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. 

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

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.

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.

I got waitlisted by UMass with a notification by email on Saturday.  Their email did mention that they were only able to accept 6.5% (rather than 15%) of their usual ~15%. While this means pretty much nothing without applicant figures, they cite "funding restrictions" as the reason they were not able to make offers to more applicants.  I'm actually from the area originally, and thought I was a lock for UMass.  Not a huge deal as I got into my first choice, just surprising.  Plus they took forever.
 
Anyway, Farragoshy (or anyone else who got accepted to Brandeis), I did my undergrad there, I'm still in contact with my favorite professor there, and would be more than willing to answer any questions about the school/area if I can.  Feel free to PM me; I love it there, but wanted a change for my grad.

"No, the admits have not all been done, Many departments are just starting making decisions.
It is your responsibility to continue to check your status on line with the ID # and pin that was sent to you via email
Your status will stay as applied until the department makes a decision. Once a formal decision has been made you will receive an email stating “ please check your status a decision has been made”. The decision will show on your status check page. You will also get a formal letter either way , if you have been accepted or denied."

Ya killin' me, Yale. It looks like last year's folks heard by the end of the 2nd week in February. CMONNNNN.

I don't know how useful this is, since I imagine being admitted off the waitlist is a fairly elastic process, but I got admitted off the U of M waitlist around the very end of March (my first time through the applications meat grinder).

I did - funding does exist! idk how many full offers went out, since I haven't seen too many acceptances go up in the results, but I know that there are offers floating around and you've still got a shot if you're on the waitlist. 

I did - funding does exist! idk how many full offers went out, since I haven't seen too many acceptances go up in the results, but I know that there are offers floating around and you've still got a shot if you're on the waitlist. 

I've heard that the admissions committee met this week to finalize their picks. I'm guessing decisions will start going out early next week. The timing seems pretty consistent with previous years.

p.s.: I'm also waiting on a decision from YU.

I applied to Yale and have yet to hear anything. Nothing yet from SUNY-Albany or UMass-Amherst either, although their respective departmental website state their notifications arrive late February (UMass) and early March (Albany).

I agree that some schools wait too long to notify students about admission decisions. It's a complicated process, though. Students with an array of interests (or methods, POIs, etc.) end up in the first round of admits. If all the gender people decide to accept and none of the political sociology people do, political sociology people will likely be pulled up from the wait list (or, at schools without an official wait list, an unofficial limbo list). But, we need to keep the gender people in that auxiliary pool too in case the reverse happens.
 
For what it's worth, some students wait too long to notify schools that they're definitely not planning to attend and exacerbate this problem. Once you've considered your options, choose one. If you're still waiting to hear from your dream school, you can make the one other school wait until April 15th. You don't need to make them all wait. You could also call (not now, but after you've visited others and you're trying to make a final decision) the one or two you haven't heard from but would love to attend. Let them know that you're hoping to make a decision and would like to know the status of the application and if other acceptances are likely to be sent out and when. As earlier posts in the forum suggest, sometimes schools will tell you to hold out until mid-April, but other times they'll tell you that further acceptances probably aren't forthcoming.

I did, and I assumed they would. Except the next day my boss, who is a director of research, asked me how long I'd been using the supplement. Apparently *older* people are still fooled by those things...

Oops. Is there a protocol for butt-dialing your POI, thinking they called you, calling them back without realizing who it was, asking whether they called you earlier, hanging up sort of brusquely thinking it was a wrong number, and then going through your call history and realizing what happened?
 
No?
 
There isn't?

Oops. Is there a protocol for butt-dialing your POI, thinking they called you, calling them back without realizing who it was, asking whether they called you earlier, hanging up sort of brusquely thinking it was a wrong number, and then going through your call history and realizing what happened?
 
No?
 
There isn't?

Oops. Is there a protocol for butt-dialing your POI, thinking they called you, calling them back without realizing who it was, asking whether they called you earlier, hanging up sort of brusquely thinking it was a wrong number, and then going through your call history and realizing what happened?
 
No?
 
There isn't?

Oops. Is there a protocol for butt-dialing your POI, thinking they called you, calling them back without realizing who it was, asking whether they called you earlier, hanging up sort of brusquely thinking it was a wrong number, and then going through your call history and realizing what happened?
 
No?
 
There isn't?

Oops. Is there a protocol for butt-dialing your POI, thinking they called you, calling them back without realizing who it was, asking whether they called you earlier, hanging up sort of brusquely thinking it was a wrong number, and then going through your call history and realizing what happened?
 
No?
 
There isn't?

Oops. Is there a protocol for butt-dialing your POI, thinking they called you, calling them back without realizing who it was, asking whether they called you earlier, hanging up sort of brusquely thinking it was a wrong number, and then going through your call history and realizing what happened?
 
No?
 
There isn't?

I agree. I would not even consider an offer that doesn't include a tuition waver and some semblance of a monthly stipend. 

Yeah it feels good. I also looked at their placement record for the last 10 years and it looks like they place a pretty high percentage of students into tenure track jobs. Many of those are at small state schools but I have no problem with that. I just don't want to get stuck in the adjunct or visiting professor trap. 

^that's good advice. Speaking as someone who also entered an extremely competitive graduate program out of undergrad, I found the most prescient bit of it to be that no one really knows what sociology is when they enter a sociology Ph.D. program. It's like doing well in undergrad calculus and wanting to pursue a math Ph.D. -- you may have shown a talent for sociology but there are so many facets of the discipline that undergrads are simply not exposed to: research for the purpose of publishing, publishing for the sake of getting a job, and trying to develop a professional/intellectual persona. All while teaching undergraduate sections for 20 hours a week. So you kind of want to consider whether these are actually the things you want to do for the rest of your life, so much so that you're willing to tolerate six to eight years of making around $20,000 a year (when other members of your undergrad class are going to making $40,000 to $60,000 as new graduates and getting raises during that time) in order to accumulate the human capital necessary to get employed afterwards. Oh, and getting a job or a Ph.D. is never guaranteed, nor is it necessarily a function of hard work and intelligence -- you have to get lucky. You have to have supportive advisors and peers who will guide you through the hoops (MA paper, qualifying exams, dissertation), you have to be strategic about who is on your dissertation committee so you get good letters of recommendation for the job market, and you have to hit the market when your speciality (media, qual methods, culture, etc.) is in demand. I knew one person who was purely unlucky in all of these dimensions (young advisor who ended up being a terrible dissertation chair, older advisor who decided to check out of his responsibilities, unpopular subfield and methodology), and is now nearing a decade in grad school. You don't want to be that person, but he didn't want to be that person either.
 
My advice is to *avoid* planning your life like you want to go to a sociology graduate program, especially if you want to work for a few years anyway. Your GPA and GRE don't matter as much as you think they do, and your interests will change much, much more than you think they will. Take advantage of the fact that you're at one of the best universities in the world, take a lot of different classes and do well at them, study abroad, work for a few years, etc... then if you still want to be a sociologist, look at who has won the ASA book/article awards in culture, migration, race & ethnicity, and so on and read their books and articles. Then apply to work with the ones you want to work with. 

@Darin - I'll take a crack at it. This is my perspective as someone who went straight from undergrad in a big public school, entered a competitive PhD program, completed my MA, left the program, and is currently reapplying to PhD programs. You may find some of this useful, some of this pointless and long-winded, and some of this irrelevant; I'm just brain-dumping. Assume all my words are more haphazard suggestions than anything else, but this is mostly in the vein of "things I wish someone told me."
 
 
Here's what you should prioritize:
 
- Get strong grades (you're doing that; a good GPA is always helpful to have, but it might not distinguish you from many others)
- Do as well as possible on the GREs (some programs care a lot more than others, but it's never a bad thing)
- Get some research experience with undergrad professors - if you can be a research assistant, do so, and if you can squeeze that into a co-authorship, do that too 
- Build relationships with key folks in the department who you'd like letters of rec from down the road - just be engaged, friendly, go to office hours, cultivate a professional relationship. (Again, sounds like you're already doing that. This is pretty important everywhere in academia so it's good to make sure you enjoy or at least tolerate it now.)
- Build your writing skills. Take as many taxing writing-intensive courses as you can without becoming overloaded. Being a good writer is one of the few skills that transfers across disciplines, methodologies, subfields, and departments. A good writing sample will help your application a lot. Find contests/scholarships/fellowships/other ways to test your writing in a competitive setting.
 
In terms of "mental/emotional prep," a good resource to look up if you're interested in sociology grad school is Fabio Rojas' ebook/blog post series "Grad Skool Rulz." (Posts are free to read, ebook is a little more complete/fleshed out and costs two bucks.) It's written to provide lots of "straight dope" about the do's and don'ts of the PhD, especially in the social sciences. Some of it might seem a little harsh, but it's mostly just realistic, and I wish I'd read it before I started grad school.
 
Also, in terms of preparing yourself academically, try to read a lot of work that's not necessarily the type you like. For example, you're interested in how media affects our cultural attitudes toward conformity; I'll guess that you probably read more qualitative/interpretive work vs big survey-style stuff (though I could be wrong). Even if you're a sociologist who does one thing really well, you will be expected to know what the "shape" of other subfields looks like. A key part of being a professional sociologist is being at least minimally fluent in the whole discipline. So, if you can take classes on topics that don't seem interesting at first, do so; and if you can drive yourself to read research on your downtime (like i would ever have done that in undergrad), do some of that too.
 
Also: Don't commit to a substantive area now, or even while you're applying; it's good to have defined interests, but I found that I essentially knew nothing about sociology once I actually got to grad school. Your interests are likely to change, so be prepared to be flexible. Nobody expects your dissertation topic in your first year.
 
Re: picking a school. Rankings are (mostly) supreme. A good rule of thumb is attend the most highly ranked program that you're admitted to, with full funding, and with faculty who you can see yourself working with. Don't go to a program solely because of rank if you can't see anyone there you want to work with (or if it's only one person; soc departments can be bumpy places and that faculty member might leave, go on sabbatical, or be full-up on students). And some programs with very high rankings might be bad environments for some kinds of students - i.e. could be highly competitive when you'd prefer a collaborative environment, or have very "hands-off" advising when you'd prefer to stay in touch with your advisor regularly. But in general, highly ranked programs tend to have more resources, better connections, (theoretically) better students, and reputations that will ease your applications for fellowships, grants, and other goodies.
 
(A brief caveat/aside about rankings: like many academic disciplines, sociology as an institution is fairly status-obsessed. Can you get good training outside the top 10, 20, or 35 programs? Definitely, especially when a school is known for a given subfield. Will smart, motivated students attend programs outside the top 10? Of course. Will you learn a lot anywhere you go? Sure. But at the end of the day, the job market cares about rankings a lot and a highly ranked program is almost always a leg up.)
 
In a similar vein: definitely don't go anywhere that won't fund you completely. (dunno how much research you've already done, but standard packages are full tuition plus a 15k-25k stipend for 4 or 5 years. Most are probably between 17-21k.) Grad school is headache enough without needing to worry about whether your funding will be renewed next year, and the sociology job market isn't so lucrative that you'll be able to easily pay off a PhD's worth of student loans. 
 
Hoo. Anything else, for now? That might be it. There are many others on this forum with more experience who are better able to speak to some of these issues, but I hope my thoughts are helpful. This is an awesome discipline, and academic sociology is a fascinating way to spend your career, so if you're interested then I say go for it! (You can feel free to PM with other q's, too!)