Gambaosaka1

I'm a British citizen studying Asian history at UNC-CH and there is another British PhD student in my cohort (1st year) studying US history. I also got into a couple of other programs and so did he, so I wouldn't stress too much about being British and being competitive. A strong personal statement/writing sample and an interesting project that is a good fit is what you and any other student applying needs. If you browse through this and other threads you'll see plenty of other British students who applied and got into good schools. I never applied to UK programs for PhD level as I think the US system is better preparation for the reasons mentioned above. Plus, for most of the top schools the funding is guaranteed with acceptance unlike the convoluted funding system in the UK! I would certainly consider applying to UNC too. Your field isn't my area so I think I am not the best person to speak to you but if you contact professors you'd like to work with, they tend to be quite good at replying to prospective students in my experience and of those who I've spoken to since coming. Unlike some programs, I think making contact with professors here encouraged (maybe not the same for all academics but seems to be the case from students I speak to).

Been completely AWOL since my classes started. I I love this place: my advisor is nurturing and caring, the cohort and dept are ridiculously friendly and welcoming. Dept drinks every Friday and cohort drinks Wednesday's. Have language + 3 grad classes + AT'ing (helping/observing the TA) so my schedule is packed. anyone signing up for attending any conferences yet?

Finally, everything for me is coming together! Got my visa and my accommodation sorted out. Flying into the US on the 7th and my brother will drive me down on the 11th. Looks like there are orientations for me on the 13 and 14th. Have any of you got reading assignments already? Have to do some work for the 17th for a TA workshop and a book to read for the 24th (first day of class) for a class! No easing into a PhD I guess.

Got my visa approved! Can't wait for this to start already.

I think you mean "think-wanks" My job over the past 5 years has been producing interviews. Would be wary of working for think-tanks or assuming you will be doing anything interesting or fulfilling. There are exceptions but most of them tend be quite shit in my view. Academics who are affiliated with these institutions are a different story. Mostly these are highly political institutions with agenda-driven research and many of them don't have people with real area-expertise on their staff. One "highly-respected" one has people right now as "Syria experts" who used to be "Bosnia experts" and "Russian politics experts" before that. I think you get the picture. I'm at work right now so can't be really coherent on this but these organizations really make my skin crawl.

I am not really sure about how important they are in all honesty...I took them Sept 2014 and had similar scores to you: 159 V, 155 Q, and 4.5 after a month of studying. Not sure I'd want to put myself through more unless I knew for sure it would help my application. I reckon your topic/fit, writing sample and LORs are the most important bit. Of course, it wouldn't hurt. There doesn't seem to be any consensus on how important GREs are though so I guess if you have the time then go for it.

I'm back freelancing after spending all my pennies in Tokyo...being in university sounds much more appealing. Congrats!

AHA Annual conference 2016 is in Atlanta (Jan 7-10) http://www.historians.org/annual-meeting

Cheers, shall join it now. I am still waiting on mine. Did you get yours yet?

Great That's a great opportunity! Hopefully catch you in person at a conference sometime next year.

Applying for my visa next month, haven't even looked at accommodation yet. Is that bad?

Is it true that the application pool this year is smaller than usual? I didn't get that impression from the Professors who I chatted but haven't seen the statistics. They could just be saying that but I don't know or care in all honesty, I'm into a great program and that's what matters to me.

Yeah, I'm heading back early May to sort that out. A bit worried their London embassy will be busy.

BTW have you seen this little spat between Harootunian and Buruma? Love ol' Harry: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2002/oct/24/a-case-of-inverted-commas/

Congrats! I just realized both of us could have been in the same cohort at EALCS. I felt terrible saying no to them as that department was probably the most friendly/responsive one I contacted. Sent all three (Fruhstuch, AL Lewallen and Rambelli) an email to say I had decided to take another offer. Your topic sounds great! Would be curious to read up on it more once I get my Japanese down finally. How's your Russian/Japanese?