verycunning

Hey all! I'll be starting my PhD in a humanities field in the fall. Excited to live in Boston. Just solidified housing plans for the fall, so it's beginning to fall into place.

Why yes, Yale, 4:57 pm is the ideal time to send out rejection letters. And with that, my admissions results are all in. Wishing you all still waiting the best of luck. I've more or less made up my mind but am waiting to visit before I commit.

Thanks so much, everyone! Yep! Phone call from DGS and then an email with all the details. From the results page it looks like someone else did, too.

Just got the magic call from BU! Great funding and it's one of my top choices so I am thrilled.

I think next week is gonna be the big one for most of us. Sending good vibes to everyone!

Congrats! And yeah, I'm still waiting on 3 schools and since it's Friday my anxiety is much more palpable. Just tell me already, jeez. You've had two months and this isn't some enormous program where you get thousands of apps.

Just posted my first two results on the board. Got the official no from Harvard on Friday like everyone else, not too bummed about that honestly. Got my first acceptance this weekend but it's bittersweet because I'm on the waitlist for funding. So if anyone's not going to W&M, let them know!

Haven't heard back from anywhere yet, including the two listed above. Anyone want to claim the W&M admit posted today? That one had me checking my email a thousand times this afternoon...

Thanks for the info! It's nice to have a more concrete timeframe but at the same time so frustrating to have to wait so much longer. Here's to hoping for good news for both of us!

Not a dumb question! I understand the anxiety well myself, lol. No, no news from any of those, and nothing posted on the results board either. I do know there have been some snow days in Boston and Providence in the last couple of weeks, so that might push results back.

Congrats to the UNC admits! Had a couple of friends applying there. Great digital humanities stuff happening there.

Life experience seems like one of those things where you never realize how much it affected how you see the world until you meet/talk to people with very different experiences. I'm an immigrant, and grew up in one of those big coastal cities where most people I knew were also immigrants. It never seemed weird or important to my identity until I moved for an M.A. to a much more rural, everyone has been there since the 1800s type place. There my experiences seemed fascinating and novel. And I realized quickly how many of my career/academic choices can be traced back to that part of my identity.

I've also applied to all three of those! Your experiences sound fascinating and I wish you the best of luck.

Well, all my apps were due this week, so I am finally done! Now for the waiting. It doesn't help that I am also currently unemployed and have way too much time on my hands to reread things and notice typos and freak out. Sigh.

Museum curation and museum education are going to require very different grad programs, imo. Most curators I know at top (history and science, at least) museums have PhDs in the field they work in. Most museum educators I know have M.A.s, but in a variety of degrees (museum studies, public history, archives, history, education, art history, American Studies, and Women's Studies, off the top of my head). So that is something to think about. If you're interested in using social media, you may want to look into programs strong in digital humanities, as that can help bring together social media, archives, library, and other fields related to museums. I've got a friend who's used the Carolina Digital Humanities Initiative, so that's the only one I know of specifically, but it's definitely a growing field of interest.

@BLeonard I imagine it would depend on your previous American Studies experience. If you can demonstrate that you've taken AmSt courses or worked with AmSt professors, I can't imagine a related M.A. would hurt you. Just show that you've got the historical training and understanding the particular methodologies and theorists of the field. As to whether it would help you, that's also hard to say. I tend to hold the opinion that students who have finished an M.A. are stronger candidates for a PhD, as those 1-3 years can aid your writing and research skills immeasurably. But for something as interdisciplinary as AMSt, I don't think it matters too much what field your M.A. is in as long as you can demonstrate that you've done your research about how AmSt will be different.

I would second taking a closer look at internship possibilities in the area. Most of the museum studies programs I know are located around Boston, New York, and D.C.., and there's a logical reason for that. That doesn't mean that programs in other locations are bad, but ruralness does limit your internship and experience choices, and imo, those end up being more important than grades once you're applying for jobs.

@The Interdisciplinarian Congrats on getting your GRE done and on your kickass verbal score! I've had my MA comprehensive exams this week so my PhD apps have been on the backburner a bit, but I'm going to get back to work on them this weekend. Hoping to get them all mostly done this month.

Adding another option to anyone reading this thread - there are some American Studies departments with great public history/museum studies classes and opportunities (unsurprisingly, most of them are concentrated around the D.C. area). I've got colleagues in American Studies who do all the things mentioned upthread (museum work, genealogy, nonprofits, archives, library, historical consultation, etc), and when I spent some time working at the Smithsonian I found that a lot of the newer hires among the history museums had degrees in more interdisciplinary fields (American Studies, Afro-American Studies, Gender and Race Studies, Cultural Studies, etc). So my point is, don't be scared off by fields that don't have history in the title!

Hello everyone! I've been hanging out in Interdisciplinary Studies but it's sort of dead, so I figured I'd move on over here. Americanist here, with particular interests in cultural/public memory of the Revolution in the 19th century. Sort of a tiny area, but luckily in American Studies programs I can combine lots of types of materials and resources. Finishing up my (funded!) MA in AMS at Alabama this semester, so if anyone has questions about that feel free to ask. Applying to AMS PhD programs at BU, Brown, Harvard, William & Mary, and Yale for Fall 2016.

Figured it was about time someone started this topic! Who else is in the process of applying for AMS programs? Where are you looking and what are you hoping to study? I started this same thread two years ago when I was applying for my M.A. Now I'm off to PhD land (hopefully), and would love to have a similar place to share stories and anxieties.

I think that American Studies and/or Pop Culture programs are going to be your best best. I would definitely look into Bowling Green's American Culture program, which is known for its contemporary pop culture stuff. There's also a Centre for Comics Studies at the University of Dundee in Scotland. I know there's journals that publish articles about comics; you should look into them and contact any scholars whose work seems interesting. Rebecca Wanzo works at WashU and does a lot of work on comics. She works in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality department but that will allow you to choose a different home department and obtain a certificate in either Gender Studies or American Culture Studies.

Wanted to add on to ace3's post - any other information about the area? There's been some useful comments about housing, but I'd love to hear whatever info people have. I'm particularly interested in Jewish and LGBT life/resources.

Email! Good luck to everyone still waiting!

Just got my acceptance to William and Mary! Have already decided to go to Alabama, but W&M was the most competitive program I applied to, so it feels good!