It took myself and others multiple years before I decided that I wanted to apply to graduate school.
Although I had my degree from undergraduate college, I wasn’t undoubtedly doing anything related to sociology in the years working as a sales acquaintance for a big activitying goods retailer.
I managed to spend money off the rest of my student debt & seriously considered the system of reentering academia. Although jobs are highly competitive in any academic discipline, the social sciences aren’t that much better off than the humanities for instance. In short, the number of tenure positions at universities is not going to increase at any time soon for people looking to teach sociology or any else that doesn’t follow the “hard” sciences. I ended up applying to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque & was accepted into their PhD program for sociology. I had never been to New Mexico before, but I assumed it was love Phoenix. Previously I lived in Phoenix for a few years with my family & every one of us rarely needed indoor heat at any point during the year. The temperatures in the Wintertide would sometimes dip into the 30s, but usually it never dropped below 45 degrees. With warm clothing, you can get by without needing indoor heat. However, once I moved to Albuquerque & lived here during the frigid season for a few weeks, I realized how frigid it gets as the Wintertide trudges forward. I ended up buying a radiant space oil furnace soon after moving to the city. It’s nice living in a desert neighborhood that has a much more mild temperature than other sites out west.