andnothing

I just accepted my offer for a fully funded MA at the University of Oregon. It feels surreal that I was accepted to my top choice AND receive a fully funded package. This forum was incredibly helpful through this whole process. 
Good luck to everyone who accepted offers! 

I just accepted my offer for a fully funded MA at the University of Oregon. It feels surreal that I was accepted to my top choice AND receive a fully funded package. This forum was incredibly helpful through this whole process. 
Good luck to everyone who accepted offers! 

Congrats to everyone so far! I've been accepted to six MA programs which is exciting. I haven't heard anything from the 7th so I am assuming that it is a rejection. Unfortunately, news about funding hasn't been as exciting. Still waiting to hear back from 3 programs and I'm on the wait list for 2 of the schools. My top school has me on their wait list for funding, but the graduate director said there is still an "excellent chance" to receive a GE position. I know to not put too much into that but it gives me some hope.
The pessimistic side of me is thinking that I won't receive funding anywhere and, honestly, I don't think I could accept an offer where I would have to take loans out to pay for tuition. It definitely puts a damper on my excitement.  
I know there is still a month and half to go but this waiting has been excruciating.

Congrats to everyone so far! I've been accepted to six MA programs which is exciting. I haven't heard anything from the 7th so I am assuming that it is a rejection. Unfortunately, news about funding hasn't been as exciting. Still waiting to hear back from 3 programs and I'm on the wait list for 2 of the schools. My top school has me on their wait list for funding, but the graduate director said there is still an "excellent chance" to receive a GE position. I know to not put too much into that but it gives me some hope.
The pessimistic side of me is thinking that I won't receive funding anywhere and, honestly, I don't think I could accept an offer where I would have to take loans out to pay for tuition. It definitely puts a damper on my excitement.  
I know there is still a month and half to go but this waiting has been excruciating.

I’ve also applied to the MA and only gotten radio silence, so we’re somewhat in the same boat. 

I applied to masters program there and I haven't heard anything back from them. My POI was Philip M Soergel. I am assuming that it is a rejection for me.

I asked my adviser for names and also met some people who had her on one of their committees but not as major adviser by happenstance. You may be able to figure out who your POIs students are from the department website, too. Another way is contacting the grad coordinator and asking if you can set up any meetings or be put in touch with specific people. My department has current grads take prospective grads out for breakfast to discuss the program one-on-one, so I'm sure other places do something similar.

This is great advice! I plan on trying to make the most of visit when I go there and I thought about trying get into contact with my advisor's grad students. Did you e-mail them outright or did you meet up with them during your visit? 
Congratulations to you as well! I was accepted into the MA program and I know the scheduled campus visit is for Ph.D students. After asking about a campus visit, they offered if I would like to join, but I won't be able to on those dates. I hope to schedule something a little earlier in March. My experience with the department has been the same. They have been extremely helpful so far. 

Congrats on the admits! I got admitted to UO as well, and will be at the campus visit in March, even though I am still waiting to hear back from other programs before I commit. My experience with the department so far has been very warm, so I would say feel free to send them an email with any questions you have.

My adviser was out of town during my campus visit so I'm empathetic to your situation. Set up phone calls/skype convos with them and go in with a list of questions. During the visit, focus on speaking to potential comps/dissertation committee members, the GPC, grad program staff (SUPER important) and as many of your POI's grad students as possible. To be quite honest, it was my adviser's grad students who clinched it for me because they gave insight into her advising style (also super important--what kind of adviser do you want? Someone hands off? Someone who lets you determine how much advising you need? Someone who is all up in your project? Weekly, monthly, quarterly meetings?).  They can also give info on where your POI's past grads landed jobs.
You can totally make an informed decision without meeting your POI in person--other than how you vibe with them. A phone conversation or two will help you determine if the vibe is off.

I got an e-mail from University of Oregon notifying me that I was admitted to the MA program and on the wait list for funding. So far 3/3 out of the programs I applied to. I must say it's a nice boost of confidence. Now to wait for funding information. 

I am going to assume that you would be getting an MA to bolster your PhD prospects for a future application cycle, as I did. Given that you say you've already received funding information (the most important aspect of choosing a school for an MA, in my opinion), I won't address that. 
You should ask questions that pertain to your thesis research and language abilities. A terminal MA student (with PhD aspirations), I believe, should strive to do at least three things: 1. Bolster your non-English language ability by either strengthening your primary non-English language or beginning work on a second non-English language 2. Gain experience giving conference presentations, preferably not at a graduate student conference, although anything is better than nothing and 3. Produce an MA thesis capable of either being mined for a publishable article or two or else leading to a PhD dissertation. 
With these priorities in mind, you can probably come up with some relevant questions. For example, what language resources are available to the students, and is there room (and funding!) in the MA timeline for you to take an extra language class or two (even if its over the summer)? Is travel funding available to MA students, both for research and conferences? In general, I think an MA student will have a tough time obtaining any sort of international funding, but a bit of cash for a regional archive shouldn't be out of the question. 
Also, most programs offer a non-thesis track history MA. Resist the temptation to go down this route; it will not serve you well when reapplying to PhD programs.

My subfield is the same as potsupotsu's (Japanese history). 
Thank you all for the kind congratulations. Getting into Yale really means the world to me. Even though I applied to several other schools, this is the one place I truly wanted to be, and actually having it come true is a major validation for me. Like @urbanhistorynerd I am from the Detroit area and a non-traditional student. I grew up extremely impoverished, and was forced to drop out of high school due to family health and financial issues. Prior to going back to college I was working day labor jobs that paid $100 dollars a week for 70+ hours of work thanks to the horrible economy. I seriously never thought I would have a decent future, but now I am heading to Yale History. I know many others on this forum are non-traditional, I just want to say that I am very proud of you all for fighting to overcome whatever barriers were placed in front of you. And of course, to all of you, I wish nothing but success, as you all have been extremely kind and supportive to each other throughout this whole process. 

This is a great list! It's somewhat geared toward single, childfree grad students, so here are a few questions I'd add: 
 
-What is the department's parental leave policy?
-What form of health care is available to graduate students and their families? Can they sign up for the same health insurance plans as faculty and staff?
-Are partners/spouses/children welcome at departmental and social events? Are they seen as part of the cohort?
-Where do students' partners work? (this was important when I was considering schools in the middle of nowhere, like Urbana-Champaign and Oxford, OH).
-What childcare services does the university offer?
-Where do grad students with families tend to live?
-Is there a lactation room in the building? Or on campus?

haha!  It would definitely be okay for you to post the questions list, but here it is.  Also, I'd just be honest with the programs, especially since the money they're giving you won't be enough to cover either visit individually.  
 
-PLACES TO STUDY AND WORK
-Where do most people do their writing and reading?
-What study spaces are available? Do students get a carrel? Do those who teach get or share an office?

-LIBRARY
-What is the library system like? Are the stacks open or closed?
-What are the library hours?
-Are there specialized archives/primary sources that would be useful to my research?
-Are there specialist librarians who can help me with my research?

-FACULTY
-Are the faculty members I want to work with accepting new students? Are any of those faculty members due for a sabbatical any time soon?
-Are professors willing to engage you on a personal level rather than just talking about your work?
-Are there any new professors the department is hiring in areas that align with my interests?
-Students’ relationships with their professors – are they primarily professional, or are they social as well?

-FUNDING
-Is funding competitive? If so, do students feel a distinction between those who have received more generous funding and those who haven’t?
-How does funding break down among the cohort? i.e., how many people receive fellowships?
-How, if you don’t have much savings, do you make enough money to live comfortably?
-Are there external fellowships one can apply to? If so, what is available? Does the program help you apply for these fellowships? How does receiving an external fellowship affect internal funding?
-If people need more than five/six years to finish, what funding resources are available? (For instance, Columbia can give you an additional 2-year teaching appointment.)
-Do you provide funding for conferences or research trips?
-How often is funding disbursed? (i.e., do you get paid monthly or do you have to stretch a sum over a longer period of time?)

-COHORT
-Do students get along with each other? Is the feeling of the program more collaborative than competitive?
-Do students in different years of the program collaborate with each other, or are individual cohorts cliquey?
-How many offers are given out, and what is the target number of members for an entering class?
-Ages/marital status of people in the cohort – do most people tend to be married with families? Are there younger people? Single people? What sense do you have of how the graduate students interact with each other socially?
-Do people seem happy? If they’re stressed, is it because they’re busy or is it because they’re anxious/depressed/cynical/disillusioned?
-Is the grad secretary/program administrator nice?
-What is the typical time to completion? What are the factors that slow down or speed up that time?
-I’ve read that there are two kinds of attrition: “good” attrition, in which people realize that the program, or graduate study, isn’t right for them and leave early on, and “bad” attrition, in which people don’t finish the dissertation. What can you tell me about the rates of each, and of the reasons why people have chosen to leave the program?

-JOB MARKET/PROFESSIONALIZATION
-What is the placement rate? How many of those jobs are tenure-track?
-What are examples of institutions in which people in my field have been placed?
-How does the department prepare you for the job search? Are there mock interviews and mock job talks?
-Are the people helping you navigate the job search people who have recently gone through the process themselves?
-If you don’t get placed, is there anything the department can do for you? (e.g., can you stay an extra year?)
-How does the department prepare you for and help you attain conference presentations and publications?

-SUMMER WORK
-What is encouraged/required?
-If there separate funding/is the year-round funding enough to live on during the summer?
-Do people find themselves needing to get outside work during the summer in order to have enough money?
-Am I expected to stay in town in the summer, and what happens if I don’t?

-LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
-What is done to help people who don’t have language proficiency attain it? Does the university provide funding?
-What is the requirement, and by when do you have to meet it?
-Given my research interests, what languages should I study?
-When do you recommend doing the work necessary to fulfill the language requirement? (i.e., summer before first year, summer after first year, while taking classes, etc.)

-LOCATION REQUIREMENTS
-How long are students required to be in residence?
-How many students stay in the location for the duration of the program? (i.e., how many dissertate in residence?)
-How is funding affected if you don’t stay?

-Incompletes on papers at the end of the term: What is the policy, how many students take them, and how does this affect progress through the program?

-TEACHING
-What sort of training is provided?
-What types of courses do people teach?
-Does teaching entail serving as a grader? Serving as a TA? Developing and teaching a section of comp?
-How are students placed as TAs? Is there choice about what classes you teach and which professors you work with? Do classes correspond to your field?
-How many courses do you teach per semester/year?
-How many students are in your classes?
-How does the school see teaching as fitting in with the other responsibilities/requirements of graduate study?
-How do students balance teaching with their own work?
-Is the department more concerned with training you as a teacher/professor or with having cheap labor to teach their classes?
-How, if at all, does the economic downturn affect teaching load/class sizes?
-What are the students like? Can I sit in on a course a TA teaches to get a sense of them?

-METHODOLOGY
-Is a theory course required?
-What methodology do most people use?
-Where, methodologically, do you see the department – and the discipline – heading?
-Is interdisciplinarity encouraged, and what sorts of collaboration have students undertaken?

-Typical graduate class and seminar sizes

-What should I do to prepare over the summer?

-Ask people I know: What are the questions – both about the program itself and about the location – I should ask that will most help me get a feel for whether this is the right program for me?

-Ask people I know: What do you wish you knew or wish you had asked before choosing a program?

-Is the school on the semester or the quarter system, and how does that affect classes/teaching/requirements?

-What is the course load for each semester, and how many courses are required?

-What kind of support is provided while writing the dissertation? I worry about the isolation and anxiety of writing such a big project. What does the program do to help you break the dissertation down into manageable pieces, and to make the experience less isolating?

-What do writing assignments look like in classes? Do they differ based on the type/level of class and/or based on whether you intend to specialize in the field?

-Ask professors: what have you been working on lately?

-Ask professors: What is your approach to mentoring and advising graduate students?

-How long are class meetings?

-How often do professors teach graduate courses?

-Are course schedules available for future semesters (10-11, etc.)?

-Can I see the grad student handbook? Are there any other departmental documents – such as reports on the program prepared for accreditation – that I can see?


-QUALITY OF LIFE
-Prices – how does the cost of gas, milk, cereal, etc. compare to other places I've lived in?
-Cost and quality of typical one-bedroom apartment.
-What does the university do to provide you with or help you find housing?
-When (i.e., what month) do people start looking for an apartment for the fall, and where do they look?
-Is it easy to find a summer subletter?
-How close to campus can—and should—one live?
-What grocery stores are there in town?
-How late are cafes, bookstores, malls, restaurants typically open?
-What do people do to make extra money?
-Does the town have more of a driving or a walking culture? What is parking like near campus (availability, ease, cost)?
-Where do most English grad students live? Most other grad students? Most professors? Where is the student ghetto? Do most students live near each other, or are they spread out far and wide?
-How far does the stipend go in this location?

I can feel the anxiety that has been creeping up through all of January reach it's peak today. I know I probably won't receive any results until next week at the earliest but I already have knots in my stomach. This whole process is exciting and terrifying at the same time. 
I already received one acceptance (no word on funding yet) which is already better than last year. It has helped to stay more optimistic while waiting for the other results. 
Good luck everyone!!
 

I reiterate my Michael Scott for February...
 

I got my first acceptance this afternoon from University of Alabama by a phone call. It feels good to get one after not being accepted anywhere last year. Now to wait and see if I receive any funding. I hope this a sign of things to come with the other places I applied to!

I got my first acceptance this afternoon from University of Alabama by a phone call. It feels good to get one after not being accepted anywhere last year. Now to wait and see if I receive any funding. I hope this a sign of things to come with the other places I applied to!

I got my first acceptance this afternoon from University of Alabama by a phone call. It feels good to get one after not being accepted anywhere last year. Now to wait and see if I receive any funding. I hope this a sign of things to come with the other places I applied to!

I got my first acceptance this afternoon from University of Alabama by a phone call. It feels good to get one after not being accepted anywhere last year. Now to wait and see if I receive any funding. I hope this a sign of things to come with the other places I applied to!

No. Move on.  Busy yourself with something else.  You didn't waste anyone's time by throwing your hat in the ring and hoping for the best.

I don't know what else to say that I haven't said before, but to repeat: I failed out of undergraduate twice (cumulative GPA from my first 2 years: 0.86). I'm now in my fourth year at an Ivy. There may indeed be some political nonsense that means you don't get in this year, or just an unlucky handful of wunderkinds in your precise subject area, but it won't be your stats keeping you out.

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions on my dilemma. The professor who I had in 2013 said she would provide a letter of recommendation for me. We talked on the phone and went over what I have been up to these past few years. She ended the conversation by saying that she felt she could write a strong letter based on the information I gave her. I am sure this letter will be stronger than the letter my other professor would submit. It has worked out a lot better than I expected.
I was also given positive feedback on my statement of purpose from a former professor who has advised me through this process. He said it was a massive improvement from last years statement of purpose and that he would be really surprised if I am not accepted to the graduate programs. It was definitely a nice boost of confidence!
 
 

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions on my dilemma. The professor who I had in 2013 said she would provide a letter of recommendation for me. We talked on the phone and went over what I have been up to these past few years. She ended the conversation by saying that she felt she could write a strong letter based on the information I gave her. I am sure this letter will be stronger than the letter my other professor would submit. It has worked out a lot better than I expected.
I was also given positive feedback on my statement of purpose from a former professor who has advised me through this process. He said it was a massive improvement from last years statement of purpose and that he would be really surprised if I am not accepted to the graduate programs. It was definitely a nice boost of confidence!