2022 Fall Application: Chat, Share and Support One Another

[Klutch2381]

1 minute ago, awesome3141 said:

 

The cycle is certainly winding down! What is up with Princeton and Cornell? They both are pushing it in my opinion. 

 

It has been a tough cycle overall. I've heard that the number of admitted students is down still significantly from COVID. There's also apparently a growing number of applications. I encourage people to try again though. There's no shame. I am in my second cycle and utterly failed my first time- I was like 0 for 15 when I tried two years ago. So far this year I'm at 8a/1w/6r and I only applied to top 25s! My undergrad GPA is also a 2.9 cumulative due to some personal challenges I had in undergraduate. A lot of people, especially professors, have made me feel horrible about myself because of my bad undergraduate performance. I've had terrible self-confidence and depression in large part because of it. I worked for years to try and prove myself. I truly feel on top of the world finally getting into schools this year. To those of you that didn't get in this year, if you really want it, do not give up! 

That is indeed, “awesome.” You’re the person that was getting into all those great schools with the 2.9 on the results page. I’m proud of you! I’m glad you didn’t give up, and you’re a testament to what can happen when you don’t listen to people — even when they tell you no. Congrats on your acceptances again! 

[socprospect]

Hi everyone,

I'm claiming an acceptance to Cornell's Sociology Ph.D. program. I was notified via email by the Director of Graduate Studies. 

 If I can help anyone with anything, feel free to pm

Edited February 26, 2022 by socprospect

[Willow585]

Congratulations! I applied to Cornell’s development socy, have people heard from that program? 

[CinnamonCream]

9 hours ago, awesome3141 said:

I am in my second cycle and utterly failed my first time- I was like 0 for 15 when I tried two years ago. So far this year I'm at 8a/1w/6r and I only applied to top 25s!

If you would like, could you please share with us what you did in between two cycles that you think better prepared you and increased your chances? That is an impressive record.

[imtiredlmao]

i'm for real over here cracking up because apparently everyone is receiving rejections, acceptances, and waitlists from schools that have yet to even email me back... it's lowkey like i'm invisible

[awesome3141]

21 hours ago, CinnamonCream said:

If you would like, could you please share with us what you did in between two cycles that you think better prepared you and increased your chances? That is an impressive record.

 

100% research experience. I don't have anything else going for me. But I am a very motivated person and I really enjoy research and I think it's what I am best at. Beyond that though, quantitative research is where sociology is increasingly moving towards, despite in my opinion not nearly enough sociology undergraduate students being strong quantitatively. Computational/big data sociology is an even more increasingly popular component of sociology, despite only a very small number of sociology undergraduate students having computational/programming skills. So I think just by being a quantitative/computational researcher, I have a bit of an admissions advantage.

 

I in general just have a ton of research experience. I'm barely not in poverty and have worked a menial hourly job for the last two years but have worked my butt off research-wise and used all my free time to work virtually with a bunch of different professors. As I've gained more skills/methodological experience, professors have networked me in with other professors and I've worked with some top-notch sociologists (multiple NAS members). I have a ton of varied serious research experience on my CV. I also have multiple very high-impact publications (articles in Science and PNAS). I would say I probably had very good LORs (but IDK because I haven't seen them), because I've worked with well-known profs and they really respect and care about me. But my SOP was definitely absolute garbage, and besides finding and replacing school names was not at all customized to any school I applied to. I didn't even adhere to word/page limits in most cases, or follow prompts at all. I did explicitly state my research experiences and articulate my intended future plans though.

 

My advice for anyone thinking about a Sociology PhD is to try doing serious research. Most undergraduate research opportunities are drudgery. See if you can have a serious role in collaborating with a professor and if you can publish with them. If you enjoy the experience, great- you should go to grad school! Because that's basically ALL grad school is about, people don't care about test scores or how well you do in classes then. If you don't like doing research, you should 100% not go to grad school, because you're not going to enjoy it, and you're taking someone's spot that would. I'm a huge proponent of social justice, but just because you like social justice, doesn't mean a sociology PhD is for you. IMO, a Sociology PhD is for people that are proponents of social justice AND want to use research as the vehicle to support it. 

 

An additional note for low-GPA applicants. I'm straight out of undergrad and have a sub 3.0 cumulative GPA. I applied to three schools that had STRICT 3.0 GPA cutoffs for their graduate school admissions and I got in to two of them! So I would encourage most people to ignore those policies, either they're not totally enforced or there are steps the admissions committee can take to get around them for applicants they really want.

[Fatkiller]

4 hours ago, awesome3141 said:

 

100% research experience. I don't have anything else going for me. But I am a very motivated person and I really enjoy research and I think it's what I am best at. Beyond that though, quantitative research is where sociology is increasingly moving towards, despite in my opinion not nearly enough sociology undergraduate students being strong quantitatively. Computational/big data sociology is an even more increasingly popular component of sociology, despite only a very small number of sociology undergraduate students having computational/programming skills. So I think just by being a quantitative/computational researcher, I have a bit of an admissions advantage.

 

I in general just have a ton of research experience. I'm barely not in poverty and have worked a menial hourly job for the last two years but have worked my butt off research-wise and used all my free time to work virtually with a bunch of different professors. As I've gained more skills/methodological experience, professors have networked me in with other professors and I've worked with some top-notch sociologists (multiple NAS members). I have a ton of varied serious research experience on my CV. I also have multiple very high-impact publications (articles in Science and PNAS). I would say I probably had very good LORs (but IDK because I haven't seen them), because I've worked with well-known profs and they really respect and care about me. But my SOP was definitely absolute garbage, and besides finding and replacing school names was not at all customized to any school I applied to. I didn't even adhere to word/page limits in most cases, or follow prompts at all. I did explicitly state my research experiences and articulate my intended future plans though.

 

My advice for anyone thinking about a Sociology PhD is to try doing serious research. Most undergraduate research opportunities are drudgery. See if you can have a serious role in collaborating with a professor and if you can publish with them. If you enjoy the experience, great- you should go to grad school! Because that's basically ALL grad school is about, people don't care about test scores or how well you do in classes then. If you don't like doing research, you should 100% not go to grad school, because you're not going to enjoy it, and you're taking someone's spot that would. I'm a huge proponent of social justice, but just because you like social justice, doesn't mean a sociology PhD is for you. IMO, a Sociology PhD is for people that are proponents of social justice AND want to use research as the vehicle to support it. 

 

An additional note for low-GPA applicants. I'm straight out of undergrad and have a sub 3.0 cumulative GPA. I applied to three schools that had STRICT 3.0 GPA cutoffs for their graduate school admissions and I got in to two of them! So I would encourage most people to ignore those policies, either they're not totally enforced or there are steps the admissions committee can take to get around them for applicants they really want.

It's indeed a huge achievement! Congratulations!

As much as I love the inspiration, I think I have to ask (or say) something that might sound harsh, and actually this is also something that I'd love to hear your perspectives on. 

What are your strategies to participate in the research projects? And a follow-up question: to what extent do you think your strategies (for research opportunities, PhD applications, etc.) are applicable for other applicants? 

In my opinion (and I can be totally wrong), your status as an American citizen (I suppose) contributes much to your achievements. For instance, international students/applicants for sociology PhD programs have much fewer opportunities (e.g, for research opportunities) than you do because of visa/working restrictions. That is, for those international students who share similar background with you, they may not have such opportunities at all even if they want to do something to strengthen themselves or to prove they are competitive enough for a PhD program or a job position in a research team. Please forgive me for the extreme language - I was trying to draft an example.

The reason why I ask the questions and comment on the status is that I have many fellow amazing international students who are studying sociology and want to do more research. I worked with many of them and they are really brilliant in their distinct fields. But just because they are international students, they lose many opportunities - primarily in job market or application. In addition to other prevailing forms of discrimination (racism, sexism, meritocracy [about ses, GPA, ed background, GRE, etc.], etc.), I start to think the biases (either as causes or results) towards international students really hinder their potential development as a researcher. They can work, study, or do research in their own countries indeed, but I think sociology is a sort of "meritocratic" domain itself, especially for the US academia (reference: https://scatter.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/who-hires-whom/). If one ought to dedicate to sociological research, PhD programs/research positions in the US will probably be their top, if not only, choices. So, just for the sake of applications or the so-called "background boost", I would love to hear about your strategies to get start with research jobs/work and opinions on international students/applicants.

Again, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your efforts and inspiration for us and am genuinely happy for you. It's just I can relate to many international students who express these concerns and want to know whether there is a way for them to chase their dreams. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Fatkiller
Typos

[awesome3141]

1 hour ago, Fatkiller said:

It's indeed a huge achievement! Congratulations!

As much as I love the inspiration, I think I have to ask (or say) something that might sound harsh, and actually this is also something that I'd love to hear your perspectives on. 

What are your strategies to participate in the research projects? And a follow-up question: to what extent do you think your strategies (for research opportunities, PhD applications, etc.) are applicable for other applicants? 

In my opinion (and I can be totally wrong), your status as an American citizen (I suppose) contributes much to your achievements. For instance, international students/applicants for sociology PhD programs have much fewer opportunities (e.g, for research opportunities) than you do because of visa/working restrictions. That is, for those international students who share similar background with you, they may not have such opportunities at all even if they want to do something to strengthen themselves or to prove they are competitive enough for a PhD program or a job position in a research team. Please forgive me for the extreme language - I was trying to draft an example.

The reason why I ask the questions and comment on the status is that I have many fellow amazing international students who are studying sociology and want to do more research. I worked with many of them and they are really brilliant in their distinct fields. But just because they are international students, they lose many opportunities - primarily in job market or application. In addition to other prevailing forms of discrimination (racism, sexism, meritocracy [about ses, GPA, ed background, GRE, etc.], etc.), I start to think the biases (either as causes or results) towards international students really hinder their potential development as a researcher. They can work, study, or do research in their own countries indeed, but I think sociology is a sort of "meritocratic" domain itself, especially for the US academia (reference: https://scatter.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/who-hires-whom/). If one ought to dedicate to sociological research, PhD programs/research positions in the US will probably be their top, if not only, choices. So, just for the sake of applications or the so-called "background boost", I would love to hear about your strategies to get start with research jobs/work and opinions on international students/applicants.

Again, don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your efforts and inspiration for us and am genuinely happy for you. It's just I can relate to many international students who express these concerns and want to know whether there is a way for them to chase their dreams. 

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

First off, I'd like to note that the majority of my comment was not meant as advice so much as just a description of my experience. I stand by my one piece of general advice which is that I encourage potential applicants to try and get research experience if they can.

 

There are a ton of barriers that structurally disadvantage international students in academia, I absolutely agree. 

 

My research experiences all started from either cold emails or as referrals from professors that know me from cold emails. I actually didn't benefit at all from experiences/knowing people at my undergraduate institution. I have pretty specific interests in sociology and in order to find people to work with, I literally had to cold email people that had no clue who I was at various institutions I had absolutely no relationship or affiliation to. I sent 10-15 cold emails right after I graduated undergrad. I've found that many professors are actually pretty receptive to wanting voluntary research help! That's another thing to note, is I have been not paid whatsoever for helping professors. The understanding is the experience is mutually beneficial, as the professor gets help with a project and I get the experience of conducting research out of it. I've been "working" with about 5 professors for 2 years. The funny thing is because it's all virtual, I have not met a single one in person! My main point here is that I didn't directly benefit from institutional affiliation, job options, pay for labor, or geographical location at all in my research collaborations. 

 

I can't give an expectation to if other people will have the same success as myself if they try this strategy. I fully acknowledge I benefit from certain privileges given I am a domestic student. I will just broadly state that I got my opportunities from cold emails to total strangers- I hope others are able to try and be successful at this strategy. My general advice for cold emailing is: 1. pick a researcher whose work fits what you can already do (as much as research can be a learning experience, professors are more likely to go along with letting you work with them if you can already do much of the skill they need). 2. don't pick anyone that's too famous. (really well know professors will not respond to your email). 3.  look for less famous coauthors of really famous people (oftentimes these people are doing the exact same research but because they are not famous they have no students to work with and are more open to cold emails). 4. Say that you want to go to grad school. (if professors know you want to go to grad school, they'll better understand why you want to work with them and are more motivated to give you a worthwhile experience)

 

Anyone can message me if they want proofreading or more specific help/advice on cold emailing professors. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by awesome3141

[RedSpecter]

15 hours ago, imtiredlmao said:

i'm for real over here cracking up because apparently everyone is receiving rejections, acceptances, and waitlists from schools that have yet to even email me back... it's lowkey like i'm invisible

Same; only heard back from 3/9 programs I applied to. Some of these were definitely reaches and are likely rejections, but most of these were my safety schools and I'd be a little surprise to not get into any. Hard to remain hopeful but it isn't over yet. Best of luck!

[polsoc2021]

Still no word from NYU…. ?

[reallytryingmybest]

Just got rejected from Boulder, which means decisions are out. Good Luck all!

Edited February 28, 2022 by reallytryingmybest

[deadinside]

On 2/28/2022 at 3:50 PM, polsoc2021 said:

Still no word from NYU…. ?

Same, but I'm pretty sure that decisions will come out this week. About time to end this torment

[anxiousapplicat]

18 hours ago, polsoc2021 said:

Still no word from NYU…. ?

 

18 hours ago, anxiousbutalive said:

Same, but I'm pretty sure that decisions will come out this week. About time to end this torment

I was so anxious about this, I called them just now and they said results should be out in 1-2 weeks. 

[deadinside]

1 minute ago, anxiousapplicat said:

 

I was so anxious about this, I called them just now and they said results should be out in 1-2 weeks. 

Please NYU, just end this torment, I can't take it anymore.

 

Thanks for the info! 

[ebc658]

I'm curious about the Columbia rejections on the results board. Did anyone who applied to only the PhD program receive a rejection? I'm wondering if this a "no news is good news" situation... or if their order is 1) PhD admissions 2) PhD rejections but MA acceptance 3) Other PhD rejections.

[wzzzzzz]

4 hours ago, anxiousapplicat said:

 

I was so anxious about this, I called them just now and they said results should be out in 1-2 weeks. 

They first say it would be by the end of the month (Feb), now that it's March, they're taking another 1-2 weeks lol.

With all those time I hope they could at least write a nice rejection letter lol.

[deadinside]

3 minutes ago, wzzzzzz said:

They first say it would be by the end of the month (Feb), now that it's March, they're taking another 1-2 weeks lol.

With all those time I hope they could at least write a nice rejection letter lol.

By the way, in this video, Jeff Goodwin stated that GRE scores were going to suffer a radical discount or even be discarded at all for this process. Does anyone know anything about that? 

[anxiousapplicat]

On 3/1/2022 at 3:33 PM, anxiousbutalive said:

By the way, in this video, Jeff Goodwin stated that GRE scores were going to suffer a radical discount or even be discarded at all for this process. Does anyone know anything about that? 

Thanks for this! I'd totally missed this session.

[CinnamonCream]

13 hours ago, ebc658 said:

I'm curious about the Columbia rejections on the results board. Did anyone who applied to only the PhD program receive a rejection? I'm wondering if this a "no news is good news" situation... or if their order is 1) PhD admissions 2) PhD rejections but MA acceptance 3) Other PhD rejections.

My guess is that they are done with all PhD offers. Those offers routinely come out on Feb 8th and they did this year according to the board. I applied both to the PhD and MA program and got rejected from the PhD and accepted into the MA yesterday. I don't know why they do it in your stated order but I think they are doing so. It's also weird considering many PhD applicants who didn't directly apply to the MA usually still receive an MA offer.

 

10 hours ago, anxiousbutalive said:

10 hours ago, wzzzzzz said:

 

By the way, in this video, Jeff Goodwin stated that GRE scores were going to suffer a radical discount or even be discarded at all for this process. Does anyone know anything about that? 

I watched the video before applying. If I remember correctly he said it is a possibility that they (radically discount or even discard GRE scores), but it is still up to the actual committee to convene and decide. I wonder if this is why it's taking them so long, if this is actually enforced.

[Xyz2022]

Hi everyone. Reporting my current situation for my PhD application this year circle! Ha!

- Simon Fraser University (Accepted)

- University of Michigan (strong REJECTION)

- University of Alberta (Rejection)

- University of Washington (confused REJECTION)

- UT Dallas (Waitlisted)

- Georgia Tech (Waiting for Rejection)

- Monash University (Accepted)

- UTS Sydney (Accepted)

- University of Minnesota (Accepted)

- Northeastern University (Still waiting)

 

Not sure if I want to go claiming the acceptance this circle.

I am thinking to try for applying again next year to

- Cornell (wish I applied in 2022 circle)

- University of Washington

- NYU

- UPenn

- CMU (wish I applied in 2022 circle)

 

 

 

 

 

[awesome3141]

5 hours ago, Xyz2022 said:

Hi everyone. Reporting my current situation for my PhD application this year circle! Ha!

- Simon Fraser University (Accepted)

- University of Michigan (strong REJECTION)

- University of Alberta (Rejection)

- University of Washington (confused REJECTION)

- UT Dallas (Waitlisted)

- Georgia Tech (Waiting for Rejection)

- Monash University (Accepted)

- UTS Sydney (Accepted)

- University of Minnesota (Accepted)

- Northeastern University (Still waiting)

 

Not sure if I want to go claiming the acceptance this circle.

I am thinking to try for applying again next year to

- Cornell (wish I applied in 2022 circle)

- University of Washington

- NYU

- UPenn

- CMU (wish I applied in 2022 circle)

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are your interests?

 

Without knowing your interests, I would probably recommend you take the Minnesota offer. Minnesota is a very good program, is well-respected, and has good placement- people that go to Minnesota can place anywhere if they do the right things. 

 

As someone that got in to Minnesota and Washington this year- I wouldn't waste a second year trying to get in to Washington. Their stipend is TINY, despite having a very high cost of living. In my opinion, I'm not sure people can actually afford to attend Washington without having to find other financial means. Additionally, in my experience, Minnesota is way better respected than Washington in Sociology, despite the fact Washington ranks a little higher right now. 

 

Cornell, NYU and UPenn are all better schools than Minnesota but they are also all very hard to get into. Cornell's acceptance rate hovers around 10%, NYU's is closer to 3%. IDK what Upenn's is but I'm sure it's no higher than 10%. You might get in to one if you applied, but just because of how competitive they are there's a very good chance you just don't get into any. And other schools you got in to this year (e.g. Minnesota) will be hesitant to give you a second offer if you don't take the first. 

 

I don't know anything about CMU.

[CinnamonCream]

7 minutes ago, awesome3141 said:

As someone that got in to Minnesota and Washington this year- I wouldn't waste a second year trying to get in to Washington. Their stipend is TINY, despite having a very high cost of living. In my opinion, I'm not sure people can actually afford to attend Washington without having to find other financial means. Additionally, in my experience, Minnesota is way better respected than Washington in Sociology, despite the fact Washington ranks a little higher right now. 

This is a very helpful reply, but I'm not sure if this person is a sociology applicant lol. Do Georgia Tech and CMU really have a sociology program?

[awesome3141]

1 minute ago, CinnamonCream said:

This is a very helpful reply, but I'm not sure if this person is a sociology applicant lol. Do Georgia Tech and CMU really have a sociology program?

Not sure about Georgia Tech, but I do know Carter Butts went to CMU. So they have trained top-tier sociologists.

That is a good point though, this person might not be a sociology applicant!

[Xyz2022]

Oh God I am so sorry. I did not realize this is Sociology forum. I thought it was general forum.

My field is Engineering.

[hiddenpalms]

Has anyone heard anything about McGill's PhD program in Sociology?