OHSP

Guys! I got in! First school to hear from this application cycle: University Nebraska Lincoln, M.A. program. Got the email from my POI personally and then an email from the department minutes later. Waiting for a formal letter with funding info. I applied to 6 M.A. programs and 2 M.A./Ph.D. programs. Literally so excited and happy. 

hahahaha I was in Berlin during one cycle... yup.  I feel you.  Once my German classes were over and I was on my own, I changed my entire sleep cycle to EST.

To those also waiting on Wisconsin Madison, I received an email from my POI that says they are close to making decisions, they are only selecting a small incoming group from a pool of very competitive candidates, I am in the top bracket, and they want to maximise the chance that candidates will accept their offers. There's also a more personal note from my POI re how it's a great fit etc - U-WM's faculty is like a dream given my interests. Did anyone else get this email and also does anyone have any tips re responding? It's definitely not an admission - seems more like an opportunity to convince them that I want to go there. 

Hi I'm from 1893 and I'd like to tell you the objective truth about our cutting edge advances in racial science. Onward empire!

stillalivetui - they are not serious in the sense that they are not as committed to objective analysis as most Historians are.
 
ashiepoo72 - you are correct in saying that a scholar can be both interdisciplinary and also objective. I completely agree and I believe that the famous Bernard Lewis is a great example of that (he now works in an interdisciplinary department). However, it is much harder to be both interdisciplinary and objective and when you stick to traditional academic approaches it is much easier to be objective.

To the OP - yes, History is being diluted with radical post-modernist interdisciplinary nonsense. It truly is awful.
 
This does not mean I hate new ways of thinking and new approaches to things, but at a certain point History is not really History anymore... :/

Yeah, I don't think I hear anything back until at least late January last year. And I'm pretty sure that I didn't hear from my last program until March.
I feel your pain, everyone.  Waiting is horrible! 

Hey Praxis34, thanks! I hope it goes okay. My subfield is Modern Europe, if that helps to ease your concerns! I'll also pop by here again tomorrow to let you know if the professor says anything about the stage they're at with all of the applications more generally.

Well, the phone call happened. Nothing's official, but he said that he's going to advocate for the department committee to nominate me for a university wide fellowship and he hopes that I'll be in the first group of students they send acceptances to. So there's actually a decent chance I may be a PhD student in the fall.

Judging by a quick search in the results section of this website for Wisconsin history, admissions decisions haven't been released until the first week of February at the earliest. Assuming this year is no different, there's still some time! I have a little memo in my phone that tracks when decisions have been released in the past to remind myself to not panic prematurely! 

I'm extremely uncomfortable with the idea that we need to have a defined notion of history (who's defining it? Why are they the one who get that power?) that needs to be enforced.

You asked if history is getting diluted...maybe it should be diluted in the sense that it is extremely multifaceted. I don't think eliminating military history is the answer--and obviously I don't think this is what happened, as I had no problem finding programs with strong military components in history. But I don't think defining history in strict, bookended terms is the answer either. That seems quite regressive in my mind. But what do I know, I'm a lowly grad student not a premiere historian.