Waw

Not an exciting story in my case. Waw is the first letter of my surname, and that's what's in the picture. People started calling me by that letter when there were too many people around with the same first name.

I got two rejections yesterday evening, one after another. As it turns out, what I do after being rejected is call my boyfriend, have a sandwich, and watch reruns of That 70s Show. I expected something more dramatic.

I have some spare time on my hands these days and access to an excellent library, so I'm thinking of looking up some good books in the field of Anthropology (and its friends and acquaintances). I'm very good at finding the things that are related to my specific interests, but some of the best ethnographies and other works I've read over the past few years have been completely unrelated, and often suggested randomly by a friend or tutor as something they particularly like. So I'd be interested in hearing your suggestions - what have you read recently (or not so recently!) that you thought was particularly awesome? I'll get the ball rolling with Judith Okely's 'The Traveller-Gypsies', which I liked immediately and enjoyed thoroughly.

Just got the rejection letter from Harvard - not a big surprise, but it's never fun to get rejected. Still, as it's not my top choice out of the four, I'm not as miffed as could be expected. Staying positive. Have fun if you got in!

lower lip

Yay, finally time to really expect things to happen! (Past years suggest none of my programs ever reply before March, really).

About impostor syndrome: When I started my undergrad (we were a fairly small year) the person responsible for admissions had a chat with us on the first proper day of term. She basically said: "Every year, we hear some students saying things like 'Maybe they took me in by mistake?' or 'I'm sure they took me in out of pity'. I'll have you know this - we are very, very good at choosing people. We have been doing this for years. If we have accepted you, it means we have no doubt you can do this, and do this well. We do not take people we're unsure about, or people who we think will fail." Then she paused, and added: "And you know what? There was one time when we actually lost a lot of someone's application, and were very apologetic about it, and decided to take him anyway on the basis of the rest of his material. And he did just fine. So don't worry." I know undergraduate degrees are different from grad school, but I still find the sentiment comforting. If you've been accepted, it means that a lot of people out there who have experience in your field think you are capable.

It's definitely not a bad sign! For starters, have a look at the results page and see whether the universities/departments to which you've applied generally give people answers by now. For instance, I'm waiting on one of UCSC's programs that has a history of very late replies, so I'm not holding my breath yet. In an interview I had a few weeks ago, the interviewer specifically mentioned that finding funding for international students takes more time and effort than for local students, so that can definitely be a reason as well. This depends on the university and the department, of course. I hope you'll find some worthy distractions on this website while you wait, and that you'll end up getting some good news!

If you don't get a reply a week or two into March, give the BGS a call - when I applied two years ago, they just forgot to tell me that a decision had been made. They can be very slow sometimes.

I used to lend a hand with the applicants at my old uni, and had to help out quite drunk applicants back to their rooms at night, after they had been out drinking with the other applicants and had a bit too much. We would just discreetly go and knock on their doors the next morning, to make sure they're up and running and ready to be interviewed/tested/whatever they came over to do. There was a half-joking discussion about just keeping the bar in the building open and letting the applicants fend for themselves. But all in all, picking people based on their ability to be sober seemed like a weak system to those in charge.

Who knows - maybe we both will! I have no clue about the SMS numbers, but they did mention that there's a bit of internal re-organisation (seems to be the case everywhere, really), which might mean they'll change their intake patterns. I'm guessing a small cohort as well. Is it still a cohort if it's just two or three people? Cohort just sounds... larger somehow.

Nope, no word yet - it's been complete radio silence. I think if SMS don't get back to me by next Friday, I might give them a ring/email, since it'll have been more than three weeks since the interview. No other offers yet, no interview from Yale. But Columbia's SMS, followed by UCSC's History of Cosciousness program (which is always very slow to respond) are the programs I'm keenest on, so I'm not brooding quite yet.

I hear ya, persiandoc. I'm a bit glad that I'm visiting my family at the moment, because had I stayed around my boyfriend I might have driven him mad.

I second Missca, curlygrrl - your research direction is really important at the moment (and also sounds really cool!). Here's hoping we all get in somewhere that lets us take our studies to exciting new places. While we're in the mood for sharing: My focus is largely on the relationships of age, gender, and health. I'm interested in critiquing the orientation towards youth in the social sciences, particularly gender studies, and suggesting ways of examining age that reflect on it as a mode of social classification that is akin to gender or ethnicity. I'd like to use gender as an example of how self-perceptions as well as societal demands continue to change even into later life, and how the body continues to be a part of the social world throughout all of life. In a sense, both age and gender are performances and part of the performance includes health-related behaviours. I suppose that on a theoretical level, I'd be interested in arguing against the discourse of 'healthy ageing', which suggests that there is one proper way to age, and therefore anyone who refuses to age in that way (or cannot) is deemed a social deviant. The lack of work on age as an analytical category is staggering - so I think any work that takes the subject seriously will be filling a gap.

Hey hey, Just wondering if there are other people about who've applied to the History of Consciousness program at UCSC this time around. I'm not holding my breath for a quick reply - they seem to take their time with everything realted to the applications.

Yeah, I'm international - I'm from Israel, though I did my previous degrees in the UK. The international issue didn't come up when I talked to them, but maybe because I didn't specifically ask about it. Understandable, though - it can be far trickier to secure funding to support a non-American graduate student.

I opted for the Anth stream though like you, I'm quite keen on working with a few people who aren't in Anth (Or even in SMS, for that matter). Also - yay Carol Vance!

Medanth000/Curlygurl - I'm not sure whether they interviewed everyone that they were interested in, or whether there was something about my application (subject matter? not being American?) that made them want to have a chat. I was surprised as well, as I didn't think interviews would be part of the process with SMS. Judging by hints dropped dropped the conversation, it seems not to be something they do very often. So it might mean anything, really. Sorry I'm not much help.

Hey hey, I've also applied to the Sociomedical Sciences PhD. Had an interview (informal chat? I'm not sure how it was defined, exactly) with them about a week ago. I think part of it was to gauge how likely I am to come even if only offered fairly limited funding. Still waiting on word back though.

Yeah, I've encountered some universities that do that. It's usually a good idea to carefully check what the departments think about the seperation between those two. I realised at some point that one of the departments had very different ideas of what they want to see in each kind of document. It's a bit more work, but I think it's worth it when you get the option, because as you said, having two such documents lets you show off academic merit as well as things like drive, future plans, and history, without having to abbreviate things for the sake of a shorter essay.

I've been listening to this quite a lot: Gloomy, but also a bit uplifting.

Thanks for the answers! I had a feeling it might not be as bad as my first instinct. I guess it's just the general anxiety over waiting for responses. We'll see how it works out.

Heya, I'm applying to some SocAnth programs alongside a few of my friends, and it turns out that one uni has recently contacted them to arrange interviews. I haven't been contacted, so I'm wondering whether to be disappointed, or to keep the faith that there's a chance I might be accepted even without an interview (as the department doesn't mention that an interview is neccessary for admittance, and my application is fairly strong). Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks!