Donuts99

I think you will have a great shot Thomasunra! Good luck. Have you heard back from schools DennisGreenFan? About me: I graduated undergrad from a public state school (political science, summa cum laude) but went on to do my MA at the American University in Cairo in Mideast studies. I have fluent arabic, background is Arab and am studying Modern Egyptian history. I have been out of academia for a couple of years. I have presented at major conferences like MESA. But I think the thing that makes a difference is that professors have been really excited by my project. I went to UCLA visit day and really loved it- California is such a beautiful place and the department there was so warm and welcoming and seemed non-pretentious. They also have great scholars of radical histories. But I would feel bad rejecting two Ivy Leagues to go there (UPenn and Cornell). All three have great professors I would want to work with but only Penn has a professor working on Egypt specifically, although a different time period but similar theme. What would you do in my situation?

Hey! I have also applied for Middle East History PhD Programs for 2020! I have applied to UCLA (received offer), UCSB, NYU, Cornell, Duke (rejected), and an ethnic studies program at Berkeley.