NoirFemme

Twitter. Ann M. Little is a good starting point: https://twitter.com/historiann

Honestly--the prestige. I work in the humanities and the big jobs (director, curator of X, etc) will hire a PhD over everyone else, and as a WOC it will help me push past biases.

Northwestern!

Why don't you stop by his office? Or contact the department's administrative assistant?

I'm excited too, but my adviser gently reminded me about my research taking precedence. And that since my research crosses geographic boundaries & disciplines, I ought to be extra conscious of my time to completion!! My program requires one pedagogical course, which can be taken anytime after the first year.

Ha! I admit that I was starry-eyed over my future TA duties (not required during Yr 1, however) until my adviser checked me.

Congratulations!

It's usually the listings that have no pictures. But when you click on any of the houses, there will be a date that says "available now" or "available XX-XX-XXXX"

I think you have a shot. I got nudged by a program to make a decision, and the waitlist was referenced as a reason to not wait until the end of the decision period. It was the push I needed to stop hemming and hawing over where I'm going. I can imagine getting a similar email will make the stragglers say yes or no as well. Good luck!

Where I'm going, the graduate school website is full of information about the time line, paperwork, etc for incoming grad students. They also helpfully uploaded the PowerPoint presentations from previous years' orientation sessions. As for housing, I use HotPads, and rentals for the coming months are available to browse. Also, I second the advice to look at sublets. There are various Facebook groups for people listing rentals and sublets. Sometimes they are specific to a university, other times it's specific to a city.

Congrats. I know someone in the AmSt program and he loves it.

I've long been curious about the statements that US History is an extremely poor market. My undergrad has no "pure" Americanists on the faculty, and they don't even bother hiring adjuncts on a consistent basis for upper division US history courses. Instead, they have "peripheral" Americanists (immigration, Civil War, Native American, etc) who also work in other areas (like Asian American history, or digital history).

In the program I'm probably going to attend, I can use a WGS certificate as a minor field. Also, the professors and students I spoke with said the dept makes it a priority to help students organize their coursework to accommodate a certificate. I think you'll have to ask how your prospective programs work with certificates--and if they're supportive of them. From what I've been told/what's been implied, Ph.D programs want you to get to the candidacy stage posthaste.

Money (internal and external funding), location, proximity of relevant archives, and public humanities opportunities are the criteria for my decision-making process. Which means I think my final choice is quite clear. I still have fourteen or so days to really pull the trigger, so I'll name the school when I do

True! *rueful*

Probably not in AmSt. Deciding between English and History acceptances.

Yes, they included my funding package with the waitlist email. Unfortunately, for such a fantastic program, the offer is about $10k lower than my other offers. The main reason why I'm holding on is because American Studies is where my research feels most at home, and Michigan is the only place that said yes(ish).

I second getting the cert in the PhD program--and even there you'll have to coordinate your home course requirements with the certificate requirements.

I think I have decided where I'm going. I think. I'm still on the waitlist for University of Michigan. However, I've just learned that Michigan and Northwestern are part of the Big 10, which operates a visiting scholars program, where Big 10 doctoral students can spend up to one academic year at any of the other schools. So if I choose N, I could spend a year at Michigan, and vice versa. This option makes the choice between N vs a program on the east coast thornier--being on the east coast gives me access to archives and scholars from DC up to Boston. However, Rutgers and University of Maryland are Big 10 schools, and therefore eligible for that academic year visit.

It looks pretty straightforward based on what the letter stated and discussion in past years threads. Awardees have a month to decline or accept the fellowship, and alternates will get a nay or yea based on where they're ranked in their field's alternate list if awardees in your field decline the offer. For example, you're #2 on the list in literature, but only one Lit awardee declines the award, so the alternate ahead of you gets the awardee letter.

There's a Facebook group for Ann Arbor housing https://www.facebook.com/groups/328729190665604/

Do summer research with SROP or the Leadership Alliance, or google "[dream colleges] summer research program". I think it would have been easier for me to leap from state school to Ivy if I'd done this, since I would have had consistent face-to-face contact with the professors and admins. If you can publish in an undergraduate history journal, do! And present your work at any conference that allows undergraduates.

I searched old threads, and someone in 2011 got an email that says they were placed on the Honorable Mention list:

Ha! Yes. In my history papers, I'd have to argue for the presence of literature as a source, and in English, I'd struggle with making sure the historical contextuality didn't overpower the literary analysis. I believe I have a firm grip on the type of research I do; both programs have scholars who ask similar questions. However, the history program does have robust certificates that allow me to interact outside of the department.

Thanks! I actually do interdisciplinary work right now, but the waitlist is the only interdisciplinary program to which I was accepted. Hence why I'm torn between whether to go History or go English. Well that's the thing--I am incredibly interdisciplinary. My A.S. is in Anthropology, and my undergrad degrees are in American Studies & public history. My research has been in cultural studies, digital humanities, and museums. I am going on to combine my public humanities work with Global US & African Diaspora studies. I can easily do both English and History, so my concern with the job market is not about there being no jobs but that I don't have a ton of interest in being a plain history or English professor (survey courses, composition courses...o__O). Both programs are super eager to support my interdisciplinary research through coursework and financial remuneration. I just don't know how to decide between them.