VioletAyame

Oh I see. Yes I'm aware of the problems that come with teaching and presenting in conference and such. It is harder to listen to someone with an accent I admit, but I guess in my mind there's a difference between reference for practical purposes and outright stating that you need speech therapy. Also I expect an instructor to be better so to speak on this issue than undergrads (who will also give negative reviews to "hard exams" and "strict attendance policies").

Everything TakeruK said. I would also like to add that the fist few times you're "socially agressive" (at least that's what I call it in my mind) it will always be awkward and nerve-wrecking. It's not necessarily awkward to other people per se but you'll probably feel awkward yourself. And I think that's an important distiction to make. Most people don't think much of our own actions and behaviors as we do ourselves - they'll likely forget them very soon. So what we perceive is not necessarily what actually is. So don't get discouraged if you don't make friends right away with the first few interactions. These things take time, and you're not supposed to click with everyone right away. Like TakeruK said, make yourself do it, commit yourself to things you wouldn't normally do, extend invitatons instead of waiting to be asked, etc. I'm typically a not-so-outgoing person as well and I thought the transition to grad school, especially in regard to social life, would be tough. But I did make myself to be more active, more involved, more sociable than usual, plus I was lucky to spend a lot of time with my cohort (we have to take most classes together our first year) and to have a cohort that gets along pretty well, but it was still surprising to hear someone describe me as "fun" and "bubbly" and "warm" just a few days ago. Mind you those are not the things I'd describe myself That's just a personal annecdote to say that efforts do pay off and it will eventually get easier once you got a group or just a few persons whom you're familiar with. Good luck!

I'm on the social science side of the spectrum and I'd say the practice of contacting POIs before applying is quite common. Although we don't necessarily "belong" t a particular professor when we start, you do need to make sure there are people (people, preferably more than one) there you can work with, which I think still holds true for the critical/cultural side. In that regard, contacting POIs can help you 1. clarify your POIs' current projects and interests since the stuff on their website is not always updated in a timely manner; 2. they can refer you to other people in the program or even outside the program whose interests can also fit/fit better with yours (this does not always happen, do not count on it); 3. make sure they're not leaving or on sabbatical next year (it's not disastrous if they're on sabbatical your first year, but it shouldn't be a surprise); and 4. create that rapport lyrehc was talking about. I have to say though, in my own experiences, this rapport building is the exception rather than the norm. It's more likely that you'll get a polite, friendly email encourging you to apply and sometimes point you to certain resources the department has for prospective applicants. There's nothing good or bad in this I think - it depends on whom you contact and their personality, working style, availabiity, etc. at the moment. Time-wise it's the same - depending from your POIs. Some reply right away even at odd hours; some take a few days to a week or so; some you never hear back from again. I think you can definitely try sending the email again after a week or so, gently asking if they got the first one since you were worried that it didn't reach them for some reason. But I've had POIs who didn't respond even after the 2nd email (I left them alone after that ); some were helpful and asked to talk to me over the phone; some just replied with 1-2 lines; some contacted me after they got my app. So really, it varies. It's part of the process and in retrospect you'll see it's not that big of a deal to the extent that it can make or break your application.

Yep I seconded the advice of talking to your professors face to face, but I don't think your relationship with this particular professor is beyond repair, especially if you had valid and reasonable circumstances to not be able to follow through. You were wrong in not letting her know sooner but not necessarily in not being able to do the independent study. It might be a bit more nerve-wrecking than an email, but if you come to her office or see her at colloquium, you can make sure that you've got your points across and usually people are less likely to be curt to another person in real life than via emails. That is not to say you should track her down and pour your explanation on her. Wait a little while for the situation to cool down, approach her with some genuine research questions, and if she is receptive, weave your explanation into that conversation and let her know that you're really, really sorry and you wish you could still work with her in the future. It can be really hard but since she's one of the few professors in your area of interest, I'd say it's definitely worth trying. About making friends in your program, I think it's like making friends everywhere - the key is to find something you have in common. And it'll help if you show interests in people as human beings, not just your colleagues or collaborators you want to make connections with. It'll always be awkward and uncomfortable at first and hopefully the relationship/friendship will become easier as you get more familiar with them. But only time and consistent interactions can do that. Start small, and don't get discouraged if you fail to connect with someone - it's fine, not everyone is meant to be friends with everyone, and vice versa, you don't have to be friends with your collaborators. You can have friends that you like but share none of your research interests and colleagues with whom you work well but not really your close friends. I'm sorry about the bad fit and I hope you'll get to join a more suitable program next year, but I don't think you should regret calling out your professor on that. It was still a little social faux-pas but the act in and of itself is not wrong. You weren't being annoying in thinking that your area deserves some respect, and all the jokes and sarcasm do reflect some of one's true attitude as well. I wouldn't do it again, but I wouldn't terribly regret it either.

Wow that happened? That is indeed quite offensive. I speak with an accent too and it doesn't usually cause me much trouble. People do misunderstand me sometimes and they always ask for clarification and I'll try to find a context to put my slightly-mispronounced words in and then we'll be fine. Nobody has ever called me out on it (I sometimes make jokes about it myself since it can be a bit uncomfortable for them to keep asking me to clarify!) and I certainly would not expect an instructor to say something like that. I know it might be a problem at conference presentations, job talks and so on, and you can't really control people's perception and attention, but I did my undergrad here and never thought that it would even be a problem in a class presentation.

Well first of all, I'd say your mental health is important, so have you done anything to help with the anxiety disorder? Have you seen a specialist and/or got some therapy or medication? I think that would help with the test taking as well - and yes your V & Q scores right now need improving - so I feel like that would be killing two birds with one stone and wortk looking into. The rest of your profile looks great to me. Perhaps someone from anthropology would be more knowlegeable, but I don't think having publications as you apply for grad school is very common. Also I'm just curious, how could you present many papers and have minimal research experience at the same time? Aren't those two things related?

That's a bit extreme and paranoid I'm afraid. Grad school admission is already a hard game; if programs start factoring in the ranks of other schools we're applying too, very few people would ever get admitted I think I think preparing a stellar application would be best to alleviate your worries!

Wow that indeed sucks. I wonder what's going this year that they cut short the app season by a whole month. We have some USC ppl here I think - maybe someone can give an explanation?

Are you sure the deadline is Nov 1st? It has always been Dec 1st in my experience. You're right, Nov 1st is way too early in the season!

I wanna echo the advice that you should give it a year, or at least a semester to see if your feelings improve. As someone who went away for undergrad and then again for grad school and have been in my current location for less than a month, I really understand how you're feeling. I always have a bad case of homesickness and I know how overwhelming it can be, how it can make nothing else in your life seem to matter, how big the urge to throw everything away and go home is. I also know that it's my emotions talking and thus not rational. I was upset for a month or two before this move and right now, even though I've adapted better than I thought (which is not saying a lot, I'm usually very bad at adapting to new environment ), it still feels strange and empty at time now that I'm alone in a new city and the connections I've made so far can't yet compare to all the long-time friendships I just left. I mean how can it? But when I moved for my undergrad, I also felt that way about my high school friends, and now I'm feeling that way about my college friends, so I'll probably feel that way about my grad school friends when I'm done and moving away again. It's a terrible cycle, but it also means you've had some good time and great friends, and you'll have them again! It's a cliche but it does get better - we tend to overestimate our misery and how long it'll last. PM me if you ever need to talk to somebody, and do keep us posted!

You can also look at the result page and track acceptances from the programs you're interested in during the last few years. Some people also reported their GPA & GRE score when reporting acceptances, so you can get a tentative guideline out of those submissions.

Classes technically started last Wednesday but we only had our first (almost) full week this week. So far everything's going fine, lots of reading but I haven't had to turn in any assignment yet. I also got started in research and everyone seems helpful and encouraging. There are so many projects going on in the department that we've been warned to pace ourselves and not spread ourselves too thin Our cohort also seems to get along - hopefully that'll last! Same for my methods class - there are books my professor recommends buying for future use once we decided on our methods but he uploaded all the reading materials for that class and my Kindle came very handy. Our theory class requires a book but I managed to borrow it from a 2nd year. I only needed to get a statistic book, but since we'll be using it for 2 classes and I probably want to keep it anyway I'd say it's worth it.

I was SO surprised to get a notification from this thread lol. Thanks beyondboundary and good luck everyone!

I might be late for this but I think the best course of action is to look up faculty in each department and their research to see what lines of work they're in. If that fails, you can always email the departments directly and ask them

Elise, have you moved in yet? It's pretty nice here and I'm gradually settling in. If you're here let's meet up some time! I've been in Columbus since last Wednesday. Are you still up for a meeting?