Homo studentsis

I received the "no need to reapply" email last Wednesday and immediately wrote back confirming my mailing address and my (lack of) funding status. I received a reply the same day saying that they "hope to be making final decisions by May 1st. If we have any further questions we’ll contact you shortly." I haven't heard anything since. I don't think there is any cause to worry, and I suspect we will get our final notifications sometime this week. Think of it this way, if there was any way Wenner-Gren wasn't going to at least partially fund you this cycle, they would tell you that you are still in the running but to be safe you should be prepared to resubmit on May 1st. They would not tell you not to reapply for the May 1st deadline. At this point, I suspect they are just figuring out the exact distribution amounts for each grantee.

The most ridiculous part of this is that you didn't even get a 3rd reviewer. That means that you weren't even in the top 65% of applicants in your field. Given that you have 3 "excellents" and a "very good," it looks to me like you got screwed by having reviewers who tended to score applicants higher. You pretty much had no chance to get to a third reviewer, short of writing absolutely perfect essays.

Z-scores would be nice. My reviews were: VG/VG E/VG VG/VG with very little in terms of criticism in my reviews, and didn't even get an HM.

I had almost forgot how shitty this sort of rejection felt. This was my last year being eligible. Best of luck to the rest of you.

This would work better if the page weren't named "The Exorcist Scary Maze Game"

It would be worthwhile to specifically look at the lost return on investment for funded NSF fellows due to premature death.

Paleoanthropologist here. You?

That was me.

So does it being down mean that the results ARE going up tonight, or just that the maintenance is happening, regardless of the reason?

Honestly, I do not know a single faculty member in the Cultural wing, Dr. Zhang included. My insights into the department will probably be useless to you considering that the Evolutionary and Cultural wings seem to operate pretty much independently of one another. The financial situation is tricky. California has had an absolutely horrible financial year, and the UC system in particular was hit hard. However, my potential adviser told me that while finding funding isn't easy, things typically work out and students get significant funding through TA positions on campus. I believe I read in earlier posts by you that you are an international student. I really don't want to discourage you, but I have heard from a couple of different faculty members that international students are much more difficult to fund, mostly because tuition costs are higher for non-California residents, and even higher still for non-American citizens. However, international students certainly are not uncommon in the UC system. At my UC Berkeley (Integrative Biology, not Anthropology) interview last weekend, I think about 5 or 6 candidates out of 25 were international, so don't lose hope. I wish you the best of luck.

I just finished up my undergraduate degree there, and also applied to the PhD program in the Evolutionary wing. I know the professor whose lab I applied to quite well, and just found out a couple of days ago that he had given my name to the Graduate Division to accept me (which according to him means I am in, but the Graduate Division has the "official" final word). However, I think he may have told me earlier than other candidates for the department since I still see him on a weekly basis for seminars/reading discussion groups. My potential adviser and his wife share graduate students, since their work overlaps temporally, if not always geographically. They accepted one other person into their joint lab, although I do not know if that person has been notified as of yet. What faculty are you hoping to work with?

I'll definitely be going. As for dress, I plan on jean cutoff shorts, a stained tank top, and Crocs shoes. I'll make them regret ever emphasizing casual dress.

I just got an email from Berkeley and hour ago inviting me to come in for an interview. However, I'm biological anthropology and my potential adviser is in the Integrative Biology department, NOT Anthropology. So if you applied to the Anthro program don't worry that you haven't heard anything yet.

Received an email about an hour ago from Berkeley IB inviting me to come for an interview weekend February 19th and 20th. I actually met with my potential adviser mid-January because he was leaving the country for a few months, so he will not be at this interview weekend. Does this pretty much mean I'm accepted, since there is no way for my adviser to talk with me anymore? Good luck to everyone else. Edit: Looks like I will be meeting you in a few weeks, evolve! Awesome.

I'm dying here waiting to hear from some schools. Most of my applications haven't even been in for a month, but dammit I expect immediate (and positive) results!