Fall 2017 Applicants

[csot]

Hi everyone!

I wanted to create this thread for (Fall 2017) PhD sociology applicants to get to know each other a little better. Who else is applying this cycle? What are your research interests, and what are some of the schools that you're looking at? I'll start. 

(Broadly speaking) I'm interested in race/ethnicity and mental health.

Some of the schools I'm looking at include: Penn, UT Austin, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Rutgers, and Vanderbilt.

[kris10mb]

Hello! 

I am beginning the daunting task of narrowing down schools and finding places with the best fit that are preferably on the east coast.

I have two research interests that are pretty unrelated, but I'm open to following either of them, depending on the department. I completed my M.A. last spring and my thesis was on collegiate sexual assault. My M.A. is in Sociology with a concentration in Criminology, so I'm passionate about crime, gender, and inequality. My other research interest is in labor. I've written extensively and done some research on a variety of workers, looking at how the overall structure of government and corporate policies influence the lives of lower level workers. 

Right now, I'm looking at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and a few others. 

[CWS2017]

I've already contacted some POIs and finished good drafts of personal statements. Excited but nervous! 

Interests: race/ethnicity, social movements, political sociology, historical sociology

Schools: Wisconsin-Madison, Cal-Berkley, Harvard, UNC Chapel Hill, Northwestern, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, CUNY.

[csot]

On 9/4/2016 at 11:57 PM, kris10mb said:

Hello! 

I am beginning the daunting task of narrowing down schools and finding places with the best fit that are preferably on the east coast.

I have two research interests that are pretty unrelated, but I'm open to following either of them, depending on the department. I completed my M.A. last spring and my thesis was on collegiate sexual assault. My M.A. is in Sociology with a concentration in Criminology, so I'm passionate about crime, gender, and inequality. My other research interest is in labor. I've written extensively and done some research on a variety of workers, looking at how the overall structure of government and corporate policies influence the lives of lower level workers. 

Right now, I'm looking at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and a few others. 

Nice. Those are great interests, and it looks like you have a lot of experience!

On 9/5/2016 at 7:57 AM, CWS2017 said:

I've already contacted some POIs and finished good drafts of personal statements. Excited but nervous! 

Interests: race/ethnicity, social movements, political sociology, historical sociology

Schools: Wisconsin-Madison, Cal-Berkley, Harvard, UNC Chapel Hill, Northwestern, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, CUNY.

You're definitely ahead of the game.  Have most of the POIs been receptive to your emails?

[Planner101]

Hello, 
I am glad to know that a thread already exist. 

I am applying to programs for FA 17 as well. 

I completed my MA in sociology and social anthropology. I am interested in Cultural and Historical Sociology with a specific focus on trauma for my PhD. 

I am applying to Yale, Columbia, Harvard (Soc and Soc Pol), Berkley, UChicago, and Princeton - I THINK. Lol 

I am interested in hearing information about reaching out to POIs and students. I have established contact with students one school which has been helpful but I am curious about the process for others.  

Does anyone know any good places to look for Cultural and Historically based programs? 

I am looking at educational issues primarily BUT any thoughts are welcome. 

At any rate, I am glad to see this thread and I hope we all get admitted into our desired programs. 

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

On 9/26/2016 at 10:50 AM, Planner101 said:

Hello, 
I am glad to know that a thread already exist. 

I am applying to programs for FA 17 as well. 

I completed my MA in sociology and social anthropology. I am interested in Cultural and Historical Sociology with a specific focus on trauma for my PhD. 

I am applying to Yale, Columbia, Harvard (Soc and Soc Pol), Berkley, UChicago, and Princeton - I THINK. Lol 

I am interested in hearing information about reaching out to POIs and students. I have established contact with students one school which has been helpful but I am curious about the process for others.  

Does anyone know any good places to look for Cultural and Historically based programs? 

I am looking at educational issues primarily BUT any thoughts are welcome. 

At any rate, I am glad to see this thread and I hope we all get admitted into our desired programs. 

Yale is the place to be for your interests. The focus of the program is cultural and historical sociology, and the whole cultural trauma thing was developed by Alexander and Eyerman. It's a very selective program; I think they only admit five students a year. I had an interview last year and I think it really helped.

[Illusio80]

On 9/26/2016 at 0:50 PM, Planner101 said:

Hello, 
I am glad to know that a thread already exist. 

I am applying to programs for FA 17 as well. 

I completed my MA in sociology and social anthropology. I am interested in Cultural and Historical Sociology with a specific focus on trauma for my PhD. 

I am applying to Yale, Columbia, Harvard (Soc and Soc Pol), Berkley, UChicago, and Princeton - I THINK. Lol 

I am interested in hearing information about reaching out to POIs and students. I have established contact with students one school which has been helpful but I am curious about the process for others.  

Does anyone know any good places to look for Cultural and Historically based programs? 

I am looking at educational issues primarily BUT any thoughts are welcome. 

At any rate, I am glad to see this thread and I hope we all get admitted into our desired programs. 

Yes Yale, but also look at Jeffrey Guhin at UCLA for the culture/education combo.  I'll let you know if I think of anyone else.

Also, you might want to throw in a safety school.  LOL.  Best of luck with the range you've selected.  You probably have killer GRE scores.

EDIT: I guess I misread your post.  But look at UCLA anyway for Jeffrey Guhin and Rebecca Emigh among others.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Illusio80
misread original post

[anthrostudentcyn]

hi! im interested in medical sociology/STS/qualitative methods/social movements, and im thinking of rutgers, mcgill, and penn HSS for now!

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

2 hours ago, anthrostudentcyn said:

hi! im interested in medical sociology/STS/qualitative methods/social movements, and im thinking of rutgers, mcgill, and penn HSS for now!

UC San Diego is the place to be for STS.

[csot]

On 9/26/2016 at 0:50 PM, Planner101 said:

Hello, 
I am glad to know that a thread already exist. 

I am applying to programs for FA 17 as well. 

I completed my MA in sociology and social anthropology. I am interested in Cultural and Historical Sociology with a specific focus on trauma for my PhD. 

I am applying to Yale, Columbia, Harvard (Soc and Soc Pol), Berkley, UChicago, and Princeton - I THINK. Lol 

I am interested in hearing information about reaching out to POIs and students. I have established contact with students one school which has been helpful but I am curious about the process for others.  

Does anyone know any good places to look for Cultural and Historically based programs? 

I am looking at educational issues primarily BUT any thoughts are welcome. 

At any rate, I am glad to see this thread and I hope we all get admitted into our desired programs. 

Nice! I haven't contacted any POIs yet, but I will soon. I just want to make sure that the faculty I list in my personal statement are able and willing to mentor a graduate student with the research interests that I have.

6 hours ago, anthrostudentcyn said:

hi! im interested in medical sociology/STS/qualitative methods/social movements, and im thinking of rutgers, mcgill, and penn HSS for now!

Cool. We have some similar interests, and it looks like we'll both be applying to Rutgers and Penn (but not HSS for me). 

[Mr. X]

HI All, 

My field of interest are the following: urban sociology/ poverty, social stratification, crime and deviance, qualitative and quantitative methods, drug policy, racial inequality, criminal justice system (factors that contribute to the burgeoning of mass incarceration).

Not entirely sure if I am a strong candidate for these universities since I understand how brutally competitive it is, yet I have the confidence that I have all the necessary criteria and unique background. Anyways, as the saying goes, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.' The programs I am applying include: University of Chicago, NYU, Columbia, Harvard University and CUNY Graduate Center. Please do recommend any other university that is pertinent to the type of studies I want to pursue!

[Illusio80]

7 hours ago, Mr. X said:

HI All, 

My field of interest are the following: urban sociology/ poverty, social stratification, crime and deviance, qualitative and quantitative methods, drug policy, racial inequality, criminal justice system (factors that contribute to the burgeoning of mass incarceration).

Not entirely sure if I am a strong candidate for these universities since I understand how brutally competitive it is, yet I have the confidence that I have all the necessary criteria and unique background. Anyways, as the saying goes, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.' The programs I am applying include: University of Chicago, NYU, Columbia, Harvard University and CUNY Graduate Center. Please do recommend any other university that is pertinent to the type of studies I want to pursue!

I think you've made some good choices.  Maybe look at Minnesota and Berkeley too.  Minnesota is very strong in Crime, Law, and Deviance, and Race/Ethnicity.  Your interests also make me think of Wacquant at Berkeley.  There are probably more out there, but those are my suggestions.

[Mr. X]

5 hours ago, Illusio80 said:

I think you've made some good choices.  Maybe look at Minnesota and Berkeley too.  Minnesota is very strong in Crime, Law, and Deviance, and Race/Ethnicity.  Your interests also make me think of Wacquant at Berkeley.  There are probably more out there, but those are my suggestions.

Yup! I actually forgot to put UC Berkeley, which is actually number one on my list. I was looking over their faculty research and UC Berkeley seems like the perfect department conducive to my passion! Wacquant is one of the main reasons why I want to go there, his work fascinates me. Harvard also has all my favorite sociologist too (i.e. W.J. Wilson, Matthew Desmond, etc.) I will definitely look into Minnesota! If anyone can recommend any others. What have you heard of Princeton? One of my favorite sociologist is there as well. Thank you once again for your recommendation, I greatly appreciate it. 

[Beals]

Hi all,

I'm applying to Northwestern and NYU for soc, and then to several other non-soc programs.  

Good luck!

[Mr. X]

5 hours ago, Beals said:

Hi all,

I'm applying to Northwestern and NYU for soc, and then to several other non-soc programs.  

Good luck!

Your interest of research???

[Beals]

6 hours ago, Mr. X said:

Your interest of research???

Law and society!  So I'm applying to some legal-studies programs and some sociology programs that do soc of law 

[Illusio80]

On 10/7/2016 at 11:16 AM, Mr. X said:

Yup! I actually forgot to put UC Berkeley, which is actually number one on my list. I was looking over their faculty research and UC Berkeley seems like the perfect department conducive to my passion! Wacquant is one of the main reasons why I want to go there, his work fascinates me. Harvard also has all my favorite sociologist too (i.e. W.J. Wilson, Matthew Desmond, etc.) I will definitely look into Minnesota! If anyone can recommend any others. What have you heard of Princeton? One of my favorite sociologist is there as well. Thank you once again for your recommendation, I greatly appreciate it. 

Princeton has been a really good department over the years, but some of their people are getting older and retiring, and some have left.  Who interests you there?

[songofgallifrey]

Hi there! I'm looking to study language policy and linguistic identity, so I'm apply to a couple different programs. Relevant for this thread are the joint Ph.D. programs in Sociology & Social Policy at Harvard and Princeton. I'm also applying to Sociolinguistics at Georgetown, as well as Education Linguistics at UPenn and Second Language Education at Minnesota. One of my former professors, who is writing an LOR for me, highly recommended that I apply to the latter two programs based on my research interests, although I'm not 100% sold on the education bent. Does anyone else have thoughts on schools?

I studied psychology and linguistics at a top 3 university and graduated in summer 2015 with honors. Since then, I've been working as an analyst on fair lending issues, particularly for folks with limited English proficiency, at a financial regulator in DC. My GRE and GPA are both solid, but I'm still worried that I'm not going to be competitive. I have 2/3 professors confirmed to write me letters, and I think they'll write strong ones, but I'm still trying to nail down a third and I'm getting worried. Does anyone have thoughts on applying to PhD programs with 2 academic LORs and 1 non-academic? I'm sure my supervisor would write a strong letter about me and my work ethic, but I thought it would weaken my application.

I also have no idea if my SOP is solid. I think it looks good at this point, but I don't have anyone in my field to ask for advice. What resources are you all using to polish your materials?

Anyway, thanks for the support, even if indirect, from this thread. It's nice to have a community of people working toward a common goal!

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

UCLA is the place to be for the study of language. The department developed and continues to pioneer conversation analysis and social linguistics. 

[Illusio80]

34 minutes ago, MaxWeberHasAPosse said:

UCLA is the place to be for the study of language. The department developed and continues to pioneer conversation analysis and social linguistics. 

I suspect that someone really interested in language (holistically) might be better off in linguistic anthropology or linguistics.  UCLA Sociology still has three conversation analysts by my count, but I don't see a lot of evidence of other linguistic activity, whatever that might be.  Steve Clayman and John Heritage list "Language/Social Linguistics" but I think that is their way of saying conversation analysis.

[Illusio80]

On 10/12/2016 at 7:35 PM, songofgallifrey said:

Hi there! I'm looking to study language policy and linguistic identity, so I'm apply to a couple different programs. Relevant for this thread are the joint Ph.D. programs in Sociology & Social Policy at Harvard and Princeton. I'm also applying to Sociolinguistics at Georgetown, as well as Education Linguistics at UPenn and Second Language Education at Minnesota. One of my former professors, who is writing an LOR for me, highly recommended that I apply to the latter two programs based on my research interests, although I'm not 100% sold on the education bent. Does anyone else have thoughts on schools?

I studied psychology and linguistics at a top 3 university and graduated in summer 2015 with honors. Since then, I've been working as an analyst on fair lending issues, particularly for folks with limited English proficiency, at a financial regulator in DC. My GRE and GPA are both solid, but I'm still worried that I'm not going to be competitive. I have 2/3 professors confirmed to write me letters, and I think they'll write strong ones, but I'm still trying to nail down a third and I'm getting worried. Does anyone have thoughts on applying to PhD programs with 2 academic LORs and 1 non-academic? I'm sure my supervisor would write a strong letter about me and my work ethic, but I thought it would weaken my application.

I also have no idea if my SOP is solid. I think it looks good at this point, but I don't have anyone in my field to ask for advice. What resources are you all using to polish your materials?

Anyway, thanks for the support, even if indirect, from this thread. It's nice to have a community of people working toward a common goal!

Have you considered a masters/PhD in public policy?  I thought there was a consortium of public policy schools, but I can't find the website just now.

 

[songofgallifrey]

@Illusio80 I've poked around looking for the consortium of public policy schools you're referring to, but I'm not sure I found the right one. I've considered a public policy PhD program, but when I started researching programs that fit my research interests I ended up finding social policy programs instead (and specifically the joint policy + sociology programs I mentioned in my original post). Do you have any particular public policy programs in mind?

 

@MaxWeberHasAPosse I took a look at UCLA's Sociology faculty. As @Illusio80 indicated, the two researchers I saw who were interested in language were both conversation analysts, and that's not quite what I'm looking for. If you know of particular faculty members more interested in sociolinguistics, that would be interesting to know.

Thank you both for your thoughts!

[MaxWeberHasAPosse]

 

On 10/19/2016 at 7:20 AM, songofgallifrey said:

@Illusio80 I've poked around looking for the consortium of public policy schools you're referring to, but I'm not sure I found the right one. I've considered a public policy PhD program, but when I started researching programs that fit my research interests I ended up finding social policy programs instead (and specifically the joint policy + sociology programs I mentioned in my original post). Do you have any particular public policy programs in mind?

 

@MaxWeberHasAPosse I took a look at UCLA's Sociology faculty. As @Illusio80 indicated, the two researchers I saw who were interested in language were both conversation analysts, and that's not quite what I'm looking for. If you know of particular faculty members more interested in sociolinguistics, that would be interesting to know.

Thank you both for your thoughts!

Tanya Stivers

[sdr2659]

Hey Everyone,

I had a question about the personal statement. I recently conducted an interview for one of my courses and wanted to include some details from this interview but wasn't sure if this is appropriate. I would get the respondent's permission to include this information before submitting the personal statement I wasn't sure if this would be seen as misusing that person's story. 

[songofgallifrey]

@MaxWeberHasAPosse thanks!

@sdr2659 could you provide more detail about how you're planning to incorporate the interview into your personal statement? I know my answer would change depending on your answer. If you want to include a summary of the interview to illustrate your research interests and motivation for pursuing further research in that field, I think that would be an appropriate use of the information. I would avoid using direct quotes because that could come off as voyeuristic or a misuse of that person's story, but I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts on that. That's to say, your interpretation of or research based on that interview is what's relevant to your personal statement, rather than that person's exact response to a question you posed.