historygeek

I accepted my Villanova offer!

That's such amazing news!! Congratulations! 

I accepted my Villanova offer!

I accepted my Villanova offer!

But be aware that taking language courses not for credit will eat up more of your time.  See if you can arrange some sort of "independent study" credit so you're not taking more courses than necessary, especially your first semester.

I accepted the offer at School B

I accepted the offer at School B

I accepted my Villanova offer!

I accepted my Villanova offer!

If you want to be competitive for the level of program to which you have applied this time around (Columbia/Harvard/NYU/Rutgers/Michigan), language needs to be your primary focus. As you're already fluent in Italian, I wouldn't spend too much time with French - just enough to read articles, which you should be able to acquire in a semester course. You do need to spend a lot of time bringing your Latin up to snuff - the University of Toronto posts Latin exams online, and I would say at minimum being able to pass the MA one is a good bar. I would also spend some time on German, which any good program will want to see.
Not all masters programs will give you the course flexibility to spend so much time on languages. Do the legwork to see which would be better for you to acquire these skills.

Bringing the focus back to the point of this thread.... ASK (THE GRADUATE STUDENTS) ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES and the Department's attitude toward mental health concerns
During my last visitation day experience as a host back in 2016, when we discussed the inclusion of mental health services in student insurance/tuition, we could see quite a few faces sighing in relief.  Clearly, it was on their minds but didn't know how to ask.  While the discussion of mental health concerns has been more open, much more work needs to be done. The quality of mental health services to graduate students vary quite widely from institution to institution.  Most of the focus has been on undergraduates but not enough on graduate students (or faculty too) and you'll want to make sure that the institutions that accepted you are well on their way to servin to the graduate student community or have already established support systems.  Also, not all departments have caught up on the reality of depression/anxiety and the ways in which they truly affect students' well-being and progress to the PhD.  You'll want to investigate how supportive the faculty is of students' well-being, particularly your POI and the older faculty whom you may be working with (they're of survivalist mentality-- one didn't talk about loneliness, depression, and anxiety that came with graduate school, you simply survived).

You would have to talk to the program directly to get the best answer. However, as long as you are graduating before the start of the fall term, it shouldn't be an issue, as you are not delaying your acceptance. 

I also got the tuition scholarship, but I applied for a graduate assistantship in the graduate office as well! The program director said that they can't offer a stipend with the tuition scholarship, but given that all of the classes are once a week and at night and the duties to the history dept. are only 7 hours a week, she stressed that a lot of people do get jobs, usually on campus. 
After thinking about it a ton and talking about it to my parents, I think I'm going to accept the Villanova offer. There's a lot of flexibility in the program, good research opportunities, and I would be able to work on my languages. Plus, the full tuition scholarship is nothing to sneeze at. 

Great news! I just got the notification that I received a full tuition scholarship from Villanova! 

I also got the tuition scholarship, but I applied for a graduate assistantship in the graduate office as well! The program director said that they can't offer a stipend with the tuition scholarship, but given that all of the classes are once a week and at night and the duties to the history dept. are only 7 hours a week, she stressed that a lot of people do get jobs, usually on campus. 
After thinking about it a ton and talking about it to my parents, I think I'm going to accept the Villanova offer. There's a lot of flexibility in the program, good research opportunities, and I would be able to work on my languages. Plus, the full tuition scholarship is nothing to sneeze at. 

I also got the tuition scholarship, but I applied for a graduate assistantship in the graduate office as well! The program director said that they can't offer a stipend with the tuition scholarship, but given that all of the classes are once a week and at night and the duties to the history dept. are only 7 hours a week, she stressed that a lot of people do get jobs, usually on campus. 
After thinking about it a ton and talking about it to my parents, I think I'm going to accept the Villanova offer. There's a lot of flexibility in the program, good research opportunities, and I would be able to work on my languages. Plus, the full tuition scholarship is nothing to sneeze at. 

Go with the one who funds, that being School B, unless you hear back on funding from School A. I'm sure they would offer funding for the PhD at School A, so it might be the MA you'd have to pay for. In this case, I would recommend School B. One, you'll get funded, and if they fund for an MA, that usually indicates that there is other money there (research assistant, more chances to TA for extra cash, etc) for MA students. Two, it'll probably give you more flexibility if you are still wanting to change fields. From what I know about MA to PhD programs is that you start the beginnings of your diss in your MA or at least work on some foundations for it. Even if School B isn't that hot on medieval/early modern, an MA is mostly just classes & I'm sure you could probably do an independent study or two on a specific history that isn't offered there.

Thank you, @fortsibut and @Ccthomas95! I'm over the moon. I expected partial funding from VU given my not-stellar stats, but the program director specifically mentioned that the committee was impressed by my writing sample. 
I have until April 15 to decide, but I'm hoping to make a decision by the time that I could register for classes at Villanova. I had been heavily leaning towards their program, so this really solidified that lead. It looks like Toronto decisions have gone out, and the MA programs at Columbia and NYU probably wouldn't give me a full tuition scholarship. I'm just worried about it being too early to make a decision I think. 

When I got my second acceptance, I was in the car and saw Hamilton right after! 

Great news! I just got the notification that I received a full tuition scholarship from Villanova! 

Great news! I just got the notification that I received a full tuition scholarship from Villanova! 

Great news! I just got the notification that I received a full tuition scholarship from Villanova! 

Gotcha. I think if you're interested in getting a PhD in the future, B may be a better option anyway just because it's more in-line with your research interests and will probably set you up for successful PhD applications. 

Great news! I just got the notification that I received a full tuition scholarship from Villanova! 

Great news! I just got the notification that I received a full tuition scholarship from Villanova!