I Turned Down a #1 Ph.D. Program
Why I rejected the opportunity of a lifetime and have no regrets.
About a decade ago, I was making a major career change, from Spanish teaching into a research career in the social sciences. These two professional paths were more closely related than it seems on the surface. As a Spanish major, I’d studied abroad in Latin America, and my experiences there (some traumatic) gave me a whole new appreciation for social justice issues. Hence, I eventually decided to pursue graduate work in the social sciences; I wanted to be able to help shape social policy.
To be frank, I had no idea what the rankings were of any of the Ph.D. programs I applied to, going in. I simply made a shortlist of schools I knew to be research powerhouses and then browsed their Sociology Department websites to see which ones were a decent match for my own research interests (something I assessed from the faculty bios). Not only was I largely ignorant about the world of higher education (I’ve explained that here); I was also making a jump to an entirely new academic discipline in which I’d never taken so much as a single class. I didn’t realize what a huge gamble I was taking when I paid those half-dozen application fees.
Nonetheless, admissions offers started rolling in. And I was accepted to 5 of the 6 — all with generous…
