FruitLover

Take the tenure-track offer.  They are seriously far and few.  But try to maintain a high research profile and do very interesting work in the process.  VAPs at R1 don't necessary get anywhere except in exceptional circumstances (i.e. diversity hire, sudden departure of the person whose classes you're covering, etc.)

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? 

I agree with the other replies, though there are exceptions occasionally.  Unfortunately, (cough, cough) there is implied (cough, cough) age discrimination.  Not universally applicable but departments will favor younger applicants because they can potentially have a longer career.   The same holds for non-traditional older PhD applicants.  

Also depends on the school that's hiring. The problem is magnified at R1s--you won't be competitive after maybe three or four years (maximum) of postdocs/VAPs. Unofficial rules are less defined at lower-ranked schools. 

Some searches actually (and horribly) put a limit of ~5 years from degree award on their candidates. You're right that the further you get away from the PhD, the more problems you'll have but it's dependent on what you've been doing. If you've been adjuncting for even 1-2 years, you're probably done; at this point I would discourage anyone from thinking of an adjunct position as a stepping stone to full academic employment. If you've held 2-3 multi-year VAPs, though, you're probably still a viable candidate. 

Meet with other professors that might inform your research. Eg: if you do environmental history, meet with environmental historians, even if they don't work on your geographical region. Also meet with others in your geographical region that might be readers of your work. Eg: If you are Americanist, meet with one or two more if you can, especially one that does a different time period. 
It's ok to ask your POI who they suggest meeting with. They might know of someone in another department. At my institution, I've met with PhD applicants that study Europe or the US but who are interesting in my research focus (urban history in Latin America). 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I also remember our application thread from last year starting much earlier in the cycle. We  had more questions and conversation during the process of researching programs in the summer and writing our applications in the fall. This year folks came in with applications already mostly done and it's more of a results chat. You all were more self-sufficient during applications, it seems! ?

Not really sure what you meant by this - I know all of this and never objected to the rejection being handled by an "outsider" because it wasn't; it came from the program with the name of the director. It just bothered me that we didn't have our privacy respected in a very basic way. The "take your time rejecting me" line was mostly tongue in cheek; I obviously know programs are understaffed. This program gets about 20-24 applicants a year and one or two people get in; I assumed that with a smaller pool/program, we wouldn't all have gotten the same rejection without being BCC'd. Ultimately it's not even that big of a deal, I'm just venting on a grad school forum.

I just spoke to one of my POIs at NYU, and he told me that they're planning to take in a cohort of nine new students this year for the history department (down from their usual ten because they had a higher yield than expected last year). Apparently, four offers have already been sent to modern Europeanists, including me, and there may still be a fifth going out sometime soon. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the other fields, but I hope that people find this information useful!

@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!

Students in the program brought up issues from their perspective, stuff the professors courting me either wouldn't say or wouldn't know about, and most of it came out in informal settings during prospie weekend. Funding packages are all well and good, but they're pretty meaningless when you don't know stuff like cost of living, what happens if you need an extra year, if the department will defer funding in your offer for a year if you get an external fellowship, what sort of support the department/university offers (for me, stuff like child care), if the insurance is just medical or includes dental/vision (maybe less important if you get one offer and it comes with just medical, but I had multiple offers with the full suite).
What's the department culture like (hard to tell from afar, you get a better sense of it after the prospective student events, usually when current grads take prospies out for beer at the end of the day)? Department tensions (for example, one program seemed to show a lot of preference for a particular field, the students in other fields couldn't hide their resentment. Some programs fully fund some students, only fund others term to term, which can also breed resentment)? How supportive/what are the advising styles of the professors you want on your committees and, importantly, how do the professors you're eyeing work together (need to talk to their grad students, think about what happens if there are specific people you NEED on a committee and they don't get along)? Do you not want to be one of two women in a cohort of 20 (this happened to one of my friends)? If the department offers grants for research/conferences, how do those shake out ("We offer grants each year" can translate to "we offer one grant to one student each year")? Common element: talking to grad students in informal settings. You may be able to achieve this over email/phone, but I didn't get nearly as much information from the grads hand-picked to talk me into attending each university as I did when out to beer with grad students during prospie weekend. Hope this helps!

Departments can/do/will hide attrition--ask students in 3rd year and above how many people were in their cohort when they started. Ask how funding has changed and how the department has handled it. Ask what kind of support there is when it comes to grants--personally, I cannot overstate how useful it has been to have substantial grant-writing workshops built into our requirements. Ask people what it's like to take exams (at schools where there appear to be regimented requirements around exams, ask around to find out if those are in fact more flexible--and ask if they're more flexible for some people than others [better to know this stuff now than to be overly optimistic]). Ask who's going to be the DGS in the coming years and work out how students feel about that prof. First years don't actually know much about the program but some will think they do (I realize this sounds harsh but I wish I'd had this word of warning before visits). Sometimes at a visit you will meet a lot of chuffed first years and it can be misleading, so try to talk to people across varying fields, in the various years. If there are social events then go to them and ask honest questions--grad school is a really weird job to commit to, and I strongly advise forgetting about your future dreams for a bit and asking what it's like, materially, spiritually, etc. (I like etc) to be in a given program--especially if you're going to move, leave a job, uproot your family...
 

There are too many variables to provide broad generalizations about resources for graduate students. And also, those resources will quickly disappear to clear out room for a strategic hire or a resource or a promoted professor who decides "Hey, I want THAT office."
You can ask general questions. What are the current amenities for graduate students in the department? Are there carrels available in the libraries? You can also look into getting a locker in the student union or recreational sports facility. (IME, the best solution is to live across the street from campus.)
 

I'd also add that you pose these questions (and all of your questions) to students at different stages in the program. A lot of the time, the graduate students most heavily involved in "recruitment day" are first and second years, because they're around campus the most; while ABD students are harder to track down (I haven't participated in a recruitment event in four years) they'll have more "institutional knowledge" of the department and more perspective on these questions.
You can ask about it. Most places will have shared office space for TAs and some may have shared office space for grad students on fellowship. At my program you can sign up for a desk-share in one of the basement cubicle dens; TAs get priority, but most people who ask for a desk get one. It's nice while you're in coursework and spend a lot of time in whatever building your department is in (waiting around for class, department talks, office hours) but since becoming ABD I've preferred the regular library (worth checking to see if the main library has graduate student only spaces). 

Some red flags / show stoppers / deal breakers are going to center around individual differences and preferences that are going to change with time and experience. The professor who has a reputation for using unprepared first and second year students as chew toys may end up being your truest supporter and eventual confidant and friend. So when you ask this kind of question, make sure that you understand that the responses will be going through multiple fillers. That being said, I offer a handful of diagnostic questions. Please note that the questions are offered "as is" and without warranty.
What kind of feedback do graduate students get from Professor Biles? Does she comment with a light touch or does she bleed all over submissions and make students rewrite essays? (You may want the former, but you likely benefit more from the latter.)
What is the mix of the faculty in terms of age, rank, and experience and how do you see yourself fitting into that mix? Are your committees going to have professors who are marking time to retirement or or bitter old greyheads who want those damn kids to get off those damn scooters or young hard chargers who want everyone to have the Mamba mentality or an appropriate mix of individuals who have a good sense of how to put a graduate student in a position to succeed?
Are members of the faculty going through what HR departments in corporate America refer to as "qualifying life changes?" How are those changes impacting a professor's ability to work with graduate students?
Are personal professional boundaries between faculty and graduate students appropriate? If professors are being too chummy with graduate students, trouble can be just around the corner for someone. Even if that someone isn't you, you may not want to be in the ensuing impact crater. 
Are professors appropriately navigating the tension between their professional opinions/judgement and personal political views?
The following two items are generally applicable but especially if one is going to be working as a TA or GSI.
Is there a well established readily available set of policies that address workplace conduct, student conduct, and academic honesty from the university to the subordinate college to the department and then to the graduate program as well as teaching assistant training? Are those policies explained, implemented, and, most of all, enforced equitably? There's nothing quite like the feeling of finding out that such policies are more guidelines in one's department than actual words to live by. Does the school have prominent sports programs with an exuberant fan base? There's nothing quite like the feeling of finding a letter in one's departmental mail box from an academic guidance counselor on the athletic department's letterhead.  
 

Off the top of my head, widespread attrition, insane times to completion (relative to field-- nobody expects a Russian history dissertation to finish in 5 years), poor/unreported placement, or advisor issues. The last one is something you'll likely learn at any visit weekend. As I've said before, grad students don't mind being blunt about faculty's reputation.
@Sigaba isn't joking about the bathroom thing. There's not much more annoying than having the nearest restroom three floors above you, or having to pay a deposit for a key that opens all of one door.

If I may add to the question, what are some non-obvious red flags to look out for?

Here’s to hoping everyone receives good news this week!

SAME! Congrats!!!! That whole “check the portal status” is a bit nerve wracking aha. Any idea when the visit day might be? 

Thank you! I’m doing modern Europe