NoirFemme

Thanks for the advice everyone! I hate to think that I'm missing out on anything important, but I've come up with multiple solutions to get out there and haven't found one that will work financially or time-wise (I'm still in school and have a job). I think (and hope!) it will be okay since I have already met the DGS, most of my POI, and current grad students.

See, that's the thing--the visit is to the same school I visited last year. I've already met with the faculty and current students. But the DGS and other POI contacted me with the expectation that I'll be there. So I'm like...uhh um! Should I then be there?

So I want to know about the importance of attending one of these. I've already been on an official visit to one of the programs that accepted me. Would I be missing out on something significant if I declined to attend? (mind you, this school is a Top 3 choice--the date of the visit falls on an awkward day for my schedule).

I have an interest in food studies (and foodways) too. Less geographic and more about the intersection of food, race, consumption, and gender roles. One of my favorite works in this vein is Laura Shapiro's Perfection Salad.

I fangirl hard over Keisha Blain: https://clas.uiowa.edu/history/people/keisha-n-blain Mia Bay: http://history.rutgers.edu/faculty-directory/97-bay-mia Henry Louis Gates Jr: http://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/people/henry-louis-gates-jr Lyra Monteiro: https://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/lyra-d-monteiro Miriam Posner: http://www.miriamposner.com Jacqueline Goldsby: http://english.yale.edu/people/tenured-and-tenure-track-faculty-professors/jacqueline-goldsby I also fangirl over a few recent PhD graduates, based on their dissertations, and look forward to seeing what they do next. I've emailed a few to tell them so haha.

Oh, and Craigslist is not the only place to look for housing or roommates--most of the major real estate sites (like Trulia) also have a rental section where property management companies, landlords, and people looking for roommates post available housing. I snagged my place through Zillow. HotPads is another excellent source.

I would personally advise you to keep your car. Traffic is terrible in SoCal because it's not public transit friendly, no matter if each major area of the region boasts of buses and trains that go everywhere. I would only advise to not have a car if you plan to never leave your surrounding neighborhood.

Both times--driving to or from work. My boss should be happy if that's the magic spark, LOL.

Lol! Since I am applying to four different disciplines, I visit various sections here. I'll have to find the thread again, but it talked about how doctoral programs are beginning to cut back on accepted students because it's just making the job market situation worse to admit 10-15 students year after year. I can see interdisciplinary programs being even more stringent since we're so hard to place on the job market. I'm still waiting to hear from eight more schools (one of which has accepted and rejected a slew of students, based on the results board, but has yet to poke my application!). My philosophy is that regardless of program, you can still do your work. You can still submit to conferences and journals. You can still network, collaborate with, and be friends with people in programs you didn't get into. Maybe I'm a Pollyanna, but I see this as one big community of scholars to link up with no matter where you're located.

Dressy casual is always a good bet. I wouldn't do a pantsuit; much too formal and aging. A nice oxford shoe or a dressy flat is good enough if you don't wear heels. Do you use Pinterest? It's an excellent resource for example outfits for various occasions. And honestly, you should put your best foot forward--that is, show a bit of your own personal style, not some stiff suit and heels that will only make you feel uncomfortable.

I got wl at Michigan, funny enough. ? The email said the applicants were unusually strong this season. Take heart--it means that the entire 2017 American Studies cohort will be taking the academic world by storm with our scholarship!

Sorry for the r's everyone. FWIW, a faculty mentor who specializes in AA studies told me that the field is in transition, so programs are super duper selective about applicants bc the job market is so nebulous.

Congratulations! Is getting a tenure track professor job your number goal? What is your research on? The job market is pretty tough--as so many of professors have told me--and us interdisciplinary scholars risk unemployment/underemployment because universities only know how to function within traditional disciplines. My advice: if Indiana fits you wonderfully, and it has a superb placement rate and excellent scholars with extensive contacts across the country, go there (and I recently read that to mitigate the risk of an interdisciplinary degree on the job market, you should fit yourself into a traditional discipline early on with regards to conferences, professional organizations, and publications--that is, you're a WGS doctorate student with an emphasis on history, so you go to AHA conferences, publish in history journals, etc). But if you can see yourself fitting just as comfortably in a traditional discipline at a different school, you should consider it. Especially if they have a WGS certificate/emphasis that's just as rigorous as a WGS program itself.

That's an okay budget--you'll have better luck with a studio or a decent 1 BR apartment at that threshold. But since SoCal is a landlord's market all year round, the affordable, convenient housing is snapped up pretty quickly by people already in the area. If you can visit LA to scout for housing early on, you should have your deposit/credit/co-signers ready to go if you find something you like. And if it turns out to suck, at least you are in the position to look around for when your lease is up.

Sorry...but 30 minute commute!! In LA!! Okay, now that that's out of the way, my advice is to look for roommates first and then housing on your own as a last resort. UCLA is in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the area, which is why I decided against applying there (I live in the Foothills, which is only 40m east, but in regular traffic it's a 1.5-2 hr commute, so it wasn't worth it financially or commute-wise). A $1k or less budget will only get you a room in a shared living situation in practically all of LA. Go on Hotpads and look for housing in the Westwood, West LA.and Sawtelle neighborhoods if you want to be within walking/biking/bus distance without the 90% possibility of horrendous traffic if you needed to commute from further out.

I do too. So many amazing African Americanists and WGS on the faculty. But I don't know how I feel about doing work on inequality at a place where POC students and staff experience it on a daily basis.

I did. Even though it's a superb program, I won't be upset if I'm rejected. I've heard a lot of things about the racial climate on campus that's given me considerable pause. (and belated congrats to admits to other programs!)

Nope. I got an acceptance call last week and didn't get the official letter until yesterday.

Is anyone still waiting to hear from Northwestern?

Hmm. Could be...which makes me nervous! Thanks!

I applied to American Studies at Brown, but based on the results page, AS and History usually accept/decline/waitlist around the same time. Do you know why Brown makes decisions so quickly? (AS app was due Jan 10...but my other apps that were due in Dec still have yet to make decisions).

This still doesn't mean you can do oral history all willy-nilly. My advisor, who specializes in OH, said that some college IRB boards (esp the stricter ones) will probably still want to be kept in the loop and desirous of a formal process.

USC is one of the top schools on the West Coast. I think it's ranked top 25 in the nation. One of the adjunct professors in my department graduated from the program two years ago. If you want to know real details you should email a current student or an alumni.

I don't have this issue because I was never the "star" student, and it took me a long time to get to grad school (it wasn't even a goal when I returned to finish my undergrad). I also have a richly rewarding career outside of the academy, so a TT job is not my #1 goal for obtaining a PhD. If anything, the extensive breaks between schooling, the multiple fields I've dabbled in, and the way I view a doctorate (as a means for expanding my creative reach) is why I am going to grad school. I suppose being first-gen, low-income has been a good thing--I still don't associate a PhD with just being a professor because my first experience with someone with a doctorate was Indiana Jones LOL.

The website says April 2017 is when the notifications go out.