samur

Well, my last two programs I'm waiting on are UCLA and UChicago, but it looks like they've both distributed their acceptances already. It's difficult because I'm questioning whether the difficulties of this year played a large role, or if I'm just not good enough for the programs I'm pushing for. A faculty member from my undergrad program is pushing me to try and get into a MA program since there are some still taking applications right now, but I'm honestly financially terrified of terminal MA programs due to their expenses. Is anyone else struggling with what to do moving forward/coming up with a game plan for the next year? 
To everyone still in the game, I wish you luck!

@crthomps I didn’t, unfortunately. Just waiting on Stanford now.
@anth_lola I have a few faculty contacts across a few anthro departments nationally, and they all said this year has been especially brutal. They’ve gotten hundreds of more applications because people have had more time to apply and think about applying — and there’s probably something to be said about existentialist phenomena, like pandemics, pushing people towards graduate programs. And in addition to a great volume of applications, departments’ limited funding has allowed them to take much fewer people than in normal years. So a dual disadvantage there that I don’t think says much about you as an academic.
One other thing I heard is that many departments have taken mostly applicants that already have MAs. I personally don’t have one and I won’t be getting one — I think it can be a waste of money for something who plans on doing a PhD anyways.
I’m going to spend more time researching my topic, reading, sending my research proposal to different professors I know for their input on it, and finding a way to add a more provocative twist to it.
Anyways, I wish you all luck! And take time to be sad and frustrated about this cycle (it sucks after so much time spent on applications and waiting), but don’t be discouraged! 

To anyone curious about Stanford: applicants who either will be admitted or on their waitlist have already been interviewed. Applicants who did not receive an invitation to be interviewed can count that as a rejection  
I'm honestly bummed about this, I communicated with a POI at Stanford in October who encouraged me to apply and offered some advice on phrasing for my project. 
 
Also got a rejection email from Michigan, even after submitting a FLAS application at their request. 

To anyone curious about Stanford: applicants who either will be admitted or on their waitlist have already been interviewed. Applicants who did not receive an invitation to be interviewed can count that as a rejection  
I'm honestly bummed about this, I communicated with a POI at Stanford in October who encouraged me to apply and offered some advice on phrasing for my project. 
 
Also got a rejection email from Michigan, even after submitting a FLAS application at their request. 

@samur same here, was told to apply for FLAS funding at Michigan but received a rejection email on Friday 2/5/2021.

I'm wondering if I should take my POI saying they submitted a recommendation letter for me for an internal fellowship as a good sign? ? I have an interview in the department too so we'll see.... fingers crossed!

Since decisions have started rolling in, I wanted to wish everyone good luck! Admissions to anthro seems so random and there’s a lot of luck involved—I think that’s probably even more true this year with COVID and fewer spots. I’m hoping to see a lot of acceptances in this thread, but a gentle reminder that a rejection says nothing about your ability to be a great anthropologist. One of my fav grad students was rejected by all schools for the first 2 application seasons, but in that third application season, had a wave of acceptances... stay strong y’all. We got this! 

Hi all! Just checking back in after some time and wishing the best for everyone this week into next. I got my first official decision today, which was a rejection from Princeton. Not how I wanted to start this out, but it's the reality, and now it's up to me to figure out how to process this in a healthy way. 
I still have 2 good chances, so we'll see how it all plays out. This is feeling more and more like playing the lottery though.
Best of luck to everyone in the coming days and weeks, and I'll check back in when I hear more. 

I got interviews at Stanford and UChicago Anthro, among other places... both sociocultural.

Anyone with a CUNY invite who was physical anthropology? (I know most were cultural but a few were unlabeled and figured I'd ask).

 
I have not had any interview invites yet, but UC Davis (I applied animal behavior, not anth) did send out an email stating "We write to inform you that we expect that instruction and research operations will return to pre-pandemic, in-person delivery at the start of the next academic year in September 2021. " I think that's a pretty big stretch for them to call this early though. The email was labeled "UC Davis Graduate Admissions: Planning for Fall 2021" and my heart skipped a beat thinking it was an decision. Alas, just a general update.

First Acceptance! Woo! Phone call no interview for University of Alabama Tuscaloosa's MA program in Biocultural Medical Anthro. While POI mentioned they almost always find funding for Master's students, no funding as of yet but we shall see! Happy to answer any q's about the program or the process as I learn more. For my other schools I applied for PhD, but this school seemed to work more like the european system where they prefer people start with MA then continue on to PhD if it's a fit. There is a direct to doctorate option though where funding is always guaranteed. 

I was too tho so no worries

I have been unable to access the results page today, receiving an error message "Your connection is not private. Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.thegradcafe.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards)"
Anyone else having this issue?

1. I didn't get into this in my interview, so not sure about in-person classes in the fall. Definitely a question I will ask my POI shortly.
2. Why Michigan?; specific questions regarding my prior research and how I carried out fieldwork during COVID; questions about my proposed fieldsites for the doctoral project (overall, very few COVID-related questions)
3. No.

I haven't had any interviews yet, but I do currently work for a university and spoke with a couple POI at a university I applied to, prior to applying. Both the school I work for and the school I applied to are in the Midwest and both will be offering a combination of in-person and online classes this fall still. There have also been changes to the academic schedules (i.e., no major breaks to prevent students traveling home and back) that will still be in place this coming fall. This seems to be what most Midwest schools are doing. 

Thank you! It was with my POI and a senior faculty member. They didn't say anything about funding constraints/COVID circumstances. As a matter of fact, they emphasized that funding was not an issue for them at all as a public institution (compared to Yale, UChicago, etc.). 
Wishing you (and all of us) the best of luck! 

@Anny_anthy Can only speak to my own experience, but no, I do not have a masters. It is my sense, though, that more than a masters, Chicago perhaps values folks with "life experience" beyond the direct undergrad --> PhD route. I took several years off school, for instance, working in an entirely different industry, and have only now, at the age of 34, completed my BA.  It was communicated to me during my interviews that this was a strong positive on my application. 
Then again, this entire process (at all schools) is so filled with opacity that it seems nearly impossible to extrapolate any one persons' experience. 

@Twesiime I am currently an undergrad at umich. Just asked during major advising today and was told that the reviewing process just began. But I didn't apply to umich myself so I didn't ask other questions. 

I think so... I just finished my interview with two faculty members at UMichigan, and they said acceptances will go out in the next few days after they wrap up interviews by the 22nd. But I guess Michigan is quite early in the game with its review process; other places are expected to send out interview invites/decisions only after a week or so, if I'm not mistaken. 

Thank you for the info, it's really helpful (psychologically at least). Good luck!! 

Does anyone have any further news about the University of Michigan PhD in Sociocultural? I saw in the results that they had sent out at least some interviews, and I am wondering if they have selected everyone they intend to interview at this point.

@updayday Thanks for asking! I had two, one with a newer associate prof. and the other with one of the heads of the department. They were each about 40 minutes, and were back to back yesterday morning.
Not too much to report. I think they went quite well, all things considered. Nothing really out of the ordinary was asked, and neither was as scary as I feared they might be. They were both mainly interested in learning more about where my project is headed in light of COVID, and how serious I am about attending Chicago. We talked a  bit about funding and the difficulty of this cycle. They both confirmed applicants' fears that there are fewer spots available this year, as well, in fact dramatically so. The numbers are depressing, tbh -- both the size of the applicant pool and how many they will ultimately admit. 
I don't have any solid timelines from here, but expect all admits will hear back within the next month. 

Good luck to everyone during this weird application cycle! I'm sure we're all in for a ride...
I decided to focus on maritime archaeology and narrowed my apps to East Carolina, University of Southampton, and Florida State. Luckily they're all taking students in for the Fall. They all had super late deadlines, (Jan 15th, and Florida is Feb. 1st!). I also threw my hat in for a Fulbright to fund a year at Southampton, but that's wishing on a star. I should hear if I made semi-finalist by next week...
Just tryna not be a bag of nerves as I refresh my ECU app status page saying they don't have my transcripts (I submitted a month ago) and my one reference is MIA. Her time zone is technically still within the deadline, but it's already the next day in East Carolina. Can you tell this is my first app cycle?

@tundratussocks Have you been in contact with this recommender? Two of mine waited until the 11th hour to submit for all four of my schools, so I don't think it's out of the ordinary!
And don't stress (too much). You're gonna do great!!! This also being my first cycle, one of the things that's helped keep me sane has been to only allow myself a specific 15 minute period each day to refresh things like r/gradadmissions, gradcafe, and my admissions portals. That has helped at least to minimize the negative thought spirals. 
Another thing that I think too few of us recognize is the incredible accomplishment in simply submitting these applications. Those of us who have been through a cycle know the toll it takes on us emotionally and intellectually to get to the point where they're ready to submit.  So congratulations!!! You've done an amazing thing just by getting here.

Not sure if anyone else here applied to UCSC or W&M but UCSC application decisions should be out sometime in March and W&M is going to start reviewing applications sometime next week (heard both these time ranges through professors.) Not sure about any interview dates or anything though! Figured I would pass along the info.