outlawesq

my bad...guess real life outside of academia for so long has kept me too busy to realize the woman died but I know someone who specifically went to Emory just to work with her & I' m sure her career is all the better for it.

I"ll put my vote in for Rice (where I did my undergrad) and South Carolina (where I will be this fall for PhD). John Boles at Rice is amazing and one of the top scholars in the field. He got his Phd. at UVA. I contacted him recently and he still remembers me from almost 15 years ago! Not sure about his age though so you might want to check. My guess is he'll be around for awhile. I'll be focusing on legal history but with a strong interest in Southern and African American history as well. I'm interested in legal meanings of race and freedom and the cross-sections of race, poverty and criminal justice. You've got some great suggestions and I can't really add much to it. Look at Emory. I hear Fox-Genovese is a great advisor and is very well known in the field as well. If you're looking for lower-ranked/unranked programs I hear UNC-Greensboro is strong in Southern as well but I honestly know nothing about it. Good luck!

Anyone go to South Carolina's open house yesterday? Did they say anything about the funding situation? What were your overall perceptions? Please PM me if you prefer.

Go to www.irs.gov & you'll find a publication on this topic. Graduate awards are generally taxable for one of two reasons: either you work in exchange for the money, i.e. TAing, or its used for non-qualified expenses such as living expenses. Any tuition scholarship is generally not taxable because tuition is a qualified education expense. You can get a credit though for other expenses that will come out of your stipend such as books. Its hard to say what rate you'll be taxed at without knowing the amount of the stipend and your entire financial picture. Unless you're one of those lucky few who are getting $30k stipends, I'd say you'r e far from the 28% bracket though.

I'm starting to think I'm only getting one offer from a program that is waiting to hear about funding. They've made no guarantees and only said that its "likely" and they will email the information as soon as they have it. My question is: How long should I wait before I take things into my own hands.? I know, and someone mentioned that it happens at UWisc, sometimes you can TA/RA for another department. I'm a practicing attorney at a major international firm and was a TA and RA for several professors during law school. I would really like to get my resume floating around at the law school of this university. In fact, a couple of years ago, I interviewed with this law school to teach one of their research & writing classes. Even if I got the funding, the stipends there are on the low end and I could supplement that by taking on some additional work at the law school. Is there some "etiquette" I need to follow? Should I discuss my idea with the history department first? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

wow....we should start a "former lawyers getting phds " forum!

Agree with everything stated here! I'm also a recovering lawyer who saw the light. Yes, I admit getting accepted into law school was much easier than this grad process has been. And yes you can go to a mediocre school and do very well academically and still end up at a top firm with a 6-figure salary. BUT they will own you. They give you blackberrys so they can email you work at 3am they expect to be done when you get to the office at 8! And forget about being a law professor! Even if you go to Yale it may never happen without real research and publications. Check out the CVs of some new law faculty. A lot of them have JDs & PHDs. With all that said, go to law school if you have a real interest in the law and it will add to your current research. I never would have gotten into a phd program without my accomplishments in law school. I graduated with honors, was a research and teaching assistant , worked for a federal judge, and have 5 publications. My research is rooted in legal history so the JD enhances my application. Good luck whatever you choose!

Evanston is NOT Ann Arbor. Its not some small college town. While it is considered a suburb of Chicago, its just across the street from the city limits. You won't even know you left the city. Evanston to the loop (what we call downtown) is at most a 35 to 40 min train ride which is no big deal to folks in Chicago. Driving in the city could take that long in our notoriously bad traffic. I can't speak on the quality of Northwestern's program but I certainly wouldn't count location or job prospects as a con.

First UF acceptance just hit the results page....anyone wanna claim it and share any ifo you might have?

and I really dont want to have to go thru this process again! What's your field? Mine is legal history--race & poverty. Maybe I'll see you at UF.

Have you heard anything from/about UF? Looks like they phoned admittees this week last year so I was really hoping for a call today.

I don't know what field your girlfriend/wife is in but Indianapolis is an easy commute from Bloomington or you could live on the southside of Indy & commute to Bloomington. A number of large companies have moved their offices there in the last 10 years or so and jobs aren't too hard to come by. Plus housing in Indy would probably be better & cheaper. Just something to consider.

Care to share which MA programs we should look into just in case any of us are doing this again next year?

Congrats on your admit to OSU! Did you apply to any other AfAm studies programs besides Yale? I did all history programs and just 1 AfAm studies. Someone started a forum but there weren't many replies. What are your interests? Mine is legal history--race & poverty. Yale has a great program but I doubt I would get in so why waste $95 right?

There's been a lot of debate on this forum about whether you should pay your own way and what effect that may have on securing future funding or job prospects. I admit I'm no expert on that but speaking as someone with a law degree the truth is everyone besides phds pays their own way. Sure I had a tuition scholarship but I still borrowed about $18K a year to pay living expenses. No law, med, or business school that I'm aware of will cover that. Because I already have so much debt I dont really want to take on any more. But if that weren't the case & a phd is what I really wanted then I'd be willing to do what I have to in order to reach my ultimate goal.