Cafe2014

Start looking for apartments as soon as possible! Unfortunately, the rental laws in Madison are not very tenant-friendly. This means that landlords can place apartments up for rent very early (ex. an apartment available for rent in August 2014 might have been placed on the market as early as November 2013). This is particularly common in areas closest to campus. It can become difficult to find a decent place in downtown Madison this late in the spring. However, as a graduate student, you might be interested in living in the Hilldale/Midvale neighborhood because it is quieter and there are fewer undergraduate students. This neighborhood is also right on the bus line, making it easy to get to and from any area of campus. Landlords in this area tend to cater to graduate students (including those with families) and older tenants, and thus they often put their apartments on the market closer to the date of rental. (So, an apartment for August 2014 might go on the market in May or June 2014.) However, some of these places do fill up quick and keep waiting lists, so you might consider finding a place that interests you and getting in contact with the landlord to see if they are creating a waiting list for summer rentals. I've been living in Madison for a number of years and have rented from many companies in different parts of the city. Please feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about apartment complexes or landlords in Madison! From what I've heard, Park Towers are nice, but they can fill up fairly quickly. (I contacted them last spring inquiring about fall rentals, and they were already completely rented for fall). There are some other very nice complexes in this neighborhood as well. You might consider looking into the Normandy, the Monticello, the Carolina, or some of the other 'garden style' apartment complexes if you haven't already. From my own experience and what I've heard from others, these are generally very well-managed and cater to graduate students and young families. As for places I would not recommend--avoid anything on or right by Langdon Street in downtown Madison. While these apartments are very convenient to campus, this is where all of the frat houses are, and it can get VERY loud. I would also recommend avoiding the apartments right by Camp Randall, the football stadium. As you probably know, undergraduates at Madison are VERY enthusiastic about football, and you might find that football game days are pretty loud and unpleasant. The apartments further down Old University Avenue are also fairly nice and reasonably priced. (Avoid those right by Camp Randall, however.) These are a little closer to campus than those in the Hilldale/Midvale area, and they are very close to the engineering buildings. Depending on the apartment complex, you might be able to walk to campus on nice days. This area is also right on the bus line, and biking is very convenient. While there are more undergraduates in this neighborhood, the area is still fairly quiet and the tenants often include a lot of graduate students and health sciences professional students as well.

Regarding looking for housing, it might be helpful to email the head of your program's graduate student organization to see if a current graduate student would be willing to do a walk-through of an apartment you're very interested in renting. (I'm also looking for housing in the Chapel Hill/Durham area, and I've noticed that many landlords require that prospective tenants or someone representing them see the apartment prior to submitting a rental application.) While I am coming from within the U.S., I am in the same position that I will need to rent without seeing the apartment first. I've found that the current students in my department are happy to attend an apartment showing on my behalf. This is only my personal opinion, but I would suggest setting up a rental prior to your arrival. This is my first year renting in the Triangle area, but I wouldn't be surprised if properties that are affordable but also in a nice/convenient area are rented prior to early August. Considering the number of students in the Triangle area, I'm sure August rentals are in fairly high demand.

At this point, I might just be echoing other posters--but I was in the same position. I took a couple classes during my two gap years (a language that will be useful for my research and a linguistics course). However, I primarily worked as an administrative assistant and didn't complete any fellowships, research, or internships. I was told multiple times when visiting programs (before and after admission) that the faculty were happy to see that I had taken time off (regardless of what I did during that time). I think ad comms often see time off as a sign that you are really sure you want to be in graduate school (i.e., you've tried the 'real world' of non-academic work and are confident you want to return to an academic program) and not simply moving from one educational program to the next. Good luck with your applications! It sounds like you are in a great position for success in this application cycle

Hi caskofespresso, I was a recent applicant in colonial American history, also focusing on Native American history. I just finished the application/decision process and will be beginning a Ph.D. program in the fall. I honestly do not think those rankings can be applied to Native American history. In fact, during my application process, I felt that only four of the programs on that list would be strong places to pursue research with a focus in Native American history (at least for my interests/geographic focus). I also believe that some of the strongest Native American history programs do not appear on the list at all. For example, while Harvard has a wonderful program overall, it currently isn't the best place to pursue research with a focus in Native American history (this is both my personal opinion and something I've heard from others in the field). When I searched for graduate programs, I felt that it was most important to look at the number of faculty focusing on Native American history (or cross-cultural relations in early America). I also felt it was important that programs have a vibrant community of scholars in other departments working on various aspects of Native American studies. I also found the regional focus of faculty to be a big factor in determining which programs were the best fit. (For example, if you study the Great Lakes region, programs like Michigan, Minnesota, or Illinois might be a particularly strong fit, even if all of them don't appear on the colonial history rankings.) To find which programs I thought might be a good fit, I started with the obvious--figuring out where the authors of various books I used for my research and/or read in my undergraduate seminars are located. After this, I visited the websites of the 40 top-ranked programs in American history and made a spreadsheet of faculty with relevant research interests. (I realize this second method is somewhat arbitrary, but I needed some way to make the process more manageable.) If you'd like to chat about this any more or want any more details, please feel free to PM me!