Neist

Really? Good to know! I'm married with a kid, so cheap is definitely a bonus. Loans are a given at this point, regardless of any stipend I'd be offered anywhere, but it's nice to minimize those loans. Thanks for your input. Really appreciate it.

I have to suppose that if you turned in an app two months early people have already looked at your app. If people have looked at your app, and are interested, I can further suppose that they might immediately offer an interview once the deadline passes. Pure conjecture on my parts, but it sort of makes sense. I imagine it has something to do with the size of applicant pools, too. If you get 200 applicants for 5 slots, it's probably a little more difficult (and subjective) to determine who is the best fit in those slots. Also depends on how large the previous graduating class is. I've already got accepted into Drexel, but if their alumni page is remotely accurate, the graduating 2015 class was pretty large. Twice the size or more than previous years, so there could be a push to fill the program back out. That's one reason I'm not stressing out applications too much. If I don't get into programs, there's probably a reasonable chance that it has nothing to do with my qualifications. Maybe a department only opened up 1/5 the slots normally available. Maybe there's just a lot of other brilliant people applying. Maybe they just received an abnormally large amount of applications. Who knows.

Speaking of weird things popping up in emails.. I recently got an email, randomly, from a MUD proponent in Venezuela. Thought that was sort of quirky. And interesting. It was basically just a email-formed handbill for their cause, but still interesting.

Thanks! I wish I'd heard back from Cornell, but not yet. Their deadline wasn't until the 10th of January, so I'm not really surprised. All of my applications were due within the last two weeks, actually, so I'm a little bit surprised I've heard anything at all. I got into Drexel's STS program. One of my letter writers is the editor for Technology & Culture, and she sang high praise of the program. I even got a Dean's Fellowship, but the fellowship only pays for a small portion of the tuition, and I don't believe they give out many tuition waivers. Apparently there are some RA positions (the graduate student handbook speaks nothing of teaching assistantships), but I have to imagine the possibility of RAs isn't likely until year two, which means I'd probably have to self-fund for the first year. And the school is in Philadelphia. I can't imagine it's cheap living. I need to contact the STS department directly (I'm re-reading through the graduate handbook first), but I remain hopeful!

I just got my first acceptance as well, but it's probably at the most expensive school I applied to. Ugh. I'll see how things pan out with funding.

If they attempt that on me, they are going to find a ghost. I long-since wearied of social networking before Facebook.

I'm selling a bunch of old stuff on eBay to pass the time. Occupies time. Makes money. I'm satisfied.

I'd like to know as well, but I'm suspecting not for a while. It's a pretty massive pool of applicants, even with quite a few committees to review them.

Unfortunately, all the schools I've applied to are in cold places, so it's a pretty easy process for me.

I just completed the last of my applications today. The last of the deadlines were due on Jan. 15. At this point I'm just taking a break from thinking about it. It was stressful enough getting fellowship and grad school applications together. I'm certainly not going to worry when there's nothing I can do about it.

I'm graduating at 32, and I completely understand. Balancing adult life with school is pretty difficult. I'll be entering programs (hopefully) at 33. I don't necessarily feel like I'm out of element compared to the graduate students around me. I think one of the grad students here is at least in his 40s. Doesn't seem to be much of a issue.

Polishing up the last of my applications today (a lot of HSCI/STS programs have somewhat late deadlines). You know, I completely relaxed. It's not that I think I'm a shoe-in for programs I'm applying to, but I found the application process far more stressful than waiting for the results. Application results will be the direct result of my preparation, and I've prepared as much as humanly possible at this point. It's up to fate or luck now. Also, I an email from Drexel today saying I got in. Yipee. I applied to their STS program. However, it's a weird letter. Says I got into the College of Arts and Sciences, with no specific mention about the department, but then provides a link where I can confirm my acceptance (or not). Guess a query or two is in order next week.

A lot of good programs have funded matriculation rates in the high single digits and teens (and I'm lumping STS and History of Science together). However, a lot of people applying to these programs are new to the discipline. Acceptance rates have to be considered with that knowledge. At Univ. of Oklahoma we have a grad student who came from a fine arts background, and it's not uncommon to get grad students from the hard sciences. This is somewhat of an assumption, but I imagine that if you can demonstrate previous research into topics you're interested in, you'll probably have at least marginally better odds in getting into a program you want versus applicants from other disciplines who have yet to conduct such research. Just my two cents.

Petersons as well as my general knowledge of History of Science departments, although admittedly some of the latter is based on gut feeling. Harvard's department is gigantic. They currently have 46 graduate students. Yale only has half that, and Princeton has significantly less (at least those who state history of science or technology as a stated area of interest. U. Penn and Johns Hopkins also fall into this lower range, as does Madison Wisconsin. I could go on, but my point is that it's a very large department that can support a very large number of graduate students. At the same hand, there's nothing that I know of that makes Harvard especially better than the other programs I've listed either, so I doubt they are pulling a larger pool of applicants than say Yale or Princeton (those names probably do pull some weight, but I'm not sure one pulls necessarily more than another). If their department can support 50 grad students versus 12, and applicant pools are somewhat similar in somewhat similar quality programs, Harvard can matriculate more per application pool. Like I said, this partially an assumption based on my knowledge of the department I'm in and other programs via discussions with those within my department. I could certainly be wrong! I completely agree, but I would still stick to my assumption, however squishy it might be. I probably have better odds of getting into Harvard than some of the programs, but I didn't apply there because the fit isn't as solid as other programs.

Neato! I'm applying to the Popular Culture MA at BGSU. It's in the same school as ACS. Maybe we'll see each other, with some luck. It's a fairly small program, so I can't imagine I wouldn't run into another grad student, even if situated within another cluster.

Indeed! Harvard has pretty decent acceptance rates in the history of science (probably because their department is huge), but I can't imagine living in Cambridge. It's an insanely expensive place to live, especially for someone like myself. I'm married with a kid. For the same reason I immediately excluded every program in NYC. I could commute into NYC, but that would eat up more time than I would prefer. I really want to live to campus so I can maximize my effort. My badly-worded point is that there are lot of factors that affect what programs are the best fit for you, and many of these details aren't immediately apparently until you diligently research potential programs. As an example, I want to live closer to campus, and that's not necessarily possible given my situations or preferences. For others, maybe a school looks great on paper, but the departmental community is horrid. Or maybe the person you want to chair your eventual committee is intolerable. Or maybe every email you sent to departmental contacts is ignored, a potential red flag. Or maybe you're just scared of current events in the state's educational system (Mad-Wis, I'm looking at you). At least for myself, trying to figure out which programs I wanted to apply to was as complicated as attempting to discover one's spouse via spreadsheets. It's a pretty big decision, and it's not an easy one. I've probably looked into a hundred programs, and I've only found ~7-8 that I felt were good fits, for me. Edit: Since you edited your post, I just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying that anyone necessarily should exclude certain programs on specific criteria, unless of course it matters to them personally. I'm certainly not going to take on an extra 50k in debt arbitrarily, and certainly not given the current state of the PhD job market (especially in history). Again, people should carefully consider what's right for them, given their interests and career path.

Bowling Green immediately came to mind when I read this question. They have a fantastically huge comic book collection in their popular culture library (https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl/about.html). It's supposedly the third largest comic book collection in the US. I also have some quirky interests, and BGSU is one of the schools I'll be applying to. I visited the campus about a month ago. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

This is exactly what I did, and I completely agree with your comments. I'm actually applying to several programs that I would have not known existed if I did not spend the effort comprehensively surveying all graduate school, and it highlights a lot of non-academic facets of programs as well (such as cost of living). I've looked into several prestigious programs and ruled them out because it would simply be far too expensive to attend, despite any stipend or waiver.

Most history of science programs are generally open until the beginning of the year (nearly all of mine have Jan. 1-15 deadlines). I'm not a huge history of medicine guy, but the obvious one that pops out is Johns Hopkins. https://www.hopkinshistoryofmedicine.org/ Their deadline is Jan. 15. You might dig through this list: https://sites.google.com/a/asu.edu/hssgraduateprograms/ That's sort of the unofficial list of history of science (including medicine) programs. The problem with the history of medicine is that a lot of aspects of the history of medicine are covered in the history of science, so you really have dig through each program and see if there's something that aligns with your interests. There are a few dedicated programs like that Johns Hopkins, but many of those are in medical schools.

Well, applications are pretty much finished for me at this point. My senior capstone paper was my writing sample, so I submitted my applications later than I would have liked, but it's done now, or at least it's done short of hitting the "Submit" button. Pretty liberating experience. Also, very time consuming. This is my first go around. I'm completely happy with my application materials, but I do feel as if they could be even better if I they had month or two of dedicated polish. My NSFGRFP (I'm history of science) materials were fantastically well-polished, though. I'm pretty hopeful on that front. Time will tell if it pays off.

Same to you! I'm glad it's over. The process of applying is probably more stress for me than the potentiality of not getting it. I'm going to be incredibly happy when this cycle of applications is done. January can't come fast enough.

You know, part of me wonders if a chunk of the people who apply for these simply don't take them seriously enough to win. I've heard of more than a few grad students simply whipping one up in the last week or two just for the sake of attempting it. It's just an assumption on my part, but if you take due care in proposal's production, I think the odds are better than what's statistically evident, even if only slightly.

Yup, I've done the same. My interests are specific enough that I want to make sure they aren't retiring soon, going on a year long sabbatical, etc. I've also emailed a few of them with similar interests as mine asking if they might suggest other people working in similar areas that I had yet to discover, as they are probably more acquainted with their peers than I am. I've generally had positive responses, and honestly, if I had overly negative responses, I'd probably consider rethinking wanting to work them with as an adviser. All I ever ask is very brief, simple questions. Most faculty members have been more than helpful, especially if you share similar interests.

I'm current a full-time employed library paraprofessional at an academic library, and I've been working for the same library for close to a decade now, in both public and technical services, 9 years of which was management. I know a lot of people poo-poo MLIS degrees, but given my experience, does anyone think a MLIS would be worth it, considering my significant experience? I study primarily the History of Science, but the University of Oklahoma (where I work) has a dual degree program. Thanks!

Here's hoping for the best. I've spent the last year working on my proposal. It's an awfully small document considering how many hours has gone into its production. At this point I think it's probably the best it can be. I just have to organize all my documents and get them ready for submission.