historygirl

MA decisions are done after PhD decisions. Sometimes they come later than March 15th if they aren't funded. Call the program and ask nicely when they will be releasing decisions. They won't blacklist you, I promise.

If you're interested in medieval, start working on languages now. You have to have French, German, and Latin, and you need to show some mastery of all three before you will be accepted to a good program. And I agree - an MA in history is likely the way to go after your BA.

The professor that is leaving can still be a reference. Speak to him before he leaves, mention you will be applying in the fall, and ask if you can use him as a reference. If he agrees, get contact information that will be valid in the fall. It's done all the time - don't worry about it.

Interfolio does this (http://www.interfolio.com/). A lot of people use it for the academic job hunt. However, you still need GRE scores sent from ETS, and letters that are older than a year will be mostly ignored from a grad admissions committee. You could use Interfolio for grad application LORs, but most programs want an institution-specific cover letter as well, so I'm not certain that it would be worth it.

boab - That professor was the only one in the department in my subfield, so making my SOP more broad wasn't possible. It didn't matter, as I was accepted to several other programs. I just like the idea that they were fighting over me

Sometimes one professor can be overruled. It's not their fault; it happens. The committee's process is interesting. Some of these programs have a ridiculous number of applicants and have to choose a handful. One professor may really want a particular candidate, but everyone has their pet applicant. Sometimes a professor might not even get one student in that year's group. So, again, don't take it personally. An MA program to which I applied (once upon a time) apparently had a throw-down cage match over my application. My potential advisor said no, and two or three other professors, one of whom was the grad director, said yes. I made it to the final round, but they couldn't convince him that my language prep was adequate. I got a nice email from the potential advisor explaining this (perhaps not quite in these terms, but close). I still wonder if the advisor emailed me because he chose to do so, or if the committee said, "Fine, but you're going to tell her and explain that it wasn't our choice!" I thought it was a little funny.

Boy, does grad school paranoia take hold! Honestly, people. They don't blacklist you because you call to check on status. I did this at three different programs, and I was accepted to all three. They must receive 20 of these phone calls a day. And if there is a link between your call and rejection, it's that your call prompted them to actually give you official notification - as in "So-and-so called - we should let them know instead of sitting on this." The exception is if you call over and over again, but one phone call isn't gonna hurt ya. If anything, I would definitely think an applicant that used a fake name was too weird for the program. I guarantee that story made it to the professors.

The UCB statement is harder to find now. It used to come up in a Google search, but no more. Anyway, here's the link misscari is talking about: http://ls.berkeley.edu/soc/diversity/ap ... ent-1.html EDIT: Cross-post!

Cornell07, I remember you mentioned that you were using a different approach that was not popular in your field. It is the approach your advisor uses, correct? Did you happen to address this in your SOP? The thing is, when you use an approach that isn't widely accepted, many profs will give a pass on the application. They want someone who is willing to learn things they way they teach them. While you may very well be open-minded to learning and exploring other approaches, you need to make that clear in the SOP. These professors have bad experiences with the difficult, know-it-all grad students already, and they don't want to go down that route. Additionally, if it's a method that has not gained wide acceptance in the field, you may lose points simply because they think you're using kind of a "voodoo" approach, undermining your ability to appear as a serious researcher. When it comes to academic research, most professors are very, very conservative. I would address the method in the SOP by saying that you learned it and practiced it with your advisor and feel that you learned a lot. However, you are looking forward to deepening your practice of other methods, and you feel that you can do that well at X University because of Dr. Conventional's excellent research in that area.

"Don't think about the money" has gotten a lot of academics in desperate straits over the years. Especially in the humanities. The humanities has the suckiest job market of all, often taking a few years to get a TT job after graduation. In the meantime, people get VAPs (more rare) or adjunct. I wouldn't want to support myself on an adjunct salary period, let alone with huge debt. For myself, I don't care so much. My SO has a portable, very well-paying job. If it wasn't for him, though, I'd be doing a lower-ranked program where I got paid. The Ivy name means far less on your app than your SOP and your LORs. A respectable program (especially one with big names, as you say) will be plenty fine. The key is to make the most of your MA. Besides garnering the LORs, present at a conference or two and try to get published. Even if you have an article out for review, it will look good.

Sorry - so they had the interview weekends...when? And are you certain there isn't another? I've also heard plenty o'stories where the dept is sending out letters, but the appropriate person hasn't signed them to be sent. Never question the inner workings of a department. You'll drive yourself batty, and it has nothing at all to do with you personally.

They likely send out all rejections at once. Since they have not had the interview weekend yet, they have not finalized admits and rejections. It's not personal!

SD - in that case, I'd go with UW in a second. If the profs and program are respected, it's not worth the added expense. You really don't want to come out of grad school with more debt than you can handle.

Cornell07 - Sorry about your results! Georgetown also has an MA program in global, international, and comparative history. Given your interests, it might also be an option. The fall admission date was Feb 1, but they also admit in the spring with a deadline of Oct 1.

Nina, if you want to discuss the free speech issue, perhaps you could start your own thread about it in the Lobby. The mods encourage us all to keep each thread on its original track here.

Let's read a bit more carefully, OK? She didn't say she was a neo-Nazi. What she said was that the right to free speech must apply to everyone. FWIW, that is the stance of most constitutional scholars. This is why the ACLU is willing to defend the right of, say, hate groups marching in minority areas. Restricting the speech of any group sets a dangerous precedent for us all. Besides, it's pretty well-accepted that nothing hurts a hate group like the light of day.

Frank, take a deep breath and let it go. Honestly. You're going to bust a vein. I realize the waiting and pondering and second-guessing is difficult, but you certainly aren't the first to have to wait. As to the "why can't they..." questions, well, I'd point out that the profs are sifting through files and making difficult decisions while still teaching and researching. Admissions work is on top of their regular jobs, which are pretty time-consuming as it is. I figure, if they're taking awhile, they're being thorough and trying not to neglect their current students. That says good things about the program, too. While this decision is probable the very most important thing to you right now, it's one of many (and perhaps not the most important) on their radar. That's as it should be. They aren't evil or toying with you. It's really not about you at all. In the meantime, remember that almost all of us are still waiting for decisions.

I applied for an Ivy MA. I'm several years out of undergrad and worked for awhile. However, this means that I don't have the necessary academic letters of rec for a PhD program. I also graduated from a small, regional program and had little exposure to the research I'm planning to pursue (I have a BA in history, but nothing really for the subfield). Of course, I have no undergrad debt. Given the market fright now for history profs, I figure I have to get in to the best PhD program I possibly can. An MA from an Ivy can help me do that, and there is no way it would happen with my app as it stands now. Plus, although it's expensive, I expect I will be funded for my PhD, so I'll ultimately have less debt than most.

I think they adapt the grading papers method by throwing the apps down a flight of stairs. Of course, even that isn't predictable. Some departments accept those at the top of the stairs, reject the bottom of the stairs, and waitlist the ones in between. Some departments reverse it and accept the ones at the bottom of the stairs. Some switch off year to year. It's well-guarded secret which method each program uses, though.

I had two friends that did PC in Africa (one in Kenya, and one in Malawi). Rising_star's concerns were never an issue. FWIW, both friends were teachers.

Several rejections and a few acceptances for history have been sent out. Art history is a separate department, so dates for the history dept. won't have any bearing on art history.

FSI: http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/

You've only got answers on 2 or 3 of your applications. You applied to eight schools. As hard as it is, maybe you should exercise a little patience.

20th century US is ridiculously overloaded. Everyone and their brother applies to do it. And, of course, there aren't nearly enough jobs for it, either. Modern Europe is also an extremely popular subfield, although it won't be as bad as 20thC US. If you're interested in fascism in Europe, keep in mind that you have Italy, Germany, and Spain to consider. That gives you a bit of flexibility.

I'm surprised by all the negative comments about the people at UPenn. When I noticed that my app was missing my transcripts, I called to straighten it out and had the transcripts overnighted. The person I spoke to was really nice, even checking for me to see if the apps had been sent for review yet. They hadn't, so my app wasn't too late. Wonder if I just got the token nice person in the Grad School office?