thomasjnh

Could be, I'm just relating what one faculty member told me. For the sake of everyone waiting I hope it's not another 3-4 weeks.

I was the informal rejection and I had applied for socio-cultural, but I have no idea where they are in the official notifying process. I applied to two depts at UMich, got into one (Asian Lang & Culture), and my potential advisor in AL&C said the anthro department had finalized decisions and I didn't get in. Unfortunately he didn't say anything else about anthro's time frame so I can't shed much light on it for anyone else. Best of luck to all though, I hope folks hear soon!

Yeah that was me, just got the email this morning and then a phone call this afternoon. I unfortunately don't know how many students they admitted or if they've notified everyone yet. There's a visitation weekend march 4-5 that coincides with a conference the dept is holding. Thanks for the congrats! This is my second year applying to phd programs and I'm incredibly relieved this year has gone better than the last. So if it doesn't work out for everyone hang in there and try again! Also, it's never too early for a drink imo, although I'm at work right now so it'll have to wait.

yes I did.

I don't know how likely or unlikely it is for other subdivisions, but it happens for WSAR. Several current WSAR grad students were admitted w/o interviews or w/ over the phone interviews. They often admit students who are overseas and unable to attend the interview weekend.

not sure. I'm going to email Anne Chi'en to ask about the number of students waitlisted as well as the prof I've been in contact with to get a sense of my actual chances of being admitted given the waitlist decision. At this point unless it's very short I anticipate I'll accept another offer before I'd make it off the waitlist. Oh the waiting. Best of luck to everyone!

waitlisted as well. Nice letter though.

I can attest to at least one of the results page posts being legit. I was honestly surprised by the turn around time for notification after the interviews, but yes they did notify some folks via email. I don't know what that means in terms of other applicants. At the interview the committee said they were interviewing some folks overseas (via phone or video) and that they had simply not interviewed some candidates they were seriously considering. So I wouldn't count yourself out of the running due to interviewing or not interviewing, hearing or not hearing by a certain date. best of luck everyone

Thanks! Nothing for sure yet so I'm still on pins and needles. My focus is on Tibetan Buddhist visual culture from the Northern Himalayan region. The prof I want to work with is new to the department, which could either hurt or help me. Fingers crossed it's the latter.

I applied to SAS at UPenn, ALC at UMich, LCA at UWisc, and SSEAS at Berkeley.

A friend of mine who is currently at Emory said in years past the visit weekend was both Friday and Saturday nights. I assume that's what the budget cuts might refer to. I don't think the overall number of invitees is that different. Congrats and I'll be there as well interviewing for WSAR.

anthrogeek: what part of India? I would be really curious to hear about the kind of research you're interested in pursuing. As far as not being able to make it to the Campus Days, I think I'm going to go and I'd be more than happy to give you a report if I do. Have you visited the campus before? I was out there in December and it was pretty dreary. Hopefully April will be better. anthcat: I guess so! I'm still on the fence about it, but leaning heavily toward going. If there's time in between things, I'd be interested in meeting up and comparing notes/battle tactics if you're up for it. In general: I'm pretty opposed to the idea of taking out $30k in loans (I wonder how many folks they gave 2/3 tuition) for a single year. Several of my advisers and grad student friends are encouraging me to bite the bullet and do MAPSS, but I can barely manage the student debt I have right now. Also, from what I gather folks don't reapply for the phd until the year after they complete MAPSS. That means I'll have a year in between in which I'll have to find a job that makes enough to make payments on all of those student loans, and even then it's no guarantee of being admitted. Plus, that means not starting a phd program until what, 2011? I think what the decision to pursue MAPSS or not might come down to is whether I did not get into an anthropology phd program because I don't have a masters in anthropology/generally don't have the skill set or experience they're looking for, or if I didn't get in because not enough folks in the department were interested in working with me. If it's the first, then I could do a 2 year MA somewhere else for about the same cost and get the same kind of experience and skills (I'm right down the road from UMass Amherst, in state tuition + fees for an MA are ~ $10k). If it's the second, then all MAPSS would get me is face time with UChicago professors, which would only really benefit my application to UChicago, and really there are other schools that I would be more than happy to attend. I've sent out a slew of emails asking for feedback on my application's strengths and weaknesses, the results of which will hopefully push me one way or the other. Mostly I just don't want to put all of my eggs in the Chicago basket so to speak and then spend the rest of my life regretting another $30k of debt. Okay, done ranting. Can you tell I've been spending way too much time mulling over this one?

anthcat- I believe I'm in a similar boat. I applied to the PhD and was offered 2/3 tuition at MAPSS and am still waiting to hear from Columbia (boy do that take a long time!). My first reaction was a bit of outrage at the price tag (even including the scholarship). I felt like it was a crappy way of saying "You're not good enough for the PhD, but you can go here anyway if you pay us". I had also applied to the South Asian Languages and Cultures PhD program at Chicago and my application was forwarded to MAPH, which gave me 1/2 tuition. Similar reaction on that front, but at least David Levin, the director of MAPH, has sent me personal emails addressing my interests and concerns about the program. Not such luck on the MAPSS front. That being said, I have talked the programs over with several folks including my undergrad adviser who did his PhD in SALC and a UChicago undergrad alum who is currently in doing a phd in anth at Berkeley. They both cautioned me to put aside my gut reaction and think seriously about MAPSS. The Berkeley guy told me 4-5 folks in his program at Berkeley are MAPSS alums, which is interesting in light of bridgeport's comment (he also said that they're incredibly bright folks, for what it's worth). At this point, I think I'm going to take the money they've offered to go visit for campus days, email the program to see if I can get them to cough up the other 1/3 of tuition, and evaluate my options after hearing from Columbia. I really can't stomach the idea of taking out loans to cover living expenses for a year and I definitely don't think it's feasible to work enough to pay rent while completing this program. If anything, Campus Days will hopefully be an opportunity to figure out where I fell short in my application this year so that I can try again next year.