rising_star

Both of these are conquerable issues. For #1, you can check Craig's List or care.com for ads for petsitters. For #2, you just take extra care when you're looking for housing. You can filter for "pets allowed" on most rental search sites. I just eliminate from consideration every single place that won't allow pets. In the town I live in now, having any kind of pet, whether cat or dog, makes finding a rental incredibly difficult. My friend has had trouble finding a new rental because she has a cat and that's in spite of offering to pay pet rent and/or a pet deposit. One place said they'd do it but only for $50/month in pet rent! So I wouldn't automatically say that dogs are verboten (I have a dog and have rented in three different cities with this dog) and most places are flexible about cats. In some places, people just don't want to rent to anyone with pets, even when you're an adult with a well-paying FT job and pet references.

In your shoes, I would contact Purdue and ask them when they expect to have a decision on your application.

@Eigen, @TakeruK, and @fuzzylogician, I think what we're getting at is a difference in fields and perhaps also the kinds of feedback provided. The vast majority of the student work I see is in the form of essays, research proposals, or senior theses. I refuse to grade all of those electronically based on advice from my optometrist* and because that would mean limiting myself to doing grading in my office.** Consequently, I grade basically everything in hard copy form, except final papers (which I provide zero feedback on except upon request). When students submit their work single spaced, there's little room for me to ask clarifying questions about what they've written or to provide an ongoing response their work as a reader, which is at the core of what I do in an effort to provide facilitative feedback. Also, part of the reason I ask for hard copies is because I encourage students to proof those before submitting them. Many times they catch errors in hard copy which they didn't notice on the screen. But I teach several courses which are about developing communication skills so I view this as part of that process. Clearly I'm the oddball among the moderating team. *Basically, the less time I spend looking closely at screens, the better my vision remains. I'm sick of having to get a new prescription every year for vision as my eyes worsen, which costs me personally money. I like to avoid having the job that pays me cost me money if I can help it. **I really hate the idea that my personal resources (the computer I paid for, the internet I pay for at home, etc.) are required in order to do my job.

I tend to not submit LORs more than a week before the deadline, but that's just because that's when I see the reminder pop up on my calendar. I wouldn't be concerned yet personally.

This is such a classic homework help post that I'm not even going to delete it.

Nope, you are not the only one concerned.

You don't need someone who studies exactly what you want to study! You need someone who can understand your project, ask good questions about it, and challenge you to deepen your thinking about your own project. If someone is already doing exactly what you want to do, then there's no real point in doing that research, is there? In terms of your committee, it sounds like an environmental anthropologist would definitely be appropriate given your interests. A second person could bring regional expertise (that is, they focus on the Western USA, Latin America, Eastern Europe, or whatever region it is that you're interested in). A third might be have expertise in the theories you're utilizing or drawing on in your research whether that's political economy, Foucault, etc.

This isn't what the OP asked but I find it interesting that so many of you hate reading things that are double-spaced. I assume you mean you don't like reading electronic documents that are double-spaced? I prefer single or 1.25 spaced when reading on things electronically but get really annoyed when students turn in hard copies that way.

If you're a foreigner, you'll probably be asked to take the TOEFL in addition to the GRE. I personally wouldn't take the GRE again just to improve your AWA score. Instead, I'd showcase your ability to write well through your statement of purpose and writing sample. You may want to have one of your recommenders mention your disability, though ths really may be unnecessary overall.

While it's true that you apply to the department, it's also true that you'll need to form a committee with 3-5 faculty in your department. Having only one POI can be dangerous because if things don't work out with that POI,* then you find yourself in a very bad position. When I was applying, I made sure I had at least two POIs in each department and several other people who could reasonably serve on a dissertation committee on my topic. *The POI could leave for another institution, become ill, retire, decide they aren't taking on students, etc.

To me, you sound unfocused. A MA in Latin American Studies and a MA in Asian Studies are two very different things. You talked about your interest in Central America in your post but didn't mention any interest in anything in Asia... So, I guess the first question I'd ask yourself is why you want to study these things and what you plan to do after earning your MA. Right now, it seems like you're still unclear about what the point of doing a master's is, which is something I would be careful about since it can lead to a weaker application. In general though, I advise people to try to find MA programs which offer funding, either through TA or RA positions or through FLAS fellowships. With your interest in Central America, you may want to add U Washington, Arizona State, and U Arizona, though funding may be harder to come by at those institutions.

In your situation, I would try not to give the letter writer a copy of your personal statement. Instead, I'd prepare a summary of work achievements and skills you've acquired/used you'd like her to highlight in her letter so that she can focus on those in your application. That said, if your personal statement implies that you don't want work at that organization, why not revise/update/edit your personal statement so it doesn't do that?

To mirror @lewin's return to the excellent main point of @TXInstrument11, I'll just add a couple of things from my experience. 1) Campus visits prior to deciding which offer to accept can be incredibly helpful. Pay attention to the dynamics between faculty when you're visiting. Ask grad students who is on their committee. If there's someone that seems like they should be on their committee but isn't, ask them why. (Note: I actually did this when visiting a program and found out that two people who you might logically want to put on a committee couldn't stand one another and refused to work with one another's students.) Similarly, ask grad students what they've heard about working with anyone and everyone you're considering working with. 2) Think seriously and critically about the reputation of the person you're considering having as your PI/advisor. Does that person have a theoretical or methodological bent? If so, do you want to be closely associated with that for the next 10 years of your life? If not, move along to the next POI. 3) Keep in mind that all of these things can change. People's reputations rise and fall. Feuds get settled and new ones begin. Some of this is out of your control.

Critical and postcolonial theory are definitely relevant in anthropology. I have no idea why you'd think otherwise. Have you actually read any recent work by anthropologists on the Middle East? I think doing so would shed some light on whether the field is appropriate for you.

Any advice on where to find these free recordings??

@eyeshadow, I wouldn't say anything about why you didn't feel satisfied in your BA department. Your SOP needs to be forward-looking, not looking at and justifying your past. The adcom would rather read about what you did in your MA and what you're going to do in your PhD than how/why your BA department didn't satisfy you. (Anecdata again: I never mentioned my BA discipline in the SOP for PhD programs. That SOP was all about the theoretical framework I wanted to use, the kinds of things I wanted to study using that framework, and the skills I'd gained in my MA which would help me do that successfully.)

Honestly, I would probably ignore the email. I had a student make a similarly rude remark (though not about laptop use) as they were all packing up to leave last week and deflected, mostly so I wouldn't respond negatively/angrily. I don't bother trying to teach students how to write proper emails anymore (long story on that one) nor do I try to correct their tone (which they can always say you misinterpreted/misconstrued since you can't actually *know* whether they meant the email as a joke or not). What I would do is talk to the professor, DGS, or someone in the teaching center to see how they'd respond. If this happened today, I'd also definitely NOT deal with this over the weekend, but that's because I have a policy of not replying to student emails outside of normal business hours.

Why do you think it doesn't seem reasonable to take four years of language courses during a four year degree? To me, this doesn't seem that burdensome at all (though I'm also a person who enjoys learning new languages). If it's about scheduling, it's important to recognize that scheduling becomes more difficult, not less, once you're in graduate school and have 3 hour seminars to contend with.

It's pretty common for undergraduate students not to do much research. And, to be quite honest, a lot of the research undergrads do isn't all that impressive because they don't have the time, skills (languages, etc.), access to archives, or funding to do some kickass project. I say this because you're trying to undermine your own accomplishments in the first post when instead you could use your unique background as an awesome selling point in your applications.

Set aside specific time for reading. For me, that's often the morning because I write better in the afternoon. But I also limit it to keep my mind from wandering and to keep me from getting burned out as I go through something. I take notes in the margins and try to record notes on things I think I'll use again in Zotero.

Don't guess. Use websites which have salary data like Glassdoor to get a sense of what the salary is. If at all possible, use connections/contacts/friends to get a better sense of the salary you can expect. If you low ball on your offer, you may not be taken seriously or, and this is probably worse, you'll be given the lower salary which will affect your salary trajectory for the rest of your career.

Hmmm... I guess the question I'd ask is whether the letter from your BA professor can add something that a letter from someone in your MA program could not add. It's likely that key things for grad school success like your maturity, research and writing skills, and research interests have changed since your BA and might be easier for someone from your MA program to speak to. (For anecdata, I'll note that I was once in your shoes. I changed fields between my BA and MA and stayed in the MA field for my PhD. I went with my MA thesis committee for my three recommenders, in part because my interests and skills had changed, in part because they were better able to speak to my ability to do research in that field, and in part because their names were more likely to be recognized by those reading my application.)

Without a doubt, connections. But, you can get into a good graduate program without them.

Some schools/departments will let you and others won't. The only way to know is by contacting each specific institution and the relevant department.

When you say that you want some freedom, do you mean not having to take classes full time? If that's the case, you may want to look into European PhD programs where there are no coursework requirements, which in turn could lend it self to a more flexible time schedule.