NoSleepTilBreuckelen

No clue! That might be the sort of question where you should email someone in the department, maybe not your POI, but someone in administration.

I'd be happy to swap as well. I have a draft just about ready that I could use some feedback on

This only for Earth and Space science, but the AMNH in New York has a funded Masters of Teaching :http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/master-of-arts-in-teaching

Mirabilis, I am in the same boat. Happy with my verbal and quant scores, but got the same AW as you. I'm hoping that since a lot of the programs I'm applying to ask for a writing sample, that they'll judge my writing based on that rather than the AW score...

If you feel like you would have to drop more important information from your SoP to fit in the info about your change in interests, I think it's okay to leave it out and use that space to convince them you are passion about and dedicated to the field you are applying for. As others have said, they'll have your transcripts, so be ready for the topic to come up in an interview. Have a good explanation of why you had the interests you did and why they changed. Or tell them about a surprising connection between the two fields that they might not have realized - this could help you leverage your other degree as an asset.

I noticed on the Stanford Anthropology website that it says: "The department faculty and their research interests are listed online at Anthropology Faculty. Please be advised, however, that in order to preserve the integrity of the admissions process, prospective graduate applicants are discouraged from contacting faculty members of the department admissions committee during a given graduate admission application season (from mid-September through April 15th) in order to retain the integrity of the department’s application review process." Does this mean that should not contact my POI there? Or might my POI not be on the AdCom? Is there a way to tell?

Does you college (or even high school) have any sort of alumni network that you'd be able to get connected with? Look around online to see if your college has either career advising services or an alumni office that you could get in touch with about talking to people who have careers in the fields your interested in. I'm sure that there are lots of alum, who've been through the same program you've been through and who would be happy to talk to you and provide guidance! I know some alumni networks offer students the chance to inter for short periods (i.e. spring break) or shadow a career professional for a couple days...

I agree! I'm American and I did a masters in the UK. I switched over to british spellings for that time. They didn't make us do that, per se, but the way I looked at it, I wanted the professors reading my work to focus on what I was saying, and not on how I was spelling it.

Depends on the university... Some ask for unofficial transcripts when you apply and will only ask for official transcripts once you are accepted, but some ask for official transcripts up front. The application or application instructions for each school will specify.

I agree with all of the above posters - it sounds like you're on the right track for what you want to do! I got a masters in archaeology and then worked at a non-profit for 3 year and the masters degree helped immensely. I think I stood out as a candidate for the job because of that degree and my coworkers saw me as someone knowledgable about my field. I worked at a science museum and I was asked several times to collaborate on the design and content of new exhibits, which was AWESOME! Now I'm back in academia, and I think the degree helped my get back in even though I'd taken several years out. Good luck and enjoy it

And the job was full time before I started, so cutting back from 40+ hours to 10 had been so hard for me. When I take a moment to step back and look objective at the situation, I know that giving up a lot of responsibilities at the job is really the thing that's difficult for me right now. I think I need to find a happy balance between work and school and then these extra assignments and surprises won't seem panic-inducing, but will seem like opportunities to succeed and build a good relationship with my advisor...

Thanks to both of you! It's good for me to hear that I'm not alone in this. I'm embarrassed that I didn't know the difference between comps and masters exams - oops! But one of the things that has been really scary about these first couple months in grad school is how in the dark I feel about everything, including the Masters exams. These are supposed to be cumulative questions (also 6 hours of written examination) covering material from our 1st two years of coursework - which is why finding out shortly after starting that we'd have to take them our first year, only having taken half the classes, is pretty unsettling. I think I just need to take this program one hurdle at a time and, as you said MsDarjeeling, it'll take time to find a balance.

They're having us do comps (master's exams) this year, so I'm working on that too!

I'm in my 1st year of graduate school, drowning in work, and my advisor asked me to write a report/literature review on a very big topic (don't want to be too specific, aka identifiable, but it's on the same scale as a report on monumental architecture in Bronze Age Europe - it's huge) and I can't see myself being able to do a respectable job on this in less than 150 or 200 hours of work, and he wants it by December 1. He's on sabbatical right now and I don't think he realizes that I'm maxed out with taking classes, working as an RA for a different professor 25 hours/week, submitting funding applications, and working a job at a museum (about 10 hours per week). I've already cut back a lot of hours at the job, and I don't want to cut more, especially since I asked about this during my interview process and was reassured by him that staying in the job would not be a problem. (In fact, this job is why I wanted to stay in the city I'm in and did not go elsewhere). While I want to start off on good terms with him, I asked if I could have an extension on the Lit Review, until the end of winter break, and he said no, because he needs to present at a conference in January, using information from the report I turn in to him. What do I do? Turn in a woe-fully lacking report on time? Take longer and turn in a high quality report? Just throw a bunch of articles into a dropbox folder and see if those will appease him until I can get a good write-up together?

Does anyone have good advice on asking someone who is a colleague to write a LoR? I have asked 3 professors, two of whom I've done research with and one who is the department chair to write letters (they all said yes), but I've also spent the past 3 years as a science educator and since that's such a long time, I'm wondering if I should have a letter from that institution. The issue is that there is really high turn-over where I work, so no one who is a boss/superior of mine has been/were there that long and I don't feel like they could speak to my ability as an educator (none of them have seen me teach...). Would it hurt my app to have a colleague, another educator in a similar position to the one I am in, write a letter? It would be a 4th letter, so it won't take the place of a professor's letter? She'd really be able to speak to my teaching and curriculum development abilities, and I almost think it would be strange not to have a letter from this job... Thoughts?

Are either of your jobs related to the field you want to study for your PhD? If so, you can talk about those in your app. No need to feel rushed! And don't worry to much about getting anywhere by a certain age. I'm applying to PhD programs this year and I'm 28 and while I have friends who are well into (and some already out of) their graduate school careers, I don't regret the time I spent working at all - in fact, in my applications I'm talking about my teaching experience as something unique that I'll bring to the departments I'm applying to. To make the decisions about this year or next, ask yourself whether you'll be able to put together an application that your 100% happy with this year given your time constraints. If so, you might seriously consider applying this year, and if you don't think you have the time to put together the best application possible this year, think about next year. You could always apply to your one or two favorite programs this year, which would cut down on the time you need to invest and the cost this year. Then next year you'll already have a lot of the material ready to apply to your longer list of schools (if you do actually need to apply again). Good luck

You might be surprised by the availability of internet where you will be working. I know you said your research was coming up short on this front, but I imagine a quick conversation with someone working at one of the places you'll be would help answer the questiogn pretty quick - perhaps you could call a contact at the hospital and ask. I imagine any hospital big enough to have specialized departments (you mentioned a rehabilitation wing) would have internet or at least would be in a town with internet somewhere (at a hotel, library or university). I've been to a pretty remote part of Saharan Africa for fieldwork several times and, in the cities, it was not hard to find internet. If you're worried about the time it will take to put the applications together while you are down there, prepare your SoP and CV and contact potential advisors before you leave, so that all you'll need to do while you're out of the country is upload those documents that you've already prepared into the applications.

Hi Samuel, You ask if a Masters in Anthro would hinder your carer, and while I don't know what your career goals are, I don't think it would hinder you at all. If you were to focus the research you do during your Masters on something that articulates with biology (e.g. early agriculture, long-term human/environment interaction, or an anthropological look at conservation biology), you'd be in a position to apply to PhD programs or jobs in either Biology or Anthropology when you finished. You'd just have to be prepared to show how your Masters builds upon your undergrad, e.g. "my interest in conservation biology and the role of responsible farming practices lead to me do my masters research on land use and early agriculture in (wherever), etc." Check out articles and books by Martin Jones, Kaushik Rajan, Kat Anderson, and Lee Lyman to get an idea some hybid bio-anthro work that's going on.

I don't think wearing piercings would give a negative impression at all! If you're more comfortable wearing your piercings, go for it, if you're feeling apprehensive about wearing them, don't. Whatever helps you be confident and comfortable is what you want to go with

I know Stanford has some people who focus in Human Ecology of Infectious Disease. Hope that helps

Molecular anthropology/archaeogenetics I'm looking for programs that have joint degrees or a collaboration with biology/ecology departments. Still narrowing down my list, but feeling pretty certain that I'll apply to Vanderbilt, UT Austin, Yale, MIT (CMRAE), NYU

Great question! A lot of the books that attempt to cover the ENTIRE history of agriculture are by people outside the field of archaeology (mostly because books by archaeologists tend to be more specialized) - like Michael Pollen, Tom Standage and Jared Diamond. I highly recommend Michael Pollan - you'll get a good intro the history of agriculture in Omnivore's Dilemma, and Botany of Desire provides some great case studies . Tom Standage's Edible History of Humanity is a good read too! A great book about agriculture by an archaeologist that takes a global approach is Arlene Rosen's Civilizing Climate. And then, of course, there are going to be lots of article and books by archaeologists about specific regions, species, time periods etc.

Hi everyone - delighted to have found this discussion! I'm applying to PhD programs and this is application round 1.5 for me (applied to Masters programs before, but not to PhD). I'm still sorting out what my top choice school is, in part because I'm pretty torn between which direction I want my research to go. (Oh, and my favorite color is charcoal grey!) I completed a Masters in archaeogenetics and loved it! Used distributions of genetic diversity in crop plants today to investigate domestication and dispersal of these plants. Would be psyched to continue in archaeogenetics, but would also be very interested in focusing on the use of genetics and biodiversity studies in conservation and sustainability issues today. So basically thinking of applying to ecology and evolution programs instead of anth programs. Have any of you hit forks in the road like this? Any idea on how to choose? Great to meet you all!

Ditto! Play up all the ways your experience in Neuroscience would tie into and be useful for your interests in Anthropology. These schools don't expect you or anyone who enters their program, even with an anth background, to know everything on day one - that's why the first 2 - 3 years of these programs includes course work.