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The main story I heard was about someone accepting an offer at one school on the deadline, freaking out and taking it back, accepting an offer to a second school, freaking out and then taking it back, and then finally sticking to a third school.
Gmail has a Labs feature that allows you to "undo" an email within a certain specified time frame. It might be helpful to those who get cold feet. It has saved me (on stuff unrelated to grad school) more than once.
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I'd view the email as a friendly gesture. Why wait until the program begins to start making connections?
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Who at this point has their dissertation planned out?? Professors at several of my campus visits told me that students who come in with a set idea of what they want to study are set up for failure. So much of our future is haphazard and at the will of the job market. I'm just going to accept the idea that imposter syndrome will eventually fizzle down to a comfortable acceptance of my flaws.
At this point, given what you've learned about yourself on these visitation days, it might be healthy focusing on issues you want to investigate in grad school - plan out a few ideas for publication or for an NSF application. At one of my campus visits the graduate students mentioned how they have to plan out papers for each class before they have time to even touch or digest the material. Perhaps this is a parable for the next 5 to 7 to Nth years.
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Consensus seems to say: the dual major will help if it relates to what you want to study and if you can make this connection in your SOP; it will not help if you do not make this connection. Consensus also says it is hard to predict what an admission committee wants in an applicant.
As someone with dual degrees in Soc. and a natural science, the double major dragged down my overall GPA. In retrospect, I could have used the copious amount of time I spent in science classes doing something productive for my "career" in sociology. While I disagree with the opinion that you cannot be truly interested in your non-Soc. major - and that your non-Soc. major cannot expand your academic horizon - earning a double degree is time consuming and may or may not produce anything to show for your efforts.
- FertMigMort and jacib
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@msafiri
I totally understand if you are not interested in working with your cohortmates, but I do not believe that is representative of the departments I have visited. Most of the programs I'm interested in give the same financial package to every admitted student, so the term "collegiality" gets thrown around. Of course, I could miss students who feel no affinity for the people in their program - they are less likely to be seen at these visitation events.
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I'm currently doing the Kaplan Online one and while I haven't taken the GRE yet, I've scored really well on practice tests and I really like the personalized approach they have
I've found that Kaplan's sample GREs are easier than the real test, so you shouldn't place too much confidence in your Kaplan GRE score. Use tests from more than one publisher and treat the free ETS practice test as the real thing.
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Can anyone recommend a good GRE prep class?
I'd recommend studying from several GRE prep books. I only spent ~$20 on GRE prep materials - I bought verbal flashcards/books used and borrowed books from the library and was able to obtain a competitive score... with the exception of my AW, which I did not practice for. Use the sample essay prompts on the ETS GRE website! Also, ETS provides a free practice test using the same software you'll see on test day.
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Have you been in contact with any of the faculty or graduate students from the one remaining school? You certainly won't be able to determine whether you'd like to go to the school simply through email exchanges or phone chats, but you can certainly eliminate the school if it doesn't meet any of your specific criteria. For example, I can't attend a program unfunded and have eliminated a school using this standard. PM me if you need a list of questions to ask.
What to do between now and the start of school in fall?
in Sociology Forum
Posted · Edited by ohhello
http://www.nsfgrfp.org/
(and the like.)