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FruitLover

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Everything posted by FruitLover

  1. I really like Downton Abbey - it’s a British TV series set in the early 20th century.
  2. Do you guys think it's worth asking the program where I will most likely go if they offer any help with moving expenses? I know it's not common at this level, but I'm wondering if anyone has ever done this or heard of anyone actually succeeding at it.
  3. At my school, readers do attend lectures. But as the others have said, better ask yours about their expectations.
  4. Oh wow! I wonder how many programs may do that and what that could mean for the next year’s cycle...
  5. Have you tried meditation? It helps accept emotions as they are and be at peace with your mind. I've heard that some apps are more accessible now given the whole quarantine going on. Also, Sanvello is an app that helps deal with stress, anxiety and depression and is now offering free premium access (I've never used it, but I came across it and figured I may as well suggest it in case you may find it useful). Rejections suck, and I'm sorry you have to deal with it during such a stressful time of worldwide isolation.
  6. I felt a little uneasy about this as well, but I don’t think it’s a big deal after all. One of my POIs asked me right away what other offers I have and another one asked indirectly. Plus, some other faculty I’d be working with also asked or found out. So if they ask, I think it’s okay to share the information (they can probably even share their thoughts on the other programs or tailor their answers about their program to address why you may want to consider them over the other places), but if they don’t - you don’t have to bring it up.
  7. I know of one person (not personally) who has gone from a top-5 History PhD program on to a high-paying consulting job. That was a couple of decades ago, but he still works in the consulting industry.
  8. I am trying to think of the most efficient way to take notes on the books I read and keep it all in one place. Usually, I take hand-written notes, but I would like to move to an electronic note-taking system so I can access it from anywhere and search by keyword. Do you have any tips on convenient ways to do that? Please share your note-taking experiences. I know there have been some threads on note-taking, but I'm particularly interested in how you keep record of books in your field and those relevant to your research.
  9. Oh, I see. I’ve never heard of stipends with no tuition waiver before...
  10. Does the stipend come without a tuition waiver? Or you mean you got an 18k/year scholarship that essentially makes your tuition lower?
  11. That makes sense. And would you say the ones with nearly 700 are for Europeanists or Americanists, open rank or something else broad in a desirable area?
  12. Just found an interesting 2019 article that talks about an earlier point (about the limit on how long after getting a PhD you’re still a viable candidate) made by @telkanuru “Last year’s faculty hiring favored very recent PhDs. Of the 52 assistant professor searches about which we have outcomes data, 54 percent of the jobs went to candidates who were fewer than two years removed from earning their PhD, and 12 percent of the jobs went to candidates who were still ABD at the time of hiring. The number of individuals hired before defending their dissertation has been trending upwardsince 2010–11. While 10 percent of these positions were filled by individuals who earned their degree five or more years ago, these numbers largely confirm anecdotal evidence that the faculty market sharply favors very recent PhDs.” Also interesting: “This year, 117 advertisers replied to our query, 61 of them regarding searches resulting in tenure-track assistant professor hires. Unsurprisingly, these openings attracted high numbers of applicants: a median of 82 and a mean of 122 per position. The large gap between median and mean results from significant variation in the number of applicants, which ranged from as few as 12 to reports of almost 700. Eight advertisers reported receiving 200 or more applicants, compared to 12 reporting 50 or fewer.” https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2019/the-2019-aha-jobs-report-a-closer-look-at-faculty-hiring
  13. This is good to know/keep in mind. Does it matter then how long it took someone to get their PhD in terms of how it looks on job applications? And also, what do you think (theoretically) is a smarter move, a VAP at an R1 school or a TT job at a small regional/LAC college if you want to eventually be at an R1/2 school?
  14. How long after getting a PhD and not getting a TT job would you say you could still realistically compete with new grads? I know it all depends on a range of factors, but I assume that it isn’t equal if someone with a Berkeley PhD from 10 years ago (and no TT job) is competing against someone with a Harvard PhD from 2 years ago...
  15. I got my visit days schedules, and I’m trying to figure out what I should plan to do other than what is on the schedule already. How many professors should I set up appointments with before the visit day? (And should I?) Other than the POI, that is.
  16. I second that. With Microsoft Word, you can set it up that the document is automatically saved on OneDrive (you get some amount of storage for free, which should be enough for a lot of text documents). I don’t know much about MacBooks, but my laptop is pretty old (older than yours) and it’s still reliable. If you do get a new laptop, I recommend one with an SSD drive because it makes it so much faster: it never takes my laptop more than a second to load despite its old age. The ones with SSD (as opposed to HDD only) are more expensive, but when it comes to laptops, when you buy a more expensive one, it may save you money in the long run. Also, if your battery starts losing charge fast, you can always replace just the battery without buying a new laptop.
  17. I wonder why previous years' application threads reached 60-70 pages, and this year's is only at 27 pages by mid-February... Fall 2020 applicants must be busy doing important things that will get them ahead of those of us who are on Grad Cafe ?
  18. @thattaiwnanhistoryguy I'm not doing Taiwanese history but can I just say I love your nickname. Hope you end up in a good/suitable program in the end!
  19. You should probably visit. It's always a good idea to consider all of your options, and you don't lose anything by visiting. On the other hand, if you don't go after they paid for the ticket, it doesn't even necessarily mean that they would immediately accept someone off the waitlist and the person would go instead of you. So by not visiting you pretty much just waste an opportunity to weigh in another option and make sure you are making the right decision.
  20. FruitLover

    Decisions

    If asked about other offers/how the program ranks among them during the visit, what is the best way to answer? I don't want to pretend like I don't have other offers, but I also wouldn't want people at the school I'm visiting to feel as if their school is in some way less attractive (if it's not my top choice pre-visit).
  21. FruitLover

    Decisions

    @psstein and @Sigaba these are great, thank you! Since you guys mention bathrooms and common study areas, is it common for PhD students to have offices (shared with others of course)? In what I’ve seen, some schools with master’s programs only provide offices for their TAs, but the graduate handbooks for the PhD programs I’m considering don’t mention anything about it. They do mention graduate lounges though.
  22. FruitLover

    Decisions

    If I may add to the question, what are some non-obvious red flags to look out for?
  23. Thank you! It was a huge surprise. Wishing everyone a fruitful decision season that’s nearing its peak!
  24. Thank you! I’m doing modern Europe
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