interestingmix

Where to begin. I agree strongly with slitends about talking to a professor. Such a conversation would help answer your questions and would also give you a person to ask for a letter of recommendation when you apply for graduate school. I would really take time to consider what piece of urban sociology to which you are drawn. It is a pretty broad field. Inequalities. Environment. Planning. Policy. Really, anything. Education in an urban setting. Gender and sexuality in the city. So so much. Once you are able to narrow the field a little bit, making decisions will become a lot easier. As far as being in a slump, you do have to do something. I mean, whether you decide to enter the workforce or continue on with academia, something will happen. I don't think that choosing graduate school when you are unsure is a bad idea at all. If you hate it, you can stop. If you love it, you can continue on. If you decide you are interested in something else, you can go for a different degree. As far as applying for places with funding, you can apply for a PhD program that isn't as academically focused and consider it as an option. If you decide not to go, you can leave with a masters degree. That isn't a terribly popular option, but it is an option and it will give you more options. Also, check out the articles in City and Community (ASA publication). The more recent issues should give you a good idea of what is going on in the field.

I was accepted into Berkeley and Madison and ultimately decided to attend Florida International University. It is an interdisciplinary program that exposes you to a variety of theories and methods from sociology, anthropology, and geology. Being an interdisciplinary program, I find that the program is very qualitative centered even though there are some opportunities for the quantitatively focused folk. I would strongly consider looking into the program and the faculty. It is very strong. It is a new program which maybe makes it a risky choice, but it is doing so many things correctly. The department is supportive opposed to competitive and is just overall quite lovely. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there.

I also have NSF GRFP. I do not have it in my signature. Here is why. Even though I personally would not be turned off by such a signature piece, there are people who are. Even if it is only ten percent of people. The people who need to know of your fellowship will know because you tell them because it is important information. The one person who misinterprets the fellowships home in your email signature may be the person you need on your side. Basically, I do not think that you will miss out on opportunities by not including the information in your signature, but I think that you might by including it. It was like someone on this thread stated previously. You would not include it in your signature if you received a Nobel or Pulitzer or whatever. If you were an actor, you wouldn't state the number of academy awards for which you had been nominated. It's up to you though. Really, I don't think it will make a big difference either way.

Look at your schools total estimated cost of attendance and compare it to the aid you will be receiving. You should be able to get public loans to cover the difference in COA and aid.

I agree with Macchiato. I was in a similar situation. I received acceptance notices from several programs that were great for me, however I told myself that I would only go to graduate school if I received the outside funding that I had applied for. I told my program of choice that I would attend contingent upon receiving aid. They did not seem to mind such a response at all. You could also ask questions to determine the likelihood that you will get funding through a TA or RA as an incoming student. When is the acceptance deadline for this program? I would ride it out as long as you can to see if other opportunities open up as you do not seem super excited about joining this particular department.

I was wondering if any recipients of the NSF GRFP have taken advantage of the Nordic Research Opportunity offered by the NSF for graduate research fellows. The only information that I have been able to find on it is what the NSF provides. This information is fairly limited in terms of the actual experience. I would love to hear from you if you have participated or plan on participating. Thanks so much!