Hey y’all. I just graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University with a BA in History, and I’m searching for grad schools.
Right now I have a lot of choices (still have to take my GREs).
My first choice is UConn’s Latino/a Studies Program (El Instituto). They’re offering all new students a tuition waiver and a $20,000 stipend, and I have a lot of connections to that department through alumni and people who work with them.
I’m also looking at Binghamton for Sociology. One of my professors got his doctorate there and I wrote a paper that I presented at a conference and hope to get published, so I figure I’ll have a great recommendation letter.
My other choices are UMass Amherst, UW- Madison and UT Austin. I’ll also have great recommendation letters for the latter two.
Unfortunately, my GPA is only 3.1. I doubt I’ll have a problem getting into UConn with good GRE scores, but the others are more problematic.
Any advice?
Thanks,
mantisacolyte
(I edited your post title to make it a bit more descriptive, so you’d get more targeted responses).
Do you have significant coursework in sociology? Because sociology is a discipline, and your BA is in history. I think it would be difficult to get admission to a sociology PhD program with a background in history unless you have a lot of coursework in sociology.
What is your scholarship/research fit with these departments? Do your research interests align with a few members of the department?
A 3.1 is a bit low for a PhD, but not impossible. You just need to make sure that the rest of your application package is outstanding. You may also want to apply to a few MA programs.
Thanks for the help, Juillet. I’ve only taken two courses in Sociology, so I guess that does hold me back a bit. But I figured that since I have a background in a social science, I could make the transition after taking some basic courses. I fell in love with Sociology after taking a course called “Sociology of Labor,” and I figured that after having written a research paper in the discipline I would have a little more clout.
I plan on getting a terminal Master’s degree before applying to a doctoral program, both to improve my GPA and because my mentors all recommended getting one regardless. UMass, Tulane, and UT all have Latin Americanist sociologists with backgrounds in social movements or historical Sociology, which are my interest areas. I figure that after taking some sociology courses at UConn (El Instituto is an interdisciplinary program), I could transition into Sociology for my doctorate.