OHSP

My partner and I have a similar age gap so I understand on some level, but you also never know what will change in your lives. My nearly 40 year old partner moved from literally the other side of the world with me so that I could start my PhD in the US, and that's worked out well for her as well as me.

It's a school by school thing. At some schools it's up to the POI to let the candidate know they're in, and so you can be waiting on news because the professor has a paper deadline etc etc etc (a true story).

Yeah that's a painful situation--definitely a positive rather than a negative sign, and it might be (as is often the case with state schools) that they are trying to make sure that they offer spots to people who are relatively likely to accept them. Unfortunately there's basically no way to know for sure what's happening in a specific department's adcom this year, but you now definitely know that you're being considered as a strong candidate, so there's that! The waiting game is horrible but it'll all be over soon!

What program and was the skype chat called an "interview" at any point?

Margot Canaday, Associate Prof, PhD from Minnesota Hendrik Hartog, Prof, PhD from Brandeis Erika Milam, Prof, PhD from Wisconsin Rosina Lozano, Assistant Prof, PhD from USC Just some of the Princeton faculty I know from my own work. I'm an international student who wanted to go to Wisconsin but basically, even with an additional fellowship, I thought it was going to be far too financially precarious. In certain fields--gender and sexuality (esp. trans* studies) and environmental history--it makes more academic sense to go to Wisconsin than to somewhere like Columbia. But then being in New York also has advantages. Nothing guarantees a job, including a PhD from Princeton.

@InternationalCatLover it was a better fit (academically, politically, and in terms of cohort). There was a larger pool of potential committee members, access to a much broader academic network--so far I have benefited a lot from being proximate to other schools and at a school where it's very easy for me to work with other departments and faculty--and then the stipend was also relevant (though I turned down better stipends to go to my current school). The one state school I was very interested in going to was going to make my life too financially difficult but otherwise would have been a great fit. The ivy is going through a transitional phase in my field and I would have had a great advisor but a precarious situation in terms of committee. I can't know what my life would be like right now if I'd made a different decision but grad school is hard enough without feeling like you're not quite in the right place, in terms of how you fit into your program as an individual, so currently I'm pretty happy I made the choice I did.

I chose a school "below top ten" -- actually the lowest-ranked of my options -- because rankings didn't outweigh the benefits of going to the school I chose (and so far I'm pretty sure I've made the right choice). I don't think I'm out of the running for tenure-track positions, not because of a feeling but because recent graduates from my school and in my field have been getting jobs. Rankings are not entirely irrelevant but there's so much else to consider if you're aiming high, etc.

Funding is so important, follow the funding. I went to a no-name institution outside of the US for my MA, got into 5 schools, one of them an ivy (seeing as we're talking about prestige). Can I ask why it matters to you to go to an ivy? And why you're distinguishing between "decent programs" and ivies? Depending on subfield it can be true that people have somewhat easier times getting a job if they've been to Yale than if they've been to a very good but not "ivy" school like Michigan, but rarely without the right advisor, supporting faculty, etc etc etc. Is your goal to use your MA to get into the best PhD program for you or to get into an ivy program, because those are different things.

I was admitted to UIUC last year, also in the first week of January--they do it so that they have time to nominate you for UIUC's bigger fellowships. I didn't end up going to UIUC but from my experience the early admission is a good sign!

Is this Penn? I went nuts with my Penn application last year, changed the font, moved the margins, used endnotes--everything that I would not recommend, and I got in. Their 10 page thing is horrible.

Yeah reading back over all of this, I'm not sure why I stated the "don't apply for a PhD" thing so strongly--I do really, really believe in the value of doing a Masters though, which is perhaps why I'm wary to suggest jumping into the PhD program if you feel like the Masters might be right for you. That said, my masters was fully funded. Getting into huge amounts of debt for the sake of having a feeling a bit more grounded in history might not be worth it.

2500 sounds atypical to me--I applied to ~8 schools last year and the longest statement was 1200 words.

Who are you interested in working with at NYU?

Just on this, though, the PhD is a place for you to work out how/where you fit in respect to these fields--I certainly know US hist professors who work across all three. But @kenalyass what books are you reading and whose works are you into, within US history? Tom Sugrue seems obviously relevant? You might want to think about which schools you're drawn to by thinking about whose work attracts you.

Your stats etc look good but stats are just a minor hurdle in history. Don't apply for PhD yet--I think your instincts are right re needing more time in an academic environment and if you can afford it, the MAPSS program is supposed to be excellent preparation for doctorate work.

Yes! Message me and I'll be happy to pass on some information. I'm at NYU not the New School but I know about their programs (and am also working on questions of gender and sexuality).

I wouldn't worry too much about the different regional focus, especially if the classes helped you to develop your research questions, your methodological interests etc etc. I applied as an Americanist with a Soviet writing sample and it didn't stop me from getting into good schools--I did explain the shift (briefly) in my SoP but really they're more interested in the quality of the questions you're asking etc.

I'm also an international student (now in a PhD program), and I found the application process hellishly stressful, so know that it's not unusual. One suggestion--sit down for a few hours and write a rough first draft of your SoP. Once you actually focus your attention 100% on that task you might find it easier to think about what you want to do next year. When I finally sat down to write my SoP I was like, oh right, I really want to go to grad school and I'm not interested in taking another year to think about it. Your post is full of [very relatable] anxiety but you don't sound totally unprepared to me, it's just a matter of giving yourself some time to sort your thoughts out, and those 5 hours or so are not going to jeopardise your final exams etc especially if you can use them to make a decision about what you want.

This is good advice but I'd just add the qualifier that the length and content of your email will depend on your circumstances--I was looking to work on a pretty specific project that departed from my previous work, and in the emails I sent I included two relatively short paragraphs explaining what I wanted to do. I am really glad I did that because professors were able to give me very specific tips on where to apply, how to tailor my application to their schools etc. One professor sent me a really long and helpful email that was super enthusiastic, and when I got into that school and she was going to be my potential advisor, she knew my interests very well and was able to give me more advice about the benefits/disadvantages of the various school's I'd gotten into. I didn't end up going to that school, but it was the beginning of a relationship. That's maybe a best case scenario, but I honestly don't think you should be thinking in terms of long/short alone--it's about being clear and to the point, and sometimes that requires a paragraph explanation of what you want to do and why you're emailing that person, specifically. NB: if you message me I'm happy to send you more details re the emails I sent. It was the most useful thing I did when I was applying.

I assumed that a faculty member who I really liked wouldn't be able to act as my advisor because they didn't yet have tenure and I was wrong, and she's an excellent advisor. Luckily, despite the fact that I didn't mention her in my SOP or email her before I applied, she was on the admissions committee and saw the connections between my interests and hers, so I've ended up with her as my advisor anyway. Which is basically all to say that I got lucky but you could easily make incorrect assumptions about who is and isn't able to act as an advisor, and the only way to find out is to email them and/or other current grad students in your field at that school.

Good luck surviving in a PhD program with an attitude like this.

Never ending is an understatement, but know that one day it'll be a distant memory. Good luck!

I left the UK-style system (in Australia) for reasons that others have listed--I wanted the two years of coursework and the rigour of comps, and I wanted to earn my PhD at a school where far more people get jobs after completion. The UK's better than Australia in terms of jobs, but if you're thinking about doing your PhD there you should have a deep look into the realities of the job market (in US history) for people who don't earn their PhDs at a US institution. In terms of getting to archives, though, you'll have less of a problem in the UK than you're imagining--I just finished a two year MA in Australia and was able to travel to the US three times, each time with funding either from my university or from other fellowships. Funding exists if you look for it, and the UK's much closer to the US.

Yes! PM me, firstly, but also some places to think about - UNC Chapel Hill, NYU, American, UC Santa Barbara, Colorado Boulder amongst others. I'm doing a history PhD but with a background in and a big focus on public history and grassroots archives.

Have you looked at NYU? I'm pretty sure that their MA programs are unfunded but they have some really great people in archives and public history (and also in 20th c. US)--I'm happy to talk more via PM.