Riotbeard

Most likely Vandy's will be the best, as they are a private institution. My package from private school was 6k more than any I was offered at a public school...

First things first, I am sure you are doing fine, even if it doesn't feel like it. One thing about academia and especially research oriented humanities is that you can never do everything. You cannot (and no one can) look under every stone, so trying to is a waste of time. Every week, I take at least one day (or a good chunk of it) to my personal life. Find some connection to the world outside of academia. For me, this is keeping up with college football and going to shows (don't get me started on how hard it is to try and start dating someone in the first semester of my PhD). Grad school is hard definitely, but you don't have to make it harder. Talking in class is a confidence issue. If you got into an Ivy program you have the right stuff, what you need to do is practice contributing in class. Make yourself talk at least five times per meeting, and prepare talking points before you go into class (although don't make it sound like a prepared statement...). Make talking in class an assignment. The most important thing is that you create space for yourself outside of your work. Also bitching and moaning with other students is a great pass time, so invite a friend out for happy hour and commiserate.

I don't think the Masters is necessary in any way (assuming you don't have undergrad issues to make for or an unsure about the field). I don't have a Masters and I got a fair few admits. Most of the people in my program with Masters pursued that route because they did not have undergrad degrees in history. I do think you should spread your applications across a wider range of programs (ranking wise), their are an infinite number of reasons (many having nothing to do with qualifications or even you, I mean departmental constraints, etc.) that can keep you out. Also some programs prefer people without masters. I know a lot of the people in my cohort with masters are having issues because their work can't carry over.

I also think on the surface your pretty set, you just have to figure out how you want to present yourself.

You might wanna look at programs with more transnational approaches. I think it would be easier if you picked a geographic locale and era (because that is just how the field is structured), but I am not sure it is essential if you can find good historians who like transnational and have similar thematic interests, you may be able to avoid the geographic pigeon-holing but it is risky. It would be easier to select schools based on geographic focci, but NYU is really well-known for its Atlantic workshop.

When out with my cohort, I have noticed a significant in decline in shop talk (maybe down to 50% of the time from like 99%). As the conversations get fleshed out, people will begin talking about more interesting and normal stuff, but right now as a group people are have homogenous experiences and will blab about them. Give it time!

I clearly did not get into grad school for my typing skills...

I bike to and from school which is a round trip of nine miles. Plus I found another member of my cohort who likes to play (but also does not excel at) tennis, so we do that once a week. I would say I have the best exercise routine of my life now, considering I never had one before. The only reason I am not a fat ass at this point is due to a strict regiment exchanging cigarettes for actual food...

Tuesday: Long Civil Rights Movement 3:30-6:00 Wednesday: Latin American Social History 1:00-3:30 Thursday: Intro to historical Methods and Theory 3:30-6:15 No teaching this year!

Comparative slavery is not really my thing, so I can advise to look up authors of books you like (and their books' bibliographies for other scholars) and where they teach. Indiana and UPenn might be worth looking into but these places are very competitive also. It would be worth going to South Carolina and Georgia's departmental websites, because they are so strong in Southern they may also have some people working on African diaspora and/or comparative slavery. I think there is a good chance UFlorida has some decent people in comparative slavery and it may also be worth looking at LSU. Did anybody at your undergrad school do comparative slavery. If so I bet they would be more than willing to give you some good tips even if they weren't your advisor (or even if you didn't take classes. Scholars when we try to join academia!). You should really contact a comparative slavery person in your old department or the history department at your current school even though you are not doing history there. There advice can be invaluable and you form a good relationship with them, they may put in a good word (informally) for you to colleagues at other schools) That is my best advice I can give on figuring out some more places. Good luck!

I would definitely say apply to more schools and a wider range of rankings. All the places you are applying are insanely competitive (and I know a guy who got into maryland but no funding). That is not to say you won't get in, but that you should have some back ups. While going top 10 is a good leg up, you don't have to do it to succeed in academia. Tulane would be a good place to put on your list. We have some solid Atlantic and Southern historians, but the Latin American department is just insane for how good it is (it makes me wish I was a Latin Americanists). In general, I think it is worth applying but don't apply exclusively to those ultra-exclusive places, because at least this past year, amounts of funding were way down and number of applicants were way up, so just about every school became a lot more exclusionary.

It seems you have already made your decision. Med School takes a long time too. If that is what you know you want to do, then I can't see the benefit of sticking it out.

Tomorrow will be the second week of classes. So far I kind of love it (I moved in about a month ago). School is already keeping me busy (4 papers assigned the first week?!, to be fair two of them are only one page deals). I like my cohort a lot, and we have already been socializing together a ton. And a bunch the older grad student invited us out for drinks last weekend and they were really nice. Everybody seems pretty chill, and confident enough in their own work to not have to put up a bunch pretense. In short, so far so good.

David Duchovny was the badass star of the x-files thus too good for Yale.

New Orleans or Chicago?

Agreed, I have done the phone interview thing, but in visiting campuses before applying all of my interviews would be characterized as meetings. The importance of these things is academic (and too an extant social) chemistry between you and the professor. Questions that might be worth asking, are about the culture of the cohort and graduate students, department support, etc. In other words the types of things that define the professional culture of the program. These are the questions that cannot be answered from the webpage. Good luck, and I am sure you will do fine. If they asked to have a phone interview, they are obviously interested in you already, so congratulations!

I think interviews can be helpful to you but are not by any means required or expected. I didn't previously contact any of the faculty at the school I am starting at prior to acceptance. Also my GPA was a 3.9 something in history and a 3.8 overall, and I got fellowships or TA-ships from a good couple of schools. I don't think the cum laude matters that much, so much as your transcripts but if you graduated summa, I am sure all your grades are good even if there are a few non-As. It looks like you are decent track to apply to grad school to me. Your verbal score is pretty good (it isn't going to be a huge set back as is, but a bump up would never hurt). Also ask profs who may not be your LOR writer but you have a good relationship to drop an e-mail to any faculty they might now at places you are applying. I got along really well with the German Witch Hunt prof at my undergrad but I do Southern, so it was not ideal for him to write my LORs but he dropped colleagues a line at schools were he had friends. All of these things are helpful, but in general you seem on the right track but it is the intangibles that are the most important. Scores and GPA only get your foot in the door, it is the LORs, writing sample, and SOPs that will decide whether you get in. Also remember that you only have to get into one place, even if it's your last choice to keep going and make a name for yourself in academia. Good luck!

I am glad you understood in spite of my type-ohs

Networking as much as it sucks is essential to every field. As an illistrative story: Two years ago, I e-mailed a prof, who wrote the book on my research topic, a paper of mine for commentary etc. I never received any response. 4 months ago I e-mailed the same Prof. and dropped a name (in a tasteful and natural way) of a professor we both new, and also mentioned I was starting my Ph D. This time I received helpful comments even some probing questions on my statistical analysis. The point is self-promotion (as loathsome as it is) is essential when done right. The field is so competitive at every level, that even though your adviser will do their best to champion you, they can't pound the pavement for you. Good luck.

BTW, UVA has been having huge funding issues for a few years now... I e-mailed them two years ago and the two antebellum americanist were about to retire, and they could not afford to replace the Southern historian who had retired earlier. Not to say there isn't a decent chance but I know a couple on this forum got accepted without funding and I met somebody at another school visit who was in the same boat. Cheers.

Keep it as short as possible No More than 2 normal length paragraphs preferably to short ones (these people are busy with their own grad and undergrad students). I always offered to send a CV if they were interested. That being said, I think it's worth doing. If you can travel and meet with people at your top choices, it is helpful too (if you have good interview skills).

I was in a similar situation to you also. Coming from a less than renound school just means you have to tighten your application package. It took two go rounds for me but I had a very successful second app season. Also the faculty at South Carolina is amazing (I almost went there). They are a really underrated program. Great if you are going the Southern history route, but U.S. in general is good.

My orientation was this morning. We all just sat around a table with the DGS, then the 7 cohort members went to lunch unofficially. I wore jeans, etc. I was a sweat hog though after biking the 4.4 miles from my apartment to campus. New Orleans Lesson 1: Bring a clean shirt but ride your bike in an undershirt....

I live 4.4 mile from campus and plan on biking.

This is general advice. Take your time and don't try to get just anything published. With databases and all, it's a permanent record. Also try sending drafts to important profs in your subfield. I got really good feedback on my essay that I have been tweaking for two years now from a person I have never met.