Fritzie

So, so true about the mental rankings - mine are 1, 1, 1, 9. I just keep telling myself that not everyone has heard of this place, so lots of information won't be posted here or elsewhere online, which is why I haven't seen a peep about anywhere I applied yet.............

I was doing good for a few days, keeping away from the computer and the constant refreshing... I actually kinda almost made some progress on my thesis! But now I'm pretty much back to freaking out again, and getting nothing done for the thesis, conference paper, etc. I'm especially freaking out since there's been no word - on websites, email, snail mail, blogs, anywhere - from any of the schools I applied to! No acceptances, rejections, waitlists, gossip, nothing. I'm beginning to wonder if I fell off the edge of the world, or if those schools don't really exist, and it was all just an elaborate prank. :cry: > > :evil: >

I contacted several profs before I sent out applications, and I'm glad I did - one's info was completely outdated, she's now working in a completely different area, on a completely different continent, so my chances would have been zero; one's taking an extended leave of absence starting in 2010 to do fieldwork; and one's retiring. So I saved myself a lot of money, if nothing else. And I did end up having some very nice, interesting, detailed email exchanges with a couple profs I contacted about my MA thesis and research interests, so I'm hopeful that I might have helped my chances at least a little bit. Fingers crossed!

Or maybe the linguistic people don't have anything to do with folklore, so they ticked the cultural box...? (I drift back and forth between both, so I ticked both boxes - but no folklore! C'mon, there's more to linguistic anth than that!) :mrgreen:

I honestly don't know what I'd do. I need a PhD for most of the jobs I'd really like, so it would be very hard to turn down anyplace that accepted me.?My problem is that I already have a ton of loans from undergrad and my MA - I can't take any more on, so it would be very difficult to make ends meet without any funding. Anyway, I've applied to four schools. One of them I wouldn't attend without full funding - it's not a bad school, and I'd be happy getting my degree there, but... I wouldn't pay for it. One is in an EXTREMELY expensive city - I couldn't afford to attend without funding no matter how badly I wanted to go (oh, and I do, so badly!). The other two... they're in cities, too, but not much more expensive than where I'm at now. And they're both very good programs. I think I'd seriously consider attending either one of them, working part-time, and trying to get funding after the first year.

Another anthropologist here - cultural/linguistic, though, so it doesn't sound like I'm actually competing for spots with most of you. Sunshine, erudite, I applied to ASU as well, and got that same stupid email. That subject line really freaked me out, I thought they'd already decided to flat-out reject me, maybe my application was so bad they just burst out laughing and chucked it in the trash can......... Anyhow, I only applied to four programs - not many fit well, and I'm already in a MA program so finances are tight - and I'm not expecting to hear anything until at least the end of this month. So I'm trying my best to keep the mailbox-refreshing and mailman-stalking to a minimum for the moment. Hopefully the anthropology gods will smile on my efforts!

Glad to know you all agree that not contacting now is probably the best way to go. I guess I was just having a small attack of paranoia - shouldn't I be DOING something? Thanks for giving me the needed reality check! I'll leave everything in the hands of the application gods (Loki, At

Honestly, I'm not sure that we can say whether you're eligible to apply for this fall or not. My personal opinion is that your background does sound a bit weak, although your GRE is good and I'm assuming your undergrad grades are too. But your application will be much stronger if you can state clearly where your interests within anthropology lie. Even within archaeology there are a number of different paths you could pursue. Of course, you don't have to have all the details worked out - picking the department that fits you best isn't nearly as necessary for MA work as for the PhD later - but if you're really interested in a particular area or time period, it does help your chances to apply to a school where it would be possible to study that. I'm just going by my experiences in my current MA program - my classmates focusing on archaeology sat around and discussed whether they were studying historic or prehistoric, southeast, southwest, Mississippian, bioarch, geoarch, etc. in the program orientation before classes began. So in that sense it might be worth it for you to take a year and prepare before applying.... Just my $0.02. =) I'll share my own experience, because I think it may be somewhat helpful for you. I also switched from another field in undergrad to anthropology for my MA. My undergrad field was somewhat related, but just tangentially - there was a lot I was missing. After applying to grad schools the first time, and getting flat-out rejected by all of them, I did what I should have done at first - talked with the chair of the anthro dept. at the school I was most interested in attending. She told me that if I took a couple classes (general intro to anthro, intro to a couple subfields, and an upper-level course in my subfield, cultural) as a post-bacc student at my local StateU to fill in some of the necessary background knowledge I didn't have, I would probably get into the MA program next time. This was also to prove that I really had the interest and drive to pursue a degree in anthro, and at least a certain measure of ability in the field, so I wouldn't be wasting everyone's time if I figured out I really didn't want to do this after the first semester. For archaeology, I'm sure it would also be a big help to do a field school somewhere, maybe your local U has one over the summer? That would prove that you know what archaeology is really all about (apparently they get a lot of applicants with Indiana-Jones-stars in their eyes....) Anyway, lots of luck! I hope things work out well for you - the more anthropologists, the merrier!

Another anthropologist here! And I'm doing cultural, even. Well, a mashup of mostly cultural with some linguistic thrown in (now, THERE'S the forgotten subfield, I tells ya!) I didn't do my BA in anthro, although it was a more or less related field, and my GPA was terrible, so I went for an MA instead of trying to go straight into a PhD. Now, I feel like I'm almost sorta up to speed, so here's hoping.... But for you BA- or BS-only applicants, don't worry. Haven't you noticed how, um, diverse anthropologists are? =) I'm sure you've got at least as good of a chance at getting in as the rest of us! So, I'm worried about both getting admitted and getting funding. So far all I've heard is "Congratulations, you managed to mail in all the necessary pieces of paper, so you can starting waiting now - have fun!" And let me tell you, seeing that "congratulations" in the email subject freaked me right the f*** out! The funding is my main worry, though, because I've still got undergrad loans, with MA loans on top (my current program only has $$$ for grad students who work in labs). =( Right now I refuse to even add up the total of all my loans, but even so it's safe to say that I simply CAN'T take any more loans for now - I have to get a TA/RA/GA, fellowship, or SOMETHING. =(

Need your advice, please! Like a good PhD applicant, I contacted potential advisors at the schools I was applying to back in the fall/winter, discussed how my interests and theirs matched, and how I saw myself fitting into their programs, all that jazz. I got some really nice responses, answered all their questions, asked a few about their current research, the programs, etc. Then, the conversations tapered off - fine, there's not really much more to be discussed at this point, after all. But one professor did give me his phone numbers, and said I could call if I thought of any further questions. Since I really didn't have any, I wrote back thanking him, but said that for now I don't really have any questions since he'd been so informative already, and they have a good website (and that's true, I'm not just trying to suck up by saying that). Now that the applications are in and all the deadlines are passed, though, I'm wondering - should I contact anyone again? I can't see any need to, since I really don't need any more information until I (hopefully) get accepted. But, maybe it's a good idea to remind them about me? And especially, should I contact/call the professor who suggested I call him? I'm kicking myself now for not calling him - such a wasted opportunity! But I wonder if, at this point, it would seem a bit desperate and transparent, especially since I really can't think of anything to ask that wouldn't seem premature now.... Thoughts?