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That's awesome.

Agreed. MA/MS = $$$$$ for universities. If you get any kind of aid for an MA/MS, then you are one of the lucky few.

I totally agree. It's a free country. People should do whatever they want. I hate the bloggers who take it upon themselves to tell young people (or older people who want a change in their lives) what to do. We all have access to job statistics, failure rates, etc.

Some schools don't send out anything if they reject you, period. You might end up having to contact them to find out about your rejection. I speak from experience...

Emailing the DGS won't hurt anything. Making it onto the waitlist is, in my opinion, a huge compliment, not a rejection! Usually, depending on your field and the particular school, hundreds of people get rejected, a handful get waitlisted, and a handful get offers. Most likely you were in the top 10% of applicants, but office politics meant it was someone else's turn to get a grad student. Send the email and say you would love to go to school there, etc. etc. I got waitlisted at a top program, and into two other ones. I was told I was first in line should someone decline an offer. I visited the two other schools, fell in love with one of them, and moved on with my life before April. Haven't regretted it for a second.

Water Street Brewery is good. You will hear people talk about Rock Bottom, but I never liked it very much. Sobleman's is over in Marquette's neighborhood, but well worth the drive. It is in the old industrial part of the city, and it looks rundown, but its a real gem. UWM is a nice area, so anything on the north side is going to be good (probably expensive). To be blunt, Milwaukee is one of the most racially segregated cities in America. Generally speaking, UWM and the immediate area surrounding Marquette are good, as well as the "3rd Ward." White people usually live there. Milwaukee's south side has a large Hispanic population, and the west to northwest areas have large black populations. Personally, I lived near 25th and State St., which most (white) people will say is a bad part of town. I would have to agree. I wouldn't live there again if I had to move back to Milwaukee. I don't want to scare you-- I never had a problem, nor did any of my friends. But some of the characters who I would see at night...they did not make me feel the safest. Lots of beer-drinking opportunities in Milwaukee. Ethnic-fests happen all the time, and are worth going to. The Brewers should be good this year...

I have no idea. But with History PhD programs, your letter-writers really have to know someone on the admissions committee. It is more who you know, not what you know, in my opinion. You can have the most dominant application of all time, but if your writers don't know professor X, then I don't think they will look at you. Even if they do know professor X, he or she has to be on the committee, AND it has to be his or her "turn" to get a graduate student. Anybody who thinks the process is democratic...they just don't know what they're talking about.

Honestly, to be very frank, taking our 80,000 in loans is a terrible idea for a master's degree...in just about anything. Look at the job market. Look at your expected salary after you finish the master's degree. Look at all the other debt that you are carrying--car, credit cards, undergraduate student loans, etc. How much money can you make next year without a master's degree? Now add 40,000 to that number, and that's the opportunity cost of going to graduate school. This is my personal, cynical, biased opinion. Master's programs in the humanities and social work are full of people who take out HUGE loans for comparably little reward. These master's students take classes with PhD students who are not only on a full scholarship, but are also getting paid a (barely) living stipend. You are sinking into debt, they are treading water.

I seriously want to second the "Avoid Apartments Downtown" warning, and also add Kacena Real Estate Management to the list. Both are pretty bad companies. You can probably split a two-bedroom condo on IC's far east side. North Liberty is also a good option if you don't care about being close to campus.

Do not rent from either Apartments Downtown or Kacena Real Estate Management. Both of these companies have bad reputations on campus. The former has a class-action lawsuit filed against them (yeah, I know, right?), and the latter is sleazy. I would stay away from the "downtown-side" of Dodge and Benton streets. This is where undergraduates drink and party. University Heights, on the other side of the river, is nice, but you will need someone to split the rent. Personally, I would not live near Willow Creek Park--if murders happen in IC, they happen around that area. I know a lot of people who live on the far east side of IC in newer condo units, which are nice. They just take the bus to campus--semester passes are $40. I'm just finishing my first year at Iowa in a dumpy apartment in Coralville. I know that I am generalizing, but Coralville (south of the interstate) is full of large apartment complexes. It is not the best situation, especially because you just don't know who your neighbors will be (impoverished grad students who read all the time, or Goodyear mechanics who party all the time, you really take a chance). But I am about to move to a house in the Longfellow neighborhood-- south and east of Governor and Burlington.

Yes you have a shot. GRE scores don't really matter that much. I would apply. Georgetown will be a VERY expensive place to live though.

I would seriously caution against saying you are uninterested in academia-- the reviewers are all academics.

Broad is the way to go in my opinion. The only way to get a job in academia is by demonstrating your usefulness to the department-- the ability to teach different time periods and topics. Frankly, undergraduates will not care about your dissertation topic or specialization. The ability to teach broadly will serve you well, while specializing in one topic will handicap your employment prospects.

The company that I signed with is an absolute joke. They are called Kacena Real Estate Management, also known as K-REM. If anyone else is looking for housing in the Iowa City/Coralville area, then stay away from properties owned, operated, or associated with K-REM. They keep security deposits based on bogus claims, and many of their tenants have sued them in the past. Their office is basically a machine shed in the industrial sector of the city. Expect shoddy housing if you sign with them. But my advice is to simply stay away. There are numerous vacancies all over the place, so K-REM is not the only game in town. River City Property Management is also a pretty crappy company (I have friends who have dealt with them). But please, stay away from Kacena Real Estate Management. Renter Beware!

I also highly recommend avoiding any properties managed by Kacena Real Estate Management (K-REM). This company offers cheap housing, but you get less than what you pay for. Seriously, these people will rip you off. They keep the security deposit based on bogus claims. They are being sued and have been sued by multiple parties. Of course, most tenants would rather let the money go (or don't realize that they can sue) than take them to court. K-REM is absolutely ridiculous, so stay away.

I ended up signing for an apartment out in Coralville. I think it was a smart move. I do not want to be by undergraduates!

Does anyone know anything about the trains? I see a lot of apartments that are RIGHT next to the trains, and I am wondering how frequent the trains are.

I also agree that all the posters on this forum are hyper about US News rankings, to their own downfall. These are the same people who seem to go with "quantity over quality" in the application cycle, i.e. they applied to a ridiculous number of programs (like, 12) as if it increases their chances. That's how universities like Yale make bank each fall. I am just sorry people haven't had better advice as undergrads.

I will agree with everything that has been said about going with the best people over the best university name. The US News rankings are seriously flawed and incredibly misleading. The job market for PhDs in the humanities will be determined by who you know, not what you know. Also, consider teaching experience available to graduate students. It seems like big name institutions will treat you much worse than a "top 100 program." Consider the workload they are asking of you in addition to the coursework and research. If you are the hottest thing coming out under Prof. "Giant-in-the-Field" then you will have an excellent chance to secure funding beyond year 5, get published at journals, etc.

Email the director of graduate studies. Same thing happened to me, and I became fed up with it. They sent a letter to me after I called and emailed several people, and it seemed like it was in response to my inquiry. So contact them. Since it is this late, there is still an outside chance that you will get in, but I would not count on it. Ohio State was also very late in letting me know, and I still haven't received an official notification-- only in response to my own requests for information. All of this doesn't matter-- we are headed somewhere else!

I would expect snow from late December through March-April. It will all melt in the middle of March, and people will think Spring has finally arrived, then a late-season blizzard will dump over a foot. All in all, I think you have to worry about snow 3 months out of the year.

That is a horror story! Personally, I would hate the noise more than the walk/commute. As a graduate student, I will not have to be on campus every day (more like 2-3 days/week). It looks like Coralville might be where I'm headed. In your opinion, do the drunk undergrads primarily party in downtown Iowa City? Also, is a commute from Coralville via public transportation/U-Iowa transportation plausible? How many people do this? Also, riding my bike is a possibility, weather permitting.

I found this at another thread: As an undergrad in Iowa City, I've been living in the dorms, so you may want to take my advice with a grain of salt. However, I can give you a bit of basic advice, if you like. If quiet is what you want, avoid the downtown area to the east of the river, near campus. That means Market, Burlington, Gilbert, Dodge, Van Buren, and Johnson streets, essentially. From what I know, however, the area south of Burlington is pretty quiet - the people who tend to hang out near the bars don't really go into the residential areas unless they live there, and most of them tend to be undergraduates living in the apartments nearer campus. Just about anywhere on the west side of the river is great. Quiet, relatively close to campus, etc. The Cambus, which is the free busline run by the university, stops at several places on Melrose Ave that I know of, so I'd guess that UniversityHeights would be a great place to live for convenience, if you can find any houses to rent there. If you live farther away from campus, you might want to invest in a public bus pass - even if you have a car, the parking on campus can be a real pain, and expensive as well. I'm not sure about pricing, but Iowa City is pretty cheap in general. I think that renting a house for somewhere between $1500 and $3000 a month is common, but I'm not that sure about the quality of the house. Good luck to you! Iowa City's a pretty nice, affordable place to live, so you should be able to find a place you like at a decent price.

Does anyone have any suggestions for housing in Iowa City? I am looking for a quiet part of town, since I will be reading all the time! I know that it is a college town and that there will be parties everywhere, but are there any streets/neighborhoods in particular that I should stay away from? Also, how much would you say is a good price for a one bedroom apartment? I am moving from a big city, so the rent prices are much lower than what I'm accustomed. I don't want to pay too much!