rising_star

To answer your first question, going to a lower-ranked school will not automatically torpedo your dreams. The key will be making sure that the faculty there truly are up-and-coming (remember, rankings lag behind a great deal generally) and that will help you develop professionally in terms of presenting, publishing, teaching, networking, etc. If you do that, you'll be fine. And yes, you'd burn bridges if you enrolled in a PhD program and transferred/left after the first year for "greener pastures".

I would put in a general description at first and provide more information if people express a willingness to participate.

Just to be clear, plenty of departments know about this site, but it doesn't change their timeline. Also, there are a bunch of reasons that acceptances/rejections don't all go out at once. At my MA university, they admitted outstanding candidates they wanted to nominate for university-wide fellowships first, then went through the regular admissions, and then evaluated students applying for the PhD from their own MA program. So, I actually heard that I was officially admitted to the PhD program almost two full months after acceptances started cropping up here. In fact, students admitted with funding were visiting before they'd even read my application. All of that is a way of saying that having to wait doesn't always mean bad news.

This can vary. At my MA institution, one grad paid and the department reimbursed that person. My PhD department doesn't really do recruitment and doesn't set aside funds for it. My advisor might decide he'll pay, depending on who the visiting student is. Otherwise, we take them some place nearby and affordable and everyone pays their own bill.

Kinda anything. Ask about whether the stupend is enough to live on, activities in the city, grad student organizations, whether the grads hang out, if they're competing with one another, if they help each other with grant apps, stuff like that. This varies but, basically, I won't tell my advisor about our emails unless you say or do something ridiculously stupid. Now, if you visit in person, I'm much more likely to offer my opinion on whether or not I want you in the group. But, it's hard for me to get a feel for someone's personality through email so I just try not to. Yes, you can and should. Ask what it's like working with and for that POI. Ask about how much supervision there is when it comes to exams, writing articles, etc. Find out how often the POI meets with their grad students and whether those are group or individual meetings. Ask if it's hard to get facetime to discuss your project. These things are important. They're things I asked when deciding on PhD programs and questions I regularly answer from prospective students. They're semi-formal. As in, you're not their peer yet so don't treat them like it. But that doesn't mean you should treat them like a prof either. Also, grad students may take a few days or even a week or so to reply. Sorry, but prospective students I've never met are usually not at the top of my list of things to do in any given day. But, I'll reply eventually. The more specific your questions are, the more useful information you'll get. And please, don't expect me to follow up with you like 20 times.

You'll probably get more luck meeting people in person than you will emailing them. Can you try to network with them through LinkedIn or using any of your connections first?

It probably refers to fees that were covered by a scholarship. And yes, that is taxable income.

See if you can find any NSF-REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) programs in your area/s of interest. There are plenty for this summer whose deadlines haven't passed yet. These programs pay for everything and provide a stipend, so affordability shouldn't be an issue. Even if you can't find one that's specifically archaeology, you might be able to find one that gives you useful skills, like GIS, data analysis, etc.

You probably don't even have to cancel the original return ticket, provided your reimbursement doesn't require boarding passes. Just book a one-way flight to UVA or train ticket or whatever, book a one-way return ticket to CO, and make the hotel reservation. Use the money from UVA to cover the three things I just mentioned.

Past discussion of this:

This is ridiculously premature. Stop freaking out. My department (Jan 15 deadline) doesn't send out acceptances until March 23rd or so each year.

Actually, if enough people flag a result as spam, it's automatically removed.

Hi crystal, When I visited programs, not all of them fully paid for the flight. Some offered $250 or $300, while others paid the entire flight even though it was $400 or $500. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. Tell the Program Director that while you'd love to visit, it's impossible for you to do so since it would require spending a great deal out-of-pocket on airfare. They may be able to offer you more money for the trip. But, in all honesty, if it's your safety school and you aren't that interested, don't waste their time/money by going.

I think this varies by department more than anything else. My department explicitly pays everyone the same wage for the same work, as Eigen said about his. That said, other social science departments at my university do NOT do this. FWIW, I never tried to negotiate a stipend. Instead, I focused on understanding whether I would be able to afford things based on the stipend provided. And what I figured out is that $13K in the middle of nowhere and $18K in a medium-sized city were about the same, meaning that money didn't really figure into it. And, fwiw, I took an offer in between those, explicitly turning down more money in the form of a fellowship and freedom from TAing to work with a particular POI and I don't really regret that decision.

All of the Ivies are different from one another in terms of their undergraduate culture. You seem to not be getting my point about this.

Actually, the undergraduate student bodies at Yale, Brown, MIT, and UCSC *aren't* that similar...

I put all my recruitment weekend trips on a credit card that I paid off once the reimbursement came in. Maybe you can ask a relative if you can use his/her card?

Honestly, I doubt it matters. My PhD university is known for being a party school. BUT, our department's majors tend to be focused, serious students. So the overall undergraduate culture mostly matters when I'm teaching/TAing large courses. That said, I wouldn't go with a university that wasn't as great of a fit on the off chance that I'll get to work closely with serious, passionate undergraduates.

Jan 1 deadline - heard before end of the month Jan 15 deadline - heard at the end of March So, no average evident there. Just relax, even though it can be hard to do.

Duplicate post. See here: to reply.

Take a look at geography programs if you're looking into anthro and STS.

Honestly, no one can answer this question for you in a specific way without knowing which cities you're looking at, making a list of grocery items you're likely to buy, and comparing their prices at major grocery stores in each location. But, this is something you could do yourself when you go on visits. In essence, this is a basic cost of living question. Find a cost of living calculator that includes groceries and use it to compare the various cities you're looking at. You can also look at CSA prices and reviews for all of the cities you're considering. In all honesty, you're not likely to find much variation due to the fact that most groceries in the US are supplied by a few major providers and sold at nationwide chains. @bythesea, I can understand msafiri's frustration because InquilineKea posts many topics daily, doesn't really connect them to grad school, and many have the same answer which is "It depends". I've posted a variation of "It depends" multiple times to InquilineKea and never gotten a reply or even any indication that s/he has read my comments. I think that's why his/her posts tend to get fewer comments now than they did a month or two ago.

Sure you can do it but, if you're enrolling in it directly and it's an undergraduate-only course, you won't get credit for it. That said, this can vary from one program to the next so you really should read each program's graduate handbook.

There are tons of past posts on exactly this topic. Check here and in "Interviews and Visits". But really, we can't tell you what the most important or "best" questions are, particularly given your non-traditional background. You have to figure out what it is that you want and/or need to know, ask questions to elicit that information, then figure out what to do.

Pretty much what anthropologygeek said. You may get an acceptance now, with funding information being available at the end of February, for example, after the University-wide fellowships have been given out. Unless you are on the waitlist, you will hear about funding and admission before April 15.