JustChill

Are you talking about a specific city? Yeah, in DC it would be hard to swing it on 14k per year, but that's always part of one's reasoning when choosing a grad program. You have to crunch numbers and see where the cost of living is something you can afford, and where you cannot. Places like LA, NYC, and Chicago are always going to cost over a thousand a month for rent, but the best schools/programs aren't necessarily in those cities. I just got an apartment in the town where I'm going to grad school for $400 per month with all utilities included.

In my two experiences with this, both professors asked me to mail or bring paper copies of the papers. They didn't want them emailed. So, definitely do what Riotbeard suggested, but also ask whether they'd prefer a hard copy instead of an electronic copy.

I definitely second University of Kansas. I've heard great things about their program from two of my friends. My best friend graduated from their program two years ago and landed his top desired job in Philly within weeks.

I can damn near guarantee you that your grades aren't going to cause any problems. I got accepted into area studies MA programs at Stanford and Harvard with a 3.7 undergrad GPA (but 4.0 in both of my majors). The most important things in my field, which isn't too far from yours, are languages and actual experience. I had both studied abroad and spent time traveling in the country of my program during my undergrad years, and had spent not only every semester of college taking language classes, but also spent two summers taking advanced, immersion workshops at other US universities. In my field, both Harvard and Stanford said that at the very minimum, 3 years of course work in the target language were necessary just to be considered. Bottom line -- quit worrying about your grades and start concentrating on your language preparation and specific research interests.

Barron's has an excellent pocket size vocab book. It doesn't have any math in it, but I found it extremely helpful for learning and memorizing new words. Out of my four GRE books, that one was my favorite.

Some of my professors have told me that UNC has actively built up their European history sub-fields over the past decade or so. And that seems particularly true if you look at UNC PhD grads at some of the bigger departments out there -- they all have received their PhD's within the last five to ten years (I'm thinking specifically of 3 or 4 professors at Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Toronto). I know there is also a UNC trained professor (slightly older) at either UC San Diego or UC Davis (can't remember which). I wouldn't worry too much about the regional thing, I think a UNC PhD will serve you well across the country. Also the fact that your own professors from your university are telling you to apply to UNC speaks well for how that program is regarded on the West coast.

I'm going to be starting a PhD program in the fall, and have been guaranteed a certain amount of funding per year. This is not contingent on whether or not I am appointed as a TA or some other position, even though that will certainly be the case. So, I'm wondering if anyone knows if there is a standard way in which these stipends are paid out? Do we get periodical checks, or do they give us lump sum for a whole semester? I know that this likely depends on the individual university and program, but I just want to hear some feedback from people who have personal experience with stipends.

I'm in a very different field, but I declined MA offers at Stanford and Harvard for a PhD at UNC. While some people who are not in academia and are not in my field have questioned this, all of my professors and people in the know recognize that I made the right decision.

My parents have different last names, and you guys have no idea how much headache this caused me growing up. I constantly had to explain this at every point during my teenage years. Everyone always assumed that my mom was either my stepmother or just some woman my dad was dating at the time! I got teased about this frequently in middle school and high school and it really didn't stop until I moved away for college and most of my peers were more mature.

I'm also going to UNC, and I've gotten to know some of my cohort through email, but since I'm out of the country, I haven't met anyone in person. I am not worried about this at all, since they all seem very nice and I know we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other once we start the program. I'm sure you'll meet more people and make friends once you're there.

I'm saying that I don't think any professor or administrator is going to act positively to an email like that. It doesn't do you any good to mention rumors or send back to back emails with the same question.

What program are you applying for? I understand your worry, and that you're anxious, but so are all of their applicants, so you probably shouldn't send emails like that. If they don't respond to you in the next few days, I would strongly suggest you call them up instead of emailing. I always find it's a bit easier to get information out of person over the phone.

I'm in a very different field, but had a similar dilemma. I had MA offers from Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford, but they were all either poorly funded or not funded at all. In the end, I decided to accept UNC's fully-funded PhD offer because damn near every one of my professors told me that I would be stupid to pay for an MA and pass up a fully-funded PhD at a top-10 program (in my subfield). There is also a current student at UNC that went through the same MA program at Harvard to which I was accepted, and he told me that he's constantly having to explain to people why he went for an MA in the first place instead of going straight for the PhD. He told me that if he had the choice, he would have without a doubt gone straight for the PhD instead of going to Harvard first. He says the only people who think he did the right thing are the ones who just worship the brand name and know little about the actual programs or even the academic job market as a whole. The bottom line for me was that I would be in a lot of debt with a prestigious MA followed by uncertainty, versus no debt with a PhD from a top program followed [HOPEFULLY] by some job opportunities.

Great news and well deserved, rock eater! Congrats!

This, of course, depends on a lot of different factors, but overall I'd recommend reading up on some of those books that are considered to be crucial to your specific field or subfield. I know there are three or four books that I still haven't read that almost every program in my field requires, so my preparation for beginning my grad program is going to be reading those books. On a side note, rock chalk jayhawk!

Most schools require you to sign a legal contract once you accept their offer. After you do that, it will be up to that school to release you from that contract, so it's not like you can just say, "oh, sorry, I changed my mind" after you sign the legal contract. It also usually tends to burn bridges with people in your department.

Congrats! IU is great, and Bloomington is a lot of fun. I declined my Notre Dame PhD and Harvard MA offers, and probably will be going with UNC PhD.

I would just put "in progress" next to the PhD section, and "expected" before the anticipated graduation date.

Ok, let's see what I can tell you about Lawrence. Overall, I have hardly ever met a person who spent more than a few days there and didn't love the town. Both grad students and undergrads love almost everything about it. There aren't that many apartment complexes within walking distance of campus -- there might some up north, but they tend to be older apartments and there will be a lot of undergrads living there. One popular apartment complex, which is very nice and clean and fairly new, is Meadowbrook apartments, but I think mostly undergrads tend to live there. However, most of Meadowbrook (it's very large) is right on the KU bus route or walkable to campus. I don't know much about on-campus grad housing. Stouffer Place apartments tend to have a better reputation for quietness and less partying than the Jayhawker Towers (which house a strange mix of grad students and athletes), but as far as I know neither is very new (but that doesn't mean that they're not in good shape, of course). Obviously, the big plus about these two places is that they are very close to the main campus buildings, so that's convenient. There are plenty of bars around Lawrence. Most of the typical college-town-type places are on Mass street, but there are some nicer (dare I say, more sophisticated?) places like the Yacht Club in other parts of Lawrence. You will be pleasantly surprised to find a lot of grad students at a lot of these, even on Mass. I was an undergrad there, not a grad, but we always saw a lot of grad students hanging out in some of the same bars as us. I think Henry's, the Red Lyon, and maybe the Tap Room tend to attract more grad students. You can't park on campus, and you can't even drive through it during the day Monday-Friday. Something that I should mention now that I am looking at different towns and cities for my own grad program is that Lawrence is very, very safe (which I now realize too many of us took for granted), and very (but not overly) liberal compared to the rest of Kansas. Another great thing, which I'm sure you know, is that Kansas City (Missouri) is only 45 minutes away.

Good point, Sparky, I agree.

Well, doesn't this really depend on where you want to teach? If you want to be in an interdisciplinary department, then go with an interdisciplinary degree, but if you want to teach in a history department, then go for the history degree. I suppose the latter might give you the ability (or the flexibility) to teach at an interdisciplinary program too, but I would think having a degree from a more established discipline (history) would be a "safer" choice.

Yes, you usually have to sign a legal contract as soon as you accept an admission offer. Afterwards, it's usually pretty hard to get out of it, and it tends to burn bridges.

There are plenty of Tier 1 state schools, bud.