Anthropology PhD advice?

<p>Hello Everyone,</p>

<p>I’m a senior at New York University, finishing my last semester with BA in Anthropology.
I am taking a year off before graduate school, but that means I have to start
searching for schools/professors/programs now or at least very soon. </p>

<p>Here’s the info: I’m a cultural anthropology track, my honors thesis is on witchcraft accusations phenomena (symbolic anthropology). I am interested in Africa/African studies but I don’t have a specific location. While I gravitate toward symoblic anthropology, field of religious experiences, I don’t want to stray away from the material–politics, “development,” NGOs. I also have an interest in linguistic anthro (I know, another field), as analyzing languages has helped me greatly in understanding cultures. </p>

<p>Here are the Qs: </p>

<li>How important is it for Anthro admissions that I have a specific geo area?</li>
<li>For methodology: if the program is particularly strong in historic/political analysis (Columbia, I think) and I hold interest in symbolic as well, is this alright or should I stick to their methodology (for the application essay)? </li>
<li>Taking a year off: good idea? What should I do to make it seem worth while–no, I do not hold a Fulbright or anything fancy. I’m not going to work at Starbucks either, but any suggestions for a student with a tight budget at best? (I mention this b/c I am often suggested international travel) Research? Teaching? Learning language?</li>
<li>Any advice you can give on finding the right school, program, steps to take now, GRE, GPA “requirements”—any relevant experiences you guys have would be so helpful!</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks to All,
Breath</p>

<p>Well first of all GPA and Test scores will be important in your admissions opportunities. I would take a GRE prep course if you can afford to. Think of the cost as an investment. You also want not only to get in but to get funding. Here are the factors that will determine your opportunities:</p>

<p>GPA, Test Scores, Writing Sample, Personal Statement (which is really a research statement or plan for dissertation), Reputation of Undergrad institution and Letters of Rec. </p>

<p>All of these are weighed pretty evenly but if your dissertation plan is particularly strong then it could factor more heavily. </p>

<p>In your personal statement, you don't really want to get too "personal" you want to clearly outline how you will write a dissertation on your topic of choice and what sources you are going to use to do so.</p>

<p>You also want to apply to as many programs (at least 15) as possible, because you want to give yourself more opportunities for funding. In some ways there is no rhyme or reason to grad admissions, you will get into some schools that are ranked way higher than schools you are rejected to, it is more about fit. Also if your grades, test scores, letters and research plan are of high quality you should not have to pay for grad school. You can get fellowships or TAships which pay all your tuition and give you a living allowance. </p>

<p>Also, some schools will allow free "diversity" applications for underrepresented or first generation college students. Check out the CIC from the Midwest schools.</p>

<p>Here is a link for top Anthro programs</p>

<p>NRC</a> Rankings in Anthropology</p>

<p>Let me address your 4 pts
1) The more specific you are in your research area the better. A specific Geographical area is great!
2) you have to do what you want to do, do not tailor it to a program, because at the end it is YOUR research, just be you. Most Depts are big enough to accomodate your interests
3) It is a good idea if you use your time usefully. Study for the GRE, work to polish your writing sample, contact profs that you may want to work with at campuses you are interested in applying to, learn a language relevant to your research.
4) Knowing your GPA and GRE scores would be helpful, you could IM me.</p>

<p>Hi Guys, sorry I didn’t reply sooner! I’ve been finishing up college and now officially NYU alumna. :)</p>

<p>I know you suggested that I apply to a good number of programs, and I will do this. But I have a (stupid) problem that’s getting in the way of my sleep at night: my family doesn’t want me to leave NY. We’re a family of 3 people, financially disadvantaged, and rely upon each other. However, graduate school often means going out of state. They are sending me on a guilt trip about it, saying that if I leave that’s like disregarding them. It’s absurd but it’s family. In NY there’s New School, Columbia, and CUNY (not counting the lesser known, not-so-great programs like Fordham). They are pressuring me to “get into” Columbia, as though it’s totally up to me rather than the admissions people. </p>

<p>Do you guys have any thoughts on this issue? NS and CUNY doesn’t fund well either, so this really leaves Columbia…but from what my professorst at NYU ar saying, Columbia is not really that super for grad school in anthro. </p>

<p>Sigh, help?</p>

<p>They need to realize that graduate school is not undergraduate college. Distance is not how you choose which programs you apply to/attend. Does Columbia have faculty you want to study under? If not, don’t bother applying. Don’t fall for the guilt they place on you. You have to make your own decisions that best fit you. Don’t let them drag you down. Just my advice.</p>

<p>thanks Student35, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. their whole thing is about sticking together and supporting each other. my mom and brother made many sacrifices for the family and now i’m expected to do the same–so if i’m offered a choice between UCLA and CUNY, for example, which one would I choose. it already took a lot of effort and agony to let them get over the fact that i’m taking a year off in order to figure out what i’m doing. i don’t want to go to a school that won’t 1) fund me well and 2)have a program that fits right. </p>

<p>Thanks for the input! :)</p>

<p>Breathfire, as difficult as it is for your family, it’s time to forge your own way in the world. I’m sure none of your family members would want to limit your future opportunities in life, and, for this reason, I suspect they don’t understand, not fully, what they are asking of you.</p>

<p>Apply where you want to go. Tell them of your decision. Let them adapt – and they will. Trust me.</p>

<p>To answer some of your questions:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>They won’t care about a general anthropology background upon application, but you will be required to state your area(s) of interest. Graduate school is for specialization, and you will definitely have to chose one within the field after your first year (or so.) Even more important, you will be accepted/funded if your interests match those of the current professors. You don’t want to say that you’re interested in symbolic anthropology if none of the professors specialize in it. Likewise, if a few DO specialize in it, you want to highlight your interest in it.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, since you’ve already graduated, did you line something up? You may want to see if you can do research for one of your past professors. I know you’ve said you need a paid job, and your professors may not have adequate funding, but even if you work part-time at NYU, that will help. You can also contact professors at other unis in NYC.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>You should take the GREs soon – very soon. Grad school applications are generally due around December 1.</p>

<p>Your field of study will require you to study abroad for periods of time to research. The sooner you impress upon your family that you cannot limit yourself to be in NY “at all times” the better they will cope with relying upon each other. You will be severely handicapping yourself for grad schools if you tell them “my family cannot exist without me nearby.” It will be a lot easier to accept a candidate who can focus on academia and is available to travel ,study, and commit without restrictions. Don’t give grad schools a reason to reject you for personal reasons. Your mother and brother will have to learn that they will have to let you go so you can better your future. Research how many candidates Columbia takes in your field of study per year and let your family know the number is small and you are competing for less than, let’s say, 5 slots per year. Do you have the professors who will write your LORs notified of your plans? They may not remember you after a year. Have you done research? You have a lot of work to do in your year off. Good luck.</p>

<p>there are other options in the new york area besides columbia, cuny, and new school too. you could apply to rutgers, upenn, cornell, etc. you don’t have to stay in the city and live at home, but you can still be reasonably close to your family if it would make everyone (including and especially you) happier.</p>

<p>some people do legitimately try to stay within a reasonable commuting distance for their family’s sake. when others here have said “i need to be in the DC area because my spouse does X,” no one says a word, so i think it’s a bit unfair that people are telling you to completely disregard your immediate family. that said, one day you will have to cut the apron strings, and you shouldn’t let your family lay that much of a guilt trip on you. unless they’re counting on your grad school stipend to be income to support the whole family, that’s just unfair. if you’re within a few hours by train, you can make weekend visits and go home to them in the holidays. it’ll still be an adjustment for everyone, but you can get into a good program that meets your needs without being a flight away.</p>

<p>that said, columbia may still be an option for you. i know that kate ramsey went there for an anthropology degree (she teaches history at the university of miami now). she studies voodoo (vodou) and politics in haiti, and i believe she does some symbolic work as well as cultural and political, so columbia has recently produced an anthro PhD that is thematically similar to your interests. she got her degree in 2002, so provided that her advisor is still around at columbia, that may be a potential match for you. although i study history myself, it’s been my experience with anthro departments that often having your methodology match with an advisor’s is as important, or even more important, than having the same regional focus. kate is a lovely person and i’m sure you could email her, outline your interests, and ask her what she thought of her experience at columbia. you can find her contact into on umiami’s history department website.</p>

<p>as for 3, and 4 of your post…</p>

<p>3) taking a year off is always a good idea provided that you maintain contact with the professors who will be writing your letters of recommendation. you want them to remember you. what you do in that year off also doesn’t really matter. anthro and history programs in particular value some semblance of real-life experience from their candidates because they believe (and i tend to agree) that getting out of the library and into the world will enhance their understanding of human nature and behaviour. even if you don’t do something in academia with your year off, it won’t hurt you (though you shouldn’t put it on your CV unless it was somehow related to anthropology or research). learning a language is always a good thing. also consider looking into field school opportunities. even though you want to do cultural/symbolic anthro, getting some experience digging around in the dirt looks good on your application.</p>

<p>4) finding the right school is usually done by talking to your professors at nyu and seeing who they say you should work with. when you find some professors at other schools who you may want to work with, email them and briefly ask if they’ll be taking on new grad students in 2010. some of these initial contacts lead to longer telephone or email conversations, and i had more than a few professors tell me about great programs at other schools that really fit with my interests. they’re not looking to sabotage grad students, so they’ll be honest if they think their program doesn’t have the courses to support an africanist or if a certain academic at another school would be perfect for you. some profs are grumpy and some are incredibly helpful. more often than not, professors will build your list of places to apply for you.</p>

<p>i definitely, definitely recommend talking to potential advisors. it helped me weed out schools i otherwise would’ve applied to and felt were perfect for me. some had no flexibility on what they’d be willing to advise, some told me that there weren’t the masters courses available in my area of interest so regardless of my app i’d probably get rejected (and did), and some told me that funding wouldn’t be available to international students (a UC school). you learn a lot talking to them.</p>

<p>also, look for the authors of books and articles you really like. see if those people are still around teaching somewhere and apply to those schools. i’m fortunate enough to be going to a program with three professors whose work i had read and loved during my undergrad years. only at one other school did i find three professors whose work i had already encountered and felt strongly about. at most of the schools i applied to, i was reading profs’ work as prep for my application and hadn’t actually encountered any of their stuff before.</p>

<p>the GRE is important but not that important. as long as your verbal score is around or above 650, your percentile will be over 90%, and that’s all admissions committees are really looking for. you should definitely prepare for the test, but i think paying for a prep course is a bit overboard. those classes tend to improve quantitative scores more than verbal ones, so unless you’re going into sciences and math, it’s not really worth the cost. get a prep book and follow their 8-week study guide to the letter and you’ll score about 50-100 points higher than you would’ve without it. as for the quant score, really, all you have to do is not embarrass yourself. certainly review the math sections when you study, but don’t focus too much on it because it doesn’t matter for anthro. where the GRE does make a big difference (beyond the 90th %ile in verbal) is in allocating university-wide fellowships. departments cough up cash and use grade and LORs to compare students, but when you’re competing across disciplines for university fellowships, they often use the GRE scores as a way to measure an anthro student against an english student or a bio student. but again… above a certain level, the GRE doesn’t matter. meet the threshold and then don’t worry about it.</p>

<p>same for GPA, really. overall you’ll want at least 3.5 to be considered by top programs. you’ll want 3.7 or higher for your major. yes, many people get into grad school with lower numbers, but there’s usually something else on their application that makes them stand out and merit further consideration. in general, having a high GPA is always a good thing, but don’t sweat the difference between a 3.8 and a 3.9, for example. GPA is again another threshold thing. some students get accepted with 3.4 and some get rejected with 3.9, and that usually comes down to fit.</p>

<p>fit is everything. if no one at cuny does african witchcraft, or no professor you contact there sounds excited about advising african witchcraft, you won’t get in. it doesn’t matter what the rest of your application looks like. if there isn’t an advisor who is willing to work on your exact project, and there aren’t a few more professors in the department who specialize in your regional/thematic interests on top of that, you won’t get in. there are two things you can do. 1) don’t apply there if the fit between your interests and their strengths as a department aren’t obvious. 2) change your interests to meet the department and advisor’s strengths. option 2 sucks, but if location is more important than what and how you study, it’s something to consider.</p>

<p>your statement of purpose and your writing sample will be the two single most important parts of your application. do multiple drafts of both. make sure your writing sample shows you doing primary research (book reviews and essays based on course readings don’t cut it), and if it has you using sources in other languages, that’s even better. your SOP should basically be a research proposal for a masters or doctoral thesis. you’re not bound to it and you can decide to research something else once admitted, but the schools want to see that you can articulate a coherent research project. probably my biggest mistake when i applied was not simply outlining a single project. i kept things a little more open-ended, at the behest of a few of my undergrad profs, but i think in the end it made me seem unfocused. maybe postulate two or three ideas, but have them all relate to cultural/symbolic anthropology in nigeria, for example. keep the thematic and regional focus consistent, and present no more than three possible theses (in fact, many would say to only present one, and they’re probably right).</p>

<p>what you should do right now is study for the GRE. plan to take it at the end of the summer (which would require you to book it now). if you can’t get a spot to take it by the end of august, take the next available appointment. if you do badly on the test, you want enough time to study some more and take it again. the GRE won’t get you into anthro programs, but it can keep you out of them. you’ll need to take the test by the beginning of november at the absolute latest in order for schools to get the scores in time to include them with your application.</p>

<p>start researching schools. in august, or mid september (give profs some time to get settled into the fall semester), start contacting potential advisors to see if they’ll be taking on more grad students. if they seem receptive after that point, talk a bit about your interests and their research.</p>

<p>you don’t have to start writing your statement of purpose now, but you should definitely think of a few things you may want to study. do some reading and come up with a few ideas.</p>

<p>oh, and one last thing… i think applying to 15 schools is excessive. i only applied to 9, and between the GRE, application costs, and mailing out transcripts and writing samples (by courier, since canadian mail sucks), i spent $2000 on the whole process. save yourself some money and apply to 6 or 7 places at the most.</p>

<p>And another excellent post by StrangeLight.</p>

<p>The only thing I would add is to breathfire: </p>

<p>If you are having difficulty justifying being away from your family for graduate school, you really need to be aware that in academia, the odds are extremely, extremely slim that your eventual place of employment will be even in the general region of your family’s home. If you are unable to break those family ties in order for you to attend the most appropriate doctoral program for you, then your career is already at a dead halt before it begins.</p>

<p>Thanks for giving me advice. </p>

<p>Some of you pointed out doing research during the year off. I’ve been a research assistant for two professors and I have a new project coming up with one of them.
Generally, I worked on two books with one of them and an article with the other. Now I’m helping with an anthology. I’ve been doing some data collecting, copyrights and permissions work for 2 years and ongoing. Does that sound good for grad schools? The professors will also be willing to give me recommendations. </p>

<p>About my interests: this is honestly my problem and why I chose to stay out of grad school for now. I don’t know precisely what I’m interested in. Symbolic anthropology–yes–but then there are so many topics. I’m the kind of person who likes to put everything together, I’m very interdisciplinary and love to compare different topics, histories, etc. So my plan of action now is, as many of you have greatly suggested (thank you) is to read through some literature, look up professors at different schools, and see what I can narrow down my interests to. Then, make contact with the professors to narrow down school options. </p>

<p>Also, I’m currently reading on the side some anthro lit on public policy. I’ve considered going into public policy because I don’t want to theorize in academia all my life and stray too far from the reality outside. I’m interested in applying those anthropological models to public policy. If any of you, anthropology students or not, have any suggestions on topics or books you think I can read up on, please let me know. </p>

<p>Thank you StrangeLight for suggesting that I contact Kate Ramsey, I sure will.</p>

<p>Professor X,</p>

<p>You’re right. My family has its issues but doing grad school demands certain things. It’d be lovely being at Harvard, not too far not too close and supposedly excellent for anthropology.</p>