From Young Professional to PhD Student

Thank you, John, for taking the time to answer our questions.

What field will you be studying? Why did you choose this field? Did you have previous experience in the field you will be studying?

To introduce myself my name is John and I will be starting a PhD program in anthropology this Fall (2009). I graduated with an undergraduate degree in International Affairs.

I have no formal experience in the field of anthropology, but I have some experience that could be classified as anthropological. When I was an undergraduate student, I participated in a study abroad program that sent students from around the US, abroad. Students could choose up to two countries where they would stay with a host family and conduct independent research on a project that they had previously formulated. I went to Spain and South Africa. My project focused on the political and business pressures on newspapers.  When I came back I joined the Peace Corps (PC) and was assigned to The Gambia (in West Africa). I spent two years there. It’s in The Gambia that my interest for anthropology grew. As volunteers for the Peace Corps, we were divided into groups and had to learn a language: mine was “pular”. I learnt it very well and, at the same time, became part of a great community. I really can’t pay them back for everything they gave me, from the great memories, to the relationships, to the language skills and the cultural knowledge. That’s what really pushed me to apply to the program I am in now.

Your application was a total success!! Give us a list of things to do in order to be as successful as you have been.

Ok, if you want to apply to a PhD program, these are the things that helped me the most, and that can help you too:

April: Start GRE course.

Taking a GRE course really helped me get ready for the exam.    

June: Take GRE and score well; start finding out about programs you’re interested in.

July: Continue looking into the types of programs that might interest you.

I had these vague notions about working internationally in the field of international development but I also had interest in the pular language and wanted to incorporate that.

So, I booked appointments at the Fletcher School at Tuft University and the Kennedy School at Harvard University to learn more about their programs. That’s how I was able to find out that a Master program was not going to give me the space and time to pursue my research interests. I thus did more research on the pular language and my results mostly led me to PhD programs and anthropology departments.

August: Decide the type of program you want to apply to and start looking up specific schools. Identify a list of potential schools and start contacting faculty members.

With the program search out of the way, I formulated my research question and started searching for a professor that would be interested. I read a lot of faculty web pages and learnt more about the field and the terminology. In the end, I had a specific topic to which I added few questions. I wanted something that would connect me to the faculty members. I looked at every PhD program I could put my hands on because I knew that a PhD program would give me the funding, the time and space I needed to pursue my interests. I looked at faculty web sites (particularly their research interests) at school I knew had great anthropology and African Studies departments and sent emails to professors I was interested in working with. The email was pretty much as followed: “dear Dr. X, I am applying to X PhD program, here are my research interests, here is my research question, what do you think?”.  I got a lot of positive responses and narrowed down to the schools I wanted to apply to.

September: Book recommendation commitments and continue contacting potentially interested faculty members.

October: Pick those schools that interest you, where you encountered interest in your ideas and open up application accounts with their web sites; Start writing draft of application personal statement/statement of purpose.

In terms of the application, it is very important to have someone who will go over your essays and if it’s someone from the department you’re applying to, that’s even better. In your essays, tell what about your background led you to the program, what makes you a strong candidate for the program, mention the professor you want to work with (“I want to work with professor X because it’s going to be a great opportunity given his/her research in this field and this course and that course will help me in that way with my research topic”) and be specific.  Your conclusion should include your vision of what you’re going to do with your degree later!

November: By the beginning of the month, have all recommendation materials sent to professors and create a timetable based on the schools’ various deadlines (they will usually be in mid december-early january). Give the list of deadlines to recommenders so they can plan. Get draft essays done for all schools by mid month, as well as your CV. Also, look carefully at what each application requires, make adjustments accordingly and prioritize those with earliest deadlines.

In terms of your CV (resume), you want to include everything that can help you. When applying to jobs, you generally need only a one-page resume, but for a PhD program make a section for teaching experience, professional travels, if you wrote a thesis put that in, have a section for your research interests. Put a lot of time into it. Make it good!!

I also had to submit a writing sample. I used my undergrad thesis for that purpose.

December/January: Finish applications and send them in. Start scrambling for funding, just in case the schools don’t offer you a full ride.

I was really lucky to get full tuition and a teaching position! I am really looking forward to that.