Do I stand chance? (switching fields & nervous)

[aiaiaice]

I've posted something similar before when I was still not sure about PhD but now I'm really getting serious about it so here I go again..

Program: PhD in Sociology (I would almost prefer MA, but only if funded... I have almost no financial security)

Interests: Stratification, economic sociology (preferably marxist), also interested in interdisciplinary studies btw sociology and neuroscience which seems to be sort of emerging?!

Undergraduate Major/Degree: Major in Econ with minor in French / didn't choose to write a thesis (fuck me) 

Graduate GPA: 3.88

GRE:  V 170 / Q 169 / W 5 (I'm from East Asia tho and I heard there's some sort of a reverse affirmative action against East Asians regarding GRE scores lol..)

Work/Research Experience: 

- Well.. wrote some research papers in undergrad (2 for econ and 1 about social enterprises while i was interning in France) and really enjoyed the process but other than that no publication, no thesis

- I'm working as a tax policy "research assistant"  at a big-name intl org but what i do is stupid tbh and I'm not at all interested in econ research. I could try to participate in 1-2 working papers before application season if that would help significantly? 

- Before this, I wasted 2 yrs at an econ consulting company which was very much against my principles and extremely soul-sucking

LoR: thinking 1-2 from undergrad econ / poli-sci professors (probably not too strong) & 1-2 from work (could be decent.. idk)

Concerns: Zero background in sociology, weak research experience, possibly not so strong LoRs. I could probably sell my quant skills but ugh I would really not prefer to do quant-heavy research just because I have skills to sell...

 

Since I'm done with the GRE now I'll try to really focus on researching schools / research areas and coming up with a solid SoP for the next few months. The main reason I'm trying to go into sociology is that I've been trying in vain for many years to understand the problem of inequality through the discipline of Economics, but then I realized (probably long ago, just couldn't come to terms with it since I was a financially struggling international student who was desperate for some stability) that modern econ is.. umm... a total bullshit and it doesn't even pretend to try to answer any of the fundamental questions regarding social structures that underlie economic transactions. Of course I will try to explain this in a more academic & less curseword-ridden manner in my SoP?‍♀️. I might sound cynical and full of hate but that's just a small piece of me - I'm actually very excited and full of hope to be finally jumping in to what I actually want to do!

So I guess my questions are:

- Do I stand any chance? If so, which schools should i shoot for in terms of rough rankings? (I really have no idea how things works in sociology.. I don't care much about rankings as long as I can do fulfilling research surrounded by engaging ppl)

- Should I try to participate in some econ papers (ugh) at work (UGHH) even if I won't believe in any of the things I write?? Will that improve my chances significantly?

- Any reading materials / methods you'd recommend to not sound like a total outsider in my SoP? I'm not that well read tbh

- Or just ANY advice is much appreciated!!! 

 

Sorry I'm a bit verbose... I blame it on my adhd

[xyz234]

There's a lot to talk about here, so I'll try to break it down succinctly.

- Yes, you definitely have a chance. You have great GREs, a strong GPA, and good work experience. I think it's fair to identify the lack of research experience as your weakest spot, but you should know that most people don't have published work when applying either. It's ok to be thinking about class or work projects as your main research experience at this point, you just have to sell why it's relevant. Programs do not expect you to be the complete package already or else you wouldn't need them; they want to see that you have the tools to do well though.

- Related to the last point, I do think it's worthwhile to sell your quantitative methods skills. It doesn't have to be the central point of your statement of purpose, but you should absolutely make it clear that you have them. This 100% will not lock you into only doing quant work for your time in graduate school. I had only done qualitative work prior to applying, and stated that I wanted to do qualitative work. I now have only done quant work in grad school and no one even remembers what I wrote.

- Getting on a working paper would be a good way to signal research experience, but if you believe it's totally antithetical to your interests I'm not sure it's worth it. Ideally you want to be able to point to something you've done to signal the types of stuff you intend to do. A working paper would signal your methodological skill, but if you're not going to write about it as your research interests then I think it's valid to not do it.

- As far as choosing schools go, you absolutely should shoot high in terms of prestige. You don't want to only apply to top 5-10 programs, but you do have a shot at them with your scores and work experience. I can't help you as much with selecting the schools because I'm not that familiar with economic sociology, but I will say that stratification is at the core of a lot of sociology departments. There are very few strong programs overall that are weak in this area, so I don't think you can go too wrong. I think the best thing to do is look for schools where there are at least 3-4 tenured faculty you would want to work with.

[aiaiaice]

On 5/20/2019 at 7:19 PM, xyz234 said:

There's a lot to talk about here, so I'll try to break it down succinctly.

- Yes, you definitely have a chance. You have great GREs, a strong GPA, and good work experience. I think it's fair to identify the lack of research experience as your weakest spot, but you should know that most people don't have published work when applying either. It's ok to be thinking about class or work projects as your main research experience at this point, you just have to sell why it's relevant. Programs do not expect you to be the complete package already or else you wouldn't need them; they want to see that you have the tools to do well though.

- Related to the last point, I do think it's worthwhile to sell your quantitative methods skills. It doesn't have to be the central point of your statement of purpose, but you should absolutely make it clear that you have them. This 100% will not lock you into only doing quant work for your time in graduate school. I had only done qualitative work prior to applying, and stated that I wanted to do qualitative work. I now have only done quant work in grad school and no one even remembers what I wrote.

- Getting on a working paper would be a good way to signal research experience, but if you believe it's totally antithetical to your interests I'm not sure it's worth it. Ideally you want to be able to point to something you've done to signal the types of stuff you intend to do. A working paper would signal your methodological skill, but if you're not going to write about it as your research interests then I think it's valid to not do it.

- As far as choosing schools go, you absolutely should shoot high in terms of prestige. You don't want to only apply to top 5-10 programs, but you do have a shot at them with your scores and work experience. I can't help you as much with selecting the schools because I'm not that familiar with economic sociology, but I will say that stratification is at the core of a lot of sociology departments. There are very few strong programs overall that are weak in this area, so I don't think you can go too wrong. I think the best thing to do is look for schools where there are at least 3-4 tenured faculty you would want to work with.

Thank you so much!! This was extremely helpful. I guess I will spend my energy on researching schools & narrowing down my interest areas instead of working on an Econ paper that will probably have nothing to do with what I would want to work on in the future. Also thanks for the comment on quant skills - it made me realize that I was worrying about things a bit to far ahead