miratrix

Good for you! I only contacted profs at 3 out of 7 because they were local enough to visit, I didn't see the point of emailing them if I couldn't meet in person. At one school I'm really glad I did, at one school I think it helped me informationally but won't help me to get in, and at one school I would actually say it was a disaster. Haven't heard back from any of those schools yet, but I have strong expectations based on the meetings: probable acceptance, probable acceptance without funding, probable rejection.

If you lived near Porter Square in Cambridge, you'd be quite close to Harvard (walkable in nice weather, or a very quick bus or subway ride), and he could take the commuter rail into Brandeis for a 15-20 minute trip. (That is not bad - I spend 30-45 minutes commuting from near Cambridge to downtown Boston, and I think it's reasonable.) It's better to rely on trains than buses due to shorter waiting times and the fact that you wait indoors for trains, and if you lived near Porter you'd be by the T to get to Harvard and the commuter rail for Waltham.

To be more specific about "is it livable," if I'm from the north and I think 60-70 degrees is the ideal temperature, enjoy a crisp fall day, and start moaning that I'm too hot when the temperature hits 80...am I going to die? Is the climate going to actually make me miserable, or can you get used to huge changes like that?

I've never had one, thank goodness, but there was one prof in another department at my undergrad who made women swoon. A couple of my friends were obsessed with him and enjoyed overanalyzing his every word and email. (He did nothing to discourage this, and perhaps was a little more friendly than necessary. He also was in a discipline with mainly male majors, and openly stacked his classes with women to even it out.) Two years after graduation, my best friend called me last month and said "Hey, I just had a dream about that professor...."

Never! I hated writing it (talking about myself? no fun), and don't find it nearly interesting enough to read over.

The application process is *very* wonky, it doesn't say anything about your chances elsewhere. I'm sorry it was such a tactless way to learn, though, that's rotten phrasing.

...that I spent several hundred dollars and many hours of my life over three months trying to convince programs that I'm worth admitting. ...that I'd be willing to move to the middle of nowhere in a climate I'd hate and live on not much money. But I'd be getting to study archaeology, so it should be worth it! But honestly, I'm not utterly dedicated to the idea of getting a PhD right now. I applied to a couple MA programs that would be great fits for me, in addition to PhD programs, and if I end up in one of those I'm not ready to say yet whether I will apply to PhD programs afterwards.

I can answer one part of your question - you can definitely live in Boston and LA on 20-22K, I don't know about NY personally. You won't be rich but you won't be miserable either. Also, you can usually estimate the undisclosed amounts of fees from lists of this year's fees on university websites. If not, ask someone from the program.

Oh dear...I hear you, I've had an amazing number of LoR issues...could you convince UBC and your professor to email the letter on grounds that it'll only take a few minutes, and can be done right away? In my "missing documents" news, I got an email from one school with a Feb. 1 deadline (the one that wouldn't do status checks last week) saying they were missing an LoR and my SoP, but if I sent those I shouldn't worry, they probably just haven't been processed yet. Those documents were sent in late January, whereas everything else was in by late December, so I suspect they're just in a pile of unopened stuff...my question is, given that this school won't forward uncompleted applications to departments, at what point do I worry and resend things? I'm thinking I should wait another week.

It's quite possible to live on $1100 a month, I'm doing it in a major city (not NY)...wouldn't say I'm never strapped for cash, but I'm not miserable either. Still, signing up to do that for the next 5-7 years is just kind of a sad thought, I hope I'm offered slightly more generous stipends (or just get an MA)!

That's so sweet!

Huh, I always thought of linguistics as a social science. I can see how it's a strange hybrid, though

My parents are both supportive but not overly involved. They'll ask how things work, and what I want to do, and whether I've heard anything, but they won't give me opinions on whether they think my plans are good ideas or stupid, and they won't give me platitudes on how they're sure I'll get in somewhere. Sometimes I'm embarrassed talking about it because the job prospects with a grad degree in anthropology are so risky compared to their careers, which are technical...I wonder if ten years from now if I'm not successful, it will seem like I wasted the opportunities they gave me that they had to work much harder to get, and that I didn't recognize the value of being practical. But since they've never actually suggested that in any way, I try not to think like that too much.

It may be hard this year, but I bet it'll be even worse next year. Funding cuts will probably be worse for the next academic year than this one, more people will be out of work, and applicants who didn't realize just how serious the economic crisis was until late fall will have more time to prepare. I'm still grateful I'm not applying for jobs, though. I had to do that in October & November, when things were just starting to get worse, and if I get into just 1 out of 7 grad schools my acceptance rate will be much, much higher than it was for the jobs I applied for. My current workplace announced a vacancy recently and had 76 applications the next day.

Sorry to hear that, Isaac :/ I'll have to be the contrary one here, though. I'd definitely rather wait another month for an acceptance than get a rejection tomorrow. In fact, I expect to (wait, that is, not get all acceptances).

I know what you mean! I'm almost certainly moving out of my apartment this year, some friends want to discuss moving in together next year, and I have to keep saying "I want to but I don't know what city I'll be in!" I just hope I get acceptances and figure this out before they make other plans...unlike your SO, friends are not guaranteed to move with you. And I can't even commit to cover for people who need days off at work in March because I'm hoping I'll be going on some campus visits. It's not just a feeling of limbo, it actually IS limbo to not be able to commit to things you would normally have no problem with!

I'm not sure if an email that says "hi, just wanted to let you know that my research has changed TOTALLY in the last two months" is a great idea...it would probably be a lot more useful to ask your advisor and MA professors than us, though, they're a better resource

If they said something really specific like, "sorry, we couldn't take any students in your subdiscipline this year," or "sorry, you are totally brilliant but we had to give preference to in-state students," or anything that made it seem not your fault...it would make me feel better. (I tend to assume things like that anyway, even though they're not true, because if I'm going to be ignorant either way I might as well be happy and ignorant.)

People at work know that I'm applying to graduate school, but when they ask where I've applied I always stress the schools in my city to give the impression that I am not set on on moving and quitting come summer. (I would probably stay on part-time if I went to school here, so I don't want them to start thinking about next year without me!) It's a little more likely that I will be leaving, but even if I get accepted to schools elsewhere, I'm not telling until where I'm going is set in stone. Given other people's comments, this is a very situation-specific issue, I guess.

I think you should take her if you have the confidence to introduce her with a big smile to show you're happy she's there and not embarrassed, and to not care that yeah, some people there will probably think it's juvenile. If you don't have that confidence (I wouldn't), I'm sure she'd understand, right?

Neither have I, and neither has my roommate who's also in comp sci. No worries. It's early.

Hey, I once spelled my own last name wrong on both pages of an SoP! (Caught before mailing, fortunately, because it was REALLY prominent.) And I DO know how to spell my last name, I just don't always succeed

I'd love to start searching now, but I haven't gotten an admissions decision A friend who lives in DC says a shared small apartment in DC proper or Takoma Park would be affordable and pleasant, but do you really need a car to commute from either of those places to College Park?

It sounds like you're not applying to grad schools yet, and you still have a lot of time left to work with this professor, so no need to make that decision just yet. What I would do would be to ask him - not now, but when you're actually ready to apply - to sit down and talk about your work and your grad school plans. At that point, say what it is you'd like to do, ask his advice, and ask if he has any insight on the quality of your work, your chances, and your potential. If he says anything that sounds ambivalent, that's a sign that maybe you should ask someone else. If everything he says to your face is positive, ask if he would feel comfortable writing you a very strong recommendation (I actually asked this of my advisor because I could tell from her evaluation of my work in an independent study that she wouldn't put me in the "brilliant" box, and she was like "YES! Absolutely! Of course!", so I don't think it would be rude). If he's someone you trust not to lie to your face, that should give you an answer. I think you have time to work this out without letting anyone know you read the letter. But man, I'm glad I didn't see mine. Ignorance is bliss.

"culture is the study of cultures"? that sure clears things up! seriously though, those are good questions, but i bet because of the differences in fieldwork and the scientific vs. cultural orientation of different subfields, grad school experience and job prospects vary a lot. spending a year or two living in the amazon has to result in a very different grad school experience than spending several summers digging up a 300 year old village, for instance. physical/bioanth is the only subfield my undergrad didn't have at all, so i really can't help here, i'm sorry!