OHSP

Firstly, I second everyone's commiserations and the general advice to take care of yourself! Secondly, beyond ruling you out if they're terrible, stats really don't matter--cohort sizes are so small that basically no one is being admitted simply because they look good on paper (because too many people look good on paper)--it's really about making your project sound ~~~amazing~~~, which is also going to be true for every other thing you're asked to compete for throughout grad schools (internal and external fellowships etc). I know you mention fit etc but I wonder if you might be over-focusing on fit and under-focusing on "selling your project" in a way that makes you sound super special and exciting to work with. My applications were basically like, the project I have in mind is SO urgent, potentially FIELD-ALTERING, I'm **uniquely positioned** blah blah blah--it's v painful to go back and read that SoP now but it was frankly very effective. The importance of "standing out" is sometimes under-emphasized, even though it's vitally important. If you end up needing to apply a third time I'd be focused on totally re-framing the proposed project (though fingers crossed that you hear back from one of the remaining schools soon)!

Firstly, I second everyone's commiserations and the general advice to take care of yourself! Secondly, beyond ruling you out if they're terrible, stats really don't matter--cohort sizes are so small that basically no one is being admitted simply because they look good on paper (because too many people look good on paper)--it's really about making your project sound ~~~amazing~~~, which is also going to be true for every other thing you're asked to compete for throughout grad schools (internal and external fellowships etc). I know you mention fit etc but I wonder if you might be over-focusing on fit and under-focusing on "selling your project" in a way that makes you sound super special and exciting to work with. My applications were basically like, the project I have in mind is SO urgent, potentially FIELD-ALTERING, I'm **uniquely positioned** blah blah blah--it's v painful to go back and read that SoP now but it was frankly very effective. The importance of "standing out" is sometimes under-emphasized, even though it's vitally important. If you end up needing to apply a third time I'd be focused on totally re-framing the proposed project (though fingers crossed that you hear back from one of the remaining schools soon)!

Firstly, I second everyone's commiserations and the general advice to take care of yourself! Secondly, beyond ruling you out if they're terrible, stats really don't matter--cohort sizes are so small that basically no one is being admitted simply because they look good on paper (because too many people look good on paper)--it's really about making your project sound ~~~amazing~~~, which is also going to be true for every other thing you're asked to compete for throughout grad schools (internal and external fellowships etc). I know you mention fit etc but I wonder if you might be over-focusing on fit and under-focusing on "selling your project" in a way that makes you sound super special and exciting to work with. My applications were basically like, the project I have in mind is SO urgent, potentially FIELD-ALTERING, I'm **uniquely positioned** blah blah blah--it's v painful to go back and read that SoP now but it was frankly very effective. The importance of "standing out" is sometimes under-emphasized, even though it's vitally important. If you end up needing to apply a third time I'd be focused on totally re-framing the proposed project (though fingers crossed that you hear back from one of the remaining schools soon)!

Firstly, I second everyone's commiserations and the general advice to take care of yourself! Secondly, beyond ruling you out if they're terrible, stats really don't matter--cohort sizes are so small that basically no one is being admitted simply because they look good on paper (because too many people look good on paper)--it's really about making your project sound ~~~amazing~~~, which is also going to be true for every other thing you're asked to compete for throughout grad schools (internal and external fellowships etc). I know you mention fit etc but I wonder if you might be over-focusing on fit and under-focusing on "selling your project" in a way that makes you sound super special and exciting to work with. My applications were basically like, the project I have in mind is SO urgent, potentially FIELD-ALTERING, I'm **uniquely positioned** blah blah blah--it's v painful to go back and read that SoP now but it was frankly very effective. The importance of "standing out" is sometimes under-emphasized, even though it's vitally important. If you end up needing to apply a third time I'd be focused on totally re-framing the proposed project (though fingers crossed that you hear back from one of the remaining schools soon)!

You wait. 

NYU's making a lot of changes--in the past decade or so it was not typical, but interviews definitely occurred this year in at least some fields. In the past few years cohort sizes have been cut dramatically, which improves the 6th year + internal grants funding situation for those who receive an offer, amongst other benefits of smaller cohorts. I think the reduction in intake is also a response to the realities of the job market. 

I applied in the Fall 2019 cycle to 5 schools and ended up with 4 rejections and 1 admit. My general background: 2 years at a SLAC/Ivy right out of high school (3 strong semesters followed by one disaster semester, withdrew with a 3.33 GPA), worked throughout my 20s, finished my BA in History during those years at an R2 state school (completed a thesis through the school's honors college, graduated with a 4.0), applied for PhD programs in my early 30s a few years after finishing the BA. My approach to the process and lessons learned:
1. Understand your research questions and why they are significant. Before you do anything else, you need a rock-solid understanding of your research questions, how you'll answer them, and why they matter. What has the existing scholarship said about your proposed topic and why do you think that historiography needs to be challenged/expanded? What methodological and theoretical approaches inform your work? This is the foundation of a successful SoP; it's the difference between passion for history and preparedness for historical work. Students in my program write an article-length research work by the end of their first year; you need to show you will arrive on campus already able to formulate and investigate historical research questions.
2. Do your research on programs and professors. Once I felt confident on point 1 above, I launched into research on programs and professors. Who are the big names in your subfield and methodology? Where do they teach? What are their former students doing now? Who are the early career historians whose work you admire and where did they train? Who else in a department aside from Dr. Big Name could be part of your training? If you are proposing interdisciplinary, transnational, or comparative work, look at other relevant departments' offerings AND make sure the History department will support that approach. I made a spreadsheet as I went, with information on the structure of the program (coursework, language requirements, when do students take comps, coursework outside of history, etc.), potential faculty mentors, and practical information (application deadline and requirements, funding package, teaching expectations, etc.). 
3. Choose quality over quantity. Once you have a list of programs you're considering, start narrowing it down. All available evidence says that where you get your PhD matters much more than simply getting one. On the advice of my faculty mentors, I decided at the outset that I would either go to a top-tier school with five guaranteed years of funding or I wouldn't go at all. That meant there were many schools that never made it onto my spreadsheet. For those that did, I emailed potential advisers a version of the following: "I'm a prospective grad student planning to research X. I am contacting you because of your work on X and the department's strengths in Y. Will you be taking on new graduate students in the upcoming year?" Some never wrote back, some responded that their department wouldn't be the right fit for my work and suggested others I should explore, some wrote back enthusiastically and we spoke via email or phone as I was preparing my applications. I applied to 5 programs and in retrospect only 1 or 2 of those were actually solid choices. My rejections make perfect sense in hindsight because my work didn't fit those departments' approach, faculty strengths, etc. There were several places I didn't apply that I should have (some out of oversight, some out of stubbornness about not living in Southern California).
4. Show them you can accomplish what you say you can. Your SoP is where you tell them what you plan to do; your writing sample is where you show them that you can accomplish it. Submit original primary source research, ideally showcasing the language and methodology skills you'll use for your graduate research. I considered submitting a section of my undergraduate thesis, but decided to revise and condense the whole work into a 20 page sample. I went through paragraph by paragraph and included only the sections most crucial to my argument. Once I had it cut down to sample length, I asked faculty mentors to read it and offer feedback. 
5. Behave as if you're already their colleague. You are applying for a paid apprenticeship on the path to guild membership. Do your best to show that you will be a professional, teachable, and motivated colleague. Although not focused on academia, the archives at Ask A Manager have excellent information on general professional norms in a US context. Some specifics from my process: sending thank you emails after in-person or phone meetings, asking thoughtful questions (i.e. not questions that are answered on the department's website), and being prepared to talk about my professional goals. That last point can feel especially fraught, because everyone knows the miserable state of the job market. But this is the time to talk about why you're doing this and what kind of professional academic historian you're training to be.  

Currently grappling with the reality that I probably didn’t get into Penn and UVA based on a lack of communication. I’m just reminding myself that I worked hard to get here and that no matter the result, nothing will change that. I hope it works out for myself and everyone else but just remember there’s always next year and if we are truly passionate about this field of study, nothing will keep us from eventually reaching our goals ? good luck everyone 

I can't think of a single person in my program who is finishing or has finished before sixth year and that's including folks with MAs and people who I think of as having "finished quickly."
I'd plan on six years and take that into consideration when you make choices, i.e., ask about funding beyond the fifth year because it's very likely you will need it. Most schools cannot put it in writing that you'll get a sixth year of funding (hence the "five year package") but they have informal procedures— ask what grad students are doing for the sixth year? if they're getting funding from the department, in what form and how is it allotted? if you get an external fellowship, are you allowed to get that year "back" later on (e.g., if you win a prestigious fellowship that funds your 4th year, do you get that "4th year funding" back as a sixth year? etc)
 
 

The PhD is a totally different process to the MA and so PhD coursework is completed to different ends--often towards the ends of building a relationship w a professor that might last well beyond your dissertation, or towards the end of early research etc etc etc. You don't "kill the purpose of the MA" by doing PhD coursework (that's a kind of bizarre way to understand your MA). I don't know of anyone at NYU who has or who would reduce their funding to 4 years just so that they can get out of coursework credits--you can always just take "independent studies"--and most ppl I know at NYU, incld myself, enter w a masters. It's not that some programs "run longer" than others--people just take different amounts of time to complete. 

The PhD is a totally different process to the MA and so PhD coursework is completed to different ends--often towards the ends of building a relationship w a professor that might last well beyond your dissertation, or towards the end of early research etc etc etc. You don't "kill the purpose of the MA" by doing PhD coursework (that's a kind of bizarre way to understand your MA). I don't know of anyone at NYU who has or who would reduce their funding to 4 years just so that they can get out of coursework credits--you can always just take "independent studies"--and most ppl I know at NYU, incld myself, enter w a masters. It's not that some programs "run longer" than others--people just take different amounts of time to complete. 

The Berkeley one sounds legit to me, but it doesn't really matter. Some POIs email their students before official notifications go out, other admits have to wait until the official notifications, some programs wait list, others notify in waves based on internal funding allocation or other reasons. The only notification that matters is yours.

IMO, this take is controversial. An email gets caught up in a spam filter, a professor mis-sorts email on his phone, a historian is exceptionally busy when an email arrives and her intention to reply falls off her radar, a pending deadline, an ill kid, and a death in the family are among the myriad reasons why a professional might not reply to an email. 
To judge someone's level of helpfulness based upon a single exchange (one way or another) is not a beneficial practice.

I really appreciate the information that @psstein and @OHSP provided. I hope that my focus area is interesting to the admissions committee. I am also hoping that the one faculty member that I hope to work under returns to the UW beginning in the Fall term. Although, I would be happy to work with any of the three faculty members that I spoke with before submitting my application. Regarding the funding aspect of things, I have four years of my GI Bill to cover a good portion of my time as a PhD student.

Ditto TMP's comment. Also, I was accepted to Wisconsin in 2017 (turned it down) and they made it exceptionally clear that their admissions are at least 90% about advisor/candidate fit -- without trying to be harsh I would say the CV question is a little misguided. GPAs, papers, research experience etc are not so important (unless your GPA is awful). They want to admit candidates whose projects/questions they are excited about and who they think are ready to work towards the phd--there's such limited funding and the job market is so terrible that admissions are often based on bringing in people whose projects/backgrounds/etc create some level of excitement amongst faculty. 

Ditto TMP's comment. Also, I was accepted to Wisconsin in 2017 (turned it down) and they made it exceptionally clear that their admissions are at least 90% about advisor/candidate fit -- without trying to be harsh I would say the CV question is a little misguided. GPAs, papers, research experience etc are not so important (unless your GPA is awful). They want to admit candidates whose projects/questions they are excited about and who they think are ready to work towards the phd--there's such limited funding and the job market is so terrible that admissions are often based on bringing in people whose projects/backgrounds/etc create some level of excitement amongst faculty. 

Honestly, this is not worth fretting over.  You don't know how many of those applications are actually competitive.

I strongly advise against this as a policy--some professors receive an enormous number of emails from prospective students, as well as managing classes, current students, whatever else they have going on in their lives etc. People who did not respond to my emails while I was applying have turned out to be great advisors. Given your interests I would think more carefully about nyu.

I strongly advise against this as a policy--some professors receive an enormous number of emails from prospective students, as well as managing classes, current students, whatever else they have going on in their lives etc. People who did not respond to my emails while I was applying have turned out to be great advisors. Given your interests I would think more carefully about nyu.

I strongly advise against this as a policy--some professors receive an enormous number of emails from prospective students, as well as managing classes, current students, whatever else they have going on in their lives etc. People who did not respond to my emails while I was applying have turned out to be great advisors. Given your interests I would think more carefully about nyu.

I strongly advise against this as a policy--some professors receive an enormous number of emails from prospective students, as well as managing classes, current students, whatever else they have going on in their lives etc. People who did not respond to my emails while I was applying have turned out to be great advisors. Given your interests I would think more carefully about nyu.

Foucalt has had a pretty large impact on both the humanities and social sciences. Every professor trained after ca. 1980 fits this description.

Also I don't really know anyone who didn't find the first semester difficult (for so many reasons). Take the advice above re reading, talk to other people in your program, trust that you'll get the hang of it. I did too much of the reading in my first semester, not realizing that a) skimming is expected and normal and b) pretending you've read the whole book even though you skimmed most of it is also normal. 

^ this. 

This might sound like an odd suggestion but have you considered NYU -- it may not obvious from their profiles but there are a lot of profs there who interests intersect with yours... maybe look into Julie Livingston and everyone connected to the Atlantic worlds program.