jellyfish11

I'm a MAPSS alum and I had a great experience. I disagree that profs don't take you seriously. The top MAPSS students work with the top professors, but many professors only want to take on one or two MAPSS students. I started meeting with my advisor early and worked really hard on my proposal. If you take a class with the prof and do well, they will almost always take you on. Every top professor in the anthro department took at least one MAPSS student my year. If you look for an advisor early, take a class with them, and write a good thesis proposal, you will have no problem getting the top profs to work with you. Chicago is a competitive place for sure, and that's true in MAPSS and in the phd programs. If you are a weaker student or if your proposal is bad, top professors will turn you down in favor of other MAPSS students. Everyone knows that ma and undergrad tuition help universities fund phd students, but since MAPSS is one year and they give scholarships, it's less expensive than many ma programs. Most of my cohort had part time jobs while in MAPSS (myself included). people of all economic backgrounds do MAPSS, and several of my friends revieved snap benefits (food stamps) during their MAPSS year. No one ever treated me like a rich kid who paid my way in. sometimes phd students in my classes were rude or condescending to MAPSS students, but once I proved myself in class discussions, they began to respect me and treat me as a colleague. If anything, I would say that since MAPSS is so big, there is a range of abilities and everyone knows that. It's not very competitive to get into MAPSS, so you have to prove yourself in classes once you get there. I learned so much in MAPSS and really enjoyed it. I'm so glad I did it. I got great phd offers this time around and got accepted to 3 top programs with funding and waitlisted at two more. Anyone can feel free to pm me if you have questions!

Congratulations!!

Uchicago's MAPSS program is still accepting - the final deadline is April 30. I've heard good things about it.

On the results board, someone said Amherst was supposed to notify today. Anyone have more info? There's been nothing on the results board; when do you think we'll hear?

Yeah. I took offense to the bragging followed by "declined offer for something better." Maybe that program is the ideal place for someone else. No need to put it down or brag about "better" offers on the results board!

This was an anthro acceptance at UC Santa Cruz, and while it is not a rejection, it is the most obnoxious thing ever: "Update from previous. Found the official e-mail from the department head. Funding was $53,100 for 3 years, on my own after that. Won several scholarships and tuition remission. Subsequent personalized e-mail from department head stating positives about program and telling me I would be a leading force in the departmental research. Declined offer for something better. Good luck to waitlisters." Seriously? i have no words.

My advice: find a recent article you really like on a topic along those lines. Look through the sources and search for some of the author names. Keep doing this with articles until you find the current professors writing about these topics. Google.com/scholar might be a good place to start. Good luck!

There is. I have friends who've done the phd with ta positions or promises of future funding. In one case, the future funding didn't come through, and my friend spent 10 years ta-info and working through grad school. She recently finished and is substitute teaching in high schools and job hunting. Another friend dropped out of a phd program after 1 year because ta-ing and working while in the program was too taxing and was making her miserable. You should definitely talk to your poi and to some current students, because maybe it's easier at that school. This is just anecdotal information, but I thought I should share it. Only you can choose what is right for you.

Is it an ma program or a phd program? There's a big difference between funding yourself for a year or two and finding yourself for 6-10. Plenty of people in my ma program got work study jobs and took some loans. I got a scholarship for my ma tuition and then used the savings I had from working for a few years to help pay my cost of living. I also had an on campus job. If it's a phd, I know people who have done it, but I wouldn't. If I don't get a funded offer, I plan to work and improve my application until I get in with funding.

Congratulations, bioanth!! That's awesome. Where'd you get accepted? personperson- me too! I'm so nervous. I've been reading a lot of abstracts and introductions to save on time.

As long as his other three recs are glowing, the rest of his materials were in on time, and his application was really strong, I don't think they would care about the other rec.

I'm wait listed at brown. They sent an email saying the wait list was short and they hoped they would find a spot for me. I know another person who was notified they were on the wait list too. My guess is that unless the majority of their accepted and wait listed people decline their offers, you might be out of luck, sorry. I'm sure they sometimes reserve some applications for that reason, but from the email I got, it suggested that the whole wait list had been notified. The other wait listed person received word for word the exact same form email, and we both got them last week. That's all the info I have though, so I could be wrong!

I think, although I am not certain, that most departments will fly you out to visit if you are accepted. Some fly you out before the official acceptance (Northwestern, for example) for a visit weekend that is partially an interview too. A visit/recruitment weekend without an official offer in hand is always an interview, whether they say it or not. Usually, if they are flying you out, their shortlist is very short and the majority of interviewees will get offers. Sometimes it takes the form of "meet and greets" with students and the departments, but if you don't have an official offer yet, then they are using that to informally interview you and see if you are a good fit for the department.

I would send your POI the actual offer details with the funding amount (perhaps the actual letter as an attachment?) This is what my MA advisor told me to do with my offers when applying to PhD programs. Make sure you tell the POI that although you have a funded offer at another school, you are more excited about the program at their school and prefer it over the other school. You can even say "I plan to seriously consider every funded offer I get, but currently your school is at the very top of my list." That way, you still give yourself room to choose anywhere. This might incentivize your POI to make sure the school extends an offer to you sooner rather than later so they can lure you away from the other program.

I hope you get good news soon!