Fall 2016 - Phd Thread

[altikr25]

Hello all,

 

I am planning on applying for some Criminology Phd programs for the fall of 2016.  I was wondering what kind of variety we are having for that year, so I decided to post my stats/info in hopes that some may reciprocate. 

 

Prospective schools applying to:

 

U of Cincinnati

FSU

NE University

Upenn

UC Irvine

SUNY Albany

Temple

Rutgers

 

GRE: V/Q/A 161/155/5.0

 

Undergrad         GPA: 3.73

Grad (Master's) GPA: 3.85

 

Research: None, just some data experience.

 

Sentiment: Super excited to begin studies; somewhat anxious to apply.

 

 

[KnowVac]

So you've been lonely in this thread for a while! I've been stalking all of the old threads trying to get and idea of what PhD programs are looking for as far as GRE scores and research experience. 

Stats:

Undergrad GPA: 3.0

Grad GPA: 3.85

Master's (University of South Carolina aka the real USC!)  thesis, member of one research team, some data experience. No publications, but working to turn my thesis into a pub. 

No GRE scores yet, taking the test in one month. 

Applying to:

SUNY Albany

Northeastern

Delaware

Temple 

American

Edited September 2, 2015 by KnowVac

[hunter66]

Hello everyone,

I am going down the same path with you all for fall 2016. I will finish my MS in Criminal justice in University of Louisville in May with 3.9 GPA. BS in industrial engineering w a 3.25 GPA. I dont have any conference experience. 156 Q, 152 V, 3.5 AW

Schools I am applying to

University of Louisville

ASU

FSU

UC irvine

South Florida

Michigan State

and 2 sociology programs UC riverside and McGill in Canada

How have you been progressing with PhD so far? Did you apply to any schools or get in touch with them?

Have a great day

 

[KnowVac]

Glad to see someone else joined the conversation! I guess I can update a bit about my original comment. I took the GRE and did worse than expected haha (I hate standardized tests!) 152Q 158V 4.5AW. I also switched out Temple for Indiana Univeristy on my list of prospective programs. I'm almost done with the application process, so that is exciting! Just writing all of my personal statements and then I will be submitting! Aiming to submit a month early for all programs. 

 

Although I am really hating the process of writing my personal statement. I feel so cheesy.

[altikr25]

I'm right there with you KnowVac.  Except I will be applying gradually (pun?) to schools.  2 this week, 1 next month and, if I don't hear back from the last 3, 2 more in February.  I think most of the applications I will submit will be 2weeks-1 month prior to deadline. 

If you haven't stumbled here in the forums already, this is a wealth of info about CJ PhD: http://www.adpccj.com/surveys.html

According to this forum, FSU accepts all who qualify?  I see no rejections in the acceptances thread for that school and I read in other comments (before 2015) that FSU accepts a lot of students but does not fund all of them.

 

Edited November 10, 2015 by altikr25

[Rose91]

Hello All, having just went through the cycling last year. I thought I could be of help to some of you. If you want further details feel free to message me. 

What areyour particular research interests?

Suny Albany has undergone quite some academic changes, I would say their notoriety is on the decline (if that's what your interested in)

Temple is a great school especially if you like urban life and applied research. However, the program is 7 years. U decide if it's worth the trade off

UP Irvine is great on paper and they have alot of funding. They seem more interested in developing scholars for R1 institutions. Very good for neighborhood and Corrections work. However, very expensive and "Stepford Wivesy"

Rutgers was always one of my top favs! Urban life, really relaxed faculty, close enough to NYC if you're into that, good grasp of both qual/quant work, both policy and research based, and how cool is it to have Maruna as your Dean! 

FSU is an all boys club to say the least, and they give out very little funding. South Florida very little funding as well. 

 

Okay folks, 

Hope I helped! Good Luck!

[smhkjh]

Hi all! I am applying to criminology PhD programs for Fall 2016. I am extremely nervous about not getting accepted . I am applying to the following schools:

UC Irvine, U Illinois at Chicago, U Maryland, U Albany, George Mason, Michigan State, U Delaware, Penn State, & Northeastern

GRE scores: 153V/152Q/4A

B.A. in criminology: 3.54 GPA

M.A. from SUNY Albany: 4.0 GPA

no formal publications but have three internships that entailed research practices and 2 unpublished presented works.

Any thoughts or advice?

[phdincrim2016]

Hi all,

New to all of this. I just looked over the 2014 and 2015 threads, which were super helpful. I have a couple of questions for anyone who might know:

1. When does UCI send out invitations for their interviews? They appear to be taking place pretty early this year - January 10-11 - so I assume we'll hear before the holidays?

2. How many people does UCI bring out? What is the experience like? Would anyone who went last year care to share?

Thanks for any info... 

[KnowVac]

On 11/19/2015, 6:50:43, smhkjh said:

Hi all! I am applying to criminology PhD programs for Fall 2016. I am extremely nervous about not getting accepted . I am applying to the following schools:

UC Irvine, U Illinois at Chicago, U Maryland, U Albany, George Mason, Michigan State, U Delaware, Penn State, & Northeastern

GRE scores: 153V/152Q/4A

B.A. in criminology: 3.54 GPA

M.A. from SUNY Albany: 4.0 GPA

no formal publications but have three internships that entailed research practices and 2 unpublished presented works.

Any thoughts or advice?

 

I think all of us have that same fear! I've just submitted 3 of my applications though and it feels great for it to be out of my hands! Most of the schools I'm applying to really give no indication of what they are looking for beyond the standard GRE and GPA preferences, but even then most of the schools say that these things alone will not determine acceptance or rejection.

[KnowVac]

On 11/17/2015, 1:34:39, Rose91 said:

Hello All, having just went through the cycling last year. I thought I could be of help to some of you. If you want further details feel free to message me. 

What areyour particular research interests?

Suny Albany has undergone quite some academic changes, I would say their notoriety is on the decline (if that's what your interested in)

Temple is a great school especially if you like urban life and applied research. However, the program is 7 years. U decide if it's worth the trade off

UP Irvine is great on paper and they have alot of funding. They seem more interested in developing scholars for R1 institutions. Very good for neighborhood and Corrections work. However, very expensive and "Stepford Wivesy"

Rutgers was always one of my top favs! Urban life, really relaxed faculty, close enough to NYC if you're into that, good grasp of both qual/quant work, both policy and research based, and how cool is it to have Maruna as your Dean! 

FSU is an all boys club to say the least, and they give out very little funding. South Florida very little funding as well. 

 

Okay folks, 

Hope I helped! Good Luck!

Any info on Delaware, American, NE, or Indiana? :D

[Pennywise]

I got into some of those programs, so this is what I learned about them at the interview days (so, biased -- correct me if I'm wrong). 

Delaware is a small, relatively new program. I don't remember much about it other than that their stipend is really, really small (never a good sign), and that it's combined with Sociology, which could have some real advantages if you were trying to sidle over to sociology. 

American plusses: great stipend, good if you want to do unorthodox work combining CJ with political science/policy (such as some terrorism or political violence topics), since the program is, oddly, combined with the university's small political science and public administration PhDs. Negatives: If you're interested in doing straight criminology, it's very weak, barely any criminology coursework. Also, barely any of its grads end up teaching at research universities, most end up in (pretty lucrative) DC think tank/government jobs.

Northeastern has some very good faculty and is focused on getting its grads into teaching positions rather than applied positions (though I'm unclear about its success rate). It has some issues, though, such as the fact that it's one of the few schools in Boston not invited to the Boston PhD consortium with Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, et cetera. To me that's an indicator that those departments don't want Northeastern PhD students in their classes, which is not a good sign. 

I know nothing about Indiana...

I'm going to randomly plug two other good programs: CUNY has a great stipend and only 7 hours a week work requirement (compared to 20-25 hour in most places), and its faculty is ginormous and really, really strong. Aside from the 85 faculty in CJ itself, the university's "Graduate Center" has PhD programs in every other discipline you can imagine, plus is part of a consortium with Columbia, NYU, Fordham, etc., so many CUNY students take classes in the consortium as well. Having a huge faculty available is so important when you're thinking about advisors, etc. The CJ Masters program is one of the oldest, but the PhD is relatively new -- however, over the past 15 years they have been pouring resources into the PhD program, to really train scholars. That means each new class is getting stronger and stronger, and students get a LOT of attention and support ($$ and otherwise).

Penn State has a very strong program with outstanding faculty. They are in a combined sociology program with a huge demography specialization, so if demography and crime is possibly your thing, there is no place better. The stipends seem small, but the standard of living in this little mountain village is minuscule. The biggest negative is also a positive for some people -- you're stuck in the mountains of middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania for 5 to 7 years. Also, its students are currently mostly young women fairly recently out of college. Its grads mostly end up at good R2 universities, with a few at top research universities. They also are still feeling the effects of this scandal about a perverted coach molesting young people or something, so they're really defensive about that. It seems like they're overcompensating by throwing more money at current students, though. 

Oh and a negative about University of Pennsylvania -- it is tiny, and all they really do is biosocial criminology, which is an extremely marginal area (since many people consider it a variation of Lombroso and eugenics). If you can't convince them that you are already very prepared to do biosocial lab experiments about brain scans and stuff like that, your chances of acceptance are small. Also, if you look at the current PhD students, most of them had already been at Penn in another program -- the only couple students not doing biosocial are the ones who are in a joint criminology/something else program (such as one guy in law and criminology). Penn is by far the best overall university offering a PhD program in CJ/crim, but it has its drawbacks. Basically this PhD program seems like a way for kooky Adrian Raine to get PhD-level research assistants. Which is fine, but just know what you're applying to.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Pennywise

[phdincrim2016]

Irvine sent out invitations to its interview weekend this morning. 

[KnowVac]

Thanks Pennywise! 

 

PhD, I assume that means you received an invite? Congrats! 

Now I'm even more anxious even though none of my applications are technically due yet! 

[crimqueen]

On December 10, 2015 at 1:40 PM, phdincrim2016 said:

Irvine sent out invitations to its interview weekend this morning. 

Did you receive an invite by email or mail?

[phdincrim2016]

The UCI invites are by email.

[liesandfish]

On December 7, 2015 at 9:23 AM, Pennywise said:

Penn State has a very strong program with outstanding faculty. They are in a combined sociology program with a huge demography specialization, so if demography and crime is possibly your thing, there is no place better. The stipends seem small, but the standard of living in this little mountain village is minuscule. The biggest negative is also a positive for some people -- you're stuck in the mountains of middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania for 5 to 7 years. Also, its students are currently mostly young women fairly recently out of college. Its grads mostly end up at good R2 universities, with a few at top research universities. They also are still feeling the effects of this scandal about a perverted coach molesting young people or something, so they're really defensive about that. It seems like they're overcompensating by throwing more money at current students, though. 

 

I just found this thread. I have applied to a bunch of programs and have heard from UTDallas and George Mason that I should know a decision the second week of January. I have not heard from anywhere else yet. 

 

Just a FYI for Penn State, everyone is funded (it is one of their strong points) and the person I know who is new to the program received over 23k a year, full tuition and fees, plus extra stipends for conference attendance and summer. So to me that doesn't seem small, but I guess it depends what you are coming from/where in location/etc. 

 

Good luck to everyone! I hope we all hear soon! 

 

[Pennywise]

That's great to know.  A couple years ago the Penn State stipend was in the high teens, plus summer funding. $23k is actually really high considering how low the cost of living there is. 

[liesandfish]

Penny: yes it is nice to know that everyone gets funded with enough to live on without a lot of stress. I did not apply there. 

 

The majority of you all have slightly higher GRE results than I do, so I am a little more nervous. 

 

Did anyone attend ASC/regional conferences this year? 

Edited December 27, 2015 by liesandfish
Typo

[altikr25]

I attended the ASC this year. It was a great experience. I mainly attended the biosocial criminology meetings/presentations because that is what I'm applying for.  Anyone else looking to get into biosocial crim?

[liesandfish]

Very cool! I presented at ASC this year and found it very interesting but also very overwhelming. The size is so much bigger than the regional/ACJS but I'm glad I went. 

I do not have anything to add about biosocial, but do have a friend at Penn State (see reference above) who studies biosocial criminology. Sounds like a great area!  

 

 

[ThesisTerror724]

So glad I found this even though it's late in application season! 

I'll be graduating with my M.S. in Criminal Justice in May.

Schools I've Applied To:

UC-Irvine - Flying out for the interview next weekend

American 

Rutgers

Northeastern (maybe - not really enough faculty that have research interests that I align with)

Central Florida (very new program, but department members have told me that means they are eager to teach the best and brightest)

ASU (polishing up that application right now

Interests: Mass Incarceration, Prisoner Re-Entry, Wrongful Convictions, Race and Inequality 

I've presented at regional conferences, contributed to multiple presentations and I am first author on a manuscript in progress. 

GRE 149Q/154V/5AW

GPA 3.94

My GRE scores suck but my letters of rec must have been amazing to get UCI to offer me an interview. Did I mention UCI is my top choice?! Nervous! 

[liesandfish]

Good luck ThesisTerror! I'm sure the interview will go great. 

 

I also applied to UCF, being a new program I think the chance of being funded is more likely. I know everyone last year (first cohort) got fully funded. Every faculty I talked to from UCF was really excited about growing their program and even sent follow up emails. Just the waiting game.  

again, good luck at UCI! 

[liesandfish]

Sorry for the double post, I just wanted to let everyone know that FSU's application status page has decisions.  

 

 

[KnowVac]

When was FSU's application due? 

[liesandfish]

KnowVac, I turned mine in early, but I am pretty sure (95%) the deadline was Jan 1. for FSU. 

Did you end up applying to FSU? Have you heard from anywhere else?