sweetpearl16

Just an update for those who are interested. The strike is still continuing, making it now the longest strike in the University of Illinois history. The picket lines are still going strong. The University has not reached out to us indicating that their position on tuition waivers has changed and they are willing to bargain with us in good faith.

I did my my MA in Historical Archaeology there. I am PMing you.

I love Doctor Who (both the old series and the new one). However I absolutely cannot stand Rose in her episodes with the Tenth Doctor. I tolerate her with the Ninth Doctor but find her incredibly annoying with the Tenth Doctor. I also think she is far from the best companion ever. I also wish that most people would watch more of the old series. For some reason it annoys me when people say they are huge fans of Doctor Who but have no idea about anything that happened in the earlier seasons.

I just wanted to reiterate what bioarch_fan said about minimal funding, especially at state schools. I know that the Anthropology programs in at least two of the schools you've mentioned in your post have been struggling financially over the past few years and as a result have taken in few students. One of them has been unable to provide funding for new students for at least the past two years. Definitely talk to the professors at these schools and see what they have to say.

NOWAYNOHOW, I don't think field experience is necessary for entrance into a PhD program, even for people coming from another discipline. I can't speak directly about the programs in which you are interested. However there are several members of my cohort who came from other disciplines. None of them came in with any field experience. I would concentrate on connecting your past interests and experiences with your plans for the future and discuss how your previous training has prepared you for research in anthropology.

Check out The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, also by Robert Heinlein. It is one of my favorite sci-fi novels.

I'm currently a graduate student at UIUC. I would highly recommend that anyone who is trying to rent an off-campus apartment contact the UIUC Tenant Union. They were incredibly helpful last year when I was trying to rent an apartment from afar. They have a list of landlords which tells you whether these apartments are furnished, whether they allow pets, how close they are to campus, and how many complaints the landlord has received in the past five years. With their help I found a great apartment with Hunsinger.

I'm not sure if most will wait until the deadline (although I know some who did last year), but I think that there are many students who have yet to make decisions. It is a big decision to make and there are lot of factors which go into it. I think that there are also many admitted students who want to wait until they have visited their different schools before they make a final decision. Departments may still be holding visitations; my department just had its new student visitation this past weekend. So I would say, as difficult as it, to hold out for a few more weeks before you contact your POI or the department.

I agree about mid-March being too early. I know some departments are still having their visitation days, which means many admitted students are still trying to make up their mind about where to go. By the beginning of April, a much larger number of students will have made up their mind and declined their offers from other schools. That being said, when I was going through this process it was really hard to stay patient and not email sooner.

Daisy123, if you are still on the waiting list at the beginning of April, I would contact your POI then and let them know you are still interested. I think reiterating your interest after being waitlisted for several weeks is not a bad thing. If this is your top school, I would let them know. Last year I was waitlisted at my top choice school. On April 1 I sent a letter to my POI. I think it was something like: Dear So and So, I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to let you know that I am still extremely interested in the anthropology program at (his school) and I have not accepted any of my other offers. (His School) is my top choice and if offered admissions, I would accept immediately. Thank you so much, sweetpearl16. He wrote back a couple of hours later thanking me for the letter and letting me know he'd forwarded it to the department chair. About a week later I received an admissions offer from the school. I don't think the letter of continuing interest got me admitted, but it certainly didn't hurt my chances.

I am part of the health care working group of my university's graduate employee union. My school does not offer prescription benefits. I have severe asthma and must take two prescriptions. I am lucky that I am under 26, since these two medications together cost about $500 a month without insurance coverage. I have spent most of this year working to get get prescription benefits for graduate students. I was told at a meeting today that as of Fall 2014, all college insurance plans must be compliant with the Affordable Care Act, which means they must include prescriptions.

The other thing you need to consider is how the Affordable Care Act impacts student health insurance policies. Prescription benefits are considered one of the 10 essential benefits health insurance plans must provide. I believe that starting in Fall 2014, most college insurance plans are required to have prescription benefits.

I would not wait until April 10th to ask about your position on the waitlist. I would go ahead and contact either your POI or the DGS now to let them know you have another offer and ask questions about how the waitlist works (Is it ranked? If so, what is your position? Have they accepted people off of it in the past?). Last year I was waitlisted at my top choice school and got into another school with full funding. When I found out I was waitlisted I asked my POI, who also happened to be the DGS, about how the waitlist worked, if it was ranked then was willing to tell my position, and whether people had been accepted off of it in the past. I also reaffirmed my interest in the program and let him know I had another offer. At the beginning of April I contacted him again to let him know I had not accepted my other offer, that I was still interested in this school, and if admitted I would accept the offer.

Congratulations NOWAYNOHOW! I've been following you on the boards and through your blog and no how awful and hard this whole application season has been for you. I'm glad that you've finally gotten an answer other than "NO" and I really wish you the best of luck!

I have a friend who focuses on US mid-Atlantic historical archaeology and was admitted (and just accepted the offer) into UNC Chapel Hill Anthropology PhD. program.

I want to reiterate what some other posters have already said. Publishing is not necessary for admission into a PhD. program if you can demonstrate your dedication, research skills, ability to produce original work through other means. I applied to PhD. programs while finishing up my MA. I still haven't published anything yet. I spent two summers doing archaeological field work, including one as a TA. I also spent two years as a research assistant in the archaeology department of a well known living history museum. I won a fellowship from the living history museum in order to conduct research for my thesis. I got into three PhD. programs including my top choice.

I'm also going to agree to what everyone else said. If they did not think you would make a good addition to the program, they would have rejected you rather than waitlisted you. Right now you just have to be patient. Have you asked how the waitlist works? Is it ranked or not? If it is, can they tell you your ranking? Moreover, regardless of how the waitlist works, it will not be used until after admitted students turn decline their offers, which means at this point in the application season nothing you do can really increase your odds of getting in. The only additional email you should send out at this point are ones to let the program know about other offers, ones to let the program know if you win any awards, and possibly one in April reiterating your interest in the program and letting them know it is your top choice. Other than that, it is a matter of chance. Last year I was wait-listed at my top school and also told that my program historically used its waitlist. When I found out that I was waitlisted, I emailed my POI to let him know I was still interested. I emailed him again in mid-March to let him know I was still interested in the program after he asked if I wanted to remain on the waitlist and if I had any other offers. Finally I emailed him once again at the beginning of April to let him know that I still had not accepted any offers, that this program was my top choice, and if offered admission I would accept. I was offered admission shortly after that last email. I know being waitlisted at your top school is incredibly difficult and anxiety inducing. I felt stuck in some perpetual limbo. I was constantly afraid that I would open my email and find that I had been rejected. I just wanted to get in so badly and was there was nothing I could do to ensure that I would be admitted. I know you are really eager to get in to this program, but unfortunately for the most part your admission from the waitlist is a game of chance and there is little you can do but try to be patient.

Hey Eager, thanks so much for being everyone's Gradcafe godmother Your positive spirit has really helped us all through some rough times. I hope that everything works out for you!

I'm going to UIUC in the fall So excited!

Yes, I was able to do the entire thing electronically. I called up the company I was interested in renting and was very lucky that they had one two bedroom apartment left. My roommate and I printed out the application, filled it in, scanned it emailed it to them. The then emailed me the lease. I printed it out, initialed and signed it, scanned it, and sent it to my roommate who did the same thing. We then emailed the scan lease back to the company. The company had an online portal for paying rent and other fees. We used it to pay our security deposit. After our payment had cleared, the company sent us back the lease with their signatures on it. The entire process only took a few hours. The longest part was waiting for our applications to be approved. I talked to a few other companies before we settled on this apartment. Most of them seemed very flexible about lease-signing. Two or three of them had similar procedures for renting from afar. Another one wanted us to print out the lease, sign it and mail it in with our security deposit.

I had to do the whole rent thing/find a roommate site unseen. This is an area where people begin signing leases for the next year in October. At this point, many of the best places are fully leased. I don't have a car and graduate housing is about two miles away from my classes, so that was too far for me. I talked to the tenant union, stuck with landlords who had only 0-2 complaints in the past five years, looked at pictures, called places and asked questions, read reviews of management companies and picked the best place I could find that was still available. It was a little more than I was hoping to pay, but all the cheap, good places had been leased and the cheap places that were left were not companies I really wanted to rent from. I figured in October I can look at cheap places for the next year. For now I would rather pay a little more and live in nice place, in a good location, run by company I trust. At the same time I found a roommate who will also be beginning graduate school. We spent a long time talking on the phone and feel very comfortable with each other. It wasn't the ideal renting situation, but I think I did the best with the cards I was dealt.

I sent you a PM

I also pay around $250 for food each month. I make extensive use of my freezer. If meat, cheese, or bread I like goes on sale, I buy it and freeze it. Hurricane Irene, which hit at the beginning of the first year of my MA program, turned out to be very helpful for me. I ended up reading what the government said about how long food can last and what can be frozen. I think that knowledge has definitely helped me be a little less wasteful. I cook for myself almost every night. I'm not someone who tends to go out a lot. When I do, I tend to only eat half of my food. Then I bring home the leftovers and either eat them the next day or freeze them for later. Since I buy groceries/cook for my self, I spent a little bit of money to buy some of those containers that helped slow down food spoilage. It really helps preserve some of the fruit and vegetables I get. Speaking of which, I make a habit of buying fruits and vegetables that are in season. It means at certain times of the year I have to give up some foods that I love such as strawberries, but I can't justify paying for the extra amount. I stock up some. If non-perishable goods that I use frequently, such as pasta, go on a good sale I purchase a bunch of them for later use. It is a lot of money down at one time, but in the long run I save money. I also coupon and I match coupons to sales. I still haven't figured out why some people are so against coupons; they have really saved me a lot of money. There have even been a few times where I have gotten toothpaste and pasta for free.

True, the plan at NC and I think SC public universities are great (I've seen them before), but many university health insurance plans are awful, even when compared to what other employers offer. Many plans don't provide any coverage of specialists. Also I think plans lacking, essential benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, do qualify as terrible although hopefully these plans will be eliminated in the coming year.

I hate it when POIs who do not plan on taking new advisees encourage you to apply. I know a few professors in my program did that to potential students, and I don't understand it. I am still extremely grateful to one of my POIs who told me about the budget constraints at her school and the way that impacted which professors got to take on new students in a given year. She explained that she really wanted to work with me, but it was not her year to take on new advisees. I also hate the whole no response thing. Two of the schools I applied to did that and it was extremely frustrating. My advisor informed my that the adcom for one of the schools made decisions in early January, yet they didn't sent me my rejection letter until nearly March.