THS

After seeing a rejection from UC Davis on the board I e-mailed them....still haven't heard anyting back :/ here's to hoping it is good news (even though it doesn't look like people are ever admitted this late).

I would go to the program closer to him, my aunt and uncle tried to do their PHDs only a few hours apart/in the same state and my uncle ended up switching programs which cost him a year. It wasn't that distance was hard, it was that grad school is hard enough w/o trying to do distance (that's what he's always told me, anyways). They did some distance at the end when she did her post doc, but that was only for a year before he found a tenure track job at her school. I figure if the guy who teaching family/couples counseling in psych has that advice then its probably worth sharing best of luck! -edit to add that because my family is nuts he also keeps telling me to wait to settle down until after I start a PHD program because of this experience. So the story is a story, not the end all be all answer, because, my family isn't made up of balanced people. I am sure you could make it work if you wanted to.

If you need it, do any of the schools offer discounted childcare or after school care for students/employees? I know this is a huge problem in higher ed/difficulty faced by parents in the university setting (or anywhere, really). That might be something to look into when making your choice, I know the costs are tremendously expensive. Best of luck in making your choice!

They are both great schools and my advice is this. Your ability to find a teaching position when you are out (at any school at all) will depend on the quality of work you do in the program you attend. You'll be able to do better work if you go to school/live in a place you enjoy, where you can be happy. You are about to make a 5ish year descision to live somewhere, since you have choices I'd make it about that. Both are highly ranked/fantastic programs and both afford you an excellent step up when you finish your degree. I'll add that money is important to consider too, so don't discount the award/stipend amount in your consideration (my MA only paid $980 a month and I didn't have time to get another job on top of teaching and school so I struggled for 2 years). At either university it will be about what you can do with the opportunity, the placement rating doesn't guarantee anything (which it sounds like you are highly motivated/have a plan and are going to do fantastic so the small difference between the two shouldn't make a difference). Also...I always find it helpful to talk it out with friends/family/your partner. This is a huge choice and I am sure many people will have different takes than I do. Best of luck and congrats!!!

People are upset right now, they just realized that it isn't going to happen...don't kick a man when he's down. There are more constructive ways to say the same thing and that's all I'm saying. This has been a great community to turn to as I've gone through this process and I'll be back next year if my waitlists don't work out. I think we all can stay respectful, however. How is it our place to tell another person to give up on their dreams? More to the point, I wasn't taking sides. Just trying to point out that we are going to hear more of the "it isn't fair" as people get bad news. Please, please don't drag me into the arguement.

To the discussion above and all the up/down votes. I think we've done a great job up until now being fair and supportive of everyone. Let's not ruin that because people are commiserating over what they see as an opaque admission process. We might disagree with the content or the conclusions they've drawn, but rather than being mean we should be constructive. This is an incredibly stressful process and, as everyone knows, no one really knows why some people get in and others do not. Just be fair, stay constructive. Best of luck to everyone still waiting to hear back this week! And congrats to those who have choices to make!

And then there were three... *note I am at the point of being ok with this (if you've seen my other posts), but damn this is scary/needs to be over!

Yea, I agree with you that a lot are top flight programs- I didn't apply to anything ranked below 50 (I now kind of regret that). I want to be a professor so I know my best shot at that is to go to one of the top tier schools...It can happen from a lower ranked program, but it will be harder. When I apply next year I'll broaden my application list. Thanks Yes I will totally go back and retake them, they seem to be, at the very least, the first way that schools take us into account.

My advisor was gender and I am class/policy so I am in the same boat. Let's hope publishing does the trick

Q146, V156, 4.5 And I applied to Stanford, Berkley, UofMichigan, Michigan State, UofArizona, UofColorado, UNC, Duke (waitlisted), UTexas@Austin, UCDavis (still don't know about this one), PennState (also no word), Johns Hopkins (seems like a stretch), and WSU (no word).

Hey did anyone end up hearing from WSU? @limonchello it looks like you are waitlisted? How were you notified? Thanks

It is life and it is going to unfold in unpredictable ways...but thanks

Maybe programs viewed them that way? My thesis was a mixed methods project that examined low income people who were choosing not to partake in traditional safety net programs. So I am very well versed in the literature and the big reason I made the switch to sociology was because I ended up quoting/using more sociologists than anthropologists in my work. You could be right though- I just didn't see the difference myself. The two fields are so similar in theorists and methodologies that it just didn't occur to me. Whatever it was when it comes to next year I will apply to both Anthroplogy and Sociology programs because I agree that it could be the case (it is incredibly ridiculous if it is).

@bradley610 my subifield is povery, inequality, class, and policy. I also fall under the bracket of health because I am interested in looking at how health policy impacts low income people. I focused on mixed-methods programs.

I think it is probably the biggest thing. I think even if they did look at my application my quant score would have been a red flag. It was pretty bad- I should have retaken it (it was in the orignal plan and then my research got too big and I ran out of time). Best of luck to you though- I mean we still have some apps out. Who knows what will happen. It also seems like a lot of programs were letting in smaller cohorts than normal which could have impacted our results.

Thanks guys- If I end up needing to apply again (4 schools to officially tell me no) it'll be just to focus on my quant score- my others were more than adequate to at least get my foot in the door- so I actually am looking at the online options (Magoosh specifically, it's good to hear that they were helpful!). My quant score was a 146 the first time (really bad, but no prep) and so my goal would be to get it up 10 points. And yes, as Sasha points out, I am also looking at working for someone's research for the next year- I've already got a letter drafted to start sending out to every professor and fellow grad student I've known to see who needs help. The best thing I'll be able to do, though, along with getting my GRE up, will be to publish some of my thesis-there's lots of good/important stuff in there to share with the world.

Pirate booty

One year a long time ago, there were penguins who didn't wear hats when swimming. This made their mothers livid. "Unacceptable!" Frightened, they screamed, "Bears!" Nobody seemed convinced so instead of going swimming they tried juggling. Their mothers tried everything they thought would teach her a skill. However, she couldn't even make oatmeal without disastrous results. So, the penguins gathered money (obviously) trying to purchase a bear. Towering over them, a grizzly beast danced, devouring all bears with such ferocity that even God enjoyed it. Afterwards, God congratulated the penguins and applauded them. "You did it!" Suddenly, the grizzly beast started dancing vigorously. There was an acromantula nearby. It challenged the preconception that magical mushrooms were magical. Sparkling, the magical mushrooms were spreading throughout town. Nobody with pyromania thought grilled cheese would spontaneously erupt into nine identical squirrels! Nevertheless, the penguins elucidated the benefits of sparkling water from Iceland. Suddenly, Iceland exclaimed, "Enough!!! No more penguins. Kill all of the arcades on Monday because King Arthur suffered from sphenisciphobia." Tragically, everyone forgot lasers cure bug madness, meaning none of them stripped the violet beast of his powerful jaw bones. So while some arms spouted Kool-aid, others chopped nuts. This phenomenon halted commerce. Together twenty-five yellow dragons danced sporadically inebriating all anger gods, while academics drank champagne profusely. Who were they? Snotty undergrads eating free Tetrahydrocannabinol Chlorate. Homicidal kittens emerged from congressional hearings purring rhythmic improvised melodies, infuriating the associate professors who stripped them intermittently of all credentials. The incredulous kittens meowed like dragons farts. Except Bruno, who mewed like tinkling bells. Understandably, one chicken farted. Then, surreptitiously, two giraffes killed the conspicuous dragon. Audaciously, someone belched "RAWR!" Startled, four punks flew down from the Appalachian, a bit wide-eyed, and jumped into a brobdingnagian beam of protons, flipping fingers zestfully. Meanwhile, the paladins prophylactically committed themselves to diabolical plots. Therefore, lemonade became the de jure punishment for audacious acts. Worms squirmed

My best guess: 1. Low Quant GRE. I should have retaken this and am totally kicking myself for not. I was finishing my data analysis for my thesis this summer/writing this fall and just too busy so I applied w/ my scores from MA. Now, seeing how many people apply and having read Posselt's book, well...this was probably my biggest mistake. My guess is that most schools didn't even look at my application. 2. Not having finished my MA, not having publications from MA. I know everyone says publications aren't everything, but I think for people w/ MA's that it kind of is. So I will be sending out articles from my thesis everywhere as soon as I defend (3/3!). I think not having finished a thesis is also a big deal for programs. They don't know what your situation is or what your work looks like- so submitting a conference paper for your writing sample isn't the same as being able to send in the discussion chapter of a thesis. I put this all as one thing because I see it as rolled into one. 3. Maybe lack of prestige of uni's that I've attended? This is one that I can't control and haven't really focused on. I have excellent grades and if I can get published, do another conference this year, and maybe get some more research experience going then it shouldn't matter (I hope). I don't know. These are my best guesses, hope the insight helps others. I am only 26, so I am not going to give up hope yet- I know I am pretty young/early in my career so I'll apply again. Here are my other stats for those of you who don't know my history on here... 3.9 MA GPA 4 Research Project Experiences, 2 Field Schools, 1 Internship 2 Years Teaching Experience (Instructor of Record) 3 Conference Papers (Major conferences, 2 additional papers at small, department conference making 5 total), 1 Poster MA Certificate in Rural Studies (was my minor) 1 Award/Scholarship in MA 2 Years Management Experience (I worked full time in undergrad). Hispanic (some people think this matters, I don't think it makes me any different in the application process).

pretty sure I'm going to end up going through this all again next year.

Congrats to all those who had good news over the weekend! Here's to seeing what news comes this week! Good luck everyone! (I am late on this post haha, I hid from reality for 4 days).

Love Struck

One year a long time ago, there were penguins who didn't wear hats when swimming. This made their mothers livid. "Unacceptable!" Frightened, they screamed, "Bears!" Nobody seemed convinced so instead of going swimming they tried juggling. Their mothers tried everything they thought would teach her a skill. However, she couldn't even make oatmeal without disastrous results. So, the penguins gathered money (obviously) trying to purchase a bear. Towering over them, a grizzly beast danced, devouring all bears with such ferocity that even God enjoyed it. Afterwards, God congratulated the penguins and applauded them. "You did it!" Suddenly, the grizzly beast started dancing vigorously. There was an acromantula nearby. It challenged the preconception that magical mushrooms were magical. Sparkling, the magical mushrooms were spreading throughout town. Nobody with pyromania thought grilled cheese would spontaneously erupt into nine identical squirrels! Nevertheless, the penguins elucidated the benefits of sparkling water from Iceland. Suddenly, Iceland exclaimed, "Enough!!! No more penguins. Kill all of the arcades on Monday because King Arthur suffered from sphenisciphobia." Tragically, everyone forgot lasers cure bug madness, meaning none of them stripped the violet beast of his powerful jaw bones. So while some arms spouted Kool-aid, others chopped nuts. This phenomenon halted commerce. Together twenty-five yellow dragons danced sporadically inebriating all anger gods, while academics drank champagne profusely. Who were they? Snotty undergrads eating free Tetrahydrocannabinol Chlorate. Homicidal kittens emerged from congressional hearings purring rhythmic improvised melodies, infuriating the associate professors who stripped them intermittently of all credentials. The incredulous kittens meowed like dragons farts. Except Bruno, who mewed like tinkling bells. Understandably, one chicken farted. Then, surreptitiously, two giraffes killed the conspicuous dragon. Audaciously, someone belched "RAWR!" Startled, four punks flew down from the Appalachian, a bit wide-eyed, and jumped into a brobdingnagian beam of protons, flipping fingers zestfully. Meanwhile, the paladins prophylactically committed themselves to diabolical plots. Therefore, lemonade became the de jure punishment for

No news at all (for me) this week...I don't know if that's good or bad. But I submitted my MA thesis to my committee this morning (YAY!) and so while an acceptance would be great, after finishing this 72,000 word document, I am going to enjoy the weekend (and maybe not check my e-mail at all). Congrats to everyone who has been accepted all over this place this week!!! All the exciting news gives me hope

Plus all of that paper, they should think of the trees. Someone posted that WSU sent the rest of the news via post...so now I am avoiding the mail.