GreenEyedTrombonist

Hey @montanem it sounds like we might be in the same program! I actually came across this topic on my lunch break from writing my grad project deliverables. I'm not applying to Sociology programs, but I have applied to programs outside of anthropology for future degrees. I did this because my research interests can align with multiple fields and the programs I chose cater more to those interests than any others. As to what grad school's actually like, a lot of that depends on the exact program you're in. I've loved my anthro program because of the freedom is has allowed me in regards to molding my project and supplemental classes I can take. There's a lot of reading in grad school, but that should come as no surprise to anyone. In addition, my current program has a syllabus archive and often posts the next semester syllabi early, so I've made it a habit to get at least a week ahead in my readings. That's certainly made it easier when an emergency's come up, or when I need to find time to work on other things (like PhD apps, my grad project, or one of my jobs, haha).

Are you planning to attend/present at this conference? If yes, submit to the paper competition. My advice will almost always be to submit to the paper competition. Last year I submitted to a paper competition even though what I was presenting on for the conference was a different setup than the main presentations, was just exploratory research, and was parallel to, but not included in, my actual research project. I still received 3rd place. I completely agree with @fuzzylogician about checking for restrictions (the competition I mentioned above did not allow co-written papers for submissions). Also, definitely check with your advisor. Chances are, they know the conference's inner-workings better than you and can provide some insight. Hope this helps!

I'm currently on here, taking a break from writing, haha. For me, I schedule out my writing, but I generally don't schedule out the times. For instance, I know that I want at least 500 words for each subsection of my main deliverable and that this should, at most, take me an hour to complete. I then assign myself a number of subsections to complete for the day based on how much time I can spend writing that day and how far away my due date is. Consequently, I need to write another 3 or 4 subsections before I sleep tonight as this deliverable needs to get to my advisor before Wednesday.

Have you looked for any information about how the admissions weekend has gone in the past at that school? My gut feeling is that it's more of a meet and greet type of thing to let you get a feel for the campus, but the school could be using it as a term for interview weekend.

Have you looked through photos of the current PhD students at the universities you applied to? Seeing what their facial hair is like should be a good indicator of whether your interviewers will look kindly on the beard.

Hello fellow SJSU attendee! Making the switch from CSU to UC can be difficult, but I don't actually see what your question is. I'll try to help if I can.

Have you looked on the results section of the website? Many students are posting their updates (rejections, acceptances, and interview updates) over there. These things come in at different times for different subjects and often for different programs. Have you checked to see if the schools you applied to say when they usually send out messages? Also, are you doing anything to distract you or help curb your anxiety?

Why do you think you're unqualified? Most programs that offer PhD's will have a sentence or two in there about not offering terminal masters (as in, if you apply to the program you get the masters along the way, but you are still there for a PhD), but without knowing the program or why you think you're unqualified, I don't think anyone can fully answer this for you. I can also tell you that many programs that do accept for terminal masters don't want students also attending there for a PhD, but this might vary by program and subject.

I don't mind at all as I lovingly ripped it off from someone else! I think I'm at a place where I can finish my writing on Sunday for the main deliverable. My advisor wants it on Tuesday for review, so that gives me two days to edit and format, which should be ok...

@ejpril88 I copied the format from another user (thank you awesome other user). Go to Account Settings and you'll see a menu on the left hand side. Go to Signature in that menu and a text box will open. Fill it out however you want, press save, and you're done.

@DBear Awesome! Hope you get in and I get to see your work soon.

I've decided cleaning my room is how I'll procrastinate from writing. My immediate goals for the year are: 1. Finish my main grad project deliverable by next Tuesday (About 11k words left to write) 2. Finish my final project report outline by 10 days later 3. Write an abstract or two for SWAA's conference this spring 4. Get my TA paperwork squared away for the next semester 5. Try not to freak out about hearing back about my apps

Perfect, I needed a place to vent. I'm a TA and I got an email from a student extremely concerned about their score on an assignment. The class I TA for is structured a little strangely so, though I grade most of the assignments, I didn't grade this one and didn't put in the final scores. I went to check the tracker for grades and discovered that scores for two of the last three assignments were put in incorrectly (all not put in by me), damaging the overall grades for all 90 or so students in this class. Meanwhile, the main staff is on retreat, so I'm stuck waiting for permission to calculate the scores correctly and fix these grades. In addition, I know they were discussing possibly curving one of those scores, so until I hear back, I have to be super vague with the students emailing me with concerns.

@DBear What are your research interests?

Hey everyone, I posted over in the anthro forums, but since I applied to a comm program too, thought I'd pop in here and introduce myself. I come from a B.A. and (soon to be) M.A. in Anthropology. My research interests include online communities and communication, the interaction of digital and physical environments, geek culture and fandoms, philanthropy and altruism, and digital ethnography. After speaking with a few professors at various campuses, they suggested I also apply to the Comm program at USC Annenberg (and the Comparative Media M.S. at MIT) in addition to the three anthro programs I applied to. Currently freaking out a bit waiting for any word back, but it's the excited type of freaking out, haha. I only went through the posts here briefly, so I didn't see if anyone else applied to USC. If you did, hi! And nice to meet you all.

Um, this seems like an extremely long list. What are you actually interested in doing for your research? What kind of methodology would you want to stick with? Are their faculty (more than one) at these schools that have some kind of relation to your interests (either in methodology or subject matter)? Do you know if you want to go to a school with small student to faculty ratio, urban or rural, high cost of living or something else, cultural hub, etc ad infinitum. Basically, why these schools? Have you narrowed down your list or considered narrowing it down more? Furthermore, what is it you actually want to do when you get out? At the end of the day, it shouldn't be about what tier the school is, but that it has the program and environment that's a good fit for you.

And my last rec letters came in yesterday (the last school sent a confirmation email today). Now all I need to do is wait...and finish writing my grad project, write abstracts for conferences, plan my Twitch streams and final deliverable schedule, and, and, and... I should probably go do all that, haha. Hugs to all those now playing the waiting game!

I didn't have that problem, but I submitted it a while ago. Hope the resubmission went smoothly!

I just met with my advisor about my graduate project so once I'm done grading I'll be spending the next 3 weeks writing like a mad woman, haha.

So I've submitted all of my applications and am just waiting on one reference to write letters (which seem to come in the day before each app is due- 3 down, 2 to go). I'm sort of glad I still have grading left for my students. Once that's done I'm probably going to spend most of the break freaking out. x]

I'm just waiting for one of my references to write her last 3 letters. Totally nerve-wracking. Also hi, I'm new.

Undergrad/Grad Institution: SJSUMajor(s): B.A. Anthropology, M.A. Applied AnthropologyMinor(s): Humanities (undergrad)GPA in Major: 3.97Overall GPA:3.97Position in Class: near top? (not reported)Type of Student: domesticGRE Scores (revised/old version):Q: 156V: 164W: 5.5B: N/AResearch Experience: Student Researcher on use of things study in collaboration with institution and the French Ministry of Energy Student Researcher on leadership study in collaboration with institution, city, local neighborhoods, and associated organizations (2-3 publications in progress, 4 presentations to date, including at conferences) Student Researcher on autonomous vehicle study in collaboration with institution and Nissan Research Center of Silicon Valley (1 publication being discussed, 1 mixed media presentation to date, 2-3 presentations planned for Spring 2017) Principal Investigator on exploratory research focused on gender issues in careers which require online interaction and communication (associated paper received 3rd place in the SWAA grad paper competition, 1 presentation to date) Principal Investigator on graduate research focused on online communitas, geek culture, philanthropy, and organizational interaction (several publications being discussed, 1 presentation to date, 5 professional and conference presentations planned for 2017)Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Community Service Scholarship (undergrad), 3rd place in SWAA Paper Competition 2016, honors studentPertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor (10+ years), TA (1 year), Multiple student researcher positions (2 years), freelance writer of geek culture articles (4+ years), Twitch streamer and Youtube content creator (3+ years), Twitch moderator (2 years)Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Have also co-written a paper and presented at a conference on the evolution of attitudes towards the other, specifically the othering of pagans, and the parallel evolution of the Wicked Witch of the West Have written over 100k words about how magic and magical creatures could be explained by science in a hypothetical universe for Borealis Academy of Magic and Hogwarts is Here)Applying to Where: MIT-Comparative Media Studies-online communities, geek culture, digital ethnography, entanglement USC-Communications-online communities, geek culture, digital ethnography, entanglement NYU-Anthropology-online communities, geek culture, digital ethnography, entanglement UCI-Anthropology-online communities, geek culture, digital ethnography, entanglement UCL-Anthropology-online communities, geek culture, digital ethnography, entanglement

So I wouldn't take just my word for it, but have you submitted your apps yet? If not, you should have the ability to add additional comments in one of the sections explaining the bad score. Personally, as a social science person myself, I don't believe quantitative is nearly as important as verbal. I've even had conversations with Engineering profs about how they value verbal more than quantitative and articles have come out regarding research results stating verbal score is a much better indicator of success in grad school. Your verbal score puts you somewhere around the 90th percentile, right? How was your writing score? I think the information you provided makes you a strong candidate, depending on the specific programs you're applying for as well as the strength of your supplemental materials (sop, etc). Good luck!