Tonights

And we posted it at exactly the same minute, too!

We went to the zoo today, which was immensely relaxing. All of the animals were out and about because this was really the first warm day we've had. I hardly thought about grad school all day as I was watching adorable prairie dogs.

I hate to burst your bubble, but the "Univeristy" misspelling is often pre-filled in the "School" field of the drop-down menu. I posted the other day, selected my university from the menu and when I reviewed the post, was shocked to see "Univeristy." I didn't type it, it was already there. So, that's how and why that is happening so much. It's many people propagating one person's error, not many people making the same error.

You must have a car, in my opinion. There are buses that go to and from the shopping areas, but if you ever want to go anywhere, you're going to need a car. There is A LOT of farmland up in State College. The closest Amtrak station is Lewistown, which is 50 minutes away. Most of the PSU students I know have cars, and if I get in, I'm bringing the car. You can get to Philly on a bus, but that's about it - State College isn't exactly a major bus hub. That said, it's not as boondocks as people sometimes make it out to be. The town has a charming little downtown area, shops, restaurants, there's a Target and a Wegmans (which is the best grocery store in the entire world). And of course State College is great if you like outdoor activities, hiking, etc. It's very convenient to lots of that type of thing. Main Campus of PSU is my favourite campus ever, anywhere. They've got their own dairy, Berkey Creamery (http://www.creamery.psu.edu/) that makes DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS ice cream and cheese - you won't find a better Chipwich. There's also the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts every summer and people REALLY get into football up there. I'm trying to think of other tips I can give you about it, I'll comment more as things occur to me.

Buh? You know about historical archaeology, right? Protohistoric archaeology? Ethnoarchaeology? Industrial archaeology? There's no cut-off date for archaeology - physical anthropology and archaeology aren't different ages of the same discipline, they're totally different. I mean, there is overlap, but they're not anywhere near the same. My specialty is protohistoric lithic technology, which is within the last 200-300 years, but certainly wouldn't come even close to being considered physical or biological anthropology - you know, being as it's flaked stone and not anything that's come from a human body.

Yeah, Adaptations, I've noticed that I am significantly more relaxed today. But it's not going to stop me from refreshing gradcafe every couple of minutes, 'cause I'm at work. XD I think my current standings are 6 PhD, 2 MA still to hear from - I originally applied to 8 PhD and 1 MA, one of my PhD apps was transferred to MA consideration from lack of funding, and one of the PhD programs notified somebody four days ago, so I think that means I'm probably just waiting on a rejection letter at their pleasure.

Wow, big congrats!

One of my programs notified somebody on the 4th. Guess that means I'm screwed. Luckily it wasn't one I truly expected to get into, nor desperately desired to.

Not to mention outside factors like the economy which could cause schools to accept fewer students than they normally would.

Yes. And of course, I'm sure it varies wildly by program. My programs didn't give a fig about my math, but they were really impressed with my verbal score, and I'm sure that it'll work in my favor. Someone in maths, obviously, would have the opposite.

No. I'm ashamed I didn't think of hibernating. Pity I have to work.

Same, although I contacted programs first to ask if my low math score would discount me from consideration.

Might I ask your verbal score? Just curious. I really think the weight of the GRE depends a lot on the school and program, it's not weighted equally across schools or even across programs within schools.

Might I ask why? Many of us here would have given our eyeteeth and our firstborn to know last week.

Well, people are offering you statistics of particular programs because the statistic you're asking for doesn't exist, and furthermore, if it did exist, it would mean absolutely nothing because of the insane numbers of variables in the study. Like, (making this up,) pretend 10% of people who apply to grad school get in. What does that really mean for you? Squat. Because your programs might be more competitive, or less competitive, and you might have more experience than a lot of people in the study, or whatever. Plus, such information isn't readily able to be compiled. Every single graduate program would have to provide numbers of how many applicants it had for every single program versus how many actually wound up being accepted and then how many wound up being enrolled. You'd also have to take into account people applying to multiple programs, people who applied to programs and would have been accepted but their potential adviser wasn't taking anyone new.... blah, blah, blah. /windy

I agree, I wish rejections would go out sooner - even if they were just generic emails, just so I would know how many apples I have left in my basket. I can't shake the feeling that my applications are probably already in the circular file.

My schools accept between five and fourteen percent. Blehhhhhh.

I'm trying to talk myself out of applying to a not-good program in a place I don't want to live - but which has an admissions deadline of 2/15. It's so tempting to apply there even though I know I wouldn't want to go if I got in (which I probably would).

I don't think it's possible to compile statistics like that. The variance in school acceptance rates is too broad, I think, for such a number to mean much of anything even if it existed (which it might, I mean, I'm talking out my ass here). However, some schools list their acceptance rates on their department pages, or their grad school pages, or what have you. I know I saw them on Princeton and Rutgers, I'm sure other places have them too. You might be able to get an idea of your spectrum of likelihood if you check around for those.

As soon as my Wii gets back from being repaired in a few days, I'm so in for that. Fabulous idea. In the absence of the Wii I've been playing Bioshock on our 360, which I highly, HIGHLY recommend. It's EXTREMELY distracting. I barely think abut grad school at all while I'm splattering genetically-enhanced crazy people all over the underwater city.

The worst part is a terrible feeling of limbo, like I can't work on or plan anything until I know if I've been accepted. We haven't planned a vacation this year, because if I get into school I'm quitting my job and doing the Appalachian Trail. We want to move apartments, but why look for a new one in town now if we might be moving 500 miles in a couple of months? The only thing I feel like doing, alas, is playing video games.

I'm having that as well. Worrying is very taxing, it would seem, as I'm tired all the time. Nice to see another anthropology person, though.

If I get rejected this year, that's it. Mainly because my application is absolutely the best it can be and I have no prospects of improving it, so why try again? What a depressing thought. No, it's culinary school for me if I bomb.

I've had a phone call from Boston. A very kindly lady wanted to know if I had any questions about the program. She said she just handled paperwork and didn't have anything to do with admissions, but quite mysteriously, she knew what countries I've done fieldwork in. This was my first phone contact with a program and oddly enough I actually feel better now - I didn't stutter like a moron as I'd been expecting. I've also gotten an email from Connecticut. They're going to decide by the end of the month, so if anybody's waiting on them, we've got a just little longer to wait. Have gone past panic attacks and into odd, inward calm.

Just poking in to check on the rest of my hollow-eyed zombified homies. I'm not doing so hot myself and haven't felt like talking about much of anything. I guess a lot of us have gone past the happy, joking worriedness and moved on to the internal terror. I know I have.