AKACaz

So those three Yale admits yesterday.... was that it from them? I know last year they staggered over a few days, but that there's been no new ones today seems pretty weird.

*raises hand* No real Plan B here. I've spent most of this year out in the workforce moaning about how I now realize I need to be in school for the rest of my life!

Thanks for the reassurance, spacezeppelin and Eager! The vibe of the conversation was definitely good, but I hadn't quite allowed myself to hope that I was right about her not wanting to let the cat out of the bag, as you put it. I've got my fingers well crossed

A Yale admit seems to be up. Any further information on that? (Totally jumping the gun, clearly - sorry for being twitchy!)

A what-I-hope-was-a-good-sign has been driving me crazy for a while. I had a Skype interview with a POI, and the end of the (very cheerful, very informal) conversation went something like this, from her: "Well, we should have word back to you within the next two weeks. And - " *longest pause ever. Begin to nervously tap foot/break own fingers from wringing hands.* "Well, I'm sure you'll get in somewhere." That same old line, but coming from a POI it opens up a whole new world of GAH-ness. I'm not optimistic (or foolish) enough to think that this was somehow an endorsement, but yeesh! Any thoughts from anyone?

Mine also says it's "Awaiting" my GRE scores, despite their definitely being sent to the correct code in early November. I was worried until I saw that previous Columbia admits this year - in the hard sciences - said they had emailed to ask about it, and just received their decision shortly afterwards with no concern shown about the scores (search for Columbia in the results, and you'll see them). Looks like they're just not being all that careful about keeping the record updated, though if there's still no movement by the end of this week I might contact them.

.....ooh bugger. Now I'm petrified again, haha! Thank you for letting us know, though

I had an interview with a Princeton professor on January 21st, czesc, but it was very informal - seriously, she emailed me really late the night before (a Sunday night) and we spent most of our conversation talking about historical fiction and whether we liked Hilary Mantel as a person or not. I wouldn't get too worried about it! Fingers crossed for the both of us...

Welp, since I'm on the East Coast/all my schools are on the East Coast and it's past 5pm, I guess it's been another know-nothing week... I'm not sure I should even bother crossing my fingers on next week, for fear of more anxiety! Congrats, dknows

Wow, it was kind of crazy to see all of those Berkeley decisions flooding out... commiserations to everyone. And congrats, viggosloof!! So happy for you!

I made studying for it a part of my routine as much as I could, running over vocab and practice questions briefly every night, then taking at least one full practice test over weekends; I used both the newest Princeton Review book and GRE's PowerPrep for the practice tests. Given that I also hadn't done any math since a disastrous physics course in my freshman year of undergrad, I found ETS's free math review packet incredibly helpful: http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf (PDF). Going over and over that really helped; I got a 159 in quant in the end.

In UPenn news, my application status changed from "Incomplete" (for no reason, they had everything by the deadline) to "Complete" yesterday, dated 1/30/2013. But I haven't had a phone call about an interview. My conclusion from this is that I can draw no conclusions from this! Arrrrgh, I need something else to do with my time.... Congrats, LadyRara!

It probably depends on the school, but my experience in doing research is that it's about being able to accurately translate from one language to another. Columbia, for example, sets exams where you have to translate a 300-word passage in 2 hours, with the use of a dictionary. They have some samples of their exams up here if you want to have a look: http://history.columbia.edu/graduate/doctoral/language-exams.html

Hey all, The combination of waiting for decisions and a very slow week at work have left me feeling a bit history-bereft, so I thought it might be fun to start a thread to share titbits of history we know and love - who knows, it might even be educational! So: who are your favorite historical figures, and why? (Yes, this might just be a blatant copy of the F*YeahHistoryCrushes Tumblr, shhhhh.) I can start us off: 1. Though he's completely and utterly unrelated to my research interests, I can't stop admiring Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the multilingual professor from Bowdoin College, Maine, who used a sabbatical leave to join the Union Army during the Civil War. He eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General, defending Little Round Top at Gettysburg, nearly dying at Petersburg, and being chosen to accept the surrender of Lee's troops at Appomattox along the way. After the war, he served 4 terms as Governor of Maine, and by the time he retired had taught nearly every subject at Bowdoin except mathematics. Fun facts: his favorite horse during the war was named Charlemagne. And he had a most impressive 'tache. (Portrait by artist Mort Kunstler, https://mortkunstler.com/) 2. And, on another note, a fabulous man - or, at least, a fabulous name - which did pop up in the course of my research: one of the main judges in the High Court of Admiralty during the reign of Elizabeth I was named... Sir Julius Caesar. I kid you not. I have his signature. Many times over.

I swear I think my email is conspiring against me; five times already this week I've received messages with "Congratulations!" or "You're Invited!" in the subject line, and just now I returned to my desk to see one from someone called "Arts and Sciences".... it was from my alma mater's alumni association. Someone needs to pay for all the heart attacks these have caused!!

On the Harvard interview listing - since it apparently happened way back on the 11th, and no one else has posted anything about Harvard history, I doubt it could have been that official; maybe just a POI getting in touch with some questions? Can anyone else shed any light on this? I haven't heard a peep out of them (even my attempt to contact a professor pre-application submit went unanswered).

Congratulations on the USC decision! I spoke to a history/political science professor there yesterday (on business matters for my workplace) and if he's a representative sample of the scholarship there I'm sure the department must be very impressive.

Congratulations to those who have heard - exciting times! My week has been SO unproductive. I actually sucked it up and apologized to my officemate/supervisor yesterday for being spaced out since Tuesday; luckily for me he took it well and commiserated. Gah.

Hi all! I'm new here as of yesterday, and, like an idiot, didn't realize this particular subject forum existed until this morning. I don't know if anyone might have seen my post in "Waiting it Out," but I know from a brief talk I had with a professor on Monday that Princeton's history department had their 'departmental meeting' about applications on Tuesday, and I was told that they would be making/confirming/bureaucratizing their decisions "within the next two weeks." Looks like they might finally be starting to trickle out! Excuse me while I go and get absolutely nothing done at work from the anxiety...

Hi all, First off, in case anyone's wondering, Princeton's History Department apparently had their departmental meeting about PhD applications yesterday, Tuesday the 22nd. This from a brief Skype conversation I had (an interview, I guess, though it was very informal) with a professor on Monday morning. She said their decisions would be coming out "within the next two weeks." Cue my frantic email-checking...! Has anyone else heard about history decisions from anywhere else/any Ivies? It seems like Humanities decisions are lagging well behind the physical sciences right now. -aka