I got the same e-mail from UMD. Horrible e-mail. Usually don't care about wording/format, it's the content that matters. But after receiving some standard and some actually uplifting/constructive rejections... UMD's sucked.
Meanwhile, some stats to hopefully encourage those of us with nothing tangible yet:
A friend of mine sent out 51 job applications (a few years ago), got 48 rejections, 3 phone interviews, 2 campus visits and 2 job offers. So even a SUCCESSFUL search is 95% rejection.
So far, what I have to show for my 32 applications this year is a campus visit (upcoming) and several that I haven't heard from.
People who delude themselves into thinking they are comedians should understand that when no one laughs...ever...perhaps that is a good sign that perhaps they are not as funny as they think themselves to be.
There is/was a fellow grad student in my department, and for some reason, he designated himself as the department clown. Only problem is, no one laughed at his "jokes." In fact, there was always dead silence after his "punchline." I think he also tries to crack jokes on the few job interviews he is able to get. Not surprisingly, I don't think anyone has offered him a tenure-track position.
I thought the Ferris Bueller reference was funny (it was a nice memory for an oldster like me), but I didn't understand the context. But clearly, if you leave your cheese out in the wind, someone will smell it and try to steal it, hence not allowing you to achieve said position in life (which, apparently, is cheese master).
In any event, can I just say Happy New Year to everybody! It will be interesting to see who got the plumb jobs (and who actually deserved them)!
I have noticed that several top schools have made offers (Michigan, the California schools, Penn, Wisconsin, Chicago, Rice, etc.), but that these offers have not been accepted, at least according to the wiki. Does anyone have any idea what or who (or how many whos, since we can't disclose identities) are holding up the process? Are some of the superstars still interviewing, or just waiting to make their decisions?
Someone listed that Wheaton College (I assume in MA) has begun scheduling interviews. Any information on this (i.e., when contacted, when is interview, etc)? I checked the blog 2-3 days ago and this was not listed at that time. Thanks. Also, anyone heard about Stonehill College?
Indeed, almost all these schools have candidates sitting on offers as they wait on other offers. Problem is that candidate X may have 4 offers but not the one s/he wants and so is waiting for candidate Y to make a decision on that job because if Y turns it down then X can get it. But Y may be waiting on Z...
When decisions do come, it will be like a house of cards collapsing. Many of these schools are avoiding contacting those they interviewed who are not their first choice so that if and when X declines they can call up the others.
It may still be some time though, because most R1's don't give their top choice an arbitrary deadline and so this can be drawn out for months. Right now, a number of them are waiting to interview for the RWJ postdocs and see the outcome before they commit to a school.
re: 2:31. I don't think University of Vermont is hiring this year. The last thing I heard from the search chair was that administrative issues might prevent them from hiring this year.
Does anyone know anything about Cornell-PAM. I see that an offer for Cornell was accepted, but I assume that is for the soc. position. Was only one person interviewed for the PAM position, and where do they stand with offers/more interviews?
Re: 8:35 - were you recently contacted? I had heard that they set up the open search interviews well before the holidays? Perhaps it is opened up again (good news possibly?). Either way, good luck!
I was contacted yesterday. They have just begun the interviews for the open position. Any other interviews they have had have been for the crim position.
Cornell's PAM interviewed two junior candidates. The search was open rank and they decided to make two senior offers, rather than a junior offer, this year.
Could whoever posted that they accepted an offer from University of Vermont please specify whether it was for the race/inequality position or the public policy position. Thanks
Southwestern sent an email with an attachment titled "Rejection letter" and told us to see the attachment for information about the status of the search.
Then today they sent an email telling candidates to disregard the email and look for our rejection letters to come via USPS.
To make it even worse...they just listed all the recipients instead of blinding the addresses. Tacky.
I got a very nice rejection letter from Cornell-Soc today. One of the friendliest I have seen yet. They got over 200 applications and extended three offers. Two have been accepted, and they expect the third one to be accepted as well.
When there is more than one opening in the department, can we please do a better job of specifying on the wiki which position you're talking about. For instance, St. Lawrence University had a methods position and a rural soc. position. For which one was the offer accepted? Same thing with the University of Vermont. Which one?
Anyone hear anything from Sonoma State's American Multicultural Studies search lately? They requested application forms from "potential semi-finalists" in early December.
I, too, have been wondering about the Tulane position. I emailed the chair mid-december to ask where they were in the process and never received a response.
I believe the accepted offer is for the race position, although this is not about myself but an acquaintance who definitely took the job but I don't think participates in the blog/wiki. Sorry I didn't realize there were multiple positions there...I had just seen several requests for info, and conflicting reports, so I thought I should share what I knew for sure. As for further details beyond acceptance of the offer, I'm not the right person to respond.
I am very sorry for the inevitable disappointments, and understand all too well how crushing such news can be, but I figured in the spirit of the blog that this was better than being unduly strung along.
Yeah, well...when you read the comments in the 'hires' section of this wiki, you realize how high the stakes are for getting the job that begins one's research career. When you're negotiating for high starting salaries, start up funding, and low teaching requirements (I absolutely refuse to say '2-1' and 'teaching load' in the same sentence), it's worth it to attenuate the process and negotiate hard. So I think the big cats will be playing for a while longer.
I agree with 11:49. If you have like 5 offers, give up at least three of them. The rest of us dont want to be doing 5 phone interviews in one week and 4 flyouts in one month just because you can't make a decision.
About those with multiple offers who are taking their sweet time... I'm sure there are a few to blame. But I know there's definitely one main culprit this year. I'm not naming names, but it's probably not too hard for anyone to guess. Why is it that sociology gets so caught up in an emperor-has-no-clothes situation? I mean, I can understand it "sociologically" but that still just seems so unsatisfactory.
I am not sure I know who you are referring to but I would like to put an end to this discussion right here and now. I am not happy with how the market turned out for me either--I'm sitting here on pins and needles waiting and hoping for phone calls that never come.
But there is no need to disparage someone else work just because you are unhappy with your own situation.
you can't be serious. "blaming" people for their good fortune? look, even negotiating one offer is complicated. having multiple offers only makes it more so. congratulations to those who have this problem. the rest is sour grapes.
I have a feeling that many more positions have been accepted than what's on the wiki. Once people have accepted a job, they are just not as interested in posting anymore....
It's not just that people aren't interested in posting anymore once they have a job, it's also that it takes a REALLY long time for everything to be settled (and not just on the job candidates side). I won't put my job up as accepted until I get the final letter. You know, those of us with jobs feel pretty anxious too, for different reasons, but still pretty anxious. Before anyone decides to identify me as selfish for not listing my job as accepted until its official, let me say, it's a job that is listed as having made offers and having sent rejection letters.
9:04, Nobody was calling YOU selfish. They were calling the people who have 5 job offers and are stringing them all along rather than giving up a couple so the colleges can move onto somebody else. If you have that many offers, you can' honestly say that you are seriously considering all of them. The schools are just as much to blame. Once an offer is made, there should be a 2-4 week period to accept or decline the offer. Anything longer than 4 weeks is unfair to everybody involved.
I don't think I have sour grapes. I'm actually in a good position...I have accepted an offer, and had the fortune to have a few possibilities, but I took all the factors (in and out of offers, like partners) into consideration, made up my mind, and stuck to what I think is a reasonable window for doing all this.
And while I did use the word "blame" in my post, I didn't mean blaming anyone for their success. I'm just sitting here looking around at those monopolizing the market and thinking, jesus, you've got to be effing kidding me.
Finally, I also understand and empathize with the post by 9:04am, about very gingerly advertising, or not, your accepted job. That's a different issue. My beef is with others who are not yet committing to a job -- and the search committees that are allowing them to get away with this AND pretending that the field of applicants this year isn't full of plenty of others who could do just as fine a job as -- if not far better than -- those who have ended up as "emperors" this year.
People, could this line of commentary not be posted in the Misc. Discussion of the Job Market section? Let's leave this area for comments and info on active searches instead of bitching lines, please. Get over yourselves and post some useful information.
10:55, your post wasn't any more useful than the others. If you don't want to read about it, then don't! It has just as much to do with inquiries about interviews and status of searches as anything posted in this thread.
Someone asked about Holy Cross. Here's what I know: Mid-December they sent an e-mail to a short list of people, asking for writing samples, a sample syllabus, and official transcripts from the schools they've attended. The e-mail indicated that the search committee would be meeting again in mid-January - today, I think - to pick people to bring on campus for an interview.
I think people who are urging "hurry up" to those with multiple offers don't really understand the process. It can take up to 6 weeks (especially given the holiday break) for a departmental vote to extend an offer to become an official letter in your mailbox. So try to be patient...
I think people are also misunderstanding another aspect of how offers work. I'm a grad student at one of the "top programs" mentioned above and know from faculty that they made offers to every candidate who they were willing to hire (i.e. more offers than were initially posted). If those offers are declined, they have no intention of dipping back into the applicant or interview pool. Even if the "superstar" declines the offer, new opportunities and offers won't materialize at this point. I suspect that my school isn't the only one in this situation, and that's its really more a myth that someone with multiple offers is tying up the system.
As someone at another top R1 I should clarify that it is NOT a myth that "starts" hold up job markets. We really wanted to hire our second choice but the dean would not approve. This person is now waiting to see if #1 declines. My colleagues at several other R1s, including Ivy's, tell a similar story. It is obvious that some, such as NYU (who made 3 offers), made offers to everyone they were interested in. Yet I can think of far more than a handful that I know fought hard and lost that battle.
1:54 here - fair enough. I just wanted to raise the possibility that not as many new offers may materialize as people expect. NYU isn't the only school that made multiple offers, so it's not that unreasonable for people to start considering this option.
I have never understood this, either, although it has happened to several people I know.
Is it possible that one's advisor inadvertently sends a rec letter? So then you get cataloged in the school's "system?" Or did you apply sometime in the past, and somehow you're just still in their system?
Has anyone heard anything about, or from, the CUNY-Hunter job? Not the demography position. I noticed the social movements/law one isn't posted on the university's human resources site anymore. Maybe because the deadline's past?
A friend of mine has been informed he is a finalist for Michigan Soc of Fellows, I don't have more info than that. I think it happened 10 days ago or so.
OK. Can I just...why is nothing happening??!!! Why is there no word??!! Why is there no discussion on the blog??!!! The silence is killing me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Someone posted on the wiki that UMass boston has scheduled phone interview for public policy position. How many people have they contacted, and were all contacted at once?
I heard that USC actually made an offer to a candidate but the funding was revoked for the line (and for several other positions in different departments). So they will not be making a hire.
That's awful about USC. Once a position is listed, it should be illegal to pull funding for it. People put a lot of time and energy into applying, interviewing, etc. Its bs.
I received the letter last week, although I am international. Theirs is the only rejection letter I kept because it was very nicely worded, even with the SC chair's hand written note. Very moved, depite not getting the job.
St. Lawrence University could take a lesson from USC in letter writing. I just got the rudest rejection letter from them than from any other place. Even Cornell, which had many more applicants than SLU sent a much nicer letter.
Why does the nature of a rejection letter matter? Who would take it personally? If you get a nice one, and you know that 200 other people got the same letter, would you still let it make you feel good, imagining that it was actually somehow about you?
you mean academics can be callous and dismissive? say it isn't so!!! really, unless you went and interviewed and had some actual human interaction, don't let it make you bitter. a rejection letter has only one meaningful message to deliver. whether they received 300 sparkling applications or 40 mediocre ones, the result is the same. once again, in the real (read: non-academic) world, applicants typically don't receive any response at all, let alone coddling....
I don't think anyone said that ther felt personally attacked/betrayed/etc. I think the point is that some schools recognize the time and effort that goes into applying and they acknowledge that in their rejection letters. Schools that send terse and/or rude rejection letters reveal that the tone of their department is one where they do not value your time and energy. Bottom line, schools that send those kinds of rejection letters reveal themselves as place where we shouldnt even want to be.
The USC offer wasn't pulled because they cut funding; it was pulled because a Dean did not approve of the records of the 4 candidates interviewed. Apparently because USC is trying to revamp its image at the university level, first-year hires are expected to have resumes that would get them tenure right now. It's unfortunate that the Soc dept got screwed in the process. (And makes you wonder why the university ever asked them to seek out a junior hire in the first place.)
Re: USC. How on earth did that happen? The Wiki indicates that the Dean pulled all 4 candidates, including the one that was offered the job. I thought the dean (and even some higher ups) had to approve the candidates AND who the job is extended to before any job offer is extended, so how could this have happened? Wow. That really sucks for the soc dept and for the job candidates. It's high time that the admin people need to get their thumbs out of their asses. Also, USC needs to stop pretending like they are Harvard material, because Harvard, they ain't.
All of USC's candidate were very good and from top institutions. What is sad is that the department found someone they really wanted to hire and their candidacy was approved by the lower level deans. Apparently the highest dean only wanted to hire someone from an Ivy League (this is their idea of revamping the school) which was not communicated to the department until the last minute. As someone mentioned, it takes a lot of time and effort just to apply, but to have four people go through the interview process, make an offer to someone whom they feel strongly about and only to have them (and the department!) be shot down in the end by the dean is a waste of time for the potential candidates and the department. It is probably best not to start off your career at such an institution.
agreed. it's too bad for the people in USC's department who did all that work to conduct the search, as well as the candidates in the running (who included Ivy Leaguers that didn't pass the Dean's hire), spent all that time.
What in the world is going on with Chicago's offers? They were posted on friggin' Halloween! Have the offers been accepted, rejected, or retracted, or is Chicago still getting strung along by candidates who won't commit?
RE: USC Several of you are correct on various accounts. The deans did approve more lines than they intended to hire in the end. There were a few departments whose candidates were also not approved. All of the Soc candidates were given the green light to bring in and the lower level deans green lighted the hire. But, USC's upper administration wanted a junior candidate with a record like the pigeon guy, which is laughable, because as a previous poster remarked, Harvard, Yale and Princeton they are not.
Re: USC--I don't think its laughable at all since the market is flooded with candidates who have astonishing publication records, and the Harvards of the world can't hire all of them.
The USC situation is unclear. Did they want somebody with a highly competitive record (there are many of these people around in the market this year) or someone from an Ivy League? If the latter was the case ten the three stars of this year would not get hired there -despite their publication record-since 2 of them are from top ten departments but not Ivy League schools and the remaining one comes from a Public School ranked in the early 30s. Odd.
People—does it really matter what happened with that California school famous for its football team? I ‘spose for some of us it does, as the job market is very taxing mentally and emotionally. I happen to have inside info so let me put this discussion to rest y’all! This hire was in a specific area which none of this year’s “stars” study. Don’t get me wrong, the candidates were all fantastic but their records don’t compare to pigeon or culture boy (few of those on the market do). The department and the administration have not been on the same page for some time, especially about supporting departmental tenure recommendations, which is why a number of people who began their careers at said school have recently left. This whole thing boils down to tensions between the department and the new top dean. It has nothing to do with the candidates. Everything was ok’d by the lower level deans (candidates to bring in, the potential hire who the department was very excited about) so a verbal offer was made. It was the new top dean who squelched the line before an offer was given in writing. And it did not only happen to Sociology. The lesson here is that you want to end up at a place where the administration supports the department (and that nothing is finalized till you get that written offer!) So is it really worth discussing any further? I say time to move on!
Not the pigeon guy...but perhaps the only person in the world who thinks that individuals' rights to privacy regarding career (and life) decisions PERHAPS ought to trump alleviating the (significant and understandable) anxieties of job-seekers.
Privacy?? From a different angle, what most of us are trying to do here amounts to becoming (minor) public figures. If you want privacy, you don't publish, for one thing. Pigeon guy, having achieved success, better get used to the academic equivalent of flashbulbs.
pardon 1:29, but your statement seems a bit incongruous with your 'anonymous' signature... seems to me that publishing entails one's own decision to waive anonymity. rather different from blog-paparazzi!!!
I agree with 10:37 and 12:47. First of all, I don't think it is fair to publicly discuss one person's fate when we have purposefully avoided discussing specific individuals thus far. Besides, why focus on what one particular candidate is doing in the first place? Why perpetuate the obsession?
And to say that one's decision to publish means that one automatically forfeits one's privacy is just nonsense. Many of us have to publish to keep our careers. It has nothing to do with being a celebrity.
One publishes to enter into a public debate of ideas about the arguments presented, their validity, the epistemological status of certain ways of doing research, its political and theoretical consequences not so people can focus on one's private life, including career choices. The competing position is the one that makes of the private life of public figures fodder for trash TV, do we really want to enter in that realm?
On the other hand, he's not the one halting the decision process, so I don't know what the fuzz is all about. It sounds just as plain envy.
As it was explained by many people before, lots of places decide not only to hire one candidate but that the other competitors were not hirable. Only a few depts have a history of dipping back into the poll of candidates. Whether new chances are available or not is better explained by institutional arrangements between the immediate needs of the department, its chair, the deans, faculty and budgetary constrains than by so called "stars" halting the whole process. Lets not personalize the debate (and the arguments) Take care.
when i receive multiple job offers that all look good to me, i can tell you right now that i will take as much time as i need to make a decision about my future! i do understand the stress, but i also think it is very understandable for candidates to take as much or as little time as they need.
everything else aside, anonymity is a rule on this blog. people who wish to discuss the job market in a forum that does not require anonymity should use a different blog. i don't mean to sound snippy, but the anonymity question simply is not up for debate.
ps: i don't follow the argument that performing your job duties by publishing research means you consent to make your private decisions public. we publish because that is what academic sociologist do - no different than a builder making a house.
"the anonymity question simply is not up for debate"...
Who made cpl ruler of the blog? Well, since some colleges choose to make this information public knowledge, anonymity is out the window. The Graduate College at CUNY has already posted the places where their PhD candidates have accepted positions for the fall. See the link below.
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Sociology/pages/jobs.html
At least this way, we know that offers have been accepted at Brooklyn College, Fordham, University of Victoria, SUNY Old Westbury, Cal State Fullerton, and Towson.
I say that once a college has posted it on their webpage, its now free and open knowledge for the rest of us. If you want to see who got the jobs, check out the link above.
But the CUNY website doesn't list where the pigeon guy wound up!
I don't know the motivation behind the person asking about the pigeon guy, but perhaps it is like mine. He is one person who has done very well despite having an odd topic and going to a "mid level" school, and so I am rooting for him and hope he gets what he deserves. I don't care where all the other "stars" wind up. Well, maybe a little!
Am I the only one here who honestly doesn't care in the least who else gets what job? No offense to the stars, but I'm entirely unconcerned with who they are or where they're from or where they're going. I honestly can't for the life of me understand why any of this this is so interesting to so many people. Anyone else?
It's probably related to my response to the "public figure" comment. I almost fell off of my chair laughing. Public figures? Is that it? Do academics see themselves as the heroes of our time, leading humanity to a grander place...and getting known for it along the way to boot?
I'm the farthest thing from a cynic, but come ON. Really? Really???
Someone please feel free to tell me what's wrong with me that I don't get ANY of this.
12:19, you are missing the WHOLE point. Its not so much about who. Its about where. Candidates who have interviewed for positions or who have had phone interviews or who have even had email interactions with dept. chairs want to know where the search stands. If people don't post on the wiki, or we view the wiki to be unreliable, then we could be waiting for weeks to hear about a position thats already been filled. At least by knowing for sure that the position has been filled, we can concentrate our energies elsewhere. Its much more about pragmatism than about caring who the actual hires are.
CPL doesn't run the blog. But we've gone 1,944 posts on this thread without naming names. I think CPL is calling upon a pretty consistent trend when s/he says that the anonymity question has been settled.
I understand the temptation. There were some dream jobs out there that I'm dying to know who got... but I'll just wait a few months.
C'mon folks. I know nerves are on edge. But let's keep this place civil or else I fear it will devolve into a Lord of the Flies atmosphere. Maybe I just don't understand the pressure anymore because I've already signed my contract, but I really think we can still keep this environment positive.
and besides.... if you have had a phone interview or especially an in-person interview at a department, just check with them regarding the status of the search. they won't hold it against you. candidates do it all the time, especially at this juncture in the hiring season. they'll assume that you probably have another offer and are weighing your options. and if the position has been filled, they will tell you and the mystery will be solved!
yes, it perplexes me how and why people start obsessing over particular "stars" or what happened at particular schools (i.e. USC). I am interested in finding out who gets what job but I'm not going to compromise the anonymity of this blog to find out. I agree with CPL--anonymity is not up for debate within the blog. If schools post where their students have accepted on their website, then it becomes public knowledge. If you are that interested, grill your networks, troll the websites or wait until next year!
3:54 pm: What difference does it make which specific departments were affected? I imagine not many people I suppose you want to know each applicant's bra and jock size too? The requests for really specific details on this blog is mind-boggling.
6:08 pm: Has it occurred that the wiki (and this blog) is not about catering to specific individuals' needs and/or desire to know who got which positions and/or which positions are filled? Just try to decipher and interpret the information you see on the wiki and on this blog as best as you can, understanding that some info may be incomplete; if it is, so be it. If you want to put your anxieties to rest, see a therapist, rather than force random and not-so-random sociologists in cyberspace to post on either site. Good lord.
I swear, sociologists and sociologist-wannabes are so self-entitled; it makes me want to puke. Down with sociologists!!!!!!
In what way is anybody forcing anybody to do anything? We can't exactly reach through cyberspace and hold someone down until they post what they know. Its all voluntary. If anything, all of you "anonymity" people are the ones being rigid, forceful, and downright dictatorial. This is a public blog. People can write what they choose. If you don't like it, dont read it. As far as the information becomming public knowledge once its released on a college website, you can't stop that. As far as I am concerned, if people want to share that information on here, so be it. It saves everyone time if someone sees that a school has hired and posts the link. Its one thing to name names on here (which nobody is suggesting that we do, so drop that dead horse). Its completely another to help the exchange of information that is already available on the web. What do you care WHY anyone wants to know. The reason why is none of your business. The point of this public forum is to help share information. Stop trying to squash the sharing!
6:08 said " At least by knowing for sure that the position has been filled, we can concentrate our energies elsewhere. Its much more about pragmatism than about caring who the actual hires are."
What energies?? Your applications were sent. You haven't heard. Concentrate your (worrying?) energies elsewhere. I fail to see the pragmatism.
Again, its none of your business why somebody wants the information. Worry about yourself, and let people share information as desired. I think you all need to stop worrying about anyone naming names. Nobody has done that so far, so why make such a big deal about something that hasn't even happened?!
I think it is hard because a lot of people are very anxious right now. And I agree--let's keep this about the status of searches! In this spirit, the UC Riverside offer has been accepted.
First, for the rules of the blog go to its homepage: socrumormill2007.blogspot.com. I don't remember who owns the blog's site (or if I ever knew who "alba" is), but I suppose that person has the ultimate authority for what happens here. He both can and has deleted inappropriate posts (though with a very light touch, it seems). As others have said, he doesn't have authority over what is posted anywhere on the web. Feel free to start another blog on some other site that has information requiring names. Perhaps enough will follow to make it worthwhile.
Second, I'll add to the small chorus wondering if anyone has any information about Haverford. I'm neurotic enough to have started looking at the school's calendar, which has posted specific times of talks for positions in other departments but hasn't given information for soc talks.
Of course, that might simply mean they haven't moved yet, and I should go back to pretending I have patience.
ABOUT THE CUNY GC ACCEPTED JOBS: Other than the first position posted, everything else is from last year's job market. II happen to know this because I transferred from CUNY GC to a different school to finish my Ph D but most of the people named on that post are from my cohort and went to the job market last year.
I can now see why so many academics are on anti-depressants. Job market sucks, stress, have to support child, finish dissertation, etc. Wasting 10 years of your life in graduate school so some pompous sociology professor can decide your fate (fuckin white liberals!)
So let's post info about interviews then! For example, I heard that UNC-Wilmington has filled their Crim position and is in the process of interviewing for their open search.
Do you know how far along in the process of interviewing for the open positions they are? Are they still contacting candidates for interviews, or have they already scheduled everything?
8:18 - they have brought some candidates in and I think they have one more to interview. Don't know if they'll do more if the first ones don't pan out.
Quoting 1-20-08 3:54 pm: "What difference does it make which specific departments were affected? I imagine not many people I suppose you want to know each applicant's bra and jock size too? The requests for really specific details on this blog is mind-boggling."
I'm really not sure how you equate requesting information about hiring in other departments with bra and jock size, but my request for info on the other departments is motivated by the fact that I've applied to other departments at USC but they don't have such a live discussion forum.
Seemed like a perfectly legitimate question to ask. I could care less about specific info about the applicants, I just want to, informally, know the status of the search and I'm still curious if anyone knows what other departments have been recently affected by this Dean at USC.
hey, cpl here. sorry if anyone took my prior post as implying that i somehow "own" this blog. i was simply reiterating the rules of the blog as stated by alba, the creator of the blog.
that being said, it is totally acceptable for anyone who was a final-round candidate (ie: invited job talk) to contact the search committee and ask about the status of the search. i have done it and it was fine.
I found out from a member of the search committee that NC State has conducted interviews for its population health/ rural sociology positions. Looks like the invited applicants are either not participants on this blog or were not going to divulge the information. Now anyone who was waiting knows.
4:14 p.m. - any idea when N.C. State conducted their interviews? I was told I was on the "short list" and that the committee would be contacting people at the end of last week (this was just three weeks ago). A little disingenious on their part if that is true. Oh well.
Knox had a short list ages ago, but my source on that is NOT 100% reliable.
With so many people worrying about this Haverford place, why doesn't someone e-mail them and ask "What is the status of your search"? That's a perfectly legit question in late January.
Re: NC State. I am not sure if they are actually done. I was told that they are "in the process" of conducting interviews with the people the committee ranked on the short list. Hang in there...you may still be in the running.
So, get this for a search committee screw up. I got an email from the search committee chair and in the subject line of the email was the name of one of the other candidates. He had accidentally put her name in the subject line to an email to me about my visit. I immediately googled the person to find their CV.
I'm not asking about the sociology department at San Jose State. I'm wondering about the Justice Studies Department. And I know they had not made any offers before the New Year.
It doesn't look like the jobs wiki is being updated with the recent info posted here. When people post here - if you actually have info on a school or search - would you mind updating the schools list as well?
My info on Berry is old. FWIW: I had a phone interview with them in the fall. In mid-Dec I asked for an update and they said I was not on the shortlist. If you got farther you might know more.
2,327 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1801 – 2000 of 2327 Newer› Newest»RE: UC Merced--They made 2 junior offers, one was rejected, one still in play, and considering going back to the pool if the second offer is declined.
I just got an email from University of Minnesota - Duluth saying they had filled the soc position.
I got the same e-mail from UMD. Horrible e-mail. Usually don't care about wording/format, it's the content that matters. But after receiving some standard and some actually uplifting/constructive rejections... UMD's sucked.
Meanwhile, some stats to hopefully encourage those of us with nothing tangible yet:
A friend of mine sent out 51 job applications (a few years ago), got 48 rejections, 3 phone interviews, 2 campus visits and 2 job offers. So even a SUCCESSFUL search is 95% rejection.
So far, what I have to show for my 32 applications this year is a campus visit (upcoming) and several that I haven't heard from.
I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind.
I'm not sure if accusing someone of leaving your cheese in the wind is an insult or not (honestly, I'm baffled). But let's keep things civil, folks.
-karl
I *think* 9:15 was just making a joke. It's a line from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, spoken by Ed Rooney. I don't get the timing of the joke, though.
Is the wind bad for cheese?
of course...dries it out. who wants dried up old cheese?
I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it's an ethos.
-Walter Sobchak
People who delude themselves into thinking they are comedians should understand that when no one laughs...ever...perhaps that is a good sign that perhaps they are not as funny as they think themselves to be.
There is/was a fellow grad student in my department, and for some reason, he designated himself as the department clown. Only problem is, no one laughed at his "jokes." In fact, there was always dead silence after his "punchline." I think he also tries to crack jokes on the few job interviews he is able to get. Not surprisingly, I don't think anyone has offered him a tenure-track position.
Does anyone know if Berry College has scheduled campus interviews?
I thought the wind/cheese comment was funny.
I thought the Ferris Bueller reference was funny (it was a nice memory for an oldster like me), but I didn't understand the context. But clearly, if you leave your cheese out in the wind, someone will smell it and try to steal it, hence not allowing you to achieve said position in life (which, apparently, is cheese master).
In any event, can I just say Happy New Year to everybody! It will be interesting to see who got the plumb jobs (and who actually deserved them)!
I have noticed that several top schools have made offers (Michigan, the California schools, Penn, Wisconsin, Chicago, Rice, etc.), but that these offers have not been accepted, at least according to the wiki. Does anyone have any idea what or who (or how many whos, since we can't disclose identities) are holding up the process? Are some of the superstars still interviewing, or just waiting to make their decisions?
Someone listed that Wheaton College (I assume in MA) has begun scheduling interviews. Any information on this (i.e., when contacted, when is interview, etc)? I checked the blog 2-3 days ago and this was not listed at that time. Thanks. Also, anyone heard about Stonehill College?
I don't trust the wiki anymore. Can anyone provide some insight on the following schools? Thank you :)
CSU San Marcos
Manhattan College
University of Vermont
Re: Top schools
Indeed, almost all these schools have candidates sitting on offers as they wait on other offers. Problem is that candidate X may have 4 offers but not the one s/he wants and so is waiting for candidate Y to make a decision on that job because if Y turns it down then X can get it. But Y may be waiting on Z...
When decisions do come, it will be like a house of cards collapsing. Many of these schools are avoiding contacting those they interviewed who are not their first choice so that if and when X declines they can call up the others.
It may still be some time though, because most R1's don't give their top choice an arbitrary deadline and so this can be drawn out for months. Right now, a number of them are waiting to interview for the RWJ postdocs and see the outcome before they commit to a school.
re: 2:31. I don't think University of Vermont is hiring this year. The last thing I heard from the search chair was that administrative issues might prevent them from hiring this year.
Wheaton College (MA) contacted finalists on Friday to schedule interviews for later in the month.
UNC Wilmington has begun scheduling interviews for the open position.
Does anyone know anything about Cornell-PAM. I see that an offer for Cornell was accepted, but I assume that is for the soc. position. Was only one person interviewed for the PAM position, and where do they stand with offers/more interviews?
Re 7:22
Were you contacted for an interview at Wilmington? By e-mail, or phone? Do you know if they have contacted everyone they will interview yet?
Re: Wilmington
I was contacted by phone. They did not indicate how many people they were bringing in.
Re: 8:35 - were you recently contacted? I had heard that they set up the open search interviews well before the holidays? Perhaps it is opened up again (good news possibly?). Either way, good luck!
re: 9:12
I was contacted yesterday. They have just begun the interviews for the open position. Any other interviews they have had have been for the crim position.
Any info on Fordham?
any info on university of wisconsin-milwaukee?
Fordham is interviewing candidates.
any info about the NCSU environmental position?
The offer at U Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been accepted.
re: Milwaukee - is this the joint position with women's studies or the quant position?
Cornell's PAM interviewed two junior candidates. The search was open rank and they decided to make two senior offers, rather than a junior offer, this year.
I am pretty sure the Milwaukee offer was for the quant position.
Re: Cornell PAM
:-(
Any word on the theory position at American U or the methods position at Northern Illinois U?
Could whoever posted that they accepted an offer from University of Vermont please specify whether it was for the race/inequality position or the public policy position. Thanks
Southwestern sent an email with an attachment titled "Rejection letter" and told us to see the attachment for information about the status of the search.
Then today they sent an email telling candidates to disregard the email and look for our rejection letters to come via USPS.
To make it even worse...they just listed all the recipients instead of blinding the addresses. Tacky.
Anyone heard from Delta State in MS? They were supposed to have an interview list by the holiday. Anyone on it?
I got a very nice rejection letter from Cornell-Soc today. One of the friendliest I have seen yet. They got over 200 applications and extended three offers. Two have been accepted, and they expect the third one to be accepted as well.
What's up with the Tulane searches? They had a deadline of Dec. 1 and there has been no activity on the wiki for them.
Hartwick continues to send friendly letters - I got a very nice rejection letter from them yesterday saying that they'd filled the position.
When there is more than one opening in the department, can we please do a better job of specifying on the wiki which position you're talking about. For instance, St. Lawrence University had a methods position and a rural soc. position. For which one was the offer accepted? Same thing with the University of Vermont. Which one?
Anyone hear anything from Sonoma State's American Multicultural Studies search lately? They requested application forms from "potential semi-finalists" in early December.
Any word on the UT-Austin Demography of Latin American Immigration search that had been re-opened until 12/15?
I, too, have been wondering about the Tulane position. I emailed the chair mid-december to ask where they were in the process and never received a response.
Brown's org and spatial offers are out, though the candidates have not yet accepted.
Re: Vermont
I believe the accepted offer is for the race position, although this is not about myself but an acquaintance who definitely took the job but I don't think participates in the blog/wiki. Sorry I didn't realize there were multiple positions there...I had just seen several requests for info, and conflicting reports, so I thought I should share what I knew for sure. As for further details beyond acceptance of the offer, I'm not the right person to respond.
I am very sorry for the inevitable disappointments, and understand all too well how crushing such news can be, but I figured in the spirit of the blog that this was better than being unduly strung along.
10:58. Thanks for the update. In these cases, bad news is better than no news!
Yeah, well...when you read the comments in the 'hires' section of this wiki, you realize how high the stakes are for getting the job that begins one's research career. When you're negotiating for high starting salaries, start up funding, and low teaching requirements (I absolutely refuse to say '2-1' and 'teaching load' in the same sentence), it's worth it to attenuate the process and negotiate hard. So I think the big cats will be playing for a while longer.
I agree with 11:49. If you have like 5 offers, give up at least three of them. The rest of us dont want to be doing 5 phone interviews in one week and 4 flyouts in one month just because you can't make a decision.
Wiki says that Queens has made a shortlist for dem junior position. Has anybody been contacted? (Sigh..)
The wiki says that Holy Cross asked for more materials. Do you mind sharing what they asked for, and if you have heard anything since then?
Queens has begun scheduling interviews for both the Demo & straight soc positions.
About those with multiple offers who are taking their sweet time...
I'm sure there are a few to blame. But I know there's definitely one main culprit this year.
I'm not naming names, but it's probably not too hard for anyone to guess.
Why is it that sociology gets so caught up in an emperor-has-no-clothes situation? I mean, I can understand it "sociologically" but that still just seems so unsatisfactory.
I am not sure I know who you are referring to but I would like to put an end to this discussion right here and now. I am not happy with how the market turned out for me either--I'm sitting here on pins and needles waiting and hoping for phone calls that never come.
But there is no need to disparage someone else work just because you are unhappy with your own situation.
still no info on the michigan state u global urban studies program?
you can't be serious. "blaming" people for their good fortune? look, even negotiating one offer is complicated. having multiple offers only makes it more so. congratulations to those who have this problem. the rest is sour grapes.
I have a feeling that many more positions have been accepted than what's on the wiki. Once people have accepted a job, they are just not as interested in posting anymore....
It's not just that people aren't interested in posting anymore once they have a job, it's also that it takes a REALLY long time for everything to be settled (and not just on the job candidates side). I won't put my job up as accepted until I get the final letter.
You know, those of us with jobs feel pretty anxious too, for different reasons, but still pretty anxious.
Before anyone decides to identify me as selfish for not listing my job as accepted until its official, let me say, it's a job that is listed as having made offers and having sent rejection letters.
9:04, Nobody was calling YOU selfish. They were calling the people who have 5 job offers and are stringing them all along rather than giving up a couple so the colleges can move onto somebody else. If you have that many offers, you can' honestly say that you are seriously considering all of them. The schools are just as much to blame. Once an offer is made, there should be a 2-4 week period to accept or decline the offer. Anything longer than 4 weeks is unfair to everybody involved.
This is 1:30am.
I don't think I have sour grapes. I'm actually in a good position...I have accepted an offer, and had the fortune to have a few possibilities, but I took all the factors (in and out of offers, like partners) into consideration, made up my mind, and stuck to what I think is a reasonable window for doing all this.
And while I did use the word "blame" in my post, I didn't mean blaming anyone for their success. I'm just sitting here looking around at those monopolizing the market and thinking, jesus, you've got to be effing kidding me.
Finally, I also understand and empathize with the post by 9:04am, about very gingerly advertising, or not, your accepted job. That's a different issue. My beef is with others who are not yet committing to a job -- and the search committees that are allowing them to get away with this AND pretending that the field of applicants this year isn't full of plenty of others who could do just as fine a job as -- if not far better than -- those who have ended up as "emperors" this year.
People, could this line of commentary not be posted in the Misc. Discussion of the Job Market section? Let's leave this area for comments and info on active searches instead of bitching lines, please. Get over yourselves and post some useful information.
10:55, your post wasn't any more useful than the others. If you don't want to read about it, then don't! It has just as much to do with inquiries about interviews and status of searches as anything posted in this thread.
Someone asked about Holy Cross. Here's what I know: Mid-December they sent an e-mail to a short list of people, asking for writing samples, a sample syllabus, and official transcripts from the schools they've attended. The e-mail indicated that the search committee would be meeting again in mid-January - today, I think - to pick people to bring on campus for an interview.
I think people who are urging "hurry up" to those with multiple offers don't really understand the process. It can take up to 6 weeks (especially given the holiday break) for a departmental vote to extend an offer to become an official letter in your mailbox. So try to be patient...
Re: Tulane. They interviewed one person in December and had another interview scheduled for Jan. I'm not sure if there's a third candidate.
I think people are also misunderstanding another aspect of how offers work. I'm a grad student at one of the "top programs" mentioned above and know from faculty that they made offers to every candidate who they were willing to hire (i.e. more offers than were initially posted). If those offers are declined, they have no intention of dipping back into the applicant or interview pool. Even if the "superstar" declines the offer, new opportunities and offers won't materialize at this point. I suspect that my school isn't the only one in this situation, and that's its really more a myth that someone with multiple offers is tying up the system.
1:54
As someone at another top R1 I should clarify that it is NOT a myth that "starts" hold up job markets. We really wanted to hire our second choice but the dean would not approve. This person is now waiting to see if #1 declines. My colleagues at several other R1s, including Ivy's, tell a similar story. It is obvious that some, such as NYU (who made 3 offers), made offers to everyone they were interested in. Yet I can think of far more than a handful that I know fought hard and lost that battle.
1:54 here - fair enough. I just wanted to raise the possibility that not as many new offers may materialize as people expect. NYU isn't the only school that made multiple offers, so it's not that unreasonable for people to start considering this option.
"I don't think I have sour grapes."
Respectfully, I think you do. :-)
8:13, nobody cares what you think. Grow up.
I did a real burn on the hotel during my visit. Had a party in the room and cops were called. Think it will hurt my chance of an offer?
Has anyone heard from Regis Univ or from Montana State?
Re: Regis U
I got a rejection letter dated 1/2/08.
Is there still just the one interview scheduled for Wilmington? Does anyone know if others have been scheduled but just not marked on the wiki?
Regis - I got a rejection, though I didn't apply!!
I've heard this before (other searches). How exactly does one get a rejection without applying?
I have never understood this, either, although it has happened to several people I know.
Is it possible that one's advisor inadvertently sends a rec letter? So then you get cataloged in the school's "system?" Or did you apply sometime in the past, and somehow you're just still in their system?
I don't know; even that sounds farfetched.
It is relatively rare for elite dep'ts to go back into the pool even if all those they interview say no.
Has anyone heard anything about, or from, the CUNY-Hunter job? Not the demography position. I noticed the social movements/law one isn't posted on the university's human resources site anymore. Maybe because the deadline's past?
Has anyone heard from the Society of Fellows at U Michigan? Their website said they'd move in January.
Or Haverford? Someone posted that they were going to meet in January.
An offer was made for Montana State.
An offer at University of Tennessee - Chattanooga has been accepted.
A friend of mine has been informed he is a finalist for Michigan Soc of Fellows, I don't have more info than that. I think it happened 10 days ago or so.
wiki vandal is back
To repair the wiki:
Click on "history"
Click on a recent version.
A blank page will pop up.
Click on edit.
Old information will be in window, just enter the "captcha" info.
Click submit.
A blank page will pop up.
Refresh page.
Old info is restored.
-karl
OK. Can I just...why is nothing happening??!!! Why is there no word??!! Why is there no discussion on the blog??!!! The silence is killing me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK. Thanks. But seriously, why?
5:53...everybody is just waiting. Waiting for offers, waiting for acceptances/declines of offers, etc.
Any news from UT Knoxville (Africana/SOC position)?
rejection from clark university in worcester today
UNLV has begun to set up interviews.
I see that Cal State Long Beach has appeared on the list of schools that have made offers. Can anyone confirm that?
anyone know the status of the USC job? thanks
re: USC job
I received a rejection letter with a note from the committee chair that they might not be able to make a hire this year.
re: UNLV
Can you say whether these contacts are by phone or by e-mail?
Has anyone heard anything about the Michigan State environmental (ESPP) job?
re: USC job
Would you mind sharing when you received the rejection letter from USC?
Someone posted on the wiki that UMass boston has scheduled phone interview for public policy position. How many people have they contacted, and were all contacted at once?
I heard that USC actually made an offer to a candidate but the funding was revoked for the line (and for several other positions in different departments). So they will not be making a hire.
Has Brown's org offer been accepted yet? Thanks.
Re: UNLV
By phone
That's awful about USC. Once a position is listed, it should be illegal to pull funding for it. People put a lot of time and energy into applying, interviewing, etc. Its bs.
re: USC
I received the letter last week, although I am international. Theirs is the only rejection letter I kept because it was very nicely worded, even with the SC chair's hand written note. Very moved, depite not getting the job.
St. Lawrence University could take a lesson from USC in letter writing. I just got the rudest rejection letter from them than from any other place. Even Cornell, which had many more applicants than SLU sent a much nicer letter.
Why does the nature of a rejection letter matter? Who would take it personally? If you get a nice one, and you know that 200 other people got the same letter, would you still let it make you feel good, imagining that it was actually somehow about you?
you mean academics can be callous and dismissive? say it isn't so!!! really, unless you went and interviewed and had some actual human interaction, don't let it make you bitter. a rejection letter has only one meaningful message to deliver. whether they received 300 sparkling applications or 40 mediocre ones, the result is the same. once again, in the real (read: non-academic) world, applicants typically don't receive any response at all, let alone coddling....
Re: rejection letters.
I don't think anyone said that ther felt personally attacked/betrayed/etc. I think the point is that some schools recognize the time and effort that goes into applying and they acknowledge that in their rejection letters. Schools that send terse and/or rude rejection letters reveal that the tone of their department is one where they do not value your time and energy. Bottom line, schools that send those kinds of rejection letters reveal themselves as place where we shouldnt even want to be.
So, when you get an offer, be sure to ask for a sample rejection letter to help you determine whether or not you will accept.
Thank you for sharing the details of the USC situation. Glad to see that at least some of us haven't lost our humanity in this process.
The USC offer wasn't pulled because they cut funding; it was pulled because a Dean did not approve of the records of the 4 candidates interviewed. Apparently because USC is trying to revamp its image at the university level, first-year hires are expected to have resumes that would get them tenure right now. It's unfortunate that the Soc dept got screwed in the process. (And makes you wonder why the university ever asked them to seek out a junior hire in the first place.)
Re: USC. How on earth did that happen? The Wiki indicates that the Dean pulled all 4 candidates, including the one that was offered the job. I thought the dean (and even some higher ups) had to approve the candidates AND who the job is extended to before any job offer is extended, so how could this have happened? Wow. That really sucks for the soc dept and for the job candidates. It's high time that the admin people need to get their thumbs out of their asses. Also, USC needs to stop pretending like they are Harvard material, because Harvard, they ain't.
All of USC's candidate were very good and from top institutions. What is sad is that the department found someone they really wanted to hire and their candidacy was approved by the lower level deans. Apparently the highest dean only wanted to hire someone from an Ivy League (this is their idea of revamping the school) which was not communicated to the department until the last minute.
As someone mentioned, it takes a lot of time and effort just to apply, but to have four people go through the interview process, make an offer to someone whom they feel strongly about and only to have them (and the department!) be shot down in the end by the dean is a waste of time for the potential candidates and the department.
It is probably best not to start off your career at such an institution.
agreed. it's too bad for the people in USC's department who did all that work to conduct the search, as well as the candidates in the running (who included Ivy Leaguers that didn't pass the Dean's hire), spent all that time.
What in the world is going on with Chicago's offers? They were posted on friggin' Halloween! Have the offers been accepted, rejected, or retracted, or is Chicago still getting strung along by candidates who won't commit?
RE: USC
Several of you are correct on various accounts. The deans did approve more lines than they intended to hire in the end. There were a few departments whose candidates were also not approved. All of the Soc candidates were given the green light to bring in and the lower level deans green lighted the hire. But, USC's upper administration wanted a junior candidate with a record like the pigeon guy, which is laughable, because as a previous poster remarked, Harvard, Yale and Princeton they are not.
Re: USC--I don't think its laughable at all since the market is flooded with candidates who have astonishing publication records, and the Harvards of the world can't hire all of them.
Re: Chicago
The offer was accepted. I guess s/he is just not updating the wiki.
12:25, thanks for the info. I think there were two Chicago offers, though. I wonder what happened to the other one.
The USC situation is unclear. Did they want somebody with a highly competitive record (there are many of these people around in the market this year) or someone from an Ivy League? If the latter was the case ten the three stars of this year would not get hired there -despite their publication record-since 2 of them are from top ten departments but not Ivy League schools and the remaining one comes from a Public School ranked in the early 30s.
Odd.
People—does it really matter what happened with that California school famous for its football team? I ‘spose for some of us it does, as the job market is very taxing mentally and emotionally.
I happen to have inside info so let me put this discussion to rest y’all!
This hire was in a specific area which none of this year’s “stars” study. Don’t get me wrong, the candidates were all fantastic but their records don’t compare to pigeon or culture boy (few of those on the market do).
The department and the administration have not been on the same page for some time, especially about supporting departmental tenure recommendations, which is why a number of people who began their careers at said school have recently left. This whole thing boils down to tensions between the department and the new top dean. It has nothing to do with the candidates.
Everything was ok’d by the lower level deans (candidates to bring in, the potential hire who the department was very excited about) so a verbal offer was made. It was the new top dean who squelched the line before an offer was given in writing. And it did not only happen to Sociology. The lesson here is that you want to end up at a place where the administration supports the department (and that nothing is finalized till you get that written offer!)
So is it really worth discussing any further? I say time to move on!
I hear ya on that 5:02!
Anyone have any info on the Berkeley offer? Thanks.
The University of Michigan junior position offer was declined.
What's up with the pigeon guy?
Another request for info on the status of the Cal State Long Beach offer. Thanks!
9:12,
Really, none of your business.
Not the pigeon guy...but perhaps the only person in the world who thinks that individuals' rights to privacy regarding career (and life) decisions PERHAPS ought to trump alleviating the (significant and understandable) anxieties of job-seekers.
Privacy?? From a different angle, what most of us are trying to do here amounts to becoming (minor) public figures. If you want privacy, you don't publish, for one thing. Pigeon guy, having achieved success, better get used to the academic equivalent of flashbulbs.
Any insight into the College of Charleston's status? I haven't seen anything posted about them for a while.
Anyone heard from Augustana College?
Any news on Edgewood College? Thanks.
pardon 1:29, but your statement seems a bit incongruous with your 'anonymous' signature... seems to me that publishing entails one's own decision to waive anonymity. rather different from blog-paparazzi!!!
I agree with 10:37 and 12:47. First of all, I don't think it is fair to publicly discuss one person's fate when we have purposefully avoided discussing specific individuals thus far. Besides, why focus on what one particular candidate is doing in the first place? Why perpetuate the obsession?
And to say that one's decision to publish means that one automatically forfeits one's privacy is just nonsense. Many of us have to publish to keep our careers. It has nothing to do with being a celebrity.
One publishes to enter into a public debate of ideas about the arguments presented, their validity, the epistemological status of certain ways of doing research, its political and theoretical consequences not so people can focus on one's private life, including career choices. The competing position is the one that makes of the private life of public figures fodder for trash TV, do we really want to enter in that realm?
On the other hand, he's not the one halting the decision process, so I don't know what the fuzz is all about. It sounds just as plain envy.
As it was explained by many people before, lots of places decide not only to hire one candidate but that the other competitors were not hirable. Only a few depts have a history of dipping back into the poll of candidates. Whether new chances are available or not is better explained by institutional arrangements between the immediate needs of the department, its chair, the deans, faculty and budgetary constrains than by so called "stars" halting the whole process. Lets not personalize the debate (and the arguments)
Take care.
What were the other departments affected by the new Dean's "Ivy Fever"?
At USC that is...
when i receive multiple job offers that all look good to me, i can tell you right now that i will take as much time as i need to make a decision about my future! i do understand the stress, but i also think it is very understandable for candidates to take as much or as little time as they need.
everything else aside, anonymity is a rule on this blog. people who wish to discuss the job market in a forum that does not require anonymity should use a different blog. i don't mean to sound snippy, but the anonymity question simply is not up for debate.
ps: i don't follow the argument that performing your job duties by publishing research means you consent to make your private decisions public. we publish because that is what academic sociologist do - no different than a builder making a house.
-cpl
"the anonymity question simply is not up for debate"...
Who made cpl ruler of the blog? Well, since some colleges choose to make this information public knowledge, anonymity is out the window. The Graduate College at CUNY has already posted the places where their PhD candidates have accepted positions for the fall. See the link below.
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Sociology/pages/jobs.html
At least this way, we know that offers have been accepted at Brooklyn College, Fordham, University of Victoria, SUNY Old Westbury, Cal State Fullerton, and Towson.
I say that once a college has posted it on their webpage, its now free and open knowledge for the rest of us. If you want to see who got the jobs, check out the link above.
But the CUNY website doesn't list where the pigeon guy wound up!
I don't know the motivation behind the person asking about the pigeon guy, but perhaps it is like mine. He is one person who has done very well despite having an odd topic and going to a "mid level" school, and so I am rooting for him and hope he gets what he deserves. I don't care where all the other "stars" wind up. Well, maybe a little!
Okay, I've got to ask:
Am I the only one here who honestly doesn't care in the least who else gets what job? No offense to the stars, but I'm entirely unconcerned with who they are or where they're from or where they're going. I honestly can't for the life of me understand why any of this this is so interesting to so many people. Anyone else?
It's probably related to my response to the "public figure" comment. I almost fell off of my chair laughing. Public figures? Is that it? Do academics see themselves as the heroes of our time, leading humanity to a grander place...and getting known for it along the way to boot?
I'm the farthest thing from a cynic, but come ON. Really? Really???
Someone please feel free to tell me what's wrong with me that I don't get ANY of this.
12:19, you are missing the WHOLE point. Its not so much about who. Its about where. Candidates who have interviewed for positions or who have had phone interviews or who have even had email interactions with dept. chairs want to know where the search stands. If people don't post on the wiki, or we view the wiki to be unreliable, then we could be waiting for weeks to hear about a position thats already been filled. At least by knowing for sure that the position has been filled, we can concentrate our energies elsewhere. Its much more about pragmatism than about caring who the actual hires are.
CPL doesn't run the blog. But we've gone 1,944 posts on this thread without naming names. I think CPL is calling upon a pretty consistent trend when s/he says that the anonymity question has been settled.
I understand the temptation. There were some dream jobs out there that I'm dying to know who got... but I'll just wait a few months.
C'mon folks. I know nerves are on edge. But let's keep this place civil or else I fear it will devolve into a Lord of the Flies atmosphere. Maybe I just don't understand the pressure anymore because I've already signed my contract, but I really think we can still keep this environment positive.
-karl
and besides.... if you have had a phone interview or especially an in-person interview at a department, just check with them regarding the status of the search. they won't hold it against you. candidates do it all the time, especially at this juncture in the hiring season. they'll assume that you probably have another offer and are weighing your options. and if the position has been filled, they will tell you and the mystery will be solved!
yes, it perplexes me how and why people start obsessing over particular "stars" or what happened at particular schools (i.e. USC).
I am interested in finding out who gets what job but I'm not going to compromise the anonymity of this blog to find out. I agree with CPL--anonymity is not up for debate within the blog. If schools post where their students have accepted on their website, then it becomes public knowledge. If you are that interested, grill your networks, troll the websites or wait until next year!
9:23 pm: Cal State Long Beach has made an offer.
3:54 pm: What difference does it make which specific departments were affected? I imagine not many people I suppose you want to know each applicant's bra and jock size too? The requests for really specific details on this blog is mind-boggling.
6:08 pm: Has it occurred that the wiki (and this blog) is not about catering to specific individuals' needs and/or desire to know who got which positions and/or which positions are filled? Just try to decipher and interpret the information you see on the wiki and on this blog as best as you can, understanding that some info may be incomplete; if it is, so be it. If you want to put your anxieties to rest, see a therapist, rather than force random and not-so-random sociologists in cyberspace to post on either site. Good lord.
I swear, sociologists and sociologist-wannabes are so self-entitled; it makes me want to puke. Down with sociologists!!!!!!
9:47...
In what way is anybody forcing anybody to do anything? We can't exactly reach through cyberspace and hold someone down until they post what they know. Its all voluntary. If anything, all of you "anonymity" people are the ones being rigid, forceful, and downright dictatorial. This is a public blog. People can write what they choose. If you don't like it, dont read it. As far as the information becomming public knowledge once its released on a college website, you can't stop that. As far as I am concerned, if people want to share that information on here, so be it. It saves everyone time if someone sees that a school has hired and posts the link. Its one thing to name names on here (which nobody is suggesting that we do, so drop that dead horse). Its completely another to help the exchange of information that is already available on the web. What do you care WHY anyone wants to know. The reason why is none of your business. The point of this public forum is to help share information. Stop trying to squash the sharing!
6:08 said " At least by knowing for sure that the position has been filled, we can concentrate our energies elsewhere. Its much more about pragmatism than about caring who the actual hires are."
What energies?? Your applications were sent. You haven't heard. Concentrate your (worrying?) energies elsewhere. I fail to see the pragmatism.
10:50,
Again, its none of your business why somebody wants the information. Worry about yourself, and let people share information as desired. I think you all need to stop worrying about anyone naming names. Nobody has done that so far, so why make such a big deal about something that hasn't even happened?!
Anyone remember what this string is suppose to address?
Hint: Information about interviews and the status of searches.
There are strings for discussing other issues.
where's the forum for policing the posts of others?
lol @ 12:59
I think it is hard because a lot of people are very anxious right now. And I agree--let's keep this about the status of searches!
In this spirit, the UC Riverside offer has been accepted.
Two things.
First, for the rules of the blog go to its homepage: socrumormill2007.blogspot.com. I don't remember who owns the blog's site (or if I ever knew who "alba" is), but I suppose that person has the ultimate authority for what happens here. He both can and has deleted inappropriate posts (though with a very light touch, it seems). As others have said, he doesn't have authority over what is posted anywhere on the web. Feel free to start another blog on some other site that has information requiring names. Perhaps enough will follow to make it worthwhile.
Second, I'll add to the small chorus wondering if anyone has any information about Haverford. I'm neurotic enough to have started looking at the school's calendar, which has posted specific times of talks for positions in other departments but hasn't given information for soc talks.
Of course, that might simply mean they haven't moved yet, and I should go back to pretending I have patience.
Has the Brown offer been accepted?
ABOUT THE CUNY GC ACCEPTED JOBS:
Other than the first position posted, everything else is from last year's job market. II happen to know this because I transferred from CUNY GC to a different school to finish my Ph D but most of the people named on that post are from my cohort and went to the job market last year.
4:21: Which Brown offer are you talking about?
I can now see why so many academics are on anti-depressants. Job market sucks, stress, have to support child, finish dissertation, etc. Wasting 10 years of your life in graduate school so some pompous sociology professor can decide your fate (fuckin white liberals!)
re: Brown. I was asking about the Brown org job.
5:16. Let's tone down the racism. This blog is really taking a turn...
5:18. I also want to know about that position. What's going on there?
ditto, white liberals
Racism? Let's go back to our sociological definitions of racism. I don't think this qualifies. Power?
Can we move this discussion to the "misc" thread?
I second 3:55. Let's keep this thread for factual info only.
So let's post info about interviews then! For example, I heard that UNC-Wilmington has filled their Crim position and is in the process of interviewing for their open search.
Re: Wilmington
Do you know how far along in the process of interviewing for the open positions they are? Are they still contacting candidates for interviews, or have they already scheduled everything?
8:18 - they have brought some candidates in and I think they have one more to interview. Don't know if they'll do more if the first ones don't pan out.
Any info on Haverford?
Anyone have info on Grand Valley State University?
Anyone heard from Knox, Valdosta, or Truman?
I recieved a letter from Truman in mid-December saying they're still considering my candidacy.
Quoting 1-20-08 3:54 pm: "What difference does it make which specific departments were affected? I imagine not many people I suppose you want to know each applicant's bra and jock size too? The requests for really specific details on this blog is mind-boggling."
I'm really not sure how you equate requesting information about hiring in other departments with bra and jock size, but my request for info on the other departments is motivated by the fact that I've applied to other departments at USC but they don't have such a live discussion forum.
Seemed like a perfectly legitimate question to ask. I could care less about specific info about the applicants, I just want to, informally, know the status of the search and I'm still curious if anyone knows what other departments have been recently affected by this Dean at USC.
oops, quote above should be attributed to 1-20-08 9:47am...
Valdosta has recently scheduled at least one interview.
Anyone know if Arkansas State has made offers for the soc position?
hey, cpl here. sorry if anyone took my prior post as implying that i somehow "own" this blog. i was simply reiterating the rules of the blog as stated by alba, the creator of the blog.
that being said, it is totally acceptable for anyone who was a final-round candidate (ie: invited job talk) to contact the search committee and ask about the status of the search. i have done it and it was fine.
-cpl
I found out from a member of the search committee that NC State has conducted interviews for its population health/ rural sociology positions. Looks like the invited applicants are either not participants on this blog or were not going to divulge the information. Now anyone who was waiting knows.
4:14 p.m. - any idea when N.C. State conducted their interviews? I was told I was on the "short list" and that the committee would be contacting people at the end of last week (this was just three weeks ago). A little disingenious on their part if that is true. Oh well.
Knox had a short list ages ago, but my source on that is NOT 100% reliable.
With so many people worrying about this Haverford place, why doesn't someone e-mail them and ask "What is the status of your search"? That's a perfectly legit question in late January.
Is App State interviewing yet?
Re: NC State. I am not sure if they are actually done. I was told that they are "in the process" of conducting interviews with the people the committee ranked on the short list. Hang in there...you may still be in the running.
Re. "this Haverford place..." Oh my goodness. Haverford's among the top educational institutions in the nation.
It was a late deadline; apps were due somewhere in mid-late December, if I recall correctly.
Anyone hear from SUNY Oneonta, by chance?
Haverford's committee is meeting this week and will have a short-list in about a week, says a contact in the Provost's office.
Does anybody have info on the Akron Global Position? They had interviews a while back, but so far no offer is posted...
Any updates on UC Merced?
So, get this for a search committee screw up. I got an email from the search committee chair and in the subject line of the email was the name of one of the other candidates. He had accidentally put her name in the subject line to an email to me about my visit. I immediately googled the person to find their CV.
Any info on the Justice Studies hire at San Jose State? They were supposed to have two hires, but maybe they're running into budget problems?
Re: San Jose State
There was only supposed to be one hire. Their offer was accepted by someone in early December.
I'm not asking about the sociology department at San Jose State. I'm wondering about the Justice Studies Department. And I know they had not made any offers before the New Year.
Any word on the two positions at American U? What about Texas Christian or Pacific U?
It doesn't look like the jobs wiki is being updated with the recent info posted here. When people post here - if you actually have info on a school or search - would you mind updating the schools list as well?
re: Arkansas State. An offer has been made and accepted, but the contract is not yet signed. I know the person who got the offer.
no word on whether the Berkeley Diversity position has been accepted?
I don't believe an offer has been made yet for the Berkeley Diversity position.
Anyone has any update on michigan state u's global urban studies program?
Any info on the Fordham urban/religion search?
RE American U. They have filled the theory position and are in the midst of interviewing a second round of candidates for the Methods position.
A colleague of mine has an upcoming interview at Fordham.
Has anyone heard anything about Berry College?
Has anyone heard anything about Coastal Carolina?
My info on Berry is old. FWIW: I had a phone interview with them in the fall. In mid-Dec I asked for an update and they said I was not on the shortlist. If you got farther you might know more.
Any news on Tulane or the IUC joint position in soc & African American studies?
Tulane contacted me to see if I am still available and interested in the position.
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