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RepatMan

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    United States
  • Interests
    Anthropology
  • Application Season
    2016 Fall

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  1. The short answer is, no and no. You really have very little time to conduct fieldwork (depending on your discipline and interests) and there is very little funding available for conducting work. The best case scenario is to have an adviser, outside of MAPSS, that has their own research project that you could participate in. In some cases, you can actually receive funding from profs as a Research Assistant to conduct certain kinds of work/research. I actually received two different Research Assistantships--the first paid me well and I did almost nothing for it, and the second did NOT pay me well but got me access to the places and people that my thesis ended up being on. I would immediately reach out to professors you've been in touch with for the PhD program to ask about RA possibilities with them. You can potentially find some when you arrive, but if you're concerned about coming in with a project this is about the only way you can do this, to my mind.
  2. I think the answer to your question is that this is a pretty amorphous concept, based in part on faculty's interaction with other grad students/programs when they were coming up and their experience seeing their peers placed and perhaps even in hiring themselves. Each faculty will have a different perception of what tiers exist and where different schools are placed. Often they'll have summary judgements about certain places just based on a person or two they knew as grad students or who are now faculty at that school. It also has to do with whether or not programs are able to fund their grad students and their research. I think asking faculty themselves how they see the tiers of the programs you've applied to. Like others are saying, this shouldn't be a determining factor, per se, however if you're hoping at all to stay in academia after you're finished check out the link above to get a sense of placements, they indicate you are FAR more likely to get hired in academia if you go to an Ivy or "top" program than otherwise.
  3. I actually had very much the opposite experience. My cohort (2015-2016) was very convivial and really a diverse, lovely group of humans. I had moved away from Chicago and on moving back, found that I have a wonderful community of pockets of friends that are often intellectually curious/engaged but in all sectors of the workforce of Chicago. There are those that are hyper-competitive in MAPSS, esp that are desperate to get into PhD programs, but only about 1/3 of the students choose to try to continue on into a PhD program. Many choose to enter the workforce, and those that do are generally not hyper-competitive. I've written about my experience in a few places on here, but mine was generally really positive, though the program is perhaps not worth it. If you have a great scholarship or have no qualms about funding an incredibly expensive MA, then it's a rushed but really powerful experience. Also, if you're dead set to get into PhD programs but can't get into them, this is a program with really good support and placement of it's MA students. But if you don't have a good scholarship, and you're not desperate to find another qualification or support to get into PhD programs, I don't think it's worth the steep, steep cost of admission.
  4. I would suggest speaking to Dr. Morgan Hoke at Penn about her work. She's primarily a biological anthropologist but Penn hired her specifically because the brings the two subfields together. She'll likely have a good idea as to who else to talk to if your interests don't line up with hers.
  5. Finally got word on Thursday of last week (Aug. 27).
  6. If anyone is checking this like me, please post when you have some info about this round of decisions.
  7. Congrats! I would say to first contact whoever your potential adviser is (outside of the MAPSS program) if you have a good relationship and start by asking them. If that doesn't work, then I would say you should write the program director, and CC whoever the program administrator is right now. Good luck!
  8. For anyone searching for this kind of information (this year or in future years), I just heard I was put through to the second round today.
  9. I know that in my case, it was much better to have a faculty member that wanted you there and was willing to contact the MAPSS director to ask for the best offer possible. My understanding was that a lot of students in my cohort (2015-2016) were offered 1/3 tuition waivers and that many of them negotiated to get to 2/3 waivers. Some were offered 2/3 waivers out of the gate. But I really can't speak to numbers. Funding in a program like that is a bit taboo for people that don't want to flaunt (or expose) their offers and make the scene more competitive. I can only speak really for close friends I learned about over time. That said, I do know there are people that are not offered funding, which I do not think is worth it at all, despite my positive reviews of MAPSS you can find in other posts.
  10. I received a full tuition waver and I know at least one other student in my cohort did, as well. When I received it, they indicated that 4-5 people get them each year and that perhaps each department can essentially ask for one, respectively. That was all very unofficial and I heard it through my PI at the time who is no longer there.
  11. It's generally considered unethical for PIs to review application materials. I wouldn't ask, but you could probably ask if they would allow you to discuss how you hope to lay it out or what you will discuss within it. Chatting with folks over skype or whatever is pretty crucial. Odds are that there will be a great deal of qualified applicants and normally faculty go to bat for those that they have confidence they'll like working with. So it would be ok to ask a PI or other faculty to chat to discuss your fit in the program, both academically and personally.
  12. I've heard on the grapevine that they were exponentially behind on things because of the shutdown. That they're not 6 weeks behind on apps, but potentially closer to 10 or 12. But that was very anecdotal, and also surely dependent upon the subdiscipline you applied to. I applied to Cultural, and haven't heard anything specifically about them, but what I did hear was coming from the Bioanth side. Take it with a grain of salt, and perhaps they're really putting in the work to get back on schedule, but I'm not counting on hearing for another couple of months (unless its an early cut).
  13. Re: John Jackson-- He's now the Dean of the Annenburg School for Communication, so he does not seem to be very available as a primary adviser, though he is on a few peoples' committees in Anthro. And he may be more involved in Communications, now that he's pretty much over there exclusively. However, in anthro, I'd suggest getting in touch with Deb Thomas (incidentally, his wife and a an absolute powerhouse academic herself) who has just started the Center for Experimental Ethnography, which has a bit of an emphasis at this point on multi-modal ethnography (esp. film) but she is hoping to expand it in creative ways. https://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthropology/content/center-experimental-ethnography
  14. Just so folks know, Penn anthro is making their decision as we speak. They'll be finalized and sent to the Dean today. The Dean is expected to approve those decisions by mid-week next week. I have really no info about how the wait-list is generated or whether they let wait-listed people know at the same time, but if you haven't heard from your primary contact at Penn by the end of next week, touch base with them. They'll likely have some insight for you one way or the other.
  15. @pmcol and @bonesandbakes, Penn doesn't require formal interviews, but usually does them when they need someone to be interested in something like a secondary adviser role (like someone that would be interested in advising the studying if the primary faculty member left) or when they're bringing people in off their informal wait-list. Not getting an interview doesn't mean much at this point, but I believe the department had the goal to make initial offers in the first week of February.
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