Yeahcat

Thanks guys. Could not sleep, had midnight gloom, but now your kind advices have totally cheered me up. Yay SOLIDARITY! Yes, I am gonna apply for both schools, among others (probably Temple and CUNY). The reason I wanna figure out which one is a first choice is because I considered applying for law school during college, and the law professors I talked to told me "Never lie to schools about which one is your first choice". As I will start contacting professors this summer, I guess I should figure out which school is my top choice (at least to myself) before writing POI and describing both NYU and UCSC as my dream program. This might sound a little old-fashioned, though. It's so true that NYU is unimaginably competitive! I have heard people say that it's even more competitive than Columbia anthropology. I wonder why... I've never really paid enough attention on program rankings. Shame on me; I thought I had a good reason: previously I thought that unlike college, a perfect fit counts most when it comes to PhD programs. Well, it is now when I am seriously starting to prepare for application that I realize how much prestige/ranking matters. Because there is the final destination: job placements! And that is where prestige/ranking/quality of the program really matters, matters a lot. Anyone knows about Cornell? A POI of mine might be hired in Cornell very soon. How would you compare Cornell to UCSC and NYU in terms of overall quality and prestige? Look at me; I am bambarding you guys with so many questions!

Hi everyone, So I'll apply this year for 2012 Fall. All the stellar anthropologists on this board, plz help me out! Both NYU and UC Santa Cruz have a great fit to my research topic and very strong faculty members. The things I don't know are the differences in job placements and how prestigious these two programs are. I know UC schools can be short of funding, and NYU is great with its location and resources. Regardless of funding/location, what do you think of these two schools ? I mean in terms of overall quality, prestige and job placements? Btw, I'm in socio-cultural.