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I didn't have a choice to make but I've regretted not getting my application in to Stanford on time. I think it's because I feel a little -- embarrassed? ashamed? -- telling people I'm going to a smallish state school. Plus it happens to be in the same city as I'm in right now so it almost feels like I'm going to community college, y'know? It's the best fit for me, and I'm pleased to be staying in the area, but I can't help but feel like an underachiever next to my friends going off to private, big-name schools.

My family is pretty well educated, BA's all around, but they are all accounting / business administration type degrees, nothing "academic". Throughout the application progress I had to keep correcting my mom that I was applying for PhD, not Masters, programs. And then after I was accepted I realized that my parents thought this was going to be another 3/4 years max ("if you don't drag your heels about it" :| ).

Omigosh the languages. I had enough of a headache with trying to slot my uneven language skills into the poor/good/excellent or beginner/intermediate/fluent categories -- now that I'm in I'm terrified that I've misrepresented myself. Well, I'm pretty generally terrified these days, but it's starting to numb somewhat.

As far as personal stories go, I think there's a difference between saying "I've wanted to be an archaeologist since seeing Indiana Jones in 8th grade" or "I had an ancient Egypt themed birthday party when I was 6" and "Digging at Mycenae made me want to focus on pre-Classical cultures" or "My awesome British Museum internship introduced me to papyrology". They're all cool stories, but the latter two are directly relevant to your scholarly, "adult" experience and aspirations. Everyone gets interested in a field somehow, and I feel personally that if I really dug around I could find a childhood experience that would support my entering any field (science fair victory, Capitol Hill visits, computer nerdery, art class awards etc). What's more relevant are the experiences that have prepared you for your particular desired grad training. In my case this meant not talking about my Anglophile childhood or declaring my major in my first week of undergrad, but spending time on a particularly formative internship and the research interests I picked up there. Maybe a good rule of thumb is, if it isn't (or wouldn't be) on your resume, it doesn't go in your personal statement? I also understand that for some applications at least there is a distinction between a personal statement and a statement of purpose.

Oh man. I'm right there with y'all. I am DYING to get my acceptance official but somehow I don't feel right doing it before I've had a chance to at least take a good close look at my finances-- can't do that for another week until finals are over, and then the visiting days are two weeks after that, and probably it's not responsible to commit until you've at least met the advisor and know she's not impossible. But what if they take it back??!! I don't think they can do that but OMG WHAT IF THEY DID??!! Aaaa the paranoia! :shock: LOL, I'm hoping I'm not really crazy as long as I know I'm crazy.

Thanks for the advice -- I'm going to go talk to the prof here on campus first. At any rate I'll get points for needing his expert judgment :wink: and I suspect your roundheadedness is correct and he'll give me the day off. Thanks!

I really only have a month between my late-June commencement and mid-August report date, so I imagine I won't be doing much. Probably heading back to my parents' house, maybe temping at dad's office (horrible nepotism over there... tsk tsk :? ).

I don't think it's completely paranoid. My acceptance email came from "Bob Smith"* and had the subject line "congratulations!!" I guessed what it was as soon as I saw it but as I clicked on it, I thought "great, you've fallen for spam, get ready for viruses". That said, BE CAREFUL before you go opening everything that has the subject line "congratulations!!" in your spam box. Note that Gmail's spam filter put my acceptance in the inbox where it should be. But I definitely skim through my spam before deleting it, just in case. *obviously not his real name

Haha, I can contribute here. My history GPA was actually lower than my overall. Oh the shame. Boy THAT was embarrassing when I calculated those out. I'm a double major in History and Classics so in the end it was: 3.92 in Classics, 3.80 overall, 3.77 in History. Honestly, the only explanation I can think of is that I take much more challenging History classes than Latin classes. I'm pretty picky about only taking Classics classes that I know can do well in, whereas the vast majority of my History classes have been 300-level, and I tend to think much more in terms of the content I want to learn when choosing them. But yeah. Oops. :mrgreen:

I know at BC I had to check a box specifically stating I wanted my application to be considered for MA if I weren't accepted for PhD. I think UIUC had it the same way. The other two didn't mention anything one way or another so I wouldn't be surprised I suppose if some schools didn't roll them over.

Here's the deal: I live in the same city as the school I've been accepted to and am considering most seriously. It's about an hour and a half by public transit, which is convenient. They've just sent me the information for the admitted students visiting days, which fall out like so: Tuesday night dinner, Wednesday morning programming, Wednesday afternoon make your own appointment with your advisor and sit in on a class. Unfortunately these visiting days fall during my first week of classes for the new spring quarter, meaning it's pretty important (to me at least) not to be skipping. The only part that really conflicts is Wednesday afternoon; I have a research seminar for one of my majors that has its first meeting that day. I think if I asked, the professor would probably give me a bye, but he's kind of idiosyncratic and I think it would be best for my own sake to be there when he's discussing his expectations for the class. So, what to do? Am I going to look bad if I ask my advisor to meet on another day that week or the next? I feel like since they said "make your own appointment" it shouldn't be such a big deal but having to ask for special arrangements makes me nervous.

I did an ass-ton* of research this past summer on archives careers and programs, including visiting a couple of schools and even going so far as to join the Society of American Archivists and attend their annual conference. Although I'm sure everyone here is capable of the same work, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are Actual Archivists hanging around here, I'd be happy to share my findings with anyone who's thinking of archives. (One caveat: I'm in the midst of finals and it might be Thursday before I can get back to you.) PM me if you're interested. * Technical term.

Mwahahaha!! "We can't accept you! We are filled with regret! However if you are ever in the area we encourage you to stop in and have a cappuccino from the machine we bought with your application fee. Really, they're fantastic, thank you so much for applying."

I'm in modern British history... I'm really not expecting to get accepted at Pitt; that was one of my more vague applications and if this process has taught me anything it's that being specific counts. The school I got in at was the one that I had a particular faculty member picked out, and I spent a good chunk of the SOP talking about her approach etc. The school I was offered an MA place instead of the PhD was one where I could talk about the strengths of the BritHist faculty as a group, although I didn't have a particular advisor picked. The school I was straight up rejected from was one where I could only really talk about the department more generally. And my Pitt app was rather general like that; I liked a lot of different things going on in the department but didn't have a particular person to point to. Go figure that the conventional advice would be true! lol Thanks for your reply though; I'm curious where my rejection letter is so I can feel more justified in saying I know what I'm doing next year. Just a little mental hangup I guess

Anyone else apply to UPittsburgh? More to the point, has anyone heard from them? They're the only ones I haven't heard from, and although I am loving the offer I got from another school, I'd kind of like to know if I have a decision to make or not. Uh, it's finals time here. This is the last week of class, followed by reading week (aka when papers are due) and finals week. Which, good! I needed more stress in my life! :mrgreen: O quarter system! You just had to get one last jab in before I go, didn't you?

I applied for PhD and didn't get in, but they did offer me a place in the MA program. No funding, though, sooooo......

@ duckrabbit -- I'm another one going in the opposite direction. I'm finishing up my undergrad at an almost-Ivy and seriously considering going to a pretty undistinguished state school -- not even at their main campus. I applied for the sake of one particular professor, and I've just gotten such an enthusiastic response from them (including in the funding arena which is especially important after what I paid for UG) that I'm feeling inclined to overlook any kind of ranking. I like the location -- being in a big city makes me feel less like I'm delaying my life -- it's well connected as far as libraries are concerned, and if it's not a real contender on the national scale, it's a fairly big program that seems to be well funded. My area of interest is pretty obscure, so I feel like finding an advisor who's supportive is of prime importance. Plus she publishes regularly and fairly prestigiously, so it's got to be a good choice -- right?? I guess I'm counting on quality of work to outweigh the school's reputation, which might be a little pollyanna-ish of me. I hope not though.