Fall 2017 Applicants

[EvelynD]

Because my depressed attitude is sucking the joy out of everyone like a dementor? If we don't make it this year I'm gonna start a topic so we can help each other prepare and become super super competetive next year!

[ishouldbeworking]

1 hour ago, EvelynD said:

Because my depressed attitude is sucking the joy out of everyone like a dementor? If we don't make it this year I'm gonna start a topic so we can help each other prepare and become super super competetive next year!

Great idea!! Will be keeping up w/ that thread! I'd personally love to workshop SoPs

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Me too @ishouldbeworking! I'm pretty sure that's where my apps failed me. :/ 

[Potatoes=Love]

So, I am just jumping in as I have been sort of watching this thread for a while. Decided it may be more productive for me to comment along or such than just observe and pretend I am not getting eaten alive by suspense. So far my best news is an interview at Rice, and I have a rejections from Berkeley and UCSC.

To try and not like completely sidetrack and chime in to the immediately above, work-shopping SoPs is amazing. I have a lower GPA, horrific scores in the language I need for fieldwork, and strengthening my SoP has been a saving grace this year for being considered seriously.

[museum_geek]

Agreed - SoP is probably the most important aspect of an application.  It's the only opportunity in your application packet to speak directly to the adcomm and convince them why you're a good fit and should spend the next 6-8 years in the department as a junior colleague.  

[boneflower]

@Potatoes=Love Interviewing at Rice is great! Congratulations! If I may ask, how did you receive a rejection from Berkeley? I haven't seen any rejections on the survey.

 

[enfp]

Whoever posted the Stanford interview for sociocultural - Congratulations! I'm out of the picture I guess (no interview) and it's breaking my heart because Stanford was number 1 for me. I'm currently standing at 5 rejections (presumably Chicago, Stanford and Toronto and officially Brown and Michigan) and 1 acceptance (UC Davis). Only waiting on Hopkins now and the way things are going, I'm not expecting anything. If anyone hears anything about Hopkins interviews, please let me know so I can accept the one offer I have! And to everyone still waiting: Hoping for the best for all of you! I knew this process was going to be brutal, but you're never completely mentally prepared for it.

[kittyball]

Yesterday I asked a Harvard professor(who was but is not currently at the admission committee) I know when would Harvard send the results. He said he suspect they would make decisions at mid to late February. I thought OK I would not start to worry until then.

But today I see somebody has already posted a Harvard acceptance, on Social Anthropology. My heart breaks.

Anyway, congratulations on that acceptance! I haven't heard anything yet, but I assume UC Berkeley, Stanford and Chicago are no go for me. Perhaps I have to go another round next year, too.

Good luck to whoever still have hopes!

 

[klasik]

Guys, repeat with me: it's not over until it's over.

[TP24]

3 hours ago, enfp said:

Whoever posted the Stanford interview for sociocultural - Congratulations! I'm out of the picture I guess (no interview) and it's breaking my heart because Stanford was number 1 for me. I'm currently standing at 5 rejections (presumably Chicago, Stanford and Toronto and officially Brown and Michigan) and 1 acceptance (UC Davis). Only waiting on Hopkins now and the way things are going, I'm not expecting anything. If anyone hears anything about Hopkins interviews, please let me know so I can accept the one offer I have! And to everyone still waiting: Hoping for the best for all of you! I knew this process was going to be brutal, but you're never completely mentally prepared for it.

Hi. That will be me. I heard from Stanford last night to set an interview. Stanford is also my number 1 school and the only one I have heard from so far. While excited, I am also super anxious for the interview. 

I think JHU take some time since they had extended the deadline to 15th Jan. Wish you the best.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@klasik No! I don't believe you!!!! *tableflips*

In all honesty, you're right, but it does feel over so I'd rather keep planning my life, you know?

[hantoo]

I agree with @klasik--as multiple people on this thread have said before, admissions committees don't seem to have any specific/magic formula for who they choose to be the ideal candidate for their program in any given year---it's just who turns out to be the best fit or win the support of the people in the room on decision day. I don't think any of us should rely too heavily on the results page, but if you want to try and make sense of it, you should acknowledge that last year there were people admitted to the same program, in the same sub-discipline, from the beginning of February to the beginning of April!! There's no reason to lose hope so quickly or take anything personally. We're all competing with the best of the best in our field, and what will be will be

That being said, I also have been feeling intense anxiety 24/7, so I feel you guys---I have a question for you all though. I posted last week because I received a notification from one of the schools I applied to that an official email account had been set up for me with the university, but there was nothing in my new inbox and the email said nothing about admissions. This is different from my application portal where I go to check my status. I called admissions this week to ask what this was all about, and they were pretty vague and said some decisions had been made but not all, and I hadn't missed anything important. I also called IT at the school to make sure the account was not a mistake. It wasn't.

Do you guys think this is strange? For those of you who have received your response from schools, did anything like this happen? I don't want to get my hopes up too much (this is one of my top choice programs) but I really don't know why they would set up an email account for me if they were going to reject me, or why they would do it at all if I hadn't heard about my admission status yet. It was particularly painful because the subject line of the original email was literally "Welcome to such-and-such University!" -___- smh

[EvelynD]

I understand your confusion! Especially since you called the department and they were so vague about it. Maybe they couldn't tell you you were accepted because the 'offical' word isn't out yet? Sorry I can't be more helpful!

[hantoo]

@EvelynD that's what I'm hoping---Guess I'll have to keep waiting though!

[EvelynD]

The waiting is the worst. I don't think Ï have ever experienced something like this. It feels like you are about to see your SO because they are going to tell you if they want to break up or not. Except you are stuck in a nightmare and the ride over is endless.

[kittyball]

My GUESS would be, you are accepted, but they sent you that email too early. So technically it was not a mistake. And if you weren't accepted, they are more likely to tell you it was a mistake.

Anyway, I think I just panicked a little. Sorry if that make you guys more anxious.

[smallaxe]

10 hours ago, enfp said:

Whoever posted the Stanford interview for sociocultural - Congratulations! I'm out of the picture I guess (no interview) and it's breaking my heart because Stanford was number 1 for me. I'm currently standing at 5 rejections (presumably Chicago, Stanford and Toronto and officially Brown and Michigan) and 1 acceptance (UC Davis). Only waiting on Hopkins now and the way things are going, I'm not expecting anything. If anyone hears anything about Hopkins interviews, please let me know so I can accept the one offer I have! And to everyone still waiting: Hoping for the best for all of you! I knew this process was going to be brutal, but you're never completely mentally prepared for it.

Toronto seems to be rolling out their admissions in stages (I'm in the same city) - don't lose hope yet!

[Potatoes=Love]

10 hours ago, boneflower said:

Interviewing at Rice is great! Congratulations! If I may ask, how did you receive a rejection from Berkeley? I haven't seen any rejections on the survey.

 

I had reached out to POI, and was given sort of informal notice. Hopefully it is okay I shared this info...I haven't posted my details on results page yet either.

And thanks for congratulations about Rice! I am very excited and nervous...

Edited February 9, 2017 by Potatoes=Love
Messed up formatting.

[boneflower]

53 minutes ago, Potatoes=Love said:

I had reached out to POI, and was given sort of informal notice. Hopefully it is okay I shared this info...I haven't posted my details on results page yet either.

And thanks for congratulations about Rice! I am very excited and nervous...

 

Ah I see, thanks for sharing. Berkeley is the last school I'm waiting to hear back from. I applied on the archaeology track and everything I've seen on the results page are sociocultural entries- so I'm curious.

I understand the excitement and nervousness... I'm going to Brown's prospective student weekend/interview weekend in a few weeks! Best of luck to you and everyone else! We're all in this together!

[Potatoes=Love]

@boneflower I am sociocultural, too - so not sure if that could mean archaeology is still not decided?

And best of luck at Brown!

[Archaeodan]

Ahhhhhh....just got confirmation that the application the online portal indicated was not received did in fact get there. Hot damn, been trying to contact grad advising for a month about this. Ooof...that's a load off. To anyone who has yet to hear from U Oregon, the online portal doesn't always show which documents arrived, and applications are definitely still going through the decision stage. Nothing is over yet.

[enfp]

9 hours ago, TP24 said:

Hi. That will be me. I heard from Stanford last night to set an interview. Stanford is also my number 1 school and the only one I have heard from so far. While excited, I am also super anxious for the interview. 

I think JHU take some time since they had extended the deadline to 15th Jan. Wish you the best.

 

3 hours ago, jamesaly said:

Toronto seems to be rolling out their admissions in stages (I'm in the same city) - don't lose hope yet!

 Thanks guys! Maybe Hopkins/Toronto are still options... @TP24 channel your anxiety into research and prep - maybe reach out to current students to get a feel of how Stanford interviews work. May the odds be in your favour. 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

So mixed bag of news today.

Got an email from a prof about setting up an interview for next week. Yay, exciting!

Upside: This prof is very prestigious, works in the area I'm interested in, and I feel would be a great mentor and contact throughout my career.

Downside: It's a UK school, which means no funding package. At this point, I'd need to get loans to pay out of pocket my first year and hope to get a fellowship that works internationally (many US fellowships are only good at US institutions, after all) and covers all my costs for the next several years.

I'm talking to friends who live in the area to get a better idea of what I'd be expecting for cost of living if I go there.

[farflung]

5 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

Downside: It's a UK school, which means no funding package. At this point, I'd need to get loans to pay out of pocket my first year and hope to get a fellowship that works internationally (many US fellowships are only good at US institutions, after all) and covers all my costs for the next several years.

Eek, as someone towards the end of the PhD process, I'd be very hesitant to take out loans to go to graduate school in Anthropology. It's often best to wait until you receive a funded package in another application cycle. I say this on the forums every year. Karen Kelsky's writing is polemical on this topic, but in my opinion, spot on:  http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/04/12/should-you-go-to-graduate-school/ I am happy to talk to anyone about this in private message.

To quote Kelsky: "Understand that doing the Ph.D., especially in the humanities, is a terribly risky proposition financially. During the years in the program, even if you are “fully funded,” the quote-unquote full funding is inadequate to support most people’s actual expenses, particularly if they have a partner, children, a health challenge, or any other responsibilities. Understand that if you do it, you almost certainly will not get a full time permanent tenure track academic job at the end that will even begin to make back the money you invested into the program. Even if you get a permanent job, the pay scale of faculty is low enough in most colleges and universities outside the elite schools, that you will be unable to pay off your undergraduate student debt or readily meet basic expenses like child care or medical expenses. There is also opportunity cost. While in graduate school you will lose many years in the workforce. You will lose any trajectory toward seniority in any other field you might currently be in. You will experience perhaps a decade of lost wages and lost payment into social security; these losses will follow you through to retirement. Understand that you will not be told the truth about this by anyone in any graduate program to which you apply."

[EvelynD]

35 minutes ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

So mixed bag of news today.

Got an email from a prof about setting up an interview for next week. Yay, exciting!

Upside: This prof is very prestigious, works in the area I'm interested in, and I feel would be a great mentor and contact throughout my career.

Downside: It's a UK school, which means no funding package. At this point, I'd need to get loans to pay out of pocket my first year and hope to get a fellowship that works internationally (many US fellowships are only good at US institutions, after all) and covers all my costs for the next several years.

I'm talking to friends who live in the area to get a better idea of what I'd be expecting for cost of living if I go there.

Congratulations!!! Poor funding in the UK is the eason I haven't applied there yet. There is one schools who has the most perfect fit I could ever imagine, but I caný affort it. Can you contact other US students to see how they take care of funding?