Planner101

Hello Olive, 

I don't know you but I want to simply tell you to NEVER give up on your dreams. If your dream is to be a trained sociologist studying and writing on gender (just an example), GO FOR IT. Of course, we desire admissions into a top 20 program but it doesn't always happen. However, during my research, I have noticed that a number of top professors in different sub-fields did not come from "top schools." It's my assumption that their passion and quality performance landed them in tenured positions at top tier schools. 
If you are not admitted this year, no worries. I have a really good friend that applied to PhD programs three years in a row and got into his top choice plus a Fulbright on the last try. Here's the kick, he meet his future professor on a park bench during a conference. She then advocated for his application, and no he is in his last year at an Ivy with groundbreaking publications. 

It's often at the point that we're about to give up, that we're closest to reaching our goals. 

I am in a similar position. I didn't cast a wide net because I jumped in the cycle VERY LATE and I don't foresee acceptance but who knows. 

I was always told to BE UNDENIABLE. 1. Try to get a publication. 2. Strengthen your GRE scores. 3. Get personable yet strong recommendation letter.

At the end of the day, do a bit of soul searching and figure out why you're in the game because if you're in it for the right reason, NOTHING should deter you from reaching your goal.

Best Wishes.    
 

Rejected as well. I only applied to two schools and this concludes my cycle. I'll be back on the site next year. Best of luck to everyone!! 

Hey JoJoKitty, did you hear anything from Yale or did you assume they'd rejected you? I'm asking everyone because I don't want to be "that student" that calls but it's getting late in the game. Even if they're holding off on rejections to let the original offers decide, it'd be cool if we knew something. 

Hey JoJoKitty, did you hear anything from Yale or did you assume they'd rejected you? I'm asking everyone because I don't want to be "that student" that calls but it's getting late in the game. Even if they're holding off on rejections to let the original offers decide, it'd be cool if we knew something. 

Cool. I heard they made all of the offers but I didn't know that denials were already sent. It appears that the notifications went out during the first week of March last year. 

Go to the beach without your phone, or somewhere else on a vacation where you will only be able to check your email at night. That's what I did last week, but I was fortunate to have the week off of work.

Reading gradcafe on a regular basis was pretty unhealthy, and for me the best thing was to just check once or twice a week. Hard the first few days but man the anxiety goes way down.

Does anyone have any waiting strategies to disrupt the anxiety of checking GradCafe and University websites every hour??!?!?!  
 

To the discussion above and all the up/down votes.  I think we've done a great job up until now being fair and supportive of everyone.  Let's not ruin that because people are commiserating over what they see as an opaque admission process.  We might disagree with the content or the conclusions they've drawn, but rather than being mean we should be constructive.  This is an incredibly stressful process and, as everyone knows, no one really knows why some people get in and others do not.  Just be fair, stay constructive.  
Best of luck to everyone still waiting to hear back this week!  And congrats to those who have choices to make!  

Hello Olive, 

I don't know you but I want to simply tell you to NEVER give up on your dreams. If your dream is to be a trained sociologist studying and writing on gender (just an example), GO FOR IT. Of course, we desire admissions into a top 20 program but it doesn't always happen. However, during my research, I have noticed that a number of top professors in different sub-fields did not come from "top schools." It's my assumption that their passion and quality performance landed them in tenured positions at top tier schools. 
If you are not admitted this year, no worries. I have a really good friend that applied to PhD programs three years in a row and got into his top choice plus a Fulbright on the last try. Here's the kick, he meet his future professor on a park bench during a conference. She then advocated for his application, and no he is in his last year at an Ivy with groundbreaking publications. 

It's often at the point that we're about to give up, that we're closest to reaching our goals. 

I am in a similar position. I didn't cast a wide net because I jumped in the cycle VERY LATE and I don't foresee acceptance but who knows. 

I was always told to BE UNDENIABLE. 1. Try to get a publication. 2. Strengthen your GRE scores. 3. Get personable yet strong recommendation letter.

At the end of the day, do a bit of soul searching and figure out why you're in the game because if you're in it for the right reason, NOTHING should deter you from reaching your goal.

Best Wishes.    
 

Hello Olive, 

I don't know you but I want to simply tell you to NEVER give up on your dreams. If your dream is to be a trained sociologist studying and writing on gender (just an example), GO FOR IT. Of course, we desire admissions into a top 20 program but it doesn't always happen. However, during my research, I have noticed that a number of top professors in different sub-fields did not come from "top schools." It's my assumption that their passion and quality performance landed them in tenured positions at top tier schools. 
If you are not admitted this year, no worries. I have a really good friend that applied to PhD programs three years in a row and got into his top choice plus a Fulbright on the last try. Here's the kick, he meet his future professor on a park bench during a conference. She then advocated for his application, and no he is in his last year at an Ivy with groundbreaking publications. 

It's often at the point that we're about to give up, that we're closest to reaching our goals. 

I am in a similar position. I didn't cast a wide net because I jumped in the cycle VERY LATE and I don't foresee acceptance but who knows. 

I was always told to BE UNDENIABLE. 1. Try to get a publication. 2. Strengthen your GRE scores. 3. Get personable yet strong recommendation letter.

At the end of the day, do a bit of soul searching and figure out why you're in the game because if you're in it for the right reason, NOTHING should deter you from reaching your goal.

Best Wishes.    
 

Olive_via
First, I'm really sorry that you're having a hard time with grad school applications. Your post saddened me and I don't even know you.  I'm a current PhD candidate and was on the admissions committee of my program this year so I think I have some general words of wisdom.  It might also be useful to note that I applied to 10-12 programs and got admitted to only 1 of them even though I was generally competitive for most of them. While I applied to only the top 15 schools, graduate school is competitive regardless of the tier of school.  I wonder if (1) you are applying to too few programs in (2) a particular geographical area.  I noticed that all the programs you listed are mostly in NY or in the Northeast.  It is possible that those programs are much more competitive because more people live in those places.  If you do choose to apply again, I would suggest applying to more schools all across the country inasmuch as they are good fits for you.  In the meantime, I know that there is not much I can say that can comfort you right now; it is difficult.  However, I believe that every disappointment is indeed a blessing in disguise - perhaps those programs are wrong for you.  Take this year to reflect on what you can do differently and apply again.  I wish you luck! 

Some brief concluding thoughts as I check out of this year's admission cycle. I found this site very useful throughout the application process. I trawled it when I was a younger undergrad interested in grad school, and it was a good relief valve during the application season. Not many of my friends and peers apply to graduate school, not least sociology, so it was great to have the forum. My experience is anecdotal of course, but I hope people glean something from it.
I applied to 14 schools in this cycle, and I was accepted to 5. All of them were ranked in the top 20. While I wasn't admitted to some of my top choice programs (namely, Harvard and Berkeley), I do have great options available. I'm writing this in the wake of a few rejections, so there may be a strain of ambivalence to my words, but I know that in more sober moments I am very thankful and humbled to have the options I do.
I have a reasonably strong application profile. Without identifying myself, I come from a top 10 liberal arts college. I'm currently a senior. My GPA is within the summa/magna cum lauda range. My GRE scores (verbal/quant/writing) are above the 90th percentile. I have worked as a research assistant, and have dabbled in an independent summer research. 
I applied only to top ranked programs that were strong in what I was interested in (culture/theory/networks). I thought I made a strong case for my admission in each case, but as you can see, I was far from uniformly successful. 
I'm passing on tips and advice that I have accumulated from all over.
Make sure your file is as strong as it can reasonably be. Low test scores can entirely break through application (though high ones don't necessarily make it). Prestige and status of your undergraduate institution matters. There might be very little you can do to change and affect this, but it is wise to cognizant of its effects on your application, and to try to accommodate for this as best as you can. Network early and often with your letter writers. Make sure they know who you are, and how/why you're dedicated to a career in academia. Apply widely! You cannot apply to just a select few and expect to get in, unless you're a bona fide star (and perhaps, even if). I imagine my application profile does not look too dissimilar to that of the modal "good" applicant: in which case you might expect a similar result from mine. Start early! Start preparing your writing sample and personal statements by June, if you can. I started in September or so, and I wish I had started earlier.

Just got rejected from Harvard, it's my last out of the three that I applied to (I know everyone calls me crazy for this, but I'm used to applying to only the one that I really like and feel I have the right for) and won't try for a doctorate again for the next few years. Surprisingly it's not as crushing as the Berkeley rejection for some reason.
I just want to thank you all for being in the same boat, sharing your superior knowledge of applications, interviews etc. and just stressing out and congratulating each other vocally on this forum board for me to read to relate to. No one I know applied to a Sociology phd and I don't come from a very academic hometown, either. You guys - along with friends from my masters who are now scattered all over the world - were the only people who gave me peace and companionship throughout this specifically stressful journey. 
Just wanted to put that out there because I was definitely a lurker and not a poster most of the time. Peace.

Best of Luck To The Admits at Harvard. 
#Rejected. 

Best of Luck To The Admits at Harvard. 
#Rejected. 

Holding out hope that Yale has a waitlist   Not sure why I've had my heart so set on Yale, but nonetheless I do.

Harvard is closed for Observance but Yale is not . I checked the school's academic calendars. 

I know, I live in the middle of it! I think maybe this might impact Amherst since we've had a day off and multiple delays just in the last week. However, the schools I think we're missing arent actually "late" is you look at their results historically.... we're just impatient! 

I think @csot was compiling a list of schools where no one (that we're aware of) has received an acceptance yet. I'm sure there are schools that may have sent out some acceptances but have yet to send out all of their offers, but this is a list of places where no one has been accepted yet.
 
As far as Yale goes, it seems like they've sent out their acceptances and the rejections will follow in a bit (they tend to send rejections several weeks after all of their acceptances... last year acceptances came in February and I wasn't officially rejected from Yale until March). 

Do you guys think a lot of schools are going to be next week? It seems like February 9th and 10th are popular days for schools to send decisions. Plus, my horoscope says I should expect big news on the 9th so,

Yes Yale, but also look at Jeffrey Guhin at UCLA for the culture/education combo.  I'll let you know if I think of anyone else.
Also, you might want to throw in a safety school.  LOL.  Best of luck with the range you've selected.  You probably have killer GRE scores.
EDIT: I guess I misread your post.  But look at UCLA anyway for Jeffrey Guhin and Rebecca Emigh among others.

Yale is the place to be for your interests. The focus of the program is cultural and historical sociology, and the whole cultural trauma thing was developed by Alexander and Eyerman. It's a very selective program; I think they only admit five students a year. I had an interview last year and I think it really helped.