catcatcatdog

I'm a bit late to this party, but I was awarded (and declined) a Clarendon for my social sciences DPhil during the last admissions cycle. I was an internal candidate, but I didn't find out when I was admitted to the DPhil that I had been nominated for a Clarendon -- notification of my award came several months later, as a very pleasant surprise. They don't take these things lightly, so I would imagine that if they told you about the nomination, your odds of receiving the award are very high.

And what do YOU, on your own, want?

@rising_star has good advice here. In some other countries, including the one where I did my MA, the MA-PhD pipeline can be smooth, but that's not typically how it works in the US. And familiarizing yourself with the professors at Cornell, including a POI who looks so compatible on paper, may not be a wholly rosy process -- as noted above, you may have to win over more, not fewer, people in order to advance to the PhD than you would as a fresh outsider. Ultimately, it's your call, but turning down Fulbright and self-funding/taking out loans aren't decisions to be taken lightly, regardless of how desirable or prestigious you perceive the other university to be.

It definitely sounds like a frustrating situation. Again, though, I would caution against the idea of doing your PhD at the same institution where you pursued your MA. A year (it's a one-year MA?) is a lot of time to discover new concepts, literatures, and potential supervisors, and you may find that when it comes time to apply to PhD programs, Cornell isn't where you see yourself after all. This happened to me during my MA -- I came in certain that I wanted to stay on for the PhD, and boy, am I glad I didn't (they did make me an offer, but I declined)! The supervisor was great but the department/institution was chaotic. Being at Rutgers might give you more flexibility to stay open to those sorts of developments over the course of your MA. Just a thought!

I should think Rutgers + Fulbright > Cornell - Fulbright + loans/self-funding. I'm a Fulbright alum myself (not to an MA program) and it's a name that has opened doors, though I can't speak to the intricacies of the grant-admission dynamics you describe here. Did Fulbright give a reason why they will only fund Rutgers? Regardless, I don't think an MA from Rutgers would disadvantage you at all come PhD time -- I've heard it's a good idea to do your MA and PhD at different institutions anyway, to increase your academic exposure. Good luck!

Congrats on your options!! I don't know if people negotiate for MA programs, but I did for my PhD -- I just wrote to the director of graduate studies at School A and explained that School B had offered me about 10k more (I did have to send a PDF copy of my offer from School B as proof). A couldn't fully match B, but they did up my offer by 8k, and seemed to think this was a perfectly legitimate move.

Harvard has made their first round of offers, I believe -- an acquaintance was recently admitted.

abskate, you can search for school results at the link below. They're self-reported, but overall fairly accurate. http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=anthropology

I was accepted in the past for a medical anthropology project, but chose to go elsewhere -- I'd be happy to PM with you about my application/admission experience.

I'd be happy to share that with you via PM.

Nope! Princeton. I think we've messaged about this.

I did (pretty much right after I interviewed)! With a Woodruff Fellowship, too. I had interviews with multiple faculty members whom I'd rather not name publicly, but Jenny Chio was not one of them.

Congrats!! My Emory interviews were intense -- everywhere else, interviews were essentially a friendly intellectual chat, but at Emory, they asked me whether I'd read certain (seemingly obscure) works, why I hadn't if I hadn't, really pushed me on certain aspects of my SOP, things like that. That could just have been the people I spoke with, though. So my advice for Emory would be along the lines of a best defense is a good offense (cliched, I know) -- maybe brush up on your SOP and lit the night before. And don't take it personally -- I thought I'd tanked it there, but happily, I hadn't!

Congrats to you as well!! How exciting.

Congrats!!! What wonderful news. I'm sure we will shortly meet in a more official capacity, but in the meantime, feel free to PM me with any questions.