OHSP

The main thing I know is that the first "wave" was always going to be very small because they can't risk a situation where they end up with a cohort of more than ~ 12. Also I guess they must've also notified waitlisted candidates last year, my bad.

Everything's different this year. For example, they've never notified waitlisted candidates before. They want a very small incoming cohort so I doubt they've sent many first round offers, and the chances of getting off the waitlist might be relatively good because of that.

Telling POIs that I wasn't going to attend, despite loving pretty much all of them, was actually the hardest and worst part of the whole application process for me. It's difficult! Re placement I'm going to PM you--placement rates are obviously very important. That said... I'd encourage people to tweak the way they're thinking about placement statistics--as in, instead of just looking at the placement rates for your school or even for your field, think about how well the school is going to be able to set you (in particular) up for placement in the kinds of jobs you think you might want after the PhD. Again for me the ivy school had great placement rates, but the students getting jobs were all doing relatively traditional kinds of history and I couldn't really see evidence that their non-traditional, interdisciplinary students were getting jobs in the kinds of departments I'd ultimately want to apply to--at the school I'm now attending, placement into Am studies and interdisciplinary departments is much better (especially if you work across departments once you get here), and so that made more sense for me. In other words, the details are important.

Yes, it's rude to say sorry but not interested after they've spent time thinking about you and your work. It's also not a great move to ask for more money (which your POI might look into, spend time on) if you pretty much know that at the end of the day you're going to choose Harvard. Don't be That Harvard Person, people remember it! Instead think about this as a chance to learn more about another program, where you'll have peers in your field etc, and to network with this faculty member--you never know what your situation will be in a few years, and don't give them a reason to remember you (when you're on the job market, etc) as the grad student who ruled out their offer without even hearing about the program. Be honest, say you have other offers, if they ask you where you can even mention Harvard, but also use the time to genuinely ask about their program because who knows what you'll learn. And then if you really know that you're not going to be accepting their offer, the moment you get your official letter from Harvard let them know and put someone on the waitlist out of their agony. **edited to add, for the benefit of everyone, that when you're weighing offers it pays to be open-minded. I did not expect to be at the school I'm at, I applied at the last moment and it was my least "prestigious" blah blah blah offer, but I think if I had chosen one of the more prestigious schools (and I would mostly have been picking them for "going to an ivy" type reasons, which are not good reasons) I'd probably be living to regret it, because none of those schools were as interdisciplinary as my work basically needs to be.

Penn is rare in that it uses its interviews as a vetting process. They don't admit anyone without an interview.

Ditto this but also, if anyone wants to talk about NYC I'm happy to discuss via PM--my stipend goes pretty far/I'm very comfortable, have an expensive hobby, am taxed international student rates (so some of my stipend disappears) etc, and the "NYC is a financial nightmare" line almost put me off coming here, but I'm really glad it didn't.

Not to stress you out further but when I applied I heard from one POI at midnight on Friday, their time, and one POI on Sunday afternoon—for schools that let POIs tell students I wouldn’t personally count on the Monday-Friday 9 to 5 schedule

You'll know whether and where you've been accepted within a few weeks, so I'd reserve your energy and not spend time fretting over hypotheticals. But also, "the adviser's research project" won't be your research project, it sounds a little like you're more familiar with European schools than US schools.

The school won't fall through and you'll just have a different advisor. The US system doesn't bind you to an advisor, and it's also unlikely that a program would admit someone who can only be advised by a single faculty member. Meanwhile.... maybe don't count your chickens before they hatch, especially chickens with 30K funding packages.

As others have said, it differs school by school... I happen to know about some of the schools you've applied to, having applied to four of them and gotten into three of them. U-Penn typically interviews everyone they're considering admitting and it's basically a vetting process. NYU doesn't interview but sometimes advisors informally touch base to ask some questions--NYU also releases acceptances advisor by advisor so don't be discouraged if you see acceptances and haven't heard anything. Duke doesn't interview and has already sent out its acceptances this year, so anyone else who they admit will be off the waitlist. Yale people have already discussed on this forum, they don't have a formal interviewing system but many of their admitted students are interviewed before they're accepted (or not accepted).

Glad it was helpful! Duke’s funding is a PhD dream. Also I’m sure others will stress this in the coming weeks but school visits are so important—for eg after I received all of my decisions I was certain I was going to go to one school (the highest ranked and only ivy of my offers), and visits changed that completely.

They’re focused on trying to secure the people they’ve accepted, and are not particularly worried about notifying the potentially hundreds of people they’ve rejected. Sometimes there are waitlists (sometimes unannounced waitlists) and waitlists can be formulated after first round acceptances are sent out, so that’s another reason not to send rejections right away. Telkanuru is right to stress that acceptances tend to come out at the same time, but some schools have advisors reach out to students personally to let them know they’re in, and then you can be waiting a little because your potential advisor has a pressing deadline etc (this happened to me and was not laden with meaning, just a reflection of my POIs busy schedule at that time).

Don’t want to burst any bubbles, but Duke typically sends out all of their acceptances at once, via the portal. I was accepted two years ago in the same way that @Karou is describing and a “welcome” email arrived shortly after—Duke flies everyone in for the visit (they pay for international flights, which is rare) and partly because of this they settle things earlier than other schools. Congrats @Karou

Dramatic funding cuts and proposed funding cuts across the board. Politics. Etc. Trust people who are currently in programs that funding has been severely cut across the board. Once-guaranteed 6th years have disappeared, and so future cohort numbers are being reduced.

Yup. This is a nation wide thing. NYU is admitting a much smaller cohort (it's typically been about 20, including about 6-7 people in joint programs). It's largely about funding--mellon grants etc etc

I know that in the past not everyone was interviewed, and I suspect that's still the case--a few years ago I had a call and a conversation about how the department's previous strengths in my field were no longer going to be their strengths because pretty much all the relevant faculty were in the process of either retiring or leaving, which I hadn't known about, and a chat about how much that mattered to me (it mattered quite a lot). Unsurprisingly was not offered a place but at that point didn't really want one. At least two friends accepted to the school (neither of them ended up attending) were not interviewed and had no contact with POIs until after they received their acceptance.

Programs anticipate these changes. The other day an advisor was like "what did you say you were going to do in your SoP again" and then we laughed together about how terrible an idea it was--honestly just worry about these things once you're in the program. You can't know in advance what you're going to end up doing and/or who'll you end up working with, and if the issue is as minor as preferring to work with a person you mentioned by name but didn't specifically mention wanting as the primary advisor, you'll be fine.

This isn't ideal but write to the department chair or the undergraduate director of your undergraduate history program, explain your situation, say that you understand they can't write a personal letter but ask if they would be willing to write a letter that basically says you went to that school, you took x history classes and received a y gpa in those classes + any awards etc. They might say no but if they say yes then you've at least ticked off the requirement and it's better than asking for a letter from someone outside of academia.

yeah, seconded. I should have put in bold and underlined "might be" a good fit.

With the proviso that --- I applied to around 7 schools, emailed POIs at all of the schools, and the only people who didn't reply to my emails are my two current advisors, both of whom are great and who I'm really lucky to have. They both get bombarded with emails around this time of year and just didn't have time to reply that semester, but their lack of a reply really didn't mean anything. On this: "One thing this process has done (and I am not sure this is a good thing) is cut out many programs that are great but just don't feel like a perfect "fit."" -- it's hard/impossible to know whether a school might be a good fit until you've been accepted and go to the visit weekend/talk to your potential advisor when they're thinking about themselves as your potential advisor. Be careful about ruling out schools that seem good but not perfect--they might secretly be perfect. I applied to my school on a bit of a whim, thinking it was the school I was least likely to go to, and then I ended up choosing to go there over schools that are "higher ranked" blah blah etc, (seriously that shit means very little if you can't do the work you want to do at the higher ranked school), basically because of a gut feeling.

I honestly don't mean to sound harsh, it's just so important for everyone to bear in mind. Try to talk to people in course work as well--the more people the better. I used to think that regular posters on this forum were overly harsh/critical/blah and now I'm like: their advice is gold, they know what they're talking about, and their tone is warranted because grad school can be terrible if you don't make really smart moves at critical points (and even if you do make smart moves at critical points).

Ask them for the email address of grad students and know (seriously) that you're not going to get anything particularly useful unless you talk to current graduate students because they know things that professors (even the really nice professor who's lovely and thinks you're great) will NOT KNOW. I cannot over-stress this.

The real thing to keep in mind is that across the country funding is being rapidly cut. NYU's history department, for instance, is culling its intake numbers next year because of huge funding cuts. Other departments have told grad students to radically rethink their time to completion. So while it's possible to find funded MAs, the experience for people applying this year is going to be very different to the experience of people who've applied in the past 5

Funding is really tight across this country and few MA programs provide stipends or cover tuition for students. You certainly should not pay for an MA but that doesn't mean that it's easy to find a funded spot--they're uncommon in the US. Talk to professors about grad school and they might be able to give you a sense of whether you'll be competitive if you apply to phd programs, which, unlike MA programs, are regularly funded. In terms of things to care about: no one cares about your GRE; in my experience no one cares about internships etc, and I think it's ridiculous when undergrads have been given the impression that internships blah blah blah are equivalent to research experience/journal articles/a really solid writing sample. What does matter: a really solid writing sample--that's the basis on which you're competing against other applicants--and a tailored, polished, extremely well-written statement of purpose. To get into some schools, it matters where you did your undergrad degree--you can't control that so don't waste time worrying about it. Think carefully about where you'd be happy to work and what kinds of people you'd like to work with, I'm constantly grateful that I have an advisor who is allowing me to do the kind of work I want to do but who also pushes me politically, ethically, etc etc. Work out what you care about and think about where you might find it. Get in touch with potential advisors. And work on a writing sample that is based on close, detailed work with primary sources.

The US news rankings are garbage and NYU has better placements than schools ranked higher on that list. Look at actual placements not meaningless rankings charts—some of the schools in the top 20 on that list are not good options given their funding and/or placement situations and they're higher on the list because of perceived prestige etc. Really this isn’t about offending people who are at the schools you’re calling safeties, it’s about picking schools that place people in your academic field. BU and NYU are not comparable because of placements (they are a world apart because of placements). And I can't stress how important it is to look at placements in your actual, specific subfield.