[Applications 2019]

6 hours ago, daradara said:

For those in the future who may be interviewed, it is best to know that the interview may vary wildly. For instance, my interview was well over 2 hours and featured sections of more casual talk along with more intense, directed questions about my project, various parts of my application, and my views of the field. For instance, questions about my proposed project included how do I see my topic expanding or contracting spatially and temporally, how important are certain elements to my project and how do I plan to enact them, what other directions can I go in with the topic, etc. During the interview, my answers were noted down for review. Someone I know who once had a Yale interview mentioned that theirs was an hour, and was fairly relaxed but was also asked fairly similar questions, though the POI did not take notes. Those interviewed for Near Eastern Studies said theirs were 30 minutes in length, so it seems to be up to the POI how they wish to conduct the interview and for what length of time. 

 

6 hours ago, TsarandProphet said:

My Yale interview was something like 25 minutes and involved no questions about my project, my proposed field of study or anything like that. Only casual talk.

 

4 hours ago, potsupotsu said:

This was kind of my experience (I also got invited to a Yale interview last weekend). It was about 50 minutes long and I was asked about my project (where I see it going, how I got interested in it), my interest in history, and about language training, but the questions were mostly fairly casual. 

Thanks all of you for sharing your expereinces. Would you be able to say whether your interviews were conducted over the phone, in person, via Skype, or some other medium? And was it only your POI you spoke to or several professors in the department?

[Applications 2019]

23 minutes ago, psstein said:

I also have the slightly unpopular view that the "crisis of academic labor" is somewhat self-inflicted and also less of a crisis than is usually thought

I'm interested in hearing this view out. Care to elaborate?

[Applications 2019]

Thank you for the info. I am unfortunately not up on the news about the funding cuts. I knew the cuts have been happening for some time, but I did not think they would pick up so dramatically from last year to now. I thought that at worst acceptances would steadily go down from one year to the next. I guess we 2019 applicants are just very unlucky to be applying when the number of spots have so severely plumeted. 

[Applications 2019]

27 minutes ago, historygeek said:

I was talking to my thesis advisor today, and he said that top programs (Harvard, for example) are really cutting down how many applicants get accepted (he said from 20 to about 6).

20 to 6 is such a steep cut. What would prompt such a drastic slashing this year, as opposed to last, or as opposed to a gradual decline over several years?

[Applications 2019]

This post is inspired by the recent updates to the GC Results page, especialy those results pertaining to Yale's program. Filtering the results page by "history" reveals that 4 Fall 2019 History PhD applicants have posted about being contacted by their POI for an interview. The first of these 4 was contacted on January 7th, the second on January 11 and the third and fourth today, January 17. The last of these 4 included a comment about their POI saying that receiving an offer to interview "was standard routine for the most promising candidates." I am guessing that more people than just these 4 got interview offers in the past couple of weeks, but they just didnt post about it. 

Does this suggest that most of the "most promising candidates" have already been contacted for an interview? Yales own PhD admisions statistics page shows that about 30 offers go out every year to history PhD applicants. It's not unreasonable to think that besides the 4 who posted, another 20+ people were contacted for interviews, but we haven't seen those on the Results page because they didn't post them, aren't GC members/lurkers, etc. 

It would be great if past applicants to Yale's History program could respond with their own interview experiences or the experiences of those they know. If you got an interview, when were you contacted for it? Were you ultimately accepted or rejected? If you were accepted, did almost everyone else in your cohort get an interview?