Maguire

I was admitted last year with no interview, but I believe some people did do them, so it's a bit hit and miss. If you don't get an interview and others do, don't assume you're out of the running. It's not over till it's over.

Is anyone here the listed Yale Interview? If so and you're willing to share, what did they say?

I don't think anyone on this thread has mentioned actually getting a Yale interview request yet, just saw one asking about it. From the submissions last year it looks like interview requests went out from around the 5th onwards, so I guess will see! Applied to several other places like Chicago, Brown, Cornell, NYU, Vanderbilt, Emory etc 

@scarletwitchcompletely understand. Ya just PM, then. 

@scarletwitchahh you're right! the poster I thought said they had a Yale interview actually said they had an interview with Columbia and berkeley, but were asking about Yale. Those are all excellent schools! I believe NYU has interviews because I follow a few of the faculty members from NYU on twitter and I remember one of them tweeting that as a department they don't do informal zoom interviews with prospective PhD students who send email requests for one. She said however they do interviews with students they're seriously considering for admission. I also applied to emory as well! I  think they have interviews? 
anyways, what is your area of study/research interests?

@scarletwitchfrom my understanding, Yale does interviews as well. Someone on this thread already said they received an interview invitation from Yale, so I imagine they should’ve gone out by now. Where else are you applying? 

@scarletwitch I wish I could help but unfortunately I did not apply to the university of chicago so I have no idea. Based on what I saw from last year's 2021 application thread, it seems like invitations for interviews should be going out right about now.

Just heard from my last school (Duke) and got rejections all around for the PhD programs I applied to. Luckily, I applied to one MA program. I am accepted, but waitlisted for funding (anyone thinking of passing on NCSU, plz do ). Thank you for all of the advice, suggestions, and support from this forum. Hopefully I will be back in the next few years to report some acceptances! If rejections did anything, they showed me that a PhD is a serious goal of mine. So, see you later GradCafe.  

I'm in the same boat. Two years ago when I applied to programs and didn't get in anywhere, the obvious answer to "what do I do now" was get the MA. Now that I have the MA, it's less clear to me how to proceed to best position myself for next cycle (and if I even should apply again next cycle). 
Do you already have an MA? 

This happened to me in 2019. I came out of undergrad at Berkeley with a STEM and a humanities degree, graduated with highest honors, doing research with Nobel laureates, etc. All the rejections were devastating at the time and my ego is still suffering a little bit but it ended up a blessing in disguise–I found a really amazing job and can move forward into graduate school with two additional years of solid work experience and a number of skills I wouldn't have learned otherwise. That work experience is very valuable to me now as I've come to better understand how dismal prospects are for historians in academia. It also helped me to formalize what I want to study and encouraged me to look for programs and start conversations with people that I wasn't aware of the first time around. I now know that even though I don't necessarily need graduate school to get done what I need to get done, I want to be surrounded by people as invested and engaged in the study as I am. I applied again this cycle and have had some modest success (two offers, seven rejections, one still in the ether) which I count as a win given that the history of certain sciences is so hyper-specific.
Let me know if you want to talk through it with someone who has been there. I don't know if there is anything I can say to make the present feel any better, but I can give support as you move forward 
 

@dr. telkanuru
I just noticed the "dr." part added to your name! If it means what I think it means, then congratulations! 
I joined the GradCafe when I was applying for the first time (and didn't get in anywhere) and now I am third year into my program and preparing for orals while applying for dissertation fellowships (and mostly just lurking)... It's so surreal to see things change a bit (though more than often they stay the same) here! O_O

I wasn't even going this far! A MAPSS with 1/2 tuition is something that one should consider; the MAPSS program is really good as these things go. Chicago is much better than, say, Columbia, when it comes to just taking MA money and running, although this is also a difference between the MAPSS and MAPH. 1/2 tuition is just not a good deal. 

I was accepted into a PhD program this year. All I was saying is that if a person is determined to attend a MA or equivalent degree, then he/ she might consider the MAPSS a good choice. 
You are right to say that a person should not be falling into significant student debt for a history MA, and I encourage everyone who is about to enter a MA program this year to weight the cost and the benefits. 

Congratulations on your acceptance! A rejection for me. I appreciated that they let us know how many applicants they had (~300) and how many they took on (~3%). It was a nice touch to put the rejection in context. And not make us go to the portal!

So you made it in during an extra competitive year - that must feel pretty good. Enjoy the glow!

Hey folks, I have gotten a bunch of messages since posting my one acceptance, asking about my application process, etc. and I am happy to provide any feedback and answer questions whenever I can (as long as people know that this is not like a magic potion. I'm very lucky to have gotten in, but I don't pretend to know the secret to applying that nobody else knows). I have long felt that the nice thing about this community is that it's a group of wishful scholars supporting each other and providing a little clarification where possible to the more mysterious parts of this grad application process. 
That being said, I got an message this morning asking me if I was admitted to a particular program because it was the only program the writer had applied for and they stated that they hoped to "influence the outcome any way I can." This is so unbelievably inappropriate. It makes me sad to think that members of this community are going around trying to talk others out of attending programs that they were admitted to in the hopes of clearing their own way. Deciding on a program is a hard and intimate decision, and nobody should be trying to influence each other in any direction, let alone out of a good placement. 
I am going to step back here, and won't be reading any new messages. Please everyone try to be good to each other, and supportive rather than covetous when it comes to others' admissions. I know we are all desperate for good news in a hard year, but just be kind.

FYI UChicago is on the quarter system, so it starts much later than most US schools. I think next year's start date is September 27, which is decently close to the Cambridge term start date, so I think you'd have approximately the same amount of time to work on applications for the next cycle. 

If you do get into CIR or MAPSS and the funding isn’t enough to justify it for you, I would recommend asking them for money! They do take those requests and can give more funding. And in my experience they are fairly generous, offering many people 1/2, 2/3, or (in some, rarer cases) full funding. The PhD placement is great and it’s very good training.

Same, if they do offer me a spot the funding will have to be pretty great. Cost aside, the program is appealing in rigor and duration. I couldn't justify it though without generous $$ support.

Re: MAPSS referral - mine was actually uploaded in a second letter to the portal and it was uploaded later than my original rejection notice. I didn't receive an email notification so it was luck that I caught it! Decision for MAPSS will be in March so... something else to wait a little longer for... at least at this point I'm used to it! 

Judging from a quick survey of last year's results, it looks like a lot of folks referred to MAPSS from the Ph.D cycle do end up with more funding than just the usual MAPSS applicants, but that could just be a side effect of whose results we can see.
Good luck to all the MAPSS folks regardless!  May your admission be imminent and your funding be ample.

I’ve been referred to MAPSS too and am quite interested in seeing what they come back with, even though it means waiting a few more weeks. Adding on to @kleio’s query, I was just wondering if anyone knew how likely it is for referred PhD applicants to be offered a spot at MAPSS and if there’s a better chance for receiving funding due to this? Thanks!

I’ve been referred to MAPSS too and am quite interested in seeing what they come back with, even though it means waiting a few more weeks. Adding on to @kleio’s query, I was just wondering if anyone knew how likely it is for referred PhD applicants to be offered a spot at MAPSS and if there’s a better chance for receiving funding due to this? Thanks!

1. I know that compared to Yale or Harvard, UCL and Cambridge pale in comparison and I wasn’t suggesting this would help my application next year, just that as a U.K. applicant these are our top schools (and are both in the top 10 for the QS world rankings.) I know that in some ways being an international applicant, even though I’m a US citizen, is to my disadvantage.
2. Thanks - I think most likely my dissertation will be the best writing sample to use. 
3. I applied to too many schools this cycle and it wasn’t the best idea, but I was trying to maximise my chances. I did tailor my SOP to each application but I’m going to make sure that I do this even better for next cycle. It’s what I’ll be working on over the summer after I finalise my list of where I’ll be applying.

I appreciate and thank you for your candidness but I have come away from this answer feeling discouraged about my chances of getting in next year as an applicant from the U.K. I think it may be time for me to step back from Grad Cafe, I appreciate everyone’s advice and support but I need to concentrate and avoid distractions. I’m pretty sure this cycle is over for me, so wishing you all the best and for my fellow 2022 applicants, good luck next year!

It is common for UChicago to refer their PhD applicants to the MAPSS program. 

My History PhD application to UChicago was rejected, but I was referred to the MAPSS program. I am very excited but I am wondering if anyone has any insight about how they accept students (by field/program)? I am also nervous since my application was not tailored to MAPSS, though referrals seem common. I did talk a lot in my application about wanting to work with professors in the anthropology and sociology department so perhaps that is what led to my referral. Thanks guys!