Antebellum

Hi everyone! I am happy to announce that I will be attending the University of Tennessee this fall! If anyone else is heading that way feel free to PM me. I guess I should prepare to listen to the sounds of Rocky Top... *shudders*

Hi all, I figured it's been nearly a year since this topic has been active so I would bump it up a bit and get some attention. I will likely be attending the UTK history graduate program this fall and am looking into apartments in the area. I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the area south of the river, as some of the apartments I have seen are located there. I'd ideally be able to find a place that is close to downtown as well as campus and South Knoxville seems like a good compromise. In terms of the city overall, I was wondering how much it feels like a college town. Are there any other cities you would compare it to? From what I can tell it's bigger and less college-centered than other SEC schools (thinking about Tuscaloosa, Fayetteville, Athens, etc) but isn't quite a major metro. I'll be moving from a big city and am not exactly looking forward to jumping all the way back to a small town. So any info on the urban aspects of living in Knoxville would be greatly appreciated.

Hi! First off, congratulations on making the decision to continue on toward a graduate program in history! I went through countless revisions with my adviser on my SoP while applying to PhD programs. I'm actually moving on to one from a terminal MA history program so I worked closely with the director of graduate studies to fine tune my SoP from a heaping pile of crap to just a mini pile that didn't smell quite as bad. I also went through the same questions of how much can you reuse going from one school to the other. My adviser made it clear that you absolutely can reuse the general framework. In the process of revising your statement, you'll find some phrases that you really like and that flow really well. You can reuse these! When you work so hard to revise your SoP you should be able to swap some aspects for sure, especially when you are talking about your own experience and research interests. It is in how you tie this experience and discussion of your interests into your argument on why [insert school here] is the best for you that matters. Second, while I don't know how true it is whether PhD programs care about where you got an MA from, I don't believe there are many ways in which it can be seen as a hindrance. With how competitive PhD spots are as funding pools diminish, schools (especially state schools) want to make sure that you can hit the ground running and are ready to work toward your dissertation. Candidates with MAs therefore are ideally meant to be more prepared. Now I'm sure people will comment on how this makes an assumption and how students entering w/o an MA could be just as prepared, but it's a reasonable claim. Therefore, I think any extra schooling beyond undergrad is looked favorably upon by admission committees. Hope this helps a little and I look forward to what input others can provide!

I know quite a few people who live in Logan Square and go to DePaul. It's a relatively easy bus ride away from campus so that's good. Other than that, you can definitely find relatively affordable apartments in Lincoln Park or Lakeview but you just have to really do some digging! They are out there but will be tough to find. Still, it's nice to be able to walk to campus if you are close enough and those neighborhoods are incredibly beautiful.

UNC - Chapel Hill. I'm hoping there are some people making their final decisions soon because while I would me more than happy to accept my other offer, UNC would certainly be a better option on paper. We shall see! Sending good vibes to my fellow wait listed compatriots!

Hi all! So I have a question and update. Since I'm not making a decision exactly yet, I decided to post here rather than the Decisions Thread. I don't want to go into too much details (at least not yet) but I was admitted to one program and waitlisted at the other. The first one is a school of average reputation with a US history program that is certainly not the most prestigious, yet not terrible. Their financial package was certainly not anything to gloat about, but it is something and I would be able to make due with external funds and the potential for additional funds later on. Where they do shine is that the prof who would be my adviser seems perfectly aligned with my interests and, while not the biggest name in the industry, is the type of person who would do everything they can to help me succeed. The school I am waitlisted for obviously hasn't told me what their financial resources are, but even my potential adviser at School #1 very candidly let me know that an offer from the waitlist school would likely be much more. Additionally, my potential adviser there is a bigger name while still seems like someone fairly dedicated to their students. I reached out to my waitlisted school to ask if they had a deadline by which I might know for sure ether way regarding my decision (not realizing that April 15 was indeed the universal decision deadline). They let me know today that they hoped to send out offers to waitlisted students next week but nothing was set in stone and they sometimes have offers extended on the 15th. They then asked what my status is and if I am considering other programs. How much detail should I provide in my response? Should I let them know the exact school I have an offer from? Because it is not as prestigious, I wouldn't want it to diminish how they view me at School #2. I may be over thinking all of this, but I don't want to seem rude to either program and certainly don't want to make it seem like I am using anything as leverage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hey at least you've been waitlisted! I've head back from 5/11 schools and it's been nothing but rejections. What I really mean to say is keep your chin up. I think the majority of people are still waiting. Talking to profs at my current school, they all tell me the same thing-- to keep waiting to hear back because plenty of schools send out admissions in March. In fact, they were surprised to hear of so many responses in February. This is one of the ways in which I think this site can sort of hurt the process. Seeing so many people being accepted to schools I never applied to in fields of history I am not a part of somehow has me directly comparing myself to them and their successes. The majority of grad students aren't even on this site! While it's a great tool and fantastic community, I think it's crucial to not get so caught up in the site that you forget about why you are going to grad school and what you want to do. So keep hanging in there because we are all in this together!

Yeah, I got a rejection from Vanderbilt last Friday (as well as Columbia and Virginia in case anyone is looking for info on those ). So you've definitely made it past a wave of rejections regarding Vandy and it sounds like you're in! I seriously doubt they would be contacting you about that stuff if you weren't, so take heart!

I applied to Tennessee and haven't heard anything back yet... just like 8 other schools to which I applied, haha. Hopefully we will both get some good news soon!

Hi guys, kind of a weird thing happened to me today. As I went through my normal process of neurotically logging on and checking the status of the schools I have left, I went on to my GWU account and it is blank. Just the other day when I logged on it showed me that my application was 100% complete and said it was being reviewed as it has ever since I first submitted it. Now all that is there is something that says "My Events" and nothing else. There aren't any links to click on or anything. I also haven't heard from anyone at GWU so it's not like I have been admitted or rejected and they cleared my application (as far as I know). Anyone know anything or have a similar experience? Edit: It seems there was a problem with the version of Chrome I was using. Nothing new to report!

Aw man, I'm an Americanist too and also applied to 11 schools. One of them was UNC and I haven't heard back from them yet so I'm guessing that is not good news for me. Congratulations though! It's tough for us US historians and I really think it does come down to a decent amount of luck.

Hey don't worry at all about meeting professors and your visits! First off, just be thankful you have visits to go to and aren't stuck in limbo waiting for any acceptance like some of us haha. It's definitely a good idea to familiarize yourself with their work, but don't worry about memorizing everything they have written and every argument they have made. From what I understand, the purpose of the visits is to see if the school and faculty are good for you, not if you are good for them (they already know you're good for them since they invited you to visit). Overall just relax and be yourself because they want to get to know you! Haha someone had to do it and it is greatly appreciated. It would honestly be like winning the lottery for me--not just because it would be so amazing but mainly because my chances are the same! Either way, I look forward to tomorrow and wish all other Princeton applicants the best of luck!

*Cries silently in the corner, clutching my copy of James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom* Like @a.n.d and you, I also applied to Tennessee. Haven't heard anything from them yet so still holding out hope!

Yep! 19th century Civil War era too which is pretty much the most overpopulated section of American history. I've known all along that getting into a PhD program would be an uphill battle--even more so than the Battle of Chickamauga! Wow I need to get out more... Anyway yeah when cuts are being made in acceptance in all areas, it's tough for everyone. Fingers crossed for everyone else who is in the same boat!

First post in this part of the forum. I got my rejection letter from Northwestern a couple weeks ago and also applied to Chicago (in addition to loads of others). NW was a BIG hit on my confidence because I had thought that it and Chicago would be ones that I might have had a better chance at getting into because a prof I've worked with closely while doing my current MA is fairly close to some of the profs in each program. Now hearing that Chicago and Columbia have sent out offers already and having not heard from them means I'm probably 0/3 so far. I guess there's nothing left to do though except keep our chins up and hope for the best! I'm pretty much begging to just get into ONE program!