luvalicious

Just a heads up for those waiting on notifications from Chicago, I got my formal acceptance/admission materials in the snail mail today. Best of luck to all those waiting on Chicago, et al.

AFAIK, you don't actually have to have it published in print before you apply. If it's been accepted for publication, you can put that in your C.V. as pending. Professors do it all the time, because it can take forever for an article to actually be printed. I work in academic publishing, specifically with scholarly journals, and I've never come across an author who wasn't affiliated with SOMETHING... not saying it's impossible, though, but this is probably something you'd want to ask an academic advisor or mentor about. Then again, I've never come across an undergrad-authored paper at all. as said, it's really going to depend on what you're submitting.

It really is ridiculous, and yet somehow this complicated system works... usually, because if you have a federal loan/TA/fellowship your tuition remission or payment is taken out with the assumption that it'll come, even if it's not there yet. if you've got a private loan, well, you'd better get in there and start talking fast (although usually if you actually talk to them they are pretty understanding and even agree with you about how ridiculous it is.) In the second semester of my first year, the Finacial Aid office held the balance of my loan check because it required a signature - for a month and a half, without ever calling me. I finally called THEM. Mind you, they had no problem letting the Bursar promptly take out my tuition and fees!

I was in the same position a couple years ago and the federal loans are the easiest and best option for paying your tuition, etc. If you don't need them but just want a buffer, you can take out private educational loans from lenders like Sallie Mae, or your personal bank. Look around on rates. However, often there is a early repayment penalty involved on the private loans. My second year I got a fellowship so I only had to do the loans once - I took out one large loan and used it for every thing I needed, and paid it off early. Where I am finishing my MA we don't have a tab system - you had to pay off the total fees, tuition, etc., by the 1st day of the 1st full month of classes, or your classes were canceled... so you might want to check on your particular institution's rule on that, just in case.

Are you saying that you think you haven't heard back because you put down certain schools? I wasn't quite sure what you were asking in the second question, but I doubt that whatever schools you put down impact the adcom's decisions. I believe that those questions are for statistical, or even 'checking out the competition' purposes, and I don't think you'd be penalized whether you left it blank or answered the question. FWIW, I think you should answer those types of questions both to show your interest in other programs (which implies that you've looked around and researched, never a bad thing to imply), and that other schools might be interested in you (which could make you seem like a more enticing prospect).

It is an individual email, and it doesn't say how many were accepted or how many emails were sent.

I was actually accepted but it wasn't until this evening that the "view decision" link was posted. It appears that they are kind of slow putting the link up. Best of luck to all those still waiting to know one way or the other. I'm still waiting on one program and every day I feel a little more crazed.

Hi, Sorry to hear about your situtation, and I hope I can give some helpful advice. I chose to get an MA first, then decide if I waited to go all the way for a PhD. Although I took out loans in my first year of my MA program, for my second year I got a fellowship which paid my tuition and gave me a stipend -- so don't necessarily rule out the MA on the cost, because although there is less money out there for MAs, there is some out there. Many of the programs I looked at gave some credit for past degree completion, but you're right that you will not recoup those courses for an MA on an hour by hour or course by course basis. However, it can knock off some of the requirements that would be met in your first couple years, speeding your process towards candidacy. Good luck with those last two -- I'm waiting on Chicago, too.

That's true, plus what you get may vary --some internal fellowship include dental and others are just health. The mid-sized public university I'm getting my MA from doesn't fund any kind of insurance, even for PhDs... in fact, they don't fund much of anything, but that's another story. Quite a few of the schools I looked at for PhD only either didn't fund insurance or had an opt-in system with partial funding.

The fact that you are considering a more "world history" approach suggests that you might find it easier to apply to those kinds of programs, not just American history. This would probably vary by program though. But I'd think having that different approach, as informed by your background, would definitely make you stand out in applying to most U.S. History programs, and that could only help you. I think you could get at least partial funding but it depends on the school. I distinctly recall at least one school I looked at offering a fellowship for non-natives (it was for women though) so maybe there are others. My boyfriend came to the U.S. from South America to pursue an MBA, and he was funded through assistantships. Sure, he was teaching in the Spanish department but it was better than nothing. Does your university have any "sister" universities in the U.S.? Those kinds of relationships might result in funding and definitely look into external fellowships. And I would suggest, if you haven't already, talking to some of the people you encountered when you were here in the U.S. Hope that helps.

From all the programs I've seen, its the ability to read and maybe write the language that they want. If it's just reading/writing. Rosetta Stone or similar will probably do you okay. But if you want to be able to converse, then I'd suggest a classroom approach. I'm an ESL tutor and this is what I usually recommend for my students -- in fact, if you can get a tutor that'd probably be a great way to get the best of both worlds, and cheaper than a class too. Hope that helped.

Thanks for the congrats, and yeah. I guess I should be glad I'm not Brit History, lol. Where I got my BA and MA, it was the other way around. Far more European historians than anything else, and in the case of my MA it was because I was so different that I got in, much to my later regret. I always hear about the glut in 20c US and I believe it, but I've never seen it in practice. In a way I guess that makes me lucky because working against the grain really sharpens the experience for ya, lemme tell you. I took a couple seminars with a guy who, when asked his specific interests, said "Nazi Germany." And that was that. He's still middling along there somehow and everyone else has moved on. Coincidence? I think not. This is the decade of American history that I'm covering in my thesis, and it is dificult. The trick is coming up with a different angle -- which is why I stay away from movement-based history as much as I can. There's still things to be discovered, I'm sure, but every professor I've ever had has been like "1960s? Who isn't studying that?"

Hi all, I just found this forum and decided to post on in. I've been accepted to UM Ann Arbor in the Joint Phd for Women's Studies & History, via phone call at 10pm last Sunday night and then today, I received an email with my funding package and whatnot. I got accepted into Northwestern University today. They sent me an email with an attached official letter this morning and then this afternoon I got a phone call from Nancy MacLean, the head of the department. I'm still waiting to hear on my final school but I'm glad I found this forum last night because it was really comforting to see people in the same position as myself. I only applied to three schools and was discouraged by my advisor from having a lot of hope, and my life has been a constant barrage of bad luck so please, guys, don't give up hope! and I wish you all the best of luck in admissions and beyond.