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brooklyn713

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Everything posted by brooklyn713

  1. i'd also keep in mind cost of living; if you are paying for either NYU or UGA via loans, living in NYC versus Athens is going to put a much larger dent in your wallet. i'd second what sociologygradgirl suggested; see where alumni have gone off. if UGA alumni are getting the same positions as NYU alumni, then i'd say the debt from NYU really isn't worth it. but NYC may offer you more in terms of overall networking in the IR world than will UGA.
  2. thanks: regarding rankings, that's the answer i was hoping to hear. unless program D pulls through (loved the Pi there are much as at program A), program A seems to be great. all in that lab have gotten funding for the rest of the program, so that really isn't a huge concern of mine. i'm more concerned about program fit and PI fit, and that one has both. thanks for the reassurance about name/rank; i've been hearing mixed opinions on both sides. personal happiness is very important too, which comes into play a lot once i block thinking about name. all are good programs, so i think you are correct in that funding and fit should be the priorities. thanks!
  3. Without giving too details regarding PIs or universities, I'm in need of some advice as I wrap up my decision-making process. I've been accepted into 3 (maybe 4) good PhD programs, with different degrees of funding, across 1-2 fields within interdisciplinary interest X, and different degrees of academic prestige depending on what you're looking at. Program A is in the field I'd like to be broadly trained in, has given me two years of funding, and my PI and I see eye-to-eye and is willing to give me freedom in study systems. For my sub-field of choice, the program here is ranked in the top 2-3 (from conversations with professors in this area). My visit to this school was great. However, in terms of overall rankings in the field, it floats somewhere between 9/10 and the teens/20s, depending where you look. Program B is in the field I'd like to be broadly trained in, has given me some funding but would require I TA or take out loans for part of my first two years, I got along well with my PI but the study systems he/she's willing to work on are limited. Students in the program were great. Overall in the field, it's ranked top 3-4. So the only downsides are funding and lack of flexibility within thesis topic. Program C is, in the sense of department, outside the field I'd like to be broadly trained in, but the PI works some on what I'd like to do and the coursework is somewhat flexible. Funding is for 5 years and the school has an Ivy-caliber name. My visit experienced was mixed, but my PI and I got along fine and students were friendly. My hesitation is being in a department where I would, outside of my lab group, feel fairly isolated in terms of what other faculty and students were doing. I am also skeptical of how said disciplinary base will look when applying for post-docs in my field of choice. Program D is much akin to program C: not as outside the field I'd like to be broadly trained in as C, but still not quite what I'd like, but the PI works on what I'd like to do and the coursework is flexible. I am currently waitlisted, but the school is an Ivy and funding would be full. My PI and I got along very well, but again, my hesitation here (if I get in) is the same as for program C. I'm fairly lost here. In many ways my heart/gut tell me program A, but from recent talks with friends/family/etc I've been thinking more about rankings, more in the sense of opening doors down the road, etc and less about the "shock value" of a given school's name. There's really no bad choice here, so it comes down to what's going to be best in my development/long-term career. Thanks!
  4. hey there. i've been accepted to UGA with a graduate research assistantship for two years, and i wanted to ask the community to get a sense of how well the stipend works out in Athens (i'd gather than every GRA stipend is the same, regardless of the department). thanks!
  5. Hi all, I was wondering if anybody might be able to give some insight into the program in Anthropology @ Stanford, in particular the Ecology & Environment track. I was an anthropology undergraduate, but have transitioned into studying infectious disease ecology & epidemiology. I'm interested in researching human modifications to ecosystems, the dynamics of these land-use changes, and how these influence behavior/immune function/parasitism in reservoir hosts of zoonotic disease and thus human heath risk. Most of my graduate applications were to Ecology programs (where there is ample cross-talk between anthropology & ecology), but as studying the human side of the above is just as important to the more zoologically oriented research, I applied to a few anthropology programs as well. Stanford's E&E track is strong on quantitative methods, remote sensing, interdisciplinary research, the Woods Institute, and collaboration with Biology + lab rotations, encouraging eco-anth students to study some anthropology and some community/landscape ecology. The PI I'd work with studies infectious disease dynamics, so everything seems pretty gold. I've been accepted and plan to visit briefly before the end of the month, but I won't have a ton of time and certainly won't get to speak with everyone I might work with. I'm particularly interested in the research methods the program pushes, which seem far more quantitative (mathematical modeling, remote sensing, social network analysis) than traditional ecological anthropological programs. Basically, I'd love to market myself as an anthropologist and disease ecologist after my PhD and a few post-docs, which would entail either 1) graduate education in biocultural anthropology with training & field/lab methods in infectious disease ecology and epidemiology or 2) graduate education in disease ecology with training and methods in biocultural anthropology. So I'm wondering how much Stanford would help me achieve that versus perhaps a more traditional ecological education (although a more anthropological spin and understanding would be a nice niche...and the funding @ Stanford is niiiice). As an example or two, faculty in E&E have done remote sensing of aboriginal fire practices and ground-truthed biodiversity with modeling and remote sensing, past MA students have done their thesis by bird census in anthropogenically altered/disturbed environments, and current students are studying the human behavioral ecology (and vegetation surveys) of malaria. I love all the concepts used in anthropology, but I'd like to be trained in methods used by ecologists and infectious disease specialists as well. Any advice/insight as this all pertains to the nature of the Anthro department @ Stanford or the E&E group? Thanks!!
  6. Hi all, I'm wondering if anybody has heard back from either the Nelson Institute programs (Environment & Resources) or the Zoology department. I applied to both and had (what I thought, at least) a nice exchange with the PI I'd like to work with, but both applications are still pending on the UW-M site. I've gotten some nice offers from other schools, but UW-M would still be in the running if they give an offer. From my experiences so far with rejections, I would assume that no answer by now means no offer, but since only 1-2 people have posted about the Nelson Institute so far and in past years Zoology people didn't hear back until mid/late March, I'm inclined to be hopeful. Has anybody heard anything from these programs or, if you happen to be in either of the programs, is the wait time normal?? Thanks!
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