ArchaeoGeek

The Buffalo News has a site dedicated to real estate and rentals called HomefinderExtra. As a lifelong Buffalonian I've never used it but it seems like a good place to start!

Oh, and I almost forgot, Anti-depressants are a MUST!

I'm going to sound like a bad person for this but, honestly? You're the one in the wrong, kwaugust. If you're relocating out of state while still working for someone that you know doesn't communicate over the phone or email then you need to find a way to be there in person. The onus is on you for this, not Professor B, because you're the one that was paid to do work you haven't done. If that means driving or flying back, changing flights or departure times, etc., then you should do it or just offer to pay back the money you got for the work you haven't done (and it seems like aren't going to do and won't ever do).

I'm not sure how to think about this application season, it's been such an emotional rollercoaster ride...At this point, I have accepted an MSc program at Durham in England, so at least I know what I am doing next year!    
I did get a place in a PhD program Stateside and have emailed my POI about deferring entry for a year,  but at this point I am torn, since they are offering no 1st year funding, so I may end up doing applications again next year as well...

Congratulations to everyone!  It's so great to see so many people getting into programs and being so excited about the beginning of their academic careers!  

So.... there are acceptances, waitlists, and rejections posted for UCLA. But I got nothin.
 
 
I think someone needs to teach graduate programs what the phrase 'process of elimination' entails...... if you didn't waitlist me or accept me SET ME FREE 

Also, to this poster from the results board:
 
F*&% you Columbia, and your archaic windswept halls of exotica.  
You made me laugh so hard that coffee came out of my nose at work and I'm mad at you.

WHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT? I got into UNLV! Yay! Letters are going out today.

AHHHHHHH I GOT IN TO AMHERST AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank god it's not just me...I seriously considered retaking the GRE, but I just don't have the math skills to really improve on what I already have--my quant score would probably only come up three or four points with the absolute best that I could do.  And my verbal section was good enough that it would also only come up three or four points.  It just didn't seem worth it, but of course now that I have submitted all my applications, I am convinced the departments are putting them all in the circular filing cabinet because of that stupid quant score!  
 
Should I start sending POIs emails about how much I like to bake?  WILL TRADE HOMEMADE COOKIES FOR PHD!!!

See...here's the thing about GRE scores.
 
This is my 3rd year applying. THIRD!!! And you wanna know what my GRE scores are? 167 Verbal, 162 Quantitative. So....kinda high. One of the POIs who rejected me last year said I had literally the highest GRE scores of all applicants to the program. Did it make a difference? No. No it did not. I have a feeling that unless your GRE scores are absolutely abysmal (as in, you typed in your social security number, mike-dropped, and then noped up outta there) you probably don't need to worry about the GRE.
 
Do any of the repeat offenders remember that poster from last year, who was a faculty member, who was ranting about how annoying it was when prospective students contacted them? It's buried in the archives somewhere, but they basically said that instead of telling applicants "you weren't good enough" or some other variation thereof, they would indicate that they were rejected because their applications were incomplete. I have a feeling that "your GRE score was too low" is just a different version of that. I don't want to deal with the responsibility of explaining why I rejected you, so I'm just going to say your GRE is too low, because you're gonna think that's some kind of auto-fail and it's easier for me that way.

Do you want to get a PhD? Is it worth it to go to a program without funding solely so you don't have to reapply and take the GRE again? Most people apply more than once to more than one place - if you're not willing to do that, maybe you should take a closer look at whether you really want a PhD.

Tiny rant: JUST SEND OUT NOTIFICATIONS!! SERIOUSLY, I KNOW YOU KNOW, JUST CALL! Okay, I'm done. I just keep looking at my list of silent schools and I may be going a little crazy.

Huge congrats everybody! So happy for
everyone!

To the brave poster with the NYU rejection, was your notification solicited? 

Also, do you guys ever think: what if we are somebody's fieldwork? 
 

HOORAY!!!    

How exciting for you!  Now you get to go Google all about the town you'll be living in, find the best coffee shop and the cool indie bookstores and all the fun stuff...

HOORAY!!!    

How exciting for you!  Now you get to go Google all about the town you'll be living in, find the best coffee shop and the cool indie bookstores and all the fun stuff...

Don't go there. Just don't. It'll consume your life.

147 here. All aboard the quantitative struggle bus!
 

Sorry to hear about the Toronto mix-up - that's seriously lame. I had a somewhat similar experience with UT and decided against them anyway because of all the schools I was looking at (including 3 Canadian schools), they were offering the least money. For some reason that I can't understand their stipend is $3-4k lower than other schools. Moving anywhere is a big expense. Moving across a border is even bigger.

But on the question of Canadian PhDs - they are just as good and sometimes better. I know it's hard to believe based on what they tell you, but there are a few reasons. First, they almost all require you have an MA before you start your PhD. This means the students are all starting at a more advanced stage - all the coursework, all the cohort relations, all the engagements are just more advanced because of this. Second, they grade much harder in Canada than they do in the US. No one gets above 90%, well very few. Most people get Bs. Grade inflation is so bad in the US that they have to use GREs to figure out who to admit because almost everyone applying for grad school has a 3.9 or higher. Most Canadian anthropology PhD programs don't ask for GREs.

Where Canadian programs fall short is what you might call professionalization. Canadian students in grad programs are often treated, but not always, like students. US PhD programs often treat students like colleagues. They have to because they make them teach over 50% of the courses. But the double-edged sword is that you end up in the US spending all your energy on teaching, whereas in Canada you're free to spend it on research and publishing (the things that actually get you jobs later). However, the flip side is that Canadian grad students are always told to publish in student journals and go to student conferences which is silly. US students are encouraged to publish in the same journals as everyone else (although there are a few student journals) and present at conferences alongside the faculty. So, on the one hand the US students get treated like professionals from the beginning, without being given time and space to develop that work. On the other hand Canadian grad students are given time and space to develop their work, but often treated as students. Of course there are exceptions and this will vary by department and advisor - but it's an overall trend I've noticed among my 'cohort' across US and Canadian PhD programs.

There is a world out there, beyond the borders of the US - there are teaching jobs in Europe, UK, and Canada - and elsewhere - on every continent. And there are barely any at all in the US. So this idea about US PhDs being the only one you can use to get a job is about 20 years old and no longer valid - mostly because there aren't any jobs in the US, because the university system is being dismantled. What do you expect when you spend most of your resources on the military...

I hope Toronto does admit you, and gives you an offer. If they give you 15k for 4 years, I would take it, as long as you feel OK about taking out a small amount of US Federal Loans to supplement it (which you can do while you're there, so file your FAFSA!).

But if they don't - I would recommend looking again all over Canada for your next round of applications - there are many incredible schools and programs - and there's lots of full-funding spots in Canada. Many US students are going to Canada for MAs (full funded) and PhDs now - no one wants 8 years of study and huge debt with no job prospect. If you're going to get a PhD in a world without a guarantee of a job, you might as well get it without much debt.

"...because really: who would reject an accept from NYU??"

I KNOW RIGHT?!??!?!    
 
And it's far too early to despair!   (And I say this as I frantically refresh my email inbox because ZOMGS SOMEBODY GOT AN EMAIL FROM NYU WHERE IS MINE?!??!)    

Hooray for Museum_Geek!!!  

Can you post the link to the NYU department calendar?

Hello everyone!
 
I was just sent a link to GradCafe the other day and finally decided to check it out...You all have no idea what it's like waiting when you don't have anyone to commiserate with about grad school apps!  I am surprised any of my friends are even speaking to me anymore, considering the amount of whining I've been doing over the past couple-three months!    

Sounds like Chicago has contacted everyone they want for interviews, so that's a rejection for me now (it was a bit of a pie-in-the-sky school anyway, so I am not terribly disappointed).  I am quite worried about NYU though...I'd been chatting to a professor there before I submitted my application, and she mentioned the average intake was 8-10 new students...I see on the board that there have been 5 NYU acceptances so far (possibly 1 fake?) so I am becoming concerned at not having heard anything...  
But congrats to everyone getting their acceptances so early!  It's really encouraging to see so many people getting into the schools and programs they've applied for!     
 

Nope, I'm not accepted yet, but you will definitely be in the program with a buddy of mine from here at IU!  Congratulations though!  Maybe we will meet in the fall!  *crosses fingers*

No offense, but please do not offer advice about an Masters degree when you have not even acquired one. Any hopeful MA/MS etc. applicants would be wise to ignore this paragraph. A Master's degree is not "almost always out of your pocket", nor is it "a big gamble worth avoiding". It may not be right for you, but your experience certainly does not warrant a normal distribution. To imply that you can "become exceptionally well read" on your own, and that it would equate to the benefit of a Master's degree, straddles the fine line between optimistic naivety and ignorance.

Yeah, you're screwed. I'm screwed. We're all screwed. Let's start a band.