I_Am_In_Paine

As much as I would like to think that as well, it could go a few different ways. That's what I thought about Johns Hopkins, but my rejection seems to just have been posted late. Not to mention the fact that, as hard as it is to think about, we could be getting a rejection too. It seems to me that this means we are not on the wait list. Whether that means we're admitted or denied outright is a different story. Still, rooting for us both! Hopefully good news will come in a few hours.

Anyone know what's up with NYU? I find it curious that there's a few waitlist results being posted despite there being no wave of acceptances yet.

I work on the intersection of the early American and French Atlantic. My most recent project was a comparative analysis of American local declarations of independence and French Cahiers de Doleances. In the most basic terms, I looked at both as lists of grievances at the onset of revolution to try and get in the mindset of how common citizens on both sides of the Atlantic viewed the potential changes to society that were at hand. I also wanted to see if common Americans influenced common French citizens via their conception of rights, liberties, etc. My research grew from a frustration with the fact that seemingly all history comparing the American and French Revolutions focuses on elites. For my next project I'd like to study French Azilum (an area that remarkably has little to no scholarship) from an Atlantic lens. Oh, and I'm currently reading Apostles of Revolution by John Ferling which is quite good, despite my desire for my own research to move away from the comparative study of revolutionary elites.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm definitely open to considering the MA, especially if I can get some degree of funding or financial aid. For now though, I'm hoping a spot opens up for me on their waitlist for the PhD program.

You never know. As I understand it, the whole point of them sending out acceptances before rejections is to give them the ability to send out a second round of acceptances if enough people turn down their offer. You could very well be offered a spot on the waitlist!

Looks like I spoke too soon. Just got an email from my POI at William and Mary--I've been accepted to the terminal MA and waitlisted for PhD. Not the news I had hoped for but definitely heartening considering my rejection from Johns Hopkins. A formal email should follow in a few days according to my POI so hopefully the MA will be somewhat funded (though I'm definitely not counting on it).

Well, looks like that's it for today (for east coast schools at least). Here's hoping for news tomorrow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJGykmmBjP4 This is me every day waiting.

Does anyone have knowledge of William and Mary's procedure? It seems that in past years (including 2018) they notified admits by phone. Is that the norm still?

This is totally not based in any real factual knowledge, but it seems in the past couple weeks decisions have come out later in the day, like 3-5pm EST (at least for the schools I've been tracking).

From what I've seen most schools are February. I agree with @Karou that next week will be a big one. At least from my list, I expect to hear back from W&M, NYU, and Columbia next week. Hopefully Georgetown doesn't take too long either!

Nevermind, official rejection just came from Hopkins. Sucks to have the first notification this cycle be a no, but given that acceptances already came out I was prepared for this. Oh well, still got 8 more to anxiously wait on!

Thanks for the response! I checked my portal and no update there either. The more I try to understand the process, the more confused I become. I really should stop trying to read into things but, as I'm sure everyone here feels, when this much is on the line it's so hard not to!

Sorry I didn't mean for it to sound like I was asking you what this means! That was more of a rhetorical question haha Indeed the waiting is hard, I would just love any form of contact at this point. Do you mind me asking if the email you got was a standard form email, an actual personal email from someone, or just an email to check their status portal?

Still radio silence from them for me. What does this mean? Anyone else get an official rejection?

Disclaimer: I have no actual knowledge and am just operating on the information I have before me. It sounds like that's the case, unfortunately. If it were one person receiving this email, I could be inclined to think that they were a special circumstance, but since multiple people have reported receiving this email I think it's safe to assume those of us that didn't are not getting in. I suppose there's a slim possibility they're staggering them over today and tomorrow but I don't think the outlook is good for the rest of us. There is always the possibility of a waitlist though, which of course would come later.

Fortunately the NYU website mentions that they do two rounds of offers. Not sure if they mean they always do it or that it's just possible for them to do it, but regardless it should be enough to give some hope if you don't hear back right away! Also as far as I see there's only one NYU History PhD acceptance, the other was an interview.

Based on the fact that several Art History acceptances were just posted, and that last year acceptances didn't come out until 2/5, I'm guessing that the one history PhD post on the results page was actually for Art History and the poster just didn't specify. I could be wrong, but I think it's a fair assumption.

I think you quoted the wrong comment there...

Are there any other early Americanists out there applying this cycle? I was thinking if there's interest it might be nice to get a thread going to commiserate over waiting, and once the time comes--decisions!

What do you mean by this specifically? And how is it different than past years?

9/10 of the schools I applied to either state that they do not interview at all or interview in very specific circumstances where they feel it is necessary to get a complete picture of the application.

Do we think this might slow down their process? I've seen in previous years they release acceptances the first week of February. I imagine this trouble could push that back a week or more. Anyone agree?

Did you apply to GW? They have National Security Archives there and IIRC faculty that do significant research on your topic.

Indeed there is! Though I wish they (every school) would just post all decisions at once. I'm sure they have a reason for it, but I'd really like to know why they often take a couple weeks after giving out acceptances to post all their rejections. It's a weird feeling to know you've most likely been denied before receiving the official letter.