calamaria

Yes, SG. Banks's data set has widely been used particularly by political scientists and some sociologists. As long as you note that some nation-level covariates came from Bank's data set in your paper, I guess nobody would tackle about it. Polity Database is also popular, and there are couple of other database you may use. Have a fun with your research!

I think Chang's area is more like political economy, as xdarthveganx pointed out, in sociology. Nowadays many economic sociologists tends to empirically analyze networks, sociology of organizations, or something, it depends on schools though. And political sociology varies. it's really wide area. My suggestion is to pick up some grad programs specializing political economy itself, rather than political sociology or economic sociology. I guess your institutionalist approach refers to historical one, rather than sociological-constitutive or rational choice one. Some political scientists and public administration researchers study this area as well. Hope it helps you.

I don't know what you are interested in. But if you plan to study demography and family, your Spanish background might be a very strong, competitive weapon for your application.

@Groovement. Thank you a lot! I was so new with the Arab Spring issues that your links are very helpful! @TSISV. You attend UND! Hope we meet at a conference or at the McCarthy Award Meeting sometime.

Hey, if you know some good books or articles regarding the 2011 Arab Spring, please suggest me any reading materials about this issue.

@SocingHxC. Awesome, both of us are interested in quant approach to social movement! I guess outcomes will be also interesting.

I agree with busybee3. Professors will give you their special attention, and you will also enjoy many chance to get paid from various RA jobs. It'd be awesome. But because you don't have any colleagues in your cohort, nobody will inform you about the appropriate timing or things to do, particularly, regarding administrative stuff in the campus.

I am mainly interested in ecological topics of social movement organizations (SMOs), such as founding, disbanding, and merger. I'd rather say that It's relatively theoretical topic than substantial one. Here I left some links regarding my area: 1. Walker, Edward T. John D. McCarthy and Frank Baumgartner. 2011. “Replacing Members with Managers? Mutualism among Membership and Nonmembership Advocacy Organizations in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 116:1284-337. http://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/AJS-2011-membership.pdf 2. Schofer, Evan and Wesley Longhofer. 2011. The Structural Sources of Association. American Journal of Sociology 117(2):539-85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/10.1086/661593.pdf or (if you are not an institutional user) http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~schofer/public_files/SchoferLonghoferStructuralSourcesOfAssociation.pdf @socspice and Masha(x3), You interested in women's movement? I guess many sociologists study women's movements and this area will be larger and larger, given the the growing proportion of female sociologists. @socialgroovement, From your id and rainbow flag, I expect you are definitely interested in somo You study LGBT issues and minority movement? Hope we four see each other at a conference sometime (even though we don't recognize).

While lurking this site, I found many guys are interested in social movements. Yeap, Me too! Ive studied the organizational aspects of social movement, so-called SMOs. I use quant. Let's roll call.

Why don't you contact your POI and tell him or her what you wrote here. For me, your story is pretty likely and persuasive enough. If you succeed to persuade your POI, he or she will persuade the Admission Committee to accept you, regardless of GRE.

In my case, I contacted a POI at Penn State with my SOP almost six months ago before my application. After read my SOP and research plans, He replied exactly as your POI emailed you: "Our program would be a very good fit for you." He never promised that he will take me, only told me that he likes my SOP (it was before I actually summit it). Then I am accepted to the program which is my top choice (I did thirty-minute interview before the admsision). Kbirch, I believe her email is very encouraging to your application.

It's already gone. I guess somebody reported it as a spam.

Is there anyone who is interested in QCA? It stands for Qualitative Comparative Analysis. I recently read Daniel M. Cress and David A. Snow's ASR article, MOBILIZATION AT THE MARGINS. They employed a QCA technique to analyze their small sample (n=15) and show pretty interesting results. I guess it's the so-called mixed method mentioned here, but I have never heard this technique before even in classes or meetings.

I bet you study world-system analysis, given that you applied to Binghamton, JHU, and UCR. I have a friend who study at Binghamton and but he told me that he is current under *terrible* financial pressure because the department lacks money for their TAship or RAship.

*refreshing thegradcafe.com*

Awesome, interesting poll. Enjoyed it.

I applied to Vandy, and received no email, phone call, or anything. *sigh* Does it mean rejection?