Women's/Feminist/Gender Studies Fall 2017

[kekology4]

7 hours ago, ak91 said:

Hi everyone! Congrats to all those who have received acceptances! I was just curious if anyone has heard anything back from UCLA? I'm wondering whether its just over now for those who haven't heard anything by this point. 

Just got my UCLA rejection this morning by e-mail 

[tanayamohanty4]

6 hours ago, kekology4 said:

Just got my UCLA rejection this morning by e-mail 

me, too

[kguptaa]

declined my offer at UCSC yesterday - such a hard decision because Santa Cruz was GORGEOUS. hope that opens up a spot for someone here!

[shrimble]

Hello all! I didn't know you were here, or I would have joined the conversation earlier! Congrats to all who have been accepted to their dream programs! I am here to commiserate with those also languishing on a wait list. I was invited to Emory for the recruitment weekend and promptly rejected after floundering in one of my interviews, so now all of my hopes are riding on being accepted into Rutgers from the wait list. I called the department to check on the situation, but all I know is that those admitted have until April 15th to accept or decline, so there's not much comfort in that.  It's a long shot, but it's all of I've got at the moment. Good luck to everyone else currently on wait lists!

[kekology4]

@kguptaa thanks for the info! i hear its so gorgeous there. 

@shrimble thanks for the congrats and good luck with rutgers. 

[ak91]

@Tanayamohanty4 and @kekology4, I'm sorry to hear of your rejections, but thank you for sharing.

 I haven't heard anything yet, I think UCLA forgot about my application smh :/

[kguptaa]

On March 17, 2017 at 10:49 AM, shrimble said:

Hello all! I didn't know you were here, or I would have joined the conversation earlier! Congrats to all who have been accepted to their dream programs! I am here to commiserate with those also languishing on a wait list. I was invited to Emory for the recruitment weekend and promptly rejected after floundering in one of my interviews, so now all of my hopes are riding on being accepted into Rutgers from the wait list. I called the department to check on the situation, but all I know is that those admitted have until April 15th to accept or decline, so there's not much comfort in that.  It's a long shot, but it's all of I've got at the moment. Good luck to everyone else currently on wait lists!

also on the rutgers wait list - I ended up accepting another offer last week instead of waiting around for them. good luck to you!

[Adelaide9216]

Hello fellow feminists!
 

I will be starting a MSW (Master of Social Work next fall) but I want to take the Feminist and Gender Studies Graduate Option as well since my topic is really tied to feminism.

 

[kekology4]

where is santa cruz!!!!?????? im gunna be very old by the time i hear back from them

[Adelaide9216]

Hello, what is the minimum gpa to be admitted to gender, women and sexuality studies at Harvard out of curiosity?

[shrimble]

On 3/20/2017 at 10:58 AM, kguptaa said:

also on the rutgers wait list - I ended up accepting another offer last week instead of waiting around for them. good luck to you!

Congratulations! I just received an email from the department asking me to confirm that I am still interested in a spot. It's not an offer; they are just checking to see who on the waiting list would accept a position if one becomes available. I am trying not to sound too eager or desperate in my response, but I'm not sure I am pulling it off.

[kekology4]

Rejected from santa cruz so i'm going to stony brook! i went to their admit day wednesday and absolutely loved it. i think i'll be really happy there. Thanks everyone for all the support along the way. 

[tanayamohanty4]

On 17/03/2017 at 10:55 PM, kguptaa said:

declined my offer at UCSC yesterday - such a hard decision because Santa Cruz was GORGEOUS. hope that opens up a spot for someone here!

Hi, CONGRATULATIONS to all those who got acceptances. I am a newbie in this scene and I received my final rejection from UCSC, from which I had some hope as a professor had agreed to work with me. I just wanted some help in finding out what will help me ensure an admission next time. I had applied in OSU,UW,UM,UK,ASU,UA,UCSC,UCSB,UCLA,Emory. I'm giving my details here:

MA in Economics 6.4

BA 6.9

One year of  a prestigious national rural development fellowship on women empowerment

GRE 156Q, 152V, 4.5AWA

TOEFL-108 iBT

 

Please dm me or tag me here. I will be very grateful if you guys can make any suggestions at all.

[hj2012]

On 4/6/2017 at 10:31 AM, tanayamohanty4 said:

Hi, CONGRATULATIONS to all those who got acceptances. I am a newbie in this scene and I received my final rejection from UCSC, from which I had some hope as a professor had agreed to work with me. I just wanted some help in finding out what will help me ensure an admission next time. I had applied in OSU,UW,UM,UK,ASU,UA,UCSC,UCSB,UCLA,Emory. I'm giving my details here:

MA in Economics 6.4

BA 6.9

One year of  a prestigious national rural development fellowship on women empowerment

GRE 156Q, 152V, 4.5AWA

TOEFL-108 iBT

 

Please dm me or tag me here. I will be very grateful if you guys can make any suggestions at all.

 

Were these all gender/women's studies programs? What are your research interests and methods? I only ask because the field of gender/feminist/women's studies in the U.S. tends to have a heavier humanities/cultural studies bent, and an MA in Economics is not usually good preparation for the kinds of critical cultural analysis that these programs demand. Your V score is somewhat low for a humanities degree as well.

If your interests are in economics, rural development, and gender, a sociology PhD program might be a better fit. You might also look into interdisciplinary programs in area studies or global/international studies. 

Hope this helps...

[Adelaide9216]

Hello, do you listen to any specific feminist/anti-oppressive/social justice podcasts? 

[Adelaide9216]

2 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

Hello, do you listen to any specific feminist/anti-oppressive/social justice podcasts? 

I don't understnad why I got a negative note for this post. I actually asked this because I want to educate myself on feminist issues a lot more. I'm doing a graduate option in feminist studies next Fall.

[tanayamohanty4]

On 08/04/2017 at 0:52 AM, hj2012 said:

If your interests are in economics, rural development, and gender, a sociology PhD program might be a better fit. You might also look into interdisciplinary programs in area studies or global/international studies. 

Hope this helps...

Many thanks for taking your time out! Nice people out here. Please peep in and comment:

1) "Good" GRE score

2) Importance of Research Paper

3) Importance of attendance in seminars

4) Any other thing

That can be done to increase my chances? @kekology4, @kguptaa Please help! This can help future students like me :-)

[Adelaide9216]

Anyone here knows a good forum that is entirely focused on Gender and Women's Studies? I'm asking this because it could be a good opportunity to connect with other feminists in academia during our studies.

[NoirFemme]

On 4/16/2017 at 0:01 PM, Adelaide9216 said:

Anyone here knows a good forum that is entirely focused on Gender and Women's Studies? I'm asking this because it could be a good opportunity to connect with other feminists in academia during our studies.

Twitter. Ann M. Little is a good starting point: https://twitter.com/historiann

[kguptaa]

On April 16, 2017 at 6:02 AM, tanayamohanty4 said:

Many thanks for taking your time out! Nice people out here. Please peep in and comment:

1) "Good" GRE score

2) Importance of Research Paper

3) Importance of attendance in seminars

4) Any other thing

That can be done to increase my chances? @kekology4, @kguptaa Please help! This can help future students like me :-)

While all of those components are important, I really think it comes down to the fit of your research interests with those of the faculty at whatever schools you're applying to. It was always my dream to go to a feminist studies program, and I had such a hard time finding professors who could mentor me that I ended up accepting an anthropology offer over two GWSS offers (still a little bummed about it). It could be even harder to justify your case to a school when you're not using an explicit gender studies perspective - committees reject so many great people for any number of small reasons. You really have to sell them on the fact that YOU belong there over the many other SUPER QUALIFIED applicants.

Great for you that you found one professor already - I would say keep trying to personally connect with professors you're interested in working with, and also talk to current graduate students. Read the research that comes out of these departments and think about how yours fits in with it - are you using similar lenses/language, etc? I think a lot of people don't understand that gender studies isn't just about "women's issues" and you need to speak to the larger disciplinary POV and terminology. I did development studies in undergrad and I knew a ton of people who studied gender in one project and thought that qualified them to do a gender studies MA. (Not saying you're doing that, just to be mindful of it.) If you want to do gender studies over sociology, you really have to make a case for why that framework shapes your work.

Make sure you don't send the same statement of purpose to every school - tailor as many details of your application as you can to the specific program. That can be hard (I know, I applied 13 places this cycle), but I think sending in a handful of really thorough applications is better than just sending one general one everywhere.

Also - have as many people read your research paper as possible. Professors, colleagues, friends, etc. I was originally really proud of what I submitted (after having it reviewed by two former profs), but I read it recently and wanted to *facepalm* so much. There is always room to grow and add nuance to your arguments. Plus, even multiple rounds of editors can miss small grammatical errors. Same goes for you SoP - I ended up paying a professional editor to look at mine (I can be a little bit on the verbose side), and it really helped me craft a stronger and more succinct statement. It's easy to forget that the people reading our applications don't know us at all. Really use the space you have to knock them over the head with why you belong!

Good luck to you, feel free to PM me if you need anything else!

[Skyride Season]

On 4/16/2017 at 9:02 AM, tanayamohanty4 said:

Many thanks for taking your time out! Nice people out here. Please peep in and comment:

1) "Good" GRE score

2) Importance of Research Paper

3) Importance of attendance in seminars

4) Any other thing

That can be done to increase my chances? @kekology4, @kguptaa Please help! This can help future students like me :-)

Hey!

 

1) I had a horrible (not "horrible," but horrible) GRE score. The program I got into doesn't look at GRE scores. w00t.

2) I wrote a thesis for my MA program, part of which I used for my writing sample. I think that probably made me look good?

3) By seminars, do you mean conferences? I was lucky in my MA program in that I presented at several conferences and also helped organize a couple. For the program I was accepted to, I believe this looked good, as they seem to value engagement with others in the field (which tends to happen at conferences).

4) I think I had some killer letters of rec. Obviously I couldn't see them/am not privy to their contents, but I've seen letters that those faculty had written for other students, and they were great. Plus, one of the faculty at the program I got into has a working relationship with a faculty member from my MA program. I'm not sure if that helped? Seems likely. Also: even though my GRE was awful, I had a 4.0 in my MA program, which apparently didn't help with regard to the other two places I applied to, as I was rejected from them. However, I think the place I'll be going to in the fall just doesn't care about numbers that much and is much less invested in quantifying students' abilities than most programs-- so I'm not sure they were all that impressed by my 4.0, anyway.

 

Good luck!!

Edited April 21, 2017 by Skyride Season

[Skyride Season]

On 4/16/2017 at 3:01 PM, Adelaide9216 said:

Anyone here knows a good forum that is entirely focused on Gender and Women's Studies? I'm asking this because it could be a good opportunity to connect with other feminists in academia during our studies.

If such a forum existed, I would join it!

 

p.s. I reckon you'll continue getting voted down on posts like this because it might be perceived as generating competition with this site and I doubt moderators like that.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Skyride Season
Revised my grammar

[Adelaide9216]

2 hours ago, Skyride Season said:

If such a forum existed, I would join it!

 

p.s. I reckon you'll continue getting voted down on posts like this because it might be perceived as generating competition with this site and I doubt moderators like that.

That totally isn't my intention. I love this forum.

[Adelaide9216]

So excited to start this semester in two weeks! I have a Feminist theories class, a class on violence against women and another one on research methods. What about you? 

 

I also wanted to ask, does any of you know a researcher working on the intersection of race, gender and mental health as a topic? I've been doing research for many many weeks and I have not been able to find any expert on this specific matter.

Edited August 22, 2017 by Adelaide9216

[Sigaba]

2 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

So excited to start this semester in two weeks! I have a Feminist theories class, a class on violence against women and another one on research methods. What about you? 

 

I also wanted to ask, does any of you know a researcher working on the intersection of race, gender and mental health as a topic? I've been doing research for many many weeks and I have not been able to find any expert on this specific matter.

Sarah Rosenfield