Alea Iacta Est
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Posts posted by Alea Iacta Est
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I accepted Notre Dame's offer as well.
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Yup. And make no mistake, I think I am one of the few absolutely ecstatic ones here, but I am still a member of the "All you need is one" club (1 funded acceptance out of 4, and one app withdrawn). More importantly, I also managed to find what may be the only humanities program in the U.S. that did not see both/either an astronomical increase in the number of applicants and/or a forced decrease in cohort size. Although I think it's the latter that hurts more than the former--as one of my profs put it, when advising me against applying to Harvard Div, "I could see you as one of the top 2 out of fifty. I doubt you would be the number one candidate out of twenty-five." (Meaning, spots per subfield. He saved me $120; I think I can afford to buy him a beer now, yes?)
Hopefully colleges can get their economic feet back under them before next year, or else PhD admissions could be really brutal. Think of all the people who started MA programs this year after being rejected from PhD ones, who will now be applying again, with better qualifications. Ugh.
I'm a card carrying member of the same club. I'm utterly relieved to have been able to get in to a good school this time round, because as an international student from a country, an MA is simply not an option for me, either in the US where I simply don't have enough money, or back at home where there is simply no instruction in my subject of interest. I was already stunned (and not a little terrified) to see how much better qualified than me most of the Fall 2010 applicants were, and my chances would only have deteriorated significantly after this year.
I truly hope that's not the case for people who plan to reapply next year and that you get opportunities to improve your application profiles and fit (whatever that means) in the intervening time.
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Like trlux, I don't drive, so I'm planning to live on campus for at least the first year. However, the prospect of being stuck on campus five or six years without a car sounds utterly dire, so how do you actually go about learning how to drive in South Bend?
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It's true that undergraduates don't usually associate with grad students, even the younger ones. That said, it's not as though Princeton's social landscape is completely impossible to navigate by any stretch of the imagination. This is purely anecdotal evidence, but my sister was also in her early twenties when she attended Princeton for grad school and she had no significant problems meeting people despite the fact that she isn't the most social person.
Also, the girl quoted in the article said that she was already married and had a group of close friends. It doesn't seem as though she actively sought out a social life when she came to grad school. I think it might be far easier to make friends if you're actually looking for them.
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Jonathan Strange And Mr. Norrell might just be one of my favourite books ever. The English Regency, the Austen-esque prose, the magic, and the footnotes. What's not to love?
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http://www.dailyprin...10/03/09/25483/
There's a story in the student newspaper about this today. Granted, the Prince is not renowned for stellar journalism, but something is better than nothing, I suppose?
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I have a long reading list to tackle once I finish and submit my senior thesis.
- Elidor by Alan Garner. I read The Owl Service when I was a kid and remember being freaked out by it in the best kind of way. I'm hoping Elidor will do the same thing.
- Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. I've heard mixed things about it. I love his novels and I loved most of Smoke And Mirrors but there are some stories that just didn't do it for me, and I have a feeling that this might be very similar.
- The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly. Recommended by someone's whose taste I trust, and I love modern interpretations of fairytales.
- Misfortune: A Novel by Wesley Stace. Recommended by the same person, and apparently the book is full of batshit crazy characters, which makes me even more curious to read it.
- Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons. Because Cold Comfort Farm was made of awesome.
- The Peacock Spring by Rumer Godden. Recommended by someone whose taste I do NOT agree with, so I'm going to read it to see if I can shoot it down.
- The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why You Can't Manage Without Apostrophes! by Lynn Truss. Because I enjoyed reading and empathised with the author's other ill-tempered rants.
- A Laodicean by Thomas Hardy. I'm interested to see how Hardy deals with non-OMG!TRAGEDY! themes.
- Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. Started this a couple of months ago, but life got in the way.
- Gilgamesh. Because it's there, and I haven't done it before.
- And finally a couple of random P.G. Wodehouse novels. Because you can never have too much Wodehouse in your life.
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I was rejected by them through a personal email from a PA, but in the email he mentioned that I would be getting the official letter in the mail in the coming weeks. So I think you may have to wait for it by snail mail.
Ditto. I think the medieval guy might just have sent out personal emails to all the medieval history applicants with the 1.5 admits figure.
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I got into Notre Dame's (medieval) history PhD program after all! It's my Holy Grail of grad schools so I'm thrilled beyond belief. The liquor stores were closed when I got the news; I celebrated instead with vodka.
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Got my Harvard rejection in the mail today. I've been staring at my phone ever since I got out of class at 12:30 PM today and I still haven't had a call from Notre Dame. They said they'd send out acceptances today, so I guess this means I am rejected/waitlisted. Sigh.
The Notre Dame thing was just incredibly hard to deal with. They dangled this immensely enticing carrot in front of my nose all the time I was there while keeping me intensely aware that the great, fat stick that could very well fall to my lot instead.
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I'm working on my senior thesis which is due on April 6. I have a complete draft deadline on March 8, so I'm aiming for at least 60-70 pages by that date, and then looking to scale up to 80-100 in the following two weeks.
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I'm going to reiterate what the other two posters wrote, and say that coming from a famous undergraduate institution would in no way equate to an automatic acceptance. Nevertheless, I think that you have a couple of advantages that people from lesser-known schools might not have access to. The first thing that springs to mind is having access to a well known, well connected faculty, whose glowing letters of recommendation would hold more weight with grad admissions committees.
The second big advantage I can think of is the increased number of opportunities to do research as an undergraduate. Well known institutions frequently have more resources for people who want to do independent work and the like. So on the whole, I think it's the way you exploit the opportunities your school put your way that counts rather than a passive boost by virtue of mere attendance.
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I just received good news from UCLA via email, although they aren't offering me any funding for the first year. The attached letter states that I can apply for funds and TAships after the first year on a competitive basis. My wife has a good job she will be able to keep when we move, so I will only have to come up with a loan for tuition, making it likely that I will take the offer. I'm in the ancient history field, for those interested in that sort of thing. Good luck to everyone else waiting for UCLA!
Congratulations ResPublica! That's great news. What are your specific research interests?
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The reactionary in me is glad that I took the old test. I would hate to have to use a calculator in the test since it basically seems like an Irrational Numbers Ahoy! alert to me. I like my solutions to be nice, round integers. In the old test, if I got a solution like 7.467938, I'd know that I'd likely done something wrong. Having a calculator would just deprive me of that guarantee. Furthermore, I'd be tempted to use it on problems that would probably be faster solved mentally.
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The problem with applying to medieval studies (my advisor told me) ... is that it limits your marketability more so than does an English, History, etc. etc. degree.
Agreed. This is one of the main reasons why I applied to history rather than to medieval studies programs, the other being that I'm interested in early modern history as well.
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Lame duck
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Red card
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I picked the first option because I don't think that further contact would make a shred of difference. I'd just try not to think about the rejection anymore (or at least until the next application season) although that might well be easier said than done.
I have the feeling that most admissions committees might be wary of revealing any information regarding our applications and the decision-making process. Certainly it would be very helpful in figuring out which mistakes to avoid the next time round, but I think that actually getting hold of the information would be very difficult.
I'd just leave well enough alone.
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Today, I was in the library basement, trying to bring myself to open Oxford's decision email. At the crucial moment, just as I had mustered up the courage to do the deed, a group of hooded monks showed up, smashed my computer with a sledgehammer, and were on the verge of turning on me when I woke up.
After reassuring myself that my laptop was still in one piece, I remembered that Oxford states, quite unequivocally, that it won't release admissions decisions via the internet.
MLIA.
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Provided I start this fall, I'll be 23.
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I've had two rejections so far, Yale and Berkeley. I wasn't expecting anything else from Berkeley since I put things together for the Dec. 1 deadline in a ridiculously slapdash fashion and pretty much had it coming. But was the second rejection email really necessary?
The Yale rejection is a little disheartening, not because I thought I'd get in but more because this is the second time they've rejected me. (They didn't like me as an undergrad either.)
I've had cautiously positive news from Notre Dame which, as a medievalist, I'm very, very enthusiastic about. Apparently they now have about twice as many potential candidates as the number they're actually going to admit. I'm going to go to an open house later this week, cross my fingers, and hope for the best.
Stony silence thus far from Harvard, UCLA, Oxford, Chicago, and Columbia.
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Who are YOU rejecting?
in History
Posted
I'm turning down a master's in medieval history at Oxford. Amidst slight pangs, 'tis true, but I'm happy with the choice I made.