OHSP

Thanks! I'm already in at a school I would probably choose over NYU (NYU is a long shot for me - far from a great fit) but, still, I just want answers!

Congrats @realmarcelproust! When did you hear? NYU's one of the schools I'm waiting on.

Does anyone want to claim that Yale admit?

Tamara is great - she'll put you at ease. Every faculty member I've spoken to at UIUC has been lovely. I am a super awkward person and that's part of why I know that history is right for me. It's all just a ball of awkward nervous energy.

The real secret is to feel nothing about your acceptances.

The (very unsurprising but still news) insider word on Rutgers is that if you haven't yet received an email to tell you that you're shortlisted, you have not made this years cut.

Also submitting a few reviews and then becoming a regular reviewer is a good way to get free books

Keep an eye out for H-net CFPs and also just submit papers to the journals that you read. Even if the paper is rejected, peer review is very helpful. I've published twice in very well regarded OUP journals during my MA and it's not like anyone realises that you don't have a PhD anyway (until you give them a bio, at which point you're already in).

Commiserations @SarahBethSortino. I have nothing much to say except that sucks, and I hope you have access to wine. I'm yet to hear from my version of Brown but if a rejection comes, I'm blowing the day off and dedicating it to netflix. After writing 10 thousand tailored SoPs it has to be allowed. Hope you hear better news soon.

I'm not waiting on either but there have been a few CUNY admits posted on the results page.

EST + 16. I wake up every hour.

As someone who was screaming at a laptop for most of 14-15 December, that is impressive. Hope you start hearing back soon - traditionally this coming week is very full of emails.

Congrats! Are you planning to go to the admitted students weekend? I'm trying to work out a way to get there - currently visiting another school at the end of Feb but there's a bit of a gap between the weekends (and I'm coming from overseas).

Congrats and thanks for the update! I've found the "you're on the shortlist but how much do you really want to go here" email so painful - so close but so unofficial. Hopefully you're basically in!

Quick notifications can happen - I heard back from UIUC just over 2 weeks after applications were due in.

That sounds promising - hopefully it means good news (though I am trying to spend less time in wild speculation). My subfield is modern US/gender and sexuality.

Congrats! I'd actually recommend just sending a reply that says something along the lines of, "Thanks for the email, I was very happy to receive the offer and to hear from you. At this stage I have received one other offer and am waiting to hear back from a few other schools - [maybe any questions that you have about the school]. Thank you for getting in touch and I look forward to speaking with you further -" I've sent two emails along these lines and I've received very friendly replies - it's something they're used to. Also I don't think I'd ever leave an email unaddressed when the person's taken time to write to you - perhaps especially in Britain!

Indeeeed. January 2017 is probably going to go down in history as the least productive month of my life.

For anyone yet to be interviewed by Penn, I just had my interview and it went relatively well (but it's hard to tell?). I was definitely a bit awkward but hopefully that's relatively common amongst history grad students. The interviewers were my three POIs and they asked pretty straightforward questions - how did I come to my proposed topic, a few specific questions about my area, how have I developed as a historian, etc. They mentioned that they were only interviewing a small group of people but I don't know if that means they'll only be offering places to those with interviews. Good luck to others waiting on UPenn.

Congrats!

Hi @NCAtlanticist, I received an offer from Duke last week and I've since received an invite to their admitted students weekend - there are 14 people on the list. I don't know whether Duke wait-lists or sends out offers in rounds but it might be worth emailing a POI to check? Re numbers, I've pretty much heard from most POIs that, after a certain cut off point (and I'm sure your numbers are above the cut off point), it's really just about the writing sample, fit, and your past work - my UGPA is 3.85, GGPA is not calculated yet because it's 100% dissertation, and my GRE numbers are V-166, Q-150, AW-5. I also have publications in relatively highly-ranked journals which helps - even if it just proves that you are "serious" about being a professional historian. Hope this is helpful - sorry to be the bearer of slightly bad news re Duke, but hopefully it's not over yet.

Thanks! Sorry to increase any anxiety by posting - I haven't seen any other Duke acceptances on the results page, though. If I find out any more about the intake size (the email said it was small this year) or whether they've sent out all offers, I'll let you know. Also sorry to increase anxiety - hope you get some good news soon.

I definitely wouldn't give up hope re Penn - I suspect I have an interview partly because I am (kind of) changing geographical fields and I think they'd want to know more about that (and, also, because of Penn's 10 page writing sample limit, I used a sample that was very much outside of my field). I've spoken to a few Penn grad students who are in their first year at the moment and only 1 had an interview.

They initially gave me a few days notice and then when I realised that the interview would be at 3am my time (I'm not in the US), they kindly rescheduled I actually kind of wanted to get it over and done with sooner - I'm in the final stages of writing my MA dissertation (it's a 100% research MA so 40k thesis) and the entire grad school thing has been super distracting. Also, thanks @wjd! Where are you in? (I'm assuming UNC Chapel Hill - am embarrassingly not really up on the research triangle schools)

Thanks for posting this @realmarcelproust, I have a Penn interview next week and am vaguely freaking out. I've been told my interviewers will probably be my POIs. I also got an offer from Duke yesterday so am feeling happy/grateful but anxious - Penn would be a much better fit for me. Btw does anyone know if Princeton ever does interviews? I can't see any from scrolling through past years.