Albanski Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 Migrationdude, congrads of getting very good acceptances. All the hard work paid off! I have been looking at these top schools but often they do not post stats of the average student that gets accepted to the program. I was hoping if you wouldn't mind posting your stats, just so I can get a glimpse on the type of scores these schools are looking for. Thank you and congrads again!
migrationdude Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 Edited: sorry, everyone, but maybe posting my stats wasn't such a good idea.
tryffelgris Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 good god. that string of acceptances makes all kinds of sense now. i sure pity the person who gets read after your application (including myself, for our few overlaps)
migrationdude Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 Honestly, I was not expecting things to be so good. Not in this economic climate, and not in a discipline where so many people apply. I am overwhelmed...
migrationdude Posted February 12, 2009 Posted February 12, 2009 Yeah, part of me feels like some sort of freak. Not that I'm gonna feel bad about it now. I worked hard for everything I listed (though I've also been extremely lucky).
Albanski Posted February 13, 2009 Author Posted February 13, 2009 Migrationdude, Thanks for sharing your results with us. There are some people that are hesitant to share, but they fail to realize that by posting such stats they are helping the next wave of prospective applicants. Your stats are truly amazing and I could see why all these schools would love to have you. I am sure that all of those stats were achieved by determination as well as intelligence. Keep up the good work! Well Deserved! You are my new role model!!!! On a different note: I believe that someone with web development skills should make a website similar to lawschoolnumbers.com where people can post their stats and what school they have been admitted to, as this would greatly reduce or amplify people's anxiety about graduate school applications. This website should not only be for sociology but for the other social sciences.
Tritonetelephone Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Yes, thank you so much for sharing, migrationdude!! I know a lot of us must have been curious, myself included. So how much did it freak you out to see the title of this thread for the first time?
hip2btriangle Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 i obviously really applaud migrationdude for a job well done, but i'm really hesitant to make graduate admissions in sociology about a cookie cutter package. part of why i enjoy this forum is because we're all here as geeky sociologists, and in may ways i think our dialogue deconstructs what could easily become a numbers game re: admissions. i work at a top law school right now and though prospective law school students have a crapload of sites where admissions statistics are readily available (and, quite honestly, very useful for law school admissions), i can't help but think/hope that admissions (and the ability to succeed as a phd candidate in sociology) shouldn't be based on one perfect application. i know many sociology departments ARE looking for something very specific as far as numbers and grades and whatever, but is it stupid to just hope that wisconsin or berkeley or stanford might be looking beyond a GRE score to really find a good fit for their program? i'm clearly being really melodramatic (two rejections in two days, anyone?), but i still think that people who don't get into some of these schools need to recognize that they're likely quite capable sociologists. perhaps if people have any desire to create a post where stats are published, it could instead be a showcase of accepted students who have fairly nontraditional backgrounds/applications.
migrationdude Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 I completely agree, hip2btriangle. I don't particularly like the cookie-cutter approach to admissions in any field, even though I have been a beneficiary of it. And yes, I also believe that having a good application does not tell very much about what may happen in the future. The hard-work towards real scholarship barely begins...
Tritonetelephone Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 I agree with hip2btraingle 100%. To put it another way, obviously migrationdude was a stellar candidate and deserves all hu's success, but there are other stellar candidates among us that might not have had the opportunity for the same stats. There are so many components to your application that each committee considers carefully, some of which can't be provided in stats/list format. So, you future sociology applicants in the year 2010 and beyond: don't give up on yourself!!
Albanski Posted February 13, 2009 Author Posted February 13, 2009 i think that posting stats are very important because some schools obviously have cutoffs in regards to GRE/GPA. While this combination is not as rigoruously looked as most law schools, these numbers are also important so that these schools will look at your application. I agree that the cuookie cutter does not apply to a PhD in sociology, but it does when it comes to funding and when the schools take the time to actually look at your application. While this site is good at offering support or help, it would even be more effective if the users post some stats about themselves, including gre, gpa, lor, papers published, research experience and etc.
nyghtfalls Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 meh... i dunno! do stats really help? i think that to a certain degree admissions committees make qualitative judgments about students' applications in addition to making quantitative ones. also, not to be a hater and not to take any successes away from migrationdude, but in general, we should try not to hang off people's intellectual nutsacks (too vulgar?). im sure that statement is going to come off the wrong way, but that's just as well. imho, fawning isn't beneficial to anyone involved, and it just makes us feel a tad like poo poo. but if i don't sound too contrived after saying all of that... still, congratulations migrationdude! zya nee!
migrationdude Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Indeed, the term "intellectual nutsack" does sound a little vulgar. I've been asked about my stats several times during the past days over PM, and I figured some people really did want to know... I know I would have liked to get a rough idea a few years ago, for sure. I've been wary of sharing too much because of some bad experiences I have had in the past... a few years ago I was contemplating transferring (bad idea), and I was called a fraud on another board, which will remain nameless. Now, I completely agree with what you're saying, nyghtfalls. Fawning is not in order here, and I do not think I deserve all this attention. Right now I'm starting to feel under a lot more pressure to "prove" that those admission committees were not wrong by actually doing worthy research.
nyghtfalls Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 lol! sorry if i offended anyone's delicate sensibilities, but i really enjoy the term "intellectual nutsack". i guess cuz it's mine, but all the same... please don't feel as though you have to defend or prove yourself, migrationdude. that wouldn't be fair to you. and please dont get the impression that im attacking you. trust me, im not doubting you or your skills, and anyone who says you're a fraud is a jerk. also, let's acknowledge the fact that you didn't start this thread, so who's to blame you for posting an answer to the question that was asked? my overarching point is (more politely) is that i have this thing about people being put on pedestals, whether they deserve it or not. we spend so much time trying to be like other people that we forget how freakin' awesome we are and we regret that which we bring to the table (particularly that which we bring to the "doctoral student table"). that's it. deuce! ::drops the mike::
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