<p>Hello, I recently graduated with my Bachelor's (had to take an extra semester) and I majored in sociology. I plan to work in human services for about a year before applying to graduate schools in December. As I am interested in sociology of mental health, sociology of medicine, and sociology of gender and sexualities. I was given the wrong advice my a peer adviser and took a class that I did not need to take while an undergrad (yes, oh I learned from that mistake!) and took a Music class and failed it. I did not learn til it was too late that I did not need that class and it really hurt my GPA. The last year of undergrad I worked extremely hard to boost it. This past semester I took three sociology courses- Statistics in Sociology (got an A) Sociology of Mental Health (got an A-) and Race Relations (B+). I also earned an A in Sociological Theory in the semester prior. My overall major GPA is just two points off of being a 3.5 and my overall GPA ended up being slightly above 3.1. I plan to take the GRE in either August or September and the school I really want to go to is the University of Connecticut "UCONN" at Storrs. Due to it not only being a school with an awesome sociology graduate program, but also the school fully funds sociology graduate students with a tuition waiver and stipend. I myself am also from Massachusetts so the location would also be of a convenience due to being close with my family rather than myself traveling far for graduate school. Does anyone on here know if I would have a chance? I plan to try to do my best on the GRE and get great letter of recommendation. But with the overall undergraduate GPA of being 3.1 do I have a chance? Would anyone who possibly goes to UCONN have an idea? Thank you!</p>
<p>One class is not enough to tank your GPA and make it a 3.1, so it’s not just failing that music class - you got mostly Bs in other places. And your major GPA is a 3.48, it appears.</p>
<p>I’m curious about why you want to go to UConn so badly. While it seems like a good place, broadly, to study gender and sexualities (although “sociology of gender and sexualities” is very broad and it depends specifically what you want to study), it’s not necessarily a good place to study sociology of mental health and/or medicine. There’s no one in the department doing that. There are a couple of centers at UConn that may facilitate studying medical sociology broadly and perhaps mental health, but you’ll need an advisor in your department. This is a situation in which I might contact 2 or 3 professors in the department with whom you are interested working and asking if they’d be able to advise you in what you want to do.</p>
<p>Second, I’m really curious about your goals with the PhD. While UConn’s department seems to be a decent department and by their own admission some of their graduates have gotten tenure-track jobs at a variety of places - including some research 1 institutions - often going to a low-ranked department can negatively impact your chances at securing academic employment, and UConn is pretty close to the bottom of the barrel (going by the NRC rankings: see here: [NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Sociology - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Sociology”>NRC Rankings Overview: Sociology)).</p>
<p>With that aside - while you’re correct that getting into a lower-ranked sociology PhD program is going to be easier given your grades, UConn still only takes 5-12 students per year in their doctoral program. Even if they only get 50 applicants, that’s still a 10-25% acceptance rate; chances are they get more than 50 applicants. Given that, you seem like a pretty borderline candidate - a 3.1 GPA is low and a 3.48 major GPA is not too low, but not so high as to overcome the cumulative.</p>
<p>So it’s really going to come down to the rest of your application. Your fit is already a bit mediocre - there are a lot of people doing gender and sexualities research there but no one doing mental health and medicine, so you need to 1) investigate whether your research interests are plausible to pursue at UConn, and 2) really write a great statement of purpose in which you detail why you are a good fit for the department. Mention 2 or 3 professors by name (whether or not you have contacted them, although I urge you to in this case) and what specifically about their research interests you, and that you’d be pleased to work with any of them.</p>
<p>Do you have any research experience? Doctoral applicants typically have at least 1, but more commonly 2-3, years of experience in assisting a professor in their field in their research. Having no research experience is usually a non-starter at more competitive programs; I would think any PhD program would look askance at an applicant with no experience. The more you have, the stronger your application.</p>
<p>And of course, please knock the GRE out of the park.</p>
<p>BTW, most sociology doctoral programs fully fund all of their doctoral students…that’s standard. Also, I’m going to PM you.</p>
<p>My goal is to be a professor of sociology and I also went to a community college for three years and a 4 year university for 2.5 semesters. So my 3.1 GPA is from the 2.5 years of four-year university so my community college GPA (where I had about a 3.2) is not added in there.</p>
<p>You need to apply to sociology programs that offer a concentration(s) in sex and gender, mental health, and health and medicine. If the department does not have faculty who conduct research in those areas, then you are wasting your application fee and should apply elsewhere. As a backup, I also recommend that you apply to Master of Social Work (MSW) programs since they typically offer concentrations in mental health and health care.</p>
<p>Social work is going to be a little different, but I sort of agree with tenisghs. I’ve looked around at academic positions, and an MSW + a PhD in sociology would allow you to teach at a school of social work in addition to in a department of sociology. Some require the MSW + PhD and 2 years of social work experience, though.</p>
<p>Do you have any research experience?</p>