Some application questions

[anonymouseuser]

I'm in the process of applying to grad schools in anthropology right now, and I have two questions

Comments

[roseofjuly]

1) I think it's better to be honest and realistic in the statement of purpose. I think Berkeley may look more oddly at you if they think you don't realize that you need French, as opposed to knowing that you need it but just haven't learned it yet. Depending on what kind of anthropology you're doing Swahili might be more important than French, but I doubt it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the majority of people who do speak a local language in West Africa also speak the language of their colonizers (English or French mostly) as that's what they're taught in school

[brittdreams]

1) Your interest is in West Africa. You do know that Swahili isn't really spoken there, right? Because if so, why would you even mention it? Yes, mention French. Even better would be saying that you plan to start French either in spring or summer 2010 so they know you are serious. Personally, I find it annoying when researchers rely solely on translators* because then you're at the mercy of someone else and some analytical tools are not available to you because they rely on your understanding of the language and the way in which people construct it. So just keep that in mind

[bafooz]

I agree with this - in some fields/subfields, your 'research language' is merely a checkmark for your quals; however, in fields where you WILL need it (and soon), it does count in the application process. I would not wait until arriving at grad school to start a language - it's a lot harder to cram in undergrad language classes with a grad schedule than you'd think.

There are plenty of well-respected summer language programs that are very intense that may be something to consider - and a good thing to put in your SOP if you can go that route.

[brittdreams]

Especially for a language like French where there isn't a FLAS available. OP, think you could take an intro course at a community college sometime in the next couple of semesters?

[anonymous]

Thanks for the great advice everyone. I audited an intro to French class, and I've taken an extensive amount of Spanish, so what I was also thinking is that I could say that my knowledge of another romance language will make it easier for me to pick up French. Unfortunately, I'm not in the U.S. right now, so formally studying French isn't feasible

[anonymous]

One last thing: is it possible to have too narrow of a research topic? If I select a specific country, which in my case translates to a specific city, may that turn professors off?

[katealaurel]

Have you seen the sample statement of purpose from the History department at Berkeley? It's a great example of an apparently good amount of specificity. http://ls.berkeley.edu/soc/diversity/apply/samplestatement-1.html

[anonymouseuser]

Wow, that's a damn good SOP.

[katealaurel]

Yep. Sigh.

[katealaurel]

I think this is fairly similar to most of the advice being offered, but:

1) It's not uncommon for undergrads to lack language preparation, even when they know that their research will eventually require it. After all, you may have come to your major late, discovered your research interests late, or had other requirements that interfered. As long as you can demonstrate a sincere commitment to gaining the necessary skills, I can't think it would hurt you, although certainly having the preparation would help.

2) I'm in a similar position with my writing sample (an 80+ page thesis, from which I need to derive a sample for programs requiring approximately 20 pages). The advice I received from my adviser and professors:
- Pick your best chapter-- they want to see how you think, more than content, and actually also more than the quality of your writing and secondary work. The latter can be learned and practiced; changing the way you make connections between ideas is more difficult

[anonymouseuser]

Good luck to you too! If you're not going to include the whole chapter, how will you indicate that part of the chapter is missing? ellipses? a summary of the rest of the chapter in italics?

[katealaurel]

I think I'm going to try to edit down my best chapter to closer to 20 pages. If that's not going well, I'll try ellipses with a summary of the missing part of the argument.

[bafooz]

The problem is plenty of applicants DO have the language preparation, and if it's expected in the field it WILL put you at a disadvantage in the application process - especially if the program expects you to hit the ground running, so to speak.