2024 Fall Sociology Applications - Support, Advice, Results, GRE requirements, etc.

[thirdoneisthewinner]

Hi fellas,

I created this legendary topic in this forum. I did it because I noticed some changes regarding GRE.

First, is that UC Berkeley is changing from required to optional. Second, UW-Madison is totally dropping the GRE requirement. Third, UT-Austin went from optional to required quant and verbal scores (Writing will not be reviewed, they claim).

 

If you have any further information, please don't hesitate to post it here.

[deadinside]

14 hours ago, tinyscientist said:

When did UW Madison drop the GRE requirement? This is something totally new (but not surprising) to me!

I don't know when, but I just checked on UW-Madison's website, and they actually have dropped GRE. Thank god.

[Not_a_Robot22]

Is anyone else taking the GRE in the next few months? Apparently they've cut it in half so now it is under 2 hours. This change isn't reflected in the 2024 printed study guides so I'm kind of worried that I won't be prepared for the new version of the test. I took the GRE back in 2018 when I applied to my MA program but I'm retaking it since my scores have expired. 

[katsamac]

@Not_a_Robot22 I'm planning on taking the GRE in a couple of weeks. They seem to have posted at least one new shorter practice test on the ETS website, which you get for free when you register for your test. As far as I understand it, the breakdown of the Verbal and Quant sections, aka what is on it are the same, there are just less questions. They cut out the unscored experimental section and they took out the Analyze an Argument in the Writing section (there is only the Analyze an Issue question).

(Also- this score expiring thing is such a crock. I am also having to retake the test due to expired scores from before my MPA)

You should be fine, and able to use old study materials (as long as they are from the last few years, they did get rid of analogies since the last time I took the GREs).

[Not_a_Robot22]

22 hours ago, katsamac said:

@Not_a_Robot22 I'm planning on taking the GRE in a couple of weeks. They seem to have posted at least one new shorter practice test on the ETS website, which you get for free when you register for your test. As far as I understand it, the breakdown of the Verbal and Quant sections, aka what is on it are the same, there are just less questions. They cut out the unscored experimental section and they took out the Analyze an Argument in the Writing section (there is only the Analyze an Issue question).

(Also- this score expiring thing is such a crock. I am also having to retake the test due to expired scores from before my MPA)

You should be fine, and able to use old study materials (as long as they are from the last few years, they did get rid of analogies since the last time I took the GREs).

Oh good! I'll definitely take a look at the shorter practice test. 

[katsamac]

(This seems like such a quiet thread for October, but perhaps we have all just found our answers in past years.) 

Re: What are people's thoughts on emailing professors? Mainly, has anyone heard about schools that don't want prospective students emailing possibly faculty.

Some schools (UNC) seem to encourage it outright on their admissions page and others (Stanford) say the opposite. Stanford seems to have softened their language, but it still asks prospectives to "Minimize pre-admission communication with faculty".  Are there any other schools that people have heard NOT to email professors?

Aaaaanddd I did find some past years on this:

https://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/58966-emailing-professors/

https://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/48678-emailing-professors-is-it-a-good-or-a-bad-idea/#comment-1058032110

which seems to answer the:  "What are people's thoughts on emailing professors? Especially faculty that I have clear research alignment with, and want to make sure they aren't retiring or anything. And if you say "yes" email- how much detail of my own research desires should I get into in that first email? Attach CV or no? " But I am happy to hear thoughts on this if people have them. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by katsamac

[katsamac]

19 minutes ago, katsamac said:

which seems to answer the:  "What are people's thoughts on emailing professors? Especially faculty that I have clear research alignment with, and want to make sure they aren't retiring or anything. And if you say "yes" email- how much detail of my own research desires should I get into in that first email? Attach CV or no? " But I am happy to hear thoughts on this if people have them. 

Just posting here an answer I found to my own (secondary) question from @faculty

"That said, as I lay out in the post linked above and as is highlighted above, there are specific reasons to email faculty and more effective ways to do it. If you are concerned someone might retire or if you would like to know if someone is going to continue working in the area, it's easy enough to shoot off a brief email saying that you're thinking of applying and that you're interested in the work that they did in a particular publication and wondered if they planned to continue working in the area and/or what their current or future projects are. That is entirely different than the emails that most students send, though, which tend to ask what the chances of getting in are or provide a long introduction with no apparent rationale or ask me to review a selection of materials or end with the vague and impossible to answer, particularly briefly, "Is there anything else I should know about the department?" question. If these are the emails that you're sending, please think twice. They're wasting your time and the faculty members'."