dr. t

If you don't know Latin, you haven't actually been doing medieval history.

$4500 is a lot, but it's internal grants, which don't count for much in general. Will it help? Maybe? It won't hurt, at least.

A couple thoughts: Yes, prestige absolutely plays a large part. The Ivy > Oxbridge > Ivy loop is very, very strong and established. Many high-tier MA programs can offer substantial funding, attracting a high-tier pool of candidates. Getting 3 letters of rec from Ivy professors doesn't ever hurt. There is some difference in quality of instruction. In my experience at BU, UMass, and Harvard, I found that BU and UMass were roughly the same (despite BU costing 3x more), but that the teaching at Harvard was significantly better.

The Boston-area housing market is awful. To secure a spot, expect to have to make your decision and give your deposit (first, last, and 1 month security) immediately after viewing.

I actually just take cardstock and have everyone make nametags. It helps the students learn each others names, it helps me learn their names, and it shows I know who they are when I hand them out at the beginning of each class.

Wait a year and apply again or go to school somewhere else.

Harvard is weird, and its various schools are more like a British model than an American one. But that means that GSAS and HES don't share resources or applications, so no worries.

God, probably, but they're all certainly bullshit now.

I promise you, Hal is history and not HOS.

I feel like certain departments make these decisions unintentionally

I find that the majority of my students who are actually of Asian extraction tend to do this, and I can certainly sympathize. I have a very English (if very old fashioned) first name, and it drives francophones up the wall, so when I go to France I just ask them to call me Léon, which is close enough to what they were saying anyway. It just saves me from having the same conversation fifty billion times. Similarly, in Italy, I just use my Italian middle name, although I have to remember to shift the accent on my Italian last name back to what it should be. As with @Eigen, I pass around a sheet on the first day of class on which I ask students for their given name, nickname preference, and personal pronoun. It streamlines the process and doubles as attendance.

I'm sure, but if you've ever been involved in the hiring process, you'll know that what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar, there. And time frames are always long. I suspect one or two of those jobs might just be available when you go on the market, if you start your PhD next year!

Only if the university or department decides to replace them.

Yo.

I had this happen my year with a solicitor with a Chicago area code...

Wear pants. You never know when you might have to stand up.

An important ability for academics giving conference talks is to take specific comments from the audience and generalize them out to observations that are useful beyond the particular constraints of the question. And an important skill in asking conference questions is to realize when that's happening. In other words, it's not always about you, unless you're the only person applying to a state school here.

Right, I don't have a comprehensive knowledge of universities' funding packages, but was relating the structure of the ones I received. We're talking about state school packages generally here. With respect to financials, remember that you need more that to just live, particularly if you're not an American historian. For example, will your stipend allow you to live near your archive for six months or a year while your partner stays at home, keeping in mind that most universities will reduce your stipend in proportion to any major external grant you receive? Does your university require you to pay your costs upfront and get reimbursed (most do), requiring a fairly decent cash reserve? Does your university deduct taxes from fellowship stipends? Mine doesn't, which left several people with surprisingly large tax bills come April. Do you receive stipend disbursals over the summer? Are they the same size? How does this affect your budget? In short, base cost of living is simply one factor to consider.

The real question is what do you need an MA for? Are do you want to acquire some new skills? Prestige isn't that important. Trying to make up for a mediocre undergraduate? Prestige is more important.

Everyone gets teaching experience. What changes is if they also get time off of teaching to write their dissertation, just like TT professors get a sabbatical year to push that book out. I guarantee that those with time off teaching will generate a better final project faster than those without. And no, that's a false dichotomy: money and getting in both matter, particularly if you have to take out loans. I don't really like making absolute statements, but this is an exception. NEVER EVER attend a doctoral program, particularly in the humanities, that will require you to take out loans to complete it.

Usually, yes.

Most programs don't interview. I mean, it's a whole other question as to whether it's worth it to attend [program] on departmental rather than university funding. For me, it was the difference of $10k/yr, 1 year of support, and 2 years of fellowship over TA-ship. That's huge, and completely changes the equation.

So FYI this is the way most state schools work. Those with nominations to university-level funding tend to find out about a week before those receiving department-level funding.

I was about to say, I don't know if Braudel ever went away. Mentalité has certainly gone the way of the dodo though, and good riddance.

The first question on my school's evaluation is 1-5, with 1 being the best and 5 the worst. All the other questions on the evaluation are 1-5, with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst.