justinclark

Samatha20: I did find out -- rejected, as I expected. When I finally got someone on the phone, I learned that the department doesn't snail-mail notification letters. Evidently they tried e-mailing me, but it bounced back twice. I'm a little disappointed that this was the extent of the department's efforts to contact me, a month after the decision had been made.

No reply to my e-mail. I'll try again...

Anyone get their snail-mail rejections yet? I long for closure.

I'm not looking for a single text, but rather the foundational texts still referenced by modern scholars, in the way, that say Gibbons' Decline and Fall or Weber's The Protestant Ethic serve as starting points. What are your favorites in your particular area, Cornell?

Critical studies at CalArts; journalism at Columbia. Two of the four schools I applied to wanted recommendations from historians, which I wasn't able to furnish -- I don't know any, and I applied at the last minute, having previously planned to wait a year. But I had nearly perfect GRE's and (so I've been told) an interesting writing sample. So far I've been accepted by USC, rejected by Berkeley, and am waiting on two others. Not very optimistic, but USC has offered full funding, and everyone seems incredibly nice there, which actually means a lot to me. Probably should have applied to more schools but I didn't really want to leave California. It's a hard thing to do when you've grown up here.

Seems like a preponderance of the very smart people on this board were history majors as undergrads. I wasn't, and I'm a little concerned about entering a program next fall in my current state of ignorance. (My background is in critical theory.) Could anyone recommend a few broad overviews of pre-20th century American history? Also, some background in historiography might be helpful -- is there a book that might introduce me to the major historians themselves and their contributions?