UCLA

[medanthrograd]

To people who were accepted at UCLA: congrats!

I'd love to know what you think was particularly strong in your application...

I was shortlisted, but in the end didn't get in and I'd like to understand why (it's ok, I got into some other great programs, but still!)

[lurkingnomad]

I have been unbelievably happy about the UCLA acceptance for the past few days, but I honestly don't think I was any more qualified than others on GC.

Probably my strongest point was that my academic record/research/work experience etc were super coherent and focused, so my resume and transcript clealrly matched the stuff I outlined in my SOP. Took some time off after graduation and got a cool work experience abroad, double major (anthro and one other relevant to subfield), strong language background, might be some of the things that helped.

Meh well...dunno. The admission process is so mysterious I really don't know if this is what the school liked about. Perhaps medical anthro might have been more competitive since they have a good med school there...In the end, though, it just seems that I got lucky. I'm not religious but I tagged along with my friends and went to a Christian church AND a Buddhist temple in one week. Maybe that was it (?)

Other stats:

-Didn't really have one professor with a PERFECT research match, but instead had several professors that had some kind of overlap with my interests.

-Last summer I did email one POI with the strongest match, who seemed to know well & think highly of my undergrad advisor (LOR writer) Undergrad was sort of a "brand name" school too...

-I think my SOP was solid - showed it to one anthro prof who told me it was good. Been working on it since last June and rewrote like... 40 times >_<

-Submitted excerpt from honors thesis as my writing sample. Wasn't really published or anything, but all the anthro people I've shown it to thought it was awesome. So...I guess it was good?

-GRE/GPA were mediocre (GRE barely in the 1300s but not a native speaker, GPA 3.7 seems good, but not really with grade inflation)

This is actually my only notification so far...absolutely NOTHING from the 6 other schools I applied to! (judging from the results search, a lot of likely rejects - I applied to Michigan/Duke/Harvard but haven't heard back). I really don't need any other offers though - I know I'll be really happy here =)

[medanthrograd]

I'm so happy for you, UCLA is a great school and it seems like you would be really in your element there.

It's good to hear about your application, thank you for the details! I'm getting to think that the fact that my previous studies were in a related but different field was a drawback for them (contrary to other schools who got excited about that). My potential adviser told me that if accepted, I would have to take classes in the 4 sub-specialities before foccussing on med anthr... The programs I got into so far only offer cultural anthro or have a separate med anthr track. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it's something totally different, but now I have a theory and can make sense of this, it feels better!-)

It's hard to wait, I'm also expecting a "thanks but no thanks" letter from Harvard, and any sign of life from a couple other schools...

Good luck with everything!

PS: Have you visited UCLA or do you plan to? If you have some specific questions you can ask me in PM, I just went to a conference there and might be able to help.

[lmgpdx]

Hello! I received an acceptance e-mail a while ago but haven't decided yet. Things (possibly) working in my favor ('cause, really, who knows?): I worked for a year and a half in a field strongly related to my research interests, I am currently getting an MA in regional studies and managed to cajole a well known medical anthropologist into writing me a good rec. (along with another anthropologist, which the website says is something they look for), my research interest is informed by a personal experience that helped me form my research goals, and I had decent GRE scores and strong GPA from both undergrad and my current MA program.

I'm glad to hear that you've been accepted to some programs you're excited about! I'm still waiting in no-man's land for a few of them to show any signs of life. Agonizing! If we stick together, we shall overcome!