jmu

Veet - that sucks. In geography they don't want hypothesis testing but can imagine it's a major issue in other fields. Bathing - no time to freak out. Between recruiting incoming students, the department hiring a new faculty member, and turning a paper I presented into an article I don't have the chance. It's just another mark on a very full calendar this month. I also have three other smaller but more competitive funding applications out.

https://www.cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution Only really applies to funded offers and is not binding.

Just got back from DOPE last night. Kentucky is a great school and has a vibrant community surrounding political ecology (even if there are relatively few political ecologists there!)

I'm curious what you all have to publish as undergrads. I have years of research and am only just now at a point where I think I'm ready to publish something and even then it probably won't be for another year. Is this all co-author stuff from working as an RA or something? Conceptual/theoretical work? I couldn't imagine being ready to publish something after undergrad. I barely knew the literature! (One of my BAs was in Sociology/Anthropology, FWIW).

It's also become more competitive. Many people have told me that they do not think they would have been accepted where they were if they applied now.

I chose perfect fit over good fit with prestige (unranked over two top ranked.) I don't regret it for a second. Talk to people in the program (grad students especially) about how they think your fit issue will effect your ability to do the work you want to do. Also keep in mind that your interests are going to change to a greater or lesser degree when thinking about fit.

Daisy - My situation is the same as what strudelle mentioned. I have three years of guaranteed funding and a fourth year available if needed but it is expected that, after three years, I will have secured at least some form of external funding. I can't, for example, be a TA or RA when I am spending a year in the field. I've applied this year for the GRFP (I should have applied last year but I don't think I would have gotten it anyway) and regardless of the outcome of that intend to apply for the DDRI and SSRC to pay for my dissertation fieldwork. Most of the funding applications have specific points within the PhD that you are able to apply for them so there is no need to freak out too much about them but it is worthwhile to start looking into them so you are familiar with the requirements and timelines. There are also opportunities for smaller amounts of money to use for travel. I have a guaranteed $1500 a year that I can use for travel ($750 for conference travel and $750 for field site visits) but I have also applied this year for small ($200-600) grants that are only available to graduate students doing preliminary site visits through sections of my professional association (the AAG but I'm a member of AAA also and I see similar emails get sent around.) As strudelle mentioned, having this funding shows future potential employers (whether as a post-doc, VAP, or tenure-track position) that you are capable of getting external funding, that you know what a good proposal looks like, and that you will likely be able to bring money into the program through these funding sources. Along with publications in top journals, this is what will help you get these positions the most. (At least, that is what I've heard.) They can help to make up for a lack in another part of your application such as prestige or pedigree (see the discussion in the other thread about the difference between the two) but they won't replace them entirely. For example, I will have a very good pedigree but FIU is not really a prestigious school. My committee have great connections which help with that but I also need to do work as well; that work includes publications and funding.

Funding never seems to be settled. I've spoken to a number of people and they've all said that if you want a tenure track position, you have to have external funding. Even if you have a completely funded PhD, it seems to be implied that you will at least be applying for the DDRI, SSRC, Wenner-Gren, etc. If you are coming without a master's add the GRFP to that list. Having an outside source of funding has become very much the norm in the social sciences, or at least it seems to be that way.

And then you start applying for external funding, travel grants, submitting papers to conferences, submitting papers to journals, waiting to hear back if the department has money to send you to a conference or to do preliminary field visits. I hated the process while I was applying but now that I'm on the other side I appreciate it. It's prepared me pretty well for meeting deadlines, making sure I have the best work possible turned in, and above all else being able to wait patiently without freaking out.

Yep. I emailed Dr. Schneider for more information once mine changed (a day or two after some others mentioned that theirs had changed) and she told me to contact Dr.'s Schroeder and Leichenko as they were both interested in working with me. If there is an acceptance, keep an eye on your application status page. If it doesn't change and you don't hear anything from them I don't think it would hurt too much to send Dr. Schneider an email. She seemed very affable.

Check your online application. My acceptance appeared there about a week before I heard anything from the department (and even then, I contacted them) and about a month before I received my letter of acceptance in the mail.

Fastlane goes down all the time. It will say Fastlane/GRFP for us I think.

My stipend is payment for work by the department. It does not change based on need-based financial aid.

A friend of mine was accepted to ASU today. Not sure on the details but I got a very excited text from her letting me know.

I still file and am eligible for a university need-based grant of about $5000 a year. I have a decent stipend but end up paying a lot for books (we read about 30-40 books a semester) and still have to pay fees ($750ish a semester). Since those are accounted for in my taxes and, therefore the amount that goes onto my FAFSA, the university determines that even with my stipend I have unmet financial need. Edit: I replied to the wrong post. Whatever.

Good luck with UGA! It's a really great program and probably the only one I would have chosen over my current one. Sadly, I withdrew my application after finding out I was waitlisted because the people I was interested in working with weren't taking more master's students and they were struggling with figuring out who I would fit with. What are your interests and who are you interested in working with there? I was hoping to do the MA in Geography and ICON PhD.

It's speculation. I think the timeline make sense considering this happened likely around the first time committees met and first year applications are read first. It also makes sense to me that they would give first year applicants a chance to provide some additional information if things aren't clear because they aren't held to the same standards as later applicants. Having some time in grad school it is expected that you have a clear understanding of how to articulate your thoughts succinctly and that you will have (potentially) a bit more support and experience in drafting statements and proposals that first year applicants don't have.

threnagyn - See my post. I think it could go either way (you're out or fine) but since you are obviously not a first time applicant I don't think it applies to you anyway. It would be interesting to know if additional information was only requested from not-yet-in-grad-school applicants or if it was more broad than that. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that any of them venture into the forums.

Kay, the professor I know who graduated from UW had never spoken to Lucy Jarosz and was initially waitlisted. She ended up getting accepted and doing extremely well there. I wouldn't stress it just yet.

DOPE is great. I went last year and loved it. Very different from other conferences. I might be working at AAG (my advisor is on the local committee) so decided to use my funding to go back to DOPE this year.

Be prepared to question everything for a while. Weekly existential crises are normal and you begin to identify as a grad student above all else which makes things weird.

I have a number of hobby interests including beer/brewing, bourbon, rum, cycling, etc. that all involve an in-depth, technical knowledge of the subject matter. I also have academic interests that are generally outside of my area of interest but I work them into my research. I'm really interested in the work of Saul Newman and Todd May on post-anarchism, for example. I'm also interested in psychoanalytic critiques of ideology and the "real." I bring these into my very dry, usually boring research on the political ecology of drainage and irrigation and people seem to really like that. I say that, if you have an outside interest, see if you can't incorporate it.

I graduated during the application process and sent out an updated, unofficial transcript and an updated CV to departments I had not yet heard from with a note just letting them know that my files had changed. I also made it clear that I wasn't concerned if the new documents wouldn't be considered but was supplying them as a 'just in case.' I always emailed them to the graduate secretary and always heard back positively. In one case I got an email back from the GPD saying that I was already on the waitlist and the new files would be added to my packet in the case that it was reviewed again. In others they simply said thanks for the update and they would let me know. The only program I was outright rejected from was the only program who didn't get the updated files (they only accepted materials by mail and had already sent out decisions.) If you are careful to not come off as pushy or desperate I don't think it will really hurt you. Also, rather than the department head, email the GPD or the graduate secretary as they are more likely to actually put the files in the correct place.

pohks, When I was deciding I went through a similar process and ending up applying to the programs that had the most interesting research and overlap for me. When it came time to pick, I chose the program I liked the most over other factors. As a result, I turned down two top-25 schools for an "unranked" program (you couldn't really rank it, I don't think, because faculty in the department come from three different fields and rankings tend to be very disciplinary focused). I couldn't be happier with my experience here so far and it doesn't seem that program rank is really going to hurt too much in this case. I think that generally comes into play with the research output and networking capabilities of the faculty which is definitely going well here.

Welcome aboard Kay123. UW looks like they usually notify the second or third week of February. Who are you interested in working with there? One of the professors in our program is a recent grad of Lucy Jarosz and also looked at geography and public health.