Cornell and UNC

[glee1111]

I was fortunate enough to get accepted to both programs, and I was wondering which school would be best for my research interests. Im interested in studying immigration, computational sociology, and quantitative methods. 

[limonchello]

Look at their recent graduates - what were their research interests and placements like? I can't think of any computational sociologists from UNC, but I can from Cornell. But UNC is higher ranked which can lead to other extra resources. Do professors have labs? What about RA opportunities? Other places on canvas that sociology works with? 

[donaldduckheim]

So exciting! I would start by talking with POIs and grad students at both places. They likely have the best grasp of what each program has to support your research interests. In my experience, I've found that most programs will be really honest with you about their strengths and weaknesses. They won't sugar coat, because they don't want you to commit to just end up disappointed/unhappy with what they have to offer later... Hopefully that'll provide some clarity. Good luck! 

[__both__]

On 2/27/2021 at 4:03 PM, glee1111 said:

I was fortunate enough to get accepted to both programs, and I was wondering which school would be best for my research interests. Im interested in studying immigration, computational sociology, and quantitative methods. 

Why did you apply to those programs? (i.e. do you have preliminary answers to your own question?) Computational soc is broad, comprising machine learning, text analysis, simulation, networks, geometric data analysis, etc -- is there a subset you're particularly interested in? UNC wasn't on my radar, but looking now I see they have at least one auspicious computational person. Cornell is strong here although it will be interesting to see how they fill recent departures. Filiz Garip leaving for Princeton seems particularly relevant.

I'm interested in computational work on culture and politics and am also considering Cornell.