Anthro14

I'm a first year PhD in Columbia's Anthro/Ed program. It's a good program, and it allows you to take classes at TC, Columbia, Barnard, CUNY, SIPA, NYU, etc, but just prepare to apply for a LOT of outside funding (which of course, nothing guarenteed). I was lucky enough to get a TC minority scholarship for my first year, which covers tuition, but it will not be renewed next year. To pay for living expenses I've also TAed both semesters for Columbia undergrad classes and I have a workstudy job that I do every morning. I spent all fall applying for the NSF and Ford fellowship for next year. Also, be mindful that as a part of our program, it is required that you do 8-10 weeks of intensive fieldwork during the summer after your first year, and again, no funding. So, if you are like me, and your area of interest is say INDIA, that can get a bit expensive. I applied for the CLS and FLAAS grants, and LUCKILY i got the CLS which pays for everything (flight, visa, accomodations-home stay, intensive language lessons, food, trips, etc). SO... in general, I say pick the program that fits your research the best- do not worry about names. If u like columbia/tc's program, do it... just prepare to work ur butt off to get funding. If u like florida, go there. Like the above posts already mentioned, the name of the school really says nothing at this point in higher ed, its the quality of the program and its fit with your research objectives. Hope this helps, best of luck!

Representing the Social Sciences- Anthropology. First time applying and last time that Im eligible. Good luck to everyone!

yea, ur right in hearing that its virtually nonexistant. Im a PhD student there, 1st year. This year I have my tuition covered in full by a minority scholarship, but i already have it on good authority that it will not be renewed next year (i think its a ploy to suck you into the program as a first year...apparently next year i'm not a minority anymore, ha!). soooo hopefully ill be getting some of these outside fellowships ive applied for! although it might vary depending on program. good luck!

yea, GRFP, and it was originally for too much grad experience. But apparently I made my case and they revoked the DQ. Yay!

Whoohoo! Eligibility officially reinstated today!

Student portal is up! I must have checked 5 MILLION times that i checked the ACCEPT box. haha!

AHHHHHH!!! thanks for the update! I GOT IT FOR BEGINNING HINDI!!! AHHHHHHH! what a weight lifted. best of luck everyone!

haha, my name kinda gives it away, but I'm studying Anthropology at Columbia (focus on education & religion). what about u!?

ah! i applied for beginning hindi too! hopefully we both get it! good luck

Oy! Who knows. I received my 1st round email at around 3PM

Yea thanks! At least now I wont have to sit on pins and needles all Monday and Tuesday!

nope... looks like monday? they emailed us on a monday last time, telling us whether we made it past the 1st round or not. ahhh!! good luck everyone!

so what do we think. they said decisions would be sent out by mid-feb... will be find out this week or next!? ahhh, the decision is almost upon us

Ahhh, I can empathize. A similar thing happened with my NSF application. It's like... can you please double check your facts before you disqualify someone! Esp when they know these fellowships mean so much and took so much time to put together! Glad it all worked out!

Im thinking that Egpyt is probably def out of the mix... but who knows. Yea, I don't know if they are considering any NEW location additions. So the current options are listed on their website. And if there are mutliple locations where your language is taught, I think once you are accepted you are placed in a specific site sometime in March/April. But check the website, they have good info on there.

id really like to know what the odds are that we get the final YES! I know the website says that the first cut brings it down to the top 1/3. but then out of that 1/3 how many people make it through? is it like a 50/50 split? if you do not get it at this point to you become an alternate, or will some people still be straight up rejected? oy

Little update. I got an email from them today saying that my app has been re-examined and moved forward to the merit review process, but that my eligibility still remains under consideration. The final eligibility decision is still pending and is expected to be available at the end of Feb. So.... I guess that's good news. It's been forwarded on to the next round... but not completely out of the woods. Better than nothing!

No KIDDING! They took FOREVER to update that thing! I faxed my VS Form to them around November, and it wasnt updated to received until a week after the due date for supp materials. I was getting super nervous.

In terms of language or summer funding, im applying to the summer FLAS to go to India and year FLAS at my university. I'm still looking around for other departmental/area studies grants for the summer. Most of them are dissertation funding though, so not very helpful. Other than that, I applied for the NSF and Ford for year funding. How about you?

T-3 weeks till we find out! ahh, i just want to know!

yea, im pretty sure it's difficult to find funding for "common" foreign languages (French, Spanish, German). Like you say, the FLAS eliminates them and so does the CLS. I would talk to the French department chair at your school. They usually have pretty good information about departmental grants or other outside grants to look into. What about a summer Fulbright? Could you swing saying you are doing some research in France and then take some language classes while you're over there? Or have you considered looking into summer English teaching positions? Maybe you could tutor and take your own classes at the same time (I know some people who have done that in Egypt).

So weird! So they did disqualify me stating that I have too many years of grad experience, but I'm still fighting it. I just finished my Masters at UPenn last May and applied for the NSF in my 1st semester of my PhD. Now, my Masters took 2 years of part-time work, bc I was doing Teach for America at the same time. But the NSF solicitation states that you cannot have more than 12 months of FULL-TIME grad study or its equivalent (24 hours) by Aug 2010. By by then, I had graduated having taken only 10 credit hours in a program that only takes 1 year of full-time grad work to complete. I went from education to anthropology. What is really frustration is that I called the NSF office before I applied, told them all this and asked if they thought I needed to submit one of those extenuating circumstances essays. The lady on the phone told me I did not have to bc I clearly did not have 12 months of full-time experience or 24 credit hours. I called the office the other day and said all this to the lady. All she could tell me was to email all of that to the address that told me why I was disqualified in the first place. I did, and received an email back saying that it my email had been forwarded and my application will be re-reviewed, the decision to my appeal to be responded to in 2-weeks. I'm not feeling very hopeful, however. The woman on the phone at their office said that they very rarely repeal these things. Sigh* At least I tried!

woohoo. i wish it was mid-feb already, the wait kills me!

I was wondering the same thing! Certain parts of the website are updated (saying that we will find out by mid-Feb), where other sections still say late March. Based off of the wording in the letter they gave us saying that we were passed to the next decision, I'd like to think that we've made it past the first two academic readers, esp since were supposed to hear the final decisions in 4 weeks. But who knows! Good luch everyone, fingers crossed!

so sorry to hear that cicero! i got the same email, but fortunetly when i checked my decision status, mine was successfully forwarded on to the next round. i applied for beginning Hindi. best of luck to everyone!