Allouette

army surplus

Roman baths

Last night I dreamed I got an email from a university called 'Century University' in Upper Manhattan (because that's totally a real place) and they were all 'we were going to wait until March to send out acceptances, but your references were SO GOOD that we wanted you in first'. Then they sent me a clip from one of my LORs and it was 'She's sweet as roses, clearly skilled'. Which is a terribly odd thing to write in a reference, I think. Especially since I can't imagine my gruff, manly-anthropologist (manthropologist?) prof calling anyone 'sweet as roses'.

My fingers are crossed for you!

Is it really so soon????? Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my.

This feels curiously like asking a magic 8 ball (not that I've asked my magic 8 ball whether I'll get into my top choice... much...) Why not, though - Undergrad - Top rated Canadian uni GPA - 3.95 GRE - 170V/158Q/6AW Research - 2 publications in tiny journals and one forthcoming in a major journal (all first author), a handful of posters, and one seminar presentation Applying to Anthropology at Michigan, Harvard, Yale, UCDavis, UChicago, Wisconsin, and CUNY

Life sentence

OH MY GOD THE ZOOMBINIS. YES. YES. YES.

(Let's hope the adcomms think so too )

Haha twinsies. Also by the Low Anthem. Both are courtesy of my 'stop freaking the f*ck out and focus on your readings' playlist.

PhDreams, is this the link you mean? https://app.applyyourself.com/AYApplicantLogin/ApplicantConnectLogin.asp?id=hgsas

Ugh, same thing happened to me, and she's going to a small private undergrad college, so she's completely out of the game. I was so sad because she was one of my top choices. And to make it worse, the POI left at that institution turns out to be a misogynistic asshat (anyone else see this? http://jezebel.com/5952624/university-of-chicago-professor-very-disappointed-that-female-neuroscientists-arent-sexier) and I was left wondering whether it was worth it to still apply because 1) my top choice POI was gone and 2) do I really want to work with someone like that for the next five years of my life?

No, I don't mean your aspirations, I mean the weird dreams you've been having about grad school/rejection/getting in/your stats prof (true story. i have a worrisome number of dreams about my stats prof). The dreams people have been sharing in 'Anyone else losing their damn minds' are making me giggle more than I rightly should, and let's face it, we could all use a bad case of the giggles right now. With waiting season comes a veritable buttload of bizarre, recurring, and fantastic dreams about waiting season, so share them here and let us all laugh/cry/commiserate with your crazy subconscious!

Great thread, Faraday! Right now I've got King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men playing.

Native species

The thing that makes me most nervous about being notified by phone is my fear that one of my kid siblings will answer and do something horribly unprofessional like yell "ALLIE SOME RANDO IS ON THE PHONE FOR YOU" or tell them that I'm in the bathroom/shower/watching reruns of the Jersey Shore. That, or pick up and take a message, then forget to tell me. Which they do all. the. time.

Oh I am so there. I had a dream I was on a bus to an interview, but nobody on the bus would tell me which school I was interviewing for. Then the bus driver told me it was a hopeless cause because I clearly wasn't prepared for my interview, and he turned the bus around and drove me home even though I kept insisting that I could do the interview.

Fun story - I put in a 7,000 character one, and only found the anthro department page that said not exceeding 750 words after I had submitted the online application and was getting material together for the part of the application I mailed in. So then I edited it down to 750 words, and put the 750 word one in with my paper application. So there are technically two different SOPs attached to my CUNY application. And then I beat myself up about it for the weekend, but what's done is done, I suppose. My advice would be to stick to 750 words, just to be safe. After all it is pretty explicitly stated on the department website that it should be max 750 words.

Drinking water

I feel your pain; when I was visiting one of my schools back in September, my mom was like 'You should bring a t-shirt home for your dad!' and I was like 'Um, how about I apply first and then we can talk about t-shirts?' I utterly refused to step foot into the bookstore, actually. I didn't want to jinx my applications by preemptively buying any paraphernalia. Not to mention how shitty I'd feel if I don't get in and have that t-shirt hanging in my closet as a constant reminder.

I'm prefacing this statement with a big ol' 'I know virtually nothing about archaeology', but have you looked into field courses or fieldwork? Having field experience is pretty standard for getting into graduate school in archaeology, from what i understand. And experience aside, field school or a course in underwater arch will probably expose you to people who know a lot about the field or who are in the field, who you can speak in-depth with about your prospects as an underwater archaeologist. Another thing you might want to look into is academic associations/societies relevant to your interests. Even if you're not willing to join these associations quite yet, poking around their websites, their member directories, newsletters, etc, might give you a better idea of what underwater archeologists actually do after their degrees. And lastly, talk to your profs! Visit your anthro department! Even if there isn't anybody who specializes in what you want to study at your college, I'll bet my bottom dollar that they know a thing or two about it, and might even hook you up with a colleague who can answer your questions.

Come out

Congrats, radiomars!!!! That's really exciting news. I've still got one more application to do. Is anyone else in a situation where some of their applications are for different departments/projects/subjects? My last one is for an environmental science program instead of bio ant, and I feel a bit like a fish out of water coming up with a whole new SoP, different writing sample, etc.

DaisyAdair, you lucky duck. I felt like I was being questioned by the Spanish Inquisition at Christmas dinner. My favourite was when someone said, "You're applying to Harvard? I didn't realize you were that smart! Congratulations!" After trying to decide whether that was an insult or compliment, I replied "Oh ha ha don't congratulate me yet, I've just applied, anyone can apply." To which I got the usual "Well I'm sure you'll get in you're a wonderful girl. It will be so lovely to have a Harvard student in the family." My eye twitched and on the inside I was like facepalm can I just go cry into my Christmas pudding yet please.