Rauschenbusch

I'm a Ph.D. student at Florida State, and I took a seminar this spring called Qualitative Methods in the Humanities with a history professor here, Will Hanley. You might contact him or look into whether the history program here might be a fit for you.

I'm a Ph.D. student at Florida State, and I took a seminar this spring called Qualitative Methods in the Humanities with a history professor here, Will Hanley. You might contact him or look into whether the history program here might be a fit for you.

I've TA'd quite a few undergraduate courses at different levels, and what I've learned so far is:
1. The students who show up to extra sessions or are otherwise really engaged will fall into two groups: those who are dedicated but just aren't prepared for the content, and those who are acing it. The apathetic middle is really hard to engage. 
2. It's easier to teach students who are struggling. Maybe this is a personal preference thing, but I'll take a business student struggling in calc over someone precocious any day. And if your students are way above the level expected for an undergrad or you're not completely familiar with the content, you end up in an arms race where you're trying to keep 10 steps ahead so you're still the expert in the equation.
3. Don't tutor/teach a subject you're not an expert in. Just don't do it. I made that mistake once and it was hell because while the students could dedicate hours every day to the subject, I had other things to do. I was learning the content while trying to mark assignments, and then fielding questions from those advanced students. Start by teaching intro stuff. 
4. Decide early on how much time you'll dedicate to students. If you're going to have intensive one-on-one sessions with one student who's struggling then you do need to offer the same to every other student. If you're not willing/able to do it for everyone then don't do it. 
5. Set clear expectations at the start, both for you and them. Tell them when their assignments are due, where, and what the late penalties are. But also tell them how long it'll take you to mark them, and how long you might take to respond to emails. If you need them to check their emails every day, tell them that. Everyone claims they want total freedom but what people really want are clear guidelines and rules.
6. Set professional boundaries and always be wary of students overstepping them, especially if you're a woman. Younger students in particular will see you as an authority figure and source of pastoral support not unlike their high school teachers. They might come to you with some very serious concerns, including abuse and suicidal thoughts. Think ahead for this kind of stuff -- know who you need to contact, what you need to do, and also what you should do to help the student. Read up about what language you should use to address student concerns without appearing to dismiss or ignore them. If you feel concerned or uncomfortable about a student for any reason, escalate it. You are not their therapist.
7. Avoid discussing your students online, or even in person, unless it's in the most vague terms humanly possible. A complaint about a student who's needy or who doesn't do the work could be identifiable to someone. Yes, it's your job and sometimes you'll get frustrated, but avoid gossiping about your students. Approach this like doctors do for their patients. 
8. Remember that your students might have quite different goals, and don't assume you know what those are. Not everyone is aiming for graduate school or academia, not even the top students. Industry shouldn't be an alternative, it should be on equal footing as academia. 
9. You will get tired. Starting to TA at the beginning of term is easy, but once it gets near the end you're going to be bogged down in your own work and with little energy left for neurotic undergrads and their final exams. So just be aware that any standards you set at the beginning (e.g. in providing extra tutoring sessions) will need to be upheld for the entire term, even when you have more important deadlines to worry about. 
10. Take notes at the end of every session/tutorial for what worked and what didn't, plus any relevant notes about specific students (especially if you have to provide individual reports to them). You won't remember to do it tomorrow or next week. You won't remember to fix that example problem that didn't work out. 

Officially received my rejection from UNC today. Not a big surprise given the late date, and I'm just about decided between my two choices anyway, but this line made me think there's not much hope left for anyone still counting on being accepted from their waitlist:
"Sadly ... we won’t be able to admit any students from the alternate list this year."

Officially received my rejection from UNC today. Not a big surprise given the late date, and I'm just about decided between my two choices anyway, but this line made me think there's not much hope left for anyone still counting on being accepted from their waitlist:
"Sadly ... we won’t be able to admit any students from the alternate list this year."

I would reach out to the departments directly and ask. Then I would hang up the phone, call the graduate school and ask the same questions. (Because a department's policiies may not align with the graduate school's.)

Based upon the information in your post, profile, and signature, I'd either defer or not go unless I had an iron clad contract for funding for at least four years.
The situation in Florida is still unfolding AND hurricane season is arriving. 
Washington state's economy is taking a tremendous hit. (Yesterday, I was on a team conference call. A team member who lives in Washington was beside himself.) Unless tech companies, especially Microsoft and the federal government pour money, jobs, and medical resources into the state, the road to economic recovery is going to be a hard one. Also, on a controversial subject, WA has different 2A sensibilities than Texas. I am not offering an opinion or value judgement here. I'm simply point out that you will have a different set of factors when it comes to making decisions.
Something to consider is that information one hears/sees about  impact of COVID-19 on a school's financial health is likely conservative unless the source sits on sitting on specific committees or has a skill set centering around higher education finances, the forecasts are probably conservative.
IME, the way financial statements are put together, it can be very hard to figure out the origins of all the inputs into the revenue "bucket." A public institution that gets revenue from sales taxes could take a cascading hit as consumer spending tales off locally, regionally, and state wide. Forecasting the impact of the cascading hit can be extraordinarily difficult if one is working with financial statements that are not "right sized" an audience and if that audience doesn't have direct access to someone who truly understands the nuts and bolts of the coding of each and every line item.

On the expense side,  projections may not have critical line items because those items are complex, contentious, and the numbers are so daunting that the decision has been made year after year, to kick the can down the road. An example from my work experience is the looming costs of deferred maintenance.
Expenses can have a cascading impact on each other as well as on revenue. A highly skilled student athlete goes elsewhere because she doesn't want to practice in facilities that are not state of the art. An academic superstar turns down an offer for an endowed chair because she doesn't want to contribute to a dynamic in which undergraduates are packed into lecture halls with inadequate HVAC systems. The loss of the two women results in a school having less pull for programs and grants and events that could generate revenue of one form or another.
In the case of WSU and FSU, revenue generated by sports programs could be going to your program in ways no one in the department realizes.

$0.02.

Got an email from Pitt today, I’m on the waitlist! It’s not an acceptance but it’s not a rejection so I’m feeling okay, keeping my fingers crossed to hear good news by April 15th!

Finally heard from Michigan today. They said they're not taking anyone off of the waitlist this season because of financial restraints due to COVID-19. I'm not shocked, the odds were stacked against me (in terms of the amount of people who still had to make their final decisions) and I wouldn't have been able to make an informed decision had they accepted me, but it does still sting a little bit.
Onward and upwards, I accepted my offer from Indiana University and I'll be moving to the Midwest in the summer! Good luck to anyone else still on the waitlist, I know it's rough with only one week to go, but I hope it's good news.

I've been taken off the waitlist at Indiana! Just received my formal offer today and I have to say that I'm relieved/emotional/over the moon. I'm going to get a PhD!
I'm still on the waitlist at Michigan and will be sending them an email on Monday to check on my status there and to let them know that I've been offered a doctoral position at IU. Fingers crossed that I can make my final decision soon and start my journey to a PhD in the Fall!

So, is it crazy to worry that funding packages could be revoked in the midst of a new Great Depression...? Or is that just paranoid me

Just received an acceptance to the phd at UChicago! I'm history of Christianity, and received an email to check the portal this evening. I was at a movie theater when I got the notification, and decided to wait until the movie was over to log in to the portal because I was expecting a rejection. I'm still in shock! 

Friends, 
 
I wish you all the best. May you remember that your value is not determined by any acceptance or rejection. I accepted my admission into BC this morning. This forum has been a place of solidarity during this grueling process. See you all around the guild. 

On funding: I encourage EVERYONE to start researching different funding opportunities and when you are eligible for them as soon as possible. I started doing so in my first year, but I wish I had done it the summer before I started my program just to get ahead. Make a spreadsheet or some other organizing document with the opportunity, required materials, pre/post-ABD/completion fellowship/grant/travel grant, due date, link to the website etc. I organize mine by phase/year, so pre-ABD, 4th year, 5th year, completion, post-docs. Add as you find more, subtract as your project changes. 
It helped me a lot to enter the PhD with a funding plan (ex: 1st year fellowship, 2nd year teaching, 3rd year GSR and so on). Obviously it had to be adjusted as things fell through or fell in my lap, but it's really important to keep funding on your mind so you don't miss out on opportunities. You will write more grant/fellowship applications over the course of your career than you will write books. Writing books is exceedingly difficult without grants/fellowships (unless you're independently wealthy). Imo everyone should be treating funding like a critical aspect of their job--which it is!--by spending some amount of time each week working on it, either updating their spreadsheet, tweaking proposals, searching for more opportunities, whatever it may be.

Got the call this morning from BUSTH and was accepted to the PhD program (History & Hermeneutics)! And my friend in theology & ethics got in, as well! An offer is to come later via email and details to come via post. 
I cried happy tears and I'm still in disbelief! 

They emailed this morning my guy! I got in!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm waiting for them to take it back

Thank you!! It’s been a whirlwind; I’m 3a/2r/3pending.

That's the worst. Florida State gave me multiple heart attacks that way.

In my case, the questions on the writing sample were always regarding how it connects to my interest in pursuing further doctoral research.
In one interview, three people from the religious studies department interviewed me at the same time (all with different areas of expertise). It was a quick 20 minute interview and it began with "tell us about your research interests." Unfortunately, I did not prep to answer the question so I stumbled my way through it. I was accepted to the program and the faculty said my interview was excellent. Perhaps I am too critical. Regardless, what I do know is that had I prepped for that answer, it would have been even better. So, make sure you have some sense of how to move about larger questions like "tell us about your research interests," "why did you pick this project?" "what methodologies interest you? regions?" "why us?" "do you have any questions for us?" Each of the questions, including the last one, is an opportunity to give professors information about yourself. You can choose to discuss your writing sample on your own, without them asking for that information: "And that's why I submitted the writing I did, because it shows x, y, z." It will help them connect the dots. (Also don't assume that they will remember your writing off the bat. Get a feel for whether they do).
These faculty members asked me briefly about why I chose the writing sample I did. My sample was also a paper I wrote for a class; I did not edit it, and it was marginally related to my area. Knowing this, I made sure to have a narrative ready on how to help them connect the dots between my sample and my interests: "I chose the writing sample because I enjoyed the subject, it's related to theme x, y, z, which I hope to explore as a graduate student." Just have a narrative ready for how the paper reflects your interests and capacity. I do not think they will push for a detailed discussion of the paper. They may not even have read it throughly. 
In another interview, which was done by my potential advisor, he had already read my file carefully. He asked very specific questions about my background, courses, language preparation. I could tell he was trying to fill gaps in his picture about me. He asked me about my writing sample: why did I choose a paper that's peripheral? Isn't even in my area of studies? Why didn't I choose a paper that reflects my language skills? The paper was interesting, he said, but he was wondering about these questions. So, I gave an answer, linking the paper to my interests and he was content with that. I also told him I could submit other papers if he was interested. And he said sure, and I submitted two other papers and some translations. I think it answered his concerns and I was accepted into that program. 
So I would say: yes be ready to give them answers about the paper but, more broadly, be ready to connect it to your current interests and really explain your thought process in choosing it. How maybe writing that paper influenced your future decisions or interests. The questions they will ask you will be specific to your context, and the gaps they feel they have in your story. Try to think about what they're really asking you to explain, given the questions they have already asked you. Think about your narrative, what information professors have on you, and what gaps they may need to address. Anticipate those—but don't sweat it, and don't over prepare either! 
Super long answer, and perhaps not what you're looking for but there you go!

I got in too!!! I'm SO EXCITED and RELIEVED! YAY!!!!!

Yes, I just got in ???

Accepted at Yale! Rejected by everything last year, this year accepted to my two top choices.

Well it's only 4 PM CST in Indiana and I've been waitlisted! I'll take the W for this one as well and hope that either someone who was accepted to Michigan or Indiana accepts another offer.

That's a great department! I hope you are moved to the "happily accepted" list soon!

Good, important, and timely points about water off a duck's back. In the grander scheme, it is self-defeating to dwell on rejections, and there's really no nice way of turning down someone's application. Best to dust yourself off, keep your composure, and move forward.
But unless I'm misinterpreting the initial complaint, an admissions office CCed people other than the applicants regarding decisions made about their applications? If so, it's a fair complaint about a lack of professionalism and veers awfully close to a violation of applicant privacy. That institution might want to review its procedures.

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.