mesoarch

Alright, someone please claim the Tulane acceptance and let us know what your subfield is! Congrats!

People started getting interview requests around this time last year!

This.

I would definitely recommend asking. I didn't get in anywhere last year, so I e-mailed my POI's afterward to ask what they considered the weakest part of my application. I got pretty much the same response across the board, so it was great knowing where I could most effectively focus my energy for this year's applications.

Thanks for the info!

There's a Tulane result posted - seems like they're moving pretty fast. Sorry to whoever posted!

The turnaround may not be that quick - I applied to Tulane last year and got an interview request during the last week of February and the rejection didn't come until the last week of March. If I recall correctly, the first round of admissions meetings wasn't until the very end of February. But I'm certainly hoping things will move along faster this year!

The application was due only a few days ago and I'm already going completely crazy wanting news!

It seemed like an impossible task, but I did manage to cut mine down from 1300 words. I condensed the section on my MA thesis research to a summary sentence or two, which cut a good chunk out. My advisors also pointed out that instead of a rapid-fire listing of everything on my CV, I should pick just a couple of particularly relevant experiences to briefly focus on in terms of preparation for dissertation goals. If you have a strong application, they'll get in touch with you to find out more details. Hope that helps!

Thanks! If they keep in line with past years there should be a big round of UNC results out soon!

If anyone wants to claim the UNC acceptance, I'm very curious to know what subfield it was for since I applied there for archaeology. Congrats to all the admits popping up on the board!

I also think it's best to hold off with e-mails. It's tempting to find reasons to remind POI's of your existence, but I was cautioned by advisors that any e-mails would come off as obvious, even annoying, and that I should let the content of my applications speak for me at this point.

A lot of schools have a 'magic number' for combined GRE scores. Of course, some don't care at all and judge your application on more relevant criteria. They don't always post it online, but you could call to ask. I called a few departments while working on applications and they were all happy to give me the target combined score. Even if you don't hit the mark, I wouldn't lose hope, since I personally know someone who got into the program of their choice last year with GRE scores below the school's supposed cut off because they had experience, great LORs, etc.

It's on the general liberal arts guidelines - http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/applying-to-graduate-program.cfm Scroll down to the second question about the statement of purpose, it says it should be "no more than about 500 words". I didn't see it until recently, so my statement is also twice as long!

How strictly did y'all stick to the 500 word limit for the statement of purpose? I contacted the office to make sure it applies to anthropology, and was told a little longer would be alright, but I'm wondering how far I can push "a little longer" since I'm having the roughest time cutting my statement down to size.

Thanks for the info! Are you the new linguistic anthro post for UT that showed up on the results board, or are you archaeology? I'd heard through the grapevine that UT was having particularly bad funding issues this year, but I didn't think it'd be bad enough to only have one archaeology admit with the number of arch professors there. I suppose it's not over til it's over, but I'm guessing that admit was not me.

I didn't have any citations in my SOP, but I only spoke of the research done by a couple of archaeologists very broadly, and most people in the field would know their work. If I'd used more obscure examples I'd probably include a short bibliography at the end.

Ugh, that's such a good point. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. At least there's plenty of in-text citations if anyone bothers to read the darn thing.

I've been using a chapter from my MA thesis and haven't included a works cited section. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake - something new to worry about now!

Tulane is my top choice, too! I haven't even submitted the application yet because I've been agonizing over every line of my statement. What's your subfield focus? Maya archaeology here!

Congrats! Now comes the phase of obsessively checking gradcafe

Congratulations! I've heard great things about Dr. Masson. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that other programs will be this quick to decide!

UT Austin, SMU, UNC, Tulane, U of Arizona, and Harvard for Maya archaeology. How about you?

Though it's very likely he'd be willing to submit a letter again, I don't think I'd put him on the application until I had confirmation. I normally have far better luck reaching profs by phone since e-mails tend to be overlooked with the barrage they receive around the end of the semester.

I applied to UT Austin for archaeology. Good luck, and hopefully the wait won't be too long!