BCHistory

Sunny

I was invited to one interview weekend, but so far, nothing else...

I did! Can't wait to hear from them soon!

I was wondering about this one, too. Has anybody else heard anything other than the person who posted on the results page?

I checked, and no news for me either. It's just the same old status I've had since I first submitted it: "The Graduate School has received your application and fee payment." Looking back through past years' results, this would be extremely early to hear anything from Penn State.

Pirates

My status hasn't changed on the UW website. It still says that my application is under review, and a decision is pending. I'm guessing that's not a good sign.

I see there is some activity on the Results page. It looks like a couple people heard some potentially good news from Wisconsin.

Finishing the final draft of my SOP. It took several months of work, but I was (and still am) extremely proud of the effort I put into writing it.

Garfield

For some reason, many people feel the need to constantly belittle and attack me for studying history. So many have told me flat-out that history is useless or researching in the field is a ridiculous pursuit. I want to study American religious history, NOT theology. But many of my conversations go like this: Me: I am studying American history. Them: What specifically? Me: Religious history. Them: So is ___ a sin? Me: ..... Me: I'm studying American religious history. Them: So are you going to seminary? Me: .....

I read about this website in my local newspaper yesterday. Evidently, you can make lists of books you are willing to trade and books you want to acquire, and the website will automatically match you up with other members who can complete the trades. Has anybody used this website before? It seems like a pretty cool idea. Any success finding scholarly books (e.g., university-published), or is it mostly popular, mass-market kind of stuff?

I had my first grad school dream two days ago: Two friends and I were walking around my undergrad campus. I stepped into the commons room of a freshmen dorm and ran into one of my LOR writers. [in real life, this professor was quite enthusiastic about my decision to apply to grad school and gladly wrote letters for me.] We sat down for a chat, and he proceeded to interrogate me on my reasons for applying. I answered the questions well, and then he insisted that I walk with him to his office. Before we entered the building, he spun around and began berating me for applying to grad school. He was ranting incoherently and shaking his fist in my face. He stormed into the building, and I began laughing. And that was the end of my dream.

I just now noticed that two of my score reports show different percentile scores for my AW section. When I took the test last June, my 5.0 was reported as a 77th percentile to the four schools I chose on test day. However, when I had scores later sent to additional schools, the subsequent reports showed my score as 81st percentile. How can the percentile simply change like this?

I've been wondering the same for quite a while. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't see a problem with this at all. I want to teach history. I want to write about history. If I can get tenure at a school that will allow me to do that, while also being located in an environment in which I'll feel comfortable raising a family, then I'll be happy.

I just noticed that! Here's hoping I wasn't so "comma-happy" in my SOP.

It is 3:43 PM on a Tuesday afternoon, and there are currently 150 members viewing the forums. A month ago, it wouldn't be until evenings or weekends when that many people were on at once. February should be fun!

I think it varies from program to program and from school to school. For what's it worth, however, an excerpt from WUSTL's History Department's website: 1) Apply early There are several reasons to submit your application several weeks before the deadline. First, in case you forget to include something or a part of your application is delayed in the mail, we have time to let you know so you can get your application completed before the deadline. Second, if we get your application early, we have more time to read it carefully before the flood of last-minute submissions. Sometimes this enables us to contact you and solicit additional information that strengthens your application. We rarely have time to do that with the 100 or so applications that arrive in late December.

No less than three professors, all at different programs, have assured me of this, almost word-for-word, during the application process.

I'm going through exactly the same thing with my parents and friends. But they mean well and care very much about our futures, so I guess we'll have to put up with it for a few more months.

I was in a fraternity in college, and this whole process reminds me of when we had to decide to whom we would give bids. Politics, politics, politics...

I would have liked to apply to two more schools. With both of them, I somehow simply overlooked the programs, and I have no idea how I missed them. Oh well. Also, I am concerned with one of my three LOR writers, and if I could do the whole thing over again, maybe I would consider switching to another professor. But the more that I think about it, the latter professor, while he may have known me better, was out of my field, and for other reasons which I won't get into, could be a liability had he written for me. I agree with the posters above that unless these professors are irrationally malicious (which I seriously doubt they are), they are not likely to risk their reputations writing letters for grad school candidates who are obviously unqualified for the work.

This is amazing.

14 Ph.D programs (see below) All submitted, and now I'm just waiting...

Hahaha! Yeah, for political campaigns on which I worked, I used generic labels. The thing is, my (former) political affiliation has nothing at all to do with my plan of study in graduate school, but I didn't want to just leave CRs out of my CV completely, considering I held multiple offices in the organization.