far_to_go

Enjoying that metaphor, Behavioral! And btw, I'm (more or less) religious. I'm in an anthro department and we do tend to discuss issues that are fairly sensitive politically. Disagreements can get a bit heated sometimes. But on the whole, people usually do a good job of keeping things polite and reasonable- one of the many things I like about my department. I'm lucky to have landed amongst a bunch of mature and level-headed people. That said, I think that the answer to this question is really context-dependent. It depends on the character of the department overall and the characters of the people involved. My advice would be to hope for productive, enlightening discourse, and try to engage in it and foster it where you can, but don't be overly eager to drag others into it right away.

Another thing to consider: If you get a dog, what are you going to do with it when you travel? Is it feasible for you to take it along? Will you have friends in the area who can watch the dog for you (and with whom you could possibly swap this service?) This one is a biggie for me because I'm in anthropology, and have to travel out-of-country for months at at time. Even though I have great roommates, we all travel quite a bit between semesters and just don't have the stability that it takes to commit to a dog. Sad face. Hoping to have a dog someday, after I graduate and find a job...

Congrats on passing your oral exam, Robin N! I must say, though, business cards are a bit of a nerdy gift to oneself ;-) I hope you also bought yourself a nice bottle of whiskey or box of chocolates or something!

Sounds fun! If it were me, I'd go for business-casual during the days, with more relaxed beachy attire for the evenings. I'm assuming from your username that you're female- how about some summer dresses that can be dressed up with a cardigan during the day and thrown over a swimsuit at night? Enjoy!

I second the advice that's been given here so far. One way to get insight into the prof's style of mentorship is to talk to their current and former grad students- not in a gossipy way, but in a straightforward professional way. Maybe meet up with them for coffee and say "So, I'm considering asking Dr. X to be my advisor. What have been the best and worst parts of having him/her as an advisor?" Of course, remember that their experiences and your experiences may be different, but it's a good way to gather information that may prove useful.

I'm not going to Burning Man, but I'm going to Nepal. Do I get hippie bonus points?

summer plans

Huh. Mine don't have the logo on the back. Maybe because I paid a little bit and got more than just the free offer. I got them back in November.

medical research

"I have books on how to do a lit review, journal article in 12-wks, etc, but haven't cracked them open yet." Sounds like that might be a good thing for you to do after the summer, especially if you're not confident in your writing skills. Also, my standard advice to people starting their programs in the fall is to read a few recent books/articles by profs in your program. It's not necessarily a suggestion that pertains to writing, but it does help to get up to speed with what your profs think is important (and what they consider good writing too, I guess). It

You're welcome! I hope things work out well with your new roommate :-)

I wouldn't freak out. It's good to recognize that you may have to do some extra work and get some extra mentoring/advice from your profs and colleagues in order to do your first large-scale research project; since you recognize it, you can be proactive in filling those gaps. But, as I always try to remind myself, your PhD program would not have accepted you if they didn't think it was possible (and indeed likely) that you would succeed. You'll be fine :-)

benign neglect

I got some done really cheap by VistaPrint - I liked being able to pick the colors/design myself. My school offers free business cards for grad students, but I'm not a big fan of our school logo and colors. Just personal preference. I put my name, school name, discipline (anthropology), cell number, and e-mail address on the cards. I thought about putting my blog URL on there as well, but since the blog tends to be more personal/whimsical than professional/academic, I decided against it. Less is more. It is nice and handy to have the cards to give people you meet at conferences. I'm also going overseas this summer to do preliminary field research, so I expect I'll give out my card to contacts I meet.

I've been living with a PhD student in another dept for the past year, and it's worked out really well; it's been nice to have somebody to talk to who understands the pressures of graduate school, but can give me a perspective from beyond my own dept. I've lived with several other roomies during my MA, too, so the following tips are accumulated from all those living situations. A few tips: - Communication is really key. You have to be able to talk to each other about your expectations and needs regarding cleanliness, quiet hours, having guests over, sharing bills, and all those other mechanics of roommate life. Of course, if you only talk about "roommate business" stuff, then it can feel like nothing but a business relationship. Which leads me to my next point: - Try to have fun together once in a while. Grad school is stressful, so it's great to be able to have a little "escape" in your home. Have a house movie night, go exercise, play a board game, or just sit and chat. - Figure out what the food-sharing/cooking arrangements will be. My roomie and I buy most of our food separately, but share some staples (rice, flour, milk, etc). We each have our own shelf space in the fridge and cabinets, and there's designated 'shared' space as well. We cook together around once a week. It's a fun way to hang out and avoid the temptation to just grab takeout. - Get a big whiteboard and put it in a highly visible location. We use this to communicate all sorts of info, since we may not see each other every day. - If you're having friends over, it's good to check with your roomie(s) in advance, especially if you're having more than just one or two people over. Invite your roomie to join in the fun- it's a nice way to integrate your social life - but be respectful if he/she needs to work or do other things during that time. - Make sure you have each other's emergency contact info. Just in case. - Do your best to make the common areas of the house an enjoyable, comfortable place to be. In my current house, my roommate and I spent most of our time in our rooms during the first semester; during the second semester, we rearranged our living room furniture to make it better for hanging out and studying, and now we use that space much more. It's really nice. - Make sure you are on the same page as far as cleaning goes. For some people, this means having a chore chart and sticking to it regularly. For others, it's a more flexible, clean-as-you-go sort of arrangement. Figure out what works for you and your roommate and go with it. Remember, you'll both have a much better time if you're not frustrated with each other for leaving dishes in the sink for days, etc. - Don't depend on your roommate to be your whole social life. Having a social life in grad school is difficult but really important for your well-being. Although you and your roommate will hopefully become good friends, it's not fair to expect that person to be your *only* grad school friend. Broaden your circles a bit. Good luck!

I definitely think you have a place in anthro, SocialGroovements! Based on your interests, I'd recommend that you check out UT Austin if you haven't already. I applied and visited there and, although I didn't end up there, it sounds like a potentially good fit for you (and it's a solid program in terms of the metrics I mentioned and the NRC rankings).

benign tumor

heart failure

Hi SocialGroovements, As far as I know, there's no other ranking organization than the NRC for anthro PhD programs. With that said, here are a few ways to tell if a program is quality and is a good fit (at least in my opinion): - Look at their job placement rates. It's very difficult to find full-time TT academic jobs, which is what most anthro PhD grads are looking for, so it's worth finding out how successful schools have been at getting their students into those jobs. If the school doesn't make the info available on the website, try asking a dept administrator. - Try to find out how frequently each dept's grad students tend to win major awards (such as Fulbrights, NSF grants, etc). - As a rule of thumb, if the department is good, they will be able to fund their students at least part-way through the PhD program. I wouldn't give a second look to any programs that don't offer full funding for at least the first 2-3 years. - A tip for finding "fit": It's a good idea to begin looking up authors you find influential and find out 1) where they teach now and 2) where they went to school themselves (although this is not so relevant if they finished their degrees 30-40 years ago). Start investigating whether those departments look like a good fit. - Don't put all your eggs in one basket, i.e. one person. Faculty members, even tenured ones, have a human tendency to die, move, or otherwise become unavailable. Your ideal department should have several faculty members whose interests overlap with yours (and fellow students too!) - Surveying grad students was a big part of my search process. I looked at dept websites to find grad students with interests similar to mine, and then e-mailed them to briefly introduce myself and ask a few key questions. My questions were along the lines of 1) how would you describe the dept culture? 2) Do you feel like you have the institutional support (faculty, funding, etc) that you need? and 3) If you could change 1 thing about your dept, what would it be? On the whole, the feedback that I got from these e-mails was very instructive. I hope some of this helps. I realize that you're looking for objective criteria for evaluating programs, but there's just not a lot of that available, unfortunately. Best of luck finding a program that works well for you.

system failure

simple minds

world fair

I'd wait til after the decision to send the thank-you, unless there's a long lag-time. Then the note could look something like this: Dear Prof ____________, I want to thank you for writing me a letter of recommendation for _______. I am pleased to tell you that I have been accepted (or, Unfortunately, I was not accepted to the program, but (here you say what you will be doing with your summer instead, something that advances your scholarship)). I am grateful for your mentorship and support. Sincerely, InquilineKea It doesn't have to be long and flowery, but just enough to let him/her know what happened with the application and that you're grateful.

It doesn't seem premature to me to let them know that you were accepted to the summer program and to thank them for the LORs; in fact, if you're going to be asking for more LORs in the future, it seems like a good idea to butter them up a bit with a nice thank-you. If a handwritten note seems over-the-top to you, I'd at least recommend a graciously worded e-mail.

World domination