imwalkingwest

Anybody wanna claim the ucr acceptance?

i think that can be considered 'pure' evil.

The graduate coordinator said we should know this week.

Scratch that, rejected from ucsd. Ucr is my only hope now!

Any UCSD arch people heard anything yet?

Congrats. Michigan is a storied program. Congrats Sarab, go panthers.

Today is going to be a big day. Let's get some positive energy into the universe!

Anybody want to claim the UCSD interview?

I'm one of those second rounders.. I attended a PhD program for a semester, financial issues abound, then am reapplying for other programs that are more stable. I can tell you. The second round is MUCH worse.

Well, I can only attest to the two schools I know, Georgia stage university and SUNY Albany. Both are admitting students like crazy, but for different reasons. GSU just wants to build their program, and it's pretty cheap. Little funding, but it's an MA only, so that's not a surprise. SUNY Albany admits 'most qualified applicants' because they only fund one student per au field per year, so they basically just say, 'hey, if you want to pay for the degree, be our guest'. For the MA, or up until comps before PhD candidacy, then you actually have to be good and they generally will fund you around that time. Anyway, it's competitive out there, and money is scarce. I like the only admitting who can fund concept, personally.

I only have a BA (and some graduate school in anth, but no degree). I spoke to the professor that retired and he told me that they have no problem accepting students with just a bachelors, because you'd have to repeat credits anyway, so it's really best to just go straight to PhD if that's you're end goal. People seem to be quite split on that advice. The new Meso hire is my POI. He as a good relationship with my former advisor (undergrad honors thesis) so I'm hoping that helps my chances. He also is transferring from a university in Mexico and is currently has no students yet, so I'm hoping that helps as well. We had a skype meeting a couple months ago and that's what he told me. I'll cross out fingers for both of us! I also applied to UCSD but my GRE isn't high enough for funding from there. Braswell told me in an email that they like something in the range of 165+ on both qual and quant and 6.0 for writing to even be considered for funding. So I'm out in that regard ha. Putting most of my eggs in the Riverside basket at this point!

Don't get so bogged down by the GRE. You are applying to some majorly good schools, so it will matter to them (i think Arizona says on their website dont bother applying unless you're in the 90th percentile for verbal or something like that). Otherwise, it's really a bigger look than just GRE. those scores generally are used for a basic cut-off (even this is highly variable), and university funding. Much more important is your research goal. That's why they're asking you questions about your situation around your research. But you know that, you've already done the MA. I attended SUNY Albany for a bit and some people were from stoney brook and enjoyed it. I don't know what you study, but their only complaint was that the campus was ugly. Can't win 'em all. No need to worry at this point. If you don't get in to your expectations (funding) this year, then adjust next year. Seriously study for the GRE, it can only help you to get a good score or better funding next round. Best of luck! New York is cold, but at least that's not upstate!

i don't have much to add to help you here, but 1 professor doing what you do isn't bad. Having a diverse group of professors will give you a better education in the long run, you don't want just one person in the whole anthro department. UCR is also my top choice. my former advisor got his PhD there, and loved it. they do support all students in some form or another, and have good opportunities for research. my POI there is just starting to take on students, so that's good. I don't know what type of work you do, but they are having retirements kind of shake up the department, at least in the meso side of it. otherwise, hope we both get in (fully funded, of course)!

Perhaps I should qualify this: There is money out there in other department of the school. There are extremely low numbers of fellowships, and I applied to every one of them this year, and interviewed, and was no selected. I also applied to other positions around the university, was interviewed for several of them, and was not accepted (2 of them were not eventually even offered because of budget problems). So it is possible, though I am not willing to 'risk it', counting on one of those things to come through for me when they didn't this year. My advisor was 'shocked' by my inability to have ANY luck with outside funding, as most of her students have no problem with it, and my resume is equal to theirs, but the rejection here is unsettling. That being said, the tuition waver is more valuable to me (and my spouse) than living income, and those are very scarce at my university. Therefore, I am considering attempting to 'transfer' to another graduate program, though I am doubtful that this is possible and am assuming it would be starting from square one. I realize that I have essentially wasted a half a year (if i decide not to go this spring because I am transferring) and the loans that come with it, but if I am funded in another department, we're talking about 20k spent next year on tuition alone potentially, versus throwing away this semester/year and trying my arm at more funding-their-students-happy programs.

This would be preferably to anyone that has already been accepted and are currently in a program, but why not weigh in if that's not the case? Here's the short and sweet: I am in the program of my dreams, but they are majorly cash-strapped in terms of funding. I decided to pay out-of-state for the first year, with the intention that I would be funded the second. However, upon actually being here and talking to folks (and my advisor) I see am finding out that this basically isn't going to happen. It's nothing about my performance, the money just isn't there. I refuse to take out another 20k+ in loans for another out-of-state year, so I'm trying to gauge what the world is like in applying to other programs after 'dropping out' of another one. I love where I am, and the faculty are awesome, but I just can't afford it. Has anyone else every dealt with or heard of this kind of situation, or know how we fare as second-timers? For first-time applicants: When people on these forums tell you NOT TO GO TO AN UNFUNDED PHD, they are not joking. Seriously, it will sound great, and will only be one year. But it won't. Now I'm in debt and have very little to show for it.