NoSleepTilBreuckelen

I second a lot of the advice here, especially: wear comfortable shoes, buy a poster contain (like from FedEx office) for travel, and have fun!

You might might also want to look and see which programs are well represented in the Theoretical Archaeology Group: http://www.tag-usa.org I imagine you could even contact students involved in the group to get their take on the theory offerings in their department.

Hey Daisy - what aspects of bioarchaeology are you interested in? Morphometrics, taphonomy, isotopes, something else? Also, I second what pears said about Stojanowski and Knudson - had the opportunity to work on a project with them on the Green Sahara project and their work is amazing

Thanks Daykid! That's great to keep in mind. I've met some great faculty, students, and perspective students (including grad cafe members!) at various places over the past couples months and I should try and channel how excited I am to be starting my PhD in this community next year, rather than stressing.

Agreed! I'm out of votes for today, but if I had any left, I would vote your post up

Thanks for sharing that anthroflea! I find it very interesting that some of the posters on that forum seem to have forgotten just how hard and uncertain it is to be an applicant to grad school… I get really frustrated with the narrative (that comes out in those posts, but can be seen in a lot of other places like: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html) that refer to 'people born between the late 1970's and mid-90's,' to use the phrasing of the article, as entitled and unwilling to work hard. I think if those people spent some time, for example on this forum, they would see lots of people in that age group who work incredibly hard in their school work and jobs, go through the long/expensive/difficult process of grad applications and spend some of their free time on a forum supporting each other and sharing reading lists and book recommendations and the likes - and they would have to reconsider. On top of the hard work that we've put in to prepare for and apply to grad school, I'm sure many of us have been in the position of seeing academic and professional opportunities disappear due to the economic downturn. (I, for one, graduated college in 2008 and had several exciting job interviews cancelled due to hiring freezes that year, and ended up waiting tables and interning, which I really enjoyed, but it was hard to see my 'dream jobs' move out of reach). Anyways, I apologize for that rant, but I think the people who publish articles like that and say those things on their faculty forums, don't realize that it takes a lot for us to keep our heads up when the opportunities we were hoping for vanish or a harder to get than they were before the economic downturn or before moves like this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/30/cantor-gop-budget-science-spending-column/2896333/. I wish they would take a more supportive tone and point to all the people in whatever-generation-they-want-to-call-us who are working hard despite the odds, rather than pretending that they were better/more humble grad school applicants than we are: "Frankly, when I was applying for grad schools, I think my "default" expectation was not to get in. Sure, I had a 4.0 GPA and almost-perfect GREs...I think they are wasting THEIR time and effort by refusing to move on…" - Quote from the first poster on the Chronicle Forum thread

One program told me at the end of the interview that the decision information had to come straight from the GSAS (they volunteered this info, I hand't even asked), and that they would not be allowed to contact me about the admissions decision, but that I was welcome to contact them with any questions. I was accepted a couple weeks later. So part of it might be POI preference and part of it might be school policy. Don't jump to any conclusions just because you haven't heard - it's impossible to piece together that's happening on the AdCom side of the application process!

You all rock! Maybe you could post the results (or maybe the survey link) in the decisions section. That might drive more participants and will be a great resource for people who are making decisions now!

Sorry to ask another question, but does 1-year field experience mean 1 continuous year of fieldwork? What about something like 2 or 3 summers of field-work and some other fieldwork projects between 1 - 4 weeks in length (archaeology subfield)…. Would that be less than a year? I just ask because other than working CRM for an extended period of time, a lot of archaeology applicants (myself included) might have a bit of a piecemeal record, with multiple projects, but that time-wise it would take quite a few of these experiences to add up to a year. Thanks for setting up this poll, btw!

It won't allow a re-take. Is there something I can do to get around this?

Great idea, sarab! Looking forward to the results

This may not just be a UK Masters thing. There are lot of US PhD programs that have students who come in with Masters (whether from the US or UK or elsewhere) earn another Masters on the way to their PhD. You may have already seen this, but there's more on the upsides (more opportunities for research and publishing) and downsides (often less funding offered for terminal MA, having to do a second Masters en route to PhD) of the terminal MA program here:

This also may mean students who have been awarded outside funding (like the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship which provides recipients full tuition and stipend for 3 years of grad school, the Ford Fellowship and others). I had a school call me to ask if I'd heard back from the NSF fellowship about my application yet (which I have not). So schools who know they can't fund everyone may be looking for students who have won one of these external fellowships. Unfortunately a lot of those fellowships (like the EPA STAR fellowship and the Javits fellowship) have been discontinued in the last year or two, and I don't think most schools realize this. Some of my apps had a box to check if you had applied to the Javits Fellowship and I just wanted to write "That'd be impossible!" but I refrained... Anyways, sorry about that rant, but what I meant to say was I don't think students being awarded outside funding would change the dynamics of the cohort much, but it is an interesting way that they're going about working this out. I've heard of other schools who navigate this by offering all accepted students funding and then encouraging or requiring everyone to apply to outside funding during their first year.

I just realized I actually DO have a shirt with a bunch of little foxes on it! So excited I'll to be able to play the "dress as your avatar" game at the SAAs

I really hope we do all meet some day! Now we just need to code word we can drop into convo at the SAA and AAA that's like a signal for "Do I know you from Grad Cafe?" Any ideas...

Thanks, Lifesaver! Could post or PM me the name of the blog? Sounds like they have some good advice on there.

On a side note, is this always the case? I only ask because in several interviews I had professors ask where I was applying and I was totally open about it and about where I had been accepted. I wouldn't have brought it up, but when they mentioned it I talked… And also, a prof at the first school I interviewed at sent me an email saying, "If you are deciding between offers and there are any questions I can answer to help in your decision please let me know." I was really grateful of their email and I did ask them some questions and indicated I was in the position of deciding between offers. Did I overshare there? In both cases it felt more like a conversation with an advisor/colleague than any sort of calculation on part to make myself sound better. Eep, I'm so new to this and I hope I didn't inadvertently break some sort of grad-applicant-code!

I completely agree, and would suggest reading some of their recent publications so you can talk to them about their recent work and interests. Congrats and enjoy the visit!

To the OP, I am also in a situation where I was offered various levels of funding and that is factoring into my decision. If the school that is the better fit is not offering you enough to live on (rent, car insurance if you have a car, food) it may be very difficult to go there and take full advantage of what they have to offer, since you would most likely need to be supporting yourself though an external job. Which means you might not be getting all the benefits of it being a great fit. Many schools have projected cost-of-living information, you should consult that and see if what they offer is anywhere close to the cost of living. If not, give the school that is offering you more comprehensive funding some serious thought. Contact them and see if there are ways that your interests might fit in with their work or work going on in a closely aligned department in ways you might not have discussed yet. In my situation, one of the schools funding is uncertain, and even if awarded would not be a livable amount. I'm fortunate to have better-funded offers, so I've ruled that first school out. The other schools have offered different amounts, but in each case its enough live on, so between those I will be deciding based on fit. Also, are you making this decision now or are you applying next application cycle? If you are applying next application cycle, look into external funding sources, like the NSF GRFP, Ford Foundation Fellowship, Hertz Foundation Fellowship. Getting external funding could make one of those great-fit schools financially feasible. Good luck to you

I am in a very similar position - I am deciding between AMNH/NYCEP and Stanford Anthro and they are both amazing. I am very excited about the idea of going to either one, and I get super stressed when I realize this means I won't be going the other. In short, I have no advice for you, except maybe spend a few days pretending you've accepted each and see how you feel about each decision. I know that's what I'm going to spend my next couple weeks doing. That and going on some long runs to try and think it all through. Feel free to PM me (or just post more here) if you want to discuss/commiserate...

Hey! I study ancient DNA to and I am having a hard time figuring out where to do my PhD (so if you want to talk about ancient DNA programs, feel free to PM me). I see that you're applying to MA programs, one thing to keep in mind is that after your MA you could always go somewhere else for a PhD. Only you will know what is best for you, but being offered a funded MA is great and either way you go, the MA/MSc/Mphil will put you in a better position for getting PhD funding. Congrats!

I agree, if the course was still in progress when the application was due, I don't think there's any problem. I receive that grade in a class in college and it's never been a problem. In fact, no has even asked me about it (and I've been through two grad application cycles now, for my Master's program and now for a PhD program). In short, I do not think they would rescind an offer over one grade! And congrats on the acceptance

A) HUUGGGGGSSS! B)If you do decide to go the Masters route, you might want to look into archaeology Masters programs in the EU/UK - I know you've already looked into these, but when I was applying this cycle, I saw lots of programs over there I wanted to apply to for a PhD, but didn't because I wanted to stay close-ish to friends and family in the US. Many of those programs have Masters that only take a year and are less expensive than US programs, especially for EU/UK residents. Also, I know at least some of those programs are still accepting applications for this year (for example I just checked Cambridge's website and they are still accepting applications and also offer a part-time Masters, if you'd want to work while going to school). I did a Masters in the UK, because the school offered a course in exactly what I wanted to study and it was less expensive and quicker than a US unfunded Masters program. I really enjoyed it and thought it helped me develop a lot as an archaeologist. It sounds like you've already looked into the EU/UK Masters options, but I just bring it up as another option that might give you a similar benefit to a Masters at Cornell. You can PM me if you want to discuss more. Anyways, I think you have options yet, whether they be wait a year, start at Cornell, or look for other options for this coming academic year. Good luck - we are rooting for you!

It was only about 15 minutes (over Skype) and they asked some hard questions - I was super nervous the whole time. SO, I guess I would call that OK. No news on Chicago. When I spoke to my POI (a few weeks ago), they thought they would let people know within the week, but I haven't heard anything since. I haven't had any admission decisions yet (from anywhere), but luckily I've busier these past couple weeks than usual, so they've gone by pretty quick. Hope next week will be a big week for all of us still waiting to hear! Good luck to you too!

Stanford is not done! I have a friend there and they said they're still interviewing