Funding

[Thomas Vandyk]

I'm currently looking at applying for Masters/P.H.D programs in Sociology across the United States and Canada, would anyone be able to suggest which schools are most likely to fully fund their students?

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

ummm... going to need a lot more information than that. If it's a PhD program in the United States that is in the top 75 then you are likely to receive full funding for a certain amount of years. If it is an MA then it really depends. 

[Thomas Vandyk]

Well I'm trying to decide whether I want to finish my Masters in Australia and apply for P.H.D for 2017 or apply to complete my masters in the states. I'm currently limited for time so I'm wanting to narrow down Universities. I was wondering whether mid level or top tier schools would be the most likely to offer funding.  

[gingin6789]

1 hour ago, Thomas Vandyk said:

Well I'm trying to decide whether I want to finish my Masters in Australia and apply for P.H.D for 2017 or apply to complete my masters in the states. I'm currently limited for time so I'm wanting to narrow down Universities. I was wondering whether mid level or top tier schools would be the most likely to offer funding.  

I would make a list of different grad programs that correspond to your interests, then research the funding available from those programs.

If you're not sure where to start, the ASA has a guide to graduate programs in sociology. It costs money though, so if you give me a list of your interests, I can provide you with a list of programs from the ASA guide via PM.

You can also do a basic Google search for "PhD (or master's) programs in [insert research interest here] sociology." Then you can check out their rank on the appropriate website.

I don't know if this helps, but the program I'm enrolled in now offers very generous funding, and it is a terminal M.A. program. It has been a great stepping stone for me towards PhD programs, and it has been a wonderful learning and research experience in itself. I'm applying to PhD programs now with a master's degree, master's thesis, and four upcoming publications under my belt. I feel like I'm a much stronger candidate now than I was right out of undergrad.

If you have any questions about the program I'm in, feel free to PM me!

Edited December 14, 2015 by gingin6789
clarity

[oranges]

5 hours ago, Thomas Vandyk said:

Well I'm trying to decide whether I want to finish my Masters in Australia and apply for P.H.D for 2017 or apply to complete my masters in the states. I'm currently limited for time so I'm wanting to narrow down Universities. I was wondering whether mid level or top tier schools would be the most likely to offer funding.  

You should finish your Masters in Australia, first. Not only will a completed Masters (with a solid thesis) strengthen your application, applying to transfer with an incomplete Masters will definitely weaken your application. (It suggests you can't go through with something you set out to commit. You definitely do not want to give off that impression to admission committees.)

If you still want to know about Masters funding in the United States, it's typically not great. Chicago and Columbia, for example, have well-know cash-cow Masters programs in sociology. (However, they offer you the pedigree and (potential) training that will make you competitive enough to launch into a top 10 PhD program in the United States. This is of course contingent on your actual performance.) 

PhD funding, on the other hand, tends to be much more solid. In fact, if you can't get into a PhD program that offers full funding + stipend, you really should not go. It's really not worth spending 5-7 years raking up debt to then maybe (and this is a big "maybe") get a job that pays, if lucky, $60,000 as an Assistant Professor.

 

 

[gingin6789]

13 hours ago, iemons said:

You should finish your Masters in Australia, first. Not only will a completed Masters (with a solid thesis) strengthen your application, applying to transfer with an incomplete Masters will definitely weaken your application. (It suggests you can't go through with something you set out to commit. You definitely do not want to give off that impression to admission committees.)

 

 

Oh, I missed the part where OP said he wanted to finish his master's rather than start a master's program. I agree with iemons -- if you've already started your master's program, OP, finish it there, then apply to PhD programs in the states, if you want. As iemons noted, funding is much better for PhD programs anyway!

[Pennywise]

Hm, I dunno, I think he/she could make an argument for applying to a PhD before finishing the Masters -- realizing he/she wanted to pursue XYZ topic as a scholar for the rest of his/her life, or something like that. There are a lot of unknown variables at play in why someone changes programs and countries. If it were someone in the middle of a masters at NYU applying to a PhD at Columbia, that might be harder to justify than relocating from Australia (although even then, a case could probably be made). I wouldn't go all out and apply to ten schools, but maybe a couple carefully selected top choice programs would make sense. You might even be able to justify restarting a Masters program in the States (such as at the well funded Lehigh) because you decided to move across the world for some personal reason (though if you could get funding at a PhD program, why not just apply to those?).