rkg2012

It looks like UCLA may have changed some things since my application round. For what it's worth though: they had an interview/visit weekend (for which I was out of the country) and they decided funding after that. The funding wait list from that was ranked and I received funding rather late in the game. Before offering me funding, they did pay for me to visit after I was stateside for Easter. I got the impression they only had funding for 5-6 split across all regions for Archaeology, and they want a diverse group. I ultimately chose another university.

I only had one (rather short) season before getting into several PhD programs, but it was a reasonably intensive season and came with an awesome recommendation. You need some experience to prove that you can cut it in the field, but I don't think it has to be that extensive. I'd hesitate to say that Americans have a lot more excavation opportunities. I have a number of British/Italian/German friends who had lots of opportunities with some funding as undergrads and several had an excavation component/requirement for their degree. It's a lot more expensive for us to fly to the Mediterranean and even some of the top universities only have limited funding for their undergraduates to pursue fieldwork.

In past years, shortlisted applicants were invited for a weekend, which was basically all about competition for funding. I don't have first hand experience, but it sounded like a lot of people were caught off guard and not 100% pleasant to each other. Best of luck to all of you attending.

I would suggest emailing the department at Melbourne and explaining that you are waiting to hear back from another school here. I had to get extensions on my UK decisions a couple years ago while waiting to hear back from US programs. They were all flexible. Good luck.

I really like OneNote for taking notes in class. It's pretty easy to keep your notes organized and they're all searchable later. Also, I don't know about you, but it's way easier to read my typed notes than my own handwriting. I also thankfully type faster than I write. I usually keep a notebook with me just in case I need to draw a diagram or something - then you can just scan it and add it to your notes. As for dealing with articles...I'm also struggling with that. I've gotten more accustomed to reading on the computer since printing is such a hassle. I have Acrobat pro, so I OCR everything to make it easy to annotate. I keep intending to go back and summarize the articles and put that into my OneNote tabs for the class, but I seem to inevitably run out of time. There are also these pens you can get that automatically turn hand written documents into digital files. I know one person who used to swear by that. Apparently the text recognition software gets accustomed to your hand writing and actually does a pretty good job.

I don't do underwater archaeology, but I'll make a few suggestions: * Get some experience (coursework and preferably fieldwork) with on land archaeology, since there is much more of that and there will be some overlap in theory and practice. The AIA (Archaeological Institute of America) has a good fieldwork bulletin (http://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob), which has opportunities around the world. There seem to be a couple of underwater excavations in the Mediterranean. Also, www.archaeologyfieldwork.com and www.shovelbums.org have fieldwork opportunities. * Develop a regional/chronological specialty (or more like broad preference at the stage) - It's not necessary that your fieldwork is in the same area. (It may be cheaper to work near home or wherever someone from your university works). * look at under water archaeology journals to find out who is doing what and where (e.g. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, The Bulletin of The Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA) and the recently launched Journal of Maritime Archaeology - pulled from wikipedia) - That might give you an idea of what schools you should think about applying to later. * Google is your friend - I just found this site that seems to post jobs/opportunities including a summer internship: http://underwaterarchaeologyjobs.wordpress.com/ * I suspect having diving certification/experience would be a good thing.

You need a letter from someone at your MA program. Not having a letter from there implies that you didn't make important contacts and/or didn't do well. Do what you can now to get the best rec possible from your adviser. Try to meet with him to discuss your future plans and provide him with as much information as possible - SoP, CV, and writing samples or other application supplements.

To talk to your old mentor, try to email and set up a skype appointment or pay for skype calling credit to phone him. It's a lot cheaper than travel. Perhaps ask to talk about your career plans and then bring up the letter in your actual conversation. I applied from overseas, but thankfully all of my letters were electronic. Perhaps you could ask the university if the professor could email them directly. I would worry about pre-paid envelopes overseas, since you REALLY don't want the letter to get lost. Two out of five hard copies of my transcripts got lost in the mail (or simply not processed correctly by the university)... and I sent them by an upgraded, but not perfectly trackable method. Usually overseas mail is much more than just a few stamps worth.

I have to blatantly disagree. I strong personal letter from a not-so-important person means MUCH more than a half-hearted letter from a big name. Also, most programs won't have 2k apps. Did the profs of the classes you got Bs in know about your issues? If they can talk about your potential and explain what was going on, that could actually help you. Regardless of who you ask, send them your SoP, CV, your writing sample or a piece of coursework from their class. Help them to help you. Whoever you did research with is an obvious choice. As for others, whoever knows you the best and is happy (not just willing) to write for you would probably be the best bet. Perhaps you can vet them out by arranging a short phone conversation to talk about the possibility... or to talk about your career path and then bring up the letter if they sound like they might do it.

I agree with dendy. Profs can be quite absent-minded. I had one prof close to me simply forget to respond to me and leave me paranoid for several weeks...for no reason. I was over-thinking things. Another had to be constantly prodded to get my recs in (and several were submitted late), even though I'm pretty sure he had excellent things to say about me.

I would write a follow up email. One of my profs (who I was reasonably close to) just completely forgot to respond to me because there wasn't a rush at the time and he had other important things on his plate. He was very apologetic when I emailed him again, but I spent several weeks unnecessarily agonizing over what the silence meant first. Chances are 10:1 that you're over-thinking things. Adjuncts aren't ideal, but if it's only for one fourth recommendation and the person is well known/respected, I can't imagine that it would be damaging to your app.

That reads more like a contrived autobiography than a personal statement. Three (four?) paragraphs about your pre-college enthusiasm is quite excessive. I put my research interests up front and then tailored my SoP to highlighting particular aspects of my education/work/previous research that showed something in particular about me that would make me a good graduate student and/or showed why X university was the best for me. The SoP should be professional...more like a cover letter for a job than like a story. My two cents.

Your final UG GPA is set by the school from which you graduated, and everything is averaged out at the end of your transcript. Taking classes at a different school later, regardless of level, will not change that. Getting great grades can, however, prove that you are up to the challenge of graduate coursework. I don't know about your field, but you will need stellar recommendations, GREs, personal statement and writing sample to make up for the low GPA. Higher grades toward the end are looked at favorably, but < 3.0 may still be considered weak...I've known several schools to have 3.0 (or higher) minimum GPAs to be eligible for admission and/or funding, so you should look into that.

I've always had the impression that such strict guidelines were to deter the faint of heart. You won't be so far behind someone with such a degree by the time you apply. In fact, you'll be at a higher Greek level, which should work to your advantage and I don't remember Arizona having super high language requirements, but then again, I'm an archaeologist. Have you had any history/archaeology/civ courses? Or did any of your philosophy classes deal with ancient philosophers? If you're worried about whether you will be able to come close enough to meeting requirements, you can contact any of the schools and talk to someone about it. If you do it this cycle, then by the time you apply, they won't even remember that you thought your application would be weak. Just sell yourself in the personal statement when the time comes.

I don't know of any list of Museum Studies programs, but I know that UCL and Cambridge are both good UK schools, and I suspect there are others in the UK. In the US, I think GW's program is pretty well regarded. But definitely do think about just what you want to get out of a program and see whether programs will work for you. Y