AKACaz

Oh, and on Columbia - in my conversations with professors there before I applied I was told very frankly that they had had a reputation for being cold, and perhaps they still were, but that it was a place where everyone was trusted enough to get on with what they were doing and do good work. A declaration of trust in thinking adults, perhaps, instead of mollycoddling (though of course that's putting it in its best light. It's up to the personalities).

NYU is pretty weird, but in general everyone gets along (this coming from an NYU grad whose boyfriend is in his 5th year of his PhD there). What fights there are at NYU are top level, i.e. professors from all schools being mad at the president over expansion plans and adjuncts constantly agitating for more rights - and with good reason, but I imagine that happens to some degree everywhere. The Bureaucracy, and I type it like that because it is endemic to the entire university and not just to individual departments, is huge, unwieldy, and slow. It can take months to get simple reimbursements or requests through. That being said, the History Department is okay. The business people do what they can, the administrators are friendly, and, as far as I know, there are no backstabbing campaigns between professors. The relationship between professors and grad students is not fraught as a rule, though occasionally disagreements do come up; just recently a job search went horribly wrong when none of the invitees gave good talks, and the whole place was in an uproar with the students liking one person, the professors not liking any, and everyone frustrated with the frazzled professor in charge of the search committee (my bf's advisor, so I heard a lot about it). At this very moment, the grad students are talking amongst themselves to conduct a post-mortem on that whole process and figure out if there's anything they can do to improve student involvement in things like that (some are pissed that there wasn't a student on the search committee). And so on, and so forth, etc. Every department is going to have its issues. Generally, though, I'd say things there trundle along pretty well, and they produce some really fantastic grads in the end. The Atlantic Workshop in particular is really making waves in a burgeoning new field. Fairly important edit: though I must add that I met someone there recently who was really unhappy, because they're trying to reinstate a 5-year grad time. She was really being squeezed on her work by her advisor - who is, albeit, really high-powered and a workaholic herself - but she had had little to no time or opportunity to teach. Something to ask about for admits, I would definitely think. I can't imagine finishing in a hard-and-fast 5 years.

Agreed, Penn is definitely the rudest/most impersonal reply I've gotten so far.

Hey all, Just checked my UPenn application (that and Harvard were my only ones left, decided to take a look after Safferz's post) and found my link to the rejection letter. Might be that others have their decisions up now too!

Oof, hope those Chicago decisions coming out right now aren't too heartbreaking to those that applied! In other tales of grad school craziness (I can laugh about it now), Yale has proved itself curiouser and curiouser. I just got an email from them saying that, though I was rejected from the PhD, they could forward my application to their European MA program at their MacMillan Center so I would be "more prepared" for starting a doctorate. Right, so.... you don't think I'm ready, want me to pay through the nose so I'll be ready, and think this is the best opportunity I have given my CV/that this is the best way to get access to my POI, who apparently wants a test run? I'm not sure whether to be insulted or very, very amused.

The contact from Harvard last week seems to have been mostly from POIs, though.... Did you receive that email yourself, sankaty? Hearty congrats if so Anyone heard a peep out of UPenn? They're about two weeks later than last year at this point.

I totally hear you on missing JStor, LeatherElbows - I've tried to use it a couple of times for work purposes, and the fact that both it and my alma mater's library have been off-limits to me since last June has been horrible! I'm also really looking forward to being able to use the State Papers Online collection for my research, which I didn't have access to in undergrad. I also can't wait to get back to an 'academic' lifestyle, or at least an academic schedule. I thought a year in the workforce would be good for me, but the routine of 9-6 has proved boring to the point of suffocation. I'm impatient for classes, walks around and across campus, grad lounges, being able to take a break from my work whenever I want to, and not being chained to one specific desk in one specific room day after day after long, long day. Oh, and getting my summers back! Ahhhhh.... (I probably just sound very lazy, in truth, which isn't far from the mark - but hey ho.)

Finally got my Yale rejection! Oy vey. I still think it's awful of them (and other schools) to leave such a huge gap between acceptances and other decisions.

I don't have too much experience of St. Andrews, but a friend of mine goes there and I visited her there a few winters ago. I'd concur with your point, regalrenegade - even if the transport sounds inconvenient, it is MILES better than anything in the US! As I remember it it's about 50 minutes by train from Edinburgh to St. Andrews (plus a bus to then get you into town, but that runs pretty well), or taking a bus from Edinburgh instead takes about 90 minutes. The town is beautiful but the center is small; you'd be doing a lot of walking, but it's perfectly manageable, and a bike would make it even more so. Student housing (or at least the undergraduate housing I stayed in) is much nicer than any US dorm I've been in, or at least comparable to the best, and older students often share proper cottages/houses scattered around town. All in all, a 'small-town' experience, but certainly no worse than many out-of-the-way schools in the States - think Middlebury, perhaps, except you wouldn't need a car. Plus it's only 3-4 hours now from Edinburgh to London, so very easy to go down for a weekend! The only negative in my view: the weather. It's gorgeous, yes, but co-o-o-o-o-ld. And wet. I visited my friend in early December and it was jolly freezing, with water running everywhere (think damp grass, trickles along the road, etc), and sunset was at 3pm. 3pm! And it wasn't even really winter yet!

Congratulations, theregalrenegade!! St. Andrews is a gorgeous place, hope the history department is as promising for you

Anyone happen to have any news on UPenn, by the way? It looks like there had been several scattered acceptances by this time last year.

Great sign, czesc! There's always hope

I'm not entirely sure - probably should have left that to a current student! I came to that conclusion based on a lot of departmental websites - most of them talk about applying for summer funding, or it being contingent upon a good performance in teaching. My boyfriend doesn't get it automatically (he's in his 5th year), though he was accepted off a waitlist... Basically, if you think about it, many places have 9-month stipends. Ergo you either save, or you get to the summer caught out short. Having summer funding automatically in those situations is, if not necessarily a great boon, at least more convenient.

Take a look at the Netherlands, perhaps, especially Leiden and Utrecht. They teach in English a lot, and many if not most Dutch people younger than 50 will speak English. Top Dutch universities according to Shanghai: http://www.shanghairanking.com/Country2012Main.jsp?param=Netherlands

I'm not currently attending, but I did quite a bit of research on stipends and whether it's 'good' or not definitely depends on your own costs. You'd probably need at least 25-27k to live comfortably in New York, for example. UPenn's is closer to 21k because the costs of living in Philadelphia are that much lower. Calculate the monthly total of your rent, utilities, public transportation and/or car lease/gas, prescriptions, and minimum food costs, multiply it by 12, and that'll be close to your subsistence level. If your stipend exceeds it, all well and good. On another note, my impression is that automatic (i.e. that you're just given and don't need to apply for) summer funding/stipends are pretty rare. If you're offered that, it would at least be a sign of goodwill/desire for you on the part of the department.

I can't remember if I mentioned schools/other POIs by name in the interview, but I did put it on the application, and it wouldn't have required a great leap for them to guess who at Yale I could have worked with/had been in contact with for sure.

Hi all, Looks like Princeton rejections may be going out today - I just got mine via a very kind email from the POI I interviewed with. Very odd reason given, though - she said that I was ranked highly, but that they were convinced I would get into Yale/choose to go there, and work with a specific POI there! Well, considering I'm not on the admit list at Yale, somehow I don't think so.... oh well! Guess they were focused on a small, no-waitlist-acceptances cohort, as usual.

Considering I'm all but certainly rejected from Princeton (didn't hear anything yesterday), which was my close second favorite, I think it's already decided that I'm going to Columbia! I got an email this morning offering me a very good, and I mean very good, financial package, and I already live in New York. I'm as happy as a clam. Wow. (I'm sorry if this upsets anyone still waiting for news, just couldn't help myself! It seems too good to be true. I wish lots and lots of luck to everyone, and many hugs.)

Thanks so much, everyone! I'm still feeling overwhelmed by it. I'm sort of a crossover between Early Modern European and Atlantic history; my undergrad honors thesis was on Elizabethan privateering. I'm hoping to work on the Dutch Revolt, and study the English Channel as a political environment in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

I just got a call from a Columbia POI. I have an offer. 'History Day' for students to visit is March 8th. There should be a lot more exclamation points in there, I'm pretty sure, but to be honest I'm just gobsmacked!!

Oof. Good luck to all, it seems this could be a very big day!

Cue my furiously refreshing my Columbia app page. No change whatsoever yet...

No problem! Thanks anyway :-)

Virmundi - if the information in your PM wasn't too private, would you mind sharing it here? I think there are a lot of Yale applicants who have been waiting for word. And on the contrary, thank you for the news; this would be literally the first clue I've gotten on *any* of my apps, so I'm relieved to hear even bad news!

Guess I'll assume rejection, then! Oh well. Wish they would hurry up and tell us (why do schools send out their rejections long after their admits? Seems wasteful of everyone's time and nerves).