2023 Fall Sociology Applications - Support, Advice, Results, Etc

[cappuccino336]

@twosweet and @anxiousbutalive, what are your research interests, where are you applying, and how are you feeling about the app process? Yesterday was the deadline for most programs (i think?), so we should all take a collective deep breath and celebrate! Arguably, the hardest part is over! 

[deadinside]

1 hour ago, cappuccino336 said:

@twosweet and @anxiousbutalive, what are your research interests, where are you applying, and how are you feeling about the app process? Yesterday was the deadline for most programs (i think?), so we should all take a collective deep breath and celebrate! Arguably, the hardest part is over! 

HI

 

So, only have one feeling about this process: nervous as fuck. 

I'm a second-time international applicant. Last year I applied only to 3 universities (NYU, Madison, Michigan but didn't manage to prepare it well. 
Now I'm applying to almost 14 Ph.D. programs (they were 15, but I fucked up with Toronto's app) and 1 Master's (well, two, but both in Columbia).

This year, a professor of a certain t10 university who is not on the admissions committee helped me to craft my SOP. They also read my Working Sample (which is a paper on Chilean politics) and CV. According to them, I should have a couple of proposals:

-I've worked as a Research Assistant on two different projects (almost two and a half years of experience) + Research experience from my BA (History) and Master's (Sociology) thesis. 
-I have a Masters's degree already (GPA 3.8)
- Two journal publications (although in Latin American journals).
- One book review
- A postgraduate diploma in Statistics (inferential and multivariate analysis, including linear models and non-linear such as logit and probit). 
- And several public sociology publications. 

My research interests are political sociology, comparative-historical, Latin America, development, and political economy. I want to do qualitative research for my project. However, I do know quantitative analysis as well. 

HOWEVER, I'm still an international applicant. As you may know, since our letters of recommendation are from professors from Chile who aren't known abroad (but they are in the country and the region), we have less symbolic credit than other U.S candidates. Although strong letters, I'm still worried. Moreover, my test scores ain't that good. My overall TOEFL score is 104 (29L-27R-24S-24W; 108 My Best score). My GRE plainly sucks (I didn't prepare at all): 155R-127Q-4.0W

I'm mostly applying to non-gre Universities, such as Michigan, Madison, Northwestern, etc. (you can see my signature). However, I also applied to UCLA, NYU, Brown, and UC Berkeley. Why did I do that? I don't know. But I also added a note that I don't suck at statistics, and I actually know econometrics --Although I only did it in NYU's and UCLA's applications. 

TLDR: Although I'm confident about my "credentials" and a t10 professor told me that my SOP and Writing Sample are great (and added a note to my application file), I'm nervous as fuck. 

 

 

BTW: Good fcking luck!!!!
 

Edited December 16, 2022 by anxiousbutalive
Missed GRE quant score

[twolucky]

1 hour ago, cappuccino336 said:

@twosweet and @anxiousbutalive, what are your research interests, where are you applying, and how are you feeling about the app process? Yesterday was the deadline for most programs (i think?), so we should all take a collective deep breath and celebrate! Arguably, the hardest part is over! 

Thanks for your questions! Overall, the process is stressful: for one thing, I was trying my best to prepare all the materials; for another, I can't stop being doubtful about everything, especially that if I am good enough. But I do feel relieved too when I submitted all my apps.

I am also an international applicant and want to focus on race and ethnic studies in my proposed sociology programs. I only applied to programs without GRE, including University of Chicago, University of Washington, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Texas Austin, Rice University, UC Santa Barbara, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Northwestern University, Princeton University, Yale University, Cornell University, and University of Virginia.

Nervous about the results, but now just want to fully enjoy the holidays

[cappuccino336]

Welp, I am still twiddling my anxious little fingers away. Does anyone here have a sense of how many people are asked to interview at programs that do utilize them? Looks like most of my programs get a large volume of applications, in the hundreds I think… for so few slots, do they interview a group of 20? 30? I imagine getting an interview means you’ve made it to the cream of their crop. 

[twolucky]

3 minutes ago, cappuccino336 said:

Welp, I am still twiddling my anxious little fingers away. Does anyone here have a sense of how many people are asked to interview at programs that do utilize them? Looks like most of my programs get a large volume of applications, in the hundreds I think… for so few slots, do they interview a group of 20? 30? I imagine getting an interview means you’ve made it to the cream of their crop. 

following…nervous too.

[deadinside]

13 hours ago, cappuccino336 said:

Welp, I am still twiddling my anxious little fingers away. Does anyone here have a sense of how many people are asked to interview at programs that do utilize them? Looks like most of my programs get a large volume of applications, in the hundreds I think… for so few slots, do they interview a group of 20? 30? I imagine getting an interview means you’ve made it to the cream of their crop. 

From what I've heard, not many universities interview. At least in t20 schools, and I may be wrong.

My take for what follows is trying to forget applications until late January. Then, well... sight.

[lkaitlyn]

11 hours ago, anxiousbutalive said:

From what I've heard, not many universities interview. At least in t20 schools, and I may be wrong.

My take for what follows is trying to forget applications until late January. Then, well... sight.

Among the T20, historically UCI has "interviewed" (most of these converted to acceptances in the past/they were really informal) — not sure if that's changing this year or not.

[farocur]

First time applicant, so nervous but very glad to have submitted the apps!! Would love to connect with anyone who's going through the process as well.. good luck everyone ?

[ohnoherewegoagain]

hi everyone! i'm applying as a transfer applicant/reapplying as a first-year phd student this cycle.

applying/already applied: UF, UMiami, CU-Boulder, UOregon, Pitt, UVA, Maryland, BU, BC, CWRU, UArizona, WUSTL, Penn State, JHU, Cornell, and Yale
may apply: Stony Brook, Columbia (master's)

i wish all of you so much luck! the process can be grueling, but i'm hoping for the best for all of you!

[MaryHildegard]

Hi everyone!

Applying to Yale and Notre Dame, as well as Boston University and Princeton Theological for Theology. Applying for sociology of religion! My interest is the rise of extremist traditional Catholics as it relates to the rise of general white Christian nationalism in the US and also how it's mediated by the internet. 

I'm currently getting a Masters in Theological Studies at BU, and I also have a bachelor's in Economics from UMass Amherst. I'm hoping econ + theology = successful soc of religion application. 

[ohnoherewegoagain]

not me currently having a breakdown because i was making last-minute corrections on my CV and tried to submit my application before the deadline and it wouldn't let me submit it at all (even though i was trying three minutes before and on the deadline) so i emailed the department about it not letting me lol might cry

[ohnoherewegoagain]

lol let it be known i overreacted and everything was fine the stress is getting to me i'm just glad to be officially done :') ❤️

[cappuccino336]

43 minutes ago, ohnoherewegoagain said:

lol let it be known i overreacted and everything was fine the stress is getting to me i'm just glad to be officially done :') ❤️

Relieved to hear that for you! I would have been losing it too. I’m sure we are all getting a little nutty right about now. My own nuttiness looks like reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading all of my application materials and tearing them apart ?. Waiting for another month to get some responses (at a minimum!) will be the death of me!!! Glad you got your app in to join the waiting game with the rest of us. 

[letsgetit21]

Hey everyone!! I'm back at it (again). I applied in the Fa21 cycle, no PhD admits, but I got into a funded masters program. I wanted to transfer so i didn't waste time in classes that may/may not transfer into a PhD, so I applied in the Fa22 cycle (no offers).

I took advantage of a ton of research opportunities in my current grad program and now have 1 publication, several conference presentations/posters, and a couple papers under review. This is my third (and final) application cycle! If i don't get any offers this time, I'm calling it quits -- I've done everything I need to do (research, good grades, wrote a thesis).

I'm also casting a wide net this time. I'm applying to full time job opportunities in addition to the PhD programs! 

UGA, Harvard, Northwestern, Ohio State, Emory, FSU, Johns Hopkins, Boston University, UVa, and I applied to the NSF GRFP. Here's to the third-time's-the-charm-luck! I'm happy to discuss life in grad school or if anyone wants advice on having patience!

[ayitao]

hey everyone! Now that January has come and schools have supposedly started to assess applications I'm getting nervous. Do sociology programs generally interview tho? Don't know if I should expect just results or possible interview requests

[letsgetit21]

No, it’s not typical. There are a few that do; I believe I’ve seen UVA and Emory, but I know that only from the results section of this website. 

Schools like UGA, for example, do an interview weekend, where they invite their shortlist to campus and it’s like a group interview type situation. 

In short, plan for results over interviews  

@ayitao

[cappuccino336]

18 hours ago, letsgetit21 said:

No, it’s not typical. There are a few that do; I believe I’ve seen UVA and Emory, but I know that only from the results section of this website. 

Schools like UGA, for example, do an interview weekend, where they invite their shortlist to campus and it’s like a group interview type situation. 

In short, plan for results over interviews  

@ayitao

Out of my list of 5, I am expecting interviews from Rutgers, CUNY and Yale based on previous years’ on results page. So for me, it’s 3/5. ??‍♀️

[ayitao]

On 1/8/2023 at 2:08 AM, letsgetit21 said:

No, it’s not typical. There are a few that do; I believe I’ve seen UVA and Emory, but I know that only from the results section of this website. 

Schools like UGA, for example, do an interview weekend, where they invite their shortlist to campus and it’s like a group interview type situation. 

In short, plan for results over interviews  

@ayitao

 

Thanks for the reply!

I do see on Chicago's website that they have interviews too: 

Only a few programs interview applicants. Those that do will issue invitations via the online application system in January or February. At the time interview invitations are issued, applicants who are not selected to move forward are notified of their decisions. The following programs conduct interviews:

• Anthropology (PhD)
• Comparative Human Development (PhD)
• Political Economy (PhD)
• Psychology (PhD)
• Sociology (PhD)

So one more for me 

[cappuccino336]

So question for reapplicants: what, if anything, did you do to change your application from last cycle? Trying to get a picture of what I might look to do if I’m back at it next year. I know research experience is the way to go, but I’m having a hard time imagining where I would go for that outside of some work related context, which my job currently (and the foreseeable future) will not entail. 

[deadinside]

12 hours ago, cappuccino336 said:

So question for reapplicants: what, if anything, did you do to change your application from last cycle? Trying to get a picture of what I might look to do if I’m back at it next year. I know research experience is the way to go, but I’m having a hard time imagining where I would go for that outside of some work related context, which my job currently (and the foreseeable future) will not entail. 

In my case, I enrolled in a statistic course at one of the top 2 Chilean universities; tough in Spanish, I published a book review from a U.S. professor, a collective paper was published, got my second experience working as an R.A., led a course at University. But, to be honest, the most important thing that changed was my SOP: it is completely different from last year's. (I got a lot of help from a professor from a certain top 10 U.S. University and also from @lkaitlyn) Also, I sent another W.S., a work-in-progress paper from interviews I've done on my own. 

In any case, I still don't know if this worked.

Edited January 11, 2023 by anxiousbutalive

[cappuccino336]

2 hours ago, anxiousbutalive said:

In my case, I enrolled in a statistic course at one of the top 2 Chilean universities; tough in Spanish, I published a book review from a U.S. professor, a collective paper was published, got my second experience working as an R.A., led a course at University. But, to be honest, the most important thing that changed was my SOP: it is completely different from last year's. (I got a lot of help from a professor from a certain top 10 U.S. University and also from @lkaitlyn) Also, I sent another W.S., a work-in-progress paper from interviews I've done on my own. 

In any case, I still don't know if this worked.

Holy crap. You put in the work for sure! Maybe a starting point is reaching out to faculty mentors for some research opportunities directly. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you this cycle! 

[ayitao]

From past posts this week has traditionally been when Chicago interviews applicants and I'm getting anxious... 

[letsgetit21]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:25 PM, cappuccino336 said:

So question for reapplicants: what, if anything, did you do to change your application from last cycle? Trying to get a picture of what I might look to do if I’m back at it next year. I know research experience is the way to go, but I’m having a hard time imagining where I would go for that outside of some work related context, which my job currently (and the foreseeable future) will not entail. 

I did a lot; too much, truly. 

• Masters degree (funded Y1 through TAship, Y2 funded with an RA position)
• Writing a MS thesis with my own data collection (which I would not recommend at all)
• Summer research internship, in between Y1 & Y2
• focused my coursework on methods courses
  • Quant 1, Quant 2, Qual methods, survey design
• Research things
  • 2 Grad Research Assistant positions (1 paid hourly, 1 funded), 1 summer internship (mentioned above, paid), plus 2 undergrad unpaid research assistant positions
  • 1 published paper, 3 conference posters, 1 (state) conference presentation, 2 papers under review

Similar to the previous response, I also refined my SOP to be succinct and clear. I refused to retake the GRE (too expensive and I feel my MS degree shows my abilities more than retaking the GRE), so I used part of the SOP to explain my relatively low GRE scores. The SOP sections were: intro (explained a bit about why I want a PhD), doctoral project (in 2 paragraphs I discussed the importance, a very brief lit review [I only included one review article and one seminal book in the area], and my methodology), a GRE score section (where I acknowledged the low GRE score, but said I also did XYZ which I contend makes up for it), a few paragraphs about some formative research experiences, and I finished by talking about the faculty I would work with. 

I also only applied to departments where there were 1-2 professors directly in my area of interest (could serve as chair) and 2-3 that could feasibly be on my committee. 

[deadinside]

2 hours ago, letsgetit21 said:

I did a lot; too much, truly. 

• Masters degree (funded Y1 through TAship, Y2 funded with an RA position)
• Writing a MS thesis with my own data collection (which I would not recommend at all)
• Summer research internship, in between Y1 & Y2
• focused my coursework on methods courses
  • Quant 1, Quant 2, Qual methods, survey design
• Research things
  • 2 Grad Research Assistant positions (1 paid hourly, 1 funded), 1 summer internship (mentioned above, paid), plus 2 undergrad unpaid research assistant positions
  • 1 published paper, 3 conference posters, 1 (state) conference presentation, 2 papers under review

Similar to the previous response, I also refined my SOP to be succinct and clear. I refused to retake the GRE (too expensive and I feel my MS degree shows my abilities more than retaking the GRE), so I used part of the SOP to explain my relatively low GRE scores. The SOP sections were: intro (explained a bit about why I want a PhD), doctoral project (in 2 paragraphs I discussed the importance, a very brief lit review [I only included one review article and one seminal book in the area], and my methodology), a GRE score section (where I acknowledged the low GRE score, but said I also did XYZ which I contend makes up for it), a few paragraphs about some formative research experiences, and I finished by talking about the faculty I would work with. 

I also only applied to departments where there were 1-2 professors directly in my area of interest (could serve as chair) and 2-3 that could feasibly be on my committee. 

I made the same GRE comment, not in the SOP but in a supplementary document that some universities allowed (NYU and UCLA, Brown and Berkeley did not allow extra documents, so, whatever). Hope it works. 

[letsgetit21]

3 hours ago, anxiousbutalive said:

I made the same GRE comment, not in the SOP but in a supplementary document that some universities allowed (NYU and UCLA, Brown and Berkeley did not allow extra documents, so, whatever). Hope it works. 

Ooo that's a good idea. Especially not to waste valuable space. At least we got it in there! My research interests are in soc of higher ed (specifically social experiences in grad admissions), so I was able to cite a some studies about what the GRE measures - in theory - vs what committees use it for vs what it ends up measuring in the process. As a little trinket of hope they don't pay attention to mine..