Armadilla
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Posts posted by Armadilla
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I don't know if you guys got that impression, but whenever I look at the admission results page, it seems like everyone on GC applied for a PhD program in Chemistry!!!Or Chemical Engineering, or Chemistry and Biological Sciences or something, rarely do I find any anthro posts
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Yep, that's the one. As someone who has neither high math scores nor a quant background, I knew going in that it was a shot in the dark. But, I figured better take that shot than always wonder!
I'm not going to contact profs until later because it's still very early to be hearing back (I was corresponding with a prof before submitting the app and was told decisions were made in mid- to late-Feb).
Allouette, good luck!They seem to follow Max Planck's model of recruiting (I mean, the evo anthropology institute in Leipzig), where they look for a lot of people who can work with stats and data (those DNA strains, I guess
, that sounds like gobs of data 
). But I wouldn't get too discouraged, I am sure they are looking for smart people from all kinds of backgrounds. And if not, you can always get a tutor and raise those scores, this is what I am going to do (although my program doesn't really require super high math scores, but these days programs are so tough to get in 
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Today is a bummer day... Results search informs me someone heard from my dream program about an interview, but radio silence in my inbox. Anyone happen to know if Harvard's HEB program always interviews (i.e., am I out of the game)?
Lexicon, I hope the waitlist shifts in your favour!
Does HEB mean "human evolution and biology?"Is it the one that accepts people with super high math scores and quant backgrounds?Have you tried to contact professor there?
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With all due respect, Armadilla, the topic of this thread is social exclusion, not immigration and international students. I object to your characterization of my post, and I disagree with your conclusion that "If you are gonna make an argument, such as "then why does she even come here??" or "why do all these foreigners come here if they can't handle it?", then you are running into a fundamental problem here."
I never made this assertion, nor do I think my original post reflects this position, and I am offended on a professional level that you would deem to make such an outrageous inference from the information available.
I was not looking for any accolades when I described the situation. I do try to be a good person, and there's nothing wrong with stating that. My actions speak louder than my words. I offered her a solution to a childcare problem when I saw that she had not thought ahead to arrange for childcare--she didn't have to take me up on my offer, but she did, and I do not regret it. I also see nothing wrong with sharing my feelings here, but I do not see any value in telling her my personal feelings. She's not my friend, significant other, or family member--if she were, I would have no qualms saying what I thought needed to be said for her own sake. However, if she were to ask me directly, then I would tell her what I thought.
This situation is not a conflict between two people--it's my personal feelings about a person. Whether I choose to share them with her is up to me and depends on the context. As of right now, I see no benefit in me sharing my personal feelings with her. She has developed a support network consisting of other graduate students from her country and other members of our cohort. It's not like I'm the only person she talks to. Also, I do not equate maturity with the inability to keep my mouth shut.
What is immature is you going back and up-voting your own posts and down-voting those that support me. I mean, whatever, but I'm just letting you know that I noticed that, and I personally don't view that as mature, even for an online forum.
Believe me, I really do not care how many positive or negative posts someone gets on an online forum. The fact that you, an adult, care about such things and accuse someone of even more ridiculous behavior is sad. You questioned my intellectual ability and this is absolutely inappropriate. In case I said something that I offended you, I already apologized. You, in turn, cannot admit the fact that you went overboard and you were clearly disrespectful. Instead of considering the other side's opinion, you are counting "likes" or "dislikes," question one's intelligence, and act defensive. Even the way you are handling this "virtual misunderstanding" is illustrative. I don't know what kind of relationship you have with this student, but the fact that you act in such an immature and rude manner online is beyond inappropriate.
Either way, I am done with this discussion and hope you have a great day/night and I wish you all the best with your graduate studies.
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I just have a strange feeling we are reading the same listserv
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socanth,hahahaha!I know that feeling!Let me guess: was it Linguistic Anthro listserv?
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Dal PhDer, first off, I do appreciate your opinion but we do not know the specifics. I have no idea how much help and assistance the student is asking for, so this is very hard to judge and make assumptions. Second, if the author of the post is a mature individual (which I presume, she is), she will straightforwardly and yet candidly express her concerns to the student in question instead of ranting on an online forum (on another note, if you have an issue and have a problem, are you really THAT lonely and isolated in your life that you need to take this problem to an online forum?I, for instance, do tend to rant about immigration because this is my immature way of increasing awareness of the issue since, in light of the latest immigration debate, the general population does not seem to be very educated on the subject; but if I have a personal issue I talk to my family and friends, I obviously do not passively express my irritations on a public forum). Basically, why not have an honest conversation with this person instead of posting more semi-exaggerated examples of a vile and pessimistic international student?Sounds like high school. And again, the problem I see here is not only the lack of communication but also the classic individualism vs. collectivism values clash that I have observed here so many times. And very few people make an effort to be a little bit open-minded and see the other side.
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I think that's part of the problem. She's an international student and talks to her family on the phone all the time, but she still complains to me. I agree about the enabling behavior. At the same time, I understand that she doesn't have many resources here. So far, I haven't had to go out of my way to help her--it has just worked out that we have similar schedules and her daughter attends the same school my kids do. If nothing else, I am cognizant of her daughter's welfare (at least my kids have each other to play with; being an only child can be tough).
I am sorry, but a lot of things in your initial rant sound clearly misleading. Of course it is extremely nice of you to help her out with her kid and give her a ride, but the way you portrayed her sounds like she is plain stupid, lazy, and unwilling to make an effort. Now, here comes a bit more realistic side of the situation: SHE IS AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT. English is guess what..probably not her native language and the legal immigration system in the US is one of the most disorganized, unfair, and stressful immigration systems in the world (I can rant about it endlessly). If you are gonna make an argument, such as "then why does she even come here??" or "why do all these foreigners come here if they can't handle it?", then you are running into a fundamental problem here: having foreigners in the US and in your program benefits YOU, as well as other American students and the US academia as a whole. It attracts a lot of grant money, foreign investment, foreign tuition/room/board/visas/US taxes expenses etc.
All these foreigners contribute tremendously to making YOUR country and YOUR program one of the best in the world. For your information, education is one of the top services US economy provides to the world and in this current economic crisis these foreign funds should be at the very least appreciated. In other words, if you or any other person does something minimally altruistic to a foreign student, that will make YOU a better person. And yes, that might be a little uncomfortable because you are taught from your very upbringing to be independent and highly individualistic but you also live in a very globalized world and this is not how the rest of the world works. I am sorry for my rant, but I, as a person who has gone through the worst cycles of the US immigration system just really want to see US citizens being a little kinder and more open to foreigners who make so much effort not only to stay here, but to make this country intellectually competitive.
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Allouette, I love your primate, is it new world?
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I would definitely apply and then try to meet them at the national conference. Or, right after their talk and during the Q&A session, dare to ask them a relevant question (and I am sure you can nail this one pretty easily since you are probably very familiar with their publications and research) and then, during a "mingling" or a perfect "networking moment" (a.k.a Hors d'Oeuvres, make sure you go for a nice Chilean cab!!!Malbec will do too!A great conversation starter.J/K), it will be way easier to start a conversation with that person because you have already asked her a question and showed interest.
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PhdDreams, was it hard to become friends with your POI's on facebook?Does it help to keep in touch with them and conversation going?Maybe I should do that to
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Thank you so much for such a detailed response, I really appreciate it!
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AnthroDork, I got two questions for you!Did you have a publication prior to applying to your grad program?Which element of your application do you think increased your chances of being admitted the most?
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I think if you are a bio anth it is very important to attend AAPA. In fact, it is more important to attend AAPA than AAA in that case (there were no sooo many physical or bio anthro sessions at the last AAA's and a lot of professors complained about how physical and bio are underrepresented
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BruceWayne24, I totally understand you!I've been reading this topic for a while, completely outraged by the level of incompetence of the graduate students (!!!) and finally made a decision to speak my mind!
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I never said anything about taking grammar classes. Please don't put ideas into my mouth and act as if they are my own. What I said was that there are many, many rules of English grammar that can be memorized. I know this because, though I am a native speaker, I have had to memorize English grammar rules. And, if you can't memorize them, find someone to help you with your writing who can at least point out the problems to you so you can look them up. Seriously, writing requires effort, even for native speakers. You have to be willing to learn from the criticism of others, to make mistakes and fix them, to ask for help, and to read well-written pieces if you want your writing to improve. And that advice is the same whether or not English is your native language.
Again, YOU DO NOT MEMORIZE rules as a native speaker, it is a very sophisticated process called language acquisition. Chomsky was arguing about it 50 years ago (I don't remember exactly how many) and they are still arguing about it in linguistics and neurolinguistics to the present day. There are a lot of implications and a lot of processes that are not yet understood. We are talking about a high brain cognition, about bilateral interaction, about highly debated Brocca's and Wernicke's areas that are involved in the language acquisition of an individual. We do not fully understand the process of the first language acquisition by a child, not an adult learning L2. You learned your first language as a child and that was you L1, which is absolutely different from the situation of non-native English speakers. I just do not understand why it is so hard for an educated American grad student to make an effort and learn something about the L2 acquisition and cognitive linguistics. I feel deeply offended by your posts as a foreign student pursuing my degree in this country.
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Think about it this way: As your instructor, how am I supposed to know that you went to the writing center and got assistance? Should I just intuit it somehow from holding the pages in my hands? Granted, there was a course I TA'd where students who went to the Writing Center could get a form signed confirming that someone had helped them with their paper and then receive extra credit. BUT, that was one course. The rest of the time I simply have no idea whether or not my students go, even though I encourage ALL of my students (not just the non-native speakers) to go.
That's not really fair. Are you saying that we shouldn't penalize students at all for making grammatical mistakes? If so, why even both having grammar rules or teaching them in language courses? I realize that not all languages use articles and that some use articles all the time in places where English doesn't. But, learning to use articles correctly is part of learning the language. And, honestly, I've had to learn when to use and not use articles for two languages besides English already and there are rules that can be memorized.
I presume you are in social sciences and I am just fascinated how poorly informed you are about the second language acquisition. Knowing the rules about articles or English sentence structure is still not going to teach a non-native speaker how to use them 100% properly and correctly. There is so much about cognitive linguistics tat is still relatively unknown or poorly understood; otherwise you could just teach any non-native speaker how to break down a sentence into semantic trees and easily determine a missing branch and correct it. If that was the case, the linguists would not be arguing about semantic trees and their preciseness and subjectivity and we would all have a perfect Google translator which would decently transform sentences from one language to another without losing any semantic elements. However, we DO NOT have such a magic software nor will we see it coming in the nearest future (and if you speak a foreign language with a high level of fluency, you have probably used Google Translator and are well aware of its limitations; some translated sentences are just plain embarrassing!!). I would recommend you to do a little research on L2 acquisition because some things that people have mentioned in this thread are just absolutely inappropriate and indicate a high level on unfamiliarity with language learning.
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I am going to bury my grief at a salsa dancing party tonight, how are you guys gonna spend this Friday night of the most stressful week of this application season?
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I saw that on University of Washington website long time ago!
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http://www.amazon.co...29525585&sr=1-1
the link won't work for this last one, but its called Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (McGee and Warms)...
Here is another link to this one
http://www.amazon.com/Anthropological-Theory-Introductory-Jon-McGee/dp/0072840463
It's a great and concise book on anthro theory (especially the classics, although has a Bourgois article and Nancy Schepper-Hughes)
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I have a similar question: how do you actually know if your application is complete?There seems to be no way to find out.
The Waiting Game - Fall 2013 - Share your progress!
in Anthropology Forum
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OMG!I am so excited for you!Even though bio anthro is not my field but that just makes me happy that someone I know (although virtually) is going to be interviewed at such an awesome program!!!!!Will you get to talk to Dr. Wrangham (that's how I know about the program, I read his book for general audiences)? Congratulations!!!