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Very lucky us then! This waiting is killing meeee.

Hmmm a friend in Chicago posted a freezing picture so I guess other places are the same. For some reason we are not getting any winter in this country this year but I guess the US is the same as usual.

Is it bad in the East Coast? I am an international so have no idea.

nosleep i sent you a pm check your inbox!

Even though I just sent my application to Cornell they got everything as "received". Considering the fact that they were among the earliest last year to notify, maybe we will get news pretty early this year as well. Fingers crossed.

Has anyone applied to UPenn? My documents have been received but my application remains still incomplete for some reason? Did this happen to anybody?

I did have a "serious" SOP last year when I applied to social anthropology but it did not work out and I realized that this was not my thing. I am applying to archaeology this year and I stayed within the "personal" range. Everyone I know who got in had really normal SOPs and so I decided not to push it that much. The Duke ones are really good ones though but they were very specific and some POIs I talked did not want detailed SOPs as they knew people's ideas change in time. I guess it depends on people, POIs, depts and pure chance!

NoSleep, I am curious about your research interests. Where did you apply?

All sent!!! What do we do now?

Are there any who apply to ancient near east/archaeo track?

I am applying to two schools (and other schools but different departments) and have sent them now. Let's see what will happen.

Hey Eriatarka congrats. I think you must have applied early and they processed it early, otherwise it is very interesting. But congrats!

Upenn and Harvard sent. 4 more to go.

the ones I am applying say 1000 words maximum... i still haven't finished mine but the introduction seems rather long now...do i talk too much about myself or exaggerate this hook thing??... oh dear

Ask what other places you are applying?

I still haven't sent out anything for the Dec 15th deadlines. Time is running fast!

How should an archaeology focused SOP be written? Any advice?

I am so stressed.

Mesopotamia-Near East (old school here ) Boston, Brown, Upenn. Considering Uchicago as well.

There was a thread on that but I could not find it. What if an important POI did not respond? I already contacted many people from this particular department but this POI also the program director did not respond. One of the other POIs have told me to contact this person. Should I rewrite? If yes what should I say, how should I approach since she did not respond earlier?

I'm starting this thread -exclusively- for archeology students. Who is there? Where are you applying? What is your field?

How are are you in the application process? I feel like I'm being very slow for the mid-Dec and early Jan deadlines.

Well the school writes "personal statement" in the web site but explains it with "your research interests and plans for the PhD" in the in the line next to it. I guess the difference is a bit blurry here.

Can anyone pour in some advice here on how to hook the reader in the first paragraph? For PhD in humanities/social sciences? Now most advice is to avoid starting "since I was a child" etc. but then what kind of things can hook the adcom or avert them???

Hello I am going to apply soon but there are some parts in my application that look very weird. Ok I graduated summa cum laude from my B.A. but then went on to do master's in a related field. However the dept came to an unofficial closure and we had to move to a similar dept and things got in the way so I could not complete this one. I have very good grades here too and research experience from this time period. How should I mention this in my statement? I am not going to finish this degree but I want to send my transcripts etc. Also when you fill the application form it asks dates attended etc. and there is the option "discontinued". How bad does that sound? Secondly I then went to a second master's and it was in a different country. The grading system along with judging criteria totally blew me up. It was a totally unrelated discipline so I did not do well myself but along with their weird grading system, the overall image is bad. They don't even have GPAs, they use letters. But their pass grade is E?! C which I got is considered good. Plus they have no GPA, these letters are only for single courses. The school application system asks what the GPA is (they accept the letter system in the form as well) but as I said the grades I have are for courses only, not for the total course load. In addition the grades are bad!!! For my PhD I'm going back to my initial B.A. discipline so I know that my B.A. scores would count more (?) but I don't know how to handle these two weird master's degrees, one incomplete but perfect in grading, the other terrible in grades. Both in the form and in the statement of purpose? Please advice!