What schools are you applying to?

[panasic]

Princeton, UPenn, PSU, and Cal are the only 4 universities in the US that offer articulated joint doctorates in sociology and demography. That doesn't necessarily mean they're the best for social demography, but I think it shows a level of commitment to integrating the two fields that will ultimately benefit the student. That's why 4/5 of the places I applied to are those schools. I considered UNC-CH and Duke, but based on (admittedly not very in-depth) web research, it seemed as if support for population studies at those two schools have diminished in the past several years. UM-AA is also very well-regarded in the area of demography, but again, I felt I wanted to pursue programs where that interdisciplinary aspect was very well-defined. Besides, why not get two PhDs for the price of one?

I considered Stanford, but I honestly did not feel they were very strong in the area of migration.

i totally agree with your assessment of the programs. if i weren't so committed to staying on the west coast, i would have applied to all those programs you mentioned. stanford is interesting, because it isn't explicitly migration-focused, but has several people focusing on ethnic/racial conflict and assimilation, as well as a handful of social demographers (it's ranked #14 for population studies). and they just also opened a new population center that i didn't find out until i emailed someone in the dept. i wrote my undergrad thesis on ethnic conflict and demographic change as a key underlying factor, so it ultimately seemed like a good fit.

[sleepycat]

UC Santa Cruz

NYU

UMASS Amherst

I applied to only three because I focused heavily on places that I would feel comfortable and not places I would feel very uncomfortable being gay, so that limited my search. Also I tried to pick places that would be lower then the top 20. Although NYU is a great fit for me so I am taking a chance.

MA programs

Brandeis*

Boston College

Fordham*

Fordham and Brandeis are late enough that I will no doubt hear from at least UCSC beforehand so I might not apply.

Qualitative Methodology/Media Studies (emphasis on Internet)/Religion

Edited January 28, 2012 by sleepycat

[ducksoup]

Sorry to be the grammar police. But, Sleepycat, you mean lower "than" the top 20. A lot of people don't know the difference between then and than. Google it.

[sleepycat]

sorry, didn't even think about that, usually I remember when writing though.

[ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid]

Sorry to be the grammar police. But, Sleepycat, you mean lower "than" the top 20. A lot of people don't know the difference between then and than. Google it.

Ya, good thing their are people like you on hear. Your such a helpful poster. I hurd google is better then yahoo, is this true?

[sociology27]

I dont no, yahoo used to be much better then google, than google just sorta skyrocketed. I guess your right though, theirs probably a reason for that.

[sciencegirl]

I herd Microsoft Bing is better.

[panasic]

haha "like" the three posts above

[sepiasizemore]

Meeeee too! Or should I say to..or two... :-)

[kbirch]

Wow, y'all are applying to some intense programs! Best of luck.

I'm also interested in migration, as well as gender and social movements. Primarily ways to create social change and empower young people to work for justice. I applied last year and had a pretty terrible first-try, so I've decided to go lower this year. That said, I'm sure some of you have suggestions for other places to apply and, since I'm assuming it'll be a "3rd times the charm" type of thing, let me know! I'll use it next year when I'm reapplying.

I'm applying to:

Loyola Chicago

Oregon

Michigan State

Emory

Boston College

CU-Boulder

UCSB

I could definitely strengthen my application/list of places... I'm an elementary school teacher, so I work really long days and I'm working on an MAT (masters in teaching) right now, so I didn't devote as much time as I wanted to. GRE: 1330 and 5.5 (math much lower than verbal), GPA: 3.89. A couple of paper presentations, but no published work. Right now, I'm focused on not stressing out and remembering that, as much as it feels like it, it's not a live-die situation. I'm successful approximately 35% of the time.

[Supernovasky]

Man Kbirch, you are gonna knock me out of UC Boulder, haha.

[kbirch]

Definitely not, Super! That was the first application I wrote this year (and I got started waaay late - I was planning on waiting another year to reapply but I was moved to 8th grade teaching and I realized it is NOT for me so I got back into the Ph.D. plan at the 11th hour). Also, it seems like we're interested in very different fields, right? I'm almost exclusively interested in qualitative methods and then 1960's-1970's type social change (feminist consciousness raising, etc.).

Here's hoping we both have enormous success. : )

**And if not enormous, at least some... It only takes 1 school to like us, right?

[allhandsonthebadone]

Based on your background kbirch I'm surprised you didn't have more success. What did you think you had to improve on?

[kbirch]

I think my SoP was pretty bad, looking back on it. I've been teaching in a different state than the one where I did my undergrad work, so I was kind of shooting in the dark, an email back-and-forth here or there with my recommenders, but not much concrete help when it came to my statement. I didn't really describe my research interests with depth, either. My q. GRE score is reeeally low, too - I focused on verbal and not math at all so I bombed it pretty soundly.

It's so hard to know what programs are looking for. I think that's why we're all going crazy - you can't just plug everything into a formula and say, "Ding ding ding, I'll get in here, here and here, but not there, there and there." It's a lesson in patience, I guess?!?!

[jenjenjen]

Man I think I'm glad I didn't start paying attention to this site until AFTER I'd submitted my applications because my now somewhat obsessive quest for new information would probably only be worse... Of course there also seems to be a lot of good advice on here I could have taken into account, or, you know, at least stressed out about more.

Keep up the posting though guys! I like the general positivity and the comfort of hearing from others in similar positions. Esp since everyone in my life seems to find my plans for the future as rather peculiar and quaint.

My list:

Harvard

Princeton

Yale

Duke

Ann Arbor

Berkeley

Austin

Stanford

UW Seattle

I'm interested in stratification, race, politics, social mvmts...

All def good school but I'd say I'm well qualified and went with the idea of casting a wide net and being happy if I got into any one school. And to not apply to anywhere I wouldn't be ecstatic to attend. Also funding packages will probably be the biggest deciding factor if i get into more than one school..

[wmnshlthsoc]

Rutgers

Princeton

Temple

Emory

UMaryland (Women's Studies)

Medical Soc--- Women's Health