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.

I think so? That was my impression interviewing with them in sociocultural.

That was my first hint that I had been admitted to Princeton! BUT I also had multiple Academia hits from the town of another university to which I was not admitted, so you never really know. So keep your hopes up, but try to relax! I'll have my fingers crossed for you.

I can confirm that Princeton does not interview.

As with most elements of the application/admissions process, I suspect it really comes down to each university and its preferences. When I was applying, I had pre-deadline interviews with POIs at two schools -- I was admitted at one, and while I made the official shortlist at the other, I was ultimately rejected. I wouldn't say it's a neutral sign -- professors are busy people, so they won't waste their time with applicants who don't interest them for whatever reason -- but I also wouldn't read too much into it. Having been there and done that, though, I know that interpreting (and over-interpreting) schools' every move is a really hard thing to abstain from!

Tanya Luhrmann at Stanford has looked at the education/professionalization of American psychiatrists; Stefan Ecks at Edinburgh has also examined this, albeit to a lesser extent, in India. Cristina Grasseni (used to be at Harvard, now back in Europe, I think?) has looked at the ways in which surgeons are trained to see patient bodies. I'm not familiar with Barry Saunders' work, but yeah, he looks promising for your interests. These are just a few names off the top of my head, though, and knp is right -- if you keep searching, you'll find other people studying this. And just to dispel any doubts -- a professor by no means has to share your precise research interests to be an appropriate or adequate supervisor! Some overlap is necessary, of course, but at the end of the day, you want to stake out your own little turf, not exclusively play on someone else's.

Congrats, busybee! I hope you still managed to enjoy the last of your time abroad, despite the frenzy of application season.

Every school has its own timeframe: I heard back from one the first week of February, and got funding confirmation from another a few days before the April 15th deadline. Mid-late-March seems generally reasonable to me, but you never know (which is precisely the frustrating part!). I wouldn't expect to hear anything in January, though. And if other people are hearing back and you've got silence, that's not necessarily a bad thing -- you might be on a waitlist, a second waitlist, etc (some schools last year clearly had multiple rounds of candidates they were dipping into). Of course, being on a waitlist isn't fun -- but way better than being rejected outright!

You want ethnography about admissions, I bring you ethnography about admissions (bless whoever this woman is): http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mdia;c=mdia;c=mdiaarchive;idno=0522508.0018.102;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mdiag But seriously, January can be one long mind game. So please do try to get off gradcafe and enjoy yourselves! You all definitely deserve it, regardless of the outcomes ahead.

We've been in touch, but for other prospective applicants reading this thread, I'm usually up for reading SOPs!

Sure! I'm in cultural anthropology at Princeton -- PM me for my email address (or maybe you can send the document as an attachment here on gradcafe PM?)!