Assotto

You might be interested in Cornell's program. Carole Boyce Davies might be a good research fit.

Happy to answer any specific questions about Cornell.

The light blue signifies the Application that you last opened.

My portal has definitely changed. It takes me to a page that allows access to "Applicant Module 2.0." This has never happened before. Hopefully this means decisions soon.

Find out today that a professor whom I was going to ask to be on my dissertation committee is leaving the department this year. Now I have to find another (which is totally possible, but still).

Cornell decisions were made a few weeks ago. From what I hear, offer letters should be sent out by the end of this week.

Decisions were made this week. Letters should be sent out in the coming weeks.

Cornell decisions should be made by early March.

A good funding package has full funding. This includes a livable academic year stipend for 5 years minimum, paid tuition, and premium health insurance coverage. A really good funding package would also include a summer stipend and accessible conference and travel funds from your department.

Congrats! Downtown and Fall Creek are where most grad students live. Starting rent for a studio is $1100. Roommates can get your housing costs down to $600 roughly. Avoid Collegetown at all costs because its mostly undergrads with a heavy frat culture. There is also the option of graduate housing on North campus, which will save you a bit of money but is not located near a bus stop with a bus that runs as frequently as Downtown or Fall Creek. For property companies I recommend Travis Hyde Properties. You can always message me if you have more specific questions about grad student living in Ithaca.

I think it is unfair to applicants that department websites often have severely outdated information. It sucks because a good application will get rejected simply because the faculty member they wanted to work with is either retiring or changing schools, and the applicant isn't told this until after they're rejected. Aside from emailing the department and maybe getting a response, there's virtually no way for applicants to know this kind of information. If they had known the professor wasn't going to be there anymore, they wouldn't have applied! It's like gambling away $105.

Sleep.

Congrats on getting your application in. If you don't mind sharing, what is your research area/who are you interested in working with? I'm in the Cornell program and could probably answer any burning questions if you had any.

I will add and say that @telkanuru has many insightful posts that have given me insight into the graduate school/application process before I applied, accepted, and began my program. It may be to the benefit of @historynerd97 to browse through some of those for perspective. Even now as a doctoral student I still refer to some of their posts. @Sigaba also has also made helpful contributions to the History thread. I'm not sure if this is unique to the History thread but it seems many of the new applicants are always hostile toward some of the more experienced posters. Last year's applicant thread was a trainwreck because of this. Somehow, genuine advice is perceived as snark or some sort of 'ivory tower elitism.' The perspective and advice given by folks who are currently in the PhD process is super valuable and, to be frank, they are not obligated to help anyone. Start with the assumption that the more experienced users just really want to help new applicants.

This is what you should focus on. To be a strong PhD applicant you will need research experience, not the professional experience you would get interning at a museum. I would suggest looking into doing an independent study with a History professor at PSU with similar interests as yours for a semester or a summer. There are also summer research programs at external schools that provide funding for undergrads looking to have academic careers in the social sciences/humanities. These allow you to get your feet wet so to speak and try out doing historical research to see if its something you actually like. Exposure to the field at large and increased familiarity subfields/geographic locations/time periods will help narrow your interests over time until you are able to at least develop a somewhat realistic project that you will eventually propose in your PhD application. Expect your interests to constantly be changing. It is nice to know you are thinking about graduate school so early though. I second @TMP's advice and strongly encourage you to browse old threads like this one: and also as @psstein suggested familiarize yourself with the abysmal stats of the academic job market for History PhDs here: You have quite a bit of time between now and the end of your undergrad to decide if a PhD/MA in History is what you really want.