betwixt&between

*walks in*
*looks around*
*walks right back out*

I have had enough of the bullying by @Telkanuru, @Sigaba, and others. They have been condescending and abusive and are doing a disservice to the applicants just trying to get advice.


 
I can’t imagine that the institutions where these bullies study would in any way condone what they have been doing. I have decided to make an example of Telkanuru. Therefore, I have emailed the following people at Brown - Amy Remensnyder, Robert Self and Christina Paxson about the abuse with relevant links.

 
If there is any more bullying, I will notify other institutions about the despicable behavior of their graduate students. Sigaba and the others, you have been warned.

I've applied to to two different PhD programs this year, due to familial constraint. I'm currently waiting to hear from UCONN's History program (the results page suggests it could be this week!), but I have also applied to a joint PhD in Education held between URI and RIC. I have a few years of academic advising under my belt, which I really enjoyed. Knowing that I haven't applied to a Big 10 school for history, I'm trying to be pragmatic in regards to future employment. Honestly, as long as I have an opportunity to continue working with students, I'll be pretty happy.

I'm in the same boat with UCONN, friend. Their letter was really kind, though. What's your sub-field/POI? The other program I applied to is a PhD in education, and I got an invitation to interview with them yesterday, so at least I have that cushion.

I've applied to to two different PhD programs this year, due to familial constraint. I'm currently waiting to hear from UCONN's History program (the results page suggests it could be this week!), but I have also applied to a joint PhD in Education held between URI and RIC. I have a few years of academic advising under my belt, which I really enjoyed. Knowing that I haven't applied to a Big 10 school for history, I'm trying to be pragmatic in regards to future employment. Honestly, as long as I have an opportunity to continue working with students, I'll be pretty happy.

Also submitting a few reviews and then becoming a regular reviewer is a good way to get free books

Holla! Looking to shift my current MA focus of early modern England (poor relief/social welfare) to late 19/20th US, focusing on urban, social welfare, social stratification,  and race and ethnicity. Currently considering about eight programs, and will probably begin reaching out to POI's in September. Also considering a PhD in Education, as I've been doing graduate work as an advisor for first generation college students. A concentration of inequality in education would allow me to continue to focus more practically on my historical interests. As another mentioned above, if you have any suggestions on programs or POI's, definitely let me know!

Absolutely.
My list had a lot on space, place, landscape, borders, representations of space, and environmental history. A friend on mine's had a more agricultural history-heavy list. And another friend did a mix between Spatial History and Atlantic World. I included two or three books on methodology (which often yields something related to Digital Humanities), but I know that a friend included more about this. In conclusion, because it is such a new field you can tailor it to your interests. 
For the more theoretical sections, Homi Bhabha, David Harvey, Henri Lefebvre (I could never spell this), Edward Casey, Edward Soja, Yifu Tuan, Michel De Certau, Denis Cosgrove (not so theoretical), James Scott, Mike Davis. A good place to start is Key Thinkers on Space and Place and Space, Place, and Power in Modern Russia.
I then moved to "classics" and new scholarship in the Americas: Richard White, Mark Carey, Raymond Craib, William Cronon, Alfred Crosby... and I included other parts of the world, but this was less dogmatic (I didn't read classics and new scholarship, I just read). 
Hope it helps!

Take a list of questions with you.  There was a great thread on this back when I applied, and I took this and asked them of the DGS when meeting with her, grad students I met there, and some here with people at the schools I was considering.  Depending on where you go, you'll probably be put in contact with a current grad student.  These people are great resources, and most will answer your questions directly about both strengths and weaknesses of programs.
 
I just looked to see if I still had this list in an old folder, and here it is.
 
-PLACES TO STUDY AND WORK
-Where do most people do their writing and reading?
-What study spaces are available? Do students get a carrel? Do those who teach get or share an office?

-LIBRARY
-What is the library system like? Are the stacks open or closed?
-What are the library hours?
-Are there specialized archives/primary sources that would be useful to my research?
-Are there specialist librarians who can help me with my research?

-FACULTY
-Are the faculty members I want to work with accepting new students? Are any of those faculty members due for a sabbatical any time soon?
-Are professors willing to engage you on a personal level rather than just talking about your work?
-Are there any new professors the department is hiring in areas that align with my interests?
-Students’ relationships with their professors – are they primarily professional, or are they social as well?

-FUNDING
-Is funding competitive? If so, do students feel a distinction between those who have received more generous funding and those who haven’t?
-How does funding break down among the cohort? i.e., how many people receive fellowships?
-How, if you don’t have much savings, do you make enough money to live comfortably?
-Are there external fellowships one can apply to? If so, what is available? Does the program help you apply for these fellowships? How does receiving an external fellowship affect internal funding?
-If people need more than five/six years to finish, what funding resources are available? (For instance, Columbia can give you an additional 2-year teaching appointment.)
-Do you provide funding for conferences or research trips?
-How often is funding disbursed? (i.e., do you get paid monthly or do you have to stretch a sum over a longer period of time?)

-COHORT
-Do students get along with each other? Is the feeling of the program more collaborative than competitive?
-Do students in different years of the program collaborate with each other, or are individual cohorts cliquey?
-How many offers are given out, and what is the target number of members for an entering class?
-Ages/marital status of people in the cohort – do most people tend to be married with families? Are there younger people? Single people? What sense do you have of how the graduate students interact with each other socially?
-Do people seem happy? If they’re stressed, is it because they’re busy or is it because they’re anxious/depressed/cynical/disillusioned?
-Is the grad secretary/program administrator nice?
-What is the typical time to completion? What are the factors that slow down or speed up that time?
-I’ve read that there are two kinds of attrition: “good” attrition, in which people realize that the program, or graduate study, isn’t right for them and leave early on, and “bad” attrition, in which people don’t finish the dissertation. What can you tell me about the rates of each, and of the reasons why people have chosen to leave the program?

-JOB MARKET/PROFESSIONALIZATION
-What is the placement rate? How many of those jobs are tenure-track?
-What are examples of institutions in which people in my field have been placed?
-How does the department prepare you for the job search? Are there mock interviews and mock job talks?
-Are the people helping you navigate the job search people who have recently gone through the process themselves?
-If you don’t get placed, is there anything the department can do for you? (e.g., can you stay an extra year?)
-How does the department prepare you for and help you attain conference presentations and publications?

-SUMMER WORK
-What is encouraged/required?
-If there separate funding/is the year-round funding enough to live on during the summer?
-Do people find themselves needing to get outside work during the summer in order to have enough money?
-Am I expected to stay in town in the summer, and what happens if I don’t?

-LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
-What is done to help people who don’t have language proficiency attain it? Does the university provide funding?
-What is the requirement, and by when do you have to meet it?
-Given my research interests, what languages should I study?
-When do you recommend doing the work necessary to fulfill the language requirement? (i.e., summer before first year, summer after first year, while taking classes, etc.)

-LOCATION REQUIREMENTS
-How long are students required to be in residence?
-How many students stay in the location for the duration of the program? (i.e., how many dissertate in residence?)
-How is funding affected if you don’t stay?

-Incompletes on papers at the end of the term: What is the policy, how many students take them, and how does this affect progress through the program?

-TEACHING
-What sort of training is provided?
-What types of courses do people teach?
-Does teaching entail serving as a grader? Serving as a TA? Developing and teaching a section of comp?
-How are students placed as TAs? Is there choice about what classes you teach and which professors you work with? Do classes correspond to your field?
-How many courses do you teach per semester/year?
-How many students are in your classes?
-How does the school see teaching as fitting in with the other responsibilities/requirements of graduate study?
-How do students balance teaching with their own work?
-Is the department more concerned with training you as a teacher/professor or with having cheap labor to teach their classes?
-How, if at all, does the economic downturn affect teaching load/class sizes?
-What are the students like? Can I sit in on a course a TA teaches to get a sense of them?

-METHODOLOGY
-Is a theory course required?
-What methodology do most people use?
-Where, methodologically, do you see the department – and the discipline – heading?
-Is interdisciplinarity encouraged, and what sorts of collaboration have students undertaken?

-Typical graduate class and seminar sizes

-What should I do to prepare over the summer?

-Ask people I know: What are the questions – both about the program itself and about the location – I should ask that will most help me get a feel for whether this is the right program for me?

-Ask people I know: What do you wish you knew or wish you had asked before choosing a program?

-Is the school on the semester or the quarter system, and how does that affect classes/teaching/requirements?

-What is the course load for each semester, and how many courses are required?

-What kind of support is provided while writing the dissertation? I worry about the isolation and anxiety of writing such a big project. What does the program do to help you break the dissertation down into manageable pieces, and to make the experience less isolating?

-What do writing assignments look like in classes? Do they differ based on the type/level of class and/or based on whether you intend to specialize in the field?

-Ask professors: what have you been working on lately?

-Ask professors: What is your approach to mentoring and advising graduate students?

-How long are class meetings?

-How often do professors teach graduate courses?

-Are course schedules available for future semesters (10-11, etc.)?

-Can I see the grad student handbook? Are there any other departmental documents – such as reports on the program prepared for accreditation – that I can see?


-QUALITY OF LIFE
-Prices – how does the cost of gas, milk, cereal, etc. compare to other places I've lived in?
-Cost and quality of typical one-bedroom apartment.
-What does the university do to provide you with or help you find housing?
-When (i.e., what month) do people start looking for an apartment for the fall, and where do they look?
-Is it easy to find a summer subletter?
-How close to campus can—and should—one live?
-What grocery stores are there in town?
-How late are cafes, bookstores, malls, restaurants typically open?
-What do people do to make extra money?
-Does the town have more of a driving or a walking culture? What is parking like near campus (availability, ease, cost)?
-Where do most English grad students live? Most other grad students? Most professors? Where is the student ghetto? Do most students live near each other, or are they spread out far and wide?
-How far does the stipend go in this location?

Let me rephrase it:  "What theories/methods are you interested in?"

Pardon the brevity of the following suggestions. I'm in a rush.
Start here and there (if you have access to JSTOR or an academic research library).
For nativism, start with Higham's Stranger in the Land and American Jewish History, vol. 76.
The following links may also be helpful.
http://myweb.fsu.edu/jkoslow/AMH%205229_syllabus_6_25_07.pdf
http://courses.missouristate.edu/bobmiller/HST/HST525/Book%20Report%20525.htm
https://www.cla.purdue.edu/history/documents/Syllabus-Fall/651_Gabin_F2011.pdf [Weeks 2 and 3]

In my applications, I've shifted from my MLitt concentration back to my BA focus, and I tried to focus in my SoPs on the broadening aspect of taking on a project that I will not pursue in PhD work, and on the skills that I was able to refine and bring back to my new interest.  I hit two, or possibly four waitlists, and I'll let you know how that process worked out as soon as I know myself.... hopefully tonight.

I went through one rejection from Brown before I ended up here. It probably sucks right now, but I promise it probably had more to do with the political discussions on the admissions committee than your value as a potential student here. Feel free to reach out as you think about next year . 

Thank you, mvlchicago. I appreciate your words. I will definitely be applying to more PhD programs next year, and will keep your offer in mind. On the bright side, my grad advisor recommended I speak with the department chair to throw my name in the hat for potential adjuncting positons for next fall, as he feels I would be good at it. So, that was a bright spot

Well, based on memories of the crazy range of emotions from my application season, I think the ridiculously giddy reaction to acceptances and the downright miserable reaction to hearing nada except the joy of others are both perfectly normal emotions, and technically this space is for both extremes and everything in between. All I'm saying is that we all take to heart that there are many people on this forum going through many different things, and to try to show each other a bit of patience and respect. Then again, no one died and made me queen of the castle so feel free to ignore me. I'm a Bernie fan, so you know I'm a dirty commie pacifist.

Yeah, no, I'm coming down super hard on this nonsense. People are allowed to be unironically happy, and talk about their success and the choices they have in this space. And many people who are just admitted to or are currently attending top-ranked programs got shut out in their first (or second) go-around. If you feel like their success is hurtful to you, that's definitely not their problem.
No one here owes you their silence, and this post makes you sound like a petulant five year old. Grow up and get over it.

Received my rejection letter from Brown last Friday, 2/12. It was the only program I applied to, due to mobility constraints this year. Thankfully, I learned an enormous amount of helpful tips for next application season, when I have the ability to expand my radius. Congratulations to all admits everywhere, and for my fellow 'rejects,' we are now forearmed for next year.

It's very hard to curb enthusiasm when acceptances start rolling around, and this forum is a place for people to be excited about their choices. I think it's important for people still waiting not to take other people's results to heart, but also for people who've had success thus far to keep in mind there are people still in limbo who are feeling very vulnerable and unsure right now. It's one thing to excitedly report an acceptance, another to discuss the "agonizing" choice between several great programs. It totally is an agonizing choice, and people should be able to discuss it somewhere (There is a "decisions" thread in the general forum somewhere, and you can also create one in this forum, for example) but the fact of the matter is, so many people don't even have an option yet, let alone a choice.

My kingdom for a notification

My kingdom for a notification

Dear Brown,
.....quit playing games with my heart.
 

Question for the group:
 
is this waiting process more akin to Kremlinology or guessing the results of a papal conclave?

Holy shit. I just got into Michigan!!!!!

Just a heads-up Brown applicants: all administrative and academic functions have been cancelled tomorrow. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an email from Brown proper tomorrow. 

The most wonderful time of the year, right?