annwyn

*funding *job market placement *structure of program to ENSURE job market placement (e.g. publications and conference papers built into program or am I on my own?) *fit with department/POI (I had a bad experience with this, don't want to repeat it) *do students ACTUALLY finish? *fit with my cohort, I've been lucky enough to meet with most of my prospective groups, and it has made a difference *will my family be happy in the new place? Can my husband get work? Are there good schools for my kids? After that it gets into stuff that I could live with for a few years even if I hated it. The weather has come up A LOT since I'm looking at a program in Minnesota. So that might be more of a factor than I am admitting.

First, ouch. Been there, done that and it isn't a great feeling. Just know that SO MANY of us got completely shut out our first application cycle. Next: what do you want to do? Decide what kind of questions you are most interested in answering and then tailor your future studies/applications to those questions. My questions were based around culture in the US, so I hit a wall when applying to Anthro PhD programs last year. This cycle, I worked on reining my questions to better fit Anthropology in general. But I also worked on getting clinical experience and worked with women's groups and applied to Gender programs and public health programs in addition to Anthro programs. That seemed to work. If you are especially interested in research that involves poplations outside of the US and western culture, I think I would go ahead and finish the Anthropology BA if it wasn't a financial strain. But, if my questions were focused on populations here, I wouldn't worry about the Anthro BA, and instead I would look for ways to strengthen my application in gender studies or maybe even in sociology. Present a paper or two at various conferences (sign up for these NOW while you still can get student rates!!) and look for work in those area of research. And I don't think I would necessarily do the MA. I did, and wished I didn't. It was a lot of money and it didn't do much but take up time I could have spent doing a PhD. Since PhD was always my end goal...the MA doesn't make sense in hindsight. But that is just my experience, yours might be different. Hope that helps. Sorry about the shut out. Try not to get too down about it, it doesn't necessarily reflect on your worth as a researcher or as doctorate material in any way. Good luck!!

Count me among those who are curious about the Irvine decision. I am particularly interested as an archaeologist I worked with in Cyprus went to UNC and told me about his choice between UNC and a top California school (I don't recall which school right now) but he said the UNC department was just so much more personable. Granted that was a few years back, but this same professor also warned me to stay away from the CA system as money problems were causing professors to look for other positions. He is a department chair at University in WA and said everytime they have an opening they get hundreds of applicants looking to leave the U of CA system. Wouldn't want to get stranded if your POI just up and left. :/

So that's everybody right? That has to feel awesome! Decision time!

I don't have any info on either school specifically, but drop-out rates are a huge deal. You don't want to get stuck in a program where (for whatever reason) you can't get done. I have some experience in this. My MA program was notorious for taking too damn long...I swore up and down that wouldn't be me...but it 100% was. I I just couldn't get any feedback on my damn thesis from my advisor, and I ended up having to change chairs TWICE. I was told I was too needy, but if EVERY time I brought my thesis to my chair I would have a conversation with my chair like he/she had NEVER discussed my research before...I didn't know how to move forward. If that makes me needy, fine. I guess I need a program that gives me feedback. ANYWAY. If it is a concern, contact each grad department and straight up ask them what procedures they have in place to avoid that exact problem. I did that with each of my accepted programs. The responses I got ranged from a well thought out plan/policy (which involved not only the staff but the grad students as well) to not having an answer to that question in any form. The programs that have policy in place to avoid drop-out or the ABD situation are a better choice obviously. Ask what the average time to completion of dissertation is. This might help you get a feeling for how well the program is prepared to make sure that you get your PhD. If after that, everything is still exactly equal, I'd pick Yale. Best wishes!

But limbo is SO NICE this time of year! *thumps head on desk repeatedly* In all seriousness, congratulations! You have some great programs to choose from, and that's awesome!

Having hit the "can't do cultural anthropology in U.S. wall" myself, I would encourage you museum_geek to keep your options open in regards to PhD programs. I struck out 100% last year because my project was US based (I want to look at the effects of healthcare policy on parenting practices in various populations). I received lot of enthusiastic responses from POI's but ultimately, there was this feeling that I wasn't doing anthropology. This year, I decided to apply to a variety of programs outside of anthro because I felt that what I wanted to do can be done using anthropological theory and methods, but under a program that will support my research. My most enthusiastic supporters this round have been public health programs. I am not super thrilled about leaving anthropology, but I am STOKED about having acceptances at top programs with awesome funding. I would say just put the idea in your head to look at programs outside of anthro and if you see a great fit, go for it!

Sorry to hear. Maybe I will get my rejection email today. At this point, I just want to cross them off my list.

I have two older girls that were small when I did my BA and had my son in the middle of my MA which was also the first month of my RA. I was stressed to death about having a baby right at the beginning of an NSF research position. It was fine. I had a great supervisor and PI, and that was key. In some ways being a parent to a young one helped me by FORCING me to extremely organized with my time. Here are some of my thoughts (some of it is repeated from above and not necessarily in order of importance. 1. Baby wearing! Find the one you love and use it. 2. Find the perfect mix of parent time and student time. If you can mix the two, great. If you can't, don't (which is also great). Just be honest with yourself about what works and be open to the idea that this is a fluid relationship that WILL CHANGE. What worked last week won't work this week, that's fine. Just keep options open for when you have to have student only time, which can be difficult. 3. Get a support network together now! Look into what childcare you need to have, I have always used an on campus daycare. It has been the best decision I could have made. The baby was close when I needed to nurse him, and it was less expensive than any other option. Find a parent group and work out friends you can call in emergency type situations where you just need a few hours to finish a paper or whatever. 4. If you can find an advisor who is kid friendly, do it. I can't stress this enough. You will have more to do than you can imagine and you REALLY don't need to be fighting your advisor in the meantime. I have seen students with babies and unsupportive advisors, and it isn't pretty. 5. Trust yourself. You will hear an amazing amount of advice. In the end, do what works for you and your little family, whatever that is. For us, we co-slept (got great sleep!) and demand fed and almost NEVER did laundry. It worked for us. Some of my friends lost their minds doing what worked for me, and I lost mine trying to sleep train. Bottom line: do what you need to do to get through. First year is the hardest (both baby and grad school). You can do it! And lastly, and probably most importantly...Grad school is HARD on relationships. Babies can be HARD on relationships. Be open with your partner now about your feelings, goals, needs, EVERYTHING. Talk about how you want to manage baby care and grad school responsibilites now, before the baby comes. Grad school is very demanding and a fairly selfish endevour (even for the most selfless person). A baby will intensify this. Be good to each other. Don't let things eat at you, and don't your partner do the same. ENJOY this time. As crazy as it is...it is amazing!! Best of Luck to you all!

Is anybody attending the admitted PhD students (Health Services/Policy) visiting day at U of MN?

Hi all! Just wanted to pop in (been kind of lurking on this thread) and throw out a congrats to all the acceptances!

Congrats Daisy123!! That's awesome!

That is my new favorite! My husband just started sleeping on the floor (back injury) so maybe I'll hear some good news this week! HA!

You can totally work and write at the same time. I did, many of my friends did. BUT, a few couldn't do it. My advisor said that writing is the one place most students will drop out of their degrees. His advice (which I found to absolutely true for me): write every day. Even if it's crap, even if it's just transitions between sections or chapters, even if it's just basically jotting down the broad strokes about what you know on your topic as if you were having a conversation without references or anything. Make a goal to write EVERY DAY. You won't, and that will be okay. But if your goal is everyday, and you write five days a week then you will be getting enough done to get finished. He called it overcoming inertia. I found it helped me to have a specific time of day that I wrote, and a specific space. Unfortunately for me, the time was usually midnight to 2 am, and the space was my living room floor...but I got it done! As long as you make time to write, and stick to it, you will be fine. I do better when I have to micro-manage my time because I'm super busy. If I have too much free time, I won't get my work done. So for me, a job helped me manage my time productively. But if you don't work that way, and you do better having a free flowing time schedule (and you don't NEED the job) you might seriously consider taking the summer to write and relax before fall class start!

All of this. Going to work right up to August while trying to reduce my household accumulation of total crap to a manageable size. I have three kids, so I don't have high hopes in the household reduction arena. I too am looking at 1500 mile move. I imagine that "pain in the butt" will be a wild understatement! But, if I can find time to relax and maybe read something frivolous, I'd like to see what that's like for a change.

While we play the waiting game... I just want to say I am so sorry I wasn't on here last year! You are all such fun and encouraging folks and I am enjoying getting to know you! I could have used some folks to commiserate with last year (all rejections...well one acceptance but no funding). If I had been on here last year I would already know some of you and Daisy123 we would have known each other BEFORE interviews!! Ahh well. I'm on here now. You're all cool. Carry on.

Thank you everyone for your replies! I appreciate your thoughts!

Looking at the results page it seems like that is possible (very spaced out acceptances). In previous years there are instances in there where people have acceptances in Feb from a program and then in late March more acceptances get posted to the same program. I haven't noticed any schools this year doing that...but it's still a theoretical possibility.

Hi! I unfortunately don't have any answers, but since I'm in the same boat, I'm hoping somebody comments! This could help me pick between different offers. Thanks!

Granted I am not from Canada, but I had this same problem when I started my MA program. I completed my requirements in the middle of August and started school in September with no issues. I had already been accepted and I just let the grad school know the situation. In my case they needed a final transcript that showed my degree before the start of class. I personally wouldn't worry about contacting all the schools to which you applied and would discuss it with the departments that you are interested in attending once they contact you. They may want to contact your current program to verify that you are on schedule to graduate in June. It shouldn't be a problem, I've known many a student in this situation. It seems to be less of a problem now that there are electronic transcript options. Best of luck!!

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!

Daisy, I'm SO excited for you! High five from another second year applicant!