butthoughtfullywhose

Same here 🫠 Formal rejection from History portal updated today.

Has anyone heard back about Yale's waitlist or formal rejection (portal update)?

Hi all! I know the Yale interview thing is an old topic. But I'm wondering if not receiving a Yale interview at this point means rejection or at least not a good sign?

Anyone has heard back from Northwestern’s waitlist?

Just in case anyone is waiting for UCSD, the Department told me they've sent out "initial offers" and probably won't have a waitlist this year. And they'll send rejections in the next few weeks.

Absolutely agreed with this. But in my field (Modern China; not including late imperial China), a lot of POIs told me to treat the SOP as a research proposal and they'd like to know what kind of sources and/or archives I prepare to use (they asked me very specific questions re sources/archives in my POI meetings before I submitted my applications). This is a result of 1) China's zero-COVID policy (non-Chinese citizens very hard to get into China after the pandemic) and 2) deteriorating archive access during the past decade (a useful comparison would be pre-1989/1991 Soviet history). Hopefully other fields don't have similar expectations!

Harvard has an independent RSEA MA program and its EALC Department doesn't have its own MA. RSEA MA result will be out by mid-March. As far as I remember, some (but not all) EALC rejects will be transferred to RSEA MA, but the transfer is not guaranteed.

For those who has experience of getting off the waitlist, is it recommended to reach out to POI to talk about the waitlist (in addition to emailing DGS)? Or it's an entirely random process?

Thank you!! I have had 9 rejections in a row. Hopefully we could all get off our waitlists very soon!!

Waitlisted. Field: China. Notified via email from the department (not portal). Anyone accepted but with better offers?

Same here...

Thanks for this! You're right US Fulbright funds US MAs. But the Trump administration ended the Fulbright program for China and HK back in 2020 unfortunately. Definitely not an ideal time for Chinese students to study in the U.S... And thanks for providing the perspective re European history!

Definitely agree a funded MA would boost PhD admissions chance for all fields. The sad thing is that for the field of modern China, I've seen some extremely-strong and well-prepared applicants with 2 MAs who have been rejected from most of the schools they applied to this cycle. This is hurting.

Thanks! Congrats on your offers!! I'm increasingly convinced it's only an issue for the field of Chinese history unfortunately.

No need to apologize at all! This will be useful info for future U.S. applicants.

Yeah I know. Unfortunately US Fulbright is only for US citizens while I'm an international student.

Thank you for sharing this! It's the same w/t my undergraduate professors (liberal arts college; so no graduate-level experience). Almost all of them think getting a MA is unnecessary and a waste of money basically. It seems this is the general consensus of this forum as well: only get an MA if 1) it's fully-funded and 2) if you have a particularly weak component in the profile that a MA could help. But now I realize the competition has become so intense (especially for top programs) that a MA will give an inherent advantage over BA-only applicants (regardless of the actual profile?). Or it's very possible it's only an issue for the field of China I guess. One possible reason is the China filed has additional supply of applicants that many other fields don't have. A lot of international students from China wants to study Chinese history in the U.S. and typically if their undergraduate is in China, they have to do a U.S./UK/overseas MA to be competitive for PhD programs. For other fields like US history and European history, most applicants are domestic students.

Thanks for sharing the information!

Yeah I think this is a good explanation. Also shared a few thoughts re your point about 2-year MA above.

Thank you! This is very helpful (as well as your post a few days so). I graduated in 2020 and worked for 2 years in a related-industry for 2 years before deciding to apply last year. So at least for me in particular, it's more like the case where even if my profile is as strong as an applicant with MAs and I have a clear plan (as I already explored other options), many schools (especially Ivy ones?) still prefer BA-MA applicants over BA-only ones. Maybe it's me being cynical. The only plausible explanation seems to be elitism (not to mention the fact that outside the China filed, many Ivys continue to admit almost half of their cohort directly from BA after the pandemic based on public grad school profiles). Re your point about 2-year MA, I totally agree. But I think there're a couple of issues. 1) There're few 2-year MA options and most of them offer little/no funding (of course, some schools offer full-funding for extremely-strong students); 2) I sense the competition has become so fierce that I'm not confident I'll get into a so-called Top school even if I apply again after getting a 2-year MA. My POIs tell me now because I don't have a MA and would likely tell me next round it's individual faculty preference or topic fit. Related to the first point, if faculty can't be clear enough in terms of why they reject applicants (especially for those who already invested in a MA degree), I'm afraid this will push those rejected to get another MA and apply for another cycle. To me, this has become morally questionable and I'd call it a scam.

I'm wondering is it still possible for PhD programs to directly admit from BA/without any MA degree after the pandemic for any field? My field is modern China and I've been rejected by more than half of the schools I've applied to at this point. At least two POIs (at an Ivy) told me directly they didn't admit me because I don't have a MA (even though I'm among the strongest) and it's very rare for them to directly admit from BA. But I don't think this is empirically accurate after checking for example Chicago and Princeton's newly-admitted grad students last year; BA-only vs. BA+MA is almost half and half.

To afford historic labor contract, UC considers cutting TAs, graduate student admissions Just came across this LA times article. I guess this is at least one of the reasons why many UCs are slower than past years in giving decisions? --- In a survey by UAW 2865, graduate workers from 89 departments across all 10 campuses indicated they had been informed of plans to reduce enrollment for the 2023-2024 academic year. They also heard of plans to increase class sizes and shrink the size of research groups. UC Irvine is weighing reductions in graduate student admissions by at least 30%, multiple sources told The Times. “We are still very early in the admissions process, but it is likely that programs will be cautious about enrollment this year as the faculty work to better understand how best to support our PhD students,” campus spokeswoman Sheri Ledbetter said in a statement. At UC Santa Barbara, Scott said her chemical engineering department is considering reducing admission offers to graduate students from about 75 or 80 to about 50. Colleagues across campus are also being “super conservative” about taking on more students, she said. Scott added that such reductions would hit early career faculty particularly hard because they need strong graduate students to help establish research programs. And smaller graduate programs could “grind to a halt” if deprived of new students, she said.

Typically schools won't (i.e., don't have resources) to do interviews for MA programs.

Congratulations! One of my friends is in STEM and he has been invited to similar events in February by two schools so far (everything covered by the school). It's essentially an interview process framed as campus visit/tour. For hiring faculty, I believe most schools would typically do this kind of campus interview for the finalists before giving offer.

Hopefully there'll be at least sth informal tomorrow... For last year, they started sending offers in mid-Jan. This cycle is just bizarre.