anthroboy2010

OMG...ugh. Is Yale on Spring Break? This wait is nuts.

dude. seriously. we gotta PM about SOAS. it's a bomb ass place in regards to islamic law. hit me up.

call again. if you're freaking out about the department contact recognizing your voice, call another person (if you called the graduate secretary, try calling the director of graduate studies; she's really nice). the only good news: you're not alone. hang in there.

yea. Totally. What 3?

ugh. yes. Yale and Columbia. Anywhere else (nyu, duke), I just assume I'm rejected.

yea. Who knows how to feel about that email. I got it as well, even with a scholarship, however I can't help but feel like the subtext of the program is "oh, so close, yet so far." so, people will call it a 'cash cow' program (ie meant to generate money for the social science division, to possibly fund phd students, to which you and I are not), but the question if we/you should do the program revovles around 1. The goals of your degree (will you go for a phd next year, and what type of program prestige are you looking for) and 2. The shortcomings in your current application. For me, my GPA is low (below a 3.5), I do not have a background in anthropology, and I do not hold a masters degree. For an applicant like myself, it MIGHT benefit my application with a proven degree of academic success (eg a +3.5 GPA in a masters, with one more letter of rec). However, I gotta be honest. Funding is crap this year, and a lot of qualified people are being rejected left and right. Is funding going to be better next year? I wouldn't count on it. I'm 50/50 regarding the Chicago MA, but I got into a PhD program fully funded. so...it's very likely that I'll take the phd offer. What about you?

Literally got rejected a minute ago.

Who do y'all want to work with at Yale?

I've been in contact with the DGS and she said that they would have news very soon. I'd expect that we will hear this upcoming week, maybe as early as Monday.

from? when?

while I'm sure you're waitlisted, I did not receive a rejection notice either. However, if it was an indication of some secret possibility of waitlisted-ness wouldn't one expect there to be a string 'cornell reject' posts on the results page?

To be completely fair, I didn't apply to Berkeley's Anthropology department, so I have no actual investment in this discussion. It sounds like this "Ned" character did a fantastic job keeping everyone abreast regarding their personal application to the department and, thus, those individuals got their application money's worth. In fact, from the sound of it, Berkeley's department does a much better job than other institutions regarding keeping applicants informed regarding the process. I bet that in regards to generic e-mails that go out regarding admissions decisions, the University usually generates it and it is not the duty of the department to write such an e-mail/letter. Many departments receive applications and recommend (not admit) a certain set for admissions. I may be incorrect, but, in that sense, the department does not reject you as much as they do not recommend you for admission (which I understand is tantamount to rejection, but it is importantly not the same thing). It is my suspicion that the Graduate Division at UC-Berkeley is responsible for "rejecting" students. While this may seem trivial, it does possibly direct anger to a more appropriate venue (i.e. not at "Ned" of Anthropology, but at the Graduate Division at UC-Berkeley).

I'm not sure I agree with you. Clearly, paying an application fee does not entitle one to an admissions offer, however it does, in my view, warrant good applicant-department relations. In a sense, we're paying the department to review our files, entitling the applicant to a certain degree of candidness and respect. I feel like the poster on the forum was frustrated by the callousness of a link to a page saying "Applicant Status: Not Admitted," and the lack of, at least, a generic e-mail from the department generated a warranted amount of anger. It's hard not to feel like applicants are just fattening schools' wallets when we apply, as some schools do as much to minimize the interaction with the rejected applicants as possible. I'm with the Berkeley poster.

I was/am under the impression that, at least at public institutions and private ones relying on public funds, obtaining funding for international students is more difficult. Many admissions decisions hinge on funding, ergo international students might have to wait for the department to find a way to fund them (independent of the fellowships that are availible only to American students) or just not accept them altogether due to limited resources. I've had friends who were accepted to programs predominatley because they were granted fellowships from their countries of origin at time of application and, essentially, would not have to rely on their graduate department's resources.

boxboss, I love you. Also to the Chicago submitter who wrote "*chuckle* the short list isn't so short," I love you too. Humor is about the only way not to go insane in this process and I thank you both for making me laugh (assuming you're not the same individual).

What are you interested in/who might you want to work with? I'd love to give you any information, but it would be helpful if you were more specific.

hmmm, interesting. i'm not the berkeley person, but i did not know they guarantee funding for 5 years. I specifically did not apply to berkeley anthropology for fear of lack of funding at the UC's. I did find this on their website though: Incoming students On admission, the department nominates selected students for competitive university fellowships, including the Berkeley Fellowship, Regents Fellowship, Chancellor's Opportunity Fellowship, and Cota Robles Fellowship. Nominations are based on information provided in the standard Berkeley application for admission. These fellowships provide two years of fees and stipend, and non-resident tuition in the first year, and a commitment of two more years of department funding. The department also nominates students for other fellowships, such as the FLAS, based on the information in the application.

did you get a flas email from Chicago, as well? I just assumed everyone got one and, naturally, ignored it.

rock on! I'm dying to know what kind of questions they ask. good luck!

my new favorite in duke news is somehow duke (graduate school, not department) sent me an email to an email adress I give to shopping and porn websites. I double checked to make sure that I didn't provide the address by accident or that my computer didn't autofill it. Nope. It just so happens my @gmail username happens to be registered at hotmail. So BY CHANCE I checked my email to see when my amazon order was coming. And there was an email from duke sending me an update on the materials they have received. Does anyone else find that strange?

I suppose you can't call my story one of redemption just yet, but *raises glass* here's to optimism. Last year, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I want to study law, but without the whole 'professional-JD' thing." Having a background in Middle East-related academic research and languages, I mused that a PhD might be the only way to address law and society issues. It turns out that the "law and society" movement (yes, there was one) had its hand in one too many pies, ranging from Economics to Political Science, Anthropology to Sociology. Hmmm, which to pick? I pulled a discipline out of a hat: Sociology. Was it stupid to be so flippant in my selection of disciplines? Yes, so stupid I am ashamed to even admit it. 6 applications in: Princeton, Berkeley, Yale, Stanford, NYU, and American. 5 schools shot down, but I got into American. Victory! Victory? It just didn't feel right. My grand dreams of ascending to the ivory tower seemed so professional when I realized that American would give the methods, but not so much the academic cachet I need to luxuriate in my own, well frankly, awesome-ness. So, i went back to my advisors: Advisor: "You picked the wrong discipline. I could have told you that!" Me: "Uhhhh, Professor, why didn't you tell me that BEFORE I APPLIED!?" Advisor: "Sometimes, young Plato, we must find our mistakes to be the way to successes." Me: "Well, how about Anthropology this time?" Advisor: "Much much better." And there we go. 13 applications later, a new saga begins. I'll keep you posted with how it turns out. Again, my optimism keeps me getting out of bed in the morning. Then again, raising my glass is the only way I get through the day. Keep me posted and good luck!

So, as far as I can see, there's no thread specifically dedicated to the narrative side of anonymous result postings, at least for Sociocultural Anthropology. I just wanted to initiate a place where we can post our relative successes and failures (e.g. who calls for an interview, where we get in and what funding packages they might provide, where we get rejected), so that the rest of us can gauge whether we should be getting our hopes up or start burying our own grave. As far as myself, my thirteen applications have disappeared into the mist of the graduate heavens. I await the University gods to send me a prophetic message, as I am sure the rest of you are waiting as well. I will keep you posted, as I hope you all will keep me abreast on your journey through this awful awful period. Let the heads start to roll!

I know Duke (Anthro department) sent me an e-mail prior to Christmas, saying that the Graduate School offices never forwarded my writing sample to them. The e-mail i got in response to my e-mailing it in was that they wanted to get everything together so the faculty could review the application immediately after the holidays. I suppose by looking at the results from last year, it seems that Duke has a history of letting people know that they're finalists by the end of January (re: January 26th).