bioarch_fan

I'd be surprised if offices were closed. The only time that university offices are closed are for weekends, inclement weather, or most federally recognized holidays.

Mushroom at the end of the World is amazing!!! I read that in undergrad.
Something that I'm reading for my quant class this semester is actually pretty interesting, if you're interested in reading about quantitative methods (in a way). It's called The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. 

I would suggest emailing the professors at each school (if you can) after submission to show that you're still interested in their program. And that will also remind them that they've talked to you and that might help your application a little too. It wouldn't hurt to email professors just to keep in touch about the process. I talked to my current advisor at least 3 times after I applied (admittedly it was her who initiated contact two of the times...mostly to tell me not to accept another school until I talked to her). 

I actually know a few Canadian schools, one of which I'm going to be applying to for my PhD eventually, that funds ALL of their students for a total of 5 years (if you're working on your PhD). So yeah, they fund the same way we do here in the States. It's tuition waivers and a good living stipend.

I already have one outside reader that I actually want to replace with this other scholar. My current outside reader used to be our department chair before they received a job offer at another university. And the only thing that they are bringing to my committee are the connections that they have in the country I intend to do my thesis on. But the other potential reader also has a lot of connections in Europe as well. So I think they'd both be good.
And no, the potential reader is still regularly doing work on the same area of interest. She consistently uses the same assemblages for her research and for her current PhD students to research. I'm hoping to apply to work with her as a PhD student after this. That's one of my main reasons why I'd want to have her on my committee. But I'll talk it over with my advisor and see what she says. Hopefully I can convince her to either a) let me have her on my committee or b) to at least talk to her at our conference in April about my research and to get her take on if I'm going in the right direction.

Honestly Mississippi State doesn't even really look at the GRE that much. They take it into account when awarding funding but even then it's not that big of a deal. I didn't have a 300 when I applied here and I got in with funding. It really does depend on your entire application. I would say talk to either David or Kate and see what they say about your GRE score. But when I talked to my advisor, she didn't really say anything about it. She said I could take it again if I wanted to but it's not really that important to do it again. So just email all of your POIs and ask them what they would suggest doing. Most anthropology departments don't really take much weight into the GRE because it's a horrible way to determine the success of an applicant.

Honestly your scores sound pretty amazing to me. I didn't have anywhere close to the scores that you received and got into my graduate program...though this is just a MA program. I will likely be taking the GRE again before I decide if I'm going to apply to PhD programs.
And technically GRE scores sometimes matter for some schools, but many anthropology programs that I talked to said that the GRE is far down their list on requirements. They understand that the GRE is a horrible way to assess whether someone will do well in a graduate program.
But again, I wouldn't stress too much. You have a good score from what I can tell. It truly is more about fit, letters of rec, and your SOP than your GRE scores.

I'll second @bioarch_fan. I'm zooarchaeology and it's maybe even smaller a field than bioarch. I would suggest starting off as broad as you're willing. Maybe you're most interested in the effects of A and B on rural communities, but you're willing to be flexible on the region, or maybe your main interest is China, but you're flexible on specific disease. Either way, I've found in my (rather a lot of) emails I've sent back and forth to POIs that they will ask more questions if they want you to be more specific, but they will tell you they can't help you if you're too spefic and they come away from your email thinking you're a bad fit.
That said, if you do have very specific interests, some professors will be willing to advise you on methods while you do a different region or vice versa, but you probably will have a shorter list of potential schools than you might want. It's a trade-off, but that's kinda what it is in these tiny fields. 
Bone people unite! 

The same thing happened to me in my department. I was told by my POI that my funding would be a two year TA position. I got my funding for the first year, but was told that my funding for the second year was being cut for "unsatisfactory performance" even though the professor I TA'd for never once came into my lab to watch me teach and I took on 100% more responsibility under her direction than the other, "senior," TA did (plus this senior TA read the evaluation I got and said that none of it was right and that she's actually the one who did most of what they said I did). My evaluation from the professor this semester was almost exactly the same as the one from last semester without her having watched me teach at all...so it makes me seem like they came together and the professor this semester copied the evaluation from last semester. I brought this up in my meeting with the dept chair and DGS and the professor from this semester just looked down when I mentioned it because she knew she was in the wrong.
In my opinion, the only reason they truly cut my funding was because they wanted to bring in more graduate students this year. The only way for them to do that was to cut funding from someone that originally thought their TA position was for 2 years and give it to someone else. I'm seeking funding elsewhere and I'm trying to decide if I want to contact the higher-ups at the university and let them know what's going on and that I do not agree with the funding decision w/o a proper evaluation. Hopefully they can figure out a way to set things straight and to maybe reprimand the professors this year and let them know that this won't be tolerated.
Hopefully you can figure something out for the future! It sounds like this happens quite often in anthro depts since the funding is so dismal in most of them.

I would actually argue opposite from the funding situation. PhDs aren't always funded, and neither are MAs. But there are many MAs that do fund. My current school funds most of their students and so does University of Alabama and Georgia State. These are just 3 of the schools off the top of my head that I know of MAs who received funding.
Yes, I'll agree with the second one but that's kind of the thing with academia...it's not always a sure thing. I can't tell you what to do...you're the only one who can do that. But I can say that most of the time it is easier to get into a PhD program with a MA than without. I've actually heard of people being denied at specific schools for a PhD because they didn't have an MA and other people did.

Anthropology is THE field to be in to study the culture and history of early humans. I am a biological anthropology graduate student and I had to teach this topic quite often this past year. Biological anthropology has multiple subfields that you could go into; however, you would want to do the biological anthropology subfield because there's a specialty under that that studies early hominin evolution called paleoanthropology. This is the specialty that you would be interested in.
Learning a second language isn't particularly important for the subfield, but you should be willing to learn the language of the country in which you'd be doing the majority of your field work. For example, if you want to study the Dmanisi branch of Homo erectus, you would want to learn Georgian so you can communicate with the people in that particular country. That's the same for many of the other areas in which early hominins migrated. Furthermore, you would want to potentially learn either German or French because a lot of the early literature would be in one of these two languages. But there's been a lot of literature in the past couple of decades written by English and American scholars, so you'd still be fine with that.
Grades it truly depends on the program in which you'd be applying. If I can make a suggestion, don't look for just Canadian schools because there are A LOT of paleoanthropologists on this side of the border who you would want to work with. So when you start looking at schools I would say talk to those professors whom you would like to work with and see what they say. If you have good grades, what we would consider a 3.4 GPA or higher out of a 4.0 in the States, then you would still be good. I'm not sure about equivalencies in Canada though.
But one thing I would also suggest is mainly apply to master's granting institutions first because most professors from what I have seen prefer to see a master's degree when applying to PhD programs. I was actually told that by a professor up in Canada and one down here in the States. 

Anthropology is THE field to be in to study the culture and history of early humans. I am a biological anthropology graduate student and I had to teach this topic quite often this past year. Biological anthropology has multiple subfields that you could go into; however, you would want to do the biological anthropology subfield because there's a specialty under that that studies early hominin evolution called paleoanthropology. This is the specialty that you would be interested in.
Learning a second language isn't particularly important for the subfield, but you should be willing to learn the language of the country in which you'd be doing the majority of your field work. For example, if you want to study the Dmanisi branch of Homo erectus, you would want to learn Georgian so you can communicate with the people in that particular country. That's the same for many of the other areas in which early hominins migrated. Furthermore, you would want to potentially learn either German or French because a lot of the early literature would be in one of these two languages. But there's been a lot of literature in the past couple of decades written by English and American scholars, so you'd still be fine with that.
Grades it truly depends on the program in which you'd be applying. If I can make a suggestion, don't look for just Canadian schools because there are A LOT of paleoanthropologists on this side of the border who you would want to work with. So when you start looking at schools I would say talk to those professors whom you would like to work with and see what they say. If you have good grades, what we would consider a 3.4 GPA or higher out of a 4.0 in the States, then you would still be good. I'm not sure about equivalencies in Canada though.
But one thing I would also suggest is mainly apply to master's granting institutions first because most professors from what I have seen prefer to see a master's degree when applying to PhD programs. I was actually told that by a professor up in Canada and one down here in the States. 

The same thing happened to me in my department. I was told by my POI that my funding would be a two year TA position. I got my funding for the first year, but was told that my funding for the second year was being cut for "unsatisfactory performance" even though the professor I TA'd for never once came into my lab to watch me teach and I took on 100% more responsibility under her direction than the other, "senior," TA did (plus this senior TA read the evaluation I got and said that none of it was right and that she's actually the one who did most of what they said I did). My evaluation from the professor this semester was almost exactly the same as the one from last semester without her having watched me teach at all...so it makes me seem like they came together and the professor this semester copied the evaluation from last semester. I brought this up in my meeting with the dept chair and DGS and the professor from this semester just looked down when I mentioned it because she knew she was in the wrong.
In my opinion, the only reason they truly cut my funding was because they wanted to bring in more graduate students this year. The only way for them to do that was to cut funding from someone that originally thought their TA position was for 2 years and give it to someone else. I'm seeking funding elsewhere and I'm trying to decide if I want to contact the higher-ups at the university and let them know what's going on and that I do not agree with the funding decision w/o a proper evaluation. Hopefully they can figure out a way to set things straight and to maybe reprimand the professors this year and let them know that this won't be tolerated.
Hopefully you can figure something out for the future! It sounds like this happens quite often in anthro depts since the funding is so dismal in most of them.

I also want to add onto what runningwithquills was talking about for MA programs. It is becoming increasingly more common for PhD programs to prefer admitting students who already have their MA because it shows how serious they are about their studies and it shows that they are prepared for original research. I would seriously consider one of the MA offers because it will look better when you start the PhD applications again in the future.

I also want to add onto what runningwithquills was talking about for MA programs. It is becoming increasingly more common for PhD programs to prefer admitting students who already have their MA because it shows how serious they are about their studies and it shows that they are prepared for original research. I would seriously consider one of the MA offers because it will look better when you start the PhD applications again in the future.

Congrats!!! University of Cincinnati is one of the top programs in the US for classics. Two of my undergraduate professors have a house in Cincinnati and both are classics professors and one worked at Cincinnati at one point. Cincinnati was only about an hour and a half from where I did my undergraduate work.

Personally I didn't list ANYTHING on my CV that wasn't anthropology/archaeology/bioarchaeology/museum related. Anything that doesn't have to do with anthropology was completely left off. Obviously this just depends on the person reading your CV, but I would prefer to not list non-academic items on my CV. Maybe ask them if you can send both a CV and a resume since they're different things and tell completely different stories? That might help a little bit.

I'm actually in Athens for my undergraduate right now. I absolutely love this town due to how close most of the student body is. There are some problems with the community as a whole because there are very strong opinions on campus. But it's still relatively friendly for everyone. If you're at all into the bar scene then you'll love Athens. We have 22 bars in a quarter of a mile radius...one reason why we're known as one of the biggest party schools in the nation. But we also have a lot of other fun stuff to do around the town, i.e. hiking, going to the lake and swimming, listening to amazing music around campus (coffee shops, our main auditorium, the student center, music festivals, etc.), numerous clubs to join (including A LOT of a capella groups), and I could go on and on about what there is to do here.
Now on to your question about affordable housing...that's the main negative about Athens. There really isn't much of an option for affordable housing really (at least it depends on your living situation). If you're okay with living with 3+ roommates, then you can find decent apartments for cheap. Also, if you want to bring your own furniture then here are specific apartments for those or you can get apartments that are completely furnished (including dishes). Look into University Commons (they're about a 15 minute walk to campus). They have everything from a studio apartment all the way up to a 4 bed apartment. I have a couple friends who live in the 4 bed and they pay about $350/month and only have a couple utilities to pay for. So that's not too bad in the end. I'd also check into River Park. This would be the ideal place for you since you're doing ethnomusicology (at least I think you are). They are located on South Green, which is about a 5 minute walk to Glidden Hall (the music building). They're not exactly cheap by any means but they have numerous options as well (River Park, River's Edge, and the new River Gate) with varying prices. These normally don't come furnished at all and you will have to pay for a couple utilities here as well. There are other options that are a little farther off campus but they supply a shuttle to get back and forth to campus. These would be The Summit and University Courtyard. They have numerous apartment plans from 2-4 bedroom apartments and the prices are about $500-600 but all utilities are included. However, these apartments come fully furnished. So that would save you on having to bring anything with you.
There are obviously numerous options available in Athens that are not apartment complexes as well. The sad part about Athens is that most of the landlords in Athens are horrible...we call them slumlords. And most of them have a monopoly on housing in Athens. There's one in particular that I would stay away from...their company is called Prokos Rentals. This is the worst rental company in Athens in my opinion and I've had nothing but problems from them.
If you have any other questions about Athens or OU PM me and I can give you more details about it. I'm sure once you come here you'll fall in love with the campus like most people do.

One program that you should definitely look at is University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. They fund most of their students and they have an anthropologist that focuses on HIV/AIDS. Mississippi State University (my current graduate program) is also really good at funding their students and we are currently in the process of hiring a new medical anthropologist with a specialization in HIV/AIDS. The program that I am in has a STRONG focus in the biocultural approach (my advisor is a bioarchaeologist but did her PhD at Emory with George Armelagos, who was one of the founders of the biocultural approach). You might want to look at Emory also. They don't have professors who do research on HIV/AIDS, but they do have 3 medical anthropologists on staff. They're also really good at placing students to work/intern at the CDC (my advisor did an internship at the CDC during her PhD).
If you have any questions about my program or about any of the others then feel free to message me. I'll be happy to help!

Awesome! Yeah, a couple of people in my department are going too. Sadly the only other bio anth person in my cohort said that she likely won't be able to go. But I'm trying to convince her to go at least for 2 days. Plus I'm supposed to meet up with people from my excavation this past summer. So it'll be fun.
You're not far from NOLA either at least (you're really only an hour and a half from me). Lol. Surprised our departments don't do much together. Though my thesis co-chair and Keith are friends...so that's kind of awesome.
Hoping to use the meetings for professional networking as much as possible. I'm hoping to present at the PPA meetings, but still waiting on abstract approvals to come through.  

Ok. So just a couple of things from someone who just went through this process. Don't find someone that is focused on the specific region that you're interested in working with but focus on methodologies and theoretical frameworks that you could possibly use for a thesis/dissertation. For example, in bioarchaeology I am interested in paleopathology and stable isotope analysis (migration, diet, etc.). I wouldn't decide to choose a school that didn't have someone who focused on these specialties. So the first thing you want to do is figure out what in bioarchaeology you want to look at.
Also, I know that ASU is considered one of the top programs in the US for bioarchaeology only because of Jane Buikstra, but I have heard a lot of negative things about the program. Funding is next to impossible to get or is extremely competitive and the atmosphere is extremely uptight most of the time and there is a lot of in house bickering between graduate students. That's not something that you want to worry about during your graduate career. There are A LOT of amazing bioarchaeology programs out there that can give you what you want.
If you want to work in the US and especially if you want to work on sites in Central/South America, you probably don't want to go to graduate school at UCL. I looked into it and I really do wish I would have applied there just to see if I had gotten in, but my interests are centered around European bioarchaeology. But my program is amazing, so I'm happy with the choice I made.
If you want to PM me with your interests, I can give you a list of schools that might match your interests a little closer.

You should also look at University of South Florida. They have an MA and PhD in Applied Anthropology with a track in Medical Anthropology. Like UW, they also offer you a chance to get your MPH at the same time as either the MA or PhD. I have a couple of friends there and they enjoy it.
You might also want to look at Johns Hopkins. They're obviously known for the MD program, but it might be good to look at their anthropology program. They have a couple of medical anthropologists on staff that you might be interested in working with.
Finally, while it's not my specialty, you might want to look at Mississippi State University. It's only have a MA program, but they try to only accept students that they can fund. Currently there's a professor who does research on HIV/AIDS in Africa, but she's leaving at the end of next semester and they're hiring for her replacement right now. This individual will still be working on medical anthropology, so you'd still have that connection. But sadly there is no clear replacement yet to tell you what their research will be on.

No, a bibliography isn't needed because you shouldn't have anything in them to reference. What you should be stating is what your interests are and the type of project that you would want to work on. They don't expect you to have a full proposal written out, so references would be highly unordinary. So if you don't have any...that is 100% okay.

Right. Mentioning that stuff is correct but they don't expect you to have in text citations on anything at all. I think I mentioned other work that would be beneficial for my possible thesis.

No, a bibliography isn't needed because you shouldn't have anything in them to reference. What you should be stating is what your interests are and the type of project that you would want to work on. They don't expect you to have a full proposal written out, so references would be highly unordinary. So if you don't have any...that is 100% okay.