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CultureOfIdeas

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Everything posted by CultureOfIdeas

  1. Where are those people? Where did they study? Who are their students? Who are their teachers? Apply to those programs
  2. Your numbers aren't what is interesting. My question would be why those particular programs? What do you want to do? Why the "Ivy Leagues"? Some of those programs are quite good. Some are pretty unexciting. And they are all very different. Certainly Stanford, Berkeley and NYU are all fantastic programs. But they too are very varied. I'd focus some time on narrowing what your strengths/interests are vs. the strengths/interests of various departments. There are some top programs not on your list, many of which have a lot of crossover with one or more programs you did list - Irvine, MIT, Hopkins, Chicago to name a few.
  3. I'm in a cultural anthropology program, but I think the previous poster's comments are solid. It's almost expected that you will deviate in some ways from the project you proposed in your admissions essay. What would be the point of coursework, seminars, colloquia and so on if not to help you develop and expose you to the ways in which professional anthropology is done? No one expects you to come in already ready to write a book, no more than they expect you to have an outline for it. Graduate school is, at least for us, about formation. I think the previous posters comments are on point regarding the difference between laboratory science and anthropology/humanities/social sciences - for us, it has always been made clear to me, we are here to learn, to change, and to develop the "touch" that's required to do the sorts of work we do. I'd be shocked if your project didn't change.
  4. I have a good friend who just graduated from this program - he had a great time and found it a valuable experience. I know that's probably not the sort of detail you were looking for, I'm not a policy person so I have no idea, but he's pretty sharp (we studied philosophy as undergrads together) so I respect his judgement.
  5. I agree with some of the statements above. At least in cultural anthropology, making a pitch about what it is you want to study is absolutely the most important aspect of the SOP and should be the overwhelming majority of the content, at least in my experience.
  6. If I were you, I'd so some research into the fields and see what people whose work you like are doing. Strikes me that you might be helped by learning a little about the methods of inquiry and modes of reasoning associated with the disciplines. What do you mean by "my research interests fall mostly into Anthropology" for example? The difference here is likely one not of content - the positum or object of the discipline - but method. One could certainly do research in "identity and music" in any of these disciplines, but you would be approaching it from very different perspectives (at least in this country, note that sociology/anthropology are combined in some other academy systems).
  7. In Europe, CV means more like Resume. Its not the same as an American CV.
  8. Depends on if i'm just "reading" a book or working with it - if its something I'm actively engaged with/used in my research in some way, I like to have a new copy so I can make notes, mark pages, etc without someone else's commentary. I also have always kept my books from courses in my field or related fields and I've actually managed to gather a quite nice little personal library so far. I hate buying books online (I'd much prefer a store so I can have that moment of seeing something NEXT TO the book I actually need and buy that too! the recommendations sites like Amazon etc usually make are either obvious or make no sense and are just based on the title's literal words or similar author names haha).. For me, books in courses are generally widely available so you can get them at any decent bookstore, its the books I use for my research that often poses a more significant problem, as they are usually old/out of print/not widely circulated. That's when it takes a little more creativity haha
  9. So we have a lot of office space, relative to programs at other schools - we're a small department and the first year office is pretty big (all the 1st years share it, but that is 3-5 people in a room the size of a medium classroom). However, I just went to visit my University's newly renovated trademark building (multi-zillion dollar, multi-year project) which has been the flagship of the University forever and houses the majority of humanities buildings and let me tell you I am SO jealous. They did such an incredible job I just cannot get over it. The offices, the workspaces, the sem. rooms. wow. Its modern, but timeless and classy. I haven't been there since I took a seminar in the basement of the building years ago when I was an undergraduate, and the difference in unbelievable. Maybe they'll redo all the other buildings to match (unlikely). At least we are building a new "Learning center" next to the library? I'm just going to go hang out in the new reading room complete with stained glass and dark, hardwood everything.
  10. General consensus seems to be that the most important thing is who you are working with - that is to say, in terms both of match and pedigree. Moreover, in the contemporary job market, it is becoming increasingly important to have studied at a top program in your subfield. Now, there are some important caveats to that; it's important that the departments strength is your area - so if you are a Christologist and the department is excellent but only has comparative religion scholars working in SE Asia it probably won't be much of a help, obviously. I'd follow the work though, if all the big name people in your subfield are in one place, that's generally a good sign, but also talk to your MTS faculty, i'm sure they can point you in the right direction.
  11. A lot of my colleagues and faculty spend a fair amount of time in the summers returning to the field, some go during the year, it really depends. In anthropology, at least socio-cultural, relationships with interlocutors during ethnographic projects often last a long time, and many times faculty will have an ongoing attachment to and relationship with the areas they study, so they may go back annually, semi-annually, biannually, it totally depends. Doctoral students (again, just speaking for socio-cultural) often spend extensive time in their field-site, often more than a tenure-track faculty member could afford to (years on end in some cases, depending on the situation).
  12. Unfortunately, these forums tend to die down a bit between application cycles but I'll take a stab at giving you a hand. One thing you might consider is looking at Museum Studies vs. Anthropology, as a number of programs have begun springing up in the former as the field tries to carve out an identity for itself apart from the social sciences with which it is so commonly associated. So I suppose the question is whether you are interested in something like the "anthropology of museums" or archeology or educational programming in museums etc... The #1 most important thing in narrowing down a graduate school list is, in my mind, figuring out what your interests are and where you'd fit in (this goes both for admissions and for choosing schools, as fit in one way or another impacts a lot of the admissions process, especially in the current economic climate). I'd start looking through periodicals and perhaps snooping around AAAnet.org. One you have an idea of what specifically it is that interests you, finding a program will be easier - follow the people train - say you find a book you really like, see where the author teaches, where their colleagues teach, where they studied, and so on. Certain schools have reputations for certain kinds of things, and as vast a discipline (or grouping of disciplines) as anthropology is, you will inevitably have to follow leads like this to find out the smaller community within anthropology that is involved with work that speaks to you. As for types of programs, you're talking about MA programs? Since many top anthropology departments are focused on PhD training, it is sometimes a bit more complicated to find terminal masters programs - this may be where a Museum Studies program or something like that could really benefit you, and many are in big tourist cities like Boston and New York. That all said, the New School has a great program, and there are others out there like it, so once you've narrowed down your field a bit, perhaps we can help guide you to them... Hope that begins to help....
  13. I don't know anything about their sociology program, but depending on your interests there are some fabulous anthro faculty at CUNY, at least in socio-cultural (I can't speak to the other traditional subfields, as I don't know much about them.) It really depends on what you are interested in more than anything.
  14. I found this while dealing with summer insomnia and this board might appreciate it....
  15. So with the remaining time before classes start up again, I've been looking for little things to work on a) to pass the time and to keep the excitement-momentum while finishing up some work on a manuscript....One thing I've been thinking about is grad students having their own sites/blogs - strikes me that a number of people have blogs on this site, but I'm somewhat nervous about putting anything related to my work/my opinion/social issues on the internet in that sort of setting. I know a lot of people have placeholder type sites too where essentially all that is up is a small CV, maybe some pictures of the lab, pubs list if applicable. Still others have more elaborate sites outlining specifics of their research. I'm leaning towards putting up a site with some short biographical info and maybe a pubs list, just to give me something to do. Any thoughts?
  16. So this would be my question about your application to anthropology, or anthropologically oriented projects....most admissions committees will probably be curious as to how you fit into their department and the discipline itself. There is actually quite a difference between religion studies, political science and anthropology, in terms of canon, methodology, the types of objects they encounter, scope, etc. I am myself a cultural anthropologist who is deeply engaged with history in particular ways but it is not a mere footnote to my research that this relationship takes a particular form - it is probably the greatest theoretical burden with which I am concerned. I suppose what I'm asking is: In what ways is your work "anthropological"? This is something that as a student with interdisciplinary leanings I bumped up against time and time again and I think it will be of serious concern for prospective departments. I think the reason it comes up is that when you are finished you will be looking for jobs in a discipline that will require you to be clearly defined in some way, that's the nature of academic politics - are you a historian who is interested in anthropology? are you an anthropologist who is interested in history? etc. You may well be aware of this, and already well equipped to answer this question, it was just the one thing that popped out for me. From what i hear from my colleagues, I think on all the numerical factors you stand in very good position among any applicant pool, but very often these are the less important of the factors determining your admissions decision. I can't speak for political science, but friends of mine in intellectual history (a department and field with which I often in conversation) say the same thing about history.
  17. I'm not, but I know a bunch of people who are (I was a JH undergrad and now grad student)
  18. Hey Maye - I know a ton of people @ Bloomberg - they all love it. Best of luck next year, maybe I'll see you around Homewood
  19. I just heard from Columbia - accepted to the MA program. Happily saying no (i didn't even know there was an MA track).
  20. I will be attending Hopkins next year - I'm very excited as it was my top choice, and the best intellectual fit for me. Apparently it's going to be a small class (waiting to hear how many others accepted offers). Sorry to hear about your funding - best of luck to all the others making decisions and looking forward to seeing you all at AAA etc
  21. anyone else? just noticed some soc sci/humanities people got in this week.
  22. Sure you can! you're still just a sophomore - everyone has ups and downs and ESPECIALLY before you find out what you want to do. PhD admissions is unlike professional school or college admissions in many ways and very often, you are given the benefit of flexibility in conveying your strengths. You can find a lot of information about what goes into graduate school admissions online - but again, you're still young and you still have time, make sure you explore lots of things, get your feet wet in different fields and see what you are passionate about. If you're going to commit to a long program like a PhD, I suggest you try out what it means to "do" anthropology as well. Talk to you advisor about some possibilities for exploring anthropology outside just your coursework. You will be fine I'm sure.
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