Round 2 of applications to PhD in Anthro! Lets do this!

[Daisy123]

So...how will we do this? 

 

i was rejected last year from all the 7 schools i applied to. I was interested in mortuary archaeology, and i was rejected from everything. My MA GPA is 3.58 and BA 3.56, but GRE is a disaster- V158 and Q148 and the time before .680Q and 470V..As for experience i have a ton...but i think it didnt save me. I dont think i can do better on the GREs
 

Problem is...i still want to do the same thing i am struggling with finding more programs than last time....now i have 4-5....and this is pushing it. On the other hand, this time  I really know that these advisers want to work with me. 

 

 

What are your stories? what will you do differently? 

[FaultyPowers]

Hi Daisy123! I remember you from last time. What are your schools so far?

[Daisy123]

I remember you too! how are you? I have Ohio State , Notra Dame, University of Utah , UNLV and Pittsburgh again- this is it...and perhaps University of Kansas but i have yet to hear back from that POI and actually, the situation is the same for Ohio State, so actually only 4. are for sure. I dont really know what to do about my POI for pittsburgh  because nothing has changed in terms of interest...

[FaultyPowers]

Ugh. I'm here and I'm mired in SOPing. Congratulations on getting feedback from your POIs! I'm having pretty good luck in that regard this year. The more I think about it the more I think that that really is the essential element in these applications.

So far my list is at 5, even though I was planning to do more like 10 or 11 this year. But the more I thought about the daily realities of living in some of those places I thought.... no. I think 425 is the ideal number for anthro anyway.

[FaultyPowers]

Whoops! "4 to 5".

[Daisy123]

hahah well 425 would be great but 1 - i am not rich, 2- it reallly comes down to- i don't have that many options because there are no specialists that do what i want to do . Are you going to apply to some of the same schools?

[FaultyPowers]

Boston U is my only repeat, and since last year I've reoriented my regional focus, so I'll be applying to essentially a whole new core of faculty. I'm not regionally focused at all in some of my applications as a matter of fact, depending on the specifics of the program.

[smg]

This is my second round of Phd apps after dropping out of an MA program almost a decade ago.  I'm applying to UWashSL, UChicago, UCSB and UCDavis.  

This round I'm putting in a lot more thought and sweat into my applications.  

[Ajtz'ihb]

Two things spring to mind as advice for people applying to PhD programs:

 

1: Apply to a handful of schools (6 seems like an absolute maximum), and carefully tailor your application to the program. Make it obvious that you've thought about why that's a good place for you to be, and single out every single thing you can about the program and the university that appeals to you--faculty, institutes, libraries, you name it. In general, the more schools you apply to the harder it will be to craft a good application specific to each one. 

 

2: Maybe this makes me sound like a d*ck, but make sure you get the name of the school right in your application. Notre Dame; Washington University in St. Louis (not University of Washington in St. Louis); etc. Tiny but significant mistakes like getting a name wrong can sink your application--probably not single-handedly, but it will be an obvious smudge and one that's easy to avoid.

 

Faulty, who are you applying to work with at Penn?

Edited October 31, 2014 by Ajtz'ihb

[smg]

Two things spring to mind as advice for people applying to PhD programs:

 

1: Apply to a handful of schools (6 seems like an absolute maximum), and carefully tailor your application to the program. Make it obvious that you've thought about why that's a good place for you to be, and single out every single thing you can about the program and the university that appeals to you--faculty, institutes, libraries, you name it. In general, the more schools you apply to the harder it will be to craft a good application specific to each one. 

 

2: Maybe this makes me sound like a d*ck, but make sure you get the name of the school right in your application. Notre Dame; Washington University in St. Louis (not University of Washington in St. Louis); etc. Tiny but significant mistakes like getting a name wrong can sink your application--probably not single-handedly, but it will be an obvious smudge and one that's easy to avoid.

 

Faulty, who are you applying to work with at Penn

 

Oops!

[FaultyPowers]

I've opened up a dialogue with Janet Monge, though I haven't actually heard back from her yet. It's only been a few days since my email so I'm not too discouraged yet!

I spoke to her last time about the possibility of doing bioarchaeology at Penn and she was very encouraging, I just didn't actually end up applying then.

[Daisy123]

So , what have you/will you/ can you do when your POI's are NOT writing back to you after they suggested you write a detailed email with more info about what you want to do call and harass?

[Ajtz'ihb]

Given that you've got a while until applications are due and longer still before any decisions are made, I would give it a week or so and then send a brief follow-up email. If you don't hear back after that I would just go ahead and apply anyway, then try and get in touch again as decision time comes up in the late winter/early spring.

[Ajtz'ihb]

I've opened up a dialogue with Janet Monge, though I haven't actually heard back from her yet. It's only been a few days since my email so I'm not too discouraged yet!

I spoke to her last time about the possibility of doing bioarchaeology at Penn and she was very encouraging, I just didn't actually end up applying then.

 

Janet Monge is really great, which you could probably tell from your last interaction with her. I went there as an undergrad and took a few of her classes, and she's a wonderful teacher.

 

Is she able to take her own advisees? Or would you be applying to have somebody else as your official advisor and Monge as a more informal supervisor?

[Daisy123]

ah, so you think i should apply anyway? thank you

..i just today see that the application deadline is TOMORROW and the professor who was supper exited about potentially working together, went into hiding. 

 

May i ask you, as i see that you are already IN a program: for a school that I am applying for a second time now and for which i have had good feedback on my SOP, what could /should I do differently? nothing has changed in terms of what i want to do.

[FaultyPowers]

Janet Monge is really great, which you could probably tell from your last interaction with her. I went there as an undergrad and took a few of her classes, and she's a wonderful teacher.

 

Is she able to take her own advisees? Or would you be applying to have somebody else as your official advisor and Monge as a more informal supervisor?

 

From what I heard from her last time she is able to serve as a co-adviser; which I assume happens often enough because I see 'bioarchaeology' listed as a departmental focus. My introduction was much more fully-developed this time around, so I was planning to wait to hear what she had to say about the specifics of my research interests and whether or not I would want to align myself with a particular regional archaeology. I'm interested in the prehistoric Mediterranean and southern Europe, but mostly in the biocultural approach and paleopathology in general, which can be studied anywhere. My next step will be to reach out to the archaeological faculty...

[Ajtz'ihb]

Yes, absolutely apply anyway. Professors are busy people and unfortunately that means they occasionally drop off the e-mail radar. It doesn't mean they've lost interest.

 

As for things you could do to improve your application/chances at a school you've applied to before, I would advise you to reach out to other faculty beyond your potential advisor whose interests overlap thematically or topically with yours. You'll need more than one person on your committee anyway, so you might as well get in touch with a few other people in the department. This can also help when it comes decision time, since having any sort of relationship with multiple people in the department could add voices in your favor.

 

If you can afford to do so, I also highly recommend traveling to meet with faculty in person. This can be set up through a departmental secretary but it's also worth e-mailing faculty directly. Having a face to put with a name is always good, and if you meet with people it gives you a chance to ask questions and chat a little more freely than is possible in an e-mail.

 

In case you don't do it in the SOP you have--and if you have the space--I would mention other faculty and university resources in your SOP, which makes it obvious you've really paid attention and thought about why you're applying there.

 

Hope that helps!

[DanJackson]

Totally agree, professors are BUSY. I've never had one say "you shouldn't have sent me a reminder."

 

I always say "I hope you don't mind that I send you these reminders, I've been told it's helpfu, just let me know though if you don't need them." And for people I don't know well yet, I do send them reminders, but from my experience you shouldn't expect a reply any sooner than 2-3 weeks. That's why you have to start these conversations really early if possible and if not - when you write you have to inject some sense of "I know it's close to the deadline to be reaching out, but I just found your amazing work about X and it's just my thing so I hoped we could chat about it..."

[Daisy123]

thank you both very much, i always feel like i am intruding, and hearing you say that makes me feel so much better about writing repeatedly. what would those of you who are already attending say the BEST way to get around mediocre GREs are. THats my other concern. I barely found 3 people who could POSSIBLY work with me, so i feel like i am literally going to apply in the dark. 

[DanJackson]

Ask those schools how much they care about GREs. If they reall care, apply to schools that don't care. Or even schools that don't ask for GREs at all - UMass Amherst doesn't ask for GREs, for example - and many in Canada don't either.

[Ajtz'ihb]

Yeah, I think the only way around that is to be up-front about it. Some programs put undue emphasis on GRE scores (like mine), whereas others don't worry about them too much. I hadn't realized that there were some places that didn't ask for them altogether--that's pretty cool. 

[AKCarlton]

So , what have you/will you/ can you do when your POI's are NOT writing back to you after they suggested you write a detailed email with more info about what you want to do call and harass?

 

I would call them and ask them if they had a chance to read your email, and if not, start the dialogue right then and there.

[AKCarlton]

I called everyone of my programs I applied to and asked what their typical GRE scores were and only one said they compared theirs to the previous cohort for reference, the others said not to even sweat about it.