Department Personalities

[TheBoxInspector]

What kinds of things do you do to get a general feel for a particular sociology department's personality? I've been looking at the kinds of professors and research and the fields of interest offered at each school, but even with that information it is sometimes difficult to identify whether a department is more theory-driven, whether it stresses more quantitative methods, etc.

Does anyone have any insights into this process? Right now, I'm looking at places like Berkeley, NYU, Indiana, Stanford, and UPenn.

[Structurally_Holly]

Talk to the grad students. Go to the schools' webpages and cold-email the grad students. They're pretty likely to get back to you ad they'll give you the real dirt on the departments

What kinds of things do you do to get a general feel for a particular sociology department's personality? I've been looking at the kinds of professors and research and the fields of interest offered at each school, but even with that information it is sometimes difficult to identify whether a department is more theory-driven, whether it stresses more quantitative methods, etc.

Does anyone have any insights into this process? Right now, I'm looking at places like Berkeley, NYU, Indiana, Stanford, and UPenn.