2008 Anthro PhD Applicants

[blueskies]

UCLA Archaeology or cultural? they are separate departments.

Cornell has one person on the results page who heard mid February they were accepted. No rejections.

UC Irvine has a couple of acceptances and a rejection in mid-February.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

[ckw]

Cornell has one person on the results page who heard mid February they were accepted. No rejections.

UC Irvine has a couple of acceptances and a rejection in mid-February.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Thanks a lot! Good luck to you too.

[visoke]

I am still waiting to hear from 6 schools... Cornell, UCLA, Stanford, UC Irvine, NYU, New School. Has anyone heard anything about any of those?

Hi blueskies - for UCLA cultural - the recruitment weekend is this coming weekend, so i'm guessing if you haven't heard you're not in ;( i got my acceptance around feb. 14 (my only acceptance so far). sorry, and good luck everywhere else!

has anyone heard from rutgers?

[visoke]

oops....my last post was meant for ckw, not blueskies. sorry =)

[Anthrogeek]

I just emailed the DGS at Rutgers and he said I'm on the waitlist. Perhaps that is true of others who have not yet received a definite acceptance or rejection.

[notyourmama]

Well, I got my final result today. UT doesn't want me, but that's okay, because I've got two lovely offers, and it wasn't at the top of my list.

It's weird, though, isn't it? Clearly I was a first choice for the two schools that do want me, since I got emails almost immediately after their committees met. The other three, though? "Thanks for trying, but we don't care." In a form letter.

Just goes to show you that we don't know at all, what a good fit might me. All a crap shoot, after all, and doesn't seem to have ANYTHING to do with our qualifications.

[blueskies]

Hi blueskies - for UCLA cultural - the recruitment weekend is this coming weekend, so i'm guessing if you haven't heard you're not in ;( i got my acceptance around feb. 14 (my only acceptance so far). sorry, and good luck everywhere else!

has anyone heard from rutgers?

I knew what you meant. I am so annoyed. Nobody has heard from Archaeology on the board results page. I called once and the woman told me some decisions were sent out but not all. I know someone else called. I feel bad for the Grad Assistant. I'd call again, but I'm too frightened. It is an interdepartmental program, so maybe it takes longer because advisers are in various departments. It is my first choice (and not just because I'm out of most of my choices). Chances are I won't make it, but in the past it seems like at least a couple people posted on the results board. If they've let some,but not all accepted know, why aren;t there any! AHH. It's OK. This process has me in knots.

Is there archaeology as a sub-dicsipline in anthro? I know they are separate depts but maybe the people who listed archy in the past at UCLA were, in fact, in the anthro with a sub-discipline in archy.

Too much speculating.

[blueskies]

Annnnd. I didn't get into to UCLA.

Oy. Oh well. There's always next year. I'm glad I know.

Edited to reflect my rejection instead of annoyance at not hearing anything.

[Firedrops]

Rejected from Tulane through postal.

Rejected from UCLA through their website.

Still waiting to hear about funding from Boston but right now it is looking like the only option. But damn that 35K a year tuition would hurt without a little financial assistance!

[ckw]

Thanks, visoke and blueskies for replies. I didn't get into UCLA. I'm thinking of deferring on the place I did get into (for various reasons)... anyone know if that's a possibility for these programs?

[blakkbug]

I'm not into Tulane either. Still waiting on Johns Hopkins and WashU. Backup plan is looking pretty good right now...

[keepcalm]

Well, I was rejected from UNC today. But was accepted to Arizona State earlier in the week! I'm excited because it was one of my top choices!

None of the schools I've been accepted to have made funding decisions though! :-\

Congrats to everyone who has been accepted and I'm sorry to hear about all the rejections that have been rolling in!

[blueskies]

OK advice time. I am applying to a Master's program I liked initially but had decided to hold off on for various (and stupid) reasons. My recs are there, my GRE's, my app. All I need is to submit my statement. As I've been rejected plenty of places, I figured I'd revamp things a bit. I'm interdisciplinary, and want to get a PhD on that track, but I think a Master's background in Anthro might strengthen my app to PhD later on. So what do I do in the essay? I've been told not to say you want a PhD if applying for a terminal Master's, since they will question your motives for not applying for the PhD program.

I'm archaeology and want to be in academia, but how can I get around saying that? Or do you think honesty is the best policy. Is it worth saying I want a terminal Master's for now, because I intend to be interdisciplinary and deal with academic archaeology and policy later?

My professors all had such different opinions, and now I think the broad range of responses and subsequent confusing it caused in the app process is reflected in my partial failure this year. Oh well, if this Masters doesn't work I'll always have next year and experience.

Sorry if my grammar is off tongiht. I started the day with a major rejection, and had a nice 9-5+ day of filing and organizing my new office.

[keepcalm]

OK advice time. I am applying to a Master's program I liked initially but had decided to hold off on for various (and stupid) reasons. My recs are there, my GRE's, my app. All I need is to submit my statement. As I've been rejected plenty of places, I figured I'd revamp things a bit. I'm interdisciplinary, and want to get a PhD on that track, but I think a Master's background in Anthro might strengthen my app to PhD later on. So what do I do in the essay? I've been told not to say you want a PhD if applying for a terminal Master's, since they will question your motives for not applying for the PhD program.

I'm archaeology and want to be in academia, but how can I get around saying that? Or do you think honesty is the best policy. Is it worth saying I want a terminal Master's for now, because I intend to be interdisciplinary and deal with academic archaeology and policy later?

My professors all had such different opinions, and now I think the broad range of responses and subsequent confusing it caused in the app process is reflected in my partial failure this year. Oh well, if this Masters doesn't work I'll always have next year and experience.

Sorry if my grammar is off tongiht. I started the day with a major rejection, and had a nice 9-5+ day of filing and organizing my new office.

I would focus on you experiences and how they make you qualified for the program you are applying to. I spent the majority of my personal statement talking about my interest in the subject (I also have an interdisciplinary background so I took the time to explain that) and then my various research and other experiences from undergrad and how they have prepared me for graduate studies. I would also talk about why you want to attend this particular program. I wouldn't really mention your eventual goal of PhD if you feel that will be frowned upon by the selection committee, just focus on why you are right for the program.

I don't know if that helps, but good luck!

[nervouswreck]

Thanks, visoke and blueskies for replies. I didn't get into UCLA. I'm thinking of deferring on the place I did get into (for various reasons)... anyone know if that's a possibility for these programs?

I deferred two offer letters last year (for phd in Archaeology) and both have responded this year positively. Except, both these univs are in Europe (Southampton and Edinburgh). So, the degree of acceptance might vary in the States.

[nervouswreck]

Or might not! (I don't think there should be a problem...)

[visoke]

Well, I got my final result today. UT doesn't want me, but that's okay, because I've got two lovely offers, and it wasn't at the top of my list.

It's weird, though, isn't it? Clearly I was a first choice for the two schools that do want me, since I got emails almost immediately after their committees met. The other three, though? "Thanks for trying, but we don't care." In a form letter.

Just goes to show you that we don't know at all, what a good fit might me. All a crap shoot, after all, and doesn't seem to have ANYTHING to do with our qualifications.

Sorry to harp on the rejection - but what form did it take from Toronto? Postal mail? I'm still waiting too and am starting to get verrrrrrrrry frustrated! Thanks.

[thundersaber1985]

Hey All

Just wondering if anyone has a recent list of rankings for anthropology programs, my friend (a fellow anthropologist) and I were discussing that rankings tend to favor strong cultural anthropology programs placing strong physical anthropology programs in lower rankings. My friend thinks this is true, however I'm still on the fence.

[notyourmama]

My UT was Texas, not Toronto.

Sorry!

[responsibility]

Hey All

Just wondering if anyone has a recent list of rankings for anthropology programs, my friend (a fellow anthropologist) and I were discussing that rankings tend to favor strong cultural anthropology programs placing strong physical anthropology programs in lower rankings. My friend thinks this is true, however I'm still on the fence.

http://www.f1study.com/html/top_anthropology.html (don't know which year it was and what were the criterion though), just FYI. Best of luck!

[keepcalm]

http://www.f1study.com/html/top_anthropology.html (don't know which year it was and what were the criterion though), just FYI. Best of luck!

I also found one at this website http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_r ... rea35.html from the 1995 NRC report. I tend to agree that strong cultural programs are more highly ranked than strong physical programs. But it all gets really murky because anthropology has so many different specialties. Really, I wouldn't think of going to any of the programs in the top 10 from the website above because there aren't any bioarchaeologists doing the kind of research I'm interested in. It all really depends on what you're interested in, so rankings for anthro are kind of meaningless to me as the top ranked programs have no appeal. Plus these rankings are pretty old!

Edit: I kind of like the rankings from the 2000 National Doctoral Program Survey ( http://survey.nagps.org/getWeights.php? ... ptType=163 )better because they break things down and let you rank programs based on things like mentoring and program climate, which make more sense to me than the NRC report!

[heythereman]

It's been a hectic time and I haven't been around to the boards recently -- so many congrats to everyone who got in!!!

I saw an inquiry about Columbia on the results page, and wanted to let people know what I know from speaking to a professor recently. I was contacted by the professor directly after being accepted. Final acceptance decisions have already been made, but because the grad school is slow administratively, the official acceptance/rejection letters aren't going out until pretty late (I assume in April). Those who have been accepted have probably already been contacted by professors. There were around 10 acceptances out of 300+ applicants, and I was told that those students who don't decide to go to Columbia won't be replaced by other candidates (i.e., no waiting list). I think it's safe to say funding's pretty tight there these days. :|

Well, on another note, I never realized the decision-making process would almost be as time-consuming and stress-inducing as the applications themselves (okay, exaggeration, but still not the breeze I wanted it to be). For reasons that I still can't get my mind around, I was turbo-lucky this year and am now choosing between 6 great programs, 4 of which I am seriously considering and which are causing me some debillitating indecisiveness. I'm talking to a bunch of profs at each school, but anyone have advice on must-ask questions, either for grad students or profs?

[Firedrops]

Well it looks like Boston University is the only school I got into. Which is fine since Boston is an amazing city and it is a good program. However, I'm still waiting to hear about funding. I sent out a couple of emails - one to the grad school and one to the dept. but haven't heard back. I saw that someone else got in as well - have you heard anything yet?

The department wants me to say yes or no through a form meaning I cannot ask questions. I'm trying to hold out because I dont know if I can afford the tuition without some financial aid. Any suggestions? I've sent the dept. an email saying I'm excited about the prospect of attending but was wondering about the status of funding. Hopefully that means they won't assume I'm a no show but I'm paranoid.

[xccc]

Well, on another note, I never realized the decision-making process would almost be as time-consuming and stress-inducing as the applications themselves ... I'm talking to a bunch of profs at each school, but anyone have advice on must-ask questions, either for grad students or profs?

Congrats heythereman, I can imagine that choosing is difficult and time consuming. I only got into one school:-( But the funding offer is excellent (no TAing) and my potential advisors are brilliant, so I can't complain! My advice would be to contact 2 of your potential advisors' past students, one of whom who is in a tenure track job and the other who isn't. Ask them if they can recall any specific instances when advisor X provided support/encouragement...or didn't....

Re Columbia, I have heard that it is one of those places (like Chicago) where you have to be careful that the people on your committee get along. Otherwise, your work can became the staging grounds for a battle of personalities. Of course they both have outstanding faculty.

Best of luck to you in deciding! Any to anybody else still waiting!

[heythereman]

My advice would be to contact 2 of your potential advisors' past students, one of whom who is in a tenure track job and the other who isn't. Ask them if they can recall any specific instances when advisor X provided support/encouragement...or didn't....

That's great advice, thanks xccc!