Programs in Applied Sociology

[Andromeda3921]

Hello, 

I applied for PhD in Sociology for Fall 2018 and was unsuccessful. I plan to re-apply for Fall 2019. However, certain priorities have changed and I'm listing them below. I would really like some help in identifying the schools that I should approach. I hold an Indian citizenship and would love to go to grad school in Asia, Europe or the United States.  

Background: Masters in Development Studies. Work Experience as RA with International Policy think-tank. Multiple research internships as student. No academic publication yet, but policy report & newspaper OpEds available, apart from International conference presentations. 

Scores: 7.99/10 GPA | GRE Verbal: 168, Quant: 156 | TOEFL (iBT): 113

Research Interests: Urban studies (core area) , Education, Gender, Applied as well as Comparative Sociology

Criteria for Applications: 

Program: Interdisciplinary, Allowing students to choose courses across departments, emphasis/known for applied approach

Resources: Ongoing projects with vibrant research space, Access to funding, Encouraging collaborations, Good enough brand to ensure employment on completion of programme, preferably located in an urban area to aid fieldwork. 

[high_hopes]

Whose work do you see yourself citing in your dissertation? I think that is a starting place to find universities that would be good to apply to: apply where these professors work. Also, from what you say, I think it would be best to find a university with an interdisciplinary research centre on urban issues. 

You didn't mention Canada, but it is the environment I am most familiar with. I think you could find interesting opportunities at Toronto, McGill, UBC, and York. However, these universities usually only have very limited opportunities for international students if you don't already have external funding.

[qeta]

On 5/27/2018 at 11:17 AM, high_hopes said:

Whose work do you see yourself citing in your dissertation? I think that is a starting place to find universities that would be good to apply to: apply where these professors work. Also, from what you say, I think it would be best to find a university with an interdisciplinary research centre on urban issues. 

You didn't mention Canada, but it is the environment I am most familiar with. I think you could find interesting opportunities at Toronto, McGill, UBC, and York. However, these universities usually only have very limited opportunities for international students if you don't already have external funding.

I have some friends in McGill soc. and the funding is poor for all students there, period. Montreal is a cheap and fun city to live in, however. Toronto soc. is well-funded and has a large department. York soc. is quite a good department, but does struggle to fund international students and has the least global portability in terms of job prospects afterwards. If you do decide to apply to Toronto or York, you could look into Ontario Trillium Fellowship for International Students and ask the departments if they would be willing to nominate you. The application process in Canada can be viewed as more of a negotiation than the US ones, in my experience.

UMass Boston has a good applied sociology program. My friend got his MA there and that work landed him in UCB soc. And you can't beat Boston in terms of location because there are so many excellent schools in the surrounding area and they have so many South Asianists.

Edited July 8, 2018 by qeta