pears

I'm a student in a terminal MA program, and I'm also a bit of an oddball fence-sitter as far as interests go: I'm interested in mortuary archaeology, especially of periods of contact, social turmoil, violence, and so on. I entered not knowing what I wanted to do as a thesis topic and with no specific region beyond "the American West, NW, SW, or California." To begin with, there aren't too many programs that (a) offer at least one mortuary archaeology class, ( allow you to take that class in a non-forensic track, and © offer a terminal MA. Basically, the program I'm in now was my top choice because we have a "general" track, which effectively lets you cherry-pick your seminars and electives, rather than having more constraints placed upon you by entering, say, a forensic anthro track. By the time I graduate, I should have roughly 1/3 archaeology courses, 1/3 cultural heritage (CRM and federal work, legal hooplah, in-field management, so on) courses, and 1/3 forensic and mortuary courses. Some thoughts: - Apply to schools with one or both of your desired concentrations. Get to know the faculty and their course offerings. Eventually, you'll get a gut feeling about which place is going to allow you to do exactly what you want and pigeonhole you the least, if at all. - I agree that you have to hustle from square one. I have worked my butt off since before I even got here; it's paid off. I've quickly improved my writing skills, got the ball rolling on a few conference papers, gotten a summer job with a professor, had a TAship, etc.. but I also had no social life. - Funding sucks. Seriously. I took out loans since I knew this program was the right move for me... but I also escaped undergrad debt-free with a small cushion of savings to sit on. - Funding really sucks. Although I don't have to compete with PhD students in my own department, we have limited funding; I just turned in another "self assessment" thing that's a catch all application to decide who gets fellowships, scholarships, and funded TAships. Although we don't compete directly, there's only so much cash to go around. Also, it is really hard to feel up-to-snuff when applying for school-wide fellowships and scholarships when you know you're up against ABDs with way more experience and funding than you. - For me, this MA is not a waste of money or time, although I've had people try to tell me otherwise. I knew what kind of work I wanted to do, but I had moderate experience, big gaps in relevant coursework (all things theory and skeletal), a barely acceptable regional "focus," and no particular thesis topic in mind when applying to places. I'm smart and hardworking, but.. well, good luck convincing any PhD programs a year ago that I could commit to being there or was worth the investment. Now I have a thesis topic and data set (conveniently from the school of my top choice PhD program), a five-year work and PhD app plan, and lots of connections and opportunities that go well beyond coursework. In sum, you remind me of where I was at mentally and experience-wise this time last year. Doing the MA first has already helped me tremendously, and opened up many doors that I would've never been able to even find the knob for last year or on my own, so to speak. Don't make the mistake I did: now is the time to be handing in applications for funding.. even if you're not accepted by a program yet, go ahead and apply for all the funding sources you can. Best of luck with it all! Give me a shout if nothing I said made sense or if you have more questions!

Gah, that's terrifying. You may want to get in touch with some higher-ups at the program where you completed your thesis for some legal advice and help there...

I try to choose between early morning and late night, depending on how I feel and what's due. In the worst crunch times last semester, I tried to keep it down to 2 days a week. I'm one of those types who has to plan everything with self-imposed due dates, e.g., reaching the 10th page of a 25 page paper by so-many-days before it's due. That said, my classes thus far have made planning ahead very easy, and I know my own work habits (and weaknesses) really well, so I know when to push myself and when to call it a night. I often err on the side of pushing because I can be a total slug if I don't put the boot in my own rear end, but I try to piece apart assignments throughout a day and the whole week to minimize all-nighters. I'm an old fart and/or princess about sleep most days.

Yes, but clearly the "silly maxims" are beyond my point. You seemed to have grasped "lol I troll u" 101's core concepts via every other forum on the internet, so I don't think I have to elaborate beyond "be nice-or-at-least-neutral to people and don't judge so much" for you to understand what I mean.

I'm guessing I'm only feeding the troll here, but... I challenge you to find a way to use "hobag" (which I believe fell out of my working vocabulary around the same time as the "R" word, so.. age 14? 15?) in a non-derogatory manner. I understand that there are pushes to "reclaim" similar words (which I doubt I can say on here), but that one falls in the bin of immature words that are at best replaced by something else more "mature" but equally derogatory, and at worst are entirely unnecessary in any and all contexts. Sometimes people do the bedroom sexytime touchings with other people. Sometimes they don't. Everyone is different. Derogatory terms need not apply. Any terms beyond "person" need not apply, really. Edited: removed video link. Also, my social scientist and left-leaning feminist are showing.

Not to make any of y'all any more frustrated with being stuck in waiting purgatory, but last year, I noticed that the small changes in my applications, such as status updates for submitted materials, appeared shortly before decisions were made. However, that wasn't the case for all of them, and I received 1 rejection, so I can't really speak to whether there are any patterns. Fingers crossed for everyone!

In addition to the excellent fostering and volunteering advice above, another option is to seek out a shelter or rescue group nearby that helps find homes for "small and fuzzy/scaly/feathery" pets: rabbits, reptiles, small birds, etc. They're often lower maintenance pets, and some have shorter lifespans than cats and dogs. Definitely do your research beforehand, though; some reptiles and birds have crazy long lifespans. Gotta think ahead about how much moving around you'll be doing in the next 5 or so years at the very least. I had a leopard gecko when I was an undergrad, and she was about as low maintenance as a pet can be, although she wasn't super affectionate and was sometimes difficult to travel with. One of my current housemates raises rabbits (primarily for meat, but in the meantime, they're "pets"), and they're a lot more affectionate. We feed them organic fruit and veg scraps that are safe for them to eat. I imagine having 1 or 2 instead of, y'know, 15+ in a large hutch would actually be pretty rewarding and straightforward. As others have mentioned, leasing options, rent, fees, and so on vary greatly. I've noticed it's really hard to find a 9- or 12-month place to lease that allows dogs here; however, many places don't seem to mind smaller animals, and/or permit outdoor pets (rabbits, chickens, so on).

street food

I'm one of those people who needs a gym. Last semester, I completely let myself go with exercise and eating habits, so I'm going to fix that this semester. I've got vinyasa yoga, girls-only weightlifting, and core strength classes at my school's gym, plus cardio (literally written into my schedule) and an intro to east coast swing dancing(!) class. I'm also going to try an intro to whitewater kayaking class, time permitting. Busybody! I personally tend to do better when I'm interacting with others, hence the classes; that way, I'm less inclined to skip or eat terribly. My S.O. and I both need to eat better and exercise more, so it's nice to have someone who's in the same state of mind who will keep me on track. Also, if it's not written on my schedule, I won't do it, so I have to make time and set it in writing. I get around by bike, mostly, so that helps, too. I keep track of my daily calories and nutrition with MyFitnessPal, which is an awesome app.

I'd say it's still worth it to introduce yourself. After all, they may be a collaborator, a source of advice (e.g., reading recommendations), etc.; better to maintain bridges than to burn them or let them deteriorate on their own, I guess. I introduced myself to a few professors from my second choice program -- I ended up not attending -- just a couple days after they conditionally accepted me. It was awkward at first, but it was nice to make face time with professors whose work I admire, program decisions aside.

My S.O. and I keep our towels in the closet in our room, and our toothbrushes live in a cup in our room -- we have a small sink and mirror set up so we don't have to go into the bathroom we share with a couple other housemates. I got in the habit of keeping my towel and toiletries in my room when I was an undergrad; I'm a little bit of a neat freak, and a lot of my housemates over the years were.. mm, not so tidy at best. Also, big parties + lots of intoxicated people + mystery fluids = a game of risk I'm not willing to play!

I'm in anthropology (archaeology, really), and I have 4 blazers: 1 from H&M, 2 from Forever 21, and 1 hand-me-down Ralph Lauren. I find blazers to be more comfortable than cardigans, and the ones at F21 and H&M -- the former especially -- to be suitable for conferences and all, as their materials, cuts, and colors are on the more casual end of the office/business attire spectrum. F21 also has a nice variety of colors (one of my blazers has cropped sleeves, and is dark peacock blue and navy), and if you catch a good sale, they can be as inexpensive as $15.

I applied to a good number of programs, and didn't interview with any. I'm not sure whether any of my friends, coworkers, et al. ever interviewed either, although some visited programs in person. All I did was contact my POIs, and kept in touch as I (we?) saw fit.

"Dead people, old things, dirt, social theory, and a sneaking suspicion about why my family doesn't ask me about school anymore at the dinner table."

"i lost totally can u send help" Good lord, that one made me almost spit out my tea laughing. Too real! That reminds me of the infamous "I'm worried about my grade" video on YouTube -- for those who haven't seen it but have to deal with student nonsense in all forms on a regular basis, it's well worth the watch.

Yup, this exactly! My own thesis will involve several others' theses, almost all of whom were in the same department (over a few decades). Initially, I got permission to use the thesis of someone who's now on my committee, and they helped me get permission to access others as needed. Also, my program has access to theses at some other universities as .pdfs or hard copies, but I usually have to search for them by exact title through my library's website.

I wouldn't call any of these "theories," but rather, means of interacting with the world. A theory is more of a specific academic approach and mindset when analyzing issues. For example, as an archaeologist, I use processualist and processual-plus theories most often; other people may be post-processualists, feminist or Marxist archaeologists, or human behavioral ecologists. You may want to browse Anthropological Theory (a journal) online, and look for textbooks that provide a guide to social theory. Charles Lemert has a good comprehensive guide to the history of social theory, and other books are available about more recent theories (post-structuralism and post-modernism, post-postmodernism... the list goes on). Also, the University of Alabama has this (click for link) excellent brief review of many major theories, which I use for papers to make sure what I'm writing is consistent and accurate. Hope that helps

congrats! who's your POI there? dr. masson is very nice, from the few interactions i had with her.

good luck!!

balancing work and play. my classmates are all very nice, but i'm pretty introverted, so going out is always a little mentally exhausting. tack on having 15 hours of part-time work every week and wanting to do as well as possible in my classes.. i didn't go out much. hopefully i fix that next semester, now that i have a "rhythm" going.

I think I must check for grades a dozen times a day! I know I have an A in one class, & I'm hoping the other will be an A (my third class is pass/fail, I suspect I'll pass). I would be absolutely chuffed if I started out with a 4.0, especially since I'm taking on a much heavier courseload next semester: core seminar, seminar in my subfield, elective in my subfield, & auditing a class taught by the professor I'm doing fieldwork with this summer. Wahhhhhhh I want my grades! (temper tantrum)

I have a fantastic professor who went to SFU, probably for research fit (prehistoric PacNW, social evolutionary theory). She's awesome, but it's hard to say whether the SFU PhD was helpful; she's a fantastic writer and editor, an all around great professor, and really involved in fieldwork and professional groups. That said, I got the impression from her class that UBC is very well regarded, and UofT. It probably depends on your area of focus, though.