chaffinch

Me!! I literally just found out unofficially from POI I got into UCI after being waitlisted two years ago. And I got waitlisted at every other school I applied to this year (most of which rejected me outright two years ago). I don't know if I will get into those schools but I think it's a pretty good improvement, maybe others will disagree haha. I was very honest with myself about my application and why it got rejected. First, I will admit that I applied to some schools last time purely based on the prestige of the department (Chicago for instance) rather than actual fit; this year, I ended up applying to VERY few schools. My approach was to write out a general essay and then tailor each SOP very specifically to each school and think seriously about how the research would change based on each department - not just that flyaway last paragraph 'at x school I can work with abc profs' but the entire damn essay. Also, my sense is that more than any other field, Anthro departments prefer a holistic approach. So even if your research is perfect for 2 profs the process is more like, the vast majority of the faculty has to be able to work with you to some degree. To put it another way, what's the likelihood you'd still be able to do your research if the department got hit by an earthquake or everyone transferred out and only two people were left? I think that is very important to almost every anthro department these days, some care about this more than others but all do to a certain degree. Finally, depending on your topic, anthro can be especially hard to write for because it covers such a huuuuge range of topics that can theoretically also be done perfectly well as a dissertation in polisci, art history, economics, media studies, whatever - so why specifically the discipline of anthropology? Critical thinking on methodology is key here. I also spent the last 2 years working entirely in a different field than anything my research had to do with. I wanted to see if maybe my desire to go to PhD was some academic Stockholm syndrome and I'd be happy just working and making money (the answer was no, I still have too many questions). I think faculty appreciated that I had that perspective, of making a very active choice to give up my job and go back to anthropology of all things on a shit grad salary. For UCI the official notifications should go out next week btw.

Yeah it really sucks they don't tell people they're rejected until ALL the waitlist/acceptance decisions have also been made. I guess they want to keep a few in rotation for their back pocket 'just in case' but it's awful for us. I'm super on edge cause someone posted an interview from JHU and ahhhhhhh

Michigan's History and Anthro typically doesn't do interviews but I was interviewed for Anthropology. I applied to both. I got waitlisted at History and Anthro (again UGH it's the same exact email word for word as last time) but I haven't heard from Anthropology. However, they don't really offer admission to both so I am thinking it's a soft rejection from general Anthro department. Edit - same as above, if anyone has heard from Michigan Sociocultural Anthropology (NOT + history) I'd love to know!

hey for anyone who is interested in UCI: idk why someone posted they got into irvine, seems something's weird with people making up fake posts this year.... POI says they are just about to send out emails to top candidates for invitation to zoom visit day. so, the interview notification should be very soon but there are no decisions yet