Canis

I was just looking through the calendar for UBC and Memorial, and I noticed that classes only meet from the beginning of September to the beginning of December, then there is a month off, and then courses resume from January to the beginning of April. That's only 3 months for each semester and five months off each summer! Is that the norm for Canadian schools or am I missing something?

Ditto - though there are students at the schools I was admitted to with MAs from other disciplines, they are the exception. I have a multi-disciplinary BA, but anthro MA. I think most programs require you to take extra courses if you don't have an anthro MA, so they're less likely to see it as an easy admit.

I'm the king of 'overthinking' decisions - and so I'm making endless lists also. Right now I'm working on a list comparing the faculty at both schools, how many men/women/etc., where their degrees are from (your networks), where they are in their careers. Next a list comparing the grad students in the programs....

I've been making a pro & con list for my top two schools, it's really helpful, I've also been thinking of 'what ifs' to try and stretch my understanding of my motivations and get a clearer picture of where my instincts are coming from - like: "What if I didn't have to worry about prestige?" "What if my SO wasn't a consideration?" "What if the funding was exactly the same?" "What if the schools switched places, would that change things?" "What if they were both in the same city?" "What if I was 90, on my deathbead and looking back, what would I think?" "What if my POI left, got fired, retired, moved away, passed away, how would the department look to me?"

That all sounds incredible! I've lived in Utah too - and I know what you mean about the small towns. But Washington definitely isn't Utah! You'll also have all the resources of a second college town in Moscow just over the border. And, when you're doing a PhD, you usually only have 2 years of residency requirements anyway, at which point you could move to Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, or wherever you want while you do your write-up - and use their west side campuses as resources. Not to mention all the great universisites in those west side cities for collaboration, conferences, etc.

Pullman would actually be amazing. I'm actually from eastern oregon originally, and I think you'll be really surprised both by the varied landscape, the incredible mountains, high mountain desert (which doesn't look like a desert at all), proximity to things like North Cascade National Park, and also by the social and cultural scenes that develop among those towns out there. It won't feel like the middle of nowhere when you live there and get to know the area. And WSU has campuses and research centers in all corners of the state. In the eastern side of the state you'll have so much sun, and a beautiful solid four seasons. I know writers and thinkers and others who live out there in WA, and also in eastern oregon. Lots of californians with money escape out to eastern oregon and washington to get away from the sprawl, pollution, and such. A really cool thing about the pacific northwest is that you can drive a short distance and be in completely different ecosystems and cultural regions. Just going into the cascades and suddenly it's like you're in a rainforest - go a little further and you actually are in the rain forest. If it were up to me, I'd avoid the sprawl and endless suburbs and malls such of LV. Now if the classes were held in the pool at the Bellagio, that might sway me, but outside those fake little tableau, that area is just awful to me. It's not a real city like NY or SF, but it's not the country either. But that's just me! But aside from that - the research looks amazing. To get a PhD and work with folks who have solid NSF grants on a project you love, that's the jackpot.

I'd be interested to know if people have impressions of the UBC 4YF, the Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/four-year-doctoral-fellowship-4yf). I'm wondering if it's given to most students, or if it really is a sign that the program is highly interested in you. It seems like a great deal since in addition to the stipend it also pays for tuition, though would be better if it were a bit higher, or supplemented with something else.

Thank you all - great advice!

Thanks both for the advice! My SO is a sociologist. We're talking a lot about it, and thinking through goals and benefits and plans, and I really appreciate the advice and thoughts! The funny thing about this situation is the "long distance" aspect of it is really long. ~4,600 miles (7500 km) from school to school by car, 8.5 hours by plane. Basically the furthest point you go go east to west on North America...

I thought waiting for decisions was a challenge. But deciding on which offer to accept, if any, is even worse. My partner and I were both admitted to the same school. But I have offers at two other schools, one of which is a top school. What do we do? We're still waiting for the funding numbers on the school were were both admitted to - so we have to see. But studying together in the same place is a dream of mine. If they give us both enough at the mutual school would I be crazy to turn down my great offer at a top school? Serious thinking to do. Any thoughts and advice much appreciated.

Thanks everyone!

Just got a totally unexpected letter by email from University of British Columbia. "I am pleased to inform you that we are recommending your admission into the PhD programme in Anthropology..." and then it gets even better: "Due to your outstanding academic record, you have been selected as a recipient of UBC's premier Four Year Doctoral Fellowship...." Funding includes all tuition & fees and living expenses, and any TA money is on top of that. I'm floored.

Anyone else on the forum get an offer from Memorial for Anthro?

Gosh, if there's anything we learn quickly from those results it's that universities are doing a terrible job explaining the funding packages that they're offering. Hopefully everyone is asking a long list of questions of their POIs, departments, etc. to ensure they really understand the funding package - such as: Do the hours specified per week for the TA position include all work, grading, etc that is performed in total? If tuition is waived, is it waived for all years, or only those during the TA/RA position? What tuition and fees must be paid in years without a TA/RA? What tuition/fees must be paid while away for fieldwork? How often do students get additional internal/external funding? How do most students fund the years beyond the funding? Is the stipend or TA/RA salary paid weekly, monthly, semester, or lump sum for the year? If a tuition waiver is tied to a TA/RA position, does the waiver cover only the semester of the TA/RA position or the whole school year? For example, can you take 1 semester off from the TA/RA position and still have the waiver for the school year? How many TA/RA positions are open each semester for students? Are new students considered for those positions first? How does the hiring process work? How are students placed in order of priority for the positions? ...and that's just the beginning of the clarifying questions we need to be asking...

I was notified by POIs before the official notice. They emailed me without any provocation to let me know they were available to answer questions and to encourage me to attend. In one case I had to write back and ask if that meant I was admitted because they hadn't told me yet!

Once they're offering you admission why not ask for what you want? Be assertive rather than aggressive (demanding) or passive (not saying what you want and then being angry you didn't get it). To be assertive ask clearly for what you would like and then be ready to accept no if that is the answer. (accept in terms of being friendly about it, not necessarily enjoying it, but not responding angrily) It's perfectly fair to say that you're really excited about being admitted, you would like to attend, it's your top choice - that said, funding considerations really matter and you were offered a TAship from another program. You would prefer to attend their program, and wonder if there is anything they might be able to do to help you make that happen.

PMing you - one of my projects is STS broadly defined.

What's everyone's advice on contacting a school if your partner got in and you're waiting for word? Thinking something like: I'm really excited to work with you and the school remains my top choice. In addition I'm excited about moving there b/c my partner was admitted to this other program there. Good, helpful, harmful, neutral?

Awful - why do these programs even have the online systems if don't use them to share results with applicants. so annoying.

Memorial sent me an unofficial and said an official offer would come later. Did your official offer not explain what to do? Also are you moving there or there already? Canadian or Intl?

Congrats on SFU! when did you hear from them? I haven't seen any results on the board.

I'm dealing with the two-body problem also - and we're hoping to get an offer from the same school. Since you brought up the PNW, what I think we need is a bunch more amazing schools in the region! There are some ok ones but not enough diversity in anthro programs there! For example - how in the world is it that there is no anthro PhD program in Portland at all?!

Ha! I've run into that Javits issue too - and others.. even school web sites that tell you to apply for these things that don't exist anymore...

From my experience, successful applicants are in pretty close touch with POIs there - they visit, talk on the phone, email, have lots of conversations and really get to know the applicants they're interested in. Not all, but especially those whose situations need that kind of teasing out - like those with money. Students also say to the POI: "I can pay, I'm willing to come without funding" - and that can be factored in. Despite great solidarity on other issues, a lot of students maintain that strange silence about funding - just like how corporate work places don't want people to talk about salaries so they can get away with paying people as little as possible to keep them there. So many times students don't know that the person next to them in class is paying out of pocket, or that the one across from them got 2x the stipend. We can reverse that trend, of course, and make it more transparent. (little revolutions!)

Ditto - the UBC mailing your application materials process was almost enough to make me not interested in the program. Not to mention the strange way that they seemed unable to accurately update the site to represent what they'd received. So I guess we're still both waiting to hear from them! Last year their first result on grad cafe was next Tuesday. Here's hoping!