subrosa

So true! Same situation, only in Japan. The application process all but killed me. November-December was one long blur of sleep deprivation. It didn't help that my primary recommender has a tendency to be absent-minded and not respond to emails weeks at a time.

Hi! What understudied region(s) do you have in mind, might I ask? Good luck with the wait! Harvard should be coming out soon... My guess is sometime this week. Nice to have fellow non-Americanist company here.

Ooooh. Would love to hear more about your research! My main fields are China and Japan, with connection to Russia, and in comparison with American West and British Empire (am hoping to do a bit of work on East Africa, actually, but might get steered towards South Asia by zealous advisors).

Same boat exactly.

Re: Yale waitlist If my sources serve me, the current 2nd year PhD class over-yielded two years ago, so they cut down a bit during the last cycle. Some fields may have had a waitlist last year, but many did not, and there were vacant spots going into this year. Thus, the high and mighty forces of admissions decided to take a more targeted 'fill the (limited) slots' approach. Or so they suggest. (I hereby disclaim any responsibility of said rumours.) I am not a medievalist, but must nevertheless bow to the awesome relevance of the middle ages.

Indeed. I also happened to hear via the grapevine that Yale's working on a waitlist this year (which I believe they did not have before)...

rum