tardisblue

I have a terminal master's degree in sociology that was fully-funded, so that's definitely something that's out there. Funding for master's programs, at least in my experience, can be pretty competitive though since very few programs fund all of their master's students.

I saw there was one acceptance listed for Vanderbilt awhile back. Anyone else heard from them or know when we can expect to hear something?

Northwestern, as far as I'm aware, is good for Ethnography. CU-Boulder also has one of the largest concentrations of qualitative researchers in sociology and allows students to specialize in qualitative methods. As the previous poster said, though, there are qualitative people at many programs. I'm personally interested in qualitative methods, but primarily applied to programs that did research in my area of interest rather than places that were well-known for qualitative work.

I had a question for those of you who have received acceptances from various schools: did you contact faculty members at those schools during the application process? Does anyone have a sense of whether or not contacting faculty makes a significant difference? I'm just curious because I only contacted faculty at some of the schools I applied to.

The "truly worthy applicants" quote on the results survey is extremely misleading. The actual email said "Regrettably, we can make offers to only a small percentage of a large group of truly worthy applicants." As a side note, it was disappointing to receive my first decision and have it be a rejection. I thought Boulder was a pretty good fit for me. Oh well, I only need to get into one.

My parents met in graduate school, married right before they received their PhDs, and now teach at the same school (happy ending, essentially). Their advice to me was that grad school is a great place to meet people but that it can be seriously difficult to find jobs in the same city if you do end up together after graduation. Plenty of their friends have had to make major sacrifices (like being adjunct profs indefinitely) in order to maintain their relationships. This is particularly bad considering the current job market. Just something to consider when thinking about marrying a fellow grad student. There shouldn't be a lot of problems dating within the program, though. I guess it kind of depends on how large the program is and what the dynamics are like.

I know this is a really common dilemma, but I wanted to get some input anyway. I've been accepted into a masters program with a good financial package (full funding + stipend), but have yet to hear from my last PhD program. I've been rejected from the other PhD programs I've applied to, so the last I've yet to hear from is my safety school and so, I guess, there's a little more of a likelihood that I'll get in. I like my potential advisor at the masters program and I really want to accept, but would it be completely risky/dumb to do so before I hear from the PhD program? I figure that if I go to a masters program this year, I could go to a better school in the next two years anyway, but that might just be wishful thinking.

Congrats! Good to know, thanks.

Has anyone heard from Purdue's sociology program yet this year? A decision still isn't showing on my online application, and my email to the grad program asking about decisions has gone unanswered. I'm wondering if they just haven't made decisions yet, or if I was rejected and they just haven't gotten around to telling me. What do people do in these types of situations (I've received an offer at another school, but don't want to respond until I hear from Purdue)?