rising_star

I would contact them and ask if they'd consider it. They're probably just waiting for someone else to decline their offer so they can award you funding.

Totally agree. One school, which granted did admit me, misplaced the same rec letter twice. My recommender mailed it over winter break from FL (he was on a family vacation), then mailed it again in mid-January when I told him another letter had gone astray. About a week after that, the grad sec emailed me to say his letter was missing. So he mailed them a third copy and sent it electronically to the DGS (who happened to be a friend of his). What a hassle! I felt terrible about the whole thing and he just kept saying "It happens, it happens." In other news, I had a dream last night that my current school rejected me from their PhD program...

Personally, I would wait for the official letter before writing to accept the offer. Also, I know you say this school is your favorite but... have you had a chance to visit both departments? Sometimes visits can really change your impression of a school because you can learn things you can't find on paper or the web.

I would add that state schools often have limits on the number of international students they can accept, which can make things even more competitive.

Nertperson, Canadianpolisci is not a mod on this forum so I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I know someone who does the commute from the Columbia area of NYC to Princeton every day. His monthly NJ Transit is $366. He says it's cheaper to buy individual tickets if he takes any vacation days: " if i need to take 17 or more trips in a month, or 5 or more trips in a week, then it makes sense to buy a monthly or weekly". Weekly is $111.50. Jersey City would not be an easy commute to Princeton. The best would be somewhere on the Northeast Corridor line, as has already been mentioned. Metuchen, Edison, Elizabeth, Rahway... those wouldn't be too terrible, I'd think. No idea what rents run in these areas. Obviously living in Manhattan or anywhere closer to NYC is expensive, which is another thing to consider. As for train times, the last Dinky leaves campus around 2am, if memory serves. Given that the main library (Firestone) closes around midnight (or at least used to, this may've changed), you shouldn't have too much trouble making the last train. More from my friend: "yeah, a jersey city commute is likely to be longer than mine. path takes forever. granted, it goes pretty far." "new brunswick makes a lot more sense. sorry, but the grad student should have the short commute, not the one with the job. anything north of new brunswick is too far north. and if they can live in princeton it's really probably better, at least for a first-year. though who knows, if this person's a PhD candidate they'll probably see the Dinky cut back another quarter of a mile before they're done." The Dinky move is to the other side of a parking lot to accommodate the construction of an arts neighborhood on that end of campus.

I would say that phone interviews are kinda similar to in-person interviews. You need to have questions to ask them and they'll have questions to ask you. Definitely be prepared. As for acceptance rates and all that, I think it varies depending on the program. General advice: Be somewhere quiet and on a stable landline. Take a notepad with you that you've jotted down important things on but also so you can make notes (write your questions down here). Don't let anything interrupt you. Never interrupt the person asking you a question. Be polite. Say Thank You at the end.

I'm not in history but... I'm wondering how those of you who need to learn or brush up on languages plan to do so while in graduate school. Are you going to do summer programs, audit classes during the school year, live abroad, or something else?

Congrats!!! Also, care to elaborate on the interest in social constructivism?

I'm pretty sure they count because they are income you receive. It won't affect you as much your first year as it will in subsequent years.

Two things. First, two people rarely have nearly identical credentials. Second, they probably realize that grade inflation is rampant at Ivy League institutions and take that into consideration.

Hmmm... that's a tricky one. Ohio State funding should be out soon, they're probably waiting to hear about fellowships from the Graduate School.

YAY for comp lit majors!! Not a historian but comp lit gave me the freedom to study abroad in Spain. Plus I took Kiswahili... Now I'm just trying to figure out where to do my dissertation fieldwork to utilize these languages. Too bad I've grown increasingly interested in rural South America and South Asia lately.

Of course it all depends on whether you change disciplines or not! I went to a top-tier undergrad, none of my recs were well-known folks and they were in my undergrad discipline, and I got into several top MA programs straight out of undergrad.

Me too!! But for some reason, it never looked like a full eclipse... maybe I missed the magical 30 seconds?

awww... can you call and correct it? or maybe send something? i bet they won't really notice though.

Personally, I'd visit both departments to see what vibe you get from the faculty. While one may seem to have a more intellectually-stimulating environment across the university, it may help to remember that you are going to be a part of the comp lit department and make sure you'll have valuable experiences there. Good luck!

I just merged this thread with a previous thread on MAPSS, to make it easier for you to see what folks have said about it in the past.

I've kinda been doing that. I applied to a dept I'm already in (though obv not in Classics) and I've been trying to get unofficial info on the status of my application for the past couple of weeks, esp since I know the first round of offers have gone out. I'll be incredibly depressed if they don't admit me since I've done well in their program.

Well, that makes me glad I didn't apply to Harvard!

Oh, I understand completely. I went to an Ivy and watched people jet off to Europe for long weekends. I never had the kind of money they did and even for my closest friends, it took them a while to get used to it. Most people were ok with poverty but some decidedly were not. I bought books on credit and paid them off when I could... Just saying I feel you on that. But not so much on the rest because my family is all about higher education (mom has PhD; cousin has M.D.; dad and sister have J.D.). Nevertheless, I'm getting a lot of questions about my PhD plans...

Congrats! That's awesome.

I wonder why they'd lie about something like that. What did they tell you?

I see that you've found the other urban planning thread so I'm going to lock this one. Good luck!