telesto

Just got an e-mail 3 hours ago. Asking to check website. It was a rejection as expected. I’m Sociocultural, but it seems from the results board that it’s a mixture of arch med and socio (all rejections). I’m a post-interview reject btw. Fingers crossed for NYU..

Hey, I hear you. I'm also trying to prepare for rejections. I haven't got any formal rejections or acceptances at this point but considering the timeframe and lack of interview requests I fear that all of them would be rejections. I don't know where you're from in Asia, but I'm currently based in Hong Kong. I also feel like I was a bit too ambitious, applying to Berkeley, Columbia, NYU, Brown, MIT. I only applied to 6 schools though (2 depts in NYU). Being an international too, I feel I can relate to you, though I'm not a fresh BA grad (I did an MPhil). Uncertainty of academia is always something that makes me hesitate. I have many friends who are PhD students, grads, new assistant professors. Even a tenure-track assistant professor position is still very unstable since you need to be ready for reviews every few years. Let's say I do get into a US PhD programme, in Anthropology I'd be looking at 7-8 years.. and then probably need to do a post-doc which is another painful process of applying, waiting, getting accepted/rejected... after 1-2 years of post-doc you finally look for a tenure-track or whatever teaching position which at best gives you a contract of 5 years or something (I'm not sure about the US but it's like that in HK). All this time, your friends will be progressing through their careers, having a stable job, etc. (let's hope, though our generation doesn't have it so easy). People have told me exactly this a few years back, and I couldn't sympathise, but now, turning 26 next week, I feel this... So my plan is to apply for Australian schools in the summer (Aus PhDs are also a lot shorter 3.5-4yrs) and if I don't get in, I'll get a job, and maybe try again next year (or not). Australia seems to be a nicer place to live in as well. What's your reason for applying to US schools?

Just finished my Berkeley interview this morning.. feeling relieved but still too wired to go back to sleep. I didn’t actually mention any names on my SOP which is probably a mistake but two faculty members in a similar field interviewed me. I was worried they would ask me about who I’ve contacted since I didn’t contact any faculty but they didn’t ask thank god. All in all it seemed positive, and they were super friendly. They also said I’ll hear from them “shortly” so I’m guessing I’m one of the last ones to interview and they’ll make decisions soon? This was my first interview and I hope I’ll do better next time! Still waiting to hear from Columbia, NYU, etc. Good luck to all of us

POI still hasn't got back to me. I'll just assume they're calling on Friday... Good luck on your interview!

Now I'm getting a bit anxious about not getting any confirmation of the interview date. What if they call me on Thursday instead of Friday (my proposed date)? In Hong Kong Thursday's already almost over... Have you got a reply back yet? I'm just about to email the POI.

Hi all, I have a question to Berkeley sociocultural interviewees (Skype) if you're out there. I got an e-mail about the interview with two dates for selection (on 22/1) to which I replied. But I still haven't got a reply back confirming which date. Is this normal? Not sure if they will confirm or not - should I just be waiting for 1.5hrs on my proposed date? Another related question, the professor who sent me the e-mail seemed to emphasise that the interview was not necessary. He said that since I'm in a time-zone that might be difficult, or Skype can go wrong etc, even if I can't do the interview it won't penalize my application. It had me confused for a bit, thinking whether it was really optional. Any thoughts? Cheers.