TMP

So, what is the rush to get into grad school then? Why not take a year or two off to get a "normal" job and see what's out there besides being a professor? As you undoubtedly know, the PhD is a long haul and will take up a good portion of your 20s (assuming you're of traditional age). You can apply to both MA and PhD programs the next time around.

What is your end goal?

Davis, hands down. Trust us, you don't want to take out loans if you don't really hav to. Davis is well-regarded but certainly much better than many, many other PhD programs that choose to exist for the sake of grad labor and as crutches for professors' ego and desire to pass their legacy.

@Comparativist, since you down-voted me, I am now curious to know why and whether you actually have anything to contribute to this thread. My experience wasn't much different from @telkanuru.

I've failed my exam before. I was rushing too much and I also didn't allow myself time to digest and integrate arguments (which @fuzzylogician mentioned). My committee, of course, got into a big argument over whether I should stay or leave. They settled that i should be given another chance. I buckled down and re-organized my notes, and then passed the second time. I was still left with so many doubts. I worked hard to pass the second time but I could not shake off the general comment coming from the first exam, "Do you want to be generalist or a specialist? If the latter, it doesn't make sense for you to be a historian." Ouch. Eventually, my favorite committee member reassured me that such a situation isn't going to define what makes a scholar great. Two years later with a number of accomplishments, I believe that she is right. Frankly, I am surprised that your adviser asked you to undertake an article for publication when you should be focused on studying (my adviser severely restricted what I could do during my third year, including grant applications and research). If you advise graduate students in the future, you have this experience to draw from as to how to advise at this stage of graduate students' career. Going forward, if you still have the same committee for the dissertation proposal/prospectus defense, you have this opportunity to truly shine. Go above and beyond with your prep work. Make use of books/articles that you had to read for your exams and show how your dissertation fits with those works. Once you pass this with flying colors, everyone will more or less forget about the exams themselves.

What is your ultimate goal? Try to avoid debt as much as possible. It is perfectly normal to go through the process again-- your UDel MA may get you into strong programs, which you will need for the academic job market unless you do truly amazing work at UF. UF is a big school indeed but your life will be incredibly compartmentalized. You will only need to go to: department building, buildings nearby for classes, library, student health center, grad school building and student union. That's it. You won't be running all over the campus like the undergrads. Where I am, it's a very large school but most of what I need to get to are within 5-10 minutes walk from my department. I don't even think about how *big* the school is unless I'm talking with undergrads about their experiences. As for grandparents, it's very, very hard. I know. My grandfather was ill twice during my PhD. But I was also so busy and he was being well-taken care of by our family that I think that if I had attempted to be with him every weekend, it would not have changed things much for the better (and I would have fallen behind). But every family circumstance is different. At the end, my guess is that your grandparents will want you to go to somewhere that will make you happy-- they are already proud that you're going to get a graduate degree!

No difference at all. It's how you make the most of the PhD program that matters.

University of Vermont, Stockton University, Keene State University, Clark University all come to my mind. Google "graduate program" and "genocide studies" and you will see plenty. I don't believe there is a program in Canada.... yet. Most of them are quite similar in quality, I think, and it just depends what your goals are. You'll definitely want to check on their alumni network-- where do the grads go?

Skip the jeans. Business casual. If you are a guy, don't worry about a tie-- it's a bit over the top. From my observation, prospective students look way more nervous in their ties than those who didn't. Ladies, you may be doing a good bit of walking so choose shoes that you are comfortable wearing all day. Dress in layers.

I believe that is a question you should ask the housing people at Columbia who are in charge of graduate housing.

I think that is a question you can ask Fulbright directly-- liaisons in both countries should give you an idea. If you are being asked to fill out a T-1099 or T-0198 (something like these) forms, then it is taxable by the US government. My guess that if you do have to pay taxes, I'd aim roughly 15% of your total Fulbright stipend.

future conversations = future conferences. Ugh.

Can you just decline the offer and then reapply next year? Better to get a job earn a salary (that is probably going to be almost equivalent of how much you'd go into debt for Columbia) and try again with the internal fellowships.

Dear Professor X, Thank you very much for the encouragement to work with you at University A. I appreciated our conversations and I learned a lot. However, after much consideration, I have decided that University B is a stronger fit for my needs. I look forward to continuing our conversations and seeing each other at future conversations.

What would be the purpose of that? To negotiate a funding offer? To share good news? Can you please clarify?

Once you decline offers, you lose the funding packages.

I think that it something you can ask your (new) adviser! If you are going to be doing independent studies with her, you will definitely get grounding in the historiography in your first year. Ask her current students for their PhD exam reading lists.

Agreed with @psstein It sounds to me that the professors have done their job to be as honest as possible. They are right in saying about language training. They believe that you are well-qualfied to do well in the PhD. Application numbers truly vary depending on the geography/theme/period. For example, I heard that one prestigious program received only 40-50 applications for assistant professor in imperial Russia (or Soviet Union? I can't remember). In my time here, I think the most applications we had for a job was for US Urban history-- over 120 applications! You are allowed to be worried; it's call "cold feet". But if this anxiety is so overpowering that you cannot, cannot see yourself living in Twin Cities in the next few years and take classes with those professors, then it may be best to decline the offer and simply not apply to Minnesota ever again. Also, I need to stress that entering in any PhD program with blinders on that allow you to see the professorship as the only path after the PhD, you are going to set up yourself for disaster before you even start. Be open to other pathways after the PhD. That approach is extremely dangerous for your sanity, mental and emotional health, whether from the start or after the PhD if you do not land a professorship. You need to think about what other job(s) can you find happiness in with a PhD degree and the skills you will develop (research, writing languages, the ability to manage such a large project etc.)

I understand that you are an international student. I have to ask-- have you been in touch with the program you've been accepted to and introduced to some of their graduate students (especially international)? Those graduate students will be your best resources for helping you making the transition from a reference point of your particular country or region. Also a lot of these questions can be answered by using the search function, particularly for this "official grads" forum as well as "coursework, advising and exams".

Some parts of it are really saturated. Other parts? There are some pretty exciting works coming out that involve race, gender and transnationalism.... the key is targeting understudied geographical areas like Central America, Africa and parts of Asia. Just forget Europe for most part.

Would this MA program be able to fund you for research trips for the summer between your first and second year? If you want to do US Foreign policy toward Germany, you might want to be able to go to Germany, or at least, be able to obtain digital images from Bundesarchiv's foreign ministry archives. You might want to look at the primary sources that historians have used to explore this area and where they are doing the research (most likely Bundesarchiv and National Archives in College Park). The key is to be able to demonstrate that you can read German language documents in your writing sample.

Seconded. I got my MA in a top-tier research university but did it mean that I could write? No. I still got rejected/waitlisted for the first 2 cycles. My profs there didn't work too hard to teach me how to write well; it was an editor friend who helped me to shape up my writing sample and SOP when I was re-applying for the 3rd cycle. If I had done my MA abroad, I'm sure I would not have improved my writing at all especially the program I considered had non-native English speakers who did most of their work in their native tongue.

PM'ed.

In short, choose US PhD. I've talked with PhD students from UK, French, Israeli, Swiss, and German universities and they're all jealous of my PhD training- the ability to study so much more than your dissertation topic through coursework and exams. And, oh, readily available teaching opportunities.

Not only all the above, you need to consider your relationships with your peers. You will make "friends" in your classes with peers who will expect you to be deeply engaged in the readings as they are and support their trajectories. If you come in already confiding to them that you plan to walk out after the MA, they are likely to isolate you (and professors will soon pick that up in the classes). If you go through this "got into funded PhD, but gonna drop out" route, you will basically have to keep this a secret from everyone for two years or so. The stress of the PhD program will definitely get to you that you may crack at some point. This including your new best friend until you are absolutely sure that this new best friend won't judge. I know of quite a few people who walked away with a MA, largely because they realize they didn't have the same level of motivation and were basically unhappy. I do think that you will be much happier being with other like-minded graduate students who are there just to get the MA for whatever reason. There's a thread further down in this History forum listing funded history MAs. I know that Miami University (of Ohio!!) is one of them....