duran0

At least in the humanities -- not really. The only exception I can think of are language certifications (e.g. N1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

I think this seems really sweet and thoughtful. I gave presents to my undergrad thesis advisor and a few other mentors, and they all really appreciated it. None of them expressed discomfort at the idea. This seems like a gift that would be very much appreciated. Go for it!

https://www.wm.edu/offices/itpir/_documents/trip/trip_around_the_world_2011.pdf W&M's survey of IR scholars around the world. Problematic, like many other rankings, but will give you a ballpark estimate. PhD/Masters rankings are on pages 61 and 62.

Funding at Berkeley is really variable. Could be potentially as low as 18K, though the multi-year fellowships (Chancellor's, for example) are 27.5K. A good number of students apply for extramural fellowships (NSF, Ford, etc) to supplement their income.

Long-time lurker, but I needed to chime into this conversation and support dazedandbemused's account. This happens everywhere, even if you're in a city known for its rich activist history. Being a person of color (especially a queer person of color) can be extremely alienating. This ranges from aggravatingly racist ("Let's be real, the only reason we read genre fiction by Octavia Butler is because she's black") to uninformed ("My work on the global city has nothing to do with race"). This isn't to bash on my program; I feel well-supported by the faculty and I have a wonderfully kind cohort. But (micro)aggressions still happen. I always support having open conversations about difficult topics such as race and police brutality, because social change is impossible without dialogue, as difficult as that dialogue might be. Maybe, just maybe, a conversation will bring us to a space of greater understanding and empathy. But without trying, it'll never happen. This is particularly important to me because I entered academia in order to allow my activist and teaching spheres to overlap and mutually inform each other. My scholarship is community-engaged work, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

It's nearly impossible to predict the outcome of graduate admissions. I'm confused about your MA list, as I didn't think Yale or Harvard offered MAs in either American Studies or Anthropology. Furthermore, it is rarely advisable to take out massive loans for an MA in the humanities, and the name brand will matter less (if at all...) on the master's level. I would look at programs like Alabama or Purdue that have good track records of providing assistantships/scholarships and sending students to PhD programs. You should also consider places like UC Riverside's Ethnic Studies/Media & Cultural Studies, which is a great place to work on the intersections of music and culture. (See Anthony Macias, Ashon Crawley.) Good luck!