Warelin

It's always good to have an update! Thanks! My knowledge on Berkeley was based on information from earlier years. With that being said, the trend does seem to be getting more ma-friendly. The program I accepted has generally been mostly ba-only; my specific cohort is evenly mixed. Other programs I was accepted to also seem to be similarly balanced. I think programs are trying to take a more balanced approach as well as working to lower their time to degree average. Fit still remains the most important factor.

I think there might be some confusion here!

UPenn and Penn State are two different schools.

UPenn is part of the Ivy League and is in Philadelphia. They average around ~600 applicants per year according to the stats they put out.

Penn State is a state school located in State College and is part of the B10 conference for most sports.
If you're considering schools in major cities, I'd also recommend looking into the following on location alone:
-Columbia University
-University of California, Los Angeles (Great school; Part of the UC System)
-CUNY Graduate Center
-Northwestern University
-University of Texas- Austin
-Rice University
-Ohio State University (Population of Columbus is ~860k in the city; more if you include the metro)
-University of Southern California ( Great Private School in Los Angeles; not too be confused with part of the UC system)
-University of Illinois at Chicago
-University of Minnesota
-Northeastern University
-Georgia State University
If you're looking to consider slightly smaller cities, I'd give some thought to the following schools:
-Johns Hopkins University (Pop: 614,664)
-Washington University in St. Louis (Pop: 311,404)
-Saint Louis University

 

Have you looked into MA programs inside the USA that are funded? Being in a funded program will allow you to focus on your application for the PHD without having to worry about finances for moving countries, living expenses and such.

I can assure you that your GPA will be the least important thing in your admissions decisions. I think you stand a really good chance if you can showcase how your major in Economics and International Affairs has influenced you to become interested in obtaining an advanced degree in History. Best of luck!

I think your post means well but I'm not sure how useful it is when applying to a Ph.D. in the Humanities. 

Humanities tend to rely significantly less on stats than than Math does and relies more on "fit". The same applicant could submit the same application to 12 programs one year and get rejected from all 12. They could reapply next year and get into a number of schools that previously rejected them. Departments change. And the applicants they're looking for also change from year to year. You might get rejected from a school ranked T150, T100, T80, T60 but get accepted into a T40 , T20, and T30 school. You might also end up rejecting the T20 and T30 school for the T40 simply because it's a better fit. 

We've also seen people with perfect GRE scores and GPAs from ivy league institutions get rejected from every single school they've applied to. Writing matters. Interests matter.

I heavily encourage you to look into 2 year MA programs in History or in a subfield of history that you're most interested in. There are a number of reasons I'd recommend a 2 year program over a 1 year program:
2 years will allow you to gain a better understanding of your interest and discover new interests that you may never knew existed. This will allow you to gain more time to present at conferences in your field Two years also allows your professors to know you more and encourage you to submit to conferences in your field that you may not have been aware from. Grad schools might also have funding set aside that you can apply for so you can present at such conferences This will allow you to take a full year of courses to figure out who you could ask to write your letters of recommendation If your ultimate goal is to obtain a PHD in the USA, professors in the USA are more accustomed to the PHD process here. While the job market remains rough, it's easier to land a tenure-track job if it's from the same country you graduated from

I heavily encourage you to look into 2 year MA programs in History or in a subfield of history that you're most interested in. There are a number of reasons I'd recommend a 2 year program over a 1 year program:
2 years will allow you to gain a better understanding of your interest and discover new interests that you may never knew existed. This will allow you to gain more time to present at conferences in your field Two years also allows your professors to know you more and encourage you to submit to conferences in your field that you may not have been aware from. Grad schools might also have funding set aside that you can apply for so you can present at such conferences This will allow you to take a full year of courses to figure out who you could ask to write your letters of recommendation If your ultimate goal is to obtain a PHD in the USA, professors in the USA are more accustomed to the PHD process here. While the job market remains rough, it's easier to land a tenure-track job if it's from the same country you graduated from

I heavily encourage you to look into 2 year MA programs in History or in a subfield of history that you're most interested in. There are a number of reasons I'd recommend a 2 year program over a 1 year program:
2 years will allow you to gain a better understanding of your interest and discover new interests that you may never knew existed. This will allow you to gain more time to present at conferences in your field Two years also allows your professors to know you more and encourage you to submit to conferences in your field that you may not have been aware from. Grad schools might also have funding set aside that you can apply for so you can present at such conferences This will allow you to take a full year of courses to figure out who you could ask to write your letters of recommendation If your ultimate goal is to obtain a PHD in the USA, professors in the USA are more accustomed to the PHD process here. While the job market remains rough, it's easier to land a tenure-track job if it's from the same country you graduated from

I think your post means well but I'm not sure how useful it is when applying to a Ph.D. in the Humanities. 

Humanities tend to rely significantly less on stats than than Math does and relies more on "fit". The same applicant could submit the same application to 12 programs one year and get rejected from all 12. They could reapply next year and get into a number of schools that previously rejected them. Departments change. And the applicants they're looking for also change from year to year. You might get rejected from a school ranked T150, T100, T80, T60 but get accepted into a T40 , T20, and T30 school. You might also end up rejecting the T20 and T30 school for the T40 simply because it's a better fit. 

We've also seen people with perfect GRE scores and GPAs from ivy league institutions get rejected from every single school they've applied to. Writing matters. Interests matter.

I can assure you that your GPA will be the least important thing in your admissions decisions. I think you stand a really good chance if you can showcase how your major in Economics and International Affairs has influenced you to become interested in obtaining an advanced degree in History. Best of luck!

I heavily encourage you to look into 2 year MA programs in History or in a subfield of history that you're most interested in. There are a number of reasons I'd recommend a 2 year program over a 1 year program:
2 years will allow you to gain a better understanding of your interest and discover new interests that you may never knew existed. This will allow you to gain more time to present at conferences in your field Two years also allows your professors to know you more and encourage you to submit to conferences in your field that you may not have been aware from. Grad schools might also have funding set aside that you can apply for so you can present at such conferences This will allow you to take a full year of courses to figure out who you could ask to write your letters of recommendation If your ultimate goal is to obtain a PHD in the USA, professors in the USA are more accustomed to the PHD process here. While the job market remains rough, it's easier to land a tenure-track job if it's from the same country you graduated from

I heavily encourage you to look into 2 year MA programs in History or in a subfield of history that you're most interested in. There are a number of reasons I'd recommend a 2 year program over a 1 year program:
2 years will allow you to gain a better understanding of your interest and discover new interests that you may never knew existed. This will allow you to gain more time to present at conferences in your field Two years also allows your professors to know you more and encourage you to submit to conferences in your field that you may not have been aware from. Grad schools might also have funding set aside that you can apply for so you can present at such conferences This will allow you to take a full year of courses to figure out who you could ask to write your letters of recommendation If your ultimate goal is to obtain a PHD in the USA, professors in the USA are more accustomed to the PHD process here. While the job market remains rough, it's easier to land a tenure-track job if it's from the same country you graduated from

Have you looked into MA programs inside the USA that are funded? Being in a funded program will allow you to focus on your application for the PHD without having to worry about finances for moving countries, living expenses and such.

I think your post means well but I'm not sure how useful it is when applying to a Ph.D. in the Humanities. 

Humanities tend to rely significantly less on stats than than Math does and relies more on "fit". The same applicant could submit the same application to 12 programs one year and get rejected from all 12. They could reapply next year and get into a number of schools that previously rejected them. Departments change. And the applicants they're looking for also change from year to year. You might get rejected from a school ranked T150, T100, T80, T60 but get accepted into a T40 , T20, and T30 school. You might also end up rejecting the T20 and T30 school for the T40 simply because it's a better fit. 

We've also seen people with perfect GRE scores and GPAs from ivy league institutions get rejected from every single school they've applied to. Writing matters. Interests matter.

I think your post means well but I'm not sure how useful it is when applying to a Ph.D. in the Humanities. 

Humanities tend to rely significantly less on stats than than Math does and relies more on "fit". The same applicant could submit the same application to 12 programs one year and get rejected from all 12. They could reapply next year and get into a number of schools that previously rejected them. Departments change. And the applicants they're looking for also change from year to year. You might get rejected from a school ranked T150, T100, T80, T60 but get accepted into a T40 , T20, and T30 school. You might also end up rejecting the T20 and T30 school for the T40 simply because it's a better fit. 

We've also seen people with perfect GRE scores and GPAs from ivy league institutions get rejected from every single school they've applied to. Writing matters. Interests matter.

I think as long as you can demonstrate:
1) A good fit with the program
2) Strong SOP/Writing Sample
3) Great LORs from previous professors
 
You'll stand a good chance. If you can demonstrate how your work has benefited you, you might even be a stronger applicant. Good luck.

There are a few programs that come to mind that might be a good starting point for you to look into:

1. University of Pittsburgh's Film and Media Studies PhD with English as the associated department. Alternatively, you might consider their PhD in Critical and Cultural Studies.

2. Brown University's Modern Culture and Media PhD

3. WUSTL's English PhD with a certificate in American Studies

4. Michigan's Film, Television and Media PhD

Sorry about that. I had to temporarily lock it down because people were vandalizing the forms and deleting a lot of the data within it. I restored it to an earlier copy and have been approving people who request access. I'm hoping to reopen it back to the original settings soon.

I think what's most confusing is its placement on a joint MFA/Ph.D. page which are two distinct programs. Not too long ago (5 years?), there were many unfunded or poorly funded MFA programs. The number of funded MFA programs has increased substantially in the previous few years, but I'm wondering how much of it is leftover from that time period.

This google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XNJR4IhOJ56zd7zLuVSUK7h054dBRNvyiC7iStCOsxo/ is now back to being in public mode! I hope this creation helps you as much as it helped me when I was doing my initial research

I have heard of some students accepting offers without funding. I could see no funding being offered for an MA program if there weren't any additional responsibilities but I'm not sure how students do it during a PHD program where those experiences are needed to land a job.

Thank you to all of those who have contributed to these threads in the past few days. I've  run some calculations to update the COL index for all numbers and have them sorted automatically with as many current figures as I could find. In terms of how far your stipend can go in a city, the top 15 schools ranking are as follows:

1. Duke University
1. Princeton University
3. University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)
4. Emory
5. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
6. Johns Hopkins University
6. University of Chicago (UChicago)
6. Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL)
9. Rice University
9. Yale University
11. University of Chicago
12. University of Michigan
13. Brown University
13. Southern Methodist University (SMU)
15. University of Notre Dame

While there are other programs that might pay more in stipends, the cities they're located in are very expensive. However, that shouldn't stop you from applying if it's great fit.

This google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XNJR4IhOJ56zd7zLuVSUK7h054dBRNvyiC7iStCOsxo/ is now back to being in public mode! I hope this creation helps you as much as it helped me when I was doing my initial research

Thank you to all of those who have contributed to these threads in the past few days. I've  run some calculations to update the COL index for all numbers and have them sorted automatically with as many current figures as I could find. In terms of how far your stipend can go in a city, the top 15 schools ranking are as follows:

1. Duke University
1. Princeton University
3. University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)
4. Emory
5. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
6. Johns Hopkins University
6. University of Chicago (UChicago)
6. Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL)
9. Rice University
9. Yale University
11. University of Chicago
12. University of Michigan
13. Brown University
13. Southern Methodist University (SMU)
15. University of Notre Dame

While there are other programs that might pay more in stipends, the cities they're located in are very expensive. However, that shouldn't stop you from applying if it's great fit.

Thank you to all of those who have contributed to these threads in the past few days. I've  run some calculations to update the COL index for all numbers and have them sorted automatically with as many current figures as I could find. In terms of how far your stipend can go in a city, the top 15 schools ranking are as follows:

1. Duke University
1. Princeton University
3. University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)
4. Emory
5. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
6. Johns Hopkins University
6. University of Chicago (UChicago)
6. Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL)
9. Rice University
9. Yale University
11. University of Chicago
12. University of Michigan
13. Brown University
13. Southern Methodist University (SMU)
15. University of Notre Dame

While there are other programs that might pay more in stipends, the cities they're located in are very expensive. However, that shouldn't stop you from applying if it's great fit.