Any rural/development sociology people out there?

[living_in_paradise]

To all the sociologists (and aspiring sociologists out there): anyone interested in doing rural sociology, sociology of rural development, food/land systems or other agriculture-related topics? If so, it might be nice to learn about people's interests, where they've applied, where they've heard back from (positively or negatively), etc.

As for myself, I'm interested in the social dynamics of sustainable agriculture, food value chains, and land use/resource management. I've been doing rural development work in Vietnam for the past year and a half, and hope to do my field research here in the future (if, indeed, there is a future). I've heard from Wisconsin (no fellowship or funding guarantee, though), and I'm waiting on Cornell (development sociology) and Washington (sociology).

[frogskin]

My fiance has also applied to Development Sociology at Cornell, but she has not heard from them yet, other than to tell her she has all the application documents submitted.

[living_in_paradise]

Hi frogskin! Based on your previous post, your fiancee sounds like a pretty impressive candidate. As for GRE scores, I'm not sure what role they really play (if you search, you'll find lots of debate and discussion about the importance of GREs on this forum), but it probably varies from school to school. I'm sure some have general guidelines about minimum scores, and some have strict ones, but with all her other accomplishments, she'll probably have a pretty good shot at the schools she's applied for. I hope I get to meet her (or study with her) somewhere down the line.

By the way, what are her areas of interest? I'm guessing gender and human rights from your previous post, but I'd love to hear more. What's her first choice in terms of schools?

[i just saw what nyghtfalls posted on the other thread, and I wanted to say that I agree wholeheartedly. To any rational person (and I'm sure there are some rational people in academia, though perhaps they don't constitute a majority) years of accomplishment and experience are a much better indicator of potential success in a phd program than a three-hour multiple choice test. It might keep her out of some schools, but I'm pretty sure that some department will have the sense to accept her (and give her funding). Keep us posted on what happens.]