History_Nerd

Agreed, April 15th, I've been told April 15th is pretty much the national deadline. Even though it falls on a Sat. . . hmm?

I've also heard they have a great summer music fest . . . can't remember the name of the festival but some big time artists show up. And Miller Park is pretty sweet if you like baseball.

If they don't I would say you can tell them that they need to inform you of their final decision before then because you have other schools waiting on you. I was told by a graduate coun. that April 15th is pretty much the nationally recognized date for informing graduate schools of your decision. Sort of like the "National Signing Day" for football players, except that we don't get ESPN coverage.

Can anyone share a little bit about transit in Berkeley? Will I need to bring my awesome car (a 1998 blue Ford Taurus)? It is a total babe magnet, but if I have to leave it behind, I shall.

Hilarious! I never would have thought of that! Wow. Plus I can't bake. :?

How about working nine months a year? Kidding. I don't want a job that doesn't encourage creative thought. Plus, you have to want the lifestyle, I had a moment where I was sitting with a prof my sophomore year having coffee, and I thought, "Dude, he gets paid to do this. He gets paid to have a chat about history with me . . . " Maybe it becomes a job at some point, but, in that case, I still don't want to go to law school. :roll:

Those are good things to add. I would include one last thought, if you ask someone a question about funding for academic conf. or placement records or something, make sure you get some sort of an answer. Don't press to the point of rudeness, but I've asked graduate programs about placement records and had people look at me like I'm from Mars. Maybe just casually ask another person to give you a ballpark range. I don't think it is that wild of a question . . "If I go to your school, will I get a job?" Undergrads ask the same question, so do law students, why shouldn't I? :?:

I was an undergrad at the Twin Cities campus for awhile, but I graduate from the best branch of the University of Minnesota . . . at Morris. Woot, woot. Before you give me a hard time, the only thing to do in Morris is to study. When I moved to the Minneapolis campus for a couple of terms (to study archaeology) I took some time to experience some other activities unrelated to academics. I did take the time to talk to several of the faculty members at the Twin Cities about their graduate program in history, and graduate school in general so I know a few of the, oh say, one million history faculty.

Yeah, when a school says, "All successful candidates have been notified" and I don't get my rejection e-mail for days and days, I get annoyed. Why not just send out a standard form letter, yes, no, waitlist, etc. on a rolling basis. Am I missing something here? It doesn't seem that hard. The committee meets, puts people into neat little piles eventually and hands them off to the admin who then sends off the appropriate form e-mail to each applicant. That part of the process can't take more than an hour, yet it takes days or weeks sometimes to hear, what gives?!

If I were you, I would try to ask for as much inside information that isn't on the web site. I would ask the students to be frank about how well they get along with the other students. Is it cut-throat? Make sure you know how long it REALLY takes for people to get through, how much students typically go in to debt in the program including ALL EXPENSES. What are the best/worst parts of the program? How many grads get jobs, and where do they get them? Those are my ideas off the top of my head.

Dude, that is lame. You would think these departments want to get done with this process too, but sometimes it seems like they are just dragging it out. Ugh.

I have to say, as a Minnesota native who has spent some time living in Chicago, Milwaukee is actually a fun town. I've had a good time there in the summer time. Some free live concerts are abound and the art and public museum are great.

Yeah, I've had the same message drilled into my little pea-brain. If it makes you feel better, I've been admitted to schools in the UK where students on the graduate school message boards are talking about going into a four/five year PhD program with ZERO funding. We should be thankful for any sort of funding I guess.

A friend of mine applied for a History program their senior year and was rejected. He was told it was because the program typically only accepts students who are two years removed from their BA because they typically finish faster than students directly out of undergrad. Just an anecdote, but some schools might be happy that you take one or two years before starting your grad school applications.