getitlow
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Posts posted by getitlow
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From what I've researched, most schools want SOPs somewhere between 1 - 3 pages.
I was wondering how many words / what percentage of this people are dedicating to illuminating various aspects of one's application. For example:
Personal background, history (general)
Academic history and (previous) scholarship
Prospective research projects
Foreign language experience
Work experience
What else am I missing?
There is a prompt on every department's website and while the requirements remain generally consistent across different schools, pay attention to the specificity of the prompt. For example, UC Santa Cruz asks for a personal history statement so you will not need to incorporate that information into you SOP, NYU requires double-spaced SOP and just address several specific information that the department is interested in knowing, etc. So don't reply too much on formula and be flexible. One thing I would add to your list would be a brief discussion of a theory or historical figure that influenced your ideology, and how you are going to use that to guide your research (If that is what you meant by academic history and scholarship, excuse me for the extra info)
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In terms of the "correlation between top twenty ranking and top twenty resources/funding," you might find it interesting to check out this funding spreadsheet that we've been putting together over at the English and Comp Lit thread:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al9pLrYezRcSdGdUTk0zWk5QVUJFSGxVZ2FJQ1QwWFE#gid=0
It's not complete, but so far what it shows is that, to a large degree, the more glaring correlation is actually between private schools and top level resources/funding. Quite a few top 25 public universities (UT Austin, UIUC, Indiana, Maryland, Wisconsin, etc) have much smaller stipends and/or much greater teaching loads than comparable and even lower ranked private universities.
Anyway, if you put together one of these for History it would no doubt be a boon to future applicants and would add data to the rankings debate! (not to be pushy)
This is awesome. I this we should do a similar survey for history as I guess many prospective applicants will benefit a lot from the data.
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Thanks for the stats -- I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom it seems like a different world now than it did then. My area is European political/intellectual history with transnational components (e.g. empire, comparative/international law).
As far as I can tell, a mostly-European focus was not a good bet this year either. At Cornell they told me they had admitted two of us (and I know Virginia imposed a quota of the same number). What's strange to me is that, while I know schools are paring down admissions in certain fields because of the market, don't they need people to TA all the European classes (still quite a few in most departments) on offer for undergrads!?
p.s. Andean Pat, thanks. Again, I'm really happy about Cornell. I'm just engaging in post-mortem analysis out of interest in the process.
Sometimes you don't need graduate students majoring exactly in European history to TA an introductory European History class, for example (TAs will assist in teaching for several years in mostly introductory level or general ed courses). At SUNY Buffalo where I received my PhD offer, All TAs will alternate among courses from World History to Asian His or European His so that your teaching experience will be diverse. I also heard when your TAship is over, you can teach your own course by being an adjunct and pay for your fourth or fifth year fees and so forth. I guess by cutting down the number of admits school won't generally have too many problems in terms of TA-ing.
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I apologize for the complaining. And I obviously really sympathize with people who didn't get in anywhere - I was just one school away from sharing that fate.
I was surprised by the results because I had expectations going into the process that were conditioned by the experiences of people who applied 5-6 years ago, when I got out of college. At that time, programs were larger, and the economy wasn't in quite as dire straits as it is today, so there were fewer applicants, too. They received rafts of acceptances to top schools with qualifications similar to mine. In that environment, I think most people here would have had more successes, and options, too, and it's aggravating to see how difficult it's become for everyone here.
Yeah I forgot to mention the NYU offer sent to me this morning stated that they received over 350 applications this year and accepted somewhere around 4% to 5% for the Fall cohort. My undergraduate advisor, who is a NYU graduate from the department, exclaimed to me how incredible that number of application is compared to her application season 6 years ago. So I guess it should be very normal that even the most qualified applicants stand a good chance of being denied admission. I'm positive that the PhD admission battle will continue to intensify in years to come and no less. Congrats on making it through the top of the list and getting in Cornell ! May I ask what is your focus?
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It's funny how just one day after I wrote my post above, NYU sent me an offer to their MA in History of Women and Gender today. I'm just sad that there is no financial suport for this and given the living costs in NYC, even if I take out loan, I won't ever be able to pay off this debt. I just really like the program at NYU and the professors I have been in contact with.
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Soo...anyone else still waiting to be rejected from NYU?
Also me. If I paid $90 application fee, at least reject me properly with a letter....
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Yale has a great MA program in Chinese studies if that is your regional focus. I know U Washington has an excellent MA program in history (with possible regional focus on China). I'm just not sure you are considering Asian studies or History for your MA, or you are flexible about this.
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From my personal exchange with some professors across different departments, politics of gender and oral history are pretty hot in my subfield (Modern East Asia/ China). I have heard a lot of discussion on digital history (as in how to digitalize the conventional way of going about doing oral history for example) so I guess it is rising in terms of popularity. In Chinese history, transnational historiography has been quite the trend for the last few years for it shifts the orthodox historical paradigm of analyzing china as a lone entity separated from the world to be among the main players on the world's stage.
More and more historians are paying attention to the history of the borderland in Asia as opposed to frontier because the former points to an allegiance of fluid identity subject to changes while the latter holds a more restrictive connotation. I would say borderland history, cross-ethnic, cross-cultural history are also pretty hot right now especially in the context of what is going on now in the South China sea between East and South East Asia. The politics there is a total chaos.
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I was admitted to the History PhD program and invited to the department's admit weekend in the first week of April. The history graduate association will be hosting a conference on that day. It is very likely that I will choose to enroll at Buffalo. If you are admitted to SUNY Buffalo and consider going, please join this thread and get connected! I'm thrilled to get in touch with fellow BU grad students!
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Postmarked March 4th. I had not heard anything before it arrived. Best of luck.
Hey I got my U of Maine offer today. Postmarkerd March 5th. I was slightly elated, but information on financial aid still pending. Most likely, I won't go but I'm a bit curious about the financial package. Have you heard anything from the DGS?
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I got an invitation to the PhD prospect weekend first week of April ! What is the most convenient way to reach North campus from the airport?
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most confusing is the differenence between Buffalo State University and the State University of New York at Buffalo
like...what?
The biggest difference is that Buffalo State University is not a flagship university in the SUNY system and it is not a member of AAU (Association of American Universities) while BU or SUNY Buffalo is flagship campus and a member of AAU. You can see the link here: http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476
I hope that helps distinguish the two schools
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Staging the World: Chinese nationalism at the turn of the 20th century by Rebecca Karl from NYU. Very interesting take on Chinese nationalism in the context of globalism/transnationalism.
I know one interesting book on the Treaty Port. I have yet to read it (I'm planning to). You can check out: No Dogs and Not Many Chinese: Treaty Port Life in China 1843-1943 by Frances Wood.
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Yes, I noticed. i'm not being snarky I'm pointing out that New York has 4 flagship state universities. There is no such thing as the DGS at SUNY. it's much like leave the "the" out of The Ohio State University. If you look the way the SUNY's describe themselves these days they are walking away from that acronym for individual schools.
Hey I should have said SUNY Buffalo. Sorry for being unclear because I assume that I put it down there in my signature.
By the way, I think I ask this too much but I wonder if anybody hear back from Penn State? Got my Harvard rejection in the mail today but still no news from Penn State. Please PM me if you have got any information from them. I appreciate it!
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I got a call from the DGS of the State University of New York yesterday. The DGS invited me to the PhD admit weekend early April on their sponsorship. I got a generous financial suppirt package including TAship and fellowship from them so I'm really considering going. Anybody thinking of joining next year PhD cohort at SUNY?
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So this is a major trade off and really it hits on the job market. Remember that hiring is not done by people in your subfield, it's done by entire departments. This is a dirty ugly aspect that I hate, but if you are dealing with an interview committee full of Asianists they will know that UCSC is a good place to have come with that degree. But very few places actually have enough asianists to make up an entire hiring committee.
There are a lot of people around who will tell you the prestige of the general department isn't as important as the PoI. I'm not going to say they're wrong... but theyr'e not right either. I have a masters from a ... shall we say... not disreputable place. But not somewhere you think "world class scholars". It was filled with very good scholars. Some of them were tops in their fields, but I can tell you when I went to conferences I could feel the brush offs I got. It only diminished a little when I could say "I'm so and so's student".
The professors at lesser ranked programs will tell you it doesn't matter so much, and they aren't lying, but you should remember that if you are teaching at an R2 or non-flag ship state university you really have to tell yourself that.
Thank you. This is really helpful for me. My problem now is that I know that the department I got admitted to is pretty good but it bothers me every time I think how it's going to look on the job market. Your thoughts will give me ideas to ponder on.
By R2 universities, what range of university ranking are you talking about? Like top 200 or 300 ?
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Thanks, yeah, it was about a week exactly from the time I got the email until I got the paper version. I'd maybe give it another week or so just in case--maybe they are just super busy in the office or something. I'm always afraid of seeming too pushy, but that's just my own read-too-much-into-everything way.
I got the official letters in the mail today and I was about to ask the department whether I can visit campus. Phew such a long wait! I just don't get why they don't communicate through email though. Maybe they think they have sent me the print letters so I will see them soon. Anyway I have been off-track about my minor issue for a while
let's keep talking about the city!What are some ways I can look for an apartment in Buffalo? I'm gonna be a pure first-timer in BU so I'm not familiar with everything. Are there any trustworthy sources of information? I'm not used to dealing with housing issue from a long distance either. I appreciate any of your advices!
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This thread is really useful as I will have a lot of information to think ahead of what I should take into consideration when making decision. I have a question though, especially for those who have been attending grad programs for a while. When you pick a program to enroll in, do you choose based on the professors in your field, or you choose based on prestige? In my field, Modern China, for example, some leading scholars in my subfield (gender and women) belong to lower-ranked department while schools like Princeton and Yale had no one for me to work with. For my subfield, actually UC Santa Cruz has a very prominent scholar I really wanted to work with (for some personal reasons I did not apply there) but the school itself is not highly ranked within humanity ranking.
I'm just confused. Does going to a lower-ranked department with a professor who really excels in what he/she does help with the job market as I finish my PhD (I know the job market for humanity is pretty bad) or should I consider prestige more if I get into a school like that (given the condition that I will not research the exact topic of interest or research something that is just close to my original interests)? I really appreciate it if somebody can give me some advices on this!
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I talked to several people who have good reason to know the deal with NYU and it seems that, unless you were invited to the interview weekend or are maybe a very far-away international student, no news is most likely very bad news -- sounds like there probably won't even be a waitlist to hope for. Sorry...was not what I wanted to hear, either.
Thanks for letting me know. That's okay. Here goes my presumed rejection !
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2) Languages, not only are they difficult, some programs can be annoyingly strict about language training. One program told me to not bother applying because I wasn't fluent in the language, though this was admittedly the program who said it was maybe going to accept one, so you can take that information with a grain of salt.
Why?: Step-grandmother was Japanese and had lived through World War II. Nothing beats hearing about how she watched dogfights from her roof in Yokohama and worked in a student factory for the war effort. So I naturally became very interested in her life and childhood. Expanded from there.
Hey I do Chinese history so I totally feel you on the language part. Some professors even stressed that if you cannot read Chinese as comfortably as you read English, don't bother applying this year. Some I think is more flexible as they care more about my writing sample, understanding that language proficiency can be built up quickly if you have a good linguistic foundation. Japanese is even harder in terms of writing because they are all traditional characters. Congrats on the UCLA acceptance by the way !
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I didn't, I e-mailed the DGS like 4 hours ago asking what's up with notifications and he told me all that.
Thank you. I actually misunderstood your message! Now that I know I have to watch out for U Maine decision in the next few days.
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hey if anyone else here applied to the University of Maine, I just got word that the committee made their recommendations to the graduate school today and that we should expect notifications "very soon"
!!!
Hey I applied for the MA at U Maine. When did you get the notification from them?
I'm getting really impatient with Penn State and NYU. I hope no news means good news is coming. Has anybody heard back from these schools yet?
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I received an email from the grad school with a letter attached with my offer that I am supposed to sign and return when I decide. A few days later, I received another email from the department informing me of another future email that I received a few days after that with paperwork from the department. I also received a generated email from my website status being changed on that same day. Yesterday, I finally got my official letter from postal mail, which was the exact same thing that was attached to the first email.
Hope that makes sense...still having my morning coffee.
I know how you feel--I don't like any loose ends or anything up in the air. Hope you receive it soon!
Does everything just happen within a week? I don't want to call or anything because I don't want to appear desperate
but I did send an email ( without any replies back). Yeah I received the first letter you mentioned, plus the status changed. Just no official papers yet. I guess I will enjoy the excitement of knowing I got admitted and getting an award for a while ^^ and thank you for the details. Hope you enjoyed your morning coffee! -
I haven't heard anything about one. I was planning on looking into it, so if I hear anything I'll let you know.
I also forgot to ask. Did you receive official notification of admission, or just email ? it seems like they are still preparing for those and for me it takes like forever. I know I'm a little impatient
Fall 2013 Applicants?
in History
Posted
Guys, I'm thinking maybe we should follow the footsteps of those in English, rhetoric and composition to have a spreadsheet of funding packages for the programs that we are admitted to. I figure this will be really helpful for the next application season when applicants consider different programs. With that said, I have put up a spreadsheet here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgQb-LRJLpvYdHM3VE1QaHJsS2dQZVRuTDF1eHgwNlE#gid=0
hopefully, we can build up some information!