OHSP

This is just a very strange statement. I think if you're going into a history PhD with the primary goal of ending up as a professor at an ivy league school, you're probably going in with the wrong priorities--history's not just about climbing prestige ladders and the ability to go "straight to teaching ivy TT" isn't an indicator of the quality of someone's PhD... So I'm not sure what the point is of making this kind of comment on a history forum. Also though, see Margot Canaday (Minnesota PhD, tenure at Princeton), and Genevieve Clutario (UIUC PhD and currently TT at Harvard). 

I agree but I also think Princeton's uniquely frustrating to get to and it's only one school in the eight school consortium. Going to Rutgers once a week isn't quite as bad. What I've found more useful than attending classes elsewhere is just being close enough to other schools that you can have an actual relationship with faculty and grad students who aren't at your school. 

Personally I'm extremely grateful for the consortium--not just because I can take classes elsewhere but because it means that I meet people from other grad schools who have shared interests, I end up attending talks etc in other departments, and I have a broader range of scholars I can go to for advice. The latter's been super, super helpful so far. Faculty from other schools have led me to grants etc that my own advisors didn't know about, and suggested other grad students to work with on side projects. Not everyone draws on the consortium, and it's probably easier to make use of it from NYU than from Stony Brook (at least in the early years) but, for @Guest1101 as well, I have friends at Stony Brook (in their upper years) who live in Brooklyn and regularly attend talks at NYU and CUNY and work with NYC archivists. I think all of this is especially useful if you're at all interested in public history (defined very, very broadly) and/or community collaborations. 

I had another course that included bringing in a scholar in residence from England to work with students, and consult privately on projects. This course also invited biweekly lectures from visiting scholars from the chemical heritage foundation, Hopkins, and Indiana-Bloomington. As a consotrium member you can take those courses. 
Most importantly, NYC has archives! Aside from the NY public library, Columbia has extensive archives, including the Butler library (rare books, and we just acquired medieval Islamic texts), Harriman institute, etc. All on campus.
NYU has impressive archives (Fales Library and special collections). And very accessible. There is the New York historical society archives, I think hosted at NYU library as well. 
There are special grants that only consortium grad students are elibgible for, but some of those maybe just open to Columbia and NYU grad students for now. 
In your decisions, the NYC consortium should not be taken lightly.
 

This is just a very strange statement. I think if you're going into a history PhD with the primary goal of ending up as a professor at an ivy league school, you're probably going in with the wrong priorities--history's not just about climbing prestige ladders and the ability to go "straight to teaching ivy TT" isn't an indicator of the quality of someone's PhD... So I'm not sure what the point is of making this kind of comment on a history forum. Also though, see Margot Canaday (Minnesota PhD, tenure at Princeton), and Genevieve Clutario (UIUC PhD and currently TT at Harvard). 

This is just a very strange statement. I think if you're going into a history PhD with the primary goal of ending up as a professor at an ivy league school, you're probably going in with the wrong priorities--history's not just about climbing prestige ladders and the ability to go "straight to teaching ivy TT" isn't an indicator of the quality of someone's PhD... So I'm not sure what the point is of making this kind of comment on a history forum. Also though, see Margot Canaday (Minnesota PhD, tenure at Princeton), and Genevieve Clutario (UIUC PhD and currently TT at Harvard). 

Guys, there are other law jobs than just non-profits, gvt, and corporate, especially ones that can make $100k+: real estate, matrimonial, personal injury, etc. Pretty sure that Celino and Barnes didn't go to top law schools....

I'm not sure that's typical in history departments--it certainly wasn't the case at any of the schools I considered or at my current school, and I don't know anyone who loses part of their stipend to course and/or university fees. **Are you in history @Sandmaster? I don't mean to go on about this on the basis of my own experiences, and perhaps there are schools where you'll end up paying fees, but when I was deciding where to go I came across a lot of misinformation about how much of my stipend would be "lost" to "hidden fees" and none of it turned out to be true. It's stating the obvious to say this, but, of course, it's worth checking all of this with your school(s). 

Were you at a school with a grad student union? Not to get political, but there's definitely a correlation.

I'm not entirely sure what you are seeing in the above posts that's irrelevant to the topic of "fall 2018 applicants"--? As people continue to receive admissions/rejections/waitlist notifications you're going to see a lot more "do I even want to commit to this" style posts, and that seems entirely appropriate. 

I may be wrong, because I don't know every school, but I think that's pretty rare in history departments--I don't know of anyone who's paying for tuition out of their stipend.

I'm currently at NYU so just a FYI about decisions--if results are coming out then it's likely the case that decisions have been made and now it's basically up to the POI to let you know (it's pretty unlikely the the DGS will send out a mass email at any point). My POI called me at late on a Friday night last year after I'd spent a week watching people post their acceptances, and it was basically because she was super busy at the time. 

I don't mean to alarm you but not all applicants visit this website.  The GC is a small enclave in a bigger academic planet.  Hang tight and think good thoughts until you actually hear something.  

I'm currently at NYU so just a FYI about decisions--if results are coming out then it's likely the case that decisions have been made and now it's basically up to the POI to let you know (it's pretty unlikely the the DGS will send out a mass email at any point). My POI called me at late on a Friday night last year after I'd spent a week watching people post their acceptances, and it was basically because she was super busy at the time. 

I'm not entirely sure what you are seeing in the above posts that's irrelevant to the topic of "fall 2018 applicants"--? As people continue to receive admissions/rejections/waitlist notifications you're going to see a lot more "do I even want to commit to this" style posts, and that seems entirely appropriate. 

I see your point and thought to say something similar a few days ago but I held back and now hold a point of view similar to @OHSP  and  @grubyczarnykot that this is a hallmark of the applicants' thread since not everyone gets in and often do use the Applicants thread of their discipline to vent+ plan.

There are always people who share a lot more and the conversation seems to end up orbiting around their specific processing. I want to believe that even though there might seem to be only a few people posting there are many others who lurk+watch who may actually see a lot of their thoughts mirrored in the conversations happening. In their anonymity, they might take lessons and guidance from the dialogue. I think that's useful.

I'm not entirely sure what you are seeing in the above posts that's irrelevant to the topic of "fall 2018 applicants"--? As people continue to receive admissions/rejections/waitlist notifications you're going to see a lot more "do I even want to commit to this" style posts, and that seems entirely appropriate. 

I'm not entirely sure what you are seeing in the above posts that's irrelevant to the topic of "fall 2018 applicants"--? As people continue to receive admissions/rejections/waitlist notifications you're going to see a lot more "do I even want to commit to this" style posts, and that seems entirely appropriate. 

Not that it will mean much from a Random Internet Stranger, but I'm sorry you didn't get in. I've been dropping by this thread every so often and I was really rooting for you. My gut was telling me that you were going to be accepted, and I'm sorry you weren't. I'm sure you're feeling a lot of disappointment.
To me, this is the single best reason not to pursue a PhD in the humanities. There are many wonderful things about a life in the academy, but one baseline is you don't get to choose where you live. It sounds like you have an unusually deep connection to Minneapolis, and that's fantastic. Hold on to it. But let it inform your career choices now, rather than start you down a road that is without question going to take you away from a place that you love.
I think you've said someplace else that you'd be willing to leave Minneapolis to start an academic career. But it's worth thinking about now exactly what that academic career looks like: You'd be graduating with a degree in a highly-specialized field from a good but hardly elite program. The chances of landing a tenure-track appointment are pretty low. And many of the tenure-track jobs that do exist are at smaller, regional schools, many in the south. It's not like you'd be leaving the Minneapolis you love for Ithaca; odds are, you'd be leaving for a small, two-stoplight town a hundred miles from an airport. You wouldn't be teaching your specialty to highly-motivated, younger versions of yourself; you'd be teaching a 4-4 load of World History to a bunch of indifferent undergrads. Your boyfriend also has a PhD; there may not be much in the way of work for him in that town. And some of these towns have a massive gap between the college and the rest of the residents; many of my friends are now getting concerned about the quality of the public schools in the places they've wound up. That's the best-case scenario. The other scenarios are a lot worse.
Don't get me wrong: Teaching history is a wonderful job, and I feel very grateful to have it. (I'm at an R1 in a major city, by the way--I moved out of the two-stoplight town, lovely as it was, to take this position.) I had all the things that I dreamed of as an undergraduate--tenure, a book, doctoral students of my own--all on the friendly side of my 40th birthday. Overall it's been very fulfilling, and I've had opportunities that would have made my twenty-year-old brain explode right out of the back of my head. But like a lot of people, I got the advice "Only pursue a PhD in history if you cannot imagine doing anything else." And I took it. And it's worked out fine. But with a few extra years I realize that my inability to imagine any other life for myself was, more than anything, just a failure of imagination. I like being a historian a lot, but there are a dozen other things I can easily envision myself doing now with a similar kind of satisfaction.
I'm sure the rejection stings, but I hope the sting fades quickly. from my perspective, the law school plan has a lot to recommend it. You've got some time now while you put together new applications. Can you do some brainstorming about what else you might pursue? It's not as if law school and a history PhD are the only two options. Are there any jobs with MLB or with the Twins organization that you can pursue now, without a JD? People who are smart and can write are rare, and valuable; there may be ways to get a foot in the door without the commitment of additional schooling and additional debt. Just something to think about. Good luck. Here's to bouncing back quickly--to you, and to anyone else who is facing the difficulty of suddenly altered plans.

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. 

I would like this status, but I ran out of likes for the day.  You reminded me that the VU and UvA, Utrecht, and AU-Rome are still accepting applications and accept US student financial aide/loans. I have application waivers from VU and UvA, so maybe it doesn't hurt to try. Maybe this rejection is a sign to go ahead and make the move.  I wouldn't live anywhere in the USA other than Minneapolis, but I would love A'dam or Rome. The boyfriend lives in Berlin right now and he is willing/wanting to come back to Minne to be close to his family, but maybe I can talk to him about a 2 year research masters stint in A'dam or Rome...

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. 

You have time to decide what you want to do.  Going back to school has always been a goal of mine and I finally have the opportunity and time and support.  Getting into a phd program focusing on social justice issues and civil rights is a dream come true.  I put everything into going back to school and didnt have a back up plan because it was school or bust.  You have time.  Plus it sounds like you have other options you can persue.  Not getting in might be a great opportunity for you to really fine tune your goals.

I’m 41.  This is my second career...or will be hopefully.  My uncle is a professor at UMass and he didnt finish his Phd untill his mid-40s.  Age means little.  

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).