AP

It's weird to get denied an F-1 Visa if you submitted all the paperwork (SEVIS payment, I-20, Letter of Acceptance, etc.) I know that in general you don't get any feedback on why it was denied, but did they ask any questions or say anything? In my interview, the officer simply looked at the paperwork and asked what I was going to do, as they ask at every immigration post I've been to the US: "I go to X university, I live in Y city, and I am doing a PhD in Z". I would also contact the International Students Office at your university. They might have screwed something up with a number or your spelling or something. Just check with them too in any case because I am sure they can help you. Hope it gets solved!!! AP

GRE scores are used more as a filter than a requirement. Most R1 universities have similar standards. It's not that because one is a top 5 program it has tighter GRE demands. What sets people aside is the SOP, letters, and writing samples. Pay more attention to that than to GRE scores.

I googled around A LOT, and this was one of the samples I had as a guide.

I summarized my thesis into a 25/30-page paper. But I also had to translate it so it made sense to trim it.

You've already posted this elsewhere: If you would like more people to respond, I would suggest you rephrase the question. If you are really anxious about this issue, then contact the department.

The admission committee will probably begin meeting in early January, so no decision will be made before then. However, I know some schools waive the application fee if you apply before certain date.

Failures are opportunities. Present yourself as having seized an opportunity. There is no point in highlighting what you couldn't do. Highlight what you actually did. Don't play defense, play offense! Get in those programs!!

I would look them up in the department webpage and contact them directly. It's completely normal to do that.

Your advisor does not own you. You are free to do whatever you want. If you are meeting with your advisor over the summer to discuss applications, you may certainly tell him as an update. You didn't do anything wrong, you know that, right? If you are not meeting with your advisor now, there is no point in sending him an e-mail only for this. As @fuzzylogician said, this is a matter-of-fact issue, give it the tone and space it deserves. Moreover, if you haven't already, you'll learn that grad school is about self-assertiveness. You are in charge of you, not your advisor or POI. This is up to you. Embrace that.

I agree. Let me give you a little piece of advice that I found useful. Grad school implies learning something, right? (except for those present in every cohort that just go to grad school to show how much they know). Anyway, take everything as a learning experience. This stress will not be the last one (sorry): you'll be applying for grants soon enough, prepping for comps, defending your prospectus... so take this instance as (already) a part of your postgraduate learning path. This doesn't make it any less stressful, but it may help you put in perspective. PS: Good luck with the applications!

Also, check any GCSE website. The causes of WWI are a standard component in the British curriculum and they have excellent resources (i.e. summarized, so that you see examples on how to present them). Babbling historiography to adolescents will take you nowhere.

I don't think a department would say something on the admission process and proceed differently if they can. They could get in trouble for doing that. If you are interested in that program, you should also contact faculty and graduate students so you can drop this questions as a secondary issue ("By the way, I stumbled with this in the website..."). If they don't even recommend you submit your scores, why are you so worried? Imagine the situation when no applicant submit their scores. If the department was treacherous and actually cared about the GRE scores, what would they do? Further, if the department was indeed treacherous and wants to trick you into doing/not doing something, do you really want to go there? I think you are overreacting over a very simple piece of information. And if your reaction is accurate, then you don't want to go there.

Don't worry. I did my final dose in June before leaving and when I got there the nurse did the blood test and it showed as if I didn't have it. They gave me the three shots for free.

Absolutely. Mentorship does not equal advice/supervision. I participated in many round tables about this in my school because we, the student body, wanted faculty to realize the difference between these two and the need that we had of both of them. Further, you have a say in who you mentor is. In my case, my advisors are my mentors, but I see in other case they are not.

A seminar, as opposed to a lecture, implies reading and discussion. It's supposed to more hands-on texts, theories, methods, etc. rather than a professor simply chewing stuff for you to understand. In different sciences they have different dynamics. In the humanities, we read one book and one or two articles and discuss them, guided by the professor.

1) I didn't. I would advise that to anyone, but I wouldn't advise against it either. Just introduce yourself. 2) Bullshit. (Sorry, I am in a blunt mood). We historians read a lot all the time. I've realized that only now in comparison to friends in other humanities or social sciences. 9 credits should be fine, and if they are all reading seminars, I'd say that's the norm among History Departments. Tough? Maybe, but nothing weird about it. That said, pay attention to other assignments besides reading: Weekly response papers, final assignments, oral presentations, etc. Those take up a lot of time and you don't want to register for three reading seminars that require 5-page weekly assignments each (if you can avoid it). All the best!!!

I love this thread. It's full of excitement, expectations, anxiety (the good one), and happy news. Congrats to you all!!!!!! Welcome to grad school! You are in

@Butterfly_effect and the rest of this thread: I am SO SO sorry but that horribly written post. That's not a couple typos. That's me being fully asleep in front of the screen. Sorry guys.

I see what you say, but I don't necessarily agree. I don't come from low-income family, but I am international student, so it is worse because. My roommate's so young her dad still pays for insurance (health, car, etc), taxes, trips, etc. As an older student, I already passed the bitterness of being upset, I would have been five years ago. But I have learned that we all have our own situations, good or bad. Sometimes I don't go out because I have no money and if a friends gets offended by that, that's their problem. I had so say no to some roadtrips, and a friend got upset. Sorry for her. Don't let these things get to you. It is not worth it. Further, I think that you being there and getting all those looks is great. You are part of an environment clearly not used to your financial situation and I think it is important for everyone to interact with people they are not used to. In any case, you have a great opportunity to show that money does not define you but affects you and people should learn to be sensitive about that in the same way they should be sensitive about other things. In my case, some American friends mistrust my knowledge because unconsciously they think that coming from a third world country automatically means worse education. So, seize this chance to show others that there are other realities in the world and you yourself don't be so conscious about it. Enjoy this!

This is a fair question. When we had job searches in the department during my first year I had no idea why we had to have lunch with interviewees. After the whole thing, we went to the chair and asked her what was expected from us. If you feel comfortable, I would also ask this to your PI. I was surprised how we grad students had different ideas of what the lunch was for. In any case, in my third year I was better at this. I remember asking questions about teaching (how do you imagine teaching X? and the sort). Imagine yourself in that situation, what would you want people to ask you? Now, remember that it is lunch, so I would disagree with some people here and encourage you to balance how much the postdoc and the rest of you speak because he/she needs to eat. If he/she speaks all the time, when does he/she chew? We were very careful about this with the third interviewee hahaha. Finally, a huge DON'T. DO NOT under ANY circumstance blow off about you and how much you know and how cool your research is. There is a number of ways to do this and there is a VERY FINE line between explaining what you do and getting carried away. Don't be one of those. All the best!

Congrats!

Hello everyone! Glad to see so many applicants!!! Go for it!!!! I am a fourth year now doing field work abroad. I applied back then to five programs and got into two. I remember using the GradCafé a lot! Browse around, read, and ask questions. At this point, I have two pieces of advice: 1) have someone read your SoP. This and the writing sample are CRUCIAL. 2) Besides contacting faculty, also contact a couple of grad students, especially if they work within your field. This last bit doesn't really matter, but it gave me a good icebreaker hahaha but it's good to know from students what it's like to be where they are. And if any of you wants to message me, go ahead. I know how overwhelmed you are by everything right now and how every little thing seems a lot. Good luck! AP

My first thought is that since you won't be enrolled anywhere, you don't have any affiliation. Then I read the responses and thought I about my own experience. After I graduated from college I published an article. It took a year to get accepted and then published so by the time it went out to the world I had been accepted to grad school. I was not enrolled in my previous university and yet my affiliation was with them. So my own experience beats my first thought about this issue. I agree with you it would be awkward to write your affiliation with a PhD you haven't begun. I would go with your MA institution as the safest option. And by the way, congrats on publishing!

I would take as much courses as you can, so long they bring in something new. Your intellectual maturity is different now and a couple of years ago. It is worth taking courses that will challenge views, or will force you to re-approach authors/concepts/theories differently. I remember in one course we saw stuff that I was very familiar with. But since it has been about six years since I last discussed that, I found it very educating to tackle those questions now. (Of course, this was not your situation, as my previous course was not graduate level). You have a great opportunity to take courses that are a little less core than what other grad students need, so maybe you can take something new/novel. I took a course on media studies and digital humanities, for example. Also, since you have this flexibility, you can decide what you want to learn at the doctorate level and go for it. This gives you a lot of agency, go for it! You may want to consult with your advisor how to plan this. Check if the department has done this in the past. (In my department they discourage students from transferring credits like this, in yours they may have suggestions on what to do). Finally, if I were you, I wouldn't transfer all 24 hours. Doing a PhD is more than research. It's networking, it's trying to find out what your research is, it's having colleagues to read your work/applications/drafts, it's building a community that is going to recommend you later on. Think long term.

For long stuff I use Scrivener. I started using it for my dissertation prospectus. Yet, the citations are a problem there. Before the prospectus I used Word. I am a Zotero freak so Word works wonders with citation management. There was a problem with my version of Word and for several grant applications I had to use Google docs because Word would simply not work in my professors' computers. I would use what you find safer and deal with the fact of formatting (I am doing that for my dissertation, it hurts but not so much).