Ajtz'ihb

Two things spring to mind as advice for people applying to PhD programs: 1: Apply to a handful of schools (6 seems like an absolute maximum), and carefully tailor your application to the program. Make it obvious that you've thought about why that's a good place for you to be, and single out every single thing you can about the program and the university that appeals to you--faculty, institutes, libraries, you name it. In general, the more schools you apply to the harder it will be to craft a good application specific to each one. 2: Maybe this makes me sound like a d*ck, but make sure you get the name of the school right in your application. Notre Dame; Washington University in St. Louis (not University of Washington in St. Louis); etc. Tiny but significant mistakes like getting a name wrong can sink your application--probably not single-handedly, but it will be an obvious smudge and one that's easy to avoid. Faulty, who are you applying to work with at Penn?

Maybe Carrasco's City of Sacrifice, just to remind us of even more unpleasant possibilities?

First of all: All I have is a broken spirit and some bad tattoos. Amazing. Second, neither of y'all should feel intimidated. I keep trying to emphasize that anthropologists of all people are not going to be blown away by pedigree. They're looking for intellectual seriousness and knowledge of your specialty area. Find letter writers who can speak to that, and who (preferably) know at least one of your POIs a little bit. I had a chat with my own adviser about this recently, and he said the main value of an MA from an admissions standpoint is that it means the candidate has had some time to focus in on what they're interested in. If you already have a focus and make a good argument that you're ready for serious graduate work, then there is no reason to think that somebody with an MA from an elite school has any advantage over you.

Sounds like you've got your answer then. (And just like in the US, funding at UK universities varies program-by-program. But it is available!)

Colorado would probably be a very welcoming atmosphere for the kind of work you do. Plenty of LDS in Colorado itself, but you'd also be removed enough from Deseret that your work wouldn't chafe anybody. CSU-Fort Collins and CU-Boulder are both great programs with a lot of good anthropologists in them. Have you looked at Northern Arizona? You'd be close to your research subjects, and Flagstaff is a wonderful city. They offer MAs in both research and applied anthro.

I'll just add based on my own experience that the value of a prestigious school when applying to graduate programs lies not in its prestige (professors are unimpressed by these things) but in the professional connections you can make with leading researchers. I went to Penn as an undergrad and took classes with some of the leading archaeologists in my field, which I know helped immensely with my applications. But had I gone to Stanford where there's nobody even interested in what I do, I think I would have been at a disadvantage compared to some of my grad school friends who went to small schools and got undergraduate research experience. I also did a fieldwork-heavy study abroad program as an undergrad, and found it to be one of the more exciting, challenging, and rewarding things I've ever done. I also think it helped diversify my background and made me a stronger candidate for both grad school and fellowship applications.

Go with Costa Rica. Taking courses with a lot of students at a prestigious British university honestly sounds like it would do your educational prospects zero good unless there's a professor there you're particularly keen to work with or an internship/research possibility you know ahead of time you could take advantage of. Now, bear in mind that studying abroad at a major university can be a very positive personal experience, so if you're really keen to get the full "collegiate" experience for your own reasons then I think that's entirely legitimate. But purely from a grad school admissions perspective I think the fieldwork-based semester in Costa Rica sounds more relevant. You can always apply to a large university for grad school!

My instinct would absolutely be to go with the latter, unless the particular university you're looking at would allow you to make important connections for the specific work you want to do. But in general I would value directly-relevant experience over prestige any day.

Hi there and welcome, It seems like you have a good sense of what you're interested in, which is important thing #1 when it comes to looking at graduate school. A lowish GPA would be the elephant in the room on any graduate school application you submit, so I recommend addressing it head-on in your application: if you can (truthfully) argue that you were sort of directionless early on and that you got it in gear once you realized what you wanted to do, I think most potential advisors would be willing to accept that. You can also help your chances by being in touch with faculty directly, which would give you the opportunity to make a more tangible personal impression and also explain your situation. You should always try to be in touch with potential advisors anyway; I can't think of anyone I know in a PhD program who got in without corresponding or meeting with faculty beforehand. It shows you're serious. A Master's degree has the advantage of being a way of sharpening your interests and proving your dedication should you decide to apply for PhD programs later, but of course MAs are expensive and given your finances I imagine you don't want to take on any more debt. Perhaps a more viable option would be to look into developing some field experience. There are cultural anthropology field schools that don't break the bank, or you could try and go into the field with someone else as an assistant--the latter should be relatively straightforward if you can work the professional network a bit. Even if the work itself is only tangentially relevant to what you're interested in, doing supervised fieldwork also means you'd have a letter-writer who could comment on your aptitude for professional fieldwork, which is good to have. Are you looking to stay out west? There are lots of good programs around the country that can give you strong general training in cultural anthropology and the anthro of religion. I'm an archaeologist so it's hard to speak to your exact interests, but Arizona, UCLA, Stanford, Berkeley, and Washington come to mind as schools with very strong general anthropology programs in the western US. Since it sounds like finances are a concern, the last bit of advice I would give is to apply only to places that offer good funding. The base line for "good" these days is about $18-20k per year for the first three years, plus teaching and other "contingent" funding after that. Hope that's helpful!

I don't see any real disincentive to pursue a PhD so long as you go into it knowing you're unlikely to get a tenure-track faculty job and are willing to pursue other plans. NGOs are one option; the corporate world is another. There's a lot you can do with a PhD beyond teaching at a university, and universities themselves are starting to realize that they need to help their own students realize this.

FaultyPowers, did you ask him whether it would be worth re-applying the following year (i.e. this year)? In the event that there aren't any strong Andean bioarchaeologists that application cycle, at least you know you have a very strong application. Also, were you in touch with any of the Meso people in the department? This is of course something worth bearing in mind wherever you apply, but I've found that it's always advantageous to try and get as many people in your corner as possible.

Master of Research is going to be the name of my academic metal band.

#28, sent you a PM.

I would say it varies program-by-program and professor-by-professor. It also depends on your goals. If you want to be a specialist, then probably the best thing you can do is to apply somewhere where you can be trained as a specialist rather than, say, a general prehistorian with a particular regional specialty. Bioarchaeology in particular is highly specialized, and I would think that a strong bioarchaeologist (like Verano at Tulane) could train you to do that in just about any world area. Verano in particular has students working outside the Andes, including some who do purely forensic work and want to go into law enforcement or government (i/e coroner).

I wouldn't worry too much about sustaining it (which might come across as hovering unless you actually have something to correspond about), or making sure they remember you. They will remember you because you're applying which usually makes you part of a smallish group. If you can visit the school at some point before decisions are made and have a while to chat with POIs and other faculty, all the better. That way they'll have a face to put with the name.

I didn't have much field experience either, at least not in archaeology. My advisor wasn't terribly bothered by that fact, he just commented during my first year that priority number one during my first summer should be to get some more fieldwork under my belt. I did, and problem solved.

I think that's a wise move.

What are your interests more specifically? I gather the Middle East and maybe something to do with performance, theatre, art, etc.?

Sorry to be so long responding, I was out of pocket for a while. I applied to Boston University, Brown, Harvard, and Tulane. All offer comparable funding packages, with stipends in the $20k/year range. I was accepted at BU and Tulane; between those two there wasn't really even a choice. Tulane has a far larger and more diverse program and emphasizes Mesoamerica, which is my specialty. And a comparable stipend goes about half again as far in NOLA as it does in Boston. However, just as an important note to people who get all spun out about getting into "prestigious programs": my application was declined at Harvard and Brown (incidentally the two places where I had a hard time connecting with the Mesoamericanist faculty), but I was successful in applying for the NSF GRFP, which is also highly competitive and prestigious. The point is that when it comes to applying for grad school, departmental fit and good relationships with POIs are everything. As for my undergrad background, I have a BA in anthropology from Penn (which is very 4-field, or was then), and I'll be the first to admit that my letter writers helped me out immensely because they were knowledgeable about the programs I was applying to and tailored their letters accordingly.

Hi Shaiya, sorry to be a while in getting back around to your post. I wouldn't be too concerned about applying to "prestigious" or "competitive" schools. At the grad school level, admissions operate on a more personal, professor-by-professor basis. Many highly qualified applicants won't be accepted to the most prestigious schools simply because they fail to interest the faculty member who would be advising them; similarly, many people with little research experience or poor test scores do manage to pique their POI's interest and therefore get in. This is something people applying to graduate school consistently fail to appreciate: it's not undergrad, and it's not anonymous. If you want to get in, you need to be in touch with your POI and you need to market yourself specifically to their program. If that program is Chicago or Harvard or whatever, then spell out in detail why that particular program is the place you want to be. Single out every faculty member whose work you find interesting if they give you the space for it. Talk about libraries and research centers and funding opportunities. They want to know that you're paying attention and not just applying for the name. I'm afraid I don't have any sample SOPs on hand, although you might want to take a look at the ones here: http://rachelcsmith.com/academics/nsf.htm Those are applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which requires three separate essays. A typical SOP would be something like the personal statement and research experience essays combined and edited down.

I found the following website, with copious examples of successful essays from many disciplines, useful in putting together my own (successful) application: http://rachelcsmith.com/academics/nsf.htm The best tips I can give are to write in your own voice (my professors thought I sounded too casual, my reviewers all complimented my writing), and to address yourself specifically to the "intellectual merit" and "broader impacts" criteria in each essay. Show them that you're intellectually serious, and that you have some perspective on why the work you do matters. Not everything has to be academic, either. The reviewers know that these applications are often from people just entering graduate school. I commented at length about my experience working for a coffee importer/roaster and how it connected to my academic background in anthropology. Good luck!

(I applied to 4 schools, and was accepted at 2).

Apply to a handful. Strong application SOPs are tailored to the program, singling out faculty members you'd like to work with or take courses with, facilities you would like to have access to, etc. They want to see that you've done your homework and really want to attend that school in particular, rather than just any ol' place. You'll go crazy if you try to write an essay like that for 8-10 schools.

8-10 is a lot of schools. I applied to 4 and it was a lot of writing; I can't imagine writing 8 or 10 individualized essays (which your essays should be, since you're trying to tell the people who read it why you are interested in their program specifically and what you hope to gain from it). The more schools you apply to, the more your SOPs will probably slide into vagueness or you'll go absolutely crazy trying to write all the time. I would put an absolute maximum at 6 schools. There's no harm in reaching out to multiple people at each school, although you should have some sense of who you'd like as your advisor as you'll want to try and develop that relationship as much as possible. I was in touch with two or three faculty members at almost every school I applied to, and I think it served me well. Based on how intra-departmental politics work, it's good to have more than one person in your corner when it comes admission time. And I'm afraid I can't help you on the "Personal (Diversity) Statement," as I don't recall having to write one. My SOPs were the only essays required at the schools I applied to so far as I recall.

Hi Shaiya, You're much better positioned as an applicant for graduate school in the US than you think. You say: Getting ANY form of research experience is so hard in my country, because anthropology is still very new here and research isn't valued (it's all about going corporate). Tell them that in your statement. Explain that you want to attend graduate school in the United States because there are no opportunities for you to grow as a scholar in your home country. That's the important thing: you have the intellectual seriousness to want to grow as a scholar, and you've done enough to exhaust the options available to you (and you understand the social reasons why that is the case). Frankly, it doesn't matter that you don't have any publications. I didn't have any and I was accepted to 50% of the schools I applied to (a good rate), including the best program in my area of specialization. Professors are looking for students with intellectual maturity, a reasonable degree of focus (such as your interest in gender, sexuality, and religion), and seriousness. It has to be obvious that you're going to graduate school because you truly want to be a scholar, not because you don't really know what else to do. You don't have to know exactly what you want to do your dissertation on--you should change your mind in graduate school anyway, since it's a sign of growth. But you should be able to communicate what interests you, why, and why you feel this is important. The single most important thing you can do to help your application is to be in touch with your prospective advisor (POI in forum-speak). Reach out to them, explain why you're interested in the program, ask questions about it. Explain that you don't have much fieldwork experience but are eager to begin, and ask what sorts of opportunities are available for students. How many faculty projects are there that you could work on? What's funding like for fieldwork? Etc. To your specific questions: 1. Present yourself as a Pakistani interested in gender, sexuality, and religion. Say you've done research for coursework but fieldwork opportunities are limited. You've done projects on globalism, fundamentalism, and food. Explain how some of the projects you've done--even if it's online or library research--have impacted your thinking on the topics you list as your main interests. Etc. 2. Your research interests do not need to be streamlined. Mine are fairly sprawling. But what you do need to be able to do in the SOP is communicate what you're interested in, why it interests you, and why that matters. The one thing that will sink your SOP is vagueness or obfuscation. Be honest. Finally, it's not a bad thing that you have disparate research interests, it's an asset. New ideas and innovative studies come about when somebody connects things that not a lot of people think to connect. Gender, fundamentalism, food, and religion all intersect in a thousand ways all around the globe. Maybe you could look into how those things intersect in Pakistan--perhaps, even, how they intersect to limit opportunities for researchers such as yourself. Don't worry. You'll be fine. Your first step should be to look for scholars whose research interests align with your own in some way--somebody whose book you liked, or someone you see cited in literature you find interesting. Learn a bit about the departments where they work. If the program seems appealing, e-mail away.