Meglet

Ugh. I'm compulsively checking my email and the results forum. Considering it could be at least another month before I hear back from some programs, it's WAY too early for this.

Wow, good luck with the interviews, guys!

I'm with FaultyPowers - married with cats, and in my earlyish 30s.

That's really helpful to know, and if I get in, I'll definitely contact you. Thank you!

I'm married and we have 2 cats. My husband doesn't work in a super lucrative industry, but hopefully we won't be totally poor. The cats and all our books make it difficult to share.

I really admire this approach. I definitely got irritated about the 750 word-limit, and Berkeley's 6 page writing sample. I sent them what they wanted, but yeah, it's not as solid as the longer stuff. I also got really irritated with this on the Ford Fellowship application - all the statements were limited to 2 double-spaced pages, and there is a LOT they ask you to address in each statement.

That sounds really cool. Good luck!

Berkeley is pretty high on my list, but I'm also afraid to get in because housing is so expensive in the Bay Area. There seems to be even less affordable housing available around Stanford. Anyway, I applied to sociocultural to work with Charles Hirschkind and/or Saba Mahmood. I'm interested in Arab expressive culture and embodiment, cultural appropriation, and postcolonialism. I listened to Rosemary Joyce's history of anthropological thought lectures on iTunes University, and loved her!

THIS is exactly how I feel. I guess I'll try again if I don't get in this round, but just at the moment I don't feel like I can handle this whole process again. And Daisy123, it's really hard to define 'too long'. The requirements for my applications were between 750 words and 5 single-spaced pages. Ultimately, I did 2 single-spaced pages for everywhere but the 750 words (CUNY). As long as you didn't go over the requirements for that school, I wouldn't worry about it. I think I'm going to send my recommenders a card, green chile (the state specialty), and cookies.

Mmmm, whiskey.

Duke isn't my top choice, but it's high on the list. My project is about the role of dance in Arab identity and issues of imperialism and cultural appropriation. What about you?

Speaking of Columbia, I'm thinking that maybe they, like Berkeley, didn't have the most up-to-date deadline information on their page the last time I looked. I had written down their deadline as December 3, and gave that information to my recommender who is submitting my letters while on sabbatical and relocating. I went to send him an email reminder that it's the next one due, and it suddenly says December 1. Anyway, I got my application in yesterday, so I'm not stressed, but...oy. I'm pretty sure Stanford also changed theirs recently, because I had down December 10, but now it says December 9 at 9pm. And Boston University says January 15 instead of January 2.

I sent all my applications in yesterday. Maybe it looks good to get (some of them) in early? Also, I just couldn't stand to look at them anymore, and if I changed something on a later one it was going to make me paranoid about submitting another application the other way. I should be more relieved to be done, but I just feel...empty.

I agree! Generally good advice, but confirmed my decision that Chicago would not be a good place for me.

Um, who ISN'T into talking mechanical cat puppets from the 90s? I've generally been working on my applications while babysitting after school online credit recovery classes, so that's my 'distraction' ("Miss, I failed my quiz, can you give me another retake?"). As for engrossing trash TV, Revenge and Pretty Little Liars. But once my applications are in, I have a lot of fluffy historical fiction on my reading list.

Yeah, I'm applying to Duke. I wrote to one of the professors and she said that I should write my SoP to appeal broadly, since it's a group decision. That feels a little challenging, since they so clearly favor very specific proposals.

I applied to Boston University for undergraduate in 1998, and this caused a 2 week delay in creating my account to apply. Their website insisted I must already have a BU ID number, but since I have NO idea what my email address was in high school (something at AOL?), I had to wait for their tech people to track it down and get access to my account for me. Love/hate technology.

I am SO sick of looking at all of my application materials. I'm hoping that's a good sign - that they're pretty much ready.

It's my understanding that questions within a section are weighted the same, but not all questions are weighted equally. You would both have gotten a medium-difficulty set for your first verbal (and math), and then how you do on that determines whether it gives you an easy, medium, or difficult second section. If you get yourself a difficult second section, it's going to get you a higher score than if you earn a medium or easy section. I'm not sure exactly how things work within a section - a medium difficulty section could still contain level 4 and 5 questions. I'm guessing either your boyfriend got less wrong in the first section, so was able to get a harder second section than you and earn a higher score, or the distribution of where you got questions wrong vs. where he got them wrong means yours were weighted differently. You can always ask ETS, but I hear they're not actually all that helpful when you ask for an explanation of your score.

NOWAYNOHOW, you can totally keep your list quiet - I was just throwing it out there because, for example, I didn't realize MIT had a graduate anthropology program until pretty recently (not that it's in any way appropriate for me). I'm not going over very much of what's in my CV, but I do have a few sentences about my MA dissertation and courses (since they're relevant to what I want to do and why), and a paragraph about the relevant things I've been doing since (studying more dance, teaching, discovering anthropology and taking a few classes) plus how that informs my career goals. I don't mention a lot of theory, except that I'm interested in symbolic anthropology, mainly because I feel like I don't have the background yet. I am really interested in theory, but I haven't had time to read much while working full-time+ and applying. The project I'm proposing does involve some of the theories and larger issues I'd eventually like to work on, but I'm keeping it very grounded in my previous work. Since I've only taken 2 anthropology classes, I feel like anything else will look unrealistic coming from an arts and area studies background.

Totally! I applied to MFA programs in lighting design my senior year. It's a good thing I ignored the state programs that were chasing me and didn't get into any of the more theoretical programs I wanted, because now I know that I don't want a life in professional theater. It took me until a year ago to figure out the discipline that combines all my interests and will keep me hooked for a lifetime.

Because Berkeley. And Oregon (which doesn't guarantee, but overall has a good funding record) actually has 2 professors that are a great match for me, although they are admittedly weak overall on the Middle East. They actually want you to get a professor on board with your project before applying, and one of them asked for my CV and MA dissertation a little over a week ago. If she's not into my project, then they'll be off the list.

I keep reexamining programs and revising my list. I'm now at 5 definite programs and 4 maybes. Since 2 of the 5 don't guarantee funding with acceptance, I'll probably aim for 7, but we'll see. I'm constantly changing my mind about where I'd rather go. I think 10 is plenty, and I wouldn't worry about considering programs just because their location is doable. However, have you looked at MIT, UMass, Brandeis, etc? There are more than 2 schools in the Boston area with anthropology PhD programs. I'm working on my application for the Ford Foundation, and the research plan part of that has been hard! I've also completely changed my approach to statements of purpose 3 times now. Hopefully I've struck a good balance now. My writing samples are done, my applications are started, and I'm waiting to hear back from a few POIs. I bounce between feeling like I'm going to get several offers and feeling like everyone's going to laugh at me. I feel both like I need more time and want to get this over with.

I doubt most adcomms will bother to look at your GRE essays - they'll probably just look at the materials THEY asked for, not the extra stuff ETS makes available to them. Don't we always hear about how little time they have to read our stuff? I don't think it will make any difference to your application.