anthropologygeek

There are a ton of fellowships for both academic accomplishments and your heritage and normally the heritage fellowships are completive and require the academic part to be on par

I could not find my old one so I decided to start a new one. This is just what worked for me plus what I wished I would of known when I applied: 1. Do your homework on where you should apply. Only you can judge if you fit into a program. I recommend going to the results page, sort alphabetically, and going to every school website and seeing what each prof does there. And then look at any other school you can think of. 2. Once your list is done, you should know what each school requires, or recommends which is the same,on the gre and study to obtain that. For masters almost all require 1000 and above and phd they almost all require 1100 and above. There are exceptions, some require lower and a lot of schools require even higher. These scores should be a minimum to you to strive for. Every school I looked at had this info online, some where just a lot easier to find than others. 3. You can make contact through email if you like. I have been accepted to programs I never even emailed and rejected from programs I visited and vice versa so it's up to how you feel. There is no right answer. However, I do recommend you visit your top 3-5 schools. My top choice when applying to phd programs got eliminated and I didn't even apply to it afte I visited. Just think if I never visited and got accepted and went there. I would of been miserable. Not all schools are the same and you won't be happy at everyone. 4. Recommendations should come from your field for phd. Most anthropology profs have no idea of profs from different fields. Plus if your applying to phd programs you should have no problem getting three awesome recommendations from anthropology profs. Master hopefulls might be different. I know I got into 3 of the 5 programs I applied to with only 2 anthropology profs and 1 prof from a different department. Also, if any prof has any hesitation doing it move on, it won't be a great one and your chances of being successful in the bid goes down. In today's market all three should be great ones. Most profs won't come out and say no but they will say, well I'm busy I don't know if I have time or maybe you might want someone who knows you better. If you get a response like that move on to a new one. 5. Personal statement should be awesome. This is one of the few things in the app you can control. You will become OCD about it because you have the control of it. This can make or break you. I know profs who will accept or reject people solely on this. Try to not have spelling or grammar errors. Have non anthropology friends read it for you. Have profs read it for you. But remember take the profs advice with a grain of salt. What works for one doesn't work for others. But they will correct any grammar mistakes for you. But then again I know profs who put little weight on this. Like I said every prof is different. 6. GPA should be above three for all programs and above 3.5 for most. But this is already done for you. 7. Transcripts are costly at some schools cheap at others. If only I knew I should of factored this in where I went. My undergrad required 50 dollars per transcript while my masters school is free. You should send them out way ahead of time, then a month before the deadline call or email the grad secretary and MAKE sure they have it. I had to resend one last minute because the school claimed they never got it. 8. I always made sure my apps where in way ahead of time. Doing this allows you to check with the school and make sure they have everything. I never wanted to et rejoiced or never hear from a school due to some clerical error or something being missing. 9. Have fun. Your signing up to have no life for the next fiveish years. You control where you apply. Right now you have some control. You won't have control again until the spring. Enjoy it. 10. Once the app is in and you checked they have everything try to forget about it. Try not to stress about it. Now I know this is impossible and everyone will stress about decisions and I am so glad I done applying to programs for the rest of my life. Man it is stressful. 11. Decisions time is even more stressful. What if I chose wrong? Your have these doubts forever I think. I know I still wonder wht if I accepted a different offer. If possible I wouldn't make it about money. Now if your 100k in debt it might be different but I find you can find funding within 6 months and any school. It might be more effort than being handed funding, it does excist. And sometimes you get better funding opportunities than the people just handed it. Also, funding has nothing to do with how much an adviser wants you and everything to do with the politics in the department, I know departments who will never fund certain profs students. So to say if you don't get funding right away the prof really didn't want you is not correct. Plus how much is funding worth in the grand scheme of things. If it meant you made 40k less a year in your career was the 100k worth it when it really cost you 300k in a ten year Span. Good luck everyone an I hope everyone reading this gets accepted by the program you want.

I think the only way to truly know is to be the person you are contacting.I'm sure it varies by professor and you shouldn't stress over this detail. If you feel the email will hurt you don't send it. If you want to show your serious about the program visit it in the fall but set up a meeting first. There's not a right or wrong answer it's whatever you feel like. You have so much to stress about beyond this, spend the time worrying offer this on your personal statement, studying, and deciding who to ask for recs.

You can do whatever you want is my point. Either way you aren't killing your chances and your app will have to stand on it's on.

Oh I forgot to say that if I had contacted my phd advisor in the fall of the year I was applying they would of told me they weren't taking students since in the fall they didn't think they were taking students but decided to. And every prof is different. I know now how to be accepted to each person guaranteed based on what they value most in an application and it is different for each.

When I applied for my masters I didn't contact one future adviser and got in at 50% of the places I applied. I only 1 future advisor when I applied for my phd and I got into 7 of the 10 places I applied. It is not necessary it just depends on whether or not you feel you should or you want to.

I don't think it matters that much. In fact I have never meet someone that has done this. A good investment might be to do a field school under that professor you want to study under the most.

Yes to both the financial questions. Not sure which ones in your field but all you have to do is do some research into schools.

Most guys were Jean and a t-shirt.

Bones- was research done with grant money from adviser? If s legally he has the right to any and all data collected and the right to publish anything. and yes I could see legal actions in this matters haunting your career not to mention the time, and energy cost fighting this when you could be spending it on your career. Your looking a years of legal fitting if you hire a lawyer. Plus at 300 an hour is the financial cost worth it? Just take this as lesson learned, transfer and put it past you. This is what I would do but everyone is different.

Well, prof is technically allowed to do this but this is awful of them. If my adviser did this I would transfer. You need to be able to rely on your adviser for help and be able to trust them. They play a big role in getting you a job and sounds like they won't Try to help but steal any opportunities you have coming.

Theres a lot of programs. Just look at every school you can think of and see if your interest match any profs there

Take it guaranteed job and more money

Well my school A's are expected, b's you messed up, C's we think you should transfer, a D and below it was nice having you here but you are now kicked out.

Go with what you want. I know that turning down money can be hard but sometimes it's the best decision of your life.

A lot of schools with both ma and phd do this

All thing being equal, I think Clemson just because I bet the weather is at least a little warmer

Arya- it's called academic imbreeding and if your interested in academia they frown over this and some schools won't hire because of it.

Well legally you are obligated to go to the school. You need to email and ask for your release and most likely they will grant it. They could go after you if you just don't show up for the first year of tuition but I highly doubt they would

Overall ranking don't mean anything. The last rankings were done in 94 and only the schools who requested rankings got ranked. As for what matters, it all depends on the name of your advisor and then what help he gives you. Most programs require you to get a masters first then a phd even if they say otherwise on their websites. And yes where you go for masters can affect where you get into for your phd.

Liz- thanks I missed that correction. I was typing on my phone.

Don't forget, first five years of making payments on a house you buy goes directly to the interest. You must stay there five years to break even so if you only plan on being there five years I don't recommend buying

I would say rejection but if they already sent some out then i would lean towards wait listed.

Who's the adviser at each and how does that influence your future? That the question you should ask. Also, how much doubt have you already taken on? I would try to stay under 100k at most total for life since anything more than that would be hard to pay back ever.

I still wonder the what IRS with programs I turned down. Just must think you made the best decision but I don't know if the doubts will ever go away