Fall 2016 Acceptances, Interviews, and Rejections Thread

[goofylemon]

14 minutes ago, Shay825 said:

You're on the money. Called and was told that almost all applications are still under review.

My cousin is an undergrad there, so I'm kind of hoping for an acceptance to be close to family. 

This is actually much earlier than I imagine. Brown has a small cohort, so if you actually go there, the Grad Cafe will again dominate the cohort!

 

[goofylemon]

36 minutes ago, nowayjose said:

 

I don't know if Brown ever had a January acceptance in the results. At least not the last few years. Goes to show you at this time of the year, who knows

 

Congrats to everyone, especially Wisconsin/Brown folk withdrawing from all the schools I applied to yay!!

I will not post the admission results unless it is official. There are only two days left in Janurary... So I think my results will also be posted next month.

[goofylemon]

1 hour ago, lioneironaut said:

CONGRATS!!!!!! Such a good program!!!! See there was no reason to despair

*hugs* thank you! You all are so sweet! Wish you good luck too!

 

[goofylemon]

1 hour ago, ConsciousSteph said:

CONGRATS!!! That is awesome. Haven't heard anything yet from Brown but I'm glad you did! Who are you interested in working with at Brown? If you don't mind me asking.

I got initial contact from Zhenchao Qian. I am a family demographer but interested in urban/ spatial stuff, too. So I am 99% sure John Logan will also be on my committee.

[redhillgirl]

36 minutes ago, goofylemon said:

Yay! See y'all Wisconsin admits! I told ya! Thank you. I almost cry (again) when I heard of this T.T . 

Although I am very happy now, still a little jealous of you Wisc cohorts. Hahahaha

 

Haha i told u theres definitely sth for u as well! And i really admire u for knowing exactly what u want (u said u were gonna withdraw apps),  i think i hv select dyslexia and will struggle till apr 15 shd i get more than one admits. Congrats again!  Brown is wonderful! 

[spicytunaroll]

this is getting scarier and scarier... :'(

also, i didn't know people withdrew their applications. but it seems like a sweet and considerate thing to do. sothank you beautifuls!

[KimchiRamen]

Woah! Woke up to see so much good news from people here! Congratulation to everyone who got an acceptance today! I'm thoroughly impressed by y'all! Well done!

[HopefulSocPhD]

Congratulations to all the acceptances today! 

I cannot imagine what that must feel like. I just got the rejection email from Stanford.

[ll085]

Long time lurker (between soc and political science) here. In Asia right now, and woke up to a Wisconsin acceptance!! Congrats to all who have been hearing good news throughout the day, and sending constant well wishes and good luck to all. Though this is my first post in soc, this forum has been extremely helpful in keeping me sane over the past few months haha. You are all awesome, regardless of what some adcomm says, and don't forget that!!

[2016Applicant]

Did I read correctly that someone was wait listed at UCI? Does that mean its safe to assume all those who haven't been admitted or wait listed, have been rejected? :/

[macadamia tea]

i appreciate having been rejected by Stanford before hearing about their acceptances... just so long as it doesn't mean the people rejected this early are the icky no-hoper pile! 'Limbo' sounds cruel, so it's good to know where I stand.

[aresh1]

1 minute ago, 2016Applicant said:

Did I read correctly that someone was wait listed at UCI? Does that mean its safe to assume all those who haven't been admitted or wait listed, have been rejected? :/

My mentality for the rest of this process is no news is just that. Not being rejected or accepted doesn't mean waitlisted.

It's a casual limbo. 

[goofylemon]

Although I will withdraw many of my ongoing apps (see my signature), I have really decided to ask the AdComm in Wisc for the reasons to reject my apps. Different from another school I was rejected (UT-Austin), where I think I am writing a lukewarm SOP and having a mediocre fit to, Wisc is considered the best fit to me. I really question why my apps got denied. I suspected it is because a first-sight kill of my undergrad GPA. If so, I will report it to this forum and hope it will be helpful for the applicants of the following years.

If you ask what I hate most for the grad application process, it is the so-called "first-round filter". It filtered "out" many promising applicants with stellar rec letters and publication records but lower GPA/GRE. Some people are just not good test takers (importantly, standardized tests are evil even I scored good on them). For GPA, it really depends on school and the course difficulty. I have math background besides my sociology major and took so many darn-hard mathematics courses. That is the primary reason to pull down my GPA. If I hear the AdComm rejects me straight out of my GPA. It will really sounds disappointing.

I don't really care the excuse saying "uhhh.. we receive something hundreds/thousands applications and we cannot read every file that carefully". Come on! The application fee is so darn expensive and you told me my application was just worth one-time read? for 90/100/110 dollars?

Edited January 29, 2016 by goofylemon

[2016Applicant]

Those with interests in criminology, mind sharing or messaging why you selected a sociology program over a criminology program? While my current interests lie at the heart of criminology, my concern is that I may be placing unknown future limitations on myself by choosing a criminology program over a sociology program (I applied to both). Crim is essentially a facet of sociology and if 10 years from now, my interests shift to some other aspect of race that isn't criminology focused (i.e.: education) I would be limited in how i could approach that topic. Has anyone else thought this a dilemma??  Have any advice to share? Ideally, I would like to attend a sociology program, but it seems it might be the case that I only get into those in the 20-40 rankings. Thus, is it better to attend a top 5 criminology program over a sociology program not ranked in the top 20? 

[sts4656]

Can the guys, who received rejection from UCLA, give some details please??? Thanks in advance..

[goofylemon]

16 minutes ago, 2016Applicant said:

Those with interests in criminology, mind sharing or messaging why you selected a sociology program over a criminology program? While my current interests lie at the heart of criminology, my concern is that I may be placing unknown future limitations on myself by choosing a criminology program over a sociology program (I applied to both). Crim is essentially a facet of sociology and if 10 years from now, my interests shift to some other aspect of race that isn't criminology focused (i.e.: education) I would be limited in how i could approach that topic. Has anyone else thought this a dilemma??  Have any advice to share? Ideally, I would like to attend a sociology program, but it seems it might be the case that I only get into those in the 20-40 rankings. Thus, is it better to attend a top 5 criminology program over a sociology program not ranked in the top 20? 

I have backgrounds in both sociology and criminology. It really depends on which school you are applying to, and what is the relationship between the Soc and Crim folks in that school. For example, Penn State has really fantastic Soc and Crim programs (both!), and these folks are in the same building, work together and maintain a good relationship within just the same department, albeit it is separate application process for the two programs. Maryland, however, host the folks in two disciplines (p.s. I don't think soc and crim are really two disciplines) in even different colleges/schools.  Similar schools are like SUNY-Albany and CUNY. 

It also depends on whether you are a CJ type of criminology person or a "social ecology" type of criminology person. Some really top-ranked programs like Cincinnati and Missouri are almost entirely focused on CJ, which sounds too "political/policy-oriented" to me.  If you are interested in prison/policing/sentencing/policy, better specialize these in these kinds of close-knit CJ programs. If you are interested in neighborhoods/ socio-economic/racial-ethnicity/ interpersonal violence, you should really aim for a sociology program.

It is not about ranking, it is about your research interests. US News ranking system sucks and is totally broke. They rank Brown Soc #25 and UCSB #30-ish, which I believe nobody in academia thought in the same way. 

Edited January 29, 2016 by goofylemon

[2016Applicant]

@sts4656 UCLA Rejection here. Generic email to check the site. It actually came in at 2:55 A.M. (What the heck?!?). Just got around to posting it to the results page. 

 

@goofylemon Thank you so much for the input! Also, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!!

[sts4656]

Thank you @2016Applicant for the information, I really don't understand their way of notification..

[2016Applicant]

@sociologyapp2016 Thank you for the input as well. Any advice on my crime vs soc dilemma? Is it better to attend a top 5 criminology program over a sociology program not ranked in the top 20 at the potential cost of limiting future exploration of topics that might come of interests to a criminological approach? 

[goofylemon]

12 minutes ago, sociologyapp2016 said:

Unfortunately, ranking does matter. This has been repeated not only via rumor sites like SJMR, but also by empirical studies (see "The Academic Caste System," Val Burris, 2004). US News Rankings, while imperfect in many ways, represent a rough picture of the ranking of sociology programs.

In light of that, maybe you should reconsider your decision to withdraw your application just because you've been accepted to Brown. Sure, Brown is a great program, but to automatically pass it over, say, Princeton, UCLA, or NYU might not be the best idea. You might want to at least wait to hear back and then ultimately make a decision.

And, full disclosure, I have applied to programs that you have yet to hear back from. So no, I am not making this suggestion out of some sort of secret vested interest - the opposite, in fact.

Thank you. I will not deny there is an "academic caste". However, I would strongly disagree the statement that "NYU/UCLA is better than Brown" (although I know you do not mean to say in this way). NO, NYU/UCLA is not any better, nor worse than Brown. They have different specializations and it is really hard to compare. Many of the professors in my current institution gave a mediocre remark about Princeton, too. 

So how much does ranking matter? A little - it provides you some kind of guidance in making your final list of application. However, what I want to say here is do not let rankings lead your mind.

P.S. I am not withdrawing all programs I am applying to, at least not UCLA. But for NYU, I see no reasons to wait.

Edited January 29, 2016 by goofylemon

[2016Applicant]

Also, any idea where I, or others, may find more reputable sources of ranking rather than US News?? Please forgive my ignorance here.

[goofylemon]

1 minute ago, 2016Applicant said:

Also, any idea where I, or others, may find more reputable sources of ranking rather than US News?? Please forgive my ignorance here.

I think a much better resource to consult is your professors. Ask professors in your fields of interests about their opinion. Share with them your GRE/GPA/ rough experience and let them know which "rough level" of programs you should get into. They know both you and programs much better than the rankings. To Avoid bias, ask more than one.

[sociologyapp2016]

2 minutes ago, 2016Applicant said:

@sociologyapp2016 Thank you for the input as well. Any advice on my crime vs soc dilemma? Is it better to attend a top 5 criminology program over a sociology program not ranked in the top 20 at the potential cost of limiting future exploration of topics that might come of interests to a criminological approach? 

It's hard to say, since it's really dependent on how much of a likelihood it is that you would change your mind.

[sociologyapp2016]

5 minutes ago, 2016Applicant said:

Also, any idea where I, or others, may find more reputable sources of ranking rather than US News?? Please forgive my ignorance here.

US News is probably the best out there. That's not to say it's great...But the others are even more trash.

[2016Applicant]

Thank you guys! @sociologyapp2016 @goofylemon