FaultyPowers

That soon!!? Which school?

I'm just happy that OSU is not my top choice, because I applied in November and judging from the results board they don't notify until March. Each decision is reached while sitting under a waterfall, gazing mysteriously out towards the horizon.

I'll see YOU in the AcademiDome.

I'm sleeping pretty well...until I wake up because I remember all the awesome academic shit I've done that somehow never made it onto any CVs or statements and managed to completely slip my mind until right just now.

Mine isn't a guy...UNLESS Daisy123 was only saying hers was to get me of my guard! Gasp! The intrigue!

I have no idea. I'm having a hard time getting my POI from there to respond to me add well!

I once had a POI respond to my email 18 months after I sent it. Now THAT is how you flaunt your tenure.

I *think* that you have a slight grace period with LORs as well. Especially if it's one of those schools that doesn't send the invite until after you've submitted the whole shebang.

The transcript request system is STILL down, and will remain so until the day the application is due So that's a MAJOR fail on my part, but luckily I don't think I need to send them to one place because they should have them from last year (waiting on an email to confirm that, but that's what the FAQs say) and I just called the other place and they told me that it didn't matter, as long as the application itself was on time. And actually when the person I spoke to asked which department I'd applied to and I said "Anthropology" she sort of chuckled. "Heh. Oh yeah, you're fine." So....not a win exactly, but an un-fail perhaps. I'll take it.

Thanks for all the advice guys! I have submitted this application, removing that paragraph from my SOP and not mentioning it at all. I've used the "Additional materials" section to mention it and I've removed all the blaming language, AND the bit about integrity and Dr. Nice Guy etc. Hopefully I've done it in a way that doesn't come off as blaming anyone for anything.

....ok the last part makes me sound egotistical! What I mean is that there is no other element of the application that I have to explain or apologize for. Which makes this bit about the letter even more derailing!!

I asked the new letter writer and he refuses to give me any details about what he's writing. He said he "thinks" he can portray me in a generally positive but generic way. When I asked him to make sure he included the reasons that he took over he ignored the request and replied to the email with "I haven't gotten an invite from that school yet". It's frustrating because this is literally the only negative. My GPA is high, my GRE is almost perfect, presentations, publications, years of field experience, and I work as the research assistant to a pretty famous anthropologist. And he even asked me what was wrong with this guy when I showed him the emails! So I think relying on him to explain would be a mistake.

But I agree, I'd much rather leave it off and probably will because it just derails everything else I've built up in the SOP. So now I'm wondering whether I should copy it into an extra essay our just leave it out entirely.

Arg. See this is what's irritating, because my POI TOLD me to put it on there. And another POI TOLD me I should have put it in my SOP as well.

Good advice! I think you're right about replacing refused and ignored. And yeah I hope the last part is what comes through the most. .... stupid, crappy, MA supervisor.

Hi guys, Help!! I have an SOP that I need to finish and submit like yesterday. This is for a POI whom I've spoken to several times at this point. I mentioned that my MA thesis adviser had quit and totally bailed on all his students so as to explain why my letter from my (replacement) supervisor would be rather generic. I hadn't planned on mentioning it in the SOP because I didn't want to sound like I was badmouthing my MA granting institute...even though I totally DO badmouth my MA granting institute, what the hell?...but he said it would have been a "red flag" for him and that I should explain. So...here's my attempt at doing that. Does this come off as sh*t talking? And if it does, does it come off as sh*t talking too much? How much do you think I can get away with? I basically want to leave the impression that this guy sucks and I'm blameless without actually saying that. Too much? Not enough? Meh...? I will be matriculating into a doctoral program with an MA from <<Crappy Bad School>>. My thesis supervisor retired as I was in the final stages of writing, leaving mid-term and refusing to stay on the committees of any of his graduate students. Because he was the only remaining archaeologist in the department, Dr. <<Other Guy>> was assigned to serve as his replacement. He was unfamiliar with my work prior to this, and he made it clear that while he was willing to write me a letter of recommendation, this letter would serve as a relatively generic assessment of my capacity for scholarship. I reached out to my former supervisor many times, hoping to secure a more insightful letter, but all of my attempts at communication went unanswered. I mention this to underscore how extremely important it is to me that my doctoral supervisor functions as a mentor; someone who will act with integrity towards both their students and colleagues, and whose approach to teaching will allow me to explore collaborative opportunities that will advance my education as well as my career. After the conversations I have had with <<Dr. Nice Guy>> and his graduate students, I am positive that this is the environment I would find at <<Other School>>.

I'm not married but I've been with my partner for 13 years! And we don't have kids but y'know...cats. What is your housing strategy? I'm actually planning to buy a house if I get in anywhere. I want to move ONCE and then not again for seven to ten years! I didn't apply to UNC but I have a friend in the Anthro program there, and another friend who is a recent graduate, and they both absolutely love the program. Good luck!!

This has nothing to do with anything but I was just browsing the History department pages for one of the schools I'm applying to and I noticed that their writer in residence for 2014 is my friend's dad.

Transcript request system is down. Sigh. Of course it is.

OOO! Just checked the results board. Looks like we have an interview out there. Congrats, U of Minnesota, whoever you are

I know! And the funniest part (I suppose "funny" is a relative term) is that I wrote the guy who took over supervising my MA and told him that I was in the top tier of applicants but the POI said it was essential that his letter reflects the circumstances, because otherwise he and other POIs might assume it was because I did something to get myself kicked out of the original committee or something, and the guy answers ALL that with: I haven't gotten a review invite from XXX University yet. That's it! No congratulations for making it this far, no reassurance of any kind about the fact that he WILL cover those details, not even a statement that he WON'T and that I'll have to explain it myself! And when I wrote back and said that he won't get an invite until I submit the entire application (which I've already told him) I got this in response: oh...thanks. Great guy. I'm just going to interpret that to imply that he won't adequately explain the circumstances and that I'll have to do it myself in my SOP. Which is unfortunate, because I have very strongly worded and theoretically embedded SOPs and it's a shame to break it all up with "my adviser quit and it was so hard and it wasn't my fault wahhhhhhh!", but so be it. I'm actually more annoyed at the FAIL! of my letter writer than I am this POI. I mean, he is definitely being very involved in this whole thing, very VERY involved, but given what I'm used to (ok...thanks) I almost think it might make for a refreshing change.

Oh GOD this FAIL just keeps gettin' worse!! The interview went well, chatty-chat, talky-talk etc. He told me I was in the top tier of applicants, which is good, but then he said that on top of the letters, he would also want to talk to my letter writers on the phone. See, here's the thing with my letters. One is from a supervisor at my field site which, since the POI at this program wants you to already come in with a field site, is pretty important. That's fine. The other is from my supervisor at work, who's a big name in the field and has known me longer than my other writers, but I've never been his student. But my third letter is from my MA thesis supervisor. Here's the thing about that. During the final stages of my MA, the chair of my thesis committee decided he was done with working, and QUIT. He didn't slowly retire, staying on the committee's of all his students, no. He just up and left, with five or six students suddenly without a committee! LONG miserable story short, I got a new committee and a new thesis chair, but it was someone who was a relatively new hire and knew almost nothing about me or what I was doing. I called my former supervisor, I emailed him, and in over a year he has never returned a single call or email! So the new guy agreed to write me a letter, but his letter - while representing my MA granting institution - does not really do me a lot of favors. So not only is that something that I have to now apparently explain to all my POI's, because according to this one it's a "red flag" that could make people think I'd been kicked off of my original committee, but it also makes my other two letters WAY more important. BUT. My supervisor at work? The famous one, whose letter would probably be carrying the most weight? Damned if he isn't going to be in the field at EXACTLY the time that this POI wants to call him! Because of course he is!

Isn't it ridiculous!? I had to just make a new log in for one of mine. And then be really, reeeeeally careful with all my uploads.

Nice guy! Just... thorough.

He said it "didn't matter"... and yet, if it's not there I clearly haven't submitted it yet. It's like calling somebody to ask whether they're sitting on your lap. Regardless of their answer, you should know already! He's getting a partial SOP, a writing sample and one unofficial LOR and he's just gonna have to be happy with that.