DGrayson

Is Cooley still taking graduate students? I believe Peter Lake is taking students, at least he didn't mention anything when I reached out this cycle. Things could have changed though.

My guess is that it depends on the kind of research it is. Does the paper contain majority primary sources or at least in depth primary source analysis? Is it done in the native language or are you using a translation? But research is a significant part of becoming a professional and so demonstrating success in that field can only really help you. Worst comes worst just put it in your resume, that's what I did.

Thanks to everyone that responded and sent me a PM! I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

Good luck everyone! If anyone has questions about UT's MA program, or living in Austin let me know! I completed the program two years ago.

So for any of those that have been through past cycles, does not getting an interview with Penn (regular history, not HOS) usually mean you haven't been accepted? I know that not getting an interview is not always a bad sign, but UPenn seems to be one of the only history programs that interviews consistently. Trying to figure out if I should write it off.

As someone who has worked in both fields, I can say that the state of Economic history within economics is not doing particularly well, especially after the quantitative turn. That being said, recent turns in cultural economics may be of particular interest to historians outside of economic history. As far as the ability to work together, I think there are some particularly good examples (Namoi Lamoreaux in particular comes to mind and Emily Erickson is an interesting example in historical sociology), but it depends on one's willingness to work within rational choice theory.

PM'd

Was Yale the European Studies program? If so, we can talk more about it if you'd like. I was in the same boat before and am in the program now. Otherwise I know what you are talking about. According to the results thread, Penn sent out an interview in my field today and I haven't gotten anything yet...I know that it doesn't mean I haven't been accepted but.... I guess the thing to keep in mind is that it's not over yet, in fact it really hasn't begun yet, and there is still a lot of things that could happen.

Hayden White and Bourdieu if they haven't already been mentioned. I'm also a fan of Eliade, though he has fallen out of favor as of late. Also, Latour is becoming more popular in sociology so perhaps there may be some crossover. If you're interested in religion, there's a nice book that sums up some of the major theories: Nine Theories of Religion by Daniel Pals.

As others have mentioned, I would suggest having the students in your class, or in your section complete midterm evaluations, though make sure to limit your questions to you specifically if you are not the instructor. Doing so allowed my students to feel like they had a voice in how the section was run. Make an effort to apply their suggestions. I think it has a real impact on the final evaluations at the end.

It also depends on if you are a Masters vs Ph.D student. At my University, teaching is guaranteed for Ph.D students, while the Masters students basically have to fight for whatever's left. Check to see if there is a database where different departments can publish open positions. If not, I would email the program admin in the departments where you have a strong enough background to teach and let them know of your interest and provide a copy of your CV.

While it is something that I don't think you need to do, I contacted a potential advisor before starting my advisor and framed my introduction around any suggestions she might have for books I could read over the summer to get a head start on a field I was relatively new to. You could try that.

The case of Michelle Jones is one example of this. I’ve attached the NYT article as I found it pretty interesting and hey...anything to pass the time right? https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/harvard-nyu-prison-michelle-jones.html?referer=

For some institutions, like Harvard for example, this is the case. For others, however, they are willing to give more funding to attract candidates they really want. One potential problem that I ran into when negotiating funding for my first masters, however, was the problem of peer institutions. If you have a better offer from a lesser known school, an institution of higher ranking is unlikely to match it. Though it should be mentioned that this was with a different discipline.

There was a couple notifications from Penn about interviews for the Ancient field, but from previous years they tend to send their requests earlier than others (or at least i’m hoping that is the case).

Dear God i'm bored. When do notifications start coming out again?

I know this is late, but Econ committee do not care at all about your AWA score. They really only look at Quant.

I would recommend UT's Masters program, as it is only one year and does not have a thesis requirement, though to be honest if you have not background in math it may be difficult to complete the MA. They do have a math camp over the summer, but it is usually just a review for students. I would suggest taking courses at a local community college if you are serious about econ. You need at least Calc 1, but I would even do up to Calc 3. Calc 2 is pretty useless for Econ, but multivariable optimization is something you will do pretty much nonstop in graduate level econ courses.

From what I've been told, applications are reviewed by the faculty of the potential student's sub discipline at Yale. Early Modernists, for example, will read the applications for the early modernists, and they will rank their top students and then meet to see how the lists match up. That being said, as @telkanuru stated it's still crazy political. Sometimes a student will not be accepted simply because his or her potential adviser got a student last year.

I'm surprised about Vanderbilt's placement considering how generally well regarded Peter Lake is in well respected in early modern England.... Is it the resources of the school perhaps?

I second this! I've heard fantastic things about the Middlebury program from my Professors and classmates who attended. I'll be there this summer actually, but in the French program.

Carlos is great! Keith Wrightson is getting ready to retire in the next couple of years, but Bruce Gordon may also be someone to look at. He doesn't work specifically on England but he'd be able to help advise.

More like squares...

I know this has been stressed on other threads but make sure to contact POIs before applying! A couple of schools have been moved off my list already because a POI is getting ready to retire.

I've also struggled with this question, because there really is no clear answer. There are so many different ways to approach history that one clear methodology isn't usually possible. For me, I've found it helpful when looking through primary sources to look for "weird" things--something that doesn't make sense to you. Is it weird, given what you know, for an author to be talking about something in a way other than what you expect? Research more into that. This method is how I've arrived at my MA thesis project. From an inter-disciplineary standpoint, see how the questions you would normally ask or the topics that you would normally study are handled in History. When all else fails, imitation (in terms of methodology) is the highest form of flattery. Read secondary sources, find one or two that you really liked, and look at how they structured their research. Hope this helps!