The Waiting Game - Fall 2014

[Canis]

(Also, the April 15th date only applies to funding decisions, not admission, it also is only those schools who have agreed, and it's not binding.)

[AKCarlton]

Ah okay, makes a lot more sense...thank you for your responses!

[laurissimo]

For anyone else waiting on UPenn: the school is way behind on sending out official decisions. I was able to get my decision via phone from the very nice grad coordinator.

 

 

Good luck and congrats to those who got in!

[Don't Panic]

April 15th is the absolute earliest that a grad program can ask you to make a decision. Some others choose to have later dates, but you cannot be required to give a program an answer before the 15th.

 

Hmm..but one of my programs is asking me to make a decision by the end of March. Feeling under pressure.

[anthropologygeek]

Can you ask for an extension? If not you must decide and if you back out legally they could make you pay for that first semester. Unlikely but still a possibility and there would be nothing you could do. Most likely they will give you more time though.

[Don't Panic]

Can you ask for an extension? If not you must decide and if you back out legally they could make you pay for that first semester. Unlikely but still a possibility and there would be nothing you could do. Most likely they will give you more time though.

 

Thanks! I think I would ask them for an extension.

[FaultyPowers]

I'm still waiting to hear from Vanderbilt but I've broken down and emailed them. It's March 24th and I want my life back! 

[AKCarlton]

I don't know what's worse...waiting on funding after being offered acceptance, being on a waitlist or still waiting to hear about decisions from another...

[magiaepasta]

I'm still waiting to hear from Vanderbilt but I've broken down and emailed them. It's March 24th and I want my life back! 

Completely understand! Also, where the heck is Boston? I've heard back from every single program except theirs. 

[ecologaia]

Congrats on making your decision, magiaepasta! I have to make mine in the next 48 hours or so... Just out of curiousity, how big a factor was 'difference in funding packages' in making your decision?

[magiaepasta]

Congrats on making your decision, magiaepasta! I have to make mine in the next 48 hours or so... Just out of curiousity, how big a factor was 'difference in funding packages' in making your decision?

 

Honestly, my decision was made fairly easily after finding out that my SO had been accepted to the same school. There wasn't a significant enough difference in my funding packages to play a major role in my decision making. It ended up being a combination of feeling more "at home" with the program (the current grad students seemed to really be enjoying their time there and my POI at Brown made it very clear that she wanted me there and wanted to do what was necessary to get me there) and the proximity of my SO really sealed the deal for me. Good luck with your decision, ecologaia! I know it's a big one, but I have confidence that you will end up at the place you are meant to be.

Edited March 25, 2014 by magiaepasta

[ecologaia]

Thanks, magiaepasta! I'll be moving with my fiance, so I totally understand the extra dimension of trying to make decisions as a duo.

 

Open to all thoughts, from all readers:

 

At this point, after dismissing a third, unfunded offer, I am looking at deciding between:

 

1) a cozy, humbly-funded but uber supportive program in a quaint area that doesn't involve a major move, highly engaged faculty who are seasoned in their fields if not huge names, fucking beautiful and close to green space, where cohorts teach their heads off as a requirement from day one (I heart teaching), most have to balance other on campus jobs, but all geek out over their high quality of life

 

vs.

 

2) a more prestigious, ornate and old money-southern ivy, my-area-expert-focused program with crazy funding but in a way urban environment (and we're wilderness-obsessed New Hampshirites!) where i'll be my advisor's first protegee (although while an intimidating thought, I am actually quite intrigued by that possibility and its implications, and the man is wicked cool yesichosethatwordonpurpose) and though there are some big names in the department, it sounds like i'd have to panache my way into teaching opportunities and raise a bit of noise along the way in that regard, and grad students are positive and lively but very here's-the-deal-avoid-him-fight-for-that-but-this-rocks kind of way. 

 

Liked everyone I met at both schools, so that's no question. My fiance will find excellent work in his field in either local, and he is the practical, money-focused-type when it comes to the decision factors. 

 

Thoughts? 

 

As always, you all are the best support system. Thanks in advance for the time! We have to let everyone know by Wednesday. 

[CulturalAnth]

Eco- It sounds like option 1 will make you most happy as well as give you ample teaching experience- and that is something that you would really need for a long term prof. career. 

[mesoarch]

Eco, I agree with CulturalAnth.  It sounds like option 1 would be the better environment for professional growth - especially through teaching experience - and that's what's going to really matter when you're eventually out on the job market.  I've had a couple of friends who went with the more prestigious option and were really lamenting the lack of support and development they could have gotten with some of their other options.  I chose a smaller, lesser-known, but incredibly supportive option for my MA and haven't regretted it for a second.  The network of support made all the difference, and I'm so glad to have had a completely positive graduate experience thus far while others I know have had their progress hindered by competition or department politics.

[Forsaken in LA]

Eco- It sounds like option 1 will make you most happy as well as give you ample teaching experience- and that is something that you would really need for a long term prof. career. 

Agreed!

[ecologaia]

Thanks everyone!!! I went with instinct about my soon-to-be mentor, who I am very much looking forward to working with. And I can't lie, the funding helps!

 

FaultyPowers-- I am crossing my fingers for you something fierce!!! I hopehopehope they email you with an offer!!! PM me if you want!!!

Edited March 27, 2014 by ecologaia

[NOWAYNOHOW]

Any movement on Rutgers?  I have a feeling they put everyone (aside from their 5 alternates) on an unranked wait list and sort of let us float through space until April 15th, when we'll get our rejections.  Bah!  I would like this to be over!

Congrats to everyone else though!  So impressed.

[Forsaken in LA]

Anyone apply to Columbia's Museum Anthro program? I asked to be considered after my PhD rejection. I've decided on Chicago, so I guess it doesn't matter. 

[FaultyPowers]

Hey guys. This year was a total wash for me. Honestly, I know I'm qualified and I know I have a pretty damn competitive application, I really think the problem was that I applied to do Maya bioarch with Andean bioarch POIs. I really don't think they're willing to consider anyone doing anything other than trauma in Peru! So next year my entire application strategy is going to be different. I'm going to focus on mortuary archaeology for those programs with strong Maya foci and apply to bioarch programs ONLY at schools with POIs who work somewhere other than Peru. I've only found two places that focus on Maya bioarch, and they weren't taking people this year. So perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

[DigDeep(inactive)]

Hey guys. This year was a total wash for me. Honestly, I know I'm qualified and I know I have a pretty damn competitive application, I really think the problem was that I applied to do Maya bioarch with Andean bioarch POIs. I really don't think they're willing to consider anyone doing anything other than trauma in Peru! So next year my entire application strategy is going to be different. I'm going to focus on mortuary archaeology for those programs with strong Maya foci and apply to bioarch programs ONLY at schools with POIs who work somewhere other than Peru. I've only found two places that focus on Maya bioarch, and they weren't taking people this year. So perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

 

Sorry about this year's results! I know you are qualified and damn competitive, as well! It's good that you have identified the problem already - you will dominate next year. I think you would have excelled at BU - Saturno's loss! Keep in touch! 

[mesoarch]

Hey guys. This year was a total wash for me. Honestly, I know I'm qualified and I know I have a pretty damn competitive application, I really think the problem was that I applied to do Maya bioarch with Andean bioarch POIs. I really don't think they're willing to consider anyone doing anything other than trauma in Peru! So next year my entire application strategy is going to be different. I'm going to focus on mortuary archaeology for those programs with strong Maya foci and apply to bioarch programs ONLY at schools with POIs who work somewhere other than Peru. I've only found two places that focus on Maya bioarch, and they weren't taking people this year. So perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

 

Faulty, are you applying for PhD track only, or would you consider a terminal MA?

[AKCarlton]

Hey guys. This year was a total wash for me. Honestly, I know I'm qualified and I know I have a pretty damn competitive application, I really think the problem was that I applied to do Maya bioarch with Andean bioarch POIs. I really don't think they're willing to consider anyone doing anything other than trauma in Peru! So next year my entire application strategy is going to be different. I'm going to focus on mortuary archaeology for those programs with strong Maya foci and apply to bioarch programs ONLY at schools with POIs who work somewhere other than Peru. I've only found two places that focus on Maya bioarch, and they weren't taking people this year. So perhaps it just wasn't meant to be.

 

Have you considered Northern Arizona University? One of my former professors Dr. Corina Kellner was a bioarchaeologist with a focus on Peru. She actually is conducting a field school this summer on adolescents and cemeteries in Peru. She's taking a sabbatical this academic year, but she may be back by the next, which is when you would start if you get accepted the next application season.

 

I worked her in osteology lab for an independent study this past semester. She has a lab and accepts volunteers, and she also sent an email not too long ago for a paid position in it as well. It receives skeletal remains quite frequently, especially since we're so close to Native American reservations. You'd have lots to work with if you considered it.

 

PM me if you have any further questions, but she is an amazing professor who is excited to discuss Peru and bioarchaeology...ALSO, she may be able to send you information about her former school in California where she received her past degrees and the professors she worked with, which might help you with the schools you select for next time when you're applying.

 

Edit: Apologies, read your post for the third time and realized you DON'T want Peru...but  if you still want to do morturary and bioarch, I'd recommend getting into contact with her...she helped me a lot during my post-bac there.

Edited March 28, 2014 by AKCarlton

[ecologaia]

Faulty-- Also try Emory and UVA... I know there's someone working on mortuary practices at Emory, and UVA has some people working in Maya regions. I had a similar experience to you at a different school, in that I was applying to do Andean stuff with people focused on Maya stuff. I was hoping that the Maya MA project I'm coming out of would be enough of a connector, but it wasn't. I ended up getting into the best program I could find where people were highly Andean focused, so I think you are absolutely right in your reasoning.

 

That said, I didn't see an official sign in your comments that you had heard back from Vanderbilt yet, and having just returned from a visit there and given my acceptance, I know that there is only one other person FOR SURE so far in my cohort, and the physical anthro person that was accepted took a position on a site dig or something instead, and I think they are trying to have at least three in the department for my cohort...

[casscan'tsleep]

I had a similar experience, Faulty. It was a pretty tough year of rejections for me. I am still waitlisted and waiting for responses, but if nothing pans out I have already decided to specify my topic as I think it was too broad before and that perhaps made me less of a candidate (I applied to sociocultural anth programs and am interested in feminist anthropology reviewing ideologies of masculinity and how they create/perpetuate structural violence, put broadly. I did my master's research on a connected topic for my master's in South Sudan.) Hopefully through contextualizing this topic a little more clearly and taking what I learned about the process I can better pick schools and tailor my application toward those schools!

 

I am actually working on a more detailed research proposal for a school in Europe and am considering sending it to where I am waitlisted as I think it could play in my favor...any advice on sending an updated research proposal or letter to a school where you are waitlisted? Good idea or no?

[FaultyPowers]

I haven't gotten an official rejection yet, but the DGS told me, in response to my email, that I was not "among the finalists". Which is frustrating, because my POI emailed me on February 11th out of the blue to say that she was taking a closer look at my application and that she'd "update me soon". I wrote her back on February 24th and she has never yet responded.