Platysaurus

Panicattacks in my interview they said they said they had 18 finalists for a total of 6-7 spots. This is socio-cultural and medical anthro.

Academics, anthropologists included, sell themselves short by considering a. that getting a job outside of academia is failing in life, b. that they have no marketable skills outside of a university. I know lots of people who studied anthropology, from undergrad to PhD level, who are doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things outside of a university, whether that's in marketing, consulting, working for government agencies, NGOs, or the UN. Especially nowadays with online learning and constant budget cuts to traditional departments, the university is not the only game in town in terms of research and knowledge production. But professors and supervisors still tell their students to look for jobs inside the ivory tower, as if we don't have anything to offer the real world. I mean, as anthropologists we shouldn't be so dismissive of people outside of academia, but I still think the majority are. As a result, you still have a flood of recent doctorates who are convinced that they will only be happy when they fill exactly the same role their old supervisors held/hold, and will accept horrible working conditions/pay/precarious employment with no research opportunities just for a shot of that. And THAT'S why universities can get away with all their budget and funding cuts, horrible administration, etc. Because we still hold this elitist assumption that that is the only way we can be intellectually "free". To me this is bs. We have to admit that the majority of us won't get there. But there are plenty of places anthropologists can work outside of the university as long as we can market our skills. And hopefully when we value our own academic labour instead of slavishly worshipping the outdated idea of the enlightened scholar spending their life pondering the big questions of Culture with a capital C, hopefully we'll be more valued by university admin as well. I'm doing a PhD because it's the best chance I have to spend a few years researching something I'm passionate about, learning from other people and hopefully building on knowledge. If I can get a job inside the university afterwards, amazing. If I can get a job outside the university afterwards, also amazing. - more than slightly pinched from here http://www.anthropologiesproject.org/2013/01/busting-apart-silos-of-knowledge.html

Harvard socio-cultural will mail out results on March 1, and they won't tell you any other way.

I did a grand total of 2 undergrad courses in anthropology (although I always orbited around the social sciences and area studies) and I've currently gotten 2 acceptances, a waitlist, been shortlisted for one university and interviewed for another. Don't think of it as a disadvantage at all! I'm sure there are some colleges who do prefer anthro undergrads, but one of my acceptances (Cornell) states explicitly on the website that they strongly preference anthropology students and even before I submitted my application this was the one that had given me the best initial response based on communication with a POI. Having said that, with my interview I was asked very specific, theoretical questions about sites, micro vs. macro-ethnography, and what framework I would use that would allow me to explore agency (I want to do prisons and all the stuff written about them is very structural/ideological, ie foucault). You need to make sure your proposal is anthropological and is also a feasible ethnography, but don't let your background hold you back! I would also justify in your statement of purpose why you're switching to anthropology though, that gives you a chance to show that you know the discipline, it's strengths/weaknesses etc.

Yale interview went really well, and I've been waitlisted for NYU! Also been told that it's very unlikely that they'll go to the waitlist because they've already made more offers than they can take, but nice to hear something positive back from them, especially since unlike others I didn't get any interviews

Hey guys, I got my first interview soon for Yale, for those who´ve gone through this with other universities, WashU, Duke, whatever, any tips? Any hard or unexpected questions? I´m just not sure how I can prepare for this.

Just got an offer from Cornell! Sociocultural, just to be clear. Over the moon right now!

Radiomars I'm sociocultural, you're bio right?

Hey, 1. I just got an acceptance email from Brown. 2. I just got asked for interviews from Yale. Anyone else in the same awesome boat?

Hey I didn't get anything from Cornell, and my admission status hasn't changed either... maybe the acceptance that's been listed was an early one and they've got a shortlist? That's how I'm going to skew it, anyway.

I always wonder what proportion of students who apply actually frequent this site. Maybe we should chase down someone in the statistics/maths forum who can work it out. But I mean, check out all of the updates for Duke or Brown, even though most of them are rejections I would say that there'd probably be more than 1/6, after all it seems natural that we'd look for advice/comfort/competition from other students and there really isn't any forum as extensive or broad as this one for applicants. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but I guess we're going to find out in the next month anyway.

Somebody got a Berkeley acceptance, somebody got a Cornell acceptance... and neither of those people were me!!! Damn, it's only Feb 1, how can I already be losing my mind?

I got an email and skype from my POI at Berkeley but he gave no clue as to when decisions would be made. Probably should have asked... but this was a week ago and it looked like they were just starting to go through apps, probably would be another week at least. All speculation of course. I emailed the applyweb site re Brown, should I contact the anthro department directly as well?

Hey what´s the dealio with Brown? Getting a lot of rejections yesterday on the results search, actually when I go to check my application status it still says ´awaiting materials´ even though they´ve received all of my stuff, GRE, LoRs etc.

http://procatinator.com/

This ended up as just an informal chat with my POI, I'm sure they haven't gotten to a shortlist or anything, in fact when I got the email I was told they'd just started looking at applications and my POI wanted to discuss my research interests further. Don't think too much into it!

I just got an email from a POI at Berkeley wanting to discuss my research project! Any tips? I think I´m going to spend the next two days panicking, trying to read everything this guy´s written and make sure I can back up every single point of my application.

GUYS! Just got an email asking for an interview from one of my POIs at Berkeley! I´m so happy at the moment I don´t even care that he asked me if I´ve applied for outside fellowships for graduate study (I´m an international so I highly doubt I´ll get in nevertheless) but I couldn´t care less right now, Berkeley loves me! By the way to any other Berkeley applicants this seems more like an informal thing, it doesn´t look like any formal interview stage.

Woooo congrats! That's one more acceptance than most of us have at this point. Last night I dreamed about an explosion in the anthro faculty of some random university, everyone was running out of the building with their skin peeling off. Mental equilibrium is 6 weeks away

...Pokemon.

Brought to you from my subconscious - last night pretty much all my POIs from the 9 schools I'm applying for ganged up to hunt me down and kill me. Incidentally, I think this thread has also given me dreaming material - after reading about getting results and not being able to read them I had that dream. Mental equilibrium is only 2-3 months away. Woooooooo

Screw loose

Rent a suit?

Wooo congrats to everyone who's finished. I just have one pesky little Statement of Purpose to write, made all the more difficult since I just realised one of my POIs was poached by another university in November , leaving me with one and a half left, and having to significantly revise my planned project for that university at least. But it's a free application, and at least doing this will stop me from spending all my days fretting over the other submitted ones. Good luck for everyone, except of course those people that are applying to my universities. Of course, if I get in you're allowed to be admitted too, I'm that generous

I dreamed that I was on a train on the way to give a conference presentation and I got a call from a POI at one of my dream universities, he asked where I was going, turns out he was on the same train, so he walked into my cabin. Then he told me that I was selected for priority placement (whatever that means) but I didn't get in, but at least that meant I was in good standing for the regular intake... then he started feeling my hair and telling me it was really smooth. And of course, suddenly the train cabin turned into my old family house and I gave my conference presentation in front of my mother and a few aunts, plus POI. Nobody really understood anything but there was good food after. Psychoanalyse that.