onefellsloop

Thread bump! Having just recently returned from a couple of weeks abroad (including a visit to the university), I thought I'd try and revive this thread to see if there are any other newly accepted or current/returning post-grads who might be interested in a little collegial chatter! I, myself, am newly accepted and will be working on my MScR in Scottish History. I'm so incredibly excited to be joining this program as it was my first choice and would be very happy to chat with or meet up with anyone else studying in Edinburgh whether in History or not. Hope to get some responses soon!

Thanks for your advice, particularly about the questions! I think he probably wants to suss me out as well to make sure I'm not a crazy so I'll probably just let the conversation unfold organically and squeeze in what questions I can

I've recently been accepted to my preferred school, and while I couldn't be more excited about the good news, I am now faced with something else to worry about! I'm neurotic by nature, so I can't help the needless worrying, but as I have also been out of school for several years now, I feel at least a little bit justified in it So, since I will be traveling to the city where the university is located anyway on an unrelated trip, I contacted my advisor and asked if he'd like to meet. Though I'm happy/grateful that he agreed, I am now faced with a few questions regarding said meeting and would appreciate any advice or feedback from the community here. For instance, how formally should I dress for this meeting? I've already been accepted and this is not a formal visit organized by the university for graduate students in general. Rather, I will be meeting my advisor and the plan is for him to show me some of the more relevant-to-my-program parts of the campus before sitting down to chat at a café. Would nice, dark denim, a blouse, blazer, and ballet flats be way too informal? Should I maybe wear trousers and a blouse or sweater instead? Or maybe a dress and cardigan/blazer? Now, with regards to substance, are there any specific questions that I should probably bring up during our chat? For instance, how grad students generally do/feel in the program? Questions about potential funding? Would it be considered vulgar to talk about money/funding/assistantships during this meeting? I'd love to hear any feedback you all can offer! Thanks in advance

Thanks for all the info! I've actually been to both London and Edinburgh before - going back because I didn't get to see everything I wanted to the last time - but this'll be my first time in Paris. So far I think my friends and I were planning to day trip it to Versailles and Fontainebleau, and since our interests are primarily history and food-related, we were planning to visit the museums and places of historical significance within the city before exploring the various meal offerings available. Your well wishes must have worked, however, as I just received an unconditional offer of admission this morning. So thanks Couldn't be happier!

I'll be spending a week in Paris with the odd day trip to the countryside and then two days in London and the rest in Edinburgh So I suppose I should've just said "I'm traveling to France and the UK" lol but "Europe" was a bit more succinct if entirely too broad. Have you ever visited any of these cities? Got any recommendations?

Thank you for your reply I went ahead and sent my email and have received a response. All my neurotic worrying on that score was totally for naught.

I'll preface this post by acknowledging that I am chronically impatient and perhaps just a little neurotic but the waiting for results is seriously agonizing. I've applied for admission to the Scottish History MscR program at the University of Edinburgh, and despite previous assurances from the post-graduate program secretary, I've yet to receive word on any kind of decision. Having thus already contacted the secretary once, I don't want to do so again lest I come across as one of those 'high maintenance' students and leave a bad impression. The general mental discomfort of not knowing is compounded, too, by the fact that I live in the U.S. and have had long-standing plans to visit Europe in the first two weeks of June. Thinking I'd know the results of my application by then, I decided to tack on a couple of days in Edinburgh to the end of my trip to visit the campus and possibly meet up with the faculty member with whom I'd corresponded about research during the application process. Should I be accepted, this person would most likely be my first supervisor. However, the fact that I'm still in existential limbo, as it were, is making me reluctant to email said professor to suggest a meeting because I don't know how appropriate it would be to do so. For my part, even if I am not accepted to the program, I'd still like to meet this person if for no other reason than to convey my thanks for his/her help and encouragement (s/he was good enough to review the drafs of my research proposal and make comments, as well as solicit feedback from his/her colleagues in the department on my behalf) in person and to have an opportunity to discuss his/her research which I find profoundly fascinating. That said, I'm unsure, like I said, if this would be considered a strange or inappropriate request from an applicant or if it might prove awkward for him/her, especially if s/he has foreknowledge of the school's decision and it was unfavorable. So, may I ask for some thoughts on this? Did you meet with potential supervisors/advisers even before knowing if you'd be accepted to the program? Basically, any advice would be immensely helpful. I should also note that because of the time constraints (my trip is already planned and booked and has been for over six months), I feel like the very latest I could send my request would be this weekend because any later would feel like a rude presumption upon the person's time, implying, among other things, that s/he couldn't possibly have anything better to do and should just be indiscriminately available. Or maybe I'm just being even more neurotic than usual.