Neist

Good luck! And rest is great. I wish I got more. On Friday night I got 5 hours. I'm still a bit behind from that. You might try turmeric tea. It has a strangely energizing effect, but I don't find the effect especially comfortable. It is there, though.

There is no formal ranking, but there's a general sense of who's good at what if you've been around a while, especially within sub-disciplines. However, most of that tacit knowledge is usually only applied to pure HoS programs and typically does not include STS programs. Admittedly, it's not a large pool. But like I said, sub-discipline matters a lot. U. of Oklahoma is probably one of the top 5 programs for early modern, but we'd probably be much lower with the history of medicine because there's not a lot of historians of medicine within the department. We'd be a pretty high ranking for book history as well because our connection with the university's collections (which is surprisingly vast). Shame I'm not an early modernist, or I'd be in an even more fantastic place.

Wisconsin is pretty good, indeed! It's one of the few not-quite-as-obvious good HoS departments out there. Out of curiosity, who was your PoI at Princeton? Also, if you end up going to Wisconsin, maybe we'll meet at Midwest Junto. I'm not going this year, but I'm probably going to attempt to attend next year.

The only aspect of admissions that I'd think is not as arbitrary are letters of recommendation. If you get the right recommendations from the right people, then you're gold. Also, someone found this website about this time last year as everyone was waiting. If you liked those memes, you might consider looking this over. http://shitmyreviewerssay.tumblr.com/

I think you'll enjoy yourself more at the right school, especially if it's more right for you over the prestigious school. If you think you'll grow more at BostonU, I think you should stay there. Go where to a program that holds the most potential for you and your goals .

Remember, the acceptance process is very holistic. And it's quite likely that the program's decisions are not entirely meritocratic. Ever heard the jokes about reviewer #2? For all you know, that program had a group of reviewer #2s on the admissions committee this year.

If it was me? I'd go to the program where I'd be supervised by the indigenous teacher, assuming there are no red flags regarding the rest of the program. Then again, I'm not very risk averse. Where you're at seems to be the safer choice. How's the funding at the program where you've been accepted? Funding would weigh my decision heavily, especially considering you've been informally offered some measure of funding at your current location.

It's much easier to write letters after the first. A lot of faculty members keep copies of letters and just update them with subsequent submissions, and every letter I requested from professional references, said writer gave me a physical copy of the letter. If I need another letter from the latter, I'll send them a copy of the letter, reminding them of who I am, and I'd ask for an updated letter. I wouldn't give up hope yet. It's still only February, even if late February.

Just thought I'd toss my hat in as an older student. I'm 33, married, and have a daughter. Our only income is my stipend. To be honest, as a non-traditional student with more responsibilities than an average 22-year-old, I find graduate school easier than my undergraduate years. Graduate program environment is primarily adjusted towards the inclinations of 20-somethings, which means older students have skills which help better lessen a lot of potential issues. If you can deal with the level of frugality necessary to live without going to insane debt, it's great fun.

I completely agree. I've been on both sides at this point, and if you want to know how a program feels, hang out with the graduate students for a couple hours. They have no reason to hold their opinions.

I can't say that I've had much of an issue, but I think that people who know me know that I'd just cut them out of my life if they started to become emotionally abusive towards me. I do not kindly tolerant abuse. I've gotten a little bit of this, but working in libraries is sort of like being a lawyer. The MLIS is generally the terminal degree. I'm entertaining going further, but situations would have to be ideal for me to dive in, I think. Is MPH the same?

I should preface that I'm of the mind that most things in moderation are fine, assuming one can moderate themselves. Also, I think it's worth emphasizing in this thread that there's a substantial difference between binge drinking and having a beer (especially lower point beers) or glass of wine in the evening. The latter, even every day, is probably okay. Personally, I love a beer (note the singular) in the evening to unwind. However, the former is less helpful, and as one gets older, becomes increasingly damaging. I can drink quite a bit, and I always have been able to, but I rarely ever do because I feel like garbage the next day, and it's gotten worse as I've grown older. Graduate school is too intense of an experience to muddle up one's health. I think the most important thing is just to be mindful of one's actions and maintain a practical level of self-criticism. If you need to stop drinking altogether, then stop.

It's great, right? I can see why people would not like graduate school, but if one can ride the crest of the tsunami, so to speak, it's a blast! That, and I'm learning more than I ever have in my entire life in such a short period of time. Some of the faculty members here have told graduate students in my department that the point you take your comps is probably the point that you'll know as much as you'll ever know.

Grad school is a blast! I'm pretty sure graduate school will be among the most extreme periods of my life, and I love every second of it. I'm getting tired, and this paper isn't going well. Time to employ a bold strategy. Time to start drinking and try to ride a golden period of mental laxity before I pass out from sheer exhaustion. Fingers crossed.

Maybe we should just shove a wad of coffee grounds in our cheek? Edit: Just made me some tea with about a tablespoon of honey in it. Maybe I'll get a nice sugar rush.

If you do use Google Drive, I'd suggest Paperpile. It fully incorporates into Docs and Drive. I use it and am pretty happy with it. But like I said before, there is quite a few good options.

Hm. You know you're a graduate student when you've developed a near immunity to caffeine. So tired right now. Coffee isn't helping.

I also study the history of science, and there aren't a lot of great schools with incredible history of science placement, unfortunately! There just isn't a lot of jobs out there. Something that is worth clarifying in this thread is that placement will probably heavily depend on what one studies. A 19th or 20th century Americanist is going to have quite a bit more difficult time than someone who studies disability in ethnic minorities.

That's pretty handy! Even for me, the majority of my reading material is either from the 19th century (i.e., already scanned and OCRed) or more contemporarily published. That said, I've invested in good OCR software because I have poor vision, and the good software certainly isn't cheap. I think I paid around $200 for my software.

I OCR articles that are not already OCRed then store them in course specific folders in Google Drive. Additionally, use reference management software (pick your poison, a lot of options are great). I've really grown to love OCRed articles. If I can't remember the exact title of an article, I can type keywords into the search bar in Drive and locate the article. For example, if I knew I read something about eugenics in China, I search for those terms and Drive searches the text of every single PDF and returns relevant results. Very handy.

Very true. Even the easier-to-get-into schools often have poor or difficult-to-obtain funding, so they aren't splendid choices either. I was very lucky with my acceptance. The history side of my degree carries my funding, and of 9 acceptances last cycle, the program only offered two applicants funding. I was a waitlist for funding, and one of the two decided on another program. It's relatively easy to get accepted into this program (I think it's around a 50% acceptance rate), but very few people can manage without funding.

Eh, I'm getting used to rejection at this point. Haha. Harsh life lesson. How'd your tests go?

That's still pretty rough. I'd imagine you'd have to have a pretty clear vision of your dissertation project and begin working on it near immediately to complete in that timetable. Heck, editing a dissertation alone might take months, even after it's written. And even if I were burning through writing, it'd probably still take me nearly a year to write the several hundred pages required.

As someone who has worked fairly absurd school/work schedules over the years and as someone who just started his graduate program this last fall, I'd say that you should be very careful about going too fast. I'm sure 12-16 credit hours is potentially doable if you had no other obligations, but to me, it also sounds like a path towards a nervous breakdown. Also, over the last semester and a half, I've increasingly become aware of the necessity to network and build professional relationships while in graduate school. The faster you burn through school, the less likely that you'll be able to cultivate those relationships. @Sigaba Two years?!?! That's insane!

Congrats both of you!