Fall 2019 Applicants

[G_speed]

1 hour ago, Xiiiiin said:

Thank you for sharing! Congratulations on your admission!

No problem, and thanks! 

[Fantasmapocalypse]

I've been accepted by one program in my second round (year) of PhD applications. In my previous applications, I focused specifically on top-tier programs with full funding and Professors who shared my regional specialization as well as theoretical/topical interests. I was handily rejected by all of them. Like usual, I got vague feedback ("lots of qualified applicants") but a couple of clues that basically emphasized my relative lack of "field experience"/advanced language skills and/or familial/marital connections to the culture. My previous applications were to Canadian and U.S. programs like NYU, Pitt, and Vancouver. I was told to cast my net widely and did... and fell flat.

This year the program that accepted me did so even though it had no regional overlap with my areas of interest. They spoke to my MA in regional studies (for previous/foundational knowledge) as well as extremely strong letters of recommendation as key points in coming to their decision. I've only applied to two programs this year so I am waiting to hear from the UC I applied to in Area Studies as well as another non-PhD Program to see what my other options are. Ironically, I applied to the Area Studies program because it isn't "just" about fieldwork, and I have gotten the inkling that they are still hung up like the Anthropology programs have been on my comparative lack of experience.

Good luck everyone!

[Umairrasheed]

Looks like NYU sent out acceptances and rejections yesterday. I have yet to hear about the status of my application. Wondering if there are others in a similar situation? And does this mean wait-listing! 

[spoitier]

Got into USF's MA [and MPH]! This is my first choice, but I've been waitlisted for funding. I'm a little bummed since I thought I was pretty qualified for a TA/RA position due to one year of TA and 3+ years of RA experience in undergrad...oh well, maybe some money will become available soon! 

This is my third offer so far without guaranteed funding, so I'm toying with the idea of another year off if nothing pans out (I'm already at a year and a half out of school at the moment). I don't know how comfortable I feel taking out more loans and hoping I get offered more money after my first semester. Does anyone have experience negotiating for funding either after being told it might not be available? Is this possible? Alternatively, is there a way to make my application more competitive for $$ next cycle? Just improve overall as already mentioned and make schools want me more?

[Fantasmapocalypse]

If you read The Professor Is In by Karen Kelsky, she goes into depth about negotiating and building a CV (and the value of some adding lines above others). Basically, the two most powerful things you can add to a CV is peer review publications and funding. Karen says that 1.) never go into a program without funding and 2.) you can always negotiate. What I've found is that since not all of us are going to big Ivy League R1's/PhDs/Top Performing Programs, this is not so easily followed. Arguably, those of us "not good enough" to get funding, get into the best programs and building the best CVs should probably just stay home and not pursue a debt ladder higher education.

That said... you can always ask for written funding promise or a deferment for a year if they'll give it to you. That's usually not going to happen, from what I understand, but it's worth asking.

If you want to make yourself as competitive as possible, then get a peer reviewed publication and any funding you can elsewhere. A travel grant for a conference presentation, an award from your school or program (although you're already out so this isn't likely for your situation), any kind of competitive thing that you can capture money from shows you are able to publish and/or get money to publish/do work. A $500 travel grant leads to a $1000 travel grant, leads to a $5000 research award leads to a $20,000 Fellowship and so on.

Also keep in mind that most MAs are less likely to be funded than PhDs. One thing you could do is ask a trusted person in the program who is in the know (perhaps your POI or the program director) if they were able to offer funding at all for the current year. My program did not award any one funding. Depending on the State and the state of the department, they could be growing, underfunded, or both. Too many grad students and not enough money to go around can be a sign of problems with people graduating, lack of funding, or both. 

[adamanthro]

CUNY decisions should be out! I Got waitlisted 

[perpetualalligator]

@adamanthro did you get an email or did it show up in the portal?? I guess I got rejected. yikes.

Has anyone else received anything?

Edited March 9, 2019 by perpetualalligator

[adamanthro]

@perpetualalligator I got an email. It said the first round of offers had been sent out. Then that there was a waitlist of applicants and I was one of them. It seemed to be somewhat generic so I would think it was sent out to all the waitlisted applicants at once.

[adamanthro]

If you have not gotten an update on your portal id suggest checking your junk mail! (I got an admission in my junk mail I did not see for a while). Good luck

[perpetualalligator]

Nothing on my portal or email (including spam). Making people wait for their rejection is simply rude. ?

[adamanthro]

Damn!!  I don't have anything on my portal either and someone updated a rejection just now saying they saw it in their portal. I am not sure what is going on. If it is a rejection the wait does suck. Good luck, I hope you got other options? 

[perpetualalligator]

@adamanthro I do have another option but I really like CUNY and I got my hopes up when I got the interview email ? Also I know that at least I have one choice but applying to 9 schools and only getting one acceptance is kind of brutal.

Edited March 9, 2019 by perpetualalligator

[Fantasmapocalypse]

3 hours ago, perpetualalligator said:

@adamanthro I do have another option but I really like CUNY and I got my hopes up when I got the interview email ? Also I know that at least I have one choice but applying to 9 schools and only getting one acceptance is kind of brutal.

I feel your pain! I applied to 7 last year and got nothing but rejection, including two that I really wanted to attend. This year I seriously looked at six but eventually only applied to three - two academic (PhD), one related but non-program opportunity related to my region of interest. I received one offer, and am waiting on the other two still.

The three programs I dropped either required you to have an MA within the discipline or my POI was either no longer affiliated with the department (shift in appointment) or seriously planning their retirement. Keep going!

[Andromeda3921]

9 hours ago, adamanthro said:

CUNY decisions should be out! I Got waitlisted 

I've also been waitlisted! If anyone on here got an admit and isn't going to take it, please let them know? CUNY is my top choice and I'm quite disappointed right now.

Does anyone know how this works usually, though? Do people manage to get off the waitlist with GCF? If yes, how many and how many of those would be international students? 

 

[Andromeda3921]

On 3/6/2019 at 2:56 PM, Umairrasheed said:

Looks like NYU sent out acceptances and rejections yesterday. I have yet to hear about the status of my application. Wondering if there are others in a similar situation? And does this mean wait-listing! 

I didn't get an official update yet, though I emailed the head of the adcomm a few weeks ago and he told me my application was rejected. I'd advise you to write the coordinator requesting an update. 

[oroanthro]

16 hours ago, Andromeda3921 said:

I've also been waitlisted! If anyone on here got an admit and isn't going to take it, please let them know? CUNY is my top choice and I'm quite disappointed right now.

Does anyone know how this works usually, though? Do people manage to get off the waitlist with GCF? If yes, how many and how many of those would be international students? 

 

Current CUNY student here. It is not unusual to get off the waitlist (I did) but it is rare to get the GCF. My advice is not to email the chair of the adcomm because he will not give you your ranking on the wait list (everyone in my year and the year ahead of me received the same line "I think there is a good chance that you will get admitted with a GCF"or something like that--literally word for word, copy and pasted--and none of us did. There doesn't seem to be variation based on international/US based--they actually have a really complicated ranking system. I do have one friend who is in their fourth year who did get a GCF off the waitlist, though--so it does happen. What's more, the adcomm receives a lot of those emails and it annoys them. If you do interact with anyone at CUNY, be positive, say you are thankful to be considered and above all, be honest with yourself and them regarding your ability to handle a tuition-only admission. Tuition only is ROUGH.

You can message me privately here if you have specific questions.  I know how tough your situation is and really only found support here in the form of a current CUNY student I met on gradcafe. I'm trying to pay it forward this year  

[KuroNeko]

I've officially received all my rejections from American and Canadian schools. If anyone is considering throwing their hat into next year's ring, you might want to consider doing your PhD abroad and applying to a couple schools outside of North America. In some cases, while the rigor is the same, the competition to gain admission is not as fierce, and it could be the difference between getting to do a PhD or not at all, as was my case. 

In any case, good job everyone! You are all smart and capable people, regardless of how your applications turned out. Whether you decide to try again next year or pursue other areas, I wish you all the best of luck and success. ?

[Fantasmapocalypse]

2 hours ago, KuroNeko said:

I've officially received all my rejections from American and Canadian schools. If anyone is considering throwing their hat into next year's ring, you might want to consider doing your PhD abroad and applying to a couple schools outside of North America. In some cases, while the rigor is the same, the competition to gain admission is not as fierce, and it could be the difference between getting to do a PhD or not at all, as was my case. 

In any case, good job everyone! You are all smart and capable people, regardless of how your applications turned out. Whether you decide to try again next year or pursue other areas, I wish you all the best of luck and success. ?

Pursuing your degree abroad purely depends on your endgame. If you want to be employed at an American or western university, please keep in mind the systems are still pig headed and devalue degrees from 'foreign' programs. If you are interested in working outside of academia and/or outside of the US, by all means!

[Discodog]

Has anyone heard from Pitt yet? It's been radio silence so far. Seems like they take awhile to get decisions out but I'm ANTSY.

[Nathanael]

I am probably the only one waiting for McGill's result... I nearly gave up and emailed them last week. And it is said that they have not finished the reviewing. Kind of ridiculous.

[pyramidstuds]

If anyone else applied to UVA and assumed rejection when not invited to the on campus interviews, as I did, there is still hope. I just got an email this afternoon requesting a Skype interview tomorrow. Although they are on spring break, the committee is still conducting some interviews. I'm the one who posted on the results page, FYI. Didn't see any other UVA interviews as recently as today.

[Fantasmapocalypse]

15 hours ago, Discodog said:

Has anyone heard from Pitt yet? It's been radio silence so far. Seems like they take awhile to get decisions out but I'm ANTSY.

Last year my Pitt Rejection came on April 5th. You are probably in for another month's wait if you are somewhere on a potential second-round pick. Don't give up yet!

[Fantasmapocalypse]

7 hours ago, Nathanael said:

I am probably the only one waiting for McGill's result... I nearly gave up and emailed them last week. And it is said that they have not finished the reviewing. Kind of ridiculous.

Sounds about right, unfortunately. Some of the programs decide very very late.  

[KuroNeko]

21 hours ago, Fantasmapocalypse said:

Pursuing your degree abroad purely depends on your endgame. If you want to be employed at an American or western university, please keep in mind the systems are still pig headed and devalue degrees from 'foreign' programs. If you are interested in working outside of academia and/or outside of the US, by all means!

5.5% of the tenure track positions obtained from 1994 to 2014 were from PhDs obtained at foreign institutions. See: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202528

Honestly, those aren't terrible odds considering that only 21% of PhD graduates in the US land a tenure track job in the US. That 5.5% for foreign PhDs does not tell us the percentage out of those who applied with foreign PhDs were successful, but looking at the top universities where PhDs were hired, only 5.6% came from the highest ranking university, Chicago, for example. Only five schools made it into the 96th percentile, plus foreign universities as a whole. In terms of sheer market share, then, chances are pretty good for foreign PhDs in anthropology. 

But ultimately it's up the individual what kind of risk they are willing to take when applying and choosing (assuming they are able given admission rates) where to do their PhD. Data helps. 

[Fantasmapocalypse]

9 minutes ago, KuroNeko said:

5.5% of the tenure track positions obtained from 1994 to 2014 were from PhDs obtained at foreign institutions. See: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202528

Honestly, those aren't terrible odds considering that only 21% of PhD graduates in the US land a tenure track job in the US. That 5.5% for foreign PhDs does not tell us the percentage out of those who applied with foreign PhDs were successful, but looking at the top universities where PhDs were hired, only 5.6% came from the highest ranking university, Chicago, for example. Only five schools made it into the 96th percentile, plus foreign universities as a whole. In terms of sheer market share, then, chances are pretty good for foreign PhDs in anthropology. 

But ultimately it's up the individual what kind of risk they are willing to take when applying and choosing (assuming they are able given admission rates) where to do their PhD. Data helps. 

I'm headed to bed so I didn't read the entire article, but since I didn't see it I thought I would ask you if they differentiate between foreign applicants with foreign degrees vs. Americans/domestic applicants with foreign degrees? I'd be interested to see how that data parses.

My intuition and understanding has always been not that foreign degrees are necessarily worthless, but rather, they are valued different on American applicants applying for American jobs for example vs. an international applicant. Hence, someone from NZ with a German PhD or wherever with whatever is contextualized differently than the corresponding American/westerner.

But absolutely agree, good to have data!