'Am I competitive? ' thread (Sociology)

[jriveracal]

On 9/9/2018 at 6:09 PM, unchienandalusia said:

Program: PhD in Sociology, Comparative Human Development, and Psychology

A very preliminary list of schools I'm interested in (in no particular order):  Princeton, Columbia, Northwestern, UChicago, and UW Madison

Expectations/what I'm looking for:  Programs strong in family poverty research, poverty policy, and child-development 

 Interests: The role of social supports in family stress and child outcomes, child welfare policy and interventions, child development across SES, and parent-child relationships

Undergraduate Institution: Notre Dame

Undergraduate Major/Degree: Major in Psychology, minor in Interdisciplinary Poverty Studies

Other undergraduate notes: Completed a thesis, where I developed and tested an at-home intervention with parents and children. Also took several sociology classes as an undergrad.  

Graduate GPA: 3.52, 3.8 within my major/minor (I started out as a pre-med, which messed w my overall GPA)

GRE:  V 168/ Q 155/ W 5.5

Age: 25

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Work/Research Experience: 

> Research in a Developmental Psych lab for 3 years in undergrad, where I completed my grant-funded thesis

> Paid and credit research assistant, co-authored 2 presentations/proceedings in developmental pysch lab. Also presented independently-researched paper in an unrelated field on the side at an international conference my senior year of undergrad (I was a little all over the place with my academic interests back then).

> Moved to France, was a live-in au pair for a family, collected data/interviews about school and daycare access

> Now I'm a Social Worker for children and families. It will be 2.6 years of work by the time I'd leave for school. It's very intense work, and has really driven my current interests: policy, social supports, and child outcomes (as opposed to cognitive development). 

SoP: Finished draft, getting feedback now

Concerns: Low quant score, low overall GPA, scattered research history. Took a lot of time off to do some soul searching. Also, I loved my Soc classes in undergrad, but never really considered Sociology as a PhD until I realized how many incredible poverty and family policy researchers exist in the field, so I'm in uncharted territory (even for me). 

Would love to know if I even have a shot. 

8

Very late response, but we seem to have similar interests. How are your applications going?

[KLMN0701]

 

Edited December 5, 2018 by KLMN0701

[sociopolitic]

4 hours ago, KLMN0701 said:

 

Uh, what? Lol

[TheBunny]

Program: Ph.D. in Sociology

Applying To: Harvard University, Boston College, Boston University, UMass Amherst, Brown University.

Interests: Gender, Political Sociology, Quantitative Methods

Graduate Institution: Private University in America, Top 50.

Graduate Major/Degree: MA in International Affairs

Graduate GPA: 3.8/4.00

Undergraduate Major: International Relations and Sociology, double degree. Includes high-level math classes.

Undergraduate School: Turkey's best university, well-ranked in the world, known to American professors. 

Undergraduate GPA: 3.7/4.00

GRE:  Verbal: 158, Quant: 166, AWA: 3.5.

TOEFL: 108 but I may not report it as I have an undergrad and grad degree from English-speaking institutions.

Age: 24

Languages: English, French, Turkish.

Research Experience: 1 co-authored paper in sociology second name under review, 5 years of an undergraduate research assistant, 2 papers single author under review one in political science, the other in sociology, 2 papers will be submitted for review in the following months. 2 conference papers and presentations. No thesis in master or undergrad as it was not an option.

Teaching Experience:  Teaching assistant to a political science professor.

LORs: 1 sociology professor who is known in the area, 1 political science professor, and 1 development economics professor.

Work Experience: 7 internships (nearly every summer) which includes international work experience, as well. I also have some research experience in a non-profit in America. 

My concern: I took GRE 5 times and this is as high as I can do, I am very afraid that it will hinder my chances. 

Edited January 3, 2019 by TheBunny

[bandanajack]

Looking for an honest assessment. 

I already applied, but I want to see your opinions on my competitiveness to these schools. I didn't apply to a safety school, so I'm worried that I overshot. I'm told I should get into a program, but I guess my anxiety while I wait is causing me to want more insight.

Program: PhD in Sociology

Schools Applying To: UMass - Amherst, Uni of Connecticut, Uni of Virginia, and Lehigh University (MA) 

Interests: Strat/inequality, economic sociology, poverty, mobility, mixed methodology, etc.

Undergraduate school: low-tier state school (B.A. Sociology; B.A. Comm/Journalism; Minor Anthropology)

GPA: 3.8 Honors: many awards, scholarships etc.

GRE:  V 159/ Q 155 / AW 5.5

Age: 24

Work Experience: AmeriCorps VISTA and local newspapers + (editor-in-chief of uni newspaper)

SoP: Well-written, and should catch their attention. I certainly focus on my passion, interests (with relation to school) and my background. (Perhaps not enough about the dept. I am apply to, and maybe should have been a bit more... idk, unique with it.)

Research: Nothing published yet, but currently assisting a former prof on a qualitative study to be accepted by ASA for annual conference, and probs for a journal (2nd author of three). 

Took a research grad course in my UG and completed a study and presented at uni conference (A in the course), and completed another quant study in UG courses (As)

LORs expectations:  1) Research prof - outstanding 2) Newspaper adviser/prof - outstanding 3) Soc Dept. Chair - great

 

Any comments are welcome! Thank you!

 

[markhame]

Hello,

I am curious about whether I am competitive, as I only applied to Top 10 programs, which is admittedly risky. My undergrad degree was mathematics, which I did not have particularly good grades in (esp pure mathematics). My grades outside of math (sociology, history, lit, etc., and some statistics) are much better. I am interested in economic sociology, as well as class/social stratification, including some quantitative sociology. My top choice is Northwestern, I think their department is fascinating.

Overall GPA: 3.46, 

GRE: 166V, 161Q

1 publication - one of 4 authors, in math/statistics, in an undergraduate journal

3 recs are from history, Spanish (literature/theory), and stats- I think all of my recs are pretty good, only one of them would be outstanding.

If you have any insight into whether you think I have a chance or not let me know. My main worry is that my GPA is rather low, even if my GRE scores are stronger.

Edited January 18, 2019 by markhame

[artvandaley]

On 1/17/2019 at 12:51 AM, bandanajack said:

Looking for an honest assessment. 

I already applied, but I want to see your opinions on my competitiveness to these schools. I didn't apply to a safety school, so I'm worried that I overshot. I'm told I should get into a program, but I guess my anxiety while I wait is causing me to want more insight.

Program: PhD in Sociology

Schools Applying To: UMass - Amherst, Uni of Connecticut, Uni of Virginia, and Lehigh University (MA) 

Interests: Strat/inequality, economic sociology, poverty, mobility, mixed methodology, etc.

Undergraduate school: low-tier state school (B.A. Sociology; B.A. Comm/Journalism; Minor Anthropology)

GPA: 3.8 Honors: many awards, scholarships etc.

GRE:  V 159/ Q 155 / AW 5.5

Age: 24

Work Experience: AmeriCorps VISTA and local newspapers + (editor-in-chief of uni newspaper)

SoP: Well-written, and should catch their attention. I certainly focus on my passion, interests (with relation to school) and my background. (Perhaps not enough about the dept. I am apply to, and maybe should have been a bit more... idk, unique with it.)

Research: Nothing published yet, but currently assisting a former prof on a qualitative study to be accepted by ASA for annual conference, and probs for a journal (2nd author of three). 

Took a research grad course in my UG and completed a study and presented at uni conference (A in the course), and completed another quant study in UG courses (As)

LORs expectations:  1) Research prof - outstanding 2) Newspaper adviser/prof - outstanding 3) Soc Dept. Chair - great

 

Any comments are welcome! Thank you!

 

Hi,

Not in a place to judge your competence, but my interests are just about the same - so I hope we get to do what we want to do very soon!  Good luck!

 

[bandanajack]

On 1/20/2019 at 11:23 AM, artvandaley said:

Hi,

Not in a place to judge your competence, but my interests are just about the same - so I hope we get to do what we want to do very soon!  Good luck!

 

Hey thanks! I wish you the best. Hope to see you posting some good news on hear soon enough.

Also, Art Vandaley? As in the importer/exporter of Vandaley Industries lol?

[artvandaley]

5 hours ago, bandanajack said:

Hey thanks! I wish you the best. Hope to see you posting some good news on hear soon enough.

Also, Art Vandaley? As in the importer/exporter of Vandaley Industries lol?

we specialize only in exports

 

[markhame]

Ugh I feel so insane for only applying to T10 programs. Part of the reason is because I’m interested in economic sociology, and a lot of good Econ soc programs are in top schools. But I also felt weirdly optimistic about getting in before. Now it’s like why did you apply to 3 programs ranked #1 are you insane???

[YouJay2468]

Program: PhD in Sociology

Schools Applying To: Columbia University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, University of California - Berkeley, UCLA, Cornell, UC Irvine, CUNY, Penn State, USC, Brown, Yale, Princeton

Interests: Immigration, assimilation, identity

Expectations from Programmes:  Fully funded

Graduate Institutions:

University of Missouri - MA Political Science 3.92 (I was in their fully funded 5 year PhD program but decided after two years I really needed to rethink what I wanted to do. So, I took an MA, began teaching English overseas and traveled the world.)

University of Arkansas - MA Political Science 4.0

Undergraduate Institution:

University of Hawaii at Hilo - BA Political Science 3.85

Research:
1 publication in a peer reviewed journal on development and economic growth in Africa (quantitative)

6 conference presentations at good political science conferences

Quant oriented, but interested in qualitative methods as well

GRE:  V 159/ Q 153 / AW 5

Age: 29

Work Experience: Graduate Assistant (taught undergrad classes at Mizzou and Arkansas) for 4 years

English teacher overseas for 3 years

SoP: Not begun yet, but will focus on specific research I hope to do (along lines of a proposal) 

LORs: 3 from good scholars in political science

Concerns: 

1. Not so stellar GRE scores

2. No prior research in sociology

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on whether you or not I'd be a competitive applicant at the schools I'm applying to. Thank you
 

Edited March 5, 2019 by JayyyYou1989