Geography 2020 Application Thread

[llgecir43]

Hi all,

Just prepping a thread here for discussions on 2020 admissions. Feel encouraged to share what programs you're applying to, update us on decisions, and talk shop with other applicants.

I'm applying to:

• University of Maine
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• University of California-Santa Barbara
• University of Tennessee
• Cardiff University
• Technological University Dublin
• University College London
• Penn State University (maybe)

Best of luck to everyone! Let's keep each other in the loop. 

[SpaceMaker]

Good to see someone else that is applying to geography programs this year...

I am still looking at programs and doing some recon but I will be applying to 7 or 8 geography programs.

1. Berkeley

2. Rutgers

3. York

4.Queens

5. Simon Fraser 

6. UMBC 

7. UNC Chapel Hill

8. Temple( maybe) 

 

I wish everyone a good and productive application cycle. 

[Fidel]

Hi everyone, I’m apply to geography programs , GIS to be precise. My choices are:

1. Memorial University 

2. Virji University

best of luck to everyone. 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Fidel
Grammatical error

[Sum_Errosola94]

Hi all! 

I’m also applying to MA in geography, my options are: 

 

1. University of Guelph, MA in Geography and International Development

2. Western University of Ontario, MA in Geography - Development, Environment and Health. 

What are your research interest and how would it contribute to geography? 

 

Good luck to everyone applying!! 

[llgecir43]

@Sum_Errosola94 Great programs! I am a business and retail geographer. My bachelor's degree is in business economics and my master's is in business geography. My research leverages spatial analysis and econometric modeling to understand the geographies of the rise of e-commerce and the concurrent decline of brick-and-mortar retail (particularly, in the United States). I'm part of a relatively small community of geographers in academia, but one with a large network of practitioners out working in real estate, retail location analytics, insurance, marketing, etc. etc.   It's probably one of the smallest and least popular sub-fields of geography but I love what I do - and as business landscapes continue to change with the ubiquity of digital frontiers, I think my field will become more and more relevant and engaging! Fingers crossed. Would love to hear what everyone else is up to!

[fjeiao]

Thanks for starting the thread @llgecir43! I'm interested in human geography. I'm applying to PhD programs at these schools:

• Berkeley
• UBC
• Syracuse
• Arizona State
• Clark (probably)

Good luck everyone!

[ngl]

I see two acceptances for University of Illinois. Who else got admitted? I'm one of the acceptances and now I'm curious ?

Best of luck waiting, everyone. It is agonizing. 

[SpaceMaker]

20 hours ago, ngl said:

I see two acceptances for University of Illinois. Who else got admitted? I'm one of the acceptances and now I'm curious ?

Best of luck waiting, everyone. It is agonizing. 

Congrats .. Geog is pretty dead right now.. I applied to 7 geog programs. Wish I had realized Illinois was a decent fit ...where else did you apply?

[jlc816]

I am interested in human geography and urban planning, had a difficult time choosing b/t the programs for PhD. In the end, I applied to:

UP:

• MIT
• UCLA
• UPenn
• USC
• UBC

Geography:

• CUNY
• Berkeley

I just heard back from Berkeley that I advanced to the next round and will be having an interview next week! Fingers crossed that the interview goes well and something positive happens.

 

Edited January 16, 2020 by jlc816

[ngl]

Thanks @SpaceMaker! Yeah I came across Illinois about two weeks before the application deadline and I am really glad I found it. 

I actually applied to a pretty similar list of schools as you. I applied to the geography department at every school:

• UBC
• University of Minnesota
• University of Illinois
• Simon Fraser
• University of Calgary
• Queens University

I am primarily interested in economic and urban geography/political economy. It seems like a lot of the bigwigs in that area live in Canada. (I'm from the US.)

[SpaceMaker]

4 minutes ago, ngl said:

Thanks @SpaceMaker! Yeah I came across Illinois about two weeks before the application deadline and I am really glad I found it. 

I actually applied to a pretty similar list of schools as you. I applied to the geography department at every school:

• UBC
• University of Minnesota
• University of Illinois
• Simon Fraser
• University of Calgary
• Queens University

I am primarily interested in economic and urban geography/political economy. It seems like a lot of the bigwigs in that area live in Canada. (I'm from the US.)

Actually, we only have one overlapping school. I applied to Queens too.. I also applied to Chapel Hill, Syracuse(this was a late entry), Oregon, York, Rutgers and UMBC. I have some interests in urban and economic geography but I guess I would classify myself a a cultural geographer who studies geographies of race through urban space and political economic activity. And yes, Canada surprisingly had so many programs I was interested in but also as an American I knew it would be super hard to get into so I just applied to two programs. I wonder why Canadian programs are going in a such a different direction than US at least in terms of the urban/economic side of the house?

[SpaceMaker]

53 minutes ago, jlc816 said:

I am interested in human geography and urban planning, had a difficult time choosing b/t the programs for PhD. In the end, I applied to:

UP:

• MIT
• UCLA
• UPenn
• USC
• UBC

Geography:

• CUNY
• Berkeley

I just heard back from Berkeley that I advanced to the next round and will be having an interview next week! Fingers crossed that the interview goes well and something positive happens.

 

congrats on the interview.

[jlc816]

23 minutes ago, SpaceMaker said:

Actually, we only have one overlapping school. I applied to Queens too.. I also applied to Chapel Hill, Syracuse(this was a late entry), Oregon, York, Rutgers and UMBC. I have some interests in urban and economic geography but I guess I would classify myself a a cultural geographer who studies geographies of race through urban space and political economic activity. And yes, Canada surprisingly had so many programs I was interested in but also as an American I knew it would be super hard to get into so I just applied to two programs. I wonder why Canadian programs are going in a such a different direction than US at least in terms of the urban/economic side of the house?

 

19 minutes ago, SpaceMaker said:

congrats on the interview.

Thank you @SpaceMaker. I'm quite nervous and not sure how to prepare.

@SpaceMaker @ngl I am regretting a little not applying to Canadian schools -- but as you mentioned, it seems difficult to get in as American + also receive funding... I was particularly interested in UofT and York for their critical lens.

[SpaceMaker]

1 minute ago, jlc816 said:

 

Thank you @SpaceMaker. I'm quite nervous and not sure how to prepare.

@SpaceMaker @ngl I am regretting a little not applying to Canadian schools -- but as you mentioned, it seems difficult to get in as American + also receive funding... I was particularly interested in UofT and York for their critical lens.

Well I have done one interview this cycle. I prepped by writing out some questions I wanted to ask them. I think this is helpful. I also briefly wrote the interests of the faculty that were doing the interview in case I need to reference their work in a response. I wrote out my research interests and my potential dissertation project out. I found it helpful to look down a occasionally but it was useful when asking questions at the end. I think this is super important. I learned form job interviewing that when they ask you do you have any questions. They actually want you to ask some. I try to only ask 3 questions. Hopefully this helps and good luck. I almost applied to Berkely as they have 3 faculty whose work really aligns with mine but I just cant imagine living in the bay area with the rental market the way it is. as a grad student( or even a professor for that matter lol). 

 

As far as York, yeah I had to talk to like 8 faculty before I found one who would be willing to sponsor me to get in. That is the hard part about Canadian schools. You have to have a an advisor from the start and might not always happen especially if they are not taking students despite being a good fit for you.

[jlc816]

19 minutes ago, SpaceMaker said:

Well I have done one interview this cycle. I prepped by writing out some questions I wanted to ask them. I think this is helpful. I also briefly wrote the interests of the faculty that were doing the interview in case I need to reference their work in a response. I wrote out my research interests and my potential dissertation project out. I found it helpful to look down a occasionally but it was useful when asking questions at the end. I think this is super important. I learned form job interviewing that when they ask you do you have any questions. They actually want you to ask some. I try to only ask 3 questions. Hopefully this helps and good luck. I almost applied to Berkely as they have 3 faculty whose work really aligns with mine but I just cant imagine living in the bay area with the rental market the way it is. as a grad student( or even a professor for that matter lol). 

Really helpful advice on the interviews, thank you! Out of curiosity, which Berkeley faculty were you interested in working with? re: rental market.... hoping for a decent funding package, but yes, that will definitely be a big deciding factor for me...

[SpaceMaker]

1 hour ago, jlc816 said:

Really helpful advice on the interviews, thank you! Out of curiosity, which Berkeley faculty were you interested in working with? re: rental market.... hoping for a decent funding package, but yes, that will definitely be a big deciding factor for me...

Dr. Lewis

[jlc816]

5 hours ago, SpaceMaker said:

Dr. Lewis

Oh cool -- I'm also really interested in collaborating with him. 

Had a follow up question re: interview, did you do this in person or over video/phone?

[SpaceMaker]

1 minute ago, jlc816 said:

Oh cool -- I'm also really interested in collaborating with him. 

Had a follow up question re: interview, did you do this in person or over video/phone?

Skype..

[gordisofi]

On 1/15/2020 at 1:37 PM, ngl said:

I see two acceptances for University of Illinois. Who else got admitted? I'm one of the acceptances and now I'm curious ?

Best of luck waiting, everyone. It is agonizing. 

Hello! I got admitted this past Tuesday and I was beyond ecstatic as it was my first choice. My research interests match very narrowly with my adviser so I am very excited. They also gave me a very good offer in terms of $ support which I was worried about.

I studied Psychology and minored in Linguistics and Communication, so my interest in geography was one that emerged quite late in my undergrad years. I'm interested at the intersection between mobilities studies, travel behavior, and environmental psychology.

 

Schools applied to

1. CUNY - Environmental Psychology, PhD (still waiting)

2. UIUC - Geography, MA (admitted)

3. UIUC - Master of Urban Planning (admitted)

4. Syracuse - Geography, MA (still waiting, not very hopeful because SOP was rushed)

Edited January 17, 2020 by gordisofi

[ngl]

@gordisofi Congratulations, that's fantastic! It must be very relieving to get into your top choice this early. Do you think you will be accepting?

I'm going to send you a PM because I'm curious about your supervisor etc. 

[kpietromica]

only applied to University of Arizona PhD. just waiting it out and watching those acceptance stats. 

good luck to everyone!

[ngl]

I don't want to put salt in the wound, but would anyone be willing to claim the Minnesota rejection? I haven't heard anything back from them yet and I am curious about what it said/how you found out. 

[jlc816]

On 1/16/2020 at 10:19 AM, jlc816 said:

I am interested in human geography and urban planning, had a difficult time choosing b/t the programs for PhD. In the end, I applied to:

UP:

• MIT
• UCLA
• UPenn
• USC
• UBC

Geography:

• CUNY
• Berkeley

I just heard back from Berkeley that I advanced to the next round and will be having an interview next week! Fingers crossed that the interview goes well and something positive happens.

 

Update:

Accepted: USC ($$$$)

Waitlisted: CUNY (geography)

Rejected: UCB (geography) -- not surprised. I did poorly on the interview.

Pending: UCLA, UPenn, MIT (HCED), UBC 

Wondering who the geography admits are to UCB and CUNY?

Hope everyone hears some positive news in the coming weeks!

[ngl]

@jlc816 congrats on getting into USC urban planning, that looks like a very cool department.

 

I would love to know who got accepted to the UBC geography masters program on Friday. If anyone is willing to claim it, I would love to know if you are physical or human geography track, how you found out, who you will be working with, etc.

Good luck this week everyone, I imagine there will be news for most people one way or another. 

[headempty]

Hi, thought I'd join in. Was split between American Studies and Geography PhD Programs.

GEOG

UCLA

UIUC 

Minnesota

 

American Studies 

NYU 

USC

I have a feeling the American Studies programs weren't too keen on me given people have already been getting interviews and hearing back... but I'll wait for them to say no :)