psstein

This is not something I'd discuss in public, regardless of your position on marijuana legalization. Open discussion of drug use, at least in my experience, is not received well. It's also probably important to understand that your university can insist you submit to drug tests as a condition of employment. That five-year offer you got is not guaranteed. It's far more conditional than it looks at first glance. To answer your question: most people won't care, but I would not advertise it.

Privacy laws generally prevent that. I can tell you that, at Wisconsin, we're interviewing two Ivy graduates and one comparable public program graduate for our history of technology position.

I think that's fine. I would also try to solicit some feedback on your applications as well, as that may prove useful for your future applications.

Depends on the program. Some have a "waitlist" which essentially means a rejection. Some have a functional waitlist.

Not sure, my gut reaction is yes.

This is a very intelligent move. The job market for everything is bad, but 19th and 20th century US suffer from incredible oversaturation.

A lot of Wisconsin-Madison offers went out today. If you were accepted and want to ask questions, please feel free to PM me.

Chicago may have referred you for the MAPPS, in which case you'll hear in 2-3 weeks.

Not that I've heard. I spoke to someone who sat in on the meeting and all he told me was "they're going out soon." I would expect knowing this week, but it honestly seems like every program is notifying earlier than in past, save a few.

History of Science programs are trending towards integration with broader history departments. The HoS program in Wisconsin sends out acceptances with the history department, and I think Columbia's does as well.

This is a total aside, but anyone who talks about "safety," "reach," and "match" for graduate schools has missed the point of graduate education. It's not "get into graduate school." It's "find a job after graduate school." Also, in what fantasy world is NYU not an outstanding program?

I guess we're being especially blunt, so I'll just tack this on too: US history jobs are probably the most competitive of all, simply because there are a ton of applicants. Post-Civil War United States is arguably the most oversaturated field for PhD candidates in the United States. US history is, in a very real sense, a bit more protected from the current trend of department consolidation, but that doesn't mean the jobs are there. Many of the US history jobs these days go to people who work on transnational/colonial US topics. You're not likely to find too many US legal historians anymore. They just don't exist outside of law schools. Choosing a US history PhD because of "ease" is a very bad decision. I shifted into history of US medicine, but I'd be quite surprised if my dissertation doesn't end up focusing on tropical/colonial medicine in one way or another.

It's shorthand for "alternates to academia." Given that the vast majority of PhD students in history will never have a tenured academic job, it's wise to know if there are other career paths available and supported.

In that case, what are the placements like (ideally into other PhD programs), what resources are available (I have firsthand experience with William and Mary's library, it's not a great system), are there alt-ac resources, which there should be.

Ask about funding for the MA.

A few things to say here: it's perfectly normal for your research interests to shift and develop as you get more exposure to the field. I applied to graduate school to do early modern history of astronomy. Due to a variety of strange and unforeseen events, I now work primarily on 20th century US medicine. As for your future applications, you're not stuck in whatever you did in undergrad. I spent a lot of my undergrad working with a New Testament specialist, and my undergraduate thesis was actually on a highly technical element of New Testament studies. If you want to do an early modern/medieval topic, you need to have the requisite languages. That means, at a minimum, an ancient language (most frequently Latin, you can have ancient Greek if you make a case for it) and a European research language, most frequently German or French. As for the MA, if it's funded, then yes, you should do it. I would recommend looking at the MA's placement into other PhD programs, but that's slightly more of a secondary concern than the resources available. I would also recommend consulting some of the world class medievalists who teach at your current university. They have insight into the field that most of us will never have.

I'm attending a meeting tomorrow that will almost certainly cover these sorts of questions. I know roughly how many offers are going out for history and HSMT, but I'm not yet sure they're finalized. I

If Chicago doesn't contact you now, they may do so in March with a MAPPS offer. That's what happened to me.

Congratulations on Princeton! What are your research interests?

UW-Madison folks, you should hear no later than the end of the week.

I'm going to send you a PM about placement as well. Harvard is an excellent program, but something that may prove useful for you is figuring out what your potential advisor's students' work looks like. I didn't do this when I made program decisions, which was not a good decision. Long story short, I ended up wanting to do something much more rooted in technical history of science than the person I applied to work with was interested in doing. I ended up changing advisors and fields entirely during my second semester of graduate school. I would lie if I said it didn't negatively affect my work. I would also point out that your research interests will shift somewhat. Someone whose work aligns perfectly with yours right now may not do so in four or five years. NYU has a bizarre notification system. I think they either accept or reject in waves. My best friend in graduate school got a rejection very late in the process.

Do not, under any circumstances, be rude. Scholars have a very long memory. A professor here wrote an unflattering review of one of Londa Schiebinger's books. 10 years after, my professor organized a lunch with her and Donna Harraway. Schiebinger refused to be at the same table as my professor, who herself is far from obscure. You have two very good offers already. I would recommend visiting both with the intention of accepting. Meet with the faculty and the graduate students. See how well you get along with them. You may find that you get along far better with a NW advisor and graduate students than Harvard's graduate students. Indeed, some of the least impressive graduate students I've ever met were in an otherwise excellent program. You might find that the Harvard advisor and you don't have the same personality type. These are all highly important considerations you need to take into account. You cannot get them from a distance. If you are legitimately interested in going to NW, you should send an email explaining the situation and ask if they're willing to match Harvard. I wouldn't do this unless you actually are interested, because it's somewhat tacky otherwise.

Nobody, especially faculty, wants to meet on a Friday afternoon. I have a general sense of how many offers are going out, but I can't tell you anything substantive like sub-field/advisor/etc.

I have no idea. Normally, they go out about a day or two later. I think I got mine on a Tuesday or something.

I would share my funding information. It's two years old, but things haven't changed all that much. You applied for a MA from Villanova. You should know that most MAs in the United States are not fully funded.