samjones

if i don't get into schools this year, i'm gonna keep my job (which makes the situation win-win because it was hard work getting a good paying job in nyc as a recent graduate in the economic climate and i don't mind being paid well). i'll repeat the same application process again next year but with a few more relevant activities under my belt (i have some stuff planned for the summer whether or not i get into school and i'm currently participating in a relevant working group, too). i will also be able to apply to schools outside of the geographic region i limited myself to this season because my partner will be in the last year of her grad program and readying to join me in the application frenzy. honestly, getting in and knowing what i'll be doing next year compared to not getting in and anticipating the next season is win-win for me. obviously i'd like to get in this year but i won't be too upset if i don't! i look forward to the next month or so.

i felt pretty certain that acceptances and rejections would've been reported by now! i mean, how'd people on the waitlist get to know but not the acceptances and rejections. i'm starting to feel like all the work i put into getting face time with the department and such will still leave me with a rejection. ugh. has anyone heard anything? and who is the wait-listed person, please?

I recently visited New Brunswick and was not impressed by the bit of the city that I saw. I walked all the way from the train to the campus(es) and saw A LOT of vinyl sided housing/residential spaces, which gave me this humdrum/blah feeling. the campus buildings were the only ones that seemed to get any sort of attention. it was sort of depressing, which is REALLY depressing because I really wanted to like it because I really want to get in and attend the program of my choice (CITE anthro). also, New Brunswick has multiple campuses that beg a person to take the (free) buses between them as it can be quite a walk between the campuses otherwise. I got a very good picture of how far each building/campus is from the others because I was on campus for a day-long workshop and no one knew where the workshop was being held. the run around was welcome though because I was able to get a really good picture of how large the campus is. and to qualify my perspective on walking, i used to do door-to-door canvassing by foot and I feel very comfortable walking. I also have to remind myself that I won't be having to hurry between back to back classes (unless I plan my semester that way) so the distances might not matter that much. anyway, that's my two cents.

damn. this post really freaked me out. i don't normally check the results page and so when i saw this post i thought, "crap! did everybody get their acceptance/rejection/waitlist notices??/ crap! everybody but me?!! crap!! what does that mean?" but then i checked and it's just that lone "waitlist" result. not that that calms me completely. i mean, i hope this means we'll all soon find out our fate with rutgers. yay (in the most anxiously excited way)! op, did you also have an interview earlier this month?

has anyone heard anything (positive or negative) for/about this program?

besides numbers getting you past the preliminary stages (and I do not personally know the cut off stats for Boston University), i am off the belief that they matter less than how well you demonstrated your fit with the department to which you are applying. instead of asking whether your numbers were good enough at a point when you can't do anything about them, you have to ask yourself how well you researched your fit with the department. that is, did explicitly let the BU know that you have profs you'd like to work with and resources that you have in mind for utilizing that BU offers to you particularly. it's becoming more and more clear that FIT often matters more than numbers. in addition, i have no idea what your chances are for getting into BU. but good luck!!

i haven't heard anything. but i think you don't have to start worrying about rejection until a week into March. relax (about Rutgers, at least) until then!! =D

yeah, they were calling it SUDS and SUNDS. i don't think people really know what was happening.... ugh! totally heartbreaking, especially if it really was rooted in homesickness.

i want to amend my statement to say, i just looked at the website and it lists prof. steklis as Emeritus. that usually means they are not advising or teaching anymore.

yeah, it's amazing what happens in unexpected places. for example, the largest community of somali are... in minnesota!! i lived in minnesota and discovered there's good reason for it, but most people are in awe of it. the same with the huge population of hmong in minnesota, too. migration patterns/refugee placement is totally interesting.

lizgb may know the answer to this question, but this is a question you could ask prof. steklis himself. you could use this question as a way to begin a "relationship." all the faculty have their email listed under their name on the anthro website! good luck!!

wow. that is especially interesting about new brunswick! it's always the smaller/hardly known places with really good history, hey? especially in terms of immigrant/refugee history. were you able to reiterate your site interest in New Brunswick during the interview? i bet that would have been a very strong point. yeah, i noticed prof. magana is new, too. her dissertation must have been awesome to be so well placed so soon! that's pretty exciting.

do you mean john harris? or does he go by jack? either way, it looks like he's looking at topics far off my radar! woohoo (if he's not a very good person to work with)! also, what'd you think about prof. goldstein??? that's who i'm really interested in... and they say the program's strength is in feminist theory. do you feel they integrated such theory throughout the coursework, or does one have to decisively seek it out?

Prof. Goldstein did dominate the interviewing but that was alright for me because he is the person I would most likely work with (or at least work with the most) because his research is most relevant to my interests. but yeah, since he was on both of our calls, maybe one can conclude that he is the "lead" ad com member. does it usually work like that? yeah, i was expecting prof. magana to be the second interviewer so i was surprised when prof. schein introduced herself. i'm jealous that you got prof. magana because she would have been a little more relevant for me and i was not very familiar with prof. schein at all. i felt so bad but they didn't test me on it or anything and i was able to show that i am familiar with prof. goldstein. my interview was super short, by the way. and i mean, less than 15 minutes! it was a really quick conversation. i agree; rutgers has a great program and i would be so happy to be there. what kind of field work are doing in new brunswick?

hey. i wanted to let you know that i had my interivew earlier today and i also did a little rambling about. it's hard to tell if they are expecting you talk more than the siple answer you try to give (maybe because of the delay caused by conference calling?? idk.). it turned out that prof. goldstein and prof. schien were assigned to my interview. it was a pretty short convo and left me feeling even more nervous. i'm glad it's over though! whew. now i just have to wait. it's such a great department/program! they also said they would hope to make decisions by the end of the month. therfore, i hope this next month goes by as fast as i feel january went.

that all does help. thank you so much for being forthcoming! in return, i'll let you know if i'm interviewed by the same folks and any other new info that i get!

i'd love more advice myself BUT i can tell you that i plan on having (for a phone interview, by the way): 1. a list of the faculty that i think i could benefit from/could work with 2. a separate list of all the faculty in the department because i won't know who i'm interviewing with until they introduce themselves on the phone 3. my cv 4. my writing sample 5. some questions about the work the faculty are involved 6. some questions about recent dissertation topics 7. some questions about recent graduate student placements again, this is for a phone interview and so it won't matter that i have a bunch of papers spread out in front of me. lol. for an in person interview... i might still bring that much but would probably just have that in a folder and would try to keep it stacked up neatly. as for specific questions... i haven't gotten ones that can be applied to just any program besides maybe asking "what made you decide to choose me for an interview?" "how did/do you expect me to contribute to the program/department?" i don't even know if those are appropriate questions. so feedback is welcome. and i mean, VERY WELCOME. congrats to you, too!

SO IT WAS YOU WHO TOOK MY FIRST CHOICE TIME SLOT (and a few others, i guess)! lol. just kidding. anyway, i haven't done the interview yet. i'm super nervous. i have a few questions for you: 1. did the committee introduce themselves (yeah, if you're willing, you can tell me some names. go ahead!!)? 2. how many folks were on the phone/skype conversation with you? 3. did you do skype or just regular phone? 4. and what do you mean "passing strange for exactly the reasons" I outlined?? that it seems like their first doing it or something else? 5. did they give you any ballpark estimation of when they think they'll make admissions decisions this year? Good luck to you, too!! I bet you did wonderful and I bet you just sounded really passionate and informed about your work when you were "rambling." =)

i was invited for an interview for the CITE Anthropology program at Rutgers last Wednesday. i'm totally excited (and absolutely nervous) but really confused by the fact that this seems to be the first year people are being interviewed by the program. that is, at least last year no one updated the results search page with an interview invitation but someone was accepted. i wonder why they've (possibly) changed their process...

i had to go back to their site to remind myself, but yeah, there are definitely lots of folks looking at sexuality and queerness. what in particular (or as particular as you're willing to get on the internet) are in interested in? did you try engaging with any of the profs or students there? i did (and i'm interested in political economy, latin america, neoliberal globalization kind of stuff) and it was like pulling teeth with the faculty, for me. but one of the dissertation-staged students was very open and engaging.

awesome! what are your interests for the program?

hey, jlennon33. i've applied to some of the same schools as you... except possibly different programs/departments. for example, while i went for the American Studies PhD at NYU i applied to the Cultural Anthropology/CITE program at Rutgers. The third program and school I applied to turned out to be CUNY's Anthropology department for the cultural subfield. as might often be the case, now that i've submitted my application i've since come up with lots of language and thoughts that might have better articulated my interests! as it is, i talked about my interest in neoliberal restructuring, hegemony and social movements in Latin America with particular interest in ngo's. have you heard anything yet from NYU? what is/was the research interest (generally even) that you discussed?

does anyone know much about the Rutgers CITE (and/or general Anthropology department) admissions process? i saw that some have been invited for interviews and wondered if anyone knew the ratio between how many they invite for interviews and how many they accept... also, i'm still really curious about the program in general, so if there are any folks around who are already students of the department (especially CITE), please speak up!

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.

it's great that you're sharing these! thanks a lot. i hope folks can benefit from them.