I_Am_In_Paine

Not sure if anyone is still reading this but I've been accepted to William and Mary's PhD off their waitlist! I couldn't be happier!

Yeah what @thisisnew said is accurate. Plus I just really enjoyed my visit there. Fingers crossed I get off the waitlist for PhD, or admitted to one of the other two I'm waiting on, but if not I'll just take the MA from W&M.

The funny part is $12k is extremely cheap for an MA here. Higher education in the US is really a disaster.

Thanks for that information! Based on this it seems like it's a lot of work to get funding for their MA, and considering I have a funded MA offer already (should nothing positive happen with the 2 schools I'm waiting on plus 1 on the wait list for PhD) I'll probably turn down the NYU offer. I really appreciate your input though!

Thanks for the info! At face value it did seem like a cash cow to me so I'm glad to know that's not quite the case. However the decision was very specific, in fact it mentioned in two places, that there is no financial aid. Perhaps I misunderstood? It said "While our master's program does not offer financial aid or teaching opportunities..." and then later on "We regret to add that there are no fellowships or scholarships available to you through the Graduate School or your program." Based on that, is there another avenue students use to avoid paying tuition? Or do they in fact offer aid to some students and I just didn't get it? I could find a way to support myself if tuition was less of an obstacle.

That NYU rejection really got me. I was prepared to be rejected, but when I opened the decision and saw "we are pleased to inform you..." I got so excited before reading "admission to the Master's program in world history." Sorry, but I don't have $60k to spend. That's kinda a big reason why I applied directly for PhD programs...

Thanks, same to you!!!

Yeah a lot of schools seem to have that problem. I have no idea why they do it like this, but then again they don't expect us to be lingering around in a forum starved for the slightest morsel of information we can get from other applicants so they definitely don't see it as being as cruel as we do lol.

I wait until they tell me it's ok to use their first name.

Thank you! I think it encapsulates my love of early American history and also the fact that I am in so much pain over this waiting period!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I was waitlisted for the PhD at W&M and they already had admitted students day last weekend so if you haven't heard anything i think it's safe to presume rejection unfortunately.

Yeah I know plenty of people that did the combined BA/MA route and ended up totally fine. I actually wish I knew my university offered it as an option when I had the chance because it would've made me much more competitive applying to PhD programs.

From what I've heard there's nothing wrong with getting your MA and BA at the same institution (especially since there are many combined BA/MA programs now) and nothing wrong with getting your PhD and MA from the same institution (since the traditional path for academics is going to a combined MA/PhD program). What you don't want is your BA, MA, and PhD from the same institution because that indicates less academic diversity. I think the OP about this topic was talking about the possibility of getting their MA and PhD from the same institution as their BA.

Seeing Georgetown admits come in I’m starting to get discouraged...

Oh boy...just saw a rejection posted on the results page...time to crank that anxiety up to a ten.

Thanks! I didn't get a formal interview but I had an hour long skype call with my two POI's back in October before I applied, so I imagine in the event they wanted to interview me they'd just use that for reference rather than set up another call. In any case, I expect (hope) acceptances will come out next week or the week after.

Congrats on Brandeis! The fact that you have Pitt in green in your signature scares me every time I see it! Hope we don't have to wait too long to hear back from them.

Very anxiously awaiting Georgetown! Last year their admits went out the 17th (which was a Saturday), so wouldn't expect them for a couple more days. U Penn I stopped thinking about since I didn't get an interview.

That's good to hear! That's exactly how I went about it. Basically identical experiences lol

It seems like people are misunderstanding me. I did 100% reach out to every POI I had and all but 1 responded to me. My worry is it seems people on here had persistent contact throughout the application process with their POI's, which I did not.

That is reassuring! I had *some* contact with all of my POIs (U Pitt was definitely the best), but I got worried after seeing SO many people here have repeated contact.

I had a looong skype call with my POI's before I applied back in October and there is a visitation day (I believe late march they told me). So far nothing seems to have happened from them yet. Their deadline was late so I wouldn't expect anything for a week or two (plus, last year it looks like acceptances went out the 24th). One question I have for the group: how much contact did you all have with your POI's? I reached out to all of them before applying to introduce myself and make sure they were taking new PhD students but that was it for the most part. It seems like many of you had repeated contact with POI's throughout the process. Is that the norm? Did I mess up here by not staying in touch? I just didn't have questions and so I felt that reaching out to them throughout the process without actually needing anything seemed at best pointless and at worst harmful to my application.

I totally agree. I learned so much from this cycle that I almost feel like I should just do the W&M MA program and reapply for PhD's next cycle so I have a strong shot at getting into better PhD programs, but 3 schools I applied to still haven't released any decisions so I'm not giving up yet!

Yeah it seems like schools don't really abide by 9-5 especially if their decisions come through POI's/personal emails and not portals.

Finally got my official rejection from Columbia. Not sure why it took so long to come but the beauty of TGC is I saw it coming so I'm not surprised or upset. Plus my W&M phone call was fantastic and I'm really looking forward to their MA program if I don't get a PhD admit this cycle.