far_to_go

As I'm trying to narrow down my list, I find that my ambitions are a bit lofty: my current top picks are Yale, Berkeley, Chicago, and UT Austin. I'm afraid that none of these really fall into the "safety school" category (and even though I have excellent GREs and GPA, I am not so foolish as to think that I don't need some safety schools!) My interests are in sociocultural/linguistic; I'm particularly interested in anthropology of Deafness and in South Asia. Anyone have any good "safety" schools to suggest? Oh, and if they could possibly be on or near the East Coast, that would be great (my family's in Maryland!) Feeling a bit overwhelmed, as I'm sure you all are too... best of luck to everyone!

I hear you, coyabean! I feel like this whole app process is a massive endurance test, designed to weed out all but the most dedicated (or the most desperate). Wonder what it would be like if they made a "Survivor: PhD" series... Good luck on the Ford Diversity and NSF GRFP, jennyb! I may apply for the NSF GRFP as well. Probably won't apply for the Ford, since I'm white

Hey all! For some reason I thought the application for the Jacob Javits fellowship (http://www.ed.gov/programs/jacobjavits/index.html) was in mid-November. Imagine my surprise, then, when I visited the fellowship site and found out that the deadline is actually OCTOBER 5! Fortunately, my profs all agreed to get me the rec letters in time, my transcripts from undergrad institutions are on their way, and I should be able to get the packet mailed in on time as long as I can produce a satisfactory personal statement before Monday. So just wanted to put it out there for any of you thinking of applying for the Javits... if you haven't done it yet, get on it right away. Like yesterday. Anyone else applying for other national level fellowships? I feel like that's a topic that doesn't get addressed much on this board. Do most people just not bother with it, or don't want to talk about it for fear of encouraging possible competitors? Just wondering... Cheerio!

I'm planning to go. I went to the AAA conference a few years ago (as an undergrad), and it seemed that there were a lot of opportunities to network with profs. It's a huge conference with many different topics and fields of interest. You can search the preliminary program to see if specific people will be presenting: http://www.aaanet.org/mtgs/search/ Best of luck to you, Jennyb!