2025-26 Applicants!!

[honeydew]

Hi all! Thought I'd make a post on here for those of us applying to Sociology PhD programs this cycle. Hopefully this can be a space to discuss application progress and updates, tips and tricks, and general venting. Can't wait to hear from everyone! 

My stats/academic background: I am coming from an R1 & top 10 global university (2025 graduate), majored in Sociology w departmental honors, 3.84 GPA, ~2 years of research experience and counting, TAing experience, soc department diversity ug rep, 3 papers in preparation for publication at academic journals, received awards for my undergrad honors thesis from both the soc dept and the university, and I am now currently employed part-time as an RA by my university (in a gap year). I recently took the GRE for the first time and kind of bombed (with the exception of my awa score) -- so that is certainly going to be the weak spot in my application. Luckily, many of the schools I am thinking of applying to are GRE optional or don't accept scores at all. 

My current feelings on grad apps: I am feeling truly just overwhelmed. I'd say the area I am struggling in the most is narrowing my list. Ha. I thought that would be the easiest part! I have about 16 schools on it currently and am aware this is likely just too many schools. At the same time, I decided upon those 16 schools very intentionally and each and every one has strengths in my area of research, 2-3 faculty I would love to work under, and would be personally sustainable for a variety of reasons. I would love to go to a top 20 program. I want to apply to all of them and for some reason have it in my head that it will be feasible, but I want to be thoughtful and realistic and don't want to screw myself. I also feel embarrassed and nervous to send my list of schools to my recommenders since it is long and competitive. How are you all narrowing your lists? How is application material crafting going??