JustChill

Durham has a big selection of housing options, but it's always helpful to make contact with potential places ahead of time. I'd also suggest contacting current students and asking them for advice, which is what I did when I moved to the area.

I've had two friends from UNC who moved out to Durham after their first year of living in CH. They both regretted it (for different reasons) and moved back to CH for their third years. My own experiences in Durham haven't been all that pleasant: I almost got robbed on a main street there one evening in 2011 (barely snatched my phone back), and overall I find it pretty dirty and unappealing. But I should mention that Durham does have a better selection of restaurants than Chapel Hill, although of course it's super easy to just drive out there for a quick dinner from Chapel Hill.

Sorry for the delay -- just saw this. I would say that for basic utilities (electricity, water, and gas) you're looking at under $100. But if you factor in internet and cable TV, this price might double, depending on the type of service (options, speed, etc.) you choose.

I turned down an offer from Oxford for a state school in the US, mainly because every student in my subfield whom I contacted at Oxford was not particularly satisfied with their experience, and most Americans told me that they had wished they had taken offers in the US.

There was no clear "fit" between me and my advisors (or other faculty members) at my department when I started here four years ago. Yet I have had a very rewarding, productive experience, and cannot imagine receiving more practical and fruitful help from other professors, even if their research interests corresponded more closely to mine. My point is that we shouldn't overhype "fit," however you define it.

Definitely leave it off -- it's more likely to be perceived as an attempt to pad the resume than an impressive achievement or added qualification.

Welcome to Carolina hardtack! You'll love it.

Spot on, Dr. Plum! UNC gets over 500 applications per year for fewer than 20 spots. Just chill, folks.

A ton of grad students live at the Chateau. It's considered one of the more inexpensive and comfortable complexes in CH/Carrboro. Living alone in CH will cost more--in the range of 800+ with utilities, but in Carrboro you can find something for closer to 600-700.

You might also look into Arizona State's CLI for intensive summer Russian, which offers (or at least did in 2011) pretty solid funding for competitive applicants. The more Russian you have at the time of application the better your chances, of course. Most history programs have no problem with entering grad students taking a couple of classes here and there for their secondary research language once in the program, but they tend to not look favorably on the prospect of incoming students having to take several classes in their primary language, which is mandatory for advanced research abroad. In any case, the first couple of years are heavily focused on theory, professionalization, and writing the masters or preparing for qualifying exams (comps), so there's little time for the type of language training that can allow you to be really productive once you finish coursework and hit the archives.

I'm a fourth-year PhD candidate in imperial Russian history, so let me also offer some advice. First, broadly speaking, you can't do much better than Chapel Hill for the topics you've listed, especially the opportunity to work with Louise McReynolds and the other Russianists there, such as Raleigh and Tasar. Second, you certainly will need to invest more time and effort into gaining advanced proficiency in Russian than a community college class can offer. But you don't need to go to Petersburg to do that. You should look into Indiana's summer program (SWSEEL) and also check out the one at Pittsburgh. The standard threshold--although there are always exceptions--is a minimum of three years of Russian prior to admission. Aside from that, don't worry (or spend too much time) on other aspects of the application, such as any preliminary research.

Hi all, For those of you who are in the writing stage or have finished the dissertation in a humanities field: what is the correlation between the research notes you amassed and the written product? I've been conducting research for some time now, and still have quite a few more months to go before I begin writing, but I'm having a hard time estimating the relationship between research notes and the written product based on them. So, if I'm aiming for a dissertation of approximately 100,000 words, would my research material tend to be significantly more than that, or about at that level? Of course, I understand that the content of the material trumps its quantity and dictates the scope of the finished product, but I'm sure there's still a typical ratio that most people in the humanities experience. Many thanks for your input.

Does your department or university not provide help with finding appropriate fellowships? What you've said here is very vague and none of us can give you as specific of an advice as your department can. There are many, many funding opportunities out there, but they are field specific and have many intricate eligibility criteria.

Wtf is taking these bastards so long this year?

Same here!

Thanks for the thoughts, all. I've decided not to do it, unless this happens again in the future.

Thanks, everyone!

I got interviewed for a news journal, a few questions not directly about my research but a current events topic that is close to my work, and I'm wondering whether I can put this onto my CV? If so, which section? This is not a common occurrence in my field (in fact, I know of one or two others who've been interviewed by the media), so I'm hesitant about the etiquette here.

Wow. I am sincerely sorry to hear about this experience. I do want to point out a couple of things: first, as Eigen mentioned, some of this, unfortunately, is a fairly common experience in grad school. I have two advisors, and each of them is a hardass in their own manner: they always make me feel as if I'm barely skating by, even though I work my ass off day and night. They're also exceptionally stingy with praise. My second point is that I'm impressed by the calm, systematic, and thorough way in which you've described this situation, and I think it reflects well on your ability to persevere and push through. Yes, this shit sucks and many of us want to jump off the roof. But you sound like you have your shit together and know what it is you need to do to finish up in August. Onward!

Hi all, I realize how vague this question is, but I was wondering for people in the humanities, what is your average pages per month writing pace for the post-research period? I'm trying to plan out the next year or two of dissertation writing, and have a hard time gauging what is a viable target, assuming that you have completed at least a full year of fruitful research. Thanks.

Thanks!

Does anyone know where I can find information regarding the (admittedly unlikely) possibility of accepting the Hays concurrently with another fellowship? There must be some regulations somewhere about whether or not this is allowed.

Why don't you just email them? This seems like a perfectly legitimate issue to bring up, given how long you have patiently waited, and surely someone in the department will be able to give you specific information.

I would only send them an unsolicited email about an acceptance. In which case, I would write something along the lines of: Dear Dr. Jones, Good news: I have been accepted into the journalism program at the University of Whatever. Thank you very much for your letter of support. Best, Michelle

Russia full grantees: any preliminary clues to help us ballpark what kind of stipends they're going to offer us? Does anyone know what they usually average?