urbanhistorynerd

Oh, gotcha! I was a little optimistic for a second. ?
 

That was mine! I never ended up submitting it. In fact, even though a couple people here posted they got in, I don't think anyone has submitted theirs.
And I filled it out incorrectly. This is sign that I shouldn't try doing anything without two cups of coffee in the morning...

Ugh I wish. My best guess is they sent out some definite acceptances and some definite rejects, are waiting to see if they get any immediate responses and then firming up the wait list with possibly a handful more acceptances (but if we haven't heard anything yet I'm personally expecting rejections). 

Agreed. One potential question to ask: is this program going to train me to be the historian I want to be? Does it offer the language classes, training, funding, and intellectual environment I think I need? And, on my visiting weekend, did I see evidence of these important aspects of the program? In my own field, HYP&S are generally not the programs that are going to produce strong historians (with important exceptions that admitted students have to keep in mind!).

Telling POIs that I wasn't going to attend, despite loving pretty much all of them, was actually the hardest and worst part of the whole application process for me. It's difficult! 
Re placement I'm going to PM you--placement rates are obviously very important. That said... I'd encourage people to tweak the way they're thinking about placement statistics--as in, instead of just looking at the placement rates for your school or even for your field, think about how well the school is going to be able to set you (in particular) up for placement in the kinds of jobs you think you might want after the PhD. Again for me the ivy school had great placement rates, but the students getting jobs were all doing relatively traditional kinds of history and I couldn't really see evidence that their non-traditional, interdisciplinary students were getting jobs in the kinds of departments I'd ultimately want to apply to--at the school I'm now attending, placement into Am studies and interdisciplinary departments is much better (especially if you work across departments once you get here), and so that made more sense for me. In other words, the details are important. 

Good grief @urbanhistorynerd, I wouldn't cross off all other schools you have been accepted to just because you got into Harvard.  This period is a "courting" period which professors (and graduate students) try to woo you into accepting the offer. You'll never have this kind of attention again so please, please savour every moment and hold off making final decisions until after campus visits.
I second @psstein. Campus visits are SO, SO, SO important. I've seen many decisions on this board over the years which campus visits unsettled people's pre-campus visit decisions like @ashiepoo72. (Although I was very set on going to OSU, when I visit Wisconsin, I loved Madison more than I expected and almost decided to go there instead.) You'll also get a much better feel for the city as a graduate student, not a tourist. Also, campus visits will allow you to meet other potential members of your cohort so  you have a good sense of who you will be taking seminars and studying for the cmps with until you all become ABDs.
In terms of your phone call, I would not go push for increase in the funding package until you have full information from Harvard.  You need a leverage in hand.  But you can ask about additional funding opportunities for research, language study, digital humanities, whatever.  Ask how US history PhD students do with external grants. Also, you'll have Kevin Boyle who is simply outstanding as a teacher and as a writer of 20th c. US History. 

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.

Yes, it's rude to say sorry but not interested after they've spent time thinking about you and your work. It's also not a great move to ask for more money (which your POI might look into, spend time on) if you pretty much know that at the end of the day you're going to choose Harvard. Don't be That Harvard Person, people remember it!
Instead think about this as a chance to learn more about another program, where you'll have peers in your field etc, and to network with this faculty member--you never know what your situation will be in a few years, and don't give them a reason to remember you (when you're on the job market, etc) as the grad student who ruled out their offer without even hearing about the program. Be honest, say you have other offers, if they ask you where you can even mention Harvard, but also use the time to genuinely ask about their program because who knows what you'll learn. And then if you really know that you're not going to be accepting their offer, the moment you get your official letter from Harvard let them know and put someone on the waitlist out of their agony.
**edited to add, for the benefit of everyone, that when you're weighing offers it pays to be open-minded. I did not expect to be at the school I'm at, I applied at the last moment and it was my least "prestigious" blah blah blah offer, but I think if I had chosen one of the more prestigious schools (and I would mostly have been picking them for "going to an ivy" type reasons, which are not good reasons) I'd probably be living to regret it, because none of those schools were as interdisciplinary as my work basically needs to be. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm assuming you'll be attending admitted students day/week soon? See you there!

Re: Columbia stipend, it's supposed to increase by 3% every year, so the (GSAS) graduate stipend for 2019-2020 is a nine-month stipend of $30,232 plus the summer support of $3,884 for 2020 - just got an email from GSAS about this update two days ago. (tuition, insurance, and most of the fees are covered ofc). Also, there are a number of internal summer travel/research fellowships every year to support overseas archival research/language training on top of the nine-month stipend and the summer support.
I second OHSP and paisleytree, living in NYC isn't a financial nightmare if you keep an eye on how you spend and budgeting, and being good at cooking never hurts. I'm also an international student~

@urbanhistorynerd As to the highest stipend packages, it’s my understanding that the Yale PhD in law has a stipend in the mid-50s.

Two years ago, it was around the $30,000 mark. Columbia offers somewhere in the $35,000 range. From memory, Harvard generally doesn't pay its assistant profs the most of any program, but that information may be out of date.
In terms of the information you're currently getting from faculty, trust but verify. Their objective is to get you to enroll, not tell you the unvarnished truth. It may be useful to get in contact with a few current graduate students and ask them. From my own experience, they have much less reason to not give you the whole picture.
You also might want to check the stipend spreadsheet that usually pops up around this time...

So many admits! Amazing, congratulations everyone!!

Congratulations! 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

This is my version of staying calm for sure. 
Congrats on your big day yesterday, @urbanhistorynerd! Congrats on your first acceptance, @historygeek! May it be the first of many.

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite. 

I'm still in utter shock from my big surprise yesterday. Here is hoping everyone hears back from one of the places of their choosing!
I'd also like to add just this: I'm a community college graduate, grew up in a union working-class household, and attended a commuter state school that isn't at all prestigious. I worked incredibly hard but I also know that this was partially a numbers game. But to anyone who feels like places like Harvard are out of reach simply because you don't fit the traditional applicants "mold," screw that. Write a good application and hope for the best. Academia is in tough shape but that doesn't mean working-class people and those from non-traditional backgrounds don't have a place there - it is the opposite.