strudelle

I see that you have done a bit of research and that's great! I would recommend continuing to search for academic articles on topics that interest you and then looking up their authors. This will help you a lot in finding what you're looking for. If there are only two schools that offer what you want, just tailor your application to those schools and apply to them. It also doesn't hurt to email the professors who work in the Philippines and ask them for reading suggestions or other programs that offer similar foci. They will definitely have some resources for you. In terms of gauging your chances of getting into grad school, that's literally impossible. To improve your chances, the best things you can do are have a solid understanding of the topics you want to go on to research so you can write about them clearly in your statement of purpose, have excellent letters of recommendation, and contact professors at your schools of interest beforehand to get your name on their radar.

To be perfectly honest, a list of relevant courses probably isn't going to improve your CV that much. Schools are looking more for hands on experience than a bunch of science courses. By all means, if it would make you feel better and more knowledgeable in your field, take some extra science courses. I don't know exactly what you plan to focus on, so some more science might help you. But it isn't absolutely necessary. Most forensic anthropologists I know have spent more time working with coroners offices, local law enforcement, and working with human remains in the anthropology department than stocking up on chemistry and bio classes. I think these real world experiences will offer you more in terms of CV padding if that's what you're looking for. I see you're in Michigan. Ohio State University offers a pretty good forensic anthropology field school during the month of May that I think is still accepting applications (google it).

Whoa, congrats xstopfloating. Took them long enough!

Just wanted to note that you can get into a PhD program without formal research experience - I did. You have to be knowledgeable about the topic you want to study, and you can build up a good background by doing independent research. People do get into advanced degree programs in anthropology without previously having majored in anthropology. It's all about making your past experiences relevant to what you want to do.

CulturalAnth - I would always pick happiness above all else. Getting an advanced degree, regardless of whether it's an MA or a PhD, is a significant challenge. It is so important that you be in a good frame of mind and have a good support system while you are doing this. ESPECIALLY if you have a baby on the way. I don't know if it's your first, but from what I gather from my friends with kids, you will need more help from your family than you realize with juggling a baby and a career/education. Even if you are only getting the MA from UNLV, it sounds like that is definitely where you want to be. I'm assuming you have already contacted them about your mix-up, but I really think you should ask them if it's at all possible to do the terminal MA and then move onto the PhD with them. Some schools allow you to continue on in their program after the MA, some don't. You can always decide to try to apply for a PhD after the MA at another university if you can't stay with UNLV. I think it really sounds like your best option right now. But the way you worded your post makes me think you might already know that

That's awesome, Ancient_DNA. There is a thread here about funding that you should check out of you're curious to see what kinds of offers others are getting.

That's great news Alterman!! 12 rejections sounds like a lot, but all you need is one acceptance and you got it congrats!

Canis - While I'm not sure "toxic" is the word I would use, I would certainly say that kind of atmosphere is not conducive to learning, growing, or producing research. My SOP stated a pretty broad area of interest because I am genuinely interested in doing research on many topics, and my POI seems completely comfortable with allowing me to explore and discover my own trajectory. Her existing graduate students study things that are similar to her interests, but they have their own distinct foci. As anyone who has done any kind of research knows, the more you research, the more questions arise. Sometimes a focused research project can veer off into a new direction based on evidence and can lead to completely different topics. I wouldn't want to be in a situation where I was only ever allowed to explore ONE thing and was only allowed to continue the professor's work rather than developing my own. I think that being able to ask your own questions and develop research on your own unique topic (with guidance from a POI) is very valuable. It sounds like you definitely avoided a bad situation. I hope your future university offers you more flexibility and better support!

I love Chicago. It's one of my favorite major cities because it has the benefits of a big city but feels like a small town. The L is great (I miss good public transit), there are a lot of lovely neighborhoods, and I've met a lot of nice and helpful people there. Plus the school is amazing! One of the best anthro programs. I hope you love it.

Sorry about the rejections everyone . I am really excited for all the acceptances though! Especially because people were assuming that it was too late in the game to be accepted. Just goes to show we really don't know what to expect until it happen. Don't panic - 2/3 acceptances is awesome. I hope you find out about funding soon! It's so nerve racking to finally be in but have to wait to finish up all those final details.

Thanks guys! Glad I asked

Also, how formally should I dress? I was planning to wear something a little nicer on the day I present (skirt, tights, blazer, dressy flats), but wasn't sure if I should avoid jeans the rest of the time there. I was thinking of doing kind of a dressy casual thing - jeans with button ups and cardigans or blazers, maybe a nice scarf. What do people usually wear to the AAPAs?

Whoa DigDeep, I wouldn't have thought of ANY of that. I don't have business cards and I can't really afford to get any printed. Even if I did, I don't know what I would put on them because I don't have an official title or anything. I'm just an undergrad. And my phone number and school email will be changing soon because I'm moving to California. Do you have any other suggestions as to how to give my contact info to people? Would it be lame to print off little bits of paper with my email address on them or something? ajgol - I was just there watching. I didn't present. But everyone did a great job

ajgole - Did you present at BARFAA this year? If so, what was your topic? I was there!

Thanks for the advice, guys! I think the fact that this is just a literature review makes me a little nervous because I am essentially summarizing, comparing, and analyzing other people's work rather than discussing data I compiled myself. Of course now I have finally found a sample of historic crania at my university to work on and am doing a small geometric morphometric project which would have most likely been easier to discuss as a poster - but it's too late now! I guess I wasn't sure how formal or how detailed I should be, but I can easily develop a short little summary of the project that I can tell interested parties. I think I can answer questions about the project too, but I'm not sure. Anyone wanna throw some questions at me about it? My project is performing a cross-species analysis of trauma and pathology in hominins present in Western Europe during the Pleistocene (Neanderthals, early anatomically modern humans, and archaic Homo sapiens like H. heidelbergensis). I compared the trauma and pathology of each species to the others, then I pooled the results together and compared over-all frequencies of trauma and pathology in Pleistocene hominins to the trauma and pathology exhibited by later hunter-gatherers (who were relatively healthy and well adapted). The idea was to gain a better understanding of health and adaptability in Pleistocene populations in Western Europe. I thought this might add another dimension to the question of why H. sapiens survived and other species (Neanderthals) died out. I'm presenting it at an undergraduate research forum on my home campus next week, which I am very nervous about because our posters are judged by faculty members. Then I am going to the AAPAs in April and presenting it there, which I am also really nervous about because my future graduate adviser will be there and has said she is looking forward to seeing my project. So I hope to impress her. Are any of you going to the AAPAS? I guess if nothing else it lays a foundation for future graduate research? I read a ton of articles so I guess at least I know more now than when I started.

Has anyone here presented a poster at a conference? I am presenting at two in the next few weeks and I'm wondering what to expect. Because it isn't a podium presentation, but an undergraduate poster presentation, I get the impression that I won't need to prepare a formal talk. What sorts of questions might I be asked? How do I avoid making an ass of myself? For reference, my project is a comparative literature review. Not based on specimen data I have taken myself. But I've read all the sources and feel pretty familiar with what I'm discussing.

Sorry to hear that skylarking. Maybe having contact with that POI will grant you an advantage in the future?

I think that if the department is an amazing fit, and it sounds like OSU is a great fit for you, it may be worth it to go the first year without full funding. I also know a lot of grad students are TAs, RAs, and instructors. You could take out loans to live on just for the first year, or you could try to get external funding. From what I understand from interacting with grad students and profs at OSU, there are quite a few funding opportunities once you're there. Good luck, I hope you get it all figured out. OSU is great

Canis - this is something I have been dealing with in the app process too, but in a different way. It was a struggle to decide if I should apply to all the best schools for me or if I should apply for a school near my fiancé. Luckily for me, I found an excellent school that is near my fiancé. It may not be my dream school, or the absolute top school I could get into, but it is still a great opportunity. I'm really happy with it and I think the compromise is completely worth it. I think there is a lot of pressure to go to the absolute best school regardless of relationships. Most phd students I know are single and put their education first. While that is a completely valid option, I personally feel that having my SO there to support me is going to bolster my success as a student. Sometimes being away from the ones you love can put a lot more stress on you in an already stressful time.

My undergrad institution is a pretty good school. It is considered prestigious for biological anthropology, though I don't know if it's prestigious in general. It's just a state school. It's one of the few undergrad institutions with a bio anth specialization and is home to some really well known professors in the field. I was accepted to a relatively prestigious grad school (very high research and well known for sciences) to work with a well known professor in my field as well. I think my undergrad institution had a lot to do with my getting accepted.

This may be weird, but can I edit my response? I've gotten more details since I filled out the survey.

Canis! That is amazing news! Congratulations!

While I don't support sending threatening emails or harassing graduate departments, I sincerely do not see any issues with asking for constructive criticism from departments that did not admit you. I think these things can really help us to improve our applications in the future. I understand they may not have time to respond to every person, and in that case a form letter may be acceptable. I wonder if we will be this jaded and talking about "entitlement of the youth" when we're on graduate committees one day.

Sorry, Forsaken rejections suck even if you see them coming.

DigDeep and Sara, You guys are amazing. This is such a great resource, and should definitely be added to the wisdom repository once all the data is gathered. I love this site and all the support here I'm going to recommend it to my students when I'm a mentor and/or professor some day.