misterpat Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Actually no... for such a high-ranking program, I would have expected a placement list to be front and center on their admissions site, but I couldn't find it - although I could just be missing an obvious link somewhere (it's happened before). I can't think of any stars in my subfield that have come out of Madison recently, but I could certainly be misinformed or unaware... Found it. Kind of stupid area to put placement for a program of this caliber: you have to scroll through the alumni newsletters. Here's the most recent one (placement is on page 8 ): http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/alumni/update/Wisconsin%20Update%20Fall%202008.pdf The 2007 one has a few more than the 2008 does: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/alumni/update/wisconsin_update_2007.pdf
hardboiledegg Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 got an email today saying I have been accepted, and my funding package will be sent to me in the next "couple of days."
waitinginohio Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I got my e-mail too, though they didn't say anything about sending funding package info. They gave a very vague: I am sure that funding your graduate career at Wisconsin is a concern. Some, but by no means all, students come here with support in their first year. For those who come with no advance support, many pick it up once they have arrived or soon after. Usually, if a student has a successful academic year, he or she will find funding through various kinds of assistantships by the second year. There are a variety of mechanisms to obtain support. Please visit the website http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/grad/admissions.php#funding to see what some of these mechanisms are. Does that mean I should assume I'm not getting any funding for year one?
ewurgler Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 That really sucks that one of the very top programs won't fund their students. It is like they're abusing their high ranking, knowing people will still come without funding.
Tritonetelephone Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 That really sucks that one of the very top programs won't fund their students. It is like they're abusing their high ranking, knowing people will still come without funding. I think it's a good idea, to make sure that applicants aren't the ones abusing the school's prestige and are serious enough about the program to try it w/o funding. Then again, you'd think a sociology department would understand that traditionally underrepresented students who can't afford a year w/o funding still deserve the best education possible?
living_in_paradise Posted January 26, 2009 Author Posted January 26, 2009 Got the same email, waitinginohio. Here's what I could find off the forums from last year: "Oh and in regards to UW-M funding, I sent a note to the department and they said that they won't be making any decisions about funding (other than the fellowships that they already sent out) until after April 15th when they know exactly who will be attending. At that point, they will send out an application to TA and any RA job listings they have from professors.' viewtopic.php?f=59&t=12837&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=wisconsin+sociology&start=45#p35532 So there are definitely funding options, but I guess we won't have much clarity as to what those options are before April 15. I guess this is the time for sounding out profs and seeing what might be available in terms of TA and RA positions for next year? Either way, being accepted is a good thing (especially since its unexpected) though being accepted with guaranteed funding would, of course, be a better thing. Let's just see how those other apps go. And congratulations to hardboiledegg! Let us know if/when you get a funding offer.
hardboiledegg Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Waitinginohio-- that sounds almost exactly like something I've read on their website under FAQ. I don't know what it means. I got a personal email from the graduate chair, but again I don't know what to expect about funding. There was not even a hint about whether or not I would be getting anything! They said I should expect an email in the next couple of days regarding funding. Strange. Guess I'll be checking my email every day! haha...
ewurgler Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I think it's a good idea, to make sure that applicants aren't the ones abusing the school's prestige and are serious enough about the program to try it w/o funding. Then again, you'd think a sociology department would understand that traditionally underrepresented students who can't afford a year w/o funding still deserve the best education possible? I see your point, but I would think they may lose top applicants who accept offers from lesser programs (perhaps top 15) because they have full funding. If I was accepted to a top 5 with no funding and a top 20 with full support, I would most likely take the latter. It would be revealing (to me) that they are not very supportive of their grad students in general. Would they have travel stipends for conferences or other smaller, but important signs that they are invested in your success? I don't know anything about wisconsin, but are they poorly funded by the state? The UCs have had MASSIVE cutbacks for like 10 straight years, especially in the social sciences, but they still manage to get everyone something, at least a sucky TA job with the freshman writing courses. Sorry if this sounds discouraging to those accepted, I don't mean it to be that way. This is just my anger with the state of higher education--especially social sciences at public universities. Seriously, CONGRATS to those in at Wisconsin. That is quite an accomplishment!!!
waitinginohio Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 ewurgler I definitely agree, it's pretty ridiculous because (as far as I know) all of the other top programs guarantee funding for at least the first year, and usually it's more like 4 or 5 years and a couple summers. Not to mention it's rather funny to tell a bunch of sociology grad students to trust an institution, knowing that they must lose significant economic capital in order to (maybe, eventually) gain some cultural capital. What would Bourdieu say?
ewurgler Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 waitinginohio: Yes, I do find it really weird and suspicious that the top soc program (according to US News) doesn't fund. What I have found more common is programs pulling funding for 4th and 5th years, knowing they have a much better shot at landing TA, RA or fellowships than 1st years. THis happened to my boyfriend at UCSD, and to everyone in his cohort during their 5th year. Because they knew people and had established themselves a bit, they had no trouble picking up sections or research assistantships. But, as a first year, this would be difficult. I don't know. I was browsing through wisconsin's grad student list, and it is freaking HUGE. Perhaps they just take on tons of students.
ejuliast Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I got an email too, but my funding info says that I'm being offered five years of support. It doesn't say how much though - I have to wait for a letter from the Center that's offering the funding.
Tritonetelephone Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I don't know. I was browsing through wisconsin's grad student list, and it is freaking HUGE. Perhaps they just take on tons of students. Yeah, that seems to be the simplest explanation. And we all know what Occam says about simple explanations... Now that I think about it, the only programs I know of that guarantee funding are very small (10 or less per cohort). Congratulations to all once again!
hardboiledegg Posted January 27, 2009 Posted January 27, 2009 being considered for university fellowship, 5 years of funding. If not, department picks up the tab... woot!
living_in_paradise Posted January 27, 2009 Author Posted January 27, 2009 Congratulations to hardboiledegg and ejuliast! Good luck with your remaining apps.
tryffelgris Posted January 27, 2009 Posted January 27, 2009 This might be a little low, but would those of you who got into Madison mind sharing some of your stats?
ejuliast Posted January 27, 2009 Posted January 27, 2009 This might be a little low, but would those of you who got into Madison mind sharing some of your stats? I posted my story on the blog and my stats are in there, if you want to check it out. The blog should be linked from the main page.
Socio Posted January 27, 2009 Posted January 27, 2009 For those of us who didn't get a word about funding, should we inquire or just patiently wait? Did anyone here inquire about funding?
waitinginohio Posted January 27, 2009 Posted January 27, 2009 For those of us who didn't get a word about funding, should we inquire or just patiently wait? Did anyone here inquire about funding? I'm planning on waiting until I hear back from all of my other schools or the end of February, whichever comes first, and then I think I'll ask about funding. From what some current PhD students have told me, it can't hurt to drop a line mentioning that you would like to know about funding at Madison since *insert school here* is offering you *insert funding package here* and you would like to weigh your options. In fact, one current student said that he mention via e-mail that he might have to turn down School A because School B was offering him a better funding package. Someone at School A passed this information along and a couple hours later he got an e-mail offering him an additional summer of funding at School A. It seems like the best plan is to wait until you have some leverage, and then mention you are dissatisfied with your funding package (or lack thereof). Good luck!
migrationdude Posted January 27, 2009 Posted January 27, 2009 Hi, I just joined thegradcafe after reading this thread. I just got the email yesterday, and I'm also being nominated for the University Fellowship. It's the only program I've heard from so far (out of 12), and I'm a little apprehensive over what happens now. As far as my understanding goes, if I'm not successful with the University Fellowship, the Department will most likely come through with some funding. The e-mail is confusing in the very least. Does anyone have experiences from previous years?
international Posted January 28, 2009 Posted January 28, 2009 hey, i'm new to this forum and have to admit it is quite a relief in this (horible) waiting time to see that i'm not the only one refreshing my inbox every 2 minutes or so... i also got an acceptance e.mail from uw-madison yesterday saying that i have been nominated for the university fellowship :-). however, and this is the weird part, they didn't use my name in the beginning of the e.mail, only "dear applicant". in addition, i checked my status and it is still listed as "app under review" anyone here had similar/diff experience? ( i am afraid that they will e.mail me again saying "oops, we got the wrong applicant")
migrationdude Posted January 28, 2009 Posted January 28, 2009 At this point in the process I would try to stop worrying. I got the same e-mail (also with "Dear Applicant"), and did phone them to check I had actually gotten in. I'm definitely stressed since I don't know anything about funding yet, but at least the acceptance is in the pipeline. Btw, they did say a formal acceptance will be sent next week so no worries. I know many grad schools don't seem to have their act together, but sending out a mistaken acceptance email sounds like the worst nightmare of administrators, and I would think they have checked their email list several times before letting it out.
hardboiledegg Posted January 28, 2009 Posted January 28, 2009 Did anyone else get a personal email after the "Dear applicant"? I want to know what exactly "five years of guaranteed funding to support your studies" means.. because that doesn't explicitly say everything will be covered or if there is a stipend involved. Anyone else think its strange that so many ppl have been nominated for the university fellowship?
migrationdude Posted January 28, 2009 Posted January 28, 2009 I don't think there were that many people, honestly speaking. So far I have counted three on this thread, and I would expect somewhere between 10 and 20 people to be among the nominees. I have only found this website days ago, but even I can tell it's probably the internet nexus for grad school applicants' nail-biting right now. I for one am happy with the acceptance, and think it's a terrific lifeline. Now I'm just hoping real hard that they will make it possible for me to attend, since I do not really have the option to go without funding.
international Posted January 28, 2009 Posted January 28, 2009 i defiantly think it is strange that so many ppl got in- about 10 ppl posted "accepted" on the results page, not including me (although fewer with fellowship nomination). either the ppl here are not very representative sample of the appl pool , or uw-madison are accepting an exceptionally large cohort this year. about the fellowship- i'm guessing it is not a lot of money... especially not this year... however- it is the no. 1 program, so even reasonable money will be an incentive to go.
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