AmityDuPeuple Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping to also reach out to get some more help too. Can't hurt right? Exactly. I have a friend who earned her PhD in philosophy. It took her a while to get into a program but she was very determined. She has a lot more gumption than I do. Her last (and obviously successful) round of applications she took a super pro-active approach; I am not sure I have it in me to be so forward. She emailed the programs and/or the POIs she wanted to work with and asked who was accepting new graduate students, what their strongest applications in the past looked like, and what they wanted to know/see in the upcoming applicants. Her advisor said it was rather unusual to do what she did but it showed that she was serious about getting in and she took more initiative than most. I really believe that her being so candid and frank with her questions is what landed her a spot in her program. Good luck! I will be rooting for you!
manders816 Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Manders816 - and anyone else who applied to the MA program at UT Austin, I just received an email from the director of graduate studies. She stated, "Our admissions committee is a bit behind this year due to the flu. We hope to post decisions by next week." Just thought I would let you know. I see that your footer has changed and you have been rejected by the UT program. Have you actually received word or is this just a presumed rejection?
AmityDuPeuple Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 I see that your footer has changed and you have been rejected by the UT program. Have you actually received word or is this just a presumed rejection? I received an email stating that the status changed and instructed me to log in to see it. It was a formal rejection.
FeministCorgi Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Was lifted off the waitlist for Minnesota Feminist Studies program today. I will be officially accepting that offer. Congrats to everyone else. I've been MIA for a while. janaca and Guillaume 2
janaca Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Congrats Feminist Corgi!!! I am so glad Minnesota worked out for you! Minneapolis is a fabulous place!!!
janaca Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Also, in a weird turn of events, I've recently found out that I'm high up on wait lists at two of my top choice programs--and rejected at every single one of my many "safeties." I couldn't be more honored, but I also couldn't be more anxious.... Wow I had no idea applying to PhD programs would be so intense!
FeministCorgi Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Also, in a weird turn of events, I've recently found out that I'm high up on wait lists at two of my top choice programs--and rejected at every single one of my many "safeties." I couldn't be more honored, but I also couldn't be more anxious.... Wow I had no idea applying to PhD programs would be so intense! two waitlists are better than one. I'm sure one will work out. I was in the same predicament. janaca 1
HopeX Posted March 14, 2015 Posted March 14, 2015 Was lifted off the waitlist for Minnesota Feminist Studies program today. I will be officially accepting that offer. Congrats to everyone else. I've been MIA for a while. Congrats! That is amazing.
annwyn Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Maybe this is the wrong place to ask (maybe someone can suggest a better forum) but if I am applying again to the same program next year, should I submit a new writing sample as well as new SOP and letters? The writing sample I submitted was my strongest work in my MA program and my adviser was very adamant that this sample was the best. Do rejections from past rounds reflect poorly on you the next time around? I only had one acceptance last year (without funding). To say that sucks is a MAJOR understatement. I reworked EVERYTHING. New SOP, new writing sample, new letters. My SOP was much stronger this time and I sent different writing samples to each program according to their focus (I applied to Gender, Anth, and Public Health). My letter writers were the EXACT same people. Two of them said that they were able to write much stronger letters this year as well since I had finished my program and then worked hard to make sure I got work in the field. As far as I know, a rejection doesn't reflect poorly. I reapplied to three of the schools that rejected me last year and have acceptances from two of them (I haven't heard from the third). For one of those schools, I learned during interviews that about HALF of us had been rejected from that school the year before. I contacted each of these schools for suggestions on how to strengthen my application and got no info. The one program that replied said that it wasn't necessarily a problem with my application as much as it was the competitiveness of the other applicants...okay??? But I would still contact them. It doesn't hurt and you might get some info that gives you an edge! Wishing you success!!
annwyn Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Does anyone have suggestions or advice for etiquette when declining offers? Also, does anyone have any idea about the academic prospects for Anth and/or Soc PhDs? I can speak a little to the prospects of Anth PhDs. They kind of suck. But that is kind of the world we are in right now. It somewhat depends on what you want to do. If you want a tenured track position...it's nasty right now. There are way more PhDs than positions and if you end up taking adjuct for 2-3 years, you basically get screwed because the next group of graduates are out there and I've heard adjucts don't fare well in that market. But if that is where your heart lies (as in you will regret not getting the PhD FOREVER) do it. Pick programs that are built to help you succeed. Make sure they have a decent graduation rate, good placement rates, opportunities to publish and present, and opportunities to teach. A couple of programs out there have post-doc opportunities too, which is awesome. That way you are applying to a tenure track position with at least some of the work already done. This was the advice I got, and it has applied to all the programs I've looked at. I would also throw out there that if you are applying to Anth programs (assuming you will have a Gender MA) that you take as many Anth classes you can and make sure you have a project in mind that is not North American based, or at least a comparative study that involves a poplulation outside North America. My project is North American based and it's been a huge headache trying to get Anthro programs to look at my work. Sociology might be the better way to go if you are studying Western Culture. Of course there are jobs outside of academia and many PhD programs are renovating their own programs to help people be better prepared to take those jobs as well. I hope that helps!
greentomato Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 Still haven't heard back from a couple of programs--not sure if that is good or bad news at this point.
AmityDuPeuple Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 I can speak a little to the prospects of Anth PhDs. They kind of suck. But that is kind of the world we are in right now. It somewhat depends on what you want to do. If you want a tenured track position...it's nasty right now. There are way more PhDs than positions and if you end up taking adjuct for 2-3 years, you basically get screwed because the next group of graduates are out there and I've heard adjucts don't fare well in that market. But if that is where your heart lies (as in you will regret not getting the PhD FOREVER) do it. Pick programs that are built to help you succeed. Make sure they have a decent graduation rate, good placement rates, opportunities to publish and present, and opportunities to teach. A couple of programs out there have post-doc opportunities too, which is awesome. That way you are applying to a tenure track position with at least some of the work already done. This was the advice I got, and it has applied to all the programs I've looked at. I would also throw out there that if you are applying to Anth programs (assuming you will have a Gender MA) that you take as many Anth classes you can and make sure you have a project in mind that is not North American based, or at least a comparative study that involves a poplulation outside North America. My project is North American based and it's been a huge headache trying to get Anthro programs to look at my work. Sociology might be the better way to go if you are studying Western Culture. Of course there are jobs outside of academia and many PhD programs are renovating their own programs to help people be better prepared to take those jobs as well. Thanks! I really appreciate your candor. I do know I would regret not earning (or at least trying to earn) my PhD, though I am well aware of the current academic job market. I am drawn to Anth because it is one of my undergrad minors and I have always been fascinated by it as a discipline. I also see its utility in procuring a non-academic job, maybe one in a museum. (I am pretty naive about the non-academic prospects for a Soc PhD, but I do know for me personally working in or with the government is not acceptable.) That being said I do want to research and teach, and I feel that I have come the long way around to studying Soc. I can't foresee limiting myself to one particular location for research and Soc wouldn't limit me in the ways Anth would. I am admitted to Brandeis as a stand-alone WGS MA student, but I can ad a focus in Soc or Anth my second semester and still honor my fellowship requirements. There are WGS professors in both departments that I would love to work with and would be able to do so if I kept the stand-alone MA. That being said, I feel a pull to work in a discipline because I see a need for strong feminist professors to make sure women are represented in course work both as subjects of research and as researchers, as well as to complicate the oppressive binaries found in so much research. (Short note: I recently had an Anth prof use sexed terminology to explain gender in a very binary way.) My passion is with WGS/Feminist Studies, but I also want a tenure track position if at all possible.
AmityDuPeuple Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Still haven't heard back from a couple of programs--not sure if that is good or bad news at this point. I wish I had an answers for you as to whether that is good or bad. I honestly have no idea. I hope you hear back soon!
tdf511 Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Congrats to everyone on their offers! FeministCorgi, glad to hear you are going to your top choice!! Yay! Does that mean you officially said no to IUB? You seemed so excited about IUB--can I ask if something at your visit turned you off about the school? Or were they both great and Minnesota was just better?
annwyn Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 I am admitted to Brandeis as a stand-alone WGS MA student, but I can ad a focus in Soc or Anth my second semester and still honor my fellowship requirements. There are WGS professors in both departments that I would love to work with and would be able to do so if I kept the stand-alone MA. That being said, I feel a pull to work in a discipline because I see a need for strong feminist professors to make sure women are represented in course work both as subjects of research and as researchers, as well as to complicate the oppressive binaries found in so much research. (Short note: I recently had an Anth prof use sexed terminology to explain gender in a very binary way.) My passion is with WGS/Feminist Studies, but I also want a tenure track position if at all possible. Weird about the Anth prof and the binary language, that really suprises me. It's a hard call. Soc and Anth use entirely different theoretical frameworks. Since you have some Anth background maybe you could take a Soc class and see if you like it? If you decided it wasn't your bag and wanted to Anth but not be limited to one geographical area, you could focus on a topic that spans multiple geographies. A broad example might look like: access to reproductive healthcare for women in various cultures. Or, domestic violence across cultures. Not an easy choice. Might come down to who in the Brandeis dept you decide you just click with best.
Guillaume Posted March 18, 2015 Author Posted March 18, 2015 Anyone else still waiting to hear about funding? This is an odd position for me. Most of my friends got funding information with their acceptance or a week or so later...it as been a month...*crickets* Even if it's not what I want to hear, I want to hear something.
AmityDuPeuple Posted March 20, 2015 Posted March 20, 2015 Has anyone heard from U of Wisconsin? I really want to make the best decision but I want to have time to really think it through. I called two weeks ago and they said they hoped they would have it done by the end of last week. Would it be rude to call again?
shilpav82 Posted March 21, 2015 Posted March 21, 2015 For those applying to Maryland - I was offered an interview, and told that 5 other applicants were selected. This was after playing phone tag with the grad director over the weekend. Keep your phones by your side and best of luck! did u go for the interview? i did the interview by skype. so if u went, then u know who i am. did u get an offer. i got accepted, but on waitlist for funding.
db116 Posted March 21, 2015 Posted March 21, 2015 I accepted with OSU's MA program on Friday so if anyone was waitlisted for IU Bloomington's PhD program, you might be in luck! Best wishes to all of you. Thanks for helping my anxiety during this crazy time.
Guillaume Posted March 23, 2015 Author Posted March 23, 2015 I accepted with OSU's MA program on Friday so if anyone was waitlisted for IU Bloomington's PhD program, you might be in luck! Best wishes to all of you. Thanks for helping my anxiety during this crazy time. Is there a reason you turned down IU Bloomington's PhD program for Ohio State's MA program? (Better fit, unfunded PhD, etc.) Just curious...and CONRATULATIONS!
FeministCorgi Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) I will also be denying IUB's offer within the next few days, so anyone on the waitlist might hear good news soon, I hope =). And Guillame, UofMinnesota was slightly a better fit for my research interests and the security with funding is AMAZING there (I also like the city vibe more than the small/quaint town vibe). Both programs are flexible, where IUB is slightly more flexible I think, which made this a difficult decision. Edited March 24, 2015 by FeministCorgi Guillaume 1
annukncite Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 Congrats! I am wait listed for Women and Gender Studies PhD at Stonybrook. I hope I am able to join you ... Fingers crossed!!
db116 Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 Is there a reason you turned down IU Bloomington's PhD program for Ohio State's MA program? (Better fit, unfunded PhD, etc.) Just curious...and CONRATULATIONS! I liked how the department handled recruitment a lot more... first impressions. Also, OSU has more professors that align with my research interests. I'm really excited to teach as well and w/ OSU, I TA the first semester and teach on my own by second semester. I'm also a little anxious about making as big of a commitment to a PhD program versus taking the time at OSU to see if academia is a good fit for me / if I can succeed at a phD level. Guillaume 1
FeministCorgi Posted March 24, 2015 Posted March 24, 2015 Congrats! I am wait listed for Women and Gender Studies PhD at Stonybrook. I hope I am able to join you ... Fingers crossed!! Oh! Good luck! Don't give up hope, even post April 15th a decision could roll in if someone holds out until the last minute!!! annukncite 1
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