anxiousanthro

Is anyone else in Palo Verde STILL waiting on a specific room assignment? I still have no news

Is anyone else stoked to find out who is in their cohort after all the decisions roll in tomorrow!?

I know finances are very personal and everyone has different values systems etc. but I have to agree with selecttext that that is an insane amount of debt to accumulate unless you are guaranteed a very high paying job afterwards.

I interviewed with them several weeks ago, but I sort of made it clear I would be accepting elsewhere in the interview. I am pretty sure their offers have already gone out. Best wishes!

your midterm is getting less done (75-->70) as time passes

so, does anyone know if we could potentially find out the results faster by obsessively checking fastlane once it goes down, or will the email basically come at the same time? so reassuring other people are freaking over this as much as me!

haha you are right. my fear was much more paranoid and unlikely: that depts themselves would see the posts and be able to identify you O.o not likely at all that they care at all about gcafe, but how awful would it be if that happened!?

hmmm i feel like saying which wait lists people got off of might really clearly identify them, but i recently got off two waitlists, so it is possible! i will be declining both, so two people are going to get off waitlists very soon

hey rapang! i just wanted to say i really admire your attitude! i went through the same process last year (so this year was my "redo") and I think what you said about the bias towards masters students is correct... another thing my undergrad advisor told me was that that bias also has to do with funding. a lot of programs worry about student who go straight through burning out and taking longer to finish, which costs them more than someone who is ready to get in there and execute quickly... thanks for posting the article!

I have to say I completely agree with kphd's comment that "an excellent sop would be a waste if it does not meet the right people." i think tailoring my application to express how i would "fit" (a fuzzy thing, i know) at certain places was the key difference between utter failure last round and acceptances this round. i was able to find out about this fit by contacting professors and grad students themselves, which not only gets your name in front of them but also (more importantly i think) gives you a sense of the priorities/emphasis/atmosphere etc. of the department.

has anyone who was in limbo heard any more news from columbia? i still haven't heard anything back from them and my status hasnt changed! > i want some closure!

this was sort of a ridiculous way to do it, but I looked at the faculty members for every school on this list (http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124703/) and then narrowed a list down from there based on who i would want to work with, places i absolutely would not live etc. I think the best way to see if you might have a good fit with the dept is to contact current graduate students. it feels really intimidating (or at least it did to me) but they are so friendly/helpful/open about their experiences. they will give you tips about who is super busy, who might be retiring soon, who is a great supervisor, the overall atmosphere in the dept. etc. you can use this to see if you would be a good fit and then contact faculty members too. i was told to aim for working with associate professors and above because their place at the uni was more secure/certain. for me, i felt topical/theoretical overlap was more important, but ive made sure to check and see that there are at least some people competent to advise me on working in a certain geographical area (not necessarily faculty in the anthro dept too). i actually found it reassuring that i was accepted to work with people who don't necessarily have "expertise" in a certain country, because to me it signaled that they weren't just interested in producing intellectual carbon-copies of themselves. good luck!

If you haven't already contacted them, then I personally don't think there's any problem with sending a polite email asking if they can give you any insight into their timeline for the admissions process. If you aren't accepted, then they might just go ahead and tell you (which happened to me). Good luck!

I've arrived at my final decision. I've looked at it from a million different angles. I've consulted all of the faculty members who know me the best and I trust. All signs point to one school. And yet... I have no sense of peace about it. I don't intend to linger for more than a day or two because of course I want to respect the much greater stress people on the waitlist are under. But, is it normal to have lingering feelings of uncertainty after you think you've arrived at your final decision? how did you deal with these feelings? did they ever go away? am I insane? any and all views would be very much appreciated

Although I understand what you are saying about moving on to a new city, everyone I've spoken with in academia has unequivocally said DONT GO INTO DEBT FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL! Perhaps going into a bit of debt for an MPA program is slightly different than doing the same for something in the humanities or social sciences, but if you can save money by living at home why not? Unless you would go crazy living with your parents (if thats what you mean by "staying home"), then I vote for the hometown MPA. Btw, congrats!