Ilikekitties

I'm currently a rising junior at a small Midwestern liberal arts college. I'm majoring in anthropology and Spanish and I'm trying to find programs for PhD's in anthropology that might match my interests. I'm currently working on a summer project that deals with political economy of food choice (Marx, Wilk,) but I'd also like to tie it into animal welfare/human-animal relationships either toward the end of this summer or next summer. I might also do a variation of this project in Costa Rica when I study abroad. Can you think of any programs that might have professors who do this kind of work? My advisor thinks it's too early for me to find professors because I still have two years of undergrad left and I might (will) change my mind about interests, but I'm super curious if anyone comes to mind. And, I don't know if these topics are too narrow. I've heard that when you're going into grad school, you need to have broader interests.

Gosh I have no idea what my class standing is...

Gosh, I hope not! It's my dream!

For the statistics I could find for the schools that I was looking at, most of the programs had around a 6% - 7% acceptance rate! How does anyone ever get into graduate school if this is the case? I'm blown away!

^ thank you very much!

My favorite guide book when I was looking for undergraduate schools was Fiske. Is there a similar book for graduate schools?

Ok, I have a question about choosing grad schools to apply to because some of my professors say that you should pick a program because of its reputation because professors can leave, get sick, die, etc. Others tell me that you should pick based on the professors there because their interests have to match yours. It shouldn't be about the "name." Does prestige come in at all? Do USNWR and other rankings matter at all when it comes to grad school? Do faculty interests come before the name of the school? I mean, it wouldn't make sense for a person who studies Ecuador to go to a school where no professors are familiar with Ecuador even if it was a top school, but besides that?