G_speed

Hi all! I've recently been awarded the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme to get a social science PhD at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It's a great personal choice for many reasons (faculty, funding, location, proximity to field site), but since it's more of an up-and-coming program, its placement track record is not great, and I'm definitely concerned about job prospects, especially in the US and UK. Still, it's where most of my excitement is, so I'd love to take the offer as long as it's not like 100% career suicide. I know next to nothing about the mileage one gets with a PhD from a Hong Kong-based university, so I'm curious to hear from some folks who have experienced the job market with one. Thanks!

No problem, and thanks!

The main thing I did was to move back to my geographic area of research interest and take about a year of university-level courses in the local language. In retrospect, there were more things I could have done but didn't, such as improve my GRE scores, publish original work, get involved at local conferences and seek out work opportunities (paid or volunteer) that would have related to my scholarly aspirations. I would recommend getting started on these things as soon as possible while the frustration of rejection is still fresh in your mind, you'll thank yourself when the next application cycle comes around. Good luck!

Welp, got the expected rejections from NYU and Harvard. NYU was just not a very great fit so no surprise there. Some mild disappointment about Harvard, as the fit was actually quite strong, but obviously it is not really a shock. Basically, I am waiting to hear back about one admissions decision (where it seems as though I've been waitlisted) and two funding decisions, but fortunately I was admitted to one of my better fitting programs (UCSD) so I'll be happy if that's where I end up. Just for those who haven't gotten any admits: this is my third time going through this process. I think it's quite common for it to take multiple applications for this to pan out, and even though it's a brutal process, my willingness to have gone through this process so many times (rather than just losing interest after the first or second) really showed me that this is in fact something I care about doing. So if possible, try and use all this as a litmus test for your commitment to this endeavor. Maybe you find out you're really not that into it and pursue other things that you deem to be more worth your time, or maybe you find that you are, and you use the next 6 months to bolster your application package in ways that make you more attractive to an even wider array of programs (I moved back to my geographic area of interest after my first rejection, which was great for both my application and quality of life). At the end of the day, these outcomes are both ok.

First of all, congrats on the acceptances! Generally, I would say that you couldn't really go wrong with any of those choices, though of course research overlap is an important factor, and that's something you'll want to figure out just by digging deeper into the specific work being put out by your potential committee members. Without considering your situation in that regard, though, I would go with Stanford. Personally, I think Tanya Luhrmann is one of the best in the business, and it would be massively cool to work with her. You'd also be in good hands med anth-wise with Angela Garcia. I am not very familiar with the med anth folks at UofT and Chicago (though you might want to check out faculty in Chicago's Comparative Human Develoment program, with whom you could potentially work). The Bay Area, while expensive, is generally a really pleasant place to be, so quality of life wouldn't be a problem (I am a Californian, and have reservations of relocating to a bitterly cold part of the continent - a decision that I myself may have to consider). Good luck with your decision! And while I'm here, I'll throw out a question of my own to the thread: how dissuaded should I be by a program/university that is not very well-represented at all in terms of work being done in my geographic target area? A potential university is -really- strong when it comes to one of my main research areas, but not country-specific scholarship in the place where I would likely be carrying out fieldwork. I am open to potentially pivoting to another country, but this still is a little concerning. What do people think?

There were also at least 5 interview result postings last year vs. 1 this year. Maybe it's due to decreased site traffic, but perhaps they did less interviews this time around. /optimistic justification

Would be very curious to hear if the Harvard admit had an interview. I got a message from them awhile back asking to submit further information about my language competencies, but was never invited to interview, so I'm not really sure how much hope to have at the moment...

Hi all, hope everybody is managing the pressure decently. I have a question about rankings. Namely, how much do the program-specific anthro rankings (say, the ones by QS) truly matter? If a program presents a strong fit in terms of faculty and overall research overlap, but falls within the 51-100 tier, which is the more important element to pay attention to? Do low rankings tend to lead to problems when it comes time for job placement even if the faculty/program fit was exceptional? Obviously this is not an exact science, but would nonetheless appreciate thoughts on this issue :)