coyabean
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Posts posted by coyabean
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Why is this old woman from a crappy school with a crappy GPS trying to get promoted beyond her abilities?
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What if he/she says yes, this is absolutely, positively an offer of admission? Would you be able to say yes I would absolutely, positively accept that offer?
I'm willing to bet they'd equivocate and I would equivocate in direct proportion. However, if they want to negotiate full funding, acceptance, office space, TAships and the like while I sit there and watch? And will put it in writing? Then sure.
Again, I'm not very afraid of that happening.
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The unfortunate reality is that many M.Ed. programs are cash cows for universities. Thus, they try to admit as many warm tuition paying bodies into seats as reasonably possible. Also, a good portion of teachers are required to take a M.Ed. to maintain their certification or to get a bump on the pay scale. As a result many programs are of dubious quality, although there are many notable exceptions who still maintain high standards as well.
Unfortunately, this.
One should consider Arthur Levine's 2005 report on the quality of education programs: http://www.edschools.org/reports_leaders.htm.
Excerpt:
These degree programs, he declares, range from “inadequate to appalling.” They teach courses irrelevant to the needs of school administrators in an era of tumultuous change. They pursue a “race to the bottom” by lowering standards to lure new students, he charges.
And, in collusion with state officials and local school systems, they feed a suspect economy that rewards salary bumps to teachers and administrators for getting fast-track doctorates whether the degree is rigorous and useful or not. Despite all this, he says, many schools and their leaders “continue to deny problems and resist improvement.”
Anytime "free" money is involved you have lax standards and corruption. Many administrators and teachers use tuition reimbursement to enroll and the programs are happy to take them and the check. This bothers me for many reasons probably not appropriate here, but I will say that I considered this in my graduate school plans.
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Figure out which schools notify earliest in your field. Apply only to those.
LOL
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So I thought about this.
"If we make you an offer would you absolutely, positively say yes?"
"Is that absolutely, positively an offer of admission?"
And there you go.
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Unique name, interesting past.
Before I applied anywhere I did a little online presence management. But you'll still find articles and books I've written over the years, pics of me doing the slam poetry thing, some really contentious letters to the editor. So, me being a politically active, verbose hell-raiser won't be a secret but I like to think they got that in my SOP anyways.
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Your own moral standards are up to you, but you might want to check in with an advisor or someone to make a game plan. I wouldn't be surprised if it were possible to damage your advisor's/letter-writers' reputations by saying something like "I would definitely go if admitted" and then not going.
Great advice.
I have my two mentors on standby for my interview next week. They know they are to respond immediately to any texts that say "i am in a bathroom stall and..."
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Totally OT but elsewhere, it's been debated and discussed about when is the appropriate time to have children. Many female academics think grad school is a better time because your schedule is more flexible than it will be once you get an academic appointment.
I have considered this. It seems to me that if you are somewhere with decent health care that this could be a pretty good time. And for me, the last of times.
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Sanssouci took my response.
Unless you're very lucky you are teaching and saving the University lots of money.
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I don't think it's malarky. I've been told by my mentors for it to be asked,but with a great deal more finesse than our example though. Everyone is hedging bets.
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Anyone with an Emory interview simply must (discreetly) try to find out more... like if it's working...
Ha ha, Jacib. I know a set-up when I smell one.
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On Dec. 30 at 1 p.m., EPD responded to a report of a female Asian subject who has continued to come back to the University, specifically the Candler School of Theology, and has created problems by insisting that she be admitted to the school. The female subject was gone by the time officers arrived on campus, but she is described as having black hair and black eyes, is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs approximately 130 pounds.
There is a time when I would have thought her crazy, but now...
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I honestly think this process is just YMMV enough to encourage everyone to buck the hard won wisdom that came before them. It just calls for those inclined to do so to try it their way.
So, I doubt it will matter but I think I was saved alot of horror stories because I requested everything -- transcripts, letters -- early and I collected them all myself. I also requested extra letters from writers so I'd have back ups. I created a google site that letter writers could access to see my list of schools with all the deadlines. And I padded each deadline by at least two weeks. I also provided this in writing the first week of the semester in August. And then I just kept stopping by to check on them. I did not worry about annoying people. It's my life. I'll withstand your annoyance -- not that any of my folks got that way but I wouldn't have been too disturbed if they'd had. The worst anyone could say is that you are persistent, right?
But, yeah. Start early goes without saying.
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I know Duke (Anthro department) sent me an e-mail prior to Christmas, saying that the Graduate School offices never forwarded my writing sample to them. The e-mail i got in response to my e-mailing it in was that they wanted to get everything together so the faculty could review the application immediately after the holidays. I suppose by looking at the results from last year, it seems that Duke has a history of letting people know that they're finalists by the end of January (re: January 26th).
I got that same email although I know I'd attached it to my app, sent the email AND a paper copy. :/ I'm local and I work at the Uni part time and I've heard nothing of movement. A recent email from a prof there "wished me luck" but nothing about them being discussion mode yet.
ETA: cultural anthro
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Ditto to all of the above!!! No, no, no, no, no.
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Why does it seem more conceited to say that you were accepted into your top choice?
My uncle decided to climb a mountain. He fell down a crevasse and posted about his fall on facebook. Just last week he posted that he was going back up on a mountain. And then he posted about his successful climb. Is that conceited bragging? Maybe. But so what, his friends and family want to know and cheer him on.
I have gone through difficult times in my life. Hell yeah I am going to tell people if I got into my top choice. And I think more of my friends would be pissed off if I didn't tell them than if I did.
As usual, we're in agreement. I'm old skool, granted, but I thought FB was a technical version of real life connections. So, in real life I'm gonna tell people why not on FB? Plus, call me conceited bitch all day long just call me DR. Conceited Bitch when appropriate.
See if I care. -
i meant to ask, "what are your interests in education/the anthro of education in the states?
for me, both anthro and american studies could work because my interests are so interdisciplinary and would benefit from ethnographic research and/or s more straith forward critical analysis.
ditto.
I have the same interests; they just fit across different disciplines. So, I didn't tweak much for different programs. For me it's also about the methodology -- participant-observation and ethnography. I am concerned with urban universities, race, ethnicity, and state power. So that's american studies in that I think it's imperative to understanding the american social contract and then anthro because I propose to study contemporary urban communities of color that are in close proximity to formal state-sanctioned knowledge production.
Or, something like that.
I liked USC alot. I got great feedback but their deadline was so early I know they didn't get my best SOP. :/
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Oh brother.
I wrote my first grant this past semester and I found absolutely NOTHING that was useful.
I think that is because every funding organization is so specific about what they want that a good "grants for dummies" books just doesn't cover it. FYI: such a book EXISTS. The poverty of usefulness in no way prevents people from trying to sell them. I'm saying I found them totally inadequate.
At the end of the day you have to begin and end with the granting agency. My experiences were with IES and NSF and both had a veritable book on their websites about how to write for their purposes. It'll cost a small fortune but I highly recommend printing it out and reading the entire thing. First, you'll probably be the only person to read the whole thing. Second, there's all kind of minutiae that can trip up a newbie: fonts, page numbers, mini deadlines before the big deadline, what direction they are heading in, etc.
Next, if you working as part of a team or in connection with a Uni find THE admin. This person can appear deceptively unassuming. It's not the star grant getter in the dept. It is his or her admin that you need. I found Jackie. Bless Jackie. She knew about the online submission peculiarities, how far in advance to prepare to overcome the inevitable Uni and granting agency snafus, etc.
If you're not working with a Uni call the grant coordinator listed in the CFP. They are, theoretically, supposed to answer all of your questions including what kind of proposal they are most apt to consider this year. And that changes. One year it's STEM programs, for instance, the next year its Head Start. That won't be published but they should tell you. Or, rather, once you tell them your pitch they should tell you if it stands a chance. Now, I had a hard time getting these folks to respond to me until I *cringe* dropped my mentor's name. Just an FYI. If you have a name to use you may have to.
Also on the website should be .pdfs of former grants that won. Use those as templates.
But, as for where to start. Like all things start at the beginning: what is your research question, your population, and most importantly how does it fit with the goal(s) of the granting agency. That last one is a biggie. You could have a leg up on making a wonder woman bracelet that actuallyd deflects bullets and the lasso of truth but they won't care if you don't tell them why spending their money on it will make them look good. Write that out in any format to begin with. Once you have a handle on that formatting and expounding and clarifying is manageable. Without that you have no guiding principle.
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as far as i can tell, this seadub character lives to rove around grad cafe looking for people who are fretting about their weaknesses, solely to belittle them and make general bootstrap-related commentary. it's weird. this is a forum for anxious applicants, not an ayn rand fan site. yeesh.
LOL
I always find it odd when people get angry at a thing for being what it is designed to be. A discussion board, like this one, is designed for people to DISCUSS their concerns and feelings. Telling one to "suck it up and stop whining" is tantamount to negating the purpose of the board. No one is suggesting anyone storm Princeton and burn score reports in the quad, but if you cannot discuss your opinion in a space designed for that function then where can you? And more importantly why is someone diametrically opposed to the board's function participating in it?
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Thanks for the info! I am anxious to hear from them. I had lots of pre-app contact.
They had to be inundated with apps. The dept gets stronger every year; awesome faculty, good location and funding and then the economy.
Be interesting to see what happens. -
I would say to do a handwritten card. To ensure it gets to them on time, bring it with you to the interview and write it immediately following it and drop it in the nearest mailbox. I think the extra personal touch is really worth the effort.
This is my philosophy. I've yet to hear of anyone being annoyed at being appreciated; being hounded by insincere sucking-up? Sure, but not gratitude. The task is to stay on this side of sucking up.
If you don't recall all the names call the dept secretary. I've always been honest -- this is from jobs, not schools mind you -- with admins about wanting to say thank you but not knowing how to spell names. I've never gotten negative feedback from them. Also, perhaps a cursory look at the faculty page would jog your memory?
I like to keep it brief and specific: a nice thank you, mention one specific detail and a line to reiterate my enthusiasm about the program. That's it. Can't hurt in my book.
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i applied to NYU's american studies program. i'm interested in political economy, Latin america, neoliberalism, and intersubjective reciprocity. i'm really hoping i get in cuz i think i would have a blast! unfortunately, no one is looking at non-profits there and that's the particular thing that i mentioned in my SOP. i hope that doesn't matter since my broader interests fit so well within the departments i applied to (i also applied to two anthro programs).
Hey Sam. Just noticed we have similar app paths. I, too, did a combo of anth; anth of education and american studies.
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I Got 99 Problems -- Philosopher Sean Carter
Survivor -- Destiny's Child
Stronger -- Christina Aguilera
Use Somebody -- KOL
Diamonds on the floor -- Rob Thomas
Basically huge pop songs and uncensored hip-hop
What you think the adcoms are saying about your application
in Waiting it Out
Posted
LOL at both of y'all!!! Now you see why I have no hope.