No acceptances so far..

[artvandaley]

3 hours ago, bandanajack said:

@artvandaley  I feel you. My hope for making it this cycle is crumbling. (1 official rejection, 2 likely, 1 program is MIA/radio silence) My scores were decent (your's definitely better). Also no pubs, but working on that now. I've already begun the process of mentally accepting I won't get in. I think my SOP's were the problem. I kept them professional and well-worded, but did not focus on the "fit" aspect like I should have.

For you, all I can say is that you applied to extremely competitive programs so you may have been a fine candidate, just no luck this cycle. I wouldn't give up hope though. Obviously do what you want to in life, but if grad school is a dream or part of a dream then stay strong and apply next cycle. I know I will. I will just go back to the drawing board. I wish you the absolute best.

Thank you so much! Your response means a lot to me - yes, we shouldn't give up so easily.  I do still hope that you hear good news from these implied rejections. All the best with improving your writing sample and SOP!

may our future be kind to us.

[ErikaFate]

7 hours ago, artvandaley said:

Thank you, this is a very kind response..I have particularly learnt about my choice of programs could have been more distributed across ranks. 

If it is not too much to ask for, would you be willing to give me some feedback from my application this cycle?

 

I'm happy to help! Send me a message and we can exchange email addresses. 

I also used a book, "ASA Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology" to help me find schools that matched my interests. It was really helpful. Without a good match, it's not likely that a school will admit you. If anyone is applying again, I can probably help you find a few schools. 

[artvandaley]

17 hours ago, ErikaFate said:

 

I'm happy to help! Send me a message and we can exchange email addresses. 

I also used a book, "ASA Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology" to help me find schools that matched my interests. It was really helpful. Without a good match, it's not likely that a school will admit you. If anyone is applying again, I can probably help you find a few schools. 

Thank you so much, switching over to DM. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by artvandaley

[socparty]

This might not be an option for everyone, but plenty of MA programs are still taking applications. If you struck out on your top choices for a PhD program it might work to do an MA first, maybe publish a paper and work on research skills, and reapply in 2020. That's what I did and it worked out. 

[socio1251]

TBH, MA is way too expensive for everyone to afford, and nowadays most MA programs are one-year, which is too rush and leaves little room for students to hone a paper to be published. As someone who struggles through the one-year program with plenty of papers and a 50-70 page MA thesis to work on, I strongly recommend only applying to two-year programs, and  quantitative ones would be better.

[socparty]

I agree with you with respect to two-year programs being more feasible for quantitative sociologists. In my case, I was able to crank out a quantitative public health article that sociologists  publish in and put together a 40 page thesis that was a strong writing sample, which was enough to open the door for admission to several top PhD programs. So that worked for me, but it wouldn't for everyone. When I was shopping for terminal MA programs I found more than I expected that offered financial support - some with full tuition remission in exchange for TA work, and some that offered a lot of scholarship money (but no tuition remission). I know resources are limited and not everyone can splurge on application fees, but I wanted to offer this as an option. With so many PhDs on the market these days, a lot of smaller programs have very productive junior faculty happy to work closely with good grad students. Might be an option for some here .

[socparty]

2 hours ago, ALieNNatioN said:

TBH, MA is way too expensive for everyone to afford, and nowadays most MA programs are one-year, which is too rush and leaves little room for students to hone a paper to be published. As someone who struggles through the one-year program with plenty of papers and a 50-70 page MA thesis to work on, I strongly recommend only applying to two-year programs, and  quantitative ones would be better.

I agree with you with respect to two-year programs being more feasible for quantitative sociologists. In my case, I was able to crank out a quantitative public health article that sociologists  publish in and put together a 40 page thesis that was a strong writing sample, which was enough to open the door for admission to several top PhD programs. So that worked for me, but it wouldn't for everyone. When I was shopping for terminal MA programs I found more than I expected that offered financial support - some with full tuition remission in exchange for TA work, and some that offered a lot of scholarship money (but no tuition remission). I know resources are limited and not everyone can splurge on application fees, but I wanted to offer this as an option. With so many PhDs on the market these days, a lot of smaller programs have very productive junior faculty happy to work closely with good grad students. Might be an option for some here .

[markhame]

14 minutes ago, socparty said:

I agree with you with respect to two-year programs being more feasible for quantitative sociologists. In my case, I was able to crank out a quantitative public health article that sociologists  publish in and put together a 40 page thesis that was a strong writing sample, which was enough to open the door for admission to several top PhD programs. So that worked for me, but it wouldn't for everyone. When I was shopping for terminal MA programs I found more than I expected that offered financial support - some with full tuition remission in exchange for TA work, and some that offered a lot of scholarship money (but no tuition remission). I know resources are limited and not everyone can splurge on application fees, but I wanted to offer this as an option. With so many PhDs on the market these days, a lot of smaller programs have very productive junior faculty happy to work closely with good grad students. Might be an option for some here .

Interesting. I did such a bad job researching masters programs. Although I'm already 25 and don't want to delay a PhD too much part of me wishes I were doing a masters first to get more experience under my belt.

[DuBois]

Hi, 

I had only applied to two colleges for this fall , both of which were rejections, and one in Political Science , whose decisions are not yet out. I wanted to know how I can improve my profile for making successful PhD applications later. My GRE's are bad 150,150, 3.5,  TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 Undergrad was magna cum laude, Masters with upper merit from LSE, research intership with scholarship at Germany  two international conference presentations, 3 years of work experience as student liaison , content writer for UN and beahviour auditing for IEMA, 1 publication. 

I am really passionate about remaining in academics despite the ups and downs. I feel this is my calling. So any , no matter how critical, feddbacks, suggestions and recommendaions would really be highly appreciated. 

Edited February 22, 2019 by DuBois

[ErikaFate]

51 minutes ago, DuBois said:

Hi, 

I had only applied to two colleges for this fall , both of which were rejections, and one in Political Science , whose decisions are not yet out. I wanted to know how I can improve my profile for making successful PhD applications later. My GRE's are bad 150,150, 3.5,  TOEFL 100, IELTS 7 Undergrad was magna cum laude, Masters with upper merit from LSE, research intership with scholarship at Germany  two international conference presentations, 3 years of work experience as student liaison , content writer for UN and beahviour auditing for IEMA, 1 publication. 

I am really passionate about remaining in academics despite the ups and downs. I feel this is my calling. So any , no matter how critical, feddbacks, suggestions and recommendaions would really be highly appreciated. 

There are a few things you can do next year. It's best to apply to 5-7 schools. One top-tier, one lower-tier that is your back-up, and the rest in the middle. One of the most important things is fit. I am interested in gender and labor, so I didn't apply to any department that didn't treat this like a solid focus. Use any resource you can to lower your application fees. Take the GRE again! Your TOEFL score indicates that you know what you're doing. The GRE offers a half-price option, but I'm unsure if it's available to international students. If you're international, check anyway. Some of these discount options are open to people in the US and India. 

The Statement of Purpose is really important, as it shows your ability to understand what meaning you got out of your research/teaching experiences, and what your goals are. It shows that you know how to put a plan of action together. Ask people on this forum to help you sort through your documents and give you tips. It needs to sound a bit braggy and boastful about your accomplishments. It has to have a specific format as well. There are also professional organizations that will help you for a fee. I graduated in December, so I have a few months free if you want me to look over your stuff. 

You have the scores, I am sure it is just something else that is blocking the way. 

[socchi92]

3 hours ago, ErikaFate said:

There are a few things you can do next year. It's best to apply to 5-7 schools. One top-tier, one lower-tier that is your back-up, and the rest in the middle. One of the most important things is fit. I am interested in gender and labor, so I didn't apply to any department that didn't treat this like a solid focus. Use any resource you can to lower your application fees. Take the GRE again! Your TOEFL score indicates that you know what you're doing. The GRE offers a half-price option, but I'm unsure if it's available to international students. If you're international, check anyway. Some of these discount options are open to people in the US and India. 

The Statement of Purpose is really important, as it shows your ability to understand what meaning you got out of your research/teaching experiences, and what your goals are. It shows that you know how to put a plan of action together. Ask people on this forum to help you sort through your documents and give you tips. It needs to sound a bit braggy and boastful about your accomplishments. It has to have a specific format as well. There are also professional organizations that will help you for a fee. I graduated in December, so I have a few months free if you want me to look over your stuff. 

You have the scores, I am sure it is just something else that is blocking the way. 

Yes! Though I'm no expert, I thought I'd add my two cents. I got several acceptances, but my range of schools varied WIDELY in rank and fit was great at 8/9 of them. I applied to 1 school in the top 5, 1 school in the 5-10 range, 2 schools in the 11-15 range, 2 in the 15-25 range, and 3 in the 26-100 range. Was rejected at the top ranked one and one of the 11-15 ones. SOPs were tailored to each one in the bottom few paragraphs. I'll add that I did not attend a prestigious undergrad and my GRE scores were good, not stellar. 

Also, if it is helpful in any way, I would also be happy to look over SOPs for future applicants. Again, I'm no expert, but if you want another perspective on it, DM me any time. I also have been writing down some of the things I learned about this process. I don't want to bore you all here, but if anyone would like them, just let me know and we can chat. 

[NYCStudent]

Hi all,

Sorry to hear about all the tough news. I am also in this camp - 2 rejections, 1 TBD (but likely rejection, since the school is ranked higher than one of the other ones that rejected me). I'm definitely really bummed, but a part of me is actually...relieved? I'm slightly older than most of you (30...argh!), and I've been really stressed about making ends meet financially, if i were to go back to school. While I make a decent salary, the cost of living in SoCal is just SO expensive that I'm barely making ends meet as it is - and going back to school would mean over a 50% pay cut. 

That said, I am very curious about why I got rejected. I have a BA from a top research university, a MS in Education, published articles (not academic, but for major US publications), work experience in policy/journalism, and a great SOP/writing sample. The only thing I felt was subpar was my GRE quant score (145 or something like that), though my verbal and writing were both around 90th percentile. I know I should have studied for it, but honestly standardized tests are by no means a measure of intelligence, and I thought it was a waste of time (of course, I then read the AdComm chain here and realized how important it is). Regardless, I know I did my best in all of the other areas, so I guess it's just not meant to be.

Truthfully, though, I think we should all look at this with the glass half full mentality. When I was originally debating going to PhD right after graduation, every other grad student I spoke to told me if there was ANYTHING else I'd rather do - even in the SLIGHTEST -- to do that instead of a PhD because of the lousy job market, poverty wages, and ivory tower/groupthink mentality (seriously, I have spoken to current grad students who literally have to grovel and worship their dissertation chair just to get a moment of their attention....no thanks). I have spent almost a decade in the workforce, and while I by no means LOVE my job everyday, I love being able to have the resources to live a healthy and fulfilling life.

For those of you who really, truly can't see doing anything other than academia, take this year to strengthen your application for the next cycle. For others who, like me, are moving on to other areas: best of luck!

[socparty]

Again, maybe not a solution for everyone, but some schools (e.g., CU Denver) have admissions deadlines for terminal MA programs as late as June. If this might be an option consider reaching out to the grad program coordinators.