To accept or reapply

[td_ny]

I was admitted to 2 PhD programs (geography and sociology) with decent funding, but after visiting both I cannot see myself being a student there. They are great programs with excellent people, but I realized I applied to programs in the wrong disciplines. I knew before I started my applications that I wanted to do Africana studies, Ethnic studies, or American studies. I major in sociology as an undergrad and many of my professors dissuaded me from applying to ethnic, american, or africana programs because it wasn't "strategic." I was waitlisted at an africana program, but am still waiting to hear back. If I don't get in, I have 2 decisions: 1) I accept the offer from one of the programs because I won't need to move. I will reapply in the fall to programs that I am better suited for. 2) I decline both offers and just reapply. I have no idea about what types of jobs are out there that would be as fulfilling as doing academic work is to me. 

 

I have heard mixed advice. Some people have said that accepting and then reapplying looks really bad, but others said it's fine. Some people said it's hard to reapply while you're in a program because of coursework, but if I do this, I plan to work on my applications before the semester starts. Does anyone have an experience with this? Thank you!

[MarineBluePsy]

Wouldn't another option be to pursue the sociology degree and have Africana/ethnic/American studies be the focuses of your research?  Seems like you'd have a variety of directions to take your career doing something like that.  Geography, while interesting, doesn't seem flexible enough to incorporate those interests.

[COGSCI]

1 hour ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Wouldn't another option be to pursue the sociology degree and have Africana/ethnic/American studies be the focuses of your research?  Seems like you'd have a variety of directions to take your career doing something like that.  Geography, while interesting, doesn't seem flexible enough to incorporate those interests.

My thoughts exactly, African/ethnic studies might be too limiting in terms of post PhD career. However, you could definitely concentrate on your population of interest if you can find a supervisor that can accommodate you. 

[rising_star]

1 hour ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Geography, while interesting, doesn't seem flexible enough to incorporate those interests.

Actually, geography as a discipline, allows many more opportunities to incorporate ethnic studies interests than sociology does and in many different ways. Of course, that's assuming the OP is okay with the roots in social justice which underpin contemporary human geography. (Geography, more than just maps!)

That said, @td_ny, it would honestly depend on which sociology program, which geography program, and what your specific interests are. It probably also depends on why you didn't think either of those programs was the right fit because it could be the departments and not the disciplines as a whole. Feel free to PM me about this if you don't want to share here. But, there are a number of sociologists and geographers who have joint appointments in Africana, American, or ethnic studies, so there's possibly a way to do what you want from within those disciplines. But, if you're looking for a more diverse discipline to be in, then it might make sense to take a year off and reply to ethnic/Africana/American studies departments. Like I said, PM me if you want to get into specifics. 

[td_ny]

Thanks everyone. The question of doing ethnic/africana/american studies isn't about population, but it's about the type of thinking that is required in this disciplines that is written off as "minority discourse" by the majority of sociologists. There are definitely sociologists who I could work with who are thinking in the ways that I want to be thinking. The program I was admitted to has multiple faculty members doing that type of work. The students and faculty there are really nice and everyone involved seemed so happy, but I felt that it wasn't as intense of an academic environment that I had wanted out of grad school. The funding is fair, but I will need to teach or TA from year 2 onward as part of the fellowship and I really don't want to teach that much as a grad student. Also the faculty I primarily want to work with are junior faculty so they can't chair my committee until they gain tenure. I would also have to move halfway across the US for this and if I'm going to leave everyone I love and where I've lived nearly my entire life, I need to be in love with where I am moving and I'm not.

Human geography seems to be more politically minded than sociology is. The program I got into has some of the biggest names in human geography, but they all have over 10 students working with them. Some of the students there were 2-3 years in and didn't know what they wanted to do their research on, which is really troubling. I also would have a higher teaching load at this school with less money, but I wouldn't have to move. There are a lot of students here doing work on black geographies and asking similar questions that I want to be asking so I know that I will have a great intellectual environment, but I don't want to be 1 of 15 students my advisor is working with. If I chose to reapply, this would be the program I'd accept at because I won't have to move. 

Overall, I just feel pretty disheartened by all of this and am just trying to decide whether or not it's better to accept and reapply or to decline and reapply and try to look for work.

[rising_star]

55 minutes ago, td_ny said:

The funding is fair, but I will need to teach or TA from year 2 onward as part of the fellowship and I really don't want to teach that much as a grad student. Also the faculty I primarily want to work with are junior faculty so they can't chair my committee until they gain tenure. I would also have to move halfway across the US for this and if I'm going to leave everyone I love and where I've lived nearly my entire life, I need to be in love with where I am moving and I'm not.

...

Human geography seems to be more politically minded than sociology is. The program I got into has some of the biggest names in human geography, but they all have over 10 students working with them. Some of the students there were 2-3 years in and didn't know what they wanted to do their research on, which is really troubling.

A few thoughts on this:

1) If you're in American/ethnic studies, teaching is probably going to be a major source of your funding. If you don't want to teach that much, regardless of where you are, the onus will be on you to get pre-doctoral or other sorts of external fellowships which would get you out of that teaching. That isn't going to change simply by applying to other programs this fall.

2) Whether or not someone has 10 students may not matter. My PhD advisor had more than 10 students when I started but I was still able to get the time and interest I needed from him to be successful as a scholar and academic. YMMV obviously but, don't discount someone based solely on the number of students they advise.

3) If people don't know what they want to do their research on after 2-3 years, that's more of a reflection on them than it is in on the program, in my experience. There are people like that in every program and in every single cohort. Some get it together and some don't but, again, that's beyond your control and, to some degree, beyond the control of their advisor. No one can force someone to choose a topic. Plus, there are all sorts of reasons why someone may not have a topic which you wouldn't even know about as a visitor.

4) If you don't want to move now, will you ever want to or be willing to move? If the answer is no, then you'll want to choose a program which will prepare you well for positions outside academia.

I probably know both of the programs you're talking about in decent detail so, like I said before, PM me if you want more info.