farflung

I mean this in the best way possible: yours is not an esoteric (and thus difficult-to-fit-into-grad-school) topic by any means! The intersection between gender, migration, and labor is hugely important in anthropology and I think will appeal to many scholars across regions. Most research universities w/ a big Socio-Cultural Anthro contingency have one or more scholars working in each one of the areas you've descried (gender studies, migration studies, labor studies, South Asian studies). Think broadly about who may take an interest in your project. Specifically, I would recommend looking into programs at UC Berkeley, Brown, Cornell, Oregon, and Nevada. Many universities have South Asian studies centers and/or Population Studies centers (relevant to the issue of migration), so look for schools with those kinds of opportunities and see which anthropology faculty are affiliated with them. Obviously it will be difficult/impossible to find that one person working on South Asian male migrant workers in Malaysia, but grad school admissions is more about a broad fit into the department than an exact replica of a faculty member's project. You'll be fine!

Hm... we're already 3-4 weeks removed from the panel dates and still nothing. I'm hoping no news is good news?

Hello! I am curious if any current NSF graduate research fellows have experience applying for the NSF Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) or have plans to apply this winter or spring. I am eagerly awaiting the schedule for the informational webinar they have promised, since the December deadline is coming up quickly. Here's my issue. I've scoured the new Dear Colleague letter and the GRIP website. However, I'm having trouble locating GRIP opportunities on the websites they link to. Is anyone having the same problem? For example, the EPA link they provide just brings you to the EPA website, with no information about specific projects that GRIP grantees could tack onto. I'm just really confused about how to find a GRIP internship opportunity when there are so few available and none of the agency websites are updated. Help please!

It sounds like your experience in Kenya & E. Europe will help your case for admission into a PhD program in Anthro, so definitely talk about it. No need for a "I'm finally in a place to pursue more education" statement -- your gap between undergrad & grad school is only 3 years. It may seem like a long time, but that's about average (maybe even a little below average for my program), so it's nothing to worry about or address head on, unless you are asked about it in an interview (unlikely). There are some general rules of thumb about what work experience you should include in your SOP. First, ONLY talk about experience that is immediately relevant to your graduate school research plans (i.e. since I graduated from XYZ university with a BA, i learned a language, i've been working alongside people i hope to one day study, etc). No need to talk about your experience as a line cook, unless it's relevant to your project or you think it supports your case for admission in a concrete way. Many people don't do ANYTHING related to their research between the BA and grad school -- this is totally normal. You shouldn't under any circumstance say something like "I haven't been doing much of anything since getting a BA, but now I'm ready!" Only talk about your "gap" between undergrad & grad school if it's exceptionally long (8+ years), and only in positive ways (I have tons of experience doing ____, which means I'll succeed in graduate school because _____).

Oh! One other crucial thing I thought of. What to do in your situation (go do your research right away even if it means spending your own money OR delaying going to do research until you get a grant) depends on your career goals. Do you want an academic career? If so, you should really fight to get a major national/international grant. It's kind of a pre-requisite to a tenure track position (at least in Anthropology - although major grants are ESSENTIAL to getting tenured academic work in almost any field - see anything Karen Kelskey writes). This may mean delaying fieldwork for a semester or two if you can afford to do so. But, if you don't want an academic career, and therefore don't need the prestige of a major fieldwork grant, I would vote you just go ahead and start your research anyway (unless you'd go into debt). Finish the PhD sooner!

I think that you're asking mainly about national & international fellowships. However, at most research universities, there are MANY pre-doctoral fellowships offered by interdisciplinary centers on campus, which you apply for either as you're applying to the grad school OR once you're a current student. I noticed you're in the process of applying to grad school now. So, you should research if prospective universities have interdisciplinary centers focused on things like Development Studies, Women/Gender Studies, Latin American Studies, International Relations, etc. that offer pre-doctoral fellowships you might apply/qualify for (usually these fellowships relieve you of teaching, perhaps offer more money, etc.). Some graduate schools and departments offer pre-doctoral fellowships (again, usually relieving you of teaching) to certain students, based on merit or other factors. There are tons of ways to be "on a fellowship" while in grad school, even if you're not successful in one of the big international/national fellowship competitions like GRFP and Ford.

Yes, I definitely know what you mean about getting a project fully fleshed out a year+ in advance of fieldwork / candidacy exams. It's kind of insane. Are you in an anthropology program? How did you learn about the Wenner-Gren? If you're an Anthropology PhD student, it would be shocking to me if your professors and classmates haven't been talking to you about the Wenner-Gren, SSRC, NSF, and other major international fellowships that you need to apply for to get fieldwork funding & rapport in the field of anthropology. Most everyone who goes through an Anthropology PhD program applies to several or all of these major grants, often through multiple cycles until they win one of the grants (for prestige and money). Many Anthro PhD programs have established grant-writing courses in the 2nd-3rd years that facilitate this process. In my (and other) programs it's expected that all Anthros apply for the Wenner-Gren. What to do in your situation is hard to say! By spending "your own money" do you mean your fellowship money (like a salary you receive from the university)? That's how I'm currently paying for my research. But it's not my savings or anything -- it's my normal salary, and I'm using it to live abroad. It sounds like perhaps you have no funding assurance from your university next year to do your research (as in they won't pay you a salary to do research abroad), which complicates things. Are there opportunities to apply for fellowship year through your graduate school / an area studies center at your university / etc? What have other people in your program done in order to complete their dissertation fieldwork?

Go with B. Prof vs. post-doc does make a difference -- I've always been told to use/solicit letters of rec from the highest-ranking professor possible (who still knows you and your work -- and it sounds like person B does). They have more experience writing letters, and a more secure title & name recognition. Also, are you sure that person B's letter talks exclusively about your classroom performance? It seems like for this kind of fellowship, the prof would logically write about your potential to do future grad-level research as well.

Good question. In my experience it's definitely ok to start your research before July 2016. Your project, your timeline. HOWEVER, I don't think Wenner Gren will fund anything you do before 7/1, so you can't expect reimbursement for travel/living/research expenses incurred before that date. They have books to keep, so I seriously doubt they are in the habit of reimbursing for expenses not in their grant cycle timelines. If you're traveling in May 2015 regardless of whether you have the grant, then go ahead and plan to foot the bill some other way until July. In your budget and research design, you should clarify which months/phases of your project that you're requesting funding for from WG. I've done this for multiple grant agencies (only requested 12 months funding for a 16 month total research timeline, for example. but always within the designated timeline of each particular grant). Hope that helps! You could always call their office to double check. Also-- on the ABD vs pre-comps question-- I think most people hope to get a grant by the time they are ABD. Doesn't always work out! I have applied for grants as a candidate. I am in the field now so am no longer applying.

It sounds like you should have NO problem showing how prepared you are for grad school then. Breathe easy! You'll be fine - you have enough research experience in my view.

The NSF is a complex organization, with lots of different divisions. Funding for certain divisions (most notably social and behavioral sciences, where most of the social sciences are housed) was on chopping block earlier this year in the house version of the commerce/justice/science appropriations bill. A FINAL bill (reconciling the house and senate versions) that would fund the NSF for 2016 still has not been passed. So it's impossible to say that NSF's budget for next year has been "slashed," at least at this point in time. You can track the NSF funding bill's progress in congress here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2578 COSSA did a really straightforward analysis of the house and senate's proposed FY 2016 NSF budgets in this document: http://www.cossa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/FY-2016-Senate-CJS-Analysis-June-2015.pd "Slashed" is maybe dramatic, but at least in the senate version of the bill, funding would be down $50 million for NSF next year (about 5% of the overall budget). Money going to research and things like GRFP would be down slightly too, around 4% from last year. Fortunately for social scientists, in the senate version proposed cuts wouldn't affect any one division/directorate more than another. We'll see what the final bill ends up looking like when its passed.

I hope so - that's faster than I thought! My proposal is still 'pending' in Fastlane.

If you're not sure, you could contact 1. the department administrator, or 2. the director of graduate students. If it's not listed as a requirement on the webpage or online application, then I would guess it is not necessary (there are many programs which don't want writing samples).

Don't be discouraged -- financial hardship (or any other kind of hardship) is a totally legitimate reason to delay graduation a year. In their letters of rec to PhD programs, your professors will be able to vouch for how you overcame difficult circumstances (CRUCIAL to doctoral programs) while maintaining a high level of commitment to your academic work. Besides, PhD programs may never know it took you 3 years rather than 2, except if they really scrutinize your transcript. Date degree was granted is far more important than date degree was started.

For what it's worth, I think it's easy to be too broad and difficult to be too specific. Be as specific as possible about your project topic and what you already know. The SOP is merely an exercise to show that you have thought through what a dissertation project entails, know some of the literature available, and can frame an interesting set of questions / path of inquiry. It's definitely not a contract of any sort, and your advisors will expect that you modify your research idea as you read/learn more and move through your grad program. So, be specific in your SOP to get into grad school, then be flexible once you get there!

In my view, this is definitely sufficient experience to be admitted to top Anthro PhD programs with just a BA. A few questions come up - What were you doing in the summer you spent in your field site (is it relevant to proposed project)? Do you know your field languages? Were your independent research projects ethnographic, or within the discipline of Anthropology in some way?

Great advice! Princeton seems like a good program, I've always had excellent impressions of their faculty. On the topic of "institutional prestige" - I think it can get you a foot in the door and perhaps get your CV read more closely, so rankings/prestige are not useless. But for sure, you do NOT have to go to a "top 10" NRC school to have a tenure track anthro job one day. You do need a strong committee with excellent connections in your corner of the discipline, published articles, good performance on grants, etc. Also, I'd like to point out that a place like Princeton has institutional prestige (because it's an ivy) that kind of makes up for it not being in the "top 10." The social capital gained from being enrolled in the ivy league is real, even at the graduate level. So, for example, I would think #30 Princeton (I don't actually know the number rankings) is going to look better on your CV than #29 XYZ middle state university. But the things I listed above (committee, publishing record, grants, etc) are what count the most.

Hi! I have reapplied to W-G in the past with no success. I know the struggle of writing that resubmission statement. I read my comments from Oct 2014 as being oriented toward the proposal (like you said - things like bringing up certain scholars in the lit review, when to introduce research questions) rather than toward the project design itself (redo the methods, rethink proposed field sites, etc). When I rewrote and submitted for May 2015, I talked about the many changes I made to the proposal and how I thought the proposal better represented my dissertation's potential. At least one of my reviewers was NOT pleased. Apparently reworking the proposal wasn't enough -- they thought the project itself should have been redesigned from the ground up. I was kind of shocked. Wenner-Gren is the only agency that's read my proposal (and I've submitted to MANY) that seemed to expect me to scrap my entire project design and rethink the theoretical underpinnings of my dissertation upon resubmitting a grant proposal. All of this is just to say - be careful! Make sure the comments are really oriented toward the proposal/your narrative framing and not basic things about the project. It's a blurry line for sure! If comments are oriented toward project design or the value of doing the proposed research at all, you'll need to fight hard in that resubmission statement to defend its worth.

I received two technical reviews, marked "reviewer #1" and "reviewer #2." My average score was a 98 and I still didn't get the grant. I think you really have to get some of those extra 10 "competitive preference" points (so be closer to 110) to have any chance. It sounds like you would have been in the right range except for language -- are you conducting research in an English-speaking country? My fieldwork language isn't English, but it's also not "strategic" to the US government.

Excitement or cuteness won't get you too far with NSF reviewers. However, I would also avoid the laundry-list type of personal statement -- they are usually unmemorable, and no different than a CV. If they wanted a CV they would ask for one. What you should be doing is telling a compelling story about yourself that has a THESIS. Have an argument about yourself as a scientific researcher that connects past-present-future. Everything in your life should appear to be moving toward the moment where you are awarded this GRFP. That means everything you've ever done (that is relevant to your grad career) should be framed in terms of broader impacts and intellectual merit. The statement doesn't have to be "exciting," but it should be a compelling, coherent whole about who you are as a researcher, not a dry fragmented list of experiences. Also this may seem silly, but make sure to vary your sentence structure / grammatical choices in your personal statement -- this is a simple way to get over the laundry list hump.

The NSF is definitely interested in its fellows pursuing science policy careers. One of the main perks of the fellowship is that it offers professionalization opportunities NOT oriented toward academic research -- for example, the GRIP (Graduate Research Internship Program) which places NSF fellows in government research and policy positions. Also, science policy is a classic example of "broader impacts" criteria, so your desire (and plans -- always make sure to list concrete plans, no obligation to follow thru) to contribute to policy enhances the potential broader impacts of your application. (PS - I'm a GRFP grantee now)

Be paranoid! NSF is very picky. Stick to the guidelines.

Yep! As I'm sure he will learn, it is not "funny that you won't ever have a real job until you're over 30" when you ARE over 30... facing that terrifying post-academic cliff while your college classmates are onto their 3rd serious post-BA job and literally running the show... Not that I would know

Yes, the job search is certainly a pain. But, do you have any professional experience? I know continued schooling may look like the key to being admitted to your favorite PhD program, but life/research/professional experience is incredibly valuable to graduate admissions. I think that professional experience will also be more valuable to your post-PhD employment (academic or otherwise).

Also, have you looked at joint Anthropology-History PhD programs? Michigan has one, I believe, not sure if they're widespread.