cortado

Hey there— saw this post a while ago and have been meaning to respond, sorry for the delay. I'm in no way an expert here; I just got into a program this cycle and will be attending in the fall. But I figured I'd pass along some comments from an advisor because I had some of the same anxieties as I was writing my statement of purpose: What if I want to change directions? Am I going to write something that locks me into a certain research design or theoretical bent for the next 8 years??? Ahhh!!! To which they all responded: Nobody cares about your statement of purpose. They are looking to make sure that you can think through research questions independently and have the right background to carry this work—which will definitely change in some ways over your studies—and are less concerned with the particulars. (I should add that this might be particular to the US phd programs; I know that UK schools may expect a more thoroughly articulated program of research from the outset). I don't think there should be any issue with your topics changing at this early stage—unless it involves switching from one field of anthropology to another, which might have separate admissions pools in the department (as in, linguistic v. cultural v. bio v. archaeology). It seems like both of your interests are sociocultural. I think that the differences between your proposed projects shouldn't be top of mind—of course you'll want to discuss them with your advisor at some point, and you'll be doing a lot of work to figure out who will be on your committees/ advisors; but there's plenty of time for all of that when you get to school. For now relax! Celebrate! Enjoy your last few months of non-assigned reading for a little while! Congrats and best of luck on whatever your project ends up being!