lordtiandao

What kind of history do you plan on doing?

How do the numbers look if we break it down into areas of focus? It seems that East Asian history has a slightly better placement rate than European and American history. Within East Asian history, I've been told by a professor that Japanese history has the highest, followed by Chinese history. Any truth to this?

Both of my advisers are department heads at two of the eight UGC funded universities in Hong Kong. Both have told me that Hong Kong universities highly prefer candidates who graduated out of the top ten universities in the US, especially Ivies. In fact, for the institution I'm currently attending, the policy established by the dean is that if you're not from a top ten US school, you won't even get an interview (unless you graduate out of Cambridge or Oxford). Publication record is the next important thing after the prestige of the university you attended. Hong Kong universities compete with one another for rankings (since rankings determine funding), so they all want top US graduates who can pump out books, book chapters, and journal articles.

I've submitted all of mine, since my last deadline was the 15th. Good luck everyone!

Well I've contacted all but one program where I had this problem (person in charge wasn't picking up so I'll try again later) and was able to get them reuploaded as PDFs. So I guess if anyone else has a similar problem, contact the department. The big lesson here is always use PDF, not docx.

I've called UPenn and they said committee know it's a problem and if it makes me feel better I can send it to them as a PDF and they can upload it. I'll call my other programs and ask, but I'm mostly worried about the programs with earlier deadlines since it's been two weeks already. Stupid mistake on my part...I should have checked.

My writing sample is from a journal article that I submitted for publication. My field is Chinese history, so as you can imagine the paper has Chinese characters in it for names, keywords, and citations. However, I noticed that a lot of the application portals do not display them after I upload them as docx format, causing the Chinese text to become squares. I've already submitted my application, so I was just wondering if this is going to end up counting against me.

Definitely good that tuition waivers won't get taxed. The rest of the bill is still a disaster though.

Most universities won't mind letters coming in after the deadline since they'll most likely not start reviewing your applications until January (after winter break). USC, for instance, has told me that recommenders have until the end of the month to submit letters. One of my recommenders have also submitted late letters to Berkeley and Princeton and both were accepted by the system.

Because wildfires?

LPT: Put your SOPs into a text-to-speech website and have it read back to you. I have found so many tiny grammar errors and missing words that I did not catch while reading. But when it's read out loud, you'll immediately notice if something is out of place.

One of my recommenders also had a problem with USC (History). He told me nothing happens when he clicks on my name. I called the department and was told that professors should have until the end of the month to submit letters and the person I spoke to referred me to talk to tech support. I suggest you also give USC a call.

I'm kind of worried too. One of my letter writers have procrastinated until now to send them in, and one of my schools is not allowing him to submit it. It could be because the department doesn't accept late submissions, since their website clearly stated to have the letters in before Dec. 1. I need to call tomorrow and ask.

If the Republicans wants to deliver Trump a "win" before the end of the year, then the easiest thing to do is to just have the House vote and pass the Senate version of the bill. Otherwise, Reconciliation is going to be such a shitshow....

Chicago.

This is a good point too. I'll see if I can work it into the SOP.

Have you received especially information from professors and graduate students at your current school? Nothing particularly noteworthy. I did receive advice specifically for Princeton (since it's a school both my supervisor and I believe is a good fit for me). He told me that Princeton and the IAS attracts a lot of visiting scholars and speakers, which I hadn't considered before, so I wrote that into my SOP as why I believe Princeton was a good place for me to study. Have you received information that is at odds with the recommendations provided here? Yes. I was told by a member here that any unpublished paper should be put under "Works in Progress." My supervisor looked at CV and criticized me for it. He told me any paper that has been sent out for review is no longer considered a working paper and should be listed under "Publications" with a notation that it is under review. How have your attempts to establish rapport with potential POIs worked and not worked? I'm applying to nine schools and sent out e-mails to all nine. Five professors have gotten back to me with all very positive responses. One told me to ask him questions if I had any and that he would introduce me to some current graduate students at his program, but he never replied to my second e-mail. Two have shown serious interest in my work and strongly encouraged me to apply to work with them. One of the two has also offered to Skype with me, and I'm still waiting for his response. I found that it was a good idea to send them a CV, since both of them made it clear that they've looked at it and that they considered me a strong applicant. What is your "to do" list and schedule for the rest of the current term? Revise my paper based on reviewer comments and use it as a writing sample, then resubmit. Go over SOP and PS one more time by deadline. Send out applications by deadline. Apply for a conference. Continue writing my thesis. How are you balancing your current responsibilities with your applications? I'm doing alright. I've already sent out one application since I needed to get the application in before I could send transcripts and GRE scores. I've already finished most of the SOPs. I wrote two versions for my two top choice schools which I'm using as a basic template for all other programs. I usually devote one day specifically to applications and the rest of the time I work on my own stuff. I just need to make sure all my recommenders remember to send in their letters by the deadline.

Hi everyone! I study history (so I'm usually over at the history subforum), focusing on Imperial and Late Imperial China. Most of the programs I'm applying to are history, but I will be applying to East Asian programs at Princeton and UPenn.

Great, thank you!

I e-mailed a POI two weeks ago and got a great response. He said he would introduce me to a couple of current graduate students and encouraged me to ask him some questions, which I did. However, he has not yet replied and I can only assume that he's too busy and forgot about it. What's a good way to write a polite e-mail to remind him about my questions? Thanks in advance!

Any history applicants willing to look over my SOP? I'll be more than glad to return the favor!

Crap, I completely forgot about differentiating between works in progress and actual publications.

Yes that's true. Two of the POIs I want to apply to are highly recommended by my current advisers and they all know each other. I'll wait two weeks and send another e-mail. I'm not sure if their responsiveness to an applicant's e-mail can reflect how good of an advisor they are. I would think that they would prioritize their own students' e-mails over inquiries from applicants.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. I have too that haven't gotten back to me for almost two weeks now so I'm thinking of sending them another message. Thanks!

What's a good way of sending a follow-up e-mail to professors who don't reply? Send a brand new e-mail or reply to the first e-mail?