aaiiee

Thanks everyone! That was really helpful. I think for me at the end of the day it should be about the supervisor and the funding. I am also in my late 20s and I need an adequate financial package to be on my own. Duke is offering a generous funding package and living in a small town I guess would mean spending less. However what I haven't taken into consideration yet are the tax cuts. I wonder how much it would affect my standard of living.

Fantastic! Congratulations! I don't think that requires any further consideration then! And thanks guys for the inputs on Duke. I don't know how to drive which is going to be a huge setback if I do decide to take up Duke and therefore be in Durham. Anyway, they want me to be there for the incoming students weekend from the 1st to the 3rd of March. They are willing to pay for the entire trip, including international flight fair. I am a little stumped. From where do they get all this funding?!

Hey guys! First and foremost Congratulations to all the offer holders! Now that everyone has started receiving notifications from the universities that they had applied to, as someone mentioned it in the other thread, it would make more sense to start a separate topic where we can discuss our offers. Well, I just have an offer from Duke History and by the looks of it I am not getting admission anywhere else. Most of the other universities I have applied to have already started sending out interview calls or acceptance letters and I haven't received any. So I suppose I don't really have the luxury of options, but I would still appreciate if people could tell me more about Duke. Since I am an international applicant I need to take a lot of factors into consideration and I want to be sure that Duke is the right school for me. Ofcourse I have been talking to the students from Duke and the faculty and it all seems wonderful and a perfect fit but I would also like to know the views of people who are not from Duke. For instance people tell me that Durham is a horrible place and one should think twice before shifting there. Is this true? I know my prospective supervisor at Duke is excellent but I am not familiar with any other names from the History Dept. at Duke. Does this department in general have a good reputation in the american academia? People keep telling me that Duke is no Columbia or Princeton... so I shouldn't expect much. I don't know what to make of such remarks. Thank you so much! And ofcourse I don't want to turn this thread only into a Duke discussion so please feel free to discuss other offers!

I know! I had a dream yesterday that this Prof. with whom I want to work with at Stanford is my neighbour. =/ Ofcourse I haven't heard anything from Stanford.

Congratulations to all those who have offers! But hang on whats all the talk about Chicago interviews? I thought Chicago doesn't interview...hmm. Anyway I haven't heard anything from Chicago or Stanford, so I guess I should be expecting a barrage of rejections soon. Sigh.

aah! Stanford, Chicago and Johns Hopkins! Declare your results already! I don't even mind a rejection at this point but just send the notifications! I cannot wait anymore. ack!

Although I didn't report it on the website, I did receive a rejection from UPenn South Asia Studies Center today. So there is a possibility that it was someone who had applied to South Asia Center. Oh and do I even need to mention that I am quite gutted by the rejection. :s If nothing works out I do have a Duke History offer with me but I am not too sure if I will be able to confront the barrage of rejection letters in the right spirit. Not a good way to start your day. A rejection inevitably makes me feel stupid and dumb =/

PhDreams: wait what? Where is the post about the Stanford interview! Apparently the website says that my application is still incomplete!

I got an offer from Duke, with full fellowship! So excited! Anyone else heard from Duke? Also, since I am an international applicant, I am generally curious to know what kind of reputation does Duke have within the History circles in USA. Since most of the other departments that I have applied to are anthropology, I am not exactly able to figure out where to place the Duke History programme. Could anyone here please help me out with this?

hmm okay. I am just getting slightly worried...because a lot of my friends who have applied to Duke Anthropology and Art History departments have started receiving offer letters or invitations for campus visits. I was just wondering what the History department has been up to. Duke is in fact my top choice and it would completely crush me if I don't get through.

Do you know if Duke has interviews?

Oh no! Goodluck dealing with it! One of my referees mother passed away just a day before the submission deadline. I still made the dreaded phone call and shamelessly reminded him about my letter.

hmmmff Stanford has still not received my GRE and TOEFL scores and my official transcripts! Should I be worried? I suppose they will contact me eventually if they find my form incomplete. Maybe they have not yet sorted out and organized the applications. With regards to my Johns Hopkins mess, my referee just emailed the recommendation to the Anthro Department Grad office. *sigh* I don't think they will accept an emailed recommendation letter but I have absolutely no energy to communicate with my guide anymore and constantly badger her about my recommendation letter. I give up.

Hey has anyone here applied to Duke?

aaah! I found a silly grammatical error in my statement of purpose that I had submitted for my U of Chicago application in December, and now I am losing my sleep over it. I finished eating five chocolate cupcakes out of anxiety and paranoia. Also. my referee claims that she is really busy and does not have the time to submit my recommendation letter for Johns Hopkins. As such she has already missed the first deadline which was on 10th. Whereas the Johns Hopkins Anthro Department has extended their deadline to 15th for supporting documents, I still haven't heard back from my referee. She has not replied to any of my reminders and emails. I will try calling her tomorrow but arrrgh! This is just so frustrating. It is not just the endless hours that I spent on my application form but I worked really hard to save some cash for these application fees. It would very disappointing to have my application form dismissed just because my referee was not able to submit the letter on time!