DanJackson

Ask those schools how much they care about GREs. If they reall care, apply to schools that don't care. Or even schools that don't ask for GREs at all - UMass Amherst doesn't ask for GREs, for example - and many in Canada don't either.

For what it's worth, I had mentors, advisors, profs - all tell me not to do a PhD in the UK. For those considering, make sure you really dig into the differences between North American programs and the UK, there are substantial differences ranging from how much training you get, relationships with advisors, and the value of the degree if you intend to work in North America. It can certainly be done and done well - and there are obviously great schools where you can do it, it's just a slightly different creature.

Totally agree, professors are BUSY. I've never had one say "you shouldn't have sent me a reminder." I always say "I hope you don't mind that I send you these reminders, I've been told it's helpfu, just let me know though if you don't need them." And for people I don't know well yet, I do send them reminders, but from my experience you shouldn't expect a reply any sooner than 2-3 weeks. That's why you have to start these conversations really early if possible and if not - when you write you have to inject some sense of "I know it's close to the deadline to be reaching out, but I just found your amazing work about X and it's just my thing so I hoped we could chat about it..."

Indeed, I think more than 4-5 programs is a lot. I'd also vote for putting all your effort into 4-5 that are a perfect fit for you. More time spent corresponding with POIs, fine-tuning research proposals, having intellectual email exchanges with others in the department, talking to students about the department and less time on trying to apply to as many programs as you can fit in. But that's just my strategy.

Ajtz'ihb's point about Paragraph 5 is a great one. I was applying to programs in the US, the UK and in Canada (coming from the US). Some programs require you have an MA and know exactly what you want to study, others don't. But this isn't only a division by country, it's also by institution. One great resource for seeing this in an example is to look at the samples that Duke's anthropology program provides for application statements. They are VERY fine tuned and tailored toward the research topic. You can download them here: http://culturalanthropology.duke.edu/uploads/assets/2011-2012GradStmts(1).doc From this page: http://culturalanthropology.duke.edu/graduate/faq Each school has an idea of what they want, which is even more reason to be in contact with them and just ASK. Ask your POI what successful statements look like - are they about your personal history of founding clubs when you were in high school or are they about the fieldwork you've already done while getting your MA - schools have very different new PhD student profiles.

When I applied to PhD programs I found Grad Cafe forums extremely helpful. I suspect that many of us do come back because we feel like we want to give back as much as we can to continue passing on what we’ve learned. I know there are many others here, like myself, who used Grad Cafe in the past and are now settled into our PhD programs. So, I just wanted to give a few tips from my own experience in case it’s helpful for others. This isn’t new information, it’s just what I found most helpful, you’ll find much of it repeated elsewhere and some of it might not apply. So, with that caveat… I’ll keep it short and answer questions, and hope this also encourages others who are already in programs to join in and add their thoughts. Finding a Topic/Theory/Approach/Region You can’t pick a program or a supervisor, or write a statement until you’ve figured out what you want to do. Not exactly what you will study, but what it means to you TO STUDY. Does it mean doing library research? Does it mean 1 year of fieldwork, 2 years of fieldwork? Do you want 2 years of classes? How do you want to do your comprehensive or qualifying examinations? 1 test that your department produces and gives to you? 4 tests that you design yourself? These details matter. You also need to know what area of the world you want to study and what kind of anthropology you want to do. Identifying a Program The programs you apply for might be limited by where you need to live because of family or a spouse, or what country you want to be in, or what the department specializes in, or where you can use a special scholarship. So first pay attention to those limits and find all the programs that fit inside that group of limitations. Next, within those programs you must identify the ones that have at least 3 professors that you REALLY want to work with. You need to be able to draw on more than one person in the department. One of them will be your main contact, your POI or your potential supervisor. But the others are important. You want several people to be excited about your application so that when the department sits down to look at the applications, you have more than one person arguing for yours. I did this by emailing everyone in the department whose work I was interested in. A simple short email that said where I was studying, what my interest was, what I liked about their work that I had looked at, that I was interested in a PhD in their department and then asked if they were accepting new students for supervision. Finding a Supervisor/POI Once you’ve emailed everyone of interest you’ll have a great sense of what your options are. Some will write back excited to hear from you telling you all about the program. Some will say: “Apply, I’ll see your application, and don’t email me again.” Some faculty really want to talk to you, some don’t want hear from you at all. Some will tell you to email the graduate student advisor in the department, some will send you to the web site. This will tell you a lot about their personality and about how the department works. You’ll quickly figure out whether you really want to work with this person for 5-8 years. If you develop a good correspondence with someone, keep them updated. Let them know you’re applying, ask if they’d be interested in seeing what you are writing for your statement. Sometimes they’ll offer to edit it, to give you sources to cite. Sometimes they’ll tell you what to say about particular things in order to improve your essay. All of these things happened to me. Don't forget to ask for email addresses of current students they would reccomend you speak with about what it's like to study there. Especially ones they are supervising. Then go over to Academia.edu and look up students yourself and reach out to them so that you talk to other students, not just the ones that they reccomended. I ruled out schools very quickly when I spoke to many students in a prestigious, highly ranked program and they were all miserable. Writing a Statement All of my statements were well received and resulted in offers to several fully funded programs as well as a few prestigious scholarships. I used a simple formula. Sure, you can try to re-invent things and stand out, but my opinion is that people on admissions committees are actually happy to find that you’ve followed a clear outline so they can more easily read through many essays. Here’s what I used. Same for all of them, but tailored to that specific program. I DID NOT simply change the last paragraph, the whole statement was written specifically for each school, based on the long email conversations I had with potential supervisors. Paragraph 1: First sentence saying briefly and straight to the point: This is what I plan to study, broadly. Second sentence clarifying and giving more detail Paragraph 2: The following scholars have looked at X, (citation, citation, citation). The following scholars have looked at Y (citation, citation, citation). Studies around the issue of X and Y have tended to look at them like this… (citation, citation, citation). Paragraph 3: However, this literature has not yet looked at how XY affects A, B, and C (this is where you insert your topic, from the first sentence, but in the context of existing scholarship, the point is to show how you want to contribute to knowledge). Paragraph 4: By looking at XY in terms of A, B, and C, I want to open up new questions about XY such as: New Question 1; New Question 2; New Question 3; etc. By exploring these questions my project will use theory D, theory E, and theory F in new ways to address XY through ABC. Paragraph 5: The University of (Insert name here) anthropology program is the ideal place to do this work. The department focuses on X and Y, and these people work on ABC, and their use of theories DEF are interesting because… Professor H’s work on A and X is relevant to my work because… Professor I’s work on B and E and Y is relevant because of the way she… While studying at University of (insert name here) I will draw on expertise in…

Just found out my university selected my application to be forwarded to the national competition for Vanier CGS. Didn't see a topic yet for the Vanier (http://www.vanier.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.html). So... anyone else applying?

Belleraphone - what are your interests? That will really determine the right program for you. You could go to a top-ranked program and if it doesn't fit with your topics of interest, your plans for your studies, and your plans for your life - then it might be the worst program for you. If it sounds strange to say that, keep in mind that it's also very important to match you with the right school because even if you have an amazing record and profile, the "top programs" won't offer you a place unless you are a good fit for the department. Being a good fit doesn't mean your GRE or your grades, but instead that they want to work with you as a colleague because of the work you are interested in doing, because of how you approach your topic, etc. So, first step is not to ask about the best program - but to find out what you want to study!

Look for people doing multi-species ethnograpy. That's the ticket. Read this: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01069.x/full And check out the resources here: http://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/277-the-emergence-of-multispecies-ethnography And look at this approach also: http://www.culanth.org/articles/745-witness-humans-animals-and-the-politics-of All of those will give you a sense of where, in my opinion, the most interesting work is going on in human/non-human relations. You can definitely find a place for your interest in ethics in there. Social movement studies isn't a bad idea, there's someone doing a PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center now who works on animal rights movements, but it depends on how you want to approach it. Do you want to do it with a political economy and Marxist approach? Then the Graduate Center would be good. I think you actually need to have very specific interests, not necessarily in exactly which topic you're going to do, but in how you want to approach that topic. Each department has their own flavor, and you need to know what you're getting into. It's kind of like a theoretical framework that the department tends to have - one way to find out about this is to email students in the department who are currently studying and ask them what it's like there. We did this when they applied and when they looked for schools, and we expect to hear from others when they're going through the process. Also check this message out, it was recently sent out on the Environmental Anthropology email list and might be an interesting place to start looking for novel ways to approach this topic. And it wouldn't hurt to get on that list serve as a way to start scoping out possible schools, supervisors, and topics (http://www.aaanet.org/sections/ae/index.php/listserv/).