Platysaurus

That isn't universal - of my cohort of 9 maybe 3 have masters degrees

Well, turns out you have to create the berkeley email separately to the CalNET ID. That was slightly foolish on my part.

Hey after doing all the registration online crap I keep trying and failing to log into my Berk email account, other people having the same trouble? Just wanted to check whether I have to wait a little longer or there's a specific problem with my account.

Hey I just got an offer for anthropology (sociocultural), I'll be seeing you guys in the fall! I'm in SF at the moment and will visit the campus tomorrow, it was a little hard accepting for a place I'd never visited before since I'd been to a few other prospective student weekends but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Any other internationals? ssk2 you're a pom, right?

Berkeley wooo! Nobody else around here? Anyone in the Bay Area? I want to meet more gradcafe people!

Hahaha I got rejected from Vanderbilt today too :/

I'll start. 1 - When I started contacting POIs (persons of interest), the majority of them wouldn't respond. Of those that did, most just sent formulaic emails telling me that they couldn't really tell me anything and to just apply. I got one really enthusiastic response from a POI at a place that I ended up getting an offer from. Apparently having heard of my project he was really pushing the other admissions committee members to accept. At another place I was really tired of the whole process and I copied and pasted a generic inquiry email, forgetting to change the name of the University. The POI noted this and pointed it out in his reply, and I felt horrible. Again, this was just a "can't tell you anything, just apply" email. I ended up getting an offer there too. The moral of the story is, sending out these feelers will generally get you nowhere. But they never hurt, and very occasionally they can be very useful. So do it, and do it early! 2 - Related to the first, if you only have a few people/schools in mind and want to expand, don't feel bad about asking POIs for recommendations of other anthropologists or departments to look into. They were really helpful, they understand that you want to cast your net wide and don't feel bad or resentful for it at all. 3 - The fit between your proposed project and the department is almost everything. Even though I had other ideas at the start, looking at where I applied and where I ended up getting offers it's really obvious that where I was accepted were all environments that complemented my research, although in very different ways. And it's not enough to say something like "well I want to study Brazil, and this guy's a famous Brazilian anthropologist", it really helps to read the people's work and figure out exactly how you could fit in. This is something I did in some cases and not in others, and it showed in who accepted and rejected me. 4 - GRE generally I think is used more as a negative screening thing, ie they might not consider some people because scores are too low, but once they're decent enough, it's not like a phenomenal score will help you much. Although in one case where I was shortlisted the interviewer made a specific reference to my GRE marks being good, so maybe this isn't always true. At any rate, a good GRE will never hurt you unless it takes time out from your statement of purpose, which is ALWAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. 5 - I organised my letters of recommendation maybe a month before the deadlines started rolling in. This was probably too late, and I ended up having to hassle most of them to hand stuff in on time. 6 - One of the best pieces of advice that I got was that you shouldn't think of where you want to study and then tailor a project to that department, because in the end you'll get overworked with all the different research projects you're supposed to be doing, and it'll come across as fake anyway. Find something you're keen on and then figure out where the best place would be to pursue that research. Although ideas always change a little or a lot during the PhD, it's still important to show that you have a fixed idea, that you can feasibly see how it would work out theoretically and methodologically, and that you're excited about it. 7 - I applied to 9 schools, the one I ended up picking gave me an offer on April 15, one minute before the deadline for my second choice. Moral of the story is, it's never over till it's over! OK sometimes it is. But there are always exceptions. 8 - Take everything on Grad Cafe with a grain of salt, and I guess that includes my post right here. There are LOTS of conflicting advice and opinions, the only way you can get a good sense of what's important is to read around the forums a lot and balance out the different voices, AND THEN consider that alongside the advice from old advisors, POIs, departmental websites and whatever other information you can get your hands on. If one person on this board says your project is stupid or your GRE scores are too low, don't take it as gospel. Most people around here are as clueless as you are, they just like to pretend they know. 9 - Having said that, GradCafe is an awesome resource, and if you know how to use it it can really help! My very first post here was asking around about the anthropology of prisons, the couple of responses I got here led me on a path of research and communication with various scholars that got me where I'm going today. Just for emotional support it's great to be around other people who are going through the same thing, rather than family or friends who at least in my case were very comforting but they had no idea how the process worked. 10 - Try not to let the application stuff swallow your life whole. And remember that everyone else is probably as badly informed as you are, so as much as you can prepare it's always going to be a shot in the dark to some extent. Good luck! Anyone else? Feel free to disagree!

So April 15 has come and gone, hopefully we've all got some idea of where we're headed. For those of you who are still in the dark - good luck! Anyway, the application process is so obscure and complicated, especially coming into this I know that I and a lot of people I met on the forums had very little clue as to what it was about, what to emphasise, how to prioritise different universities or different parts of the application. SO, for the sake of future years, and I'm hoping there are enough people lurking around here to make it worthwhile, why don't we tell the world what we've learned going through this to make it clearer for future years? Just to lump our experiences into one thread for future generations.

I GOT INTO BERKELEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At JUST the last minute they said they'd sorted a funding package for me. I'M IN!!!

And then they tell me they'll only make a decision on the actual day of the 15th. Well.. it will be over in 3 days.

My rationale is that whoever is in front of us is obviously having a tough choice, so even if they're only choosing between two different offers that would give us a 50/50 chance, right??? I've got another great offer so I'm not going to be desolate if I don't get in but Berkeley was always my top choice and it's where I've been dreaming of going for about 3 or 4 years, and I convinced myself from early on that I wouldn't get in so the fact that they're stringing me along is definitely torture. But less than 5 days to go!

I've been waitlisted for Berkeley, it's killing me!!! I know they told me as soon as they heard from whoever is in front of me then they'd let me know, but it just means I have to wait and my other offer keeps pestering me to make a decision, I have the sneaking feeling I'm going to be sorting this out on the afternoon of the fifteenth.

I did the same thing yesterday. Other people who haven't gotten official responses - did it take ages for the GSAS to find your GRE scores? I'm thinking that had something to do with it.

Yeah the last week this place has died. I'm still waiting for Columbia and STILL for Berkeley. And Vanderbilt, I guess.

Home run