Fall 2015 Acceptances (and Rejections) Thread

[anonymous_soc]

Please don’t say that. I am sure you are a wonderful student. Your worth is not determined by a Ph.D. program, and you can always try again. Maybe this happened for the best. I know many grad students who are very unhappy in grad school, and not everyone who made it is deserving. I am sure you will do great in whatever you will do in the future.

*Hugs* 

Couldn't have said it better myself. The process is a crapshoot, and results are not indicative of intelligence or worth.

P.S. I meant to upvote, but accidentally clicked the red arrow. Don't know how to change it. -___-

[uselesstheory]

My life is in the trash heap, I can't do this anymore, rejected by all but 1 school which gave no funding last year, rejected from 10 (including 8 sociology programs) and 3 de facto waitlists this year. I'm in a huge financial hole to the point of needing to go on public assistance now (applications are f-ing expensive!), I think the phd is now unattainable and I dont even know if I can get a professional masters. I'm obviously incompetent and don't know how to do this game, I've read alot of the advice but convincing an adcomm seems a magic trick to me. You can only gutwrench yourself into poverty so many times before it becomes unsustainable to continue. Full of regret and dejection.

 

i am so sorry you're in this situation; words are not adequate and they make me sound disingenuous. you are not incompetent, and as others said, it is a crapshoot. there are also real factors at play, factors that value certain interests and devalue others, and i get the sense that departments have a strange aversion to 'political' and 'radical' interests. i certainly think navigating that problem has been a significant barrier for me personally, and that says a lot about the field: perhaps a field that is unwilling to help a scholar who comes from a marxist and perhaps radical perspective is a field that needs to be questioned, that needs critical examination. i'm being vague, but what i'm trying to say is that the rejections show more about academic sociology than they do about you, and while i know that is no consolation, i hope it will help you consider that you are intelligent and determined and full of worth, and maybe it is academia that needs to be rejected rather than do the rejecting....

[l3igh]

I just emailed UMinn to ask about my application status and they let me know that I'm rejected. Thought this might be helpful info for other people waiting to hear back from them.

[dw3000]

I am sorry that this happened to you, but you should not take this situation as a setback to your academic career. 4 years ago, I was exactly at the same situation as you are. I had the Oxford Sociology Master's acceptance with no funding. I felt utterly devastated. However, I pulled myself together and a year later I got into a Sociology master's program in my country. And now, I'm glad it happened that way. I met great people, and it really changed my research interests in a good way. Now, I'm heading to Cambridge for my PhD. Long story short, what seems like the worst thing in the world at the time you experience it might turn out to be the best. I know it is hard to feel that way at this precise moment, but if you can't attend Oxford, you stand a good chance at celebrating it a few years later.

 

That said, maybe you'll find a way to go there, and I wish you the best wherever you end up!

 

 

I would do the funded Purdue PhD rather than the unfunded Oxford MA, unless you were confident you had a good shot of getting into a WAY better soc PhD if you had the Oxford Masters. Like, were you waitlisted at a few top PhD programs, so that one extra bit of pedigree might be the difference between wait list and acceptance?

 

Edit to add: I see that you are in Malaysia. It is possible that an Oxford Masters might have enough cachet in Malaysia to open some doors there, since it is a world class institution. So that makes it a little tougher to decide.

 

But good luck with your decision either way -- both are good options!

 

I will be going for the funded Purdue PhD unless I hear back about funding before April 15th. I think that is the logical choice here. Oxford cannot even be a choice cause I don't have the financial means for it. Landing myself in debt with the bank, my parents, and my boyfriend to boot is too stressful. The last 2 days of my life..a roller-coaster. I cried, I laughed, I hoped. It is not the end of the world right. Who knows? Might be able to get Yale or Oxford for my PhD after my masters in Purdue if I still really want to go somewhere with my research interest. 

 

Damn, this is just a tiring process, isn't it. At least after two days of stress dealing with the possibility of loans, I feel relieved with my Purdue choice. 5 years of structured life. No debt. Just a nagging feeling, that I am letting go of the best that I could have gotten. Haha. Who knows, I might get to Oxford for my PhD right? 

[breaks0]

I see that you got into York Geography but would have to pay for your own tuition for 3 years.

 

If your other option is abject misery as described above, mightn't it be preferable to take out student loans for tuition for a year? Hopefully next year you would have figured out a way to get external funding, so you'd only have an extra $30K or so in loans.

 

Yes I realize a Marxist Geography Phd is not a sure-fire path to a lucrative job, but if your other option is so horrible, I think taking out federal loans could be an option.

 

I thought I got in and the situation is complicated, but basically I'm still siting on a waitlist, so I was wrong. The interview I had was confusing in that regard. IM me if you wanna know more.

 

 

i am so sorry you're in this situation; words are not adequate and they make me sound disingenuous. you are not incompetent, and as others said, it is a crapshoot. there are also real factors at play, factors that value certain interests and devalue others, and i get the sense that departments have a strange aversion to 'political' and 'radical' interests. i certainly think navigating that problem has been a significant barrier for me personally, and that says a lot about the field: perhaps a field that is unwilling to help a scholar who comes from a marxist and perhaps radical perspective is a field that needs to be questioned, that needs critical examination. i'm being vague, but what i'm trying to say is that the rejections show more about academic sociology than they do about you, and while i know that is no consolation, i hope it will help you consider that you are intelligent and determined and full of worth, and maybe it is academia that needs to be rejected rather than do the rejecting....

 

Thanks, I appreciate all you've said and you're basically right. Sociology in the US isnt that field, w/a few exceptions, I've learned that the hard way. I've found the right field, sociology in Canada or elsewhere or some areas of human geography (for my interests anyway) but then the cost becomes job market viability upon graduation and funding to get in. There's a mass student strike spreading across Canada atm which has held up my application, which has aggravated the situation. What it comes down to this is this, I can't do my research if I don't get that silly degree. At least then I'd have  the makings of the kind of manuscript in the dissertation that I want to write and hopefully publish somewhere eventually, b/c I know what I want to do, even if that means after the phd a non-academic career. And to me finishing my education is a big deal, key life goal. Anyway, now I don't know, such is life. Good luck to everyone who has gotten in somewhere.

 

Please don’t say that. I am sure you are a wonderful student. Your worth is not determined by a Ph.D. program, and you can always try again. Maybe this happened for the best. I know many grad students who are very unhappy in grad school, and not everyone who made it is deserving. I am sure you will do great in whatever you will do in the future.

*Hugs*

 

Thanks, hugs and best of success to you as well!

Edited March 29, 2015 by breaks0

[anonymous_soc]

For anyone on the waitlist, I will be rejecting UC Irvine's offer tomorrow. I saw a post on the results page, so thought I'd update. I hope this helps open up a spot for someone. Best wishes to all in deciding over the next two weeks!

[letstalkshop]

Can I respectfully request that people stop using their MA GPA on the results board? Everybody knows that grad school grades aren't real. I'd much rather know your GPA from undergrad. Don't really care that you have a 3.9999 MA GPA. 

[Socbr]

Anyone has news on Columbia MA acceptances?

[breaks0]

Can I respectfully request that people stop using their MA GPA on the results board? Everybody knows that grad school grades aren't real. I'd much rather know your GPA from undergrad. Don't really care that you have a 3.9999 MA GPA. 

 

Why is that again? At least 1 of the places I applied said the opposite, they cared more about my ma and other grad school grades than undergrad ones, otherwise why ask for the transcripts from any grad level coursework? Fine, maybe they are "inflated" and of little use to you, but I wouldn't just dismiss them as "unreal." Plenty of undergrad programs have grade inflation as well (see Harvard for ex). And ultimately, at least if I was on an adcomm, I'd be more interested in someone's numbers if they have previous grad level coursework since it's frankly more likely to be closer to the type of work my dept would expect of them than what they've done at the undergrad level (at least hypothetically speaking). I'm not saying how many adcomms in sociology or other social sciences operate that way, nor that it should necessarily exclude those w/good gpa's who only have bachelor's degrees, but you're argument seems to go too far.

Edited April 8, 2015 by breaks0

[letstalkshop]

The submission form on the results board asks for your undergraduate GPA. If you want to share your MA GPA, you can write it in in the "Notes" section. Whether or not MA classes are closer to the type of work you'd be doing for your PhD, for the most part high grad school grades are not a reflection of your ability to do grad-level work well. The departments that I have experience with acknowledge this. 

[Nonyabuisness]

Accepted Purdue!!!

[breaks0]

The submission form on the results board asks for your undergraduate GPA. If you want to share your MA GPA, you can write it in in the "Notes" section. Whether or not MA classes are closer to the type of work you'd be doing for your PhD, for the most part high grad school grades are not a reflection of your ability to do grad-level work well. The departments that I have experience with acknowledge this. 

 

Not true in my experience, it DOES reflect one's ability. Whatev, it probably depends on one's fit in the program and alot of other factors as well.

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

I think letstalkshop is making the point that the survey is meant to convey useful information to other prospectives. Therefore, the information being reported should be what the adcomms use to make decisions, which in most cases is undergrad work.

[carpincho]

On 3/2/2015, 8:03:25, Pennywise said:

On 3/1/2015, 12:25:57, klin88 said:

Anyone applied to the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at Berkeley? Has anyone heard anything from them yet? I haven't seen anyone claiming admission for this year yet, but I don't know it's because very few people applied to that program are active at Grad Cafe.

I've always been intrigued by that program but was intimidated by the fact that they only accept 2 or 3 people, mostly from their own law school (though I could be wrong about that, I'm just deducing from their site).

This is a common and unfortunate misunderstanding about the JSP program. In recent years, the program has admitted relatively large (10-14) numbers of students, and very few of them come from the law school. Some come in with law degrees, some pursue law degrees concurrently, and others never pursue a JD at all.

[Pennywise]

On November 21, 2015 12:01:45 AM, carpincho said:

This is a common and unfortunate misunderstanding about the JSP program. In recent years, the program has admitted relatively large (10-14) numbers of students, and very few of them come from the law school. Some come in with law degrees, some pursue law degrees concurrently, and others never pursue a JD at all.

Interesting, thanks for the info. 
Do you know what recent graduates have ended up doing with the PhDs? What kinds of departments do they end up teaching in? I can't quite figure this program out -- what you're describing sounds more like a public policy/criminology PhD program, perhaps?

[qeta]

3 hours ago, Pennywise said:

Do you know what recent graduates have ended up doing with the PhDs? What kinds of departments do they end up teaching in? I can't quite figure this program out -- what you're describing sounds more like a public policy/criminology PhD program, perhaps?

Here's a list of all the graduates from the JSP program, along with their positions and dissertation titles: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/academics/ph-d-program-jsp/our-graduates/. I occasionally attend talks at Berkeley Law alongside some regular attendants from the JSP program. The program seems like a good fit for someone interested in socio-legal studies and sociology of law. Again, these are only impressions, as I haven't actively sought out information about the program, and they are subjective as well since I self-select attending talks with a sociological bent.

[Pennywise]

7 hours ago, qeta said:

Here's a list of all the graduates from the JSP program, along with their positions and dissertation titles: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/academics/ph-d-program-jsp/our-graduates/. I occasionally attend talks at Berkeley Law alongside some regular attendants from the JSP program. The program seems like a good fit for someone interested in socio-legal studies and sociology of law. Again, these are only impressions, as I haven't actively sought out information about the program, and they are subjective as well since I self-select attending talks with a sociological bent.

Wow, thanks.

Every program should have a list of alumni placements like this (though I guess it's more tempting if your alumni are as conventionally successful as those from this program).