sociologyinthepast

I'm in a similar position - entered a top-5 program straight out of undergrad, completed two years of coursework, comp exams, and teaching. Program ended up being a poor fit. I left, worked for a year, reapplied to PhD programs, and right now I'm narrowing down my offers and deciding where I'll end up in the fall. Regarding whether you're better or worse off now than you were the first time around: I don't have an easy answer to your question, honestly, but if you're able to get a convincing letter from either your advisor or any other faculty you had a close+positive relationship with, that will help assuage a lot of adcom concerns. (I had a letter from my advisor.) I did reasonably well with my applications compared to the first time I applied (4 funded offers out of 6 applications), but then again I shot for mid-20s and 30s rather than top 5s (as I did my first time around). One of those offers came after an interview, and the interviewer did ask about leaving my previous PhD program. I just gave her the straight answer - my research interests changed and I felt that the schools I was applying to were much stronger fits intellectually. So, I don't think you're sunk by any means, and I don't see any reason to shoot low. As always, I'd apply to a range of programs just to have options, but definitely don't apply anywhere you won't want to go.

Yup, that call just about sealed the deal. Looking back on my first round through PhD programs, I realize how few conversations I actually had with faculty that might predict any kind of positive research relationship - probably why that program didn't end up being a good fit. Also, when I referenced "one of the most important members of the faculty" in my earlier post, I meant important to me in terms of interests and potential advising - not important in some abstract or prestige-related sense

Thanks for the earnest and kind advice - it's what I'm trying to keep in mind as I make my decision. I'm convinced that I'd do good work at both programs, but I think the chance to involve myself closely with professional networks of faculty who work in the fields I'm interested in makes the bigger (and more well-networked) program more desirable. I don't want to say no to Boston, but ... Honestly, my guess is that the waitlist and accepted experiences are pretty different. It sucks to hear that you had a lousy experience so far, but I found the Rutgers faculty forthcoming, cordial, and very willing to engage with students. And I just had a phone conversation with one of the most important members of the faculty last night, whose work is really awesome and lines up scarily well with mine. So, as much as I like the Boston area, I'm probably going with Rutgers unless my visit to Albany next week is real wowzer. (So there might be a waitlist spot open at Brandeis in a week or so ...) And glad to hear you've got another strong option that you're leaning toward! Waitlists and funding waitlists are super frustrating, so I'm pleased that you aren't stuck with those as your only options.

Ugh. Just did my first visits, and they only made things more difficult. I was fairly set on Rutgers, since it's my highest ranked offer, a good fit, and the visit went well, but I liked Brandeis much more than I expected to. The faculty seemed very engaged with students, the placements didn't seem like a total neverending abyss of failure (being silly here), and the area (obviously) was nice because it's Boston. Still, I'm worried that the lure of living in Cambridge is puling me away from what might be the right decision professionally. It's important to live somewhere you like for the 5-6 years of grad school, but then you've got your whole career to worry about. Yeesh. So, I don't know. Program in the 20s vs program in the 40s-50s; that's a big gap, but at the same time, I think I could do good work at either place and Boston is more desirable than New Brunswick. Decisions, decisions!

I've rejected one offer already, so now I'm down to 3 that I'm considering. They all seem reasonable, and they're all funded, so it's going to come down mostly to the visiting process. Two are more highly ranked than the other, but those two are almost exactly equal. (But the other is in Boston... I like Boston.) I'm most interested in talking with current students to get a sense of their misery - is it run of the mill, "my advisor takes a long time to read my diss drafts, my students bug me" misery, or is it deeper and more widespread? Got my first visit tomorrow! Looking forward to it.

Rutgers visiting day is this week, so it's possible that admitted students will start making decisions soon.

The University of Maryland is one of the few programs in the country that does sociology of the military, so I'd definitely take a look there.

Hi all, I'm sure some of you have lots of news you're still waiting to hear (coming in off the waitlist, funding still up in the air, or programs from which nobody's heard a peep), but as we're coming into March, I bet many posters are entering the time of tough decisions. How many folks basically know where they're going already? Who's still unsure, and needs campus visits to figure things out? What's your decision-making process like and what factors are you weighting? I'm in the lovely but tough position of having a couple offers that I find near-equally strong, so I definitely need to wait until visits happen in the next few weeks. I wanna hear from everyone!

So a respondent in the results page just noted that all Yale acceptances should have gone out. I figured as much. I think that, for me, it's time to finally close the book on this phase of the grad school process. Super happy with how it all turned out though! I'm very excited to start visiting and looking forward to Rutgers especially.

Mmhm, both UMass and Yale have started notifying, but I haven't heard a peep - so I'm gonna assume that the ship has sailed for those schools. I think I'll start calling rejection letters "closure" too. At this point, I think it's more accurate, since I'm quite pleased with the offers I have in hand. And congrats on your list - Michigan's an awesome place to be.

hey oilandvinegar, wanna trade acceptances? i'll show up to UMass and you can go to Brandeis. sound fair? they'll never know the difference.

Congrats! That's very exciting for you. I have a similar problem with conflicting visiting days, and they're both in the middle of the week. Fortunately, one involves 3 days of stuff, so I'll just go to some of it. (Meanwhile, I figure it'll just be a day or two before I can assume that no good news is coming from Yale. Let the tension begin!)

Accepted to SUNY Albany, with graduate assistant funding renewable for four-ish years.

Rutgers is indeed my number one, and I've got funding - we'll see how visiting day goes, I might consider Brandeis, and we'll see what happens if I get into Yale.

I got an e-mail from a faculty member a couple weeks back. My guess is that they have a very short, informal waitlist but I don't know if those folks have been notified.