spellbanisher

Thanks ashiepoo. Related to the first question I posted, I am a student at UC Davis. I really like it. I like that the campus is built around biking, that I'm a 5-10 minute bike ride from all my classes and downtown, I love the greenbelts and the arboretum and the Davis bike loop, I love being able to bike down Russell into the sunset, and I like that it is a low-key town. However, I know several people from big cities in the program that hate Davis. They hate how small it is and they hate that it is a college town, which means that most of the people you meet even outside of school are 18-25 and that everything pretty much closes down at 11 and it becomes a ghost town in the summer. On the other hand, I know someone who grew up in New York and did undergrad in Boston who loves Davis. So, in terms of location, it is important to consider just how much urban stimulation and "happening" that you want or can handle, and whether you want to live in a town that is dominated by a college or not, an issue that is especially pertinent for grad students in their late twenties. But, as a caveat: it is difficult to get a sense of how much you'd like living in a place from a weekend visit. I know people who liked Davis when they visited but got tired of living here after a few months. Conversely, I know people who initially hated Davis (mostly Southern Californians and Bay Area folks who can't stand any variations in the weather) but grew to either like it or at least tolerate it after a few months. I know, I shat on my own advice there at the end, but there you go. I suppose one way to answer this is, are you somebody who likes routine, or are you somebody who needs constant variety, or how much variety do you need? Again, to use Davis as an example, it is pretty close to two cities, 20 minutes from Sac and about 75 minutes from San Francisco. But grad school life, especially in the first few years, can be a grind, making it difficult to get out except every once in a while. For some that is perfect. For others, however, the grind of grad life makes it necessary to be able to find action and variety just around the corner. Apparently the kind of people you meet in urban vs suburban areas is very different as well. My roommate says women in Berkeley and San Francisco are much more outgoing and approachable(which is his lingo for "easy") than women in Davis. I wouldn't know because I don't talk to people, ever. I mostly live inside my head, so I like my external environment to be as unobtrusive as possible. P.S. This isn't advice specifically about Davis. It's just my example.

Remember folks, it's recruitment weekend, not interview weekend. You are the guest of honor. These things are for the department to woo you. Don't concern yourself with impressing anybody. You should be focused on gathering facts and impressions related to these questions. 1. Is this a town/city that you can imagine yourself living in for at least the next 3 years? 2. Are the professors people you would like to collaborate with? Because in addition to working with your major adviser, you'll have a comps committee and a dissertation committee, and you'll likely be taking seminars with 5-10 different professors. While you won't meet most of the professors at recruitment weekend, you might be able to get a sense of the department culture, which will tell you a lot about how professors are expected to act towards grad students. 3. Are the other students in your potential cohort people you like or at the very least can tolerate? You'll be spending a good amount of time around these people.

Here was my idea for a grad seminar. As for undergrad lecture courses, I would do something like Edmund Burke did at UC Santa Cruz in The Making of the Modern World Classes, where he looked at world history through commodities. Other possible courses. 1. Debt in America -From indentured servitude in the colonial era to installment plans to subprime mortgages, this course would explore how debt has figured in both the American economy and culture. 2. Crises of American Exceptionalism -In every era of American exceptionalism, there are competing claims over what makes America exceptional and laments over its imminent demise. In the early Republic, Federalists and Democratic-Republicans quarreled over the significance of the revolution, with both sides claiming that the other represented a violation of the revolution. In the late nineteenth century, the purported threat to American exceptionalism was variously non-Anglo immigration, the end of the frontier, and the rise Trusts. In the early twentieth century it was the rise of Germany, and since World War II it has been variously the rise of Japan and Germany, the rise of Germany, creeping socialism, and declining educational achievement. This course looks at how Americans have conceived of American exceptionalism, and the consequences on politics and economics. 3. The United States as a Developing Country -This course would look at various interpretations of US wealth and power, from the Washington Consensus to the American system to that of exploitation.

Don't go.

Funding can be pretty idiosyncratic. Some public schools offer pretty good funding, others not so much. I think generally public schools funding is more service-based than private schools, although that probably varies from discipline to discipline, and some big public schools have fellowships. Once you get your funding offers, it is probably best to contact some of the grad students at the programs and ask them about funding that is not included in the offer (such as summer funds, travel money, conference monies, etc). If terms of if you have to do any service such as teaching or teaching assisting, even the best public schools will have a wider range in the quality of students than private schools. That can be a challenge, but it can also be opportunity to hone your teaching skills.

You should be able to establish residency in California after residing in the state for 366 days. There are a number of things you will want to do to make sure you are granted residency, including registering to vote and obtaining a California driver's license, but I'm sure if you go to UCSC they'll tell you all you need to know. As for your funding, the best person you can contact for information is the sociology grad coordinator. When I was an undergrad at Santa Cruz sociology was a very popular major, and all classes had discussion sections led by TAs (who get full tuition remission and about $2000 a month for about 20 hours a week). I'd imagine that after your fellowship runs out you'd be able to get work as a teaching assistant. They might also have research assistantships and dissertation year fellowships.

I totally get where you're coming from. So what's your position on Sonderweg?

I'll be doing research for my second year research paper, and preparing for language exams. Although you asked for opinions from veteran history students, so maybe I should just shut up.

Anyone WOWed this week?

Departments have different policies about studying under assistant professors. In some departments, you can't have an assistant professor as your major adviser, although they will usually allow the assistant prof to serve on a dissertation or exam committee. If you contact your persons of interest before you apply, they will probably tell you if they can accept applicants or not (not just for reasons of being an assistant professor either). The big advantage of applying to work with a full professor is that they have more clout within the department, so that might increase your odds of admission.

Keep in mind that Davis in general is pretty dead during the summer.

As someone already mentioned, for university fellowships (as opposed to the funding you get from your department), GRE scores are the only way students from different departments can be compared. That's an important consideration, because if a student can get a university fellowship, it frees up funding for the department. This would be particular to history, but I think the basic idea applies more broadly. http://www.historiann.com/2012/11/03/great-scores-or-egregious-scores-who-gives-a-crap-hint-we-do-sorta/

You don't know who I am, but I know who you are. Mwahahaha!!! Most of the September move-ins are in the North building, so I just assumed. South building is like three-fourths law students. Well, that's probably not true anymore because the third floor is all September move-ins, but in August it seemed like almost every person I met was in law school. First week a lot of people would come down and play pool, but the law students have formed their own cliques and go to bars and parties all the time. In one week my law school roommate got hammered 5 nights in a row.

You're in the north building of 8th and Wake, aren't you? I've gone there a few times. Nobody in that building says hi. Anyways, I've enjoyed biking around Davis. So far I've done the Davis bike loop, gone over the causeway to West Sacramento, down Russell past the avenue of trees, and explored the Covell greenbelt. My favorite area is West Davis, especially the pond area behind Aspen Village.

It's not much of a move for me. I only live 30 miles from Davis.

I'm moving to Davis this Friday. Probably won't do WoW stuff.

A teaching assistantship only covers about 85% of the fees, so the fee waiver might be for that. For quarters where you work as a reader (which covers all fees) or have some other form of aid which covers fees, the funds for the fee waiver will probably be rescinded.

Got the offer today.

There is the department funding package, which consists of the stipend, research moneys, fellowships, and fee waivers, and then there is the offer from the financial aid office, which consists of graduate plus and direct unsubsidized loans. The research moneys in my department funding package are reimbursement, so I will need to take out a small loan. A few months back I accepted an offer from another school but rescinded it. However, a couple weeks ago I got an offer from that schools financial aid office, and I'm worried that it could prevent me from getting an offer from the Davis financial aid office.

Has anyone received an offer from the office of financial aid yet?

I say I am a panhandler, and then ask for money.

Several problems with this opening paragraph. First, the claim did not include the term "capitalism." If you are going to use any term, you need to define it first. Second, there are a number of grammatical problems. The first sentence is a run-on. You need to either place a comma after "capitalism" and "freedoms," or write, "For all its merits...and its casual freedoms, capitalism has a fatal flaw." The second sentence is awkward and needs to be more strongly connected to the first, which could be accomplished in a number of ways, such as "Capitalism's flaw is a winner takes all mentality..." Third, don't be tentative in your argument. You are arguing that capitalism's fatal flaw leads to larger firms swallowing up smaller ones. Either remove the "could" or replace it with "often" or "usually" or "leads to" or "enables" or "encourages," etc. You can't call it a fatal flaw if it is only a hypothetical. Okay, there are several ways you could improve this paragraph. First, you need a better topic sentence. This paragraph seems to be demonstrating the negative effects that big business has on on small business and on the overall economy using Seattle as an example. So the topic sentence would need to convey something along the lines of "The negative impact that big businesses have on local economies is reflected in the destruction of small business and rising unemployment rates following the construction of two Walmarts in Seattle." Second, you may want to split a paragraph like this in two. In the second half of the paragraph, you start talking about indigenization, which could be its own paragraph. The thing you need to remember, however, is that an assertion is not an argument. You claim that cities such as Norway and Oslo have "Done the same," which presumable means that they protected small businesses against big businesses in some way and that led to a "fortuitous outcome." What was that fortuitous outcome? Be specific. Third, like the opening paragraph, there are a number of stylistic and grammatical issues. I've underlined parts that add nothing to the sentence (i.e. redundancy and verbosity), and there are also a number of run-on sentences. This paragraph really appeals to emotions more than puts forward a rational argument. There are a number of reasons why a government is "elected" in the first place; indeed, governments are often composed of disparate elements. There are a lot of assumptions in this paragraph which are neither universal nor self-evident. This sentence is unclear. What does "susceptibility successive changes" mean. Again, this sentence is unclear. Define Keynesianism, and why would it be bad to define a Keynesian rule? Again, don't take your assumptions for granted, and when you use a signficant term define it. What is so great about Switzerland? Furthermore, are Swiss conditions comparable around the world? You need to explain why Switzerland is a good example. Some would say that the historical census says that capitalism is the best system. This is an appeal to authority, and a vague one at that. I would probably give this essay a three. It is adequately organized into an intro, body, and conclusion(although I would prefer double spaces between paragraphs), and it has a clear and sustained argument. However, it contains a lot of assertions and assumptions which are unexplained or unsubstantiated, and there are significant grammatical issues, such as verbosity, run-ons, and incomplete sentences, which often impairs clarity. On a minor point, the essay erratically shifts between present and past tense.

I'm a robot.

Seminar Name: The US during the Age of Empires In the period from 1860 to 1930, many Europeans countries, along with North America and Japan industrialized. In turn, these countries went out and colonized much of Asia and Africa. The United States is often seen as anomalous industrial power in this period. By the early twentieth century it had the largest economy in the world, but in comparison to its economic predominance, its empire was relatively small. This seminar explores how international contexts and consciousness shaped US development in this period. Readings 1. Rethinking American History in a Global Age Thomas Bender --The first book is a series of essays that explore methodologies for globalizing American history. 2. Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America Eric Rauchway --In Blessed Among Nations, Rauchway does not argue against American exceptionalism. Instead, he argues that the unique place with the global economy explain unique American institutions of warfare and welfare in this period. These institutions, however, left the United States ill prepared to lead the global economy after the European collapse following World War I, and Rauchway argues that poor US global leadership in the 1920s contributed to the Great Depression. 3. Modernity and National Identity in the United States and East Asia, 1895-1919 Carol Chin --This book is a comparative history looking at how China, Japan, and the United States forged their national identities in the period between the first Sino-Japanese War and World War I. Chin argues these nations all grappled with the same issue: the push to embrace a universal standard of modernity while maintaining their distinctive cultural identities. Their understandings of national identity were shaped by how they thought about their place in the world. 4. The End of American Exceptionalism: Frontier Anxiety from the Old West to the New Deal David Wrobel --Another book that deals with American identity, the End of American Exceptionalism deals with how Americans dealt with the perceived exhaustion of the frontier, and with it, the basis of their cultural distinctiveness. Solutions to this problem included creating "external frontiers," which entailed trade and empire. Also: Global West, American Frontier: Travel, Empire, and Exceptionalism from Manifest Destiny to the Great Depression David Wrobel --Through his analysis of Travel Writings about the American West, Wrobel explores “the west in the world and the world in the west” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 5. The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Cultural Expansion, 1860-1898 Walter Lafeber --In The New Empire, Lafeber shows how economic causes drove America to become a world power in the late nineteenth century. 6. Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines David Kramer --The Philippines was the only formal colony of the United States. Kramer's book looks at how America's experience with empire shaped its own notions of race during this period. 7. Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900 to 1930 Emily Rosenberg --In Financial Missionaries to the World, Rosenberg shows how private loans were used to export American civilization and to extend American hegemony over foreign governments. She also explores the domestic debates over foreign lending. Also: Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890-1945 Emily Rosenberg --From the book description: “In examining the economic and cultural traits that expressed America's expansionist impulse during the first half of the twentieth century, Emily S. Rosenberg shows how U.S. foreign relations evolved from a largely private system to an increasingly public one and how, soon, the American dream became global.” 8. All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 Robert W. Rydell --From the Book Description: “Robert W. Rydell contends that America's early world's fairs actually served to legitimate racial exploitation at home and the creation of an empire abroad.” 9. Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age Daniel T. Rodgers --This book explores how American progressives borrowed from European models of reform. 10. Consumer's Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920 --From the inside flap: “Shifting attention from exports to imports, from production to consumption, and from men to women, Hoganson makes it clear that globalization did not just happen beyond America’s shores, as a result of American military might and industrial power, but that it happened at home, thanks to imports, immigrants, geographical knowledge, and consumer preferences.” 11. Bound in Twine: The History and Ecology of the Henequen Wheat Complex for Mexico and the American and the Canadian Plains, 1880-1950 Sterling Evans --Farming and wheat, the basis of the heartland. Nothing could be more American. Industrialization was often seen as a shift away from the more wholesome activity of farming. As Bound in Twine shows, wheat production was embedded within a transnational and international economic system of dependence. 12. Origins of the Federal Reserve System: Money, Class, and Corporate Capitalism, 1890-1913 James Livingston --In this book, Livingston argues that the movement for central banking in the United States reflected an emergent class consciousness of a new corporate managerial elite that sought to make itself the authority on all economic issues. Special attention will be paid to the arguments about the necessity of central banking for international trade and investment. Assignments: Weekly 2-3 page informal reviews. Each student will lead at least one and most likely two class sessions. A final 15 page historiographic paper focusing on a particular theme (economics, politics, society, gender, race, empire, trade, dependency, etc).

The University of Oklahoma offered me the hoving fellowship, which is one of their several university wide fellowships and second best offered in the humanities. UC Davis has the provost fellowship in the humanities, social sciences, and arts, which is just a one year fellowship offered to 50 students (split between first years and dissertation years), but I wasn't offered that. I didn't apply to any really prestigious schools, but between getting the second best fellowship at Oklahoma and none at all at Davis (and getting waitlisted by George Mason and rejected by Rutgers), I figure I wouldn't have gotten into a more prestigious schools anyways. My ego, however, notes that I was eventually offered admission by George Mason and that Rutger's never received the official transcripts from my MA program. It seems pretty standard at elite private universities and a few flagship public universities for the general stipend to be 20-30k a year (depending on the location), 3-5k for summer research, with 2-3 years of service (i.e. working as a teaching assistant or instructor) and 2-3 years of no service. I've seen Berkeley and UCLA offer comparable funding packages, but I don't know if those are standard. The other UCs rely much more heavily on teaching assistantships, but to get much beyond that you'd have to win university or external fellowships. I don't know if Harvard-Princeton-Columbia-Stanford offered unfunded phd admissions(I know Stanford does for its MA), but I know that some prestigious flagships, such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, admit a lot of students without funding.