samjones

at many schools, you don't rub elbows that often with students studying in the other anth fields. i mean, there may be requirements that make you take a class or two in another field (like ling, phys, arch) but other than that, the fields have their own program agendas and do their own thing. i say that to say that the con you gave for anthro is a non-issue (from my experience- maybe others can share something different below?).

i didnt have a background in anthro and i'm in the phd program i wanted to be in. i got in on the first try. the trick to get into any program when you have any or no background is speaking the field's language and relating yourself to the particular program at any particular school.

i just want to echo the encouragement to apply to schools that you fit with in terms of your research ideas, methods and theories. it's important that the program sees that they will be able to help you while you are in their program. if your research interests and approach, as expressed in your sop, would have little support in the program, there will be no place for you there and you will be rejected. again, you have to express what your theoretical approach/alignment is and what your research interests are in your sop and apply to schools that match/would support both. also, you should look into the centers and institutes that are at the schools that your a match with and talk about how you utilize the work being done in those offices during your time there. applying to school is like applying to jobs- you want to like where you go and you want them to know that you'll make sense there (in terms of your compatibility with the school, program and professors that might be willing to work with you).

i would go with hunter because it will probably be cheaper and more fruitful for networking and attention-getting. good luck!!

their program is decent, the program seemed pretty small and intimate, and the campus is in a relatively small city/town. apparently there are a few good, staple places that students hang out at... but i would guess they'd also be crowded with undergraduates, which may not be a problem if those undergraduates are generally mature and aren't acting like drunken messes! i applied to the CITE track and would have had a hard time deciding between my program and that program if i hadn't gotten off Rutgers' waitlist.

i don't think you need to have had a background in anth, even with your interest in paleoanth. i think your background and obvious strength in biology would be sound enough for you to have a chance at being admitted to a paleoanth program. i say this though not knowing whether there are field experiences or other experiences that you should have had/should have in preparation for competing against others with similar/comparable experiences. for example, i've noticed that non-cultural anths have often worked really hard to get field experience before they are competitive for phd programs. so maybe (in either scenario of you completing the phd or simply earning the MS) you'll want to look into the experiences other paleoanth applicants have before they apply to phd programs.

if i were in your shoes, i'd follow the funding (read: move my ass to Florida!!!!).

as far as i know, the new school does not accept people into their phd program unless they have completed their MA program... meaning, all applicants who are not currently finishing the MA program in whatever department at the New School will only be considered for the MA program, which is hardly ever fully funded. applicants who are finished with or finishing the MA program at the New School are the only ones who are considered for phd admission and those accepted get funding for the phd program. again, that's only those who already finished or are finishing the MA program of the New School.

in anthro, the avg completion time is projected to be a year LESS that the nat'l average (and that's the program i'm in and i can't say what the average is for the other programs at GC). you are assigned to teach or TA an equivalent of 2 courses each term during your 2nd, 3rd and 4th year. it's hard but it also gives you a glimpse of the workload you'll experience once you're actually responsible for teaching more than that AND trying to do your own research or projects as a full blown prof. the politics of it (adjuncts and grad students destabilizing permanent faculty positions and such) are terrible but the experience is also valuable in terms of getting teaching experience early on and being able to market that once you are looking for jobs after you earn the degree. in my experience, it is a very BAD IDEA to accept admission to gc as an international student if you do not have funding. it's pretty expensive in NYC and you'll be taking out loans for tuition and the costs of living (and i'm pretty sure you will never be considered a NY resident, which, if you were, would mean that the tuition costs decrease DRAMATICALLY. otherwise, you'll be responsible for out of state/internat'l tuition until you find some source of funding). getting a job on or off campus is very much an option but it would probably be part-time and it probably won't be meeting your financial needs. even if you get an on campus job, with many, you do not get tuition remission or waiver. it just really isn't a good idea to accept admission to the GC without funding, especially as an internat'l student. i've heard a dept director having a tough conversation with an international student who didn't have funding- that student had managed to get an adjunct job or two at one of the CUNY schools and was STILL having a really hard time. the dept director at one point said, "i have tried to convince admissions to not offer a spot to internat'l students when they aren't going to offer funding to accompany the offer." i took that to mean that internat'l students without funding shouldn't even be offered admissions because it offers a really bad choice that too many end up taking. in terms of a timeline for funding notification, that could take awhile as they may have offered funding to others in your prospective cohort and they are waiting to hear back from them regarding their decision on admission. that means they have until April 15th (in most cases) to make their final decision re: admission and accepting the funding offer, which means that you may not be offered the funding until after that.

fit is more important than ranking but i wouldn't be able to tell you how competitive your fit is because i don't know your research interests and how they match up to NYU's program. it is really important to gauge your fit with a program because that will heighten the likelihood that you'll be admitted AND that, if you choose to matriculate, you will be happy with the program you're entering (because the profs will be offering courses that you feel are relevant to your interests).

nyu anth is a VERY competitive program. for example, they received hundreds of applications and accepted no more than 10 of those applicants across the board (subfields including). i think it's the name recognition of the school and the earned popularity and esteem of the faculty that attract applicants. nyu is also ranked pretty high.

so true! and on purpose, too!

if you're concerned about the program in terms of the training you will get through coursework, you should contact students of the program to see if they are happy with the the training they are receiving. you should explore their website in order to find past courses that have been offered to see if you'll get a chance to take coursework relevant to your interests. sometimes the profs you want to work with don't teach courses very often or at all because they are senior faculty and in some departments that gets you out of teaching commitments. that said, make sure the profs you want to work with are teaching! you might also want to ask current students if they know of any committees or groups that meet regularly and that might hold events relevant to your interests. that's a great way to percolate your own thoughts and gain direction/inspiration. students and/or the program director would also be good resources in terms of questions about what grads of the programs end up doing and how soon they are able to start doing what they do!

bewildering? i don't think i would say anything you have written is bewildering. i would say that your online personality is fascinating!

i'm fascinated with the curiosity of what you would be like in person.

if there's a lesson-commonly-taught language that you are familiar with and that might be relevant for you, you could apply for the FLAS through some schools, like Columbia and NYU. The funding from that will cover MA tuition and provide a stipend. the above poster is right that NSSR is probably the only school in NYC that may provide funding for the MA. BUT you might also consider CUNY because it's pretty cheap once you're in-state (but keep in mind that it usually takes about a year to establish residency for in-state tuition).

you might have noticed that you weren't the only person who asked for advice from the forum. the second paragraph of my response was for the benefit of someone else.

i don't know how the waitlist will work this year but i do want to say that you'll probably have to fairly patient with CUNY because waiting will be required even for the folks who were offered admission. funding packages and the like get shuffled around and dished in seemingly erratic ways and i would bet that some admits will have to wait for a bit before they hear about funding (whether they will get it or not, especially, but also what type of funding they will be offered because there are different packages that CUNY can offer). So while they wait for their funding (or non-funding) situation to materialize, they may keep everyone on the waitlist waiting because they don't have all the info they may need in order to accept or decline admissions. i do hope you hear something good soon!

very true. and depending on the year that you're applying, a prof. may really want you but be unable to take you because they've already picked up quite a few advisees over the last couple of years. asking about whether they are able to take on new students is a really good question.

i was answering in the context of you applying again next year hence the question, "are you working on anything currently? will you be working on something by the time that you want to start contacting profs?" that implied that you might be working on, for example, your writing sample or something you might publish. who knows. and some conferences are relatively cheap if you're a student and some events at which profs are presenting are free. at many public universities, they have free panel events that are open to the public. timeline-wise, you could start contacting profs whenever it seems relevant for you to do so. i say 'relevant' because a conversation with a prof will go a long way if you have more to talk to them about than just applying to their school. i mean, you don't even want to be talking to profs about admissions anyway because that's a conversation more appropriate to have with the program director/representative designated for answering program questions. conversations with profs, imo, should be geared towards getting their guidance, getting a feel for their research/methods and how yours meshes with theirs, classes they are teaching/will teach and other stuff that isn't something you want to talk to a program director about.

true, true. and regardless about the number, it's still relevant that a more than one person would have to decline their offer before they turn to the wait list. that was more my point anyway.

you can doubt whatever you want. just trying to be helpful! i'm sorry you weren't accepted; try not to be so snotty/butthurt. i mean, seriously- you don't have to be rude. and i stand by the prof-given info that i posted. they have no reason to lie to me-- i'm a student-colleague happy in my anthro program!

are you working on anything currently? will you be working on something by the time that you want to start contacting profs? if so, then maybe you can find some way that what you're working on will benefit from the wisdom of a prof that you're interested in getting familiar with. if you're able to, you could go to some conferences at which a prof or two of interest will be presenting and you can try to reel them in at that point. in that situation, you can start off talking about the presentations that just happened or the conference in general. the conversation may naturally progress to your future plans and then your interests in the program that the prof represents or you might just use that first convo to get in contact with them later. in all, i personally think a relationship beyond "i'm applying. do you like my project proposal? good. i've applied" is better in the long run in terms of getting someone to go to bat for you, you know.

the 7 are sociocultural. info from a prof on adcom.

a prof has said that they offered admission to seven applicants but (because they expect and anticipate that 2-3 of those applicants will decline the offer of admission) three applicants have to decline their offers before they start offering admission to folks on the wait list. in effect, they feel most comfortable being able to financially support 5 students but extended more offers than the five spots they truly have in order to account for offer-decline rates.