U Washington 2010

[3tents]

Anybody get anything official yet?

[angesa01]

Good luck!

On 2/11/2010 at 4:04 PM, 3tents said:

Anybody get anything official yet?

[3tents]

Good to know. I heard from the Soc department that they are still deciding and might get a list next week.

Edited February 11, 2010 by 3tents

[captiv8ed]

I applied and have heard nothing yet.

I have a feeling I am not sciencey and quantitative enough for them.

I live in WA and don't want to leave, so I am anxious to hear back!

[St. Jude]

Good to know. I heard from the Soc department that they are still deciding and might get a list next week.

I hope you are right!

[Milkman95th]

I am also a Washington resident who applied to their sociology program and one of the graduate program staff told me this about a month ago through email, ‘The admissions committee begins review of applications mid-January and we expect to convey decisions to applicants no later than the last week of February.” Hope this helps.

[tripax]

I have a feeling I am not sciencey and quantitative enough for them.

Does UW have that sort of reputation? What do they usually look for in an applicant?

[Milkman95th]

Does UW have that sort of reputation? What do they usually look for in an applicant?

I went to UW as an undergrad and I talked too many of the professors in the department about what the program was like and all of them said that it is super quantitative. One professor in particular told me that there are only a few people who have a social interest in sociology within the department.

[tripax]

I went to UW as an undergrad and I talked too many of the professors in the department about what the program was like and all of them said that it is super quantitative. One professor in particular told me that there are only a few people who have a social interest in sociology within the department.

I can't say that is bad news for me, but I hate waiting...

[hip2btriangle]

I can't say that is bad news for me, but I hate waiting...

i wouldn't be too quick to discount schools that are "too quant" or the other way around -- every sociologist should be trained in all the methodology of their field, and when you do your own research and work on your own dissertation you find advisors that make sense for you. some quant profs are AMAZING advisors for both quant and qual work, and honestly if you're the minority in the department as far as methodology or interests go, you might stand out a little more among the few profs there who do that kind of work. visit first, then talk with the professors and students.

[captiv8ed]

One of my recommenders is a department head at another school, but got her PhD at Washington years ago. She still works with people from there. She has told me on more than one occasion that UW is heavily quantitative, and that it is Science with a capital S! I met with a dean from another school and he also stressed that Washington leans heavily on the quant side. This just came up in conversation, when he was using UW as a comparison to another school.

[hip2btriangle]

One of my recommenders is a department head at another school, but got her PhD at Washington years ago. She still works with people from there. She has told me on more than one occasion that UW is heavily quantitative, and that it is Science with a capital S! I met with a dean from another school and he also stressed that Washington leans heavily on the quant side. This just came up in conversation, when he was using UW as a comparison to another school.

I recently spoke with a qualitatively-oriented student at UW who said she was among a minority, but felt strong support there.

[Milkman95th]

Nothing. I called the grad advisor for my program (MA/PhD Music) and she said nothing official goes out until early March. I don't know if that's true for all programs, but that's what I'm hearing.

My guess is that we should have heard something by now if we were to have gotten in. I say this because someone has posted that they got in on the results part of the form and it looks like they have added a bunch of graduate profiles to their web page. Also, I only live 25 miles from the campus, so if they mailed the results I should have gotten them first. Better luck next time.

[captiv8ed]

Hey! I am in Washington state and got a wait list letter today!

[MashaMashaMasha]

Yep - Got my wait-list letter on Monday, and I'm on the east coast. Hopefully people will start to decline soon!

[Milkman95th]

Yep - Got my wait-list letter on Monday, and I'm on the east coast. Hopefully people will start to decline soon!

My guess is they send out acceptance and wait list letters first, then rejection letters at the end. I live down the road from the campus and have not heard anything from them. Looks like I am not going there.

[RoRo]

My guess is they send out acceptance and wait list letters first, then rejection letters at the end. I live down the road from the campus and have not heard anything from them. Looks like I am not going there.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too :-( Looks like University of Washington won't be happening for me either. It's a pretty big bummer because I was excited about their program....

[Milkman95th]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too :-( Looks like University of Washington won't be happening for me either. It's a pretty big bummer because I was excited about their program....

Yep, our suspicions were correct. I got an automated rejection letter today via email. Classy.

[MashaMashaMasha]

Yep, our suspicions were correct. I got an automated rejection letter today via email. Classy.

Bummer. Hope things work out better for your other schools!

[HKK]

i wouldn't be too quick to discount schools that are "too quant" or the other way around -- every sociologist should be trained in all the methodology of their field, and when you do your own research and work on your own dissertation you find advisors that make sense for you. some quant profs are AMAZING advisors for both quant and qual work, and honestly if you're the minority in the department as far as methodology or interests go, you might stand out a little more among the few profs there who do that kind of work. visit first, then talk with the professors and students.

Washington is NOT one of those schools. Don't be fooled, there are no opportunities for qual work there. I almost went there, and picked another heavily quant school instead. I still have tons of friends in the program, all huge data nerds like me. The biggest lie that will hurt you the most is a quant school telling qual students they could make it work for them. My roommate just dropped out of our program here for that exact reason. Qual kids need not apply to UW.

[HKgal]

Really??? Is it highly quantitative? Gosh! I am a highly qualitative person and have just confirmed my enrollment with my deposits. I am accepted by UIC, UMass and FSU too. But I have rejected UMass and FSU just now. Should I accept UIC instead? Or should I bear with being quantitative and learn to deal with numbers? Is there really no room for qualitative persons in UW?

[gradtheory]

Really??? Is it highly quantitative? Gosh! I am a highly qualitative person and have just confirmed my enrollment with my deposits. I am accepted by UIC, UMass and FSU too. But I have rejected UMass and FSU just now. Should I accept UIC instead? Or should I bear with being quantitative and learn to deal with numbers? Is there really no room for qualitative persons in UW?

Hi HKgal,

i think your best bet would be to email the professors you are likely to work with and see what is their response. you might also consider emailing their current grad students to get an inside scoop of things. While some departments are heavily quantitative, there may be faculty who are still very supportive of students who do qual work.

[HKK]

Really??? Is it highly quantitative? Gosh! I am a highly qualitative person and have just confirmed my enrollment with my deposits. I am accepted by UIC, UMass and FSU too. But I have rejected UMass and FSU just now. Should I accept UIC instead? Or should I bear with being quantitative and learn to deal with numbers? Is there really no room for qualitative persons in UW?

I would make it VERY explicit to whomever you want to work with that you will be doing qualitative work and see how they react. When I mentioned it on my visit it was almost like I'd said a dirty word or cursed in front of them. I'm highly quantitative, but I also think support for mixed methods is an important quality for a department to have. Ironically, I chose my other highly quantitative school on my list and I've done just fine. Again though, I love numbers, I get numbers, I love stats, and qualitative work was more of an afterthought. My friends in the dept have told me the "support" for qualitative work is laughable though.

[a fragrant plant]

I can confirm this. My friend who was an anthropology major got into UW Soc for his PhD. Obviously with his anthro background he's pretty much a qualitative person, but the dept is heavily quantitative.

[captiv8ed]

I can confirm this. My friend who was an anthropology major got into UW Soc for his PhD. Obviously with his anthro background he's pretty much a qualitative person, but the dept is heavily quantitative.

After meeting with faculty last week and discussing this, I am no longer afraid to be a qualitative person there. Which is not to say that they aren't heavily quantitative, because they definitely are. But it sounds like the teach quant very well so that people can get the grounding.

Now, if only they will take me off the wait list!!

Edited April 19, 2010 by captiv8ed