Sigaba

Do what you can to minimize the temptation to reinvent the wheel.
Do your level best to learn from those who have gone before you and have asked similar questions.
Consider the utility of incorporating your questions into ongoing discussions.
When assessing the guidance you've received, consider the background, the expertise and the experience of the person who offered it.







If I sound snarky it is because this BB is going through a phase in which newer members are repeating questions that have been addressed many, many times. While this trend provides opportunities to get great guidance from experienced graduate students such as jullietmercredi, it also provides opportunities to miss equally sound guidance from experienced graduate students such as jullietmercredi.

IMO, this trend represents a "lost opportunity" for many of you to start the transition from being undergraduates to being graduate students. As graduate students, you will often encounter an implicit expectation that you are doing the leg work to find the answers to your own questions, and from there generating additional questions and answers. (In some quarters, this leg work is called "research".)

Additionally, some of you who are in your twenties may be walking into a buzzsaw as new graduate students. Your cohort is developing a reputation for having attitudes of entitlement and self-absorption. (Consider how members of the generation of 1965 talk about the OWS and Tea Party movements) Regardless of the accuracy of this perception (Christopher Lasch had the same complaints back in 1978), perception is reality.

While it is your choice as to what questions you want to ask and how you want to ask them, do not be surprised if those who are most capable of helping you decide to tune you out. If you think this can't happen to you, ask yourself why you're asking strangers on the internet for guidance rather than going into a professor's office and getting mentored?

My $0.02.

Even though I was told by a professor that I might have gotten a job had I been born a decade earlier--"maybe"--I would never advise someone not to pursue a personal or professional goal. (The day I passed quals, the committee member who represented my outside field said Think of yourself as a teacher. By which he meant that it was my responsibility to give people information that enabled them to achieve their goals--my opinion of those goals notwithstanding.)
I would (and have) recommended doing a herculean amount of due diligence--including reading the OP again and again. There may be "nothing new" to some readers who are aware of some of the patterns that have been developing since the early 1990s. To many others, the post adds crucial nuance.
 I also recommend setting up job alerts in Linkedin and elsewhere so one understands how graduate degrees may or may not translate into requirements for job qualifications and professional experience. Some consultancies and government agencies require the kind of research experience that cannot quite be satisfied by a master's degree.
FWIW/Neither here nor there, I do take slight exception to the lumping together of the academic job market for professional academic historians as the most important key performance indicator of the profession's vitality or sustainability. 

haha I know. so hard to believe that we started together and finished the PhD while still on this board! Along with @AP.  Hope that other regulars finish too!

You're not so bad yourself

Hi, @cryloren. I recommend that you take two to four weeks off from thinking about graduate school so you can depressurize.
When you jump back into things, I recommend that you find ways to improve your writing. I also suggest that you think about how you define yourself as a historian. In regards to the latter, you have a wide range of interests (history, politics, medicine). That wide range may have worked against you in your SOPs. Are there ways to bring them all together as potential areas of interest?
@scarletwitch my two cents are that you would be well served by developing two or three sets of filters so you can get your current list of twenty schools down to five or six. That is, go from twenty to ten and then from ten to five. 

Hi, @cryloren. I recommend that you take two to four weeks off from thinking about graduate school so you can depressurize.
When you jump back into things, I recommend that you find ways to improve your writing. I also suggest that you think about how you define yourself as a historian. In regards to the latter, you have a wide range of interests (history, politics, medicine). That wide range may have worked against you in your SOPs. Are there ways to bring them all together as potential areas of interest?
@scarletwitch my two cents are that you would be well served by developing two or three sets of filters so you can get your current list of twenty schools down to five or six. That is, go from twenty to ten and then from ten to five. 

Hi, @cryloren. I recommend that you take two to four weeks off from thinking about graduate school so you can depressurize.
When you jump back into things, I recommend that you find ways to improve your writing. I also suggest that you think about how you define yourself as a historian. In regards to the latter, you have a wide range of interests (history, politics, medicine). That wide range may have worked against you in your SOPs. Are there ways to bring them all together as potential areas of interest?
@scarletwitch my two cents are that you would be well served by developing two or three sets of filters so you can get your current list of twenty schools down to five or six. That is, go from twenty to ten and then from ten to five. 

CONGRATS @dr. telkanuru   !!!! WAY TO GO

I join this congratulatory message. We've known each other for far too long!  

@dr. telkanuru
I just noticed the "dr." part added to your name! If it means what I think it means, then congratulations! 
I joined the GradCafe when I was applying for the first time (and didn't get in anywhere) and now I am third year into my program and preparing for orals while applying for dissertation fellowships (and mostly just lurking)... It's so surreal to see things change a bit (though more than often they stay the same) here! O_O

Hi, @cryloren. I recommend that you take two to four weeks off from thinking about graduate school so you can depressurize.
When you jump back into things, I recommend that you find ways to improve your writing. I also suggest that you think about how you define yourself as a historian. In regards to the latter, you have a wide range of interests (history, politics, medicine). That wide range may have worked against you in your SOPs. Are there ways to bring them all together as potential areas of interest?
@scarletwitch my two cents are that you would be well served by developing two or three sets of filters so you can get your current list of twenty schools down to five or six. That is, go from twenty to ten and then from ten to five. 

As long as you've not signed any paperwork, there's no ethical conflict if you decide to go to Stanford.
Anyone who would throw shade at a person picking the best option available for you isn't your friend or someone who deserves to be.
Insofar as how to tell the story of your change of fortune on social media, you can either delete the OP or add a post "a funny thing happened on the way to Chapel Hill." IMO, the key to the latter option is to make it clear that it's not that UNC was your second or third choice (which would simply be a crass thing to say) but rather that Stanford is an opportunity of a lifetime that you must seize.
But before you make any decisions, do what you can to understand which place is really the best for you.

I hope you don't mind my saying that this sounds like a situation only sit-com characters find themselves in. The dramatic irony is pretty rich, and I can only imagine that you are terribly frustrated by it. Please don't let me upset you if I sound flippant because I just want to give you a distant stranger's opinion.
This might sound harsh, but I would bet that no one who has shared your post and listened to your story besides personal acquaintances have any real stake in your outcome. I believe you have an impressive story that affected them all, but I wouldn't expect anyone to check back in and make sure that the story remains consistent with reality.
Tell your friends and family how a funny thing happened and now you have an even better opportunity. Share it publicly if you like, but don't expect it to go viral. The internet got their underdog story and will be just fine whether or not you want to go to Stanford.

@lelick1234 you are not going to get far with that chip on your shoulder. I urge you to consult the acknowledgement sections of published works grounded upon archival research. A pattern that you may notice is that researchers benefit when they approach archivists and archives from a position of respect.
I urge you to put aside assumptions of the way things should be until you spend time doing work in research libraries and archives. In a research library, you move a book over three spaces or up or down a shelf, it may as well have been burned.
In an archive, a document put into the wrong folder in the correct box can be lost to subsequent researchers for a generation. When you take tours of archives, you will hear bloodcurdling stories about individuals altering, defacing, or destroying documents on a whim. You will also learn that private and public figures who donate archival materials often place boundaries on how they are used. On top of that, there are often institutional policies as well as laws and regulations. (When NARA moves materials produced by a presidential administration, the level of security can be on par with that used by the Department of Energy when moving nuclear materials.)
Then figure out ways you can reach out to staff via telephone at the Huntington Library to see if you can gain access based upon your research interests, understanding of archival research, and skill level. @ListlessCoffee and others have provided excellent guidance.
If the answer is "no," then figure out your next steps. One step could be reach out to professional academic historians in SoCal and ask for help. If you follow this path, it is important that you check your attitude and manage your expectations.
On a slightly different track, are you sure that there's no connections between your interests in American foreign relations with the Middle East and Southern California urban history?
https://tinyurl.com/vlg7cm4g
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6504843

@lelick1234 you are not going to get far with that chip on your shoulder. I urge you to consult the acknowledgement sections of published works grounded upon archival research. A pattern that you may notice is that researchers benefit when they approach archivists and archives from a position of respect.
I urge you to put aside assumptions of the way things should be until you spend time doing work in research libraries and archives. In a research library, you move a book over three spaces or up or down a shelf, it may as well have been burned.
In an archive, a document put into the wrong folder in the correct box can be lost to subsequent researchers for a generation. When you take tours of archives, you will hear bloodcurdling stories about individuals altering, defacing, or destroying documents on a whim. You will also learn that private and public figures who donate archival materials often place boundaries on how they are used. On top of that, there are often institutional policies as well as laws and regulations. (When NARA moves materials produced by a presidential administration, the level of security can be on par with that used by the Department of Energy when moving nuclear materials.)
Then figure out ways you can reach out to staff via telephone at the Huntington Library to see if you can gain access based upon your research interests, understanding of archival research, and skill level. @ListlessCoffee and others have provided excellent guidance.
If the answer is "no," then figure out your next steps. One step could be reach out to professional academic historians in SoCal and ask for help. If you follow this path, it is important that you check your attitude and manage your expectations.
On a slightly different track, are you sure that there's no connections between your interests in American foreign relations with the Middle East and Southern California urban history?
https://tinyurl.com/vlg7cm4g
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6504843

@lelick1234 you are not going to get far with that chip on your shoulder. I urge you to consult the acknowledgement sections of published works grounded upon archival research. A pattern that you may notice is that researchers benefit when they approach archivists and archives from a position of respect.
I urge you to put aside assumptions of the way things should be until you spend time doing work in research libraries and archives. In a research library, you move a book over three spaces or up or down a shelf, it may as well have been burned.
In an archive, a document put into the wrong folder in the correct box can be lost to subsequent researchers for a generation. When you take tours of archives, you will hear bloodcurdling stories about individuals altering, defacing, or destroying documents on a whim. You will also learn that private and public figures who donate archival materials often place boundaries on how they are used. On top of that, there are often institutional policies as well as laws and regulations. (When NARA moves materials produced by a presidential administration, the level of security can be on par with that used by the Department of Energy when moving nuclear materials.)
Then figure out ways you can reach out to staff via telephone at the Huntington Library to see if you can gain access based upon your research interests, understanding of archival research, and skill level. @ListlessCoffee and others have provided excellent guidance.
If the answer is "no," then figure out your next steps. One step could be reach out to professional academic historians in SoCal and ask for help. If you follow this path, it is important that you check your attitude and manage your expectations.
On a slightly different track, are you sure that there's no connections between your interests in American foreign relations with the Middle East and Southern California urban history?
https://tinyurl.com/vlg7cm4g
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6504843

Hm? Usually this just means if you don't have a PhD you should get a letter from a direct supervisor who's willing to say you're qualified. That you think your BA, whatever your gpa, should fulfil this requirement just means you don't really have a good grasp of what your skills are relative to others.

Documents are fragile and can't be used without qualification. Those dirty fingers (or even clean ones) destroy the documents over time.
They should digitize them, of course. But access to archives isn't what's killing the humanities.

FWIW, the sensibility has been addressed by @TMP a couple of times in this thread.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis theoretically makes completing the requirements for a doctorate more difficult to complete within the accelerated timelines departments may be using because of the financial uncertainties.
If you're an Americanist, you need one or two languages, one of which may be swapped for a skill. If you're  not an Americanist, one has to know the languages one needs to know. If you're an Americanist, you likely find enough archival sources nearby or even on line to do a great deal of research. If you're not an Americanist, the ebb and flow of the pandemic may make necessary travel impossible. If you're an Americanist, you can work as a teaching assistant in courses that may be more popular among undergraduates without needing to sacrifice time to get up to speed on a subject. If you're not an Americanist, and a department trims back on offering courses not centered around the United States, you are going to be behind the eight ball of a learning curve. A comment. I understand that this is a period of extraordinary uncertainty for applicants and that there may be a strong sense of frustration, even disappointment, because events are not unfolding as one would like. This being said, I urge all to understand that posts at the Gradcafe don't go away, and that there are faculty and staff among this BB's members.
Now is as good as a time as any to work on one's personal professional comportment. It's not what one says or what one asks that can lead to issues down the line, it's how one says something or how one asks a question that can prove to be an issue. FWIW, I have learned the hard way that professional academic historians pay very careful attention to tone and temperament. Or, as one professor with whom I subsequently became close asked himself "Who is this asshole?" The question came after I said something that was meant to be an ironic / humorous statement of respect.

FWIW, the sensibility has been addressed by @TMP a couple of times in this thread.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis theoretically makes completing the requirements for a doctorate more difficult to complete within the accelerated timelines departments may be using because of the financial uncertainties.
If you're an Americanist, you need one or two languages, one of which may be swapped for a skill. If you're  not an Americanist, one has to know the languages one needs to know. If you're an Americanist, you likely find enough archival sources nearby or even on line to do a great deal of research. If you're not an Americanist, the ebb and flow of the pandemic may make necessary travel impossible. If you're an Americanist, you can work as a teaching assistant in courses that may be more popular among undergraduates without needing to sacrifice time to get up to speed on a subject. If you're not an Americanist, and a department trims back on offering courses not centered around the United States, you are going to be behind the eight ball of a learning curve. A comment. I understand that this is a period of extraordinary uncertainty for applicants and that there may be a strong sense of frustration, even disappointment, because events are not unfolding as one would like. This being said, I urge all to understand that posts at the Gradcafe don't go away, and that there are faculty and staff among this BB's members.
Now is as good as a time as any to work on one's personal professional comportment. It's not what one says or what one asks that can lead to issues down the line, it's how one says something or how one asks a question that can prove to be an issue. FWIW, I have learned the hard way that professional academic historians pay very careful attention to tone and temperament. Or, as one professor with whom I subsequently became close asked himself "Who is this asshole?" The question came after I said something that was meant to be an ironic / humorous statement of respect.

FWIW, the sensibility has been addressed by @TMP a couple of times in this thread.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis theoretically makes completing the requirements for a doctorate more difficult to complete within the accelerated timelines departments may be using because of the financial uncertainties.
If you're an Americanist, you need one or two languages, one of which may be swapped for a skill. If you're  not an Americanist, one has to know the languages one needs to know. If you're an Americanist, you likely find enough archival sources nearby or even on line to do a great deal of research. If you're not an Americanist, the ebb and flow of the pandemic may make necessary travel impossible. If you're an Americanist, you can work as a teaching assistant in courses that may be more popular among undergraduates without needing to sacrifice time to get up to speed on a subject. If you're not an Americanist, and a department trims back on offering courses not centered around the United States, you are going to be behind the eight ball of a learning curve. A comment. I understand that this is a period of extraordinary uncertainty for applicants and that there may be a strong sense of frustration, even disappointment, because events are not unfolding as one would like. This being said, I urge all to understand that posts at the Gradcafe don't go away, and that there are faculty and staff among this BB's members.
Now is as good as a time as any to work on one's personal professional comportment. It's not what one says or what one asks that can lead to issues down the line, it's how one says something or how one asks a question that can prove to be an issue. FWIW, I have learned the hard way that professional academic historians pay very careful attention to tone and temperament. Or, as one professor with whom I subsequently became close asked himself "Who is this asshole?" The question came after I said something that was meant to be an ironic / humorous statement of respect.

FWIW, the sensibility has been addressed by @TMP a couple of times in this thread.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis theoretically makes completing the requirements for a doctorate more difficult to complete within the accelerated timelines departments may be using because of the financial uncertainties.
If you're an Americanist, you need one or two languages, one of which may be swapped for a skill. If you're  not an Americanist, one has to know the languages one needs to know. If you're an Americanist, you likely find enough archival sources nearby or even on line to do a great deal of research. If you're not an Americanist, the ebb and flow of the pandemic may make necessary travel impossible. If you're an Americanist, you can work as a teaching assistant in courses that may be more popular among undergraduates without needing to sacrifice time to get up to speed on a subject. If you're not an Americanist, and a department trims back on offering courses not centered around the United States, you are going to be behind the eight ball of a learning curve. A comment. I understand that this is a period of extraordinary uncertainty for applicants and that there may be a strong sense of frustration, even disappointment, because events are not unfolding as one would like. This being said, I urge all to understand that posts at the Gradcafe don't go away, and that there are faculty and staff among this BB's members.
Now is as good as a time as any to work on one's personal professional comportment. It's not what one says or what one asks that can lead to issues down the line, it's how one says something or how one asks a question that can prove to be an issue. FWIW, I have learned the hard way that professional academic historians pay very careful attention to tone and temperament. Or, as one professor with whom I subsequently became close asked himself "Who is this asshole?" The question came after I said something that was meant to be an ironic / humorous statement of respect.

FWIW, the sensibility has been addressed by @TMP a couple of times in this thread.

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis theoretically makes completing the requirements for a doctorate more difficult to complete within the accelerated timelines departments may be using because of the financial uncertainties.
If you're an Americanist, you need one or two languages, one of which may be swapped for a skill. If you're  not an Americanist, one has to know the languages one needs to know. If you're an Americanist, you likely find enough archival sources nearby or even on line to do a great deal of research. If you're not an Americanist, the ebb and flow of the pandemic may make necessary travel impossible. If you're an Americanist, you can work as a teaching assistant in courses that may be more popular among undergraduates without needing to sacrifice time to get up to speed on a subject. If you're not an Americanist, and a department trims back on offering courses not centered around the United States, you are going to be behind the eight ball of a learning curve. A comment. I understand that this is a period of extraordinary uncertainty for applicants and that there may be a strong sense of frustration, even disappointment, because events are not unfolding as one would like. This being said, I urge all to understand that posts at the Gradcafe don't go away, and that there are faculty and staff among this BB's members.
Now is as good as a time as any to work on one's personal professional comportment. It's not what one says or what one asks that can lead to issues down the line, it's how one says something or how one asks a question that can prove to be an issue. FWIW, I have learned the hard way that professional academic historians pay very careful attention to tone and temperament. Or, as one professor with whom I subsequently became close asked himself "Who is this asshole?" The question came after I said something that was meant to be an ironic / humorous statement of respect.

It kind of annoys me when people think that because x program released results on y date in the past z year, that they will undoubtedly release them at the exact time the next year(s).
Northwestern released results last year on Jan. 20th. In what world is it it 'too early?'
You know how I know you are wrong though? Because of the acceptance in my inbox.

Probably kinda rambly so I apologize: 
 
I mean it depends on what your goals are. I'm assuming you applied to Chicago for a reason, and they accepted you for a reason, and that at least partially has to do with the fact that there are faculty there with whom you have mutual interest with. IMO that's most of the academic fit you need. I personally think that we read a little more into "fit" on this forum than is necessary as a means of explaining seemingly-random admissions (and because we're not personally privy information like "oh you're the 2nd best in XXX field but we're only accepting 1"), like it's a big deal sure, but for the most part, like 80% of us can have good enough "fit" with any top 20 school excluding Rochester. 
I struggle to think about "fit" being of paramount importance, especially thinking back to what I thought I'd be researching as a prospective student because interests change. I took one class on what I wrote my SOP on and was miserable! I met with someone I wrote about in my SOP and I think they're a psycho! These days I'm just plain bored with so much of what I wrote about in my SOP! I think it's important to go to a school that is broadly strong in a lot of areas, and where if you change your mind, or if someone or two moves, or if someone dies, then you'll still be okay. 
Fit can impact who is on your diss committee and what classes you take and who your initial advisors are. However, you'll eventually learn that classes are more of a hassle than a plus, that people can give out good advice beyond what they publish in, and that in this day and age, connecting with people who are in your subsubsubsubfield can be done online and you don't have to physically be their student (though of course, you're somewhat advantaged if you're their student). 
On the other hand, prestige impacts how seriously people take you on the job market, especially for R1s. You can win the {whatever your subfield's equivalent of the EE Schattschneider award is} and have an APSR but some job committees will still think an unpublished CHYMPS kid has more "potential." Unless you are a massive exception (and it's always best to assume you're not), a UChicago PhD can be competitive for a USC job, but a USC PhD cannot get a UChicago job. I think I've said this a few times on this board, but one of the most helpful exercises when trying to decide where to go to is to compare the schools' placement. If you're not super interested in a TT job, I'd think long and hard about why a PhD because damn doing a PhD is a lot of suck. 
Prestige is often associated with a lot more implicit benefits as well (though this is a little less of a concern because USC has money more than somewhere like Wisconsin does). Summer funding, money floating around for surveys, subsidized housing, teaching loads, conference travel funding, etc. are often so much better at better-ranked school. The less time you spend worrying about money and doing things that are not research, the more time you have for research. This is very important. 
P.S. CA might be sunny, but you can actually afford to live in something more than a glorified box in the midwest. We spend all our time working anyways :((((( 

I'm not who you asked @BrownSugar, but UChicago already decided that you fit their program! That's what fit refers to and they all expect us to change our research interests anyway,