For those who got in on their 2nd+ cycle

[goddess_imenja]

I read in a past posts that many of those accepted this year got in on their 2nd+ cycle. Would applicants in this category speak about their experience in this regard? How long they waited to apply again? How did they networ? Did they focus on publishing? Etc. thank you!

[MashaMashaMasha]

This was my 2nd cycle. The first cycle, I applied to 6 schools and was rejected from 5 and waitlisted at the remaining 1. Here's what I did differently this year:

• The major change was a sense of focus. I honed in on one school (not highly recommended by most) and saw that I had a great fit. The one school is in a major city, so after the failed 2009 cycle, I applied for jobs and moved here. As a local applicant, I could visit the campus whenever professors were available. This was huge.
  
• My statement of purpose went through no fewer than 12 edits and was seen by no fewer than four of my former professors. I also floated it to my POIs after several positive interactions. I stuck with what I knew and kept my SoP short and professional. All those friendly tips about giving a hook in the beginning, explaining away bad grades, showing some personality - I totally threw them out the window. I said this is what I'm here for, this is who I want to work with and why, this is why I want to go to MyU, this is why my whole academic career has been building up to this moment.
  
• POIs - As a local applicant, I had greater access to my POIs. I found three professors whose work seemed relevant to my proposed research. I emailed all of them, met with two of them, and those two professors actually looked over my application materials themselves before I submitted it. Last cycle I half-heartedly emailed a few professors at each school, with less than excited responses. I did meet with one or two, but did not really take into consideration their work while writing my SoP. This time I mentioned all three POIs *and* I included examples of their work in my SoP that I believed showed excellent fit with my proposed research.
  
• I actually used my exact same letter-writers, but included more than the mandatory 3 letters. I do not know if this helped or if they were read, but it is different from last time.
  
• I researched the program obsessively. I set up google alerts for my POIs, I looked at their program strengths, I looked at which professors were also professors at the school of international studies, I looked at the current graduate students and their work. This also led to being able to ask informed questions when meeting with professors. I approached meeting them as a session to gather information in order to make an informed decision to apply. I did not look to them to see what my chances were, and I did not ask them to do me any favors. I talked to them about specific subfields of training (i.e. Demography, Political Soc) and what the strengths and weaknesses were in the department.
  
• I went to the ASA meeting last summer. This helped me refine my thoughts, utilize the academic language that current faculty and students were familiar with, and network with interesting people. Attending also got me energized to take on the admissions process. My job is related, so I didn't network as a prospective student, but as a professional in applied sociology. I spoke with people after related presentations, and asked folks about their research trajectories. None of the people I met were current students or faculty at MyU but it did help boost my confidence and get excited about my own research.
  
• I trusted my former professors and mentors to a large degree. I spoke with them by email, I got their input, we talked on the phone. It was intense.
  
• I studied for and re-took the GRE. I did better, although with the new GRE scoring system, it was hard to really compare to the old scores.
  
• EDIT to add: Since I had already been out of school for a number of years, I did not focus on publishing or boosting my transcripts. I think that it's a great idea if you have the opportunity, but I had to focus on the parts of my application that I could still improve, and tried to highlight my strengths.
  

So, I essentially put a ton of work into crafting the parts of my application that I could change (if I could have gone back in time and boosted some grades, I would have!) and accepted that my application was not perfect. I took a very professional and reasoned approach to this decision. I've now been out of UG for 5 years, so living on a graduate stipend while facing a less-than-ideal job market on the other end is not something that I take lightly. I think that kind of preparedness shows when you meet with potential advisers.

HTH! I would have been able to use a thread like this about a year ago!!

Edited February 23, 2012 by MashaMashaMasha

[DustSNK]

This was my 2nd cycle. The first cycle, I applied to 6 schools and was rejected from 5 and waitlisted at the remaining 1. Here's what I did differently this year:

• The major change was a sense of focus. I honed in on one school (not highly recommended by most) and saw that I had a great fit. The one school is in a major city, so after the failed 2009 cycle, I applied for jobs and moved here. As a local applicant, I could visit the campus whenever professors were available. This was huge.
  
• My statement of purpose went through no fewer than 12 edits and was seen by no fewer than four of my former professors. I also floated it to my POIs after several positive interactions. I stuck with what I knew and kept my SoP short and professional. All those friendly tips about giving a hook in the beginning, explaining away bad grades, showing some personality - I totally threw them out the window. I said this is what I'm here for, this is who I want to work with and why, this is why I want to go to MyU, this is why my whole academic career has been building up to this moment.
  
• POIs - As a local applicant, I had greater access to my POIs. I found three professors whose work seemed relevant to my proposed research. I emailed all of them, met with two of them, and those two professors actually looked over my application materials themselves before I submitted it. Last cycle I half-heartedly emailed a few professors at each school, with less than excited responses. I did meet with one or two, but did not really take into consideration their work while writing my SoP. This time I mentioned all three POIs *and* I included examples of their work in my SoP that I believed showed excellent fit with my proposed research.
  
• I actually used my exact same letter-writers, but included more than the mandatory 3 letters. I do not know if this helped or if they were read, but it is different from last time.
  
• I researched the program obsessively. I set up google alerts for my POIs, I looked at their program strengths, I looked at which professors were also professors at the school of international studies, I looked at the current graduate students and their work. This also led to being able to ask informed questions when meeting with professors. I approached meeting them as a session to gather information in order to make an informed decision to apply. I did not look to them to see what my chances were, and I did not ask them to do me any favors. I talked to them about specific subfields of training (i.e. Demography, Political Soc) and what the strengths and weaknesses were in the department.
  
• I went to the ASA meeting last summer. This helped me refine my thoughts, utilize the academic language that current faculty and students were familiar with, and network with interesting people. Attending also got me energized to take on the admissions process. My job is related, so I didn't network as a prospective student, but as a professional in applied sociology. I spoke with people after related presentations, and asked folks about their research trajectories. None of the people I met were current students or faculty at MyU but it did help boost my confidence and get excited about my own research.
  
• I trusted my former professors and mentors to a large degree. I spoke with them by email, I got their input, we talked on the phone. It was intense.
  
• I studied for and re-took the GRE. I did better, although with the new GRE scoring system, it was hard to really compare to the old scores.
  
• EDIT to add: Since I had already been out of school for a number of years, I did not focus on publishing or boosting my transcripts. I think that it's a great idea if you have the opportunity, but I had to focus on the parts of my application that I could still improve, and tried to highlight my strengths.
  

So, I essentially put a ton of work into crafting the parts of my application that I could change (if I could have gone back in time and boosted some grades, I would have!) and accepted that my application was not perfect. I took a very professional and reasoned approach to this decision. I've now been out of UG for 5 years, so living on a graduate stipend while facing a less-than-ideal job market on the other end is not something that I take lightly. I think that kind of preparedness shows when you meet with potential advisers.

HTH! I would have been able to use a thread like this about a year ago!!

This is some good advice! I'm on my 2nd cycle right now. Did basically the same thing you did! Although I am applying to Canadian schools and moved about 15 mins from the border. While here I took non-degree grad credits at a local state uni, and really tried to connect and learn from my professors (which were amazing people who really cared). That was something I didn't do as an undergrad, talk to professors more about sociology and the field past a BA. I visited a conference also which really sharpened my view on things. Also I did a research essay that I'm going to present at a conference (not sociology) next month. Unfortunately I didn't get accepted to it until after I applied to schools >_< It is a shit time to apply, the process is being flooded more and more each year. Buttttttttt don't give up, just keep doing it till you get in and learn as much as you can along the way.

[goddess_imenja]

Masha!!!!!!! You rock. Thank you thank you for this advice.