(A)musing anthropologist

TV
I haven't been watching anything new on the tube lately but I'm a huge fan of Bryan Fuller

Dead Like Me-just bought the series off of amazon--waiting to start it all over again

Pushing Daisies- been re-watching this series for awhile now, I love how clever and avantgarde the world is (Lee Pace is just adorable in this show, Chi McBride is classic, Kristin Chenoweth equally adorable and Anna Friel ....I really don't understand how this show got canceled with a cast like this)

Fraggle Rock- picked up 2 dvds from target for $5 each, Jim Henson is the epitome of my childhood

Movies
Currently waiting for the new Alice in Wonderland to come out but I did see

Sherlock Holmes, which I enjoyed- although I thought it could have been much wittier

The Fall - another sort of adorable avantegardist flick I picked up from amazon

Amelie- ditto above (both are good for taking a mental vacation)

The Ugly Truth- one of my girlfriends brought me to her house specifically to watch it, not a favorite but good for a laugh, and reliving any awkward moments from the past

WOW, its like we are living the same life....
As a waitress in a small town, all of my regulars know about my schooling ups and downs (and most of them know my schedule... I think that gossip must be slow these days)....

most of the time I try to explain what it is I'm doing, but generally they are older (60-80yrs crowd) and I just let them ramble on about how I will be digging in the dirt, or playing with bones, and how so-and-so's grandson wanted to be an anthropologist but then had an epiphany that he wouldn't get anywhere in that field and decided to go to law school....it's a little depressing for me as none of these have anything to do with my sociocultural anth dreams....

I told one of my customers that I was applying to grad school (and where, and how much that might cost, and am I going to leave the restaurant? *gasp*, and what degree I am going for)
Stupidly I replied that I was going for my doctorate
this only elicited a look of confusion, as they exclaimed that "at least you will always have a job as a doctor"
I didn't bother to explain that I wasn't going to med school for my doctorate.....*sigh*

sometimes you just get tired of trying to explain your field and then trying to justify it to others (and yourself simultaneously)

My thoughts exactly. My boyfriend graduates pharmacy school in May. I told him that if I don't get accepted to grad school, I'm becoming a male housewife. Seriously, I don't want a real job.....

I stupidly sent in my applications early (not really early, but about a week to a month before the various deadlines) thinking that if I sent them in early, I would hear back from my schools a little earlier......JUST KIDDING! Apparently that is not how grad schools do business, as I am still waiting to hear ANYTHING from ANYONE. And yes, I made the mistake of telling everyone that I was applying to grad school (as they wanted to know what I was doing with my life since I graduated in December), and now I have to tell everyone that I haven't heard anything, its almost embarrassing.

So I lift my glass to March, you damn well better come in like a lion, roaring my acceptance (to at least on school) at the top of your lungs, and leave like a happy and content little lamb that just dropped off a giant fin aid package at my feet.

HEAR HEAR! cheers all

For anyone anxious about the prospect of rejection:
Not getting into Academia is not necessarily the end of the world; on the contrary, it can be the very opposite--the perfect chance to get out in the 'real world' and do stuff!

Here is a short-list I have compiled (cherry picked form a much longer list) of awesome people who dropped out of high school or college. (I have starred the best ones.) What's more--it's alphabetized! :

Ansel Adams, photographer. Dropped out of high school.

***Woody Allen, screenwriter, actor, director, and producer. Was thrown out of New York University after one semester for poor grades. Also dropped out of City College of New York. As he admitted, “I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics final. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me.”

Julie Andrews, Oscar-winning actress, singer, author. Dropped out of high school.

Lucille Ball, actress, comedienne, producer. Co-founder of Desilu Studios. Late bought out her husband's share to become the first woman to own and run a production studio. Dropped out of high school.

Irving Berlin, Oscar-winning songwriter, composer. When his father died when he was 8 years old, he had to work to survive. Wrote such long-lasting hits as God Bless America, White Christmas, There's No Business Like Show Business, etc.

***Carl Bernstein, Watergate reporter, Washington Post. Never finished college. Started as a copy boy at the Washington Star at the age of 16.

William Blake, poet, artist. Never attended school, educated at home by his mother.

Peter Bogdanovich, director, screenwriter, actor, author. High school dropout. Began studying acting with Stella Adler when he was only 16.

***Ray Bradbury, science fiction author. Never went to college. “I never went to college. I went to the library.”

***George Carlin, comedian, author 4-time Grammy winner. Never finished high school. As he noted, “The fact that I didn't finish school left me with a lifelong need to prove that I'm smart.” He also noted, “When you're a dropout and the culture accepts you and begins to quote you and teach your stuff in class and textbooks, this is my honorary baccalaureate.”

Winston Churchill, British prime minister, historian, artist. Rebellious by nature, he generally did poorly in school. Flunked sixth grade. After he left Harrow, he applied to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, but it took him three times before he passed the entrance exam. He graduated 8th out of a class of 150 a year and a half later. He never attended college.

Leonardo DiCaprio, actor. At the age of 14, he signed with an agent and began doing commercial work as well as acting. He complete high school with a tutor, but put off college. As he has noted, "Life is my college now." *(GREAT QUOTE!)*

Charles Dickens, bestselling novelist. Elementary school dropout.

***David Duchovny, dreamboat alien-hunter, Duchovny earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and also earned a graduate degree in English Literature at Yale University. While at Yale, he began commuting to New York to study acting and was soon appearing in off-Broadway plays. In 1987 he abandoned his doctoral studies at Yale to pursue acting full time.

William Faulkner, Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning novelist. Dropped out of high school after his second year. Also later attended but dropped out of the University of Mississippi.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist. Dropped out of Princeton University.

***Benjamin Franklin, inventor, scientist, inventor, diplomat, author, printer, publisher, politician, patriot, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Home schooled with less than two years of formal education.

Barry Goldwater, U.S. senator and presidential candidate. He dropped out of the University of Arizona after one year to take over the family department store.

Kelsey Grammar, actor. Attended Juilliard for two years but was kicked out for poor attendance. Went on to acting success in Cheers, Frasier, and Back to You television shows.

***Cary Grant, Oscar-winning actor. High school dropout.

William Randolph Hearst, newspaper publisher and movie producer, was thrown out of Harvard for poor grades (apparently due to heavy partying).

Patrick Henry, Virginia governor, revolutionary patriot. Home schooled. Later studied on his own and became a lawyer.

Andrew Jackson, U.S. president, general, attorney, judge, congressman. Orphaned at 14. Home schooled. By the age of 35 without formal education, he became a practicing attorney.

***Peter Jennings, news anchor, ABC's World News Tonight. Failed the 10th grade. Left high school at 16 to work as a bank teller. He later attributed his failure in high school to boredom and laziness.

John F. Kennedy, U.S. president. He dropped out of Princeton University in 1935 but eventually graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1940.

***B.B. King, blues musician, songwriter, and legend. Never finished high school. “I have two laptops. I didn't finish high school, so one is my tutor: I buy software on things I don't know. I write music with the other.” (People magazine)

***George Orwell (aka Eric Blair), author of Animal Farm and 1984. Instead of attending university after graduating from Eton, he joined the Imperial Police and worked in Burma. When he returned, he worked in restaurant kitchens, slept in homeless shelters, and eventually documented the condition of miners. All the time, he was writing reviews, essays, novels, and a regular newspaper column. His Animal Farm has sold more than 10 million copies.

Sydney Pollack, movie director, producer, and actor. Skipped college and enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied under drama coach Sanford Meisner.

Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. president. Attended school only for a few months. Was tutored at home.

Carl Sandburg, poet, historian, Pulitzer Prize winner. Had little formal education but later attended Lombard College and graduated.

Leo Tolstoy, count, novelist (War and Peace, Anna Karenina). Dropped out after three years at the university.

Harry Truman, U.S. president. Never went to college.

***Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), printer, riverboat pilot, prospector, newspaper reporter, humorist, bestselling novelist. Left school a year after his father's death, never went beyond the fifth grade. Nonetheless, he still wrote the first great American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.


___________________________________________________________________
**a note on Albert Einstein**

Albert Einstein's education and early career has gone through rough patches and moments of uncertainty.
Try to remember that life is a long journey, and thinking "life is over" because you fail to get into a specific programa at specific time in your life is quite myopic.
At any rate, (depending on your field and the type of resources you need) you don't need to belong to an institution in order to continue your work. Read below:

What sort of education did Albert receive?

Albert Einstein began school in Munich, but does not seem to have been particularly interested in what was offered there. Failure of the family business, when Albert was 15, caused his family to leave Munich for Milan. He stayed there for a year and then moved to Switzerland, where he continued his education at school in Arrau. Einstein hoped to become an electrical engineer and, at the second attempt, enrolled at the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zurich in 1896.

It seems that he continued to show little respect for his teachers, as he was not a regular attender at lectures. He spent considerable time studying physics on his own. Despite the lack of time in lecture halls, he graduated as a teacher of physics and mathematics in 1900, but was unable to obtain a post in the university. It has been suggested that he had not impressed his professors enough, which is perhaps not surprising, given his attitude, and so did not receive their all-important backing for an academic career.

What did he do next?

Albert Einstein became a temporary teacher of mathematics, first at the Technical High School in Winterthur, and secondly at a private school at Schaffhausen.

In 1902 he began work at the Swiss patent office in Bern as a technical expert third class. He remained there until 1909, having been promoted, in 1906, to technical expert second class! He married Mileva Maric, by whom he had two sons, in 1903. They later divorced.

During his time there, Albert Einstein devoted a great deal of his spare time to the study of theoretical physics, and in 1905, received his doctorate for a thesis entitled On a new determination of molecular dimensions. He also published three important papers on theoretical physics.

If I'm allowed to take things back in time for a bit, I'd suggest you try two Hitchcock films: North by Northwest, which is one of my favourites, and Vertigo, which I'm about to use to dull the pain of my first rejection! I'd also suggest Goya's Ghosts, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, The Counterfeiters, and, of course, the final final cut of Blade Runner. *sigh*.

Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if I didn't have such wonderful taste.

Good luck everyone.

Goat farmer in Jamaica.

I just want some war wounds before I bow out of the system. Plus, it'll give my cantankerous rants so much more authority when I'm a crotchety old curmudgeon.

Just kidding, sign me up for "professor at Stanford" too.

I'm also hoping for professorship. Working for an organization that would let me do anthropological research full-time, esp one with an activist bent, would also be great. If all else fails, trophy wife.... nah, I'm pretty sure I couldn't pull that one off!

I think...you...misused ellipses...or...at least maybe...overused...them....

How in...the world am I...supposed...to read...that...?...

-William Shatner

If life were perfect, here is how it would (or rather should) play out for waiting grad applicants:



1. Thunderous applause on joining any internet forum related to applications
Whenever a new user wonderfully announces themselves that they have been lurking a long time and just now mustered up the courage to join and post something. They should be given standing ovation. A bouquet of flowers should be promptly dispatched along with a box of chocolates. A reminder pamphlet on how to "Not Seek Comfort in Food and Chocolates while you wait" should be supplied too.

2. Intelligent Application Systems
With so many working in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence (including this author), it should be so not difficult to provide instantaneous chances on the application forms. You just put in your GPA, GRE, Undergrad grades, Grad grades, and the system should give you your chances instantaneously. Responses could range from "What the heck are you thinking applying to this school?" to "Congratulations you golden child you" or even "You are the ring bearer, the chosen one. The prophecy is fulfilled. Gandalf will be with you shortly" (the last one might be very appropriate for Yale).

What do I hear? -- What about SOPs and LORs? Well, for all the candidates the hefty application fee should be used to send them an embossed copy of their SOP via mail. In case, an applicant is rejected due to an LOR, the name of the recommender should be printed in big black letters and given back to the applicant with the title - "He/She is the one who destroyed your dreams --" (Bonus points, if the application system even puts in the recommender's address and office hours.

3. Free Psychological Counseling at Applied Schools
To cope with waiting, all candidates should be referred to school's doctors (or even students pretending to doctors) -- the applicants feel they get therapy and the school can secretly use this as a tool to weed out the sociopaths (You know them - the kind who lurk around in the University Library toilet just a bit longer than necessary! -- I mean they are losing valuable school time which could otherwise be spent on research!!)

4. Student Carolling Season For Professors
January/February should be declared by universities as official carolling season. Groups of graduate students/applicants should sing in front of every admission committee professor's office, classics such as: "Don't forget you were once a grad student.. Fa La La La..la la la. Read the application carefully... Fa La La La..la la la." "I am dreaming of full funding... with summer support to boot".

5. Empathetic Rejection Letters
If the school is rejecting the applicant, then the school should make it amply clear how much they regret that decision. Statements like these can be helpful -- "You were forever and ever our first choice. We even had dreams about reading your application. Unfortunately the other candidate had to be admitted because they are connected to the mafia and holding our families ransom. We appeal to your benevolent nature to forgive us this time." or "OMG, the other suckers on this committee soo totally voted me out. I quit the adcom meeting over you and I am even leaving the university to come and work with you. Don't worry we'll manage something together. It is their loss after all. Your Best Bud xoxoxo POI"


Think of any others? Just add them on.

(BTW, I am just another nervously waiting grad applicant like everyone else over here. Sadly, not one experience sets me apart from anyone else in this forum - but hey at least we can all have a good laugh about it? :-))

The object of the game is to get as drunk as possible so you don't really care once the rejection e-mails start to roll in.

Take a drink every time...

A science program shows up, and you remember that you are in the humanities.

Someone posts an "Other" about a mass e-mail.
...two drinks if you received that e-mail as well.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program your heart skips a beat.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program you check your e-mail/voice mail on reflex.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program you run to your mailbox to check for snail mail.
...two drinks if it's Sunday.

A program that you have applied to shows up as a rejection, you have no new e-mails, and you just get even more nervous.

A program that you have applied to shows up as an acceptance, you have no new e-mails, and you want to die inside.

You bookmarked the RSS feed for just the programs you applied to.

You bookmarked the RSS feed for programs you wish you had applied to, so you can torture yourself if you Would Have Known earlier.

Someone posts a rejection with a note expressing bitterness.
...Two drinks if it's, "Their loss."

Someone posts that they received a notification a program is accepting only one applicant this year.

Someone posts a result from a program without rolling admissions whose deadline has not yet passed.

There is a forum post asking, "Who posted this result?"

There is a results search listing that asks, "Who posted this result?"
...Two drinks if it asks for GRE and GPA.

You are waitlisted at a program, and someone posts they were accepted there but are turning it down.

Someone posts a result for a subject you have never heard of.

Someone posts a result for a subject you are fairly sure does not actually exist.

In this spirit of sharing (and shared suffering), here is a copy of the e-mail I received from Cornell (made anonymous, of course)

"Dear Mr./Ms. X

We are currently considering your application for graduate study in anthropology at Cornell. You are on our long list and if your [X language] still needs improvement, it would enhance your chances of admission to apply for a FLAS fellowship in [X language] for next year, which will provide you with a year of support and allow us to spread our resources more widely. It is not a difficult application, and you can download the forms from the Cornell Institute for European Studies web site: http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/Europe/funding/flas.asp. While the deadline to get it to us has passed, it will be all right if you get it in no later than Thursday (Jan. 28). Please send it directly to the Anthropology department. We can use the letters and transcripts from your Anthropology application.

Thanks, and hope to hear from you soon."

My first reaction was mixed/confused, though my adviser tells me its a very good thing, and that I've gotten past the first round. No clue though whether admission is somehow contingent upon receiving the FLAS, or whether they already want me and see an opportunity to accept someone with potential outside funding for a year. No guarantees either way of course.

What about the applicant who already heard from their potential adviser at Berkeley about being on the short list? I want me one of those.

PS- some inside scoop from Chicago: They have 11 spots for a pool of 286 applicants. This year, rather than accepting ~40 and expecting a yield of a third, they're only accepting as many spots as they have funding for and going down the alternate list when anyone declines. Acceptance or alternate list status will be out no later than February 20th.

Ayayay, the funding you receive helps to rank you compared to your peers, which (along with the school/department/advisor reputation) goes along way towards establishing your own reputation as a new PhD. A lack of funding means either that you were uncompetitive (bad) or that you were researching something not worth funding (also bad). A year or two self-financed is not a big deal, as you may have been undervalued going in or perhaps RA funding got cancelled, but if you self-finance the whole way it just looks bad. Unless you're rich. At the end of the day, good funding tends to be a resume booster and bad funding doesn't really hurt you that much in finding a job.

But.

I generally do not recommend self-financing a grad degree for more than a year or two just because it is bad financial planning. Most grad degrees do NOT pay themselves off - this is why it is so important to chase something you love, because it may well cost you a lot of money. If you self-finance it gets even worse!!

For example, let's compare 3 engineers at my company. The first goes in with a BS, the second goes in 2 years later with a masters, and the last goes in 6 years later with a PhD. The numbers involved accurately reflect numbers typical for my company.

Engineer A makes $60k, $63k, $71k, $74k, $78k, $87k, and $91k in his first 7 years, with 5% raises most years, plus promotions with 12% raises in years 3 and 6. During this time he can take advantage of night classes and tuition reimbursement and get a part-time masters in 2-4 years, but for the sake of simplicity, lets assume he doesn't. He can never get a job in academia, but is hirable just about anywhere.

Engineer B makes $72, $76k, $79k, $89k, and $93k in his first 5 years, with 5% raises most years plus a promotion with 12% raise in year 4. At this point he is making $1-2k more per year than Engineer A, who has a $120k head start from his first two years. If Engineer B had a $30k funding package while a grad student, he will make up the lost equity in about 10-30 years, otherwise he will never make it up before he retires. He can get a poor job in academia or research, which makes him more versatile, but his specialization in grad school now limits the companies that will hire him. Why would someone hire an antenna specialist at a premium if you design control assemblies?

Engineer C makes $90k his first year, at which time A and B are making $91k and $93k respectively. Since he is already behind, he will probably never make up the $300k-$400k head start of his coworkers unless he is promoted much more advantagously in later years. On the bright side, senior technical positions do generally go to those with a better academic background, but, on the other hand, well-paying management jobs rarely do. On average, call it a wash. So the cost of that PhD is probably around $300k less any assistantships or fellowships earned during that time. He is now eligible for the handful of TT professorships out there, along with a bunch of crappy non-tenure academic jobs, and is employable in only a few narrow slices of private industry - if he gets laid off, he may go unemployed for quite some time or accept a substantial pay cut to switch specialties.

Anyway... don't pay for grad school, and if you do don't think you're getting it back.

Dear School.

I know you've told me not to write or call, that you needed time to think things over...
What happened? School.. Where did we go wrong??
Even before I met you, you wooed me with your promises of happy futures together. Do you remember, school? Do you?
I do. You used to make it sound so easy. You even set up an online system for me to apply, so you could receive my letters faster. Like you couldn't wait to read them! Was it all a lie?
And then... Then, you started making demands. Asking me for more transcripts, more test scores. Money even!! I spent all I had on you. School. ... I LIVE IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!!!
But did I ever blame you? Did I ever say anything hurt you?
Yes. Yes, I might have written other schools. But at least I was honest. I told you! I told you as soon as you asked if there was someone else! I gave you a list, School.
And now, this silence. Where are you now, School? What are you doing? Are you reading someone else's SOPs? Letting yourself be charmed by their heavily revised writing style, their overblown rec letters, their stellar scores? Can't you see that none of it matters?!?? Because I'm THE ONE. I'm the one, School. And you know it.
And I know it too. That's why I sit here, night after night, waiting for you to call and tell me you want me, like I know you do.
You have cost me my rent, my friends and my dignity, School. While you are out ogling other applicants, I could be doing the same with other schools, but I don't! I don't because I WANT YOU!
And you may think I'm needy, and weird, and obsessed.. And you might even call me a creep if you knew that I spend most of my time on your website, looking at pictures of your exes, and trying to picture my head on their bodies, mentally photoshopping myself into pictures of us together... But that's just because I know we're meant to be, School.
So please. Pick up the phone and call.
I'll be waiting.

Yours.

m