bonesandbakes

@chojo @puffy Someone posted this on Friday and also posted a while back that not everyone who gets into Penn gets interviewed. Apparently they only interview people if they need another professor to come on as a secondary adviser or if they are bringing that candidate off their unofficial waitlist. Either way, judging from this post on Friday, hopefully the wait will be over soon (though I don't know if this post applies to all subfields at Penn).

Feel so anxious. Someone who currently goes to one of my top-choice programs today that the department was finalizing their choices today. Obsessively checked my email all day hoping the POI would send something telling me if I was in or not. Nothing. I know it's not horrible because they'll likely send out official notifications middle of next week but oh god that seems so far away!!

Has anyone's POI from Penn emailed them?

@pmcol Honestly I found it difficult to come up with questions to ask (because I had already skyped with the POI back in December and asked a lot of questions then). At my interview I asked what a typical timeline looks like for a PhD student when it comes to dissertation development (like when do people generally formulate a topic, when do they begin research, etc.). I also asked what merits they think the language requirement from the department has for biological anthropologists, as a lot of other programs in biological anthropology don't involve a language requirement.

Hey everyone! I got contacted about interviewing for a PhD in Anthropology at University of Pennsylvania, and thought I'd share some of the questions they asked me in the interview. 1. What are your research interests, and what steps do you need to take in graduate school to bring yourself to the level to conduct that research? 2. Why anthropology? Why UPenn? 3. Why do you want to go to a PhD program right out of undergrad? 4. How do your relations work with the faculty supervising your current research? 5. How do you feel about coming to Penn for your PhD, but having to do dissertation at another university's facilities? (They don't have the facilities there necessary for my future research.) Hope these helped someone and good luck to everyone!

Hi @Ethy60! Don't want to disagree with @pmcol, but my experience was a bit different so I thought I'd share. I studied hardcore the first time I took the GRE. Bought and read the whole Kaplan prep book, learned Greek and Latin roots for the verbal section, and did it all in the summer so I wouldn't be "distracted" by work back in school. The score I got was good the first time (v159/q161/w4.0), but I was disappointed because I got almost the exact same score as I got on a practice test I took before I started studying. I then took the advice of my professors and took it again. The second time, I was in school and didn't really have time to study, but somehow it worked out. I was doing more critical thinking in my every day with doing biochemistry homework and reading articles for my anthro classes. Even though I only cracked my prep book once between taking the GRE the first and second times (to read some examples of essays) my score improved quite a bit. I guess my advice would be to take advantage of the "real life" critical thinking experiences that can prepare you for the GRE, rather than trying to memorize every piece of advice in a prep book (like I did the first time). Hope this helped and good luck!

Thanks @RepatMan, good to know! Good luck, @pmcol.

Thanks! A bit disappointing but I'd rather know now I'm not getting accepted rather than wonder through mid-March.

Hi everyone! I just discovered this site and am so grateful there's a thread of people stressing out just like me. I've applied for BioAnth at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, ASU, McMaster, UCF, UPenn, and finishing up my app for Oklahoma soon. I saw some people said they've gotten interviews at University of Pennsylvania, can anyone tell me if those are formal interviews or more chats with potential supervisors? I've skyped with the professor I'm hoping to be my supervisor, but haven't gotten any word about a rejection or an interview. Thanks!