Fall 2016 Applicants

[NatureCulture]

Would any of the Harvard accepts be willing to share their POIs? 

[LisforLithics]

That last one was me - I'm an archaeologist who applied under Christian Tryon.

I'm stunned - I gave up completely yesterday after someone said first round offers were already out, and I hadn't been interviewed. But got a generic email with an acceptance link a hour ago. Good luck everyone! 

[ndhorst]

Has anyone heard any chat from friends or colleagues about socio-cultural at Columbia beyond what's on the results page (which seems unclear, one waitlist and one interview who hasn't heard back)? From previous years, they do seem to send out notifications a bit later but I'm surprised that there are no reported acceptances yet...

[NatureCulture]

11 minutes ago, JMcArca said:

That last one was me - I'm an archaeologist who applied under Christian Tryon.

I'm stunned - I gave up completely yesterday after someone said first round offers were already out, and I hadn't been interviewed. But got a generic email with an acceptance link a hour ago. Good luck everyone! 

Congratulations! Thanks for your response. I'm a sociocultural applicant; perhaps only the sociocultural spots went out late last week. I know my POI was definitely looking to take at least one student, but I am trying to determine if that slot in the department has been offered to someone else.

[maybe]

Hi all,

As other people had already posted, I did not post my results, but I wanted to write to give a sense of the schools I have heard from. This is my second round and I hope that my results would give those of you who didn't make it this year some hope. Last year, I was waitlisted at Cornell, which did not work out. Here's what happened this year:

I received offers from Harvard (last Friday), Northwestern (yesterday), Cornell (Feb. 17), and Johns Hopkins (Feb. 11). 

I am also waitlisted at Columbia, which I have learned through website on Feb. 12. I was also sent an email from a prof. in de department on Feb. 15. I also know that admitted students are invited for campus visit that's taking place this week. 

If this round did not work for you, please don't give up. I wish all of you the best!

Edited March 2, 2016 by maybe

[busybee]

1 hour ago, maybe said:

Hi all,

As other people had already posted, I did not post my results, but I wanted to write to give a sense of the schools I have heard from. This is my second round and I hope that my results would give those of you who didn't make it this year some hope. Last year, I was waitlisted at Cornell, which did not work out. Here's what happened this year:

I received offers from Harvard (last Friday), Northwestern (yesterday), Cornell (Feb. 17), and Johns Hopkins (Feb. 11). 

I am also waitlisted at Columbia, which I have learned through website on Feb. 12. I was also sent an email from a prof. in de department on Feb. 15. I also know that admitted students are invited for campus visit that's taking place this week. 

If this round did not work for you, please don't give up. I wish all of you the best!

Congrats, maybe! That's amazing! Thanks for sharing and the words of encouragement. Do you mind me asking what you did in the year in between application seasons?

[maybe]

Well, not much. I have finished my MA program, but I was already in the writing phase, so I don't think that made much of a difference - I was going to finish it anyway. I have applied with a different topic, which I think was more "anthropological". Last year, I was interested in a specific form of politics, but had not specified any fields. This year, I offered specific locations and built up my questions from there. I also went to Denver for AAA, but again, I don't really think that it had a huge impact too. I think the change of topic was the key to such radical differences in terms of the outcomes.

[ndhorst]

17 hours ago, maybe said:

Hi all,

As other people had already posted, I did not post my results, but I wanted to write to give a sense of the schools I have heard from. This is my second round and I hope that my results would give those of you who didn't make it this year some hope. Last year, I was waitlisted at Cornell, which did not work out. Here's what happened this year:

I received offers from Harvard (last Friday), Northwestern (yesterday), Cornell (Feb. 17), and Johns Hopkins (Feb. 11). 

I am also waitlisted at Columbia, which I have learned through website on Feb. 12. I was also sent an email from a prof. in de department on Feb. 15. I also know that admitted students are invited for campus visit that's taking place this week. 

If this round did not work for you, please don't give up. I wish all of you the best!

Thanks for sharing about Columbia and congratulations on your success this round!

[ladyoflight17]

22 hours ago, pakhistorian said:

@ladyoflight17 if I may ask, how did it go??

It went well ... They didn't have many questions, apart from my reasons for my interest in the program. It was a good thing that I had a few questions.

[pakhistorian]

@ladyoflight17 thanks and good luck

[bioarch_fan]

This week was amazing for me. I spent the week in Rome, Italy with the History Department and made some amazing friends and had the time of my life. Then mid-way through the week I received an email from University of Central Florida notifying me that I was accepted into the program (funding to be announced)...I was so excited about receiving this email and had a celebratory night out with friends that night. The next night I received an email from Mississippi State University with another acceptance (this one with 2 years funding) while I was at the same bar as the previous night. Both of these acceptances made my week better than it already was!!!

[sierra918]

1 hour ago, bioarch_fan said:

This week was amazing for me. I spent the week in Rome, Italy with the History Department and made some amazing friends and had the time of my life. Then mid-way through the week I received an email from University of Central Florida notifying me that I was accepted into the program (funding to be announced)...I was so excited about receiving this email and had a celebratory night out with friends that night. The next night I received an email from Mississippi State University with another acceptance (this one with 2 years funding) while I was at the same bar as the previous night. Both of these acceptances made my week better than it already was!!!

So glad to hear it! Congratulations to you!!!

[knp]

@bioarch_fan OK, where's this bar? I'm booking a flight so I can go sit there every night until I get my last admission notification and all my funding decisions! Plus, Rome!

[bioarch_fan]

6 hours ago, knp said:

@bioarch_fan OK, where's this bar? I'm booking a flight so I can go sit there every night until I get my last admission notification and all my funding decisions! Plus, Rome!

Lmao. Idk how much luck the bar gave me but I felt pretty good sitting there nonetheless. It's a nice little Irish pub in the Prati area of Rome (close to Vatican City). It's called the Derry Rock. If you're going to go to Rome any time, I can give you some tips on places to go because I frequented PLENTY of restaurants and bars in the week that I was there. Lol.

[knp]

Well, you know what they say about the luck of the Irish!

[batata]

Congrats to everyone who was admitted thus far!

Do any of you know anything about the MAPSS program? I've been scouring the forums for some insider deets and have gotten a mixed bag of information. Someone a few days ago posted that they were admitted to MAPSS in lieu of phd but that they will be declining because they've heard bad things about the program (thought I'd add that this post was later deleted). Was it one of you guys on here that posted that? If so, it'd be great if you could PM me to explain why you think it's not good or from where you got your info. I was also admitted to MAPSS with full-funding so I'm actually considering it seeing that no PhD admissions are happening for me this year and all I've gotten are some unfunded consolation MA admissions instead of PhD (thank you Columbia!). 

 

Anyone with any opinion on MAPSS would be awesome! And if those of you who did an MA prior to applying to a doctoral degree could weigh in with some opinions about their experience that would also be wonderful. 

 

Congrats again to everyone! Come back again to tell us how your first year of PhD-life is like:)

Edited March 8, 2016 by batata

[mini monkey]

Hey everyone- my friend is still waiting to hear back from a few universities. She wants to know if anyone has heard anything from NYU? Specifically to work with Dr. Higham? It seems like they're running late with decisions compared to the timeline they had the past few years. 

[MuOlivia]

Any news from BU? I had a Skype interview a week ago. I'm dying for the final result. 

[MedAnth077]

5 hours ago, mini monkey said:

Hey everyone- my friend is still waiting to hear back from a few universities. She wants to know if anyone has heard anything from NYU? Specifically to work with Dr. Higham? It seems like they're running late with decisions compared to the timeline they had the past few years. 

Just the few accepts on the results page... I will say they seem to be very late on just rejecting folks (not saying your friend is rejected, but since they already sent out admits, that could be the case). I was expecting to hear from them late February with a rejection myself... I wish they'd get it over with! 

[EA76]

9 hours ago, batata said:

Congrats to everyone who was admitted thus far!

Do any of you know anything about the MAPSS program? I've been scouring the forums for some insider deets and have gotten a mixed bag of information. Someone a few days ago posted that they were admitted to MAPSS in lieu of phd but that they will be declining because they've heard bad things about the program (thought I'd add that this post was later deleted). Was it one of you guys on here that posted that? If so, it'd be great if you could PM me to explain why you think it's not good or from where you got your info. I was also admitted to MAPSS with full-funding so I'm actually considering it seeing that no PhD admissions are happening for me this year and all I've gotten are some unfunded consolation MA admissions instead of PhD (thank you Columbia!). 

 

Anyone with any opinion on MAPSS would be awesome! And if those of you who did an MA prior to applying to a doctoral degree could weigh in with some opinions about their experience that would also be wonderful. 

 

Congrats again to everyone! Come back again to tell us how your first year of PhD-life is like:)

Congratulations on getting the full-funding offer at MAPSS— I don't think they give many of those out, so that speaks very highly to your application materials! 

I can't speak to the program well, but have had two friends go through it— so before I say anything, just know that this is a second-hand account and might be better to hear first-hand perspectives, such as those outlined in the forum posts below from a few years ago (copied/pasted after my answer).

To put it simply though, I think many people feel that MAPSS is a money-making scheme more than anything else. That's a fairly widely-acknowledged perspective both among students and within the University, which means certain faculty members who have a negative option on MAPSS students may not be willing to take you seriously or work with you. It's expensive, even if you get scholarship money—especially because Chicago isn't a cheap place to live. They do offer a lot of support in applying for PhDs, but you should know that you won't be applying next year— they only offer application support to people on the tail-end of the program who have done well, from what I understand, so you are looking at the 9 months in the MAPSS program, plus another year or so that you'd have to fill before beginning a PhD program that, most likely, won't take the MAPSS credit as transfer credit anyway (The point I'm trying to make is you'd be extending an already lengthy doctoral-level education by 2+ years).

Both of my friends had less-than-stellar experiences, personally and academically. The core coursework is challenging and deeply-embeds you in the social sciences (only good things to say about that!), but, beyond that, my friends didn't have the opportunity to connect with the faculty they would have liked to work with or pursue the research they were excited about both because of the length of the program (it's very short) and because of the stigma against MAPSS students (to put it as harshly as possible: basically as just being rich kids who didn't get in to Chicago's PhD programs, but are able to "pay their way" into a PhD program by, to some extent, "buying" a UChicago degree). That's not a stereotype that applied to my friends, or would apply to you, but I think "haunts" the students in the program, to some extent. If you're set on getting into a top PhD program and moving forward in academia as a career than it may be worth taking out loans/drawing on your savings and putting things "on hold" (to some extent) for two years— especially if you think you're in a position where you won't be competitive without it (i.e. low GPA, low GRE scores, little experience in the social sciences, etc.). That doesn't seem to be the case for you though; if you were offered the full-funding package, you must have been competitive for the PhD programs I'd imagine— even if it didn't work out this year, it might be worth re-applying next year. 

We may not want to get into a big MAPSS debate here (it seems to happen every year!), but feel free to PM me if you want. I'd also recommend re-starting the thread below to get more recent opinions (or starting a new one in one of the other forums), if you're interested in hearing what people who have actually done the program (again, that's not me!) might say:

 

Edited March 8, 2016 by EA76
clarification

[busybee]

3 hours ago, EA76 said:

Congratulations on getting the full-funding offer at MAPSS— I don't think they give many of those out, so that speaks very highly to your application materials! 

I can't speak to the program well, but have had two friends go through it— so before I say anything, just know that this is a second-hand account and might be better to hear first-hand perspectives, such as those outlined in the forum posts below from a few years ago (copied/pasted after my answer).

To put it simply though, I think many people feel that MAPSS is a money-making scheme more than anything else. That's a fairly widely-acknowledged perspective both among students and within the University, which means certain faculty members who have a negative option on MAPSS students may not be willing to take you seriously or work with you. It's expensive, even if you get scholarship money—especially because Chicago isn't a cheap place to live. They do offer a lot of support in applying for PhDs, but you should know that you won't be applying next year— they only offer application support to people on the tail-end of the program who have done well, from what I understand, so you are looking at the 9 months in the MAPSS program, plus another year or so that you'd have to fill before beginning a PhD program that, most likely, won't take the MAPSS credit as transfer credit anyway (The point I'm trying to make is you'd be extending an already lengthy doctoral-level education by 2+ years).

Both of my friends had less-than-stellar experiences, personally and academically. The core coursework is challenging and deeply-embeds you in the social sciences (only good things to say about that!), but, beyond that, my friends didn't have the opportunity to connect with the faculty they would have liked to work with or pursue the research they were excited about both because of the length of the program (it's very short) and because of the stigma against MAPSS students (to put it as harshly as possible: basically as just being rich kids who didn't get in to Chicago's PhD programs, but are able to "pay their way" into a PhD program by, to some extent, "buying" a UChicago degree). That's not a stereotype that applied to my friends, or would apply to you, but I think "haunts" the students in the program, to some extent. If you're set on getting into a top PhD program and moving forward in academia as a career than it may be worth taking out loans/drawing on your savings and putting things "on hold" (to some extent) for two years— especially if you think you're in a position where you won't be competitive without it (i.e. low GPA, low GRE scores, little experience in the social sciences, etc.). That doesn't seem to be the case for you though; if you were offered the full-funding package, you must have been competitive for the PhD programs I'd imagine— even if it didn't work out this year, it might be worth re-applying next year. 

We may not want to get into a big MAPSS debate here (it seems to happen every year!), but feel free to PM me if you want. I'd also recommend re-starting the thread below to get more recent opinions (or starting a new one in one of the other forums), if you're interested in hearing what people who have actually done the program (again, that's not me!) might say:

 

 

I disagree that faculty won't take you seriously! A friend of mine who completed MAPSS has received multiple, fully-funded PhD offers to prestigious institutions this application cycle, including Berkeley and Northwestern. It definitely seems like a great option, especially full-funded. Chicago is so well-respected, no matter the program. I think MAPSS is what you make of it.

[jellyfish11]

I'm a MAPSS alum and I had a great experience. I disagree that profs don't take you seriously. The top MAPSS students work with the top professors, but many professors only want to take on one or two MAPSS students. I started meeting with my advisor early and worked really hard on my proposal. If you take a class with the prof and do well, they will almost always take you on. Every top professor in the anthro department took at least one MAPSS student my year. If you look for an advisor early, take a class with them, and write a good thesis proposal, you will have no problem getting the top profs to work with you. 

Chicago is a competitive place for sure, and that's true in MAPSS and in the phd programs. If you are a weaker student or if your proposal is bad, top professors will turn you down in favor of other MAPSS students.

Everyone knows that ma and undergrad tuition help universities fund phd students, but since MAPSS is one year and they give scholarships, it's less expensive than many ma programs. Most of my cohort had part time jobs while in MAPSS (myself included). people of all economic backgrounds do MAPSS, and several of my friends revieved snap benefits (food stamps) during their MAPSS year. No one ever treated me like a rich kid who paid my way in. sometimes phd students in my classes were rude or condescending to MAPSS students, but once I proved myself in class discussions, they began to respect me and treat me as a colleague. If anything, I would say that since MAPSS is so big, there is a range of abilities and everyone knows that. It's not very competitive to get into MAPSS, so you have to prove yourself in classes once you get there.

I learned so much in MAPSS and really enjoyed it. I'm so glad I did it. I got great phd offers this time around and got accepted to 3 top programs with funding and waitlisted at two more. Anyone can feel free to pm me if you have questions!

[mini monkey]

7 hours ago, MedAnth077 said:

Just the few accepts on the results page... I will say they seem to be very late on just rejecting folks (not saying your friend is rejected, but since they already sent out admits, that could be the case). I was expecting to hear from them late February with a rejection myself... I wish they'd get it over with! 

Those acceptances are listed back from 2015, but there was waitlist postings from this year. So you are probably right in that they already made offers. Thanks for your response! 

[Caitlin Yoakum]

Was accepted to the anthropology Ph.D. program at University of Arkansas back in January (with some pretty amazing funding) but only just found out about this website. Anyone else headed there for anthropology or already there? Currently looking for good housing near the university!

 

Also, has anyone heard back from University of Georgia? I've gotten answers from A&M, Washington, and UTK (all rejections) but still have yet to hear from Georgia. 

Edited March 8, 2016 by Caitlin Yoakum

[Caymay]

40 minutes ago, Caitlin Yoakum said:

Was accepted to the anthropology Ph.D. program at University of Arkansas back in January (with some pretty amazing funding) but only just found out about this website. Anyone else headed there for anthropology or already there? Currently looking for good housing near the university!

 

Also, has anyone heard back from Georgia State? I've gotten answers from A&M, Washington, and UTK (all rejections) but still have yet to hear from Georgia State. 

Oh hey girl. Did you mean University of Georgia? Georgia State only has an MA program and that application is not due until April!