Possible applicant for Fall 2010

[tahagedo]

I am considering applying next year to numerous Doctoral Sociology programs. My stats: 1200/4.5 GRE

Dual BA in Psych and Foreign Languages from a Midwestern state University, 3.4 GPA total, 3.65 majors

MPA in progress from IU SPEA (#2 ranked for those not familiar with public policy schools) with concentrations in sustainable development and social policy; considerable coursework in environmental policy. I

[slothy]

tahagedo: You might get more replies if you post this as a seperate thread, but I'll go ahead and put in my two cents. Indiana is considered very strong in the sociology world and if you've been pulling strong grades in their soc courses that will earn a gold star for your application (not to mention great LOR's). You've already proven that you can succeed in graduate work, so your GRE score won't be too much of an issue; however, if you think you could nudge your score up towards 1300 (especially if you didn't study much the first time) it might be worthwhile to retake this summer - a higher GRE score will be particularly helpful for external funding (e.g. NSF fellowships). It's too early to say how the 2009 application season will be affected by the economic downturn, but I'd say you have a strong shot at a top-15 program, but be sure to apply widely and work hard on finding good faculty matches. None of the schools you listed are out of reach, although you might want to think twice about applying in Canada (or Minnesota for that matter) if your goal is a strong US R1 tenure track placement - the reality of our disicipline is that it's important to go to a top-15 program for stong academic job prospects. Don't know where Washington stands (I've heard conflicting arguments about whether it belongs in the top tier of programs), but staying at Indiana would probably be a good option if you can (especially because it will probably be easiest to transfer over credits from your MPA). Consult as much as you can with the soc Ph.D.'s you know at Indiana on the application process - they will probably be much more knowledgable about where you should be applying than us Internet folks, and in so doing you will be laying the groundwork for strong LOR's. Hope this helps!

[tahagedo]

Slothy,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm glad to hear that I might stand a chance come next year. Thanks for the tip to keep the Canadian / MN schools at the bottom of my list, as I was uncertain as to how they compared. I'll work to forge some good relationships so that my LOR will be solid. As far as retaking the GRE, I have mixed feelings. I realize that I should be at the 1300+ range. However, I am historically not the most proficient test taker. I studied for 2 months when I took it--so I assume I could improve.

What is the other thread / forum area that I should be posting in?

Also, funding is very important to me. I'll have nearly 100K in loans by the end of my MPA (1st. generation college student w/ no family help and perpetually 'out of state').

That being said, it's vital that I receive a full funding offer---which as you mentioned in these dire economic times, may be hard to come by.

Thanks for the help.

Where have you applied / accepted /rejected...etc?

-T

[slothy]

When I said post as a seperate thread, I meant you should click on "Sociology" at the top of this page (two lines under the logo) and then "New Topic" to start your own thread, because right now you're technically replying to someone else's post, not making your own.

Since you asked, I've applied to Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, Indiana, North Carolina, Duke, and MIT Business/Econ Soc; don't really expect to hear back on any of them until late Feb/early March at the earliest, but will post if I hear anything earlier (that's what this board is for...).

[rising_star]

Hi tahagedo, I took the liberty of making this a new post. You can change the topic by clicking "edit" on your first post and changing the subject line.

As far as your chances, I don't know about soc so I can't say. I just wanted to say that you might want to look into geography programs since there's a lot of overlap with your interests (as long as you don't think "space" is a dirty word).