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Hi guys! If you have questions about Wisconsin, feel free to send me a message! (spoiler alert: its awesome) Congrats to everyone who got in!

I am absolutely loving it - I'm taking an independent study with my advisor that is just awesome, and a travel narratives course that is turning out to be super neat. I'm even learning to embrace theory (maybe, a little). Telkanuru, I have an article you should read that was given to me (as someone who is Not. A. Fan. of theory). It's great for medievalists, and you might find it thought-provoking at least.

Telkanuru has already given some great advice here, but can I ask what it is, exactly, that you want to study? This could make a huge difference. If there are vernacular languages involved, you may also want to add those to your list. Do you have paleography skills? As an example, I came into my current program with solid Latin and decent French. My training for Latin was originally classical, but my MA program was all medieval paleography. If your writing sample shows that you are able to work with Latin sources though you should be good, in terms of acceptance (in that it won't be a red flag). I also have a smattering of vernacular things I picked up along the journey to avoid German (Anglo-Saxon, Scottish Gaelic), but I am taking a German reading knowledge class anyway this semester - these are offered by a lot of universities, and can usually help you avoid a test. If you have a good grasp of modern French, Baker's dictionary should see you through the Norman version for most things. In terms of Medieval Latin, however, it will depend on what you're working on. The Latin I read for my sources is completely different than those that Telkanuru uses, so expect a learning curve there (though perhaps less so if you are working in ecclesiastic sources, T might be able to speak more to that). i also have to agree with Telkanuru -- I don't necessarily think a quick MA in Europe is a great idea. You should use an MA to develop your skills, rather than pad an application. There are a lot of avenues in the states for this, whether through religious studies or history, where you will have the opportunity to learn the languages and apply them in research. Don't think of this as a sprint, think of it as a marathon.

It is not, no. I think they were made aware of it well in advance, and no one I've met seems to hold any negative feelings about it. From what I have gathered, Madison puts a lot of emphasis on applying for all the outside funding sources possible. It seems that a significant number of the students have been - and likely will continue to be - successful in those applications. Someone noted somewhere that he was surprised that UW grads placed as well as they did, without funding - I think this may come into play there as well.

Hey there, As a new medievalist at Madison, I can tell you that as far as I know, neither Shoemaker nor Lapina have any plans to leave, and the medieval community seems to be as robust as ever. Walker's policy changes won't affect funding, because the department has scaled back its acceptances and begun funding for five years as of my app year. Feel free to send me a PM - I would be happy to answer any questions you have! Good luck!

That awkward moment when you have a whole conversation with a professor at recruitment weekend and have no clue who he is. That's what I get for being a medievalist, I guess. Super nice guy though!

Yeah, from what I understand, 2015 is the first year that every student had a full five years. I believe they only accepted around 20-24 applicants this year.

One of my good friends, also a veteran, just graduated with his PhD from my MA school. He was in his fifties, and very much the department dad, and I have no doubt that he will find a job. Another friend also just graduated from my MA school with her PhD, and her degree was from UCF. The things you are worried about are not the issue. You are never too old, and I think that you are in a unique position to be able to do whatever you like, because you don't have to worry about how to finance your life. You have good grades and great language skills - I think you should speak to trusted professors about what your options are, and get great letters of reference. You should develop a topic that you feel is viable, and write the hell out of an SOP.

From what I have gotten from the Wisconsin DGS, things are perhaps not quite as dire for the history department as they could be. From now on, funding for accepted students will be for a full five years guaranteed, and they have adjusted their admissions quotas accordingly. This has not been the case before. Additionally, from what I hear, no professors in the history department have any plans to leave. Make no mistake, it is a very serious issue, but this history department seems to have planned for it. I will know more when I get there I suppose.

My ultimate topic came out of a masters thesis that was torture for me. Now, I am looking at legal manipulation in the 14th century common law, and it's so, so interesting. What would you study as a medievalist? What about as an early Americanist? I think the most important thing would be to have a viable topic for which you are familiar with the sources. If you are interested in the medieval period because you've romanticized it, you may have a tough time writing an SOP that would get you admitted.

That is super awkward :/ If I were that professor, I would be mortified right now.

This is the first document I worked on when I started my paleography instruction: http://aalt.law.uh.edu/E3/KB27no360/aKB27no360fronts/IMG_4605.htm My experience is a little different, because I work on medieval legal documents. My advisor and I went through this writ line by line; I would tell him what I thought it was, and then he would make me figure out why I was wrong. It was awful at the time, but by the end of it, I could pretty much sight read any of the writs in the plea rolls for this general time period (13th & 14th century). I honestly think that the best way to learn is to jump in, work with someone who knows what they are doing, and get accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the hands. This will be easiest for someone who is a visual learner, and to be fair there is a certain amount of general similarity in the court hands that you don't see in the scripts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I have no idea where my documents may fall on a scale of difficulty, but one on one instruction seems to work well, if you have it available.

Ivan, I really hope you get that call from Toronto! Good luck!

Ivan, This is actually my second go round in the PhDs app process since getting my MA. The first time was an unmitigated disaster for a number of reasons, but one of the things I am still a bit bitter about was how things shook out with Notre Dame. I was, at that time, thinking that I wanted to change subfields, and initially applied to their brand new anthropology program to work on historical archaeology. The DGS emailed me, and told me that I should also apply to history, and cc'd the history DGS with my dossier. He also suggested that I apply, so I did. Weeks went by, interviews were requested, and I never heard a thing from either of them. Soundly rejected, without any kind of contact from either, and wasted both fees. Of course, I wouldn't have thought that I would get in just because they told me to apply, and after the fact some things changed within the history department that would have meant that I had no one to advise me. That is a very sad story, in itself, but I think it would be silly of me to assume I would have gotten in if things had turned out differently. That said, the entire episode left a bad taste in my mouth -- I definitely know how you feel.

Gambaosaka, I feel the same way about Madison and the Rutgers waitlist. Even though I know I want to accept the Madison offer, I still want to know about Rutgers before I do. It's making me nuts. Edited to add: at this point I am assuming rejections from Michigan and Vanderbilt. Fordham doesn't seem to notify until mid-March.

To me, it really seems like you were interested in programs that maybe weren't a good fit for you to begin with. I think part of your problem may have been a small sample size, because the US is full of people who do military history or who work on late antiquity (i can think of several universities off the top of my head that might have been a good fit for you -- they don't seem to have been on your list). I am a legal/church (medieval England) historian -- which to my mind, is about as "traditional" (as you seem to define it) as it gets. I cannot incorporate race/ethnicity/gender or even class into my work. Yet the responses I received from the professors I have contacted has been overwhelmingly positive. I have written a MA thesis, and published an article on that topic (it has to do with Advowson and writs of quare impedit/quare non admisit). So I knew exactly what I wanted my project to be, I knew the documents and archives I need to use, and I can read them easily. When I started the cycle, I surveyed pretty much every major history program in the US (and some in England) (about 100 programs). I immediately threw out about 60% because they didn't have a medievalist of my era on staff. I pretty much completely avoided the traditional "medieval" schools, because their version of Church history (they overwhelmingly focus on monastic life, or medieval women, or canon law) just didn't jive with what I was interested in. By the time i had the list down to twenty, I started REALLY looking at the work that each professor was doing -- were they working in the 14th century? were they working on legal history? did they have a background in church history as well? I contacted them all, and the professors at about 10 universities responded really positively. I ended up scratching some of those of the list because there were still fit issues that I think would have kept me out, and I wasn't interested in wasting my money. I also ultimately chose not to apply in England, because I frankly can't afford to attend without funding. I now have an offer from a program I never would have dreamed I would get into a year ago, and I am ecstatic about the future I say all this to tell you -- I didn't apply to Toronto, Notre Dame, Chicago, or Yale because the fit just wasn't there. I don't expect to fit everywhere. Fit is an issue that is especially problematic for medievalists, and you really aren't alone in having a hard time finding the right programs -- but that doesn't mean that someone like Caroline Bynum belongs exclusively in a gender studies department. It just means that you need to find departments that fit your needs, and may need to broaden your horizons beyond traditional "medieval" schools, and the tippy top tiers of graduate programs. For you specifically -- if you would accept that, while ridiculous, the GRE is necessary to work in America -- I would have suggested that you look at Princeton, Boston College, and the University of Florida -- all of which have history programs that are exceptionally strong in late antiquity. Keep in mind also that while you study military history, late antiquity -- Peter Brown notwithstanding -- is a relatively new field of study, and many people interested in late antiquity tend to incorporate archaeology and other disciplines because it doesn't really work otherwise. You might do well to be looking into archaeology programs as well -- historical archaeology seems to be something up and coming that could be relevant to you. History is wonderful specifically because it is a constantly ongoing, and subsequently ever-changing thing. The study of history, likewise, changes along with global politics, and the advent of concepts like equality (gender, racial, etc) has colored the way that history is interpreted and changed the emphasis that we place on certain aspects of our studies. This is not a bad thing, and is, I think, necessary. Do you have to hustle a little harder? Maybe. As I said above, in some ways medievalists have a much harder time with fit than other fields. But its also no longer 1960, and England really isn't trying to find the roots of its empire in the same way it was post-WWII. To my mind, the field of history has not been diluted, but rather made richer by the inclusion of these disciplines. Its unfair, both to you and to everyone else, to argue that because your particular discipline is no longer the most commonly studied, history has become less than it once was. Edited to add: I wrote all of this with a strong England/Western bias -- I still have no idea what you want your topic to be, because the proposed topics you have discussed have been so disparate.

I love that sort of stuff -- there is actually a really interesting study going right now having to do with tracking parkinson's through medieval paleography. It's going on at York -- I will see if I can find a link for you. I'm at the point now where I can distinguish different people's handwriting in the writs, and that is alot of fun. There is one that writes like he is sitting on the back of a horse ALL the time.

Wow, I didn't know about that program, Telkanuru. I might have to check it out -- I am pretty good with late 13th and 14th century legal hands, even some of the earlier 13th century stuff. I am not as comfortable with ecclesiastical scripts, especially things like books of hours that are meant to be fancy. What types of documents do you tend to work with?

L13, Out of curiosity, did your writing sample display your Latin skills at all? My thesis research was pretty much all based on 14th century writs that I transcribed/translated from the plea rolls, and I haven't had anyone question my Latin skills. I would definitely suggest incorporating translations, if possible and applicable, into your writing sample if you end up going through another cycle. (which school, if you don't mind my asking?)

Hey guys! I am one of the Madison admits! Beyond stoked!

I am contemplating a trip to the Zoo this year, as I haven't ever been. I think alot will depend upon whether I am accepted to a program or not though.

Hey Josh, While I am not overly familiar with the department at Baylor, I can say that the faculty I have met there are extremely generous in their mentorship. Jeff Hamilton, who was the chair of the department until this year, is very kind and helpful. He stepped in on my thesis committee as an outside reader when I didn't have someone at my own university who could evaluate my argument. Waco is an odd place, and aspects of the Baylor experience may or may not be your cup of tea, but the history people, at least, seem pretty cool. Good luck with your interview!

Waitlisted at Rutgers, and absolutely gutted about it.

Hi guys! Not sure if I have introduced myself here or not, but I am a medievalist studying fourteenth century English law. Extremely excited for some of my programs to start notifying -- the past week has been so quiet!

...i am now questioning the fact that i just scanned my official transcripts. Isn't that the easiest thing to do? Or are we talking about options for if you don't paper copies?