mutualist007

So sorry. That really bites. Your credentials are astounding and leave mine in the dust. I have "life" experience but not what you have. If I may, can you tell us a little about your SOP research topic? I am going to try and improve my research experience, but that may mean paying penance in a terminal master program before the top dogs will bother to look at me again, BUT I am also wondering if my research interest alienated me. My screen name is no coincidence; I mentioned Kropotkin's mutual aid in my "biocultural" SOP.

A bunch of Emory rejections were posted today including mine posted this afternoon. I am an official reject now.

Great recommendations. Thanks! I'll look into the first options you missed. I'm trying to get on the teaching boat now. It's good experience and a good way to learn to organize lesson plan instruction time.

Sounds like a great plan if you are a cultural person! However, I don't see a way to do the same thing with physical/bioarch. It would be real hard to do without plunking down some serious tin and going into a field school experience. Maybe I should try minor publishing? I love anthropology, but I am also fearful about not making backup plans should anthropology fall through or present a huge obstacle to overcome again next year. I am afraid that if I have a slow acceptance or no acceptance next year (assuming worst this year), my subsistence strategies will start eroding away quick like. Many places now state the acceptance of one year of Masters work and that would probably be the first year work. It's especially not bad if you can swing a TA or loan, and get in some serious work and a thesis as an archaeology or bio student. I think it's a toss up for cultural folks though. Your plan is good for you, and you can still make money teaching. There's much to be done if you get to Mongolia and the border routes. If I were going more legal or economic I might be interested in North Africa, or in the Lakota. Part of me still wonders about that interest, which is why I am bonding interests with the "biocultural" link. Good luck!

What kind of alternatives? I am doing that too, considering radiology, biomedical lab certification, other masters plans, and other things I can loop back to. Sure I'd love to stay in anthropology, but what can I really do between now and next year (that I can afford...) to requalify for a PhD program? But not all options are exhausted. I am considering a couple of Terminal Masters programs that have late acceptances. Eastern Carolina is accepting applications until April, and no doubt there's others in your neck of the woods. If you have any bright ideas on backups, please post them. We may even have a thread for it already that I started when I first began to get anxious about plan b options.

Hey thanks! That all sounds great! I'm still waiting though I see most of my schools have already sent out both rejections and acceptances. I haven't received anything yet, and I don't know what that means. I logged in to the applications to review my contact info and everything is correct there. Did Pitts notify you via email or phone? I'm relaxing a bit now, but still pondering the prudent thing to do now.

I guess I am totally without a clue, but how specific did you get with your SOP? Did you go into geographic region, population, methods, etc... or did you stay open with some of that and mainly mention dynamics of a research interest (political economy and paleodiet of early complex societies ....) I guess the waiting is getting into my head... Since I have no responses so far, its hard not to pour over predictions and beat myself up over and over for not taking a longer amount of time putting everything together. If I can help anyone doing this in the future I would tell them to start a year or so out. However, it took me a while to think through my interests and distill my research questions and find a biocultural approach to match. I would really love to be in the position one day to truly help others negotiate these choices and trials.

I'm holding out for four-field and I applied to four-field schools. However, theoretical divergence is making it more difficult to maintain a four-field perspective and keep up with modern post-post modernist qualitative perspective on culture. I think its what leads the evobio in a more myopic abstracted biological direction. That's just me though. Others may see it differently.

Unrelated, but I lived in Ann Arbor for a while and loved it. Best of luck on everything but rest easy that you have some information to work with. I'm still waiting (no calls, email, etc). I'm taking the GRE the second time on March 6 in hopes for better numbers next year (if needed). If I don't break 1350 or 1400 I may just let it go and focus on other endeavors of rep building. Volunteering, trying to find publishing or presenting opportunities, and doing more in general are all in the works as prep work.

Is it possible perhaps that some of us have been unofficially waitlisted without notification? Say one of your top picks shows five results; 1 acceptance, 1 interview, and 3 rejections, but you know nothing. What should anyone take from that if they haven't heard a response either way? Right now I vacillate between rejection and a "maybe", but wait for confirmation.

Thanks! What did your contacts say about publishing opportunities and presenting, or will that be judged differently because of your work and training in social work? I think radiography will give me security, but it does nothing in regards to proving myself with a thesis paper. If I don't get in this time around, I'll aply to some Masters programs in March-April and also apply to the Radiography programs. I don't know how I'll choose between the two though... If I can't get in, I'll just start inventing my own way to be relevant and then try, try again.

Thanks AA BTW, I'm applying to biological and bioarch programs, so some crossover works and some will not. Your answers on "fit" really helped and I worry now that my SOP may not have been specific enough since I did not limit my scope to POI projects. I gave my interests, then related it to the POI, but I did not go into detail about working under the POI. Did I shoot myself in the foot, let, neck? As for the other parts of the application, I suppose I am trying to quantify certain aspects of the candidate profile which I have not seen quantified: How many times should one be published? How many presentations? Years of field experience? What types of field or experiential activities get attention? I may sound like a neophyte, because I guess I am in a sense. I transferred in to the degree from a previous degree, and did everything in 2 years where most people spend 4-5 building experiential credentials. I have other lamentations on the process, but I don't know what to do with it.

I'm still waiting; no interviews and no rejections, though the ones from schools in PA be sent out in March. I contacted Emory via email but I haven't received a response, and only three people have posted to the Results page. Last year 6 people posted, but the years previous only have 3 posts, so 2010 may be an outlier, but who knows at this point.

You certainly gave us great feedback on what types of profiles interest adcoms, but what I think the OP may yearn for are concrete examples of activities that will gain them favor with schools. To say that one needs to appeal to a particular faculty member or lab, is to invite a multitude of stabs in the dark, or an overly myopic approach aimed at one school that places all the eggs in one basket. This question goes out to all who have broken in to a PhD path: What pursuits or activities in general are good for building relevant experience? We know the story on GPA and GREs, but for those of us who failed to get a ton of faculty attention and assistant time during their undergraduate time, what do we do now while waiting? I would have been on every puddle of mud available as an undergrad given what I know now and what I know of circumstances, but I was rushing through a second degree and was a commuter student who lived further away from campus than everyone else. What is valuable and realistic for the rest of us?

You certainly gave us great feedback on what types of profiles interest adcoms, but what I think the OP may yearn for are concrete examples of activities that will gain them favor with schools. To say that one needs to appeal to a particular faculty member or lab, is to invite a multitude of stabs in the dark, or an overly myopic approach that places all the eggs in one basket. This question goes out to all who have broken in to a PhD path: What pursuits or activities in general are good for building relevant experience? We know the story on GPA and GREs, but for those of us who failed to get a ton of faculty attention and assistant time during their undergraduate time, what do we do now while waiting? I would have been on every puddle of mud available as an undergrad given what I know now and what I know of circumstances, but I was rushing through a second degree and was a commuter student who lived further away from campus than everyone else. What is valuable and realistic for the rest of us?

I don't know if this is a reply, but I am in the same boat now. I am now considering a certification in a medical field, such as radiology, or phlebotomy, or biotech so that I can obtain lab skills and work. I see the additional skills as an opportunity to enhance ideas in anthropology and create some security. These choices are mostly dictated by my perception of the reality of the workplace and how hard I have it now finding work. I worry that the addition of a professional associates or certificate reflects badly on how my desire to get the PhD, and if adcoms will see my move to a professional field in that light.

Congratulations! I am waiting on some other schools; thanks for asking. I'll try again for Emory next year if I don't get accepted into Pitts or Temple. They might get tired of me though if I try more than twice. If you don't mind, please post something here if you run into biological candidates at the interviews.

AG, I am volunteering now at a Natural History Museum and plan to volunteer for an archaeological preservation group too. Will these things help if I can't get anyone to employ me as a research assistant? When you write "do research" , what exactly does that mean? Would doing my own research and trying to get mention in some print source or presentation help? I'm not in school, so I have no associations as a student? When you say it's gonna happen "now", When exactly do you mean? (How soon is now?)

Thanks for sharing your information here. I just have a few questions in response, that might help those who wait sort this out. 1. By background, do you mean where we went for our undergraduate degrees? What sort of MA or MS program should we aim for to better ramp up for the top 2-3 tiers of PhD programs? Best to find out how to scale the ladder... or is it a precipice... 2. What did you learn about writing SOPs? I never knew if mine was specific enough or too specific. All words of wisdom are appreciated.

Someone on the results page said they were rejected from Emory and that the admissions officer confirmed that all of the finalists have been notified. Emory must be finished with their selections; those of us waiting are probably on the rejects list.. I guess I've been put back in my place now and learned something in the process. It sucks, but it is what it is. Darwinism I suppose... we weren't selected for I'll post my 'rejected' status on Results when I'm officially notified. PS - Do we already have thread for what makes a successful candidate, or should we start one anew for 2011? If I need to find a worthy pursuit, I'd like to know how to best spend my time and where to spend it before trying again.

Books like these have to be updated every year or so, and they cost money and time and gas. Why not support the freedom of information future? There are some, well who don't practice with integrity what they rail against. Noam for example. Why can't he drop the publisher and publish his thoughts as books for free or reduced price on his website? Just an innocent question, no? But, while we wait, the technology persists with propelling revolutions

I forgot to ask what countries you were interested in; I read into your post without actually reading it which is bad of me. Where are you looking?

It's called Google! Just kidding... Here's a resource that is bloated with other content, but is works for quick survey searches: http://www.gradschools.com/search-programs/campus-programs/anthropology/masters/united-states Overall comprehensive listing of US Grad programs in anthropology http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/ But count me in on the the "me too" crowd. I'd like to know if this has been done before, so that I don't reinvent the wheel if I start a voluntaryist web project listing anthropoogy graduate studies programs.

Hello again and thanks for the advice! I will go with the overwhelming consensus here and waive the right to see the LOR that I would most likely not see anyway! What was I thinking??? I guess it's back to waiting for results! Good luck in your endeavors!

Is it bad to say to NO to waiving the right to see recommendations? I've already completed 3 anthropology applications and for those I agreed to waive the right to see them. I mostly did it out of courtesy, but it may be false courtesy and fear. I can't help but feel curious and I really want to exercise my freedom and freedom of access to information. No worries; just curiosity I suppose and maybe the desire for a change. So am I making a mistake or possibly offending honor by claiming my right to see the LOR? Do you wish to waive your right to examine this letter of recommendation?* Yes NoUnder the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, students have access to their education record, including letters of recommendation. However, students may waive their right to see letters of evaluation, in which case the letters will be held in confidence.