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I want to take a moment to lift a glass to the poor person who got six rejections this week. I am so sorry and hopefully you’ll have better luck upcoming soon.

If you applied to UChicago, check your portal. No email went out, but I got my “we regret that we cannot offer” notification this afternoon.

Academic twitter is really similar, but with more ups and downs in the assessments. Yes, the job market is shit. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was blessed to have one of my profs give me a speech on why I shouldn’t do a Ph.D not once, but twice (and I sat through it and smiled and he smiled because he knew me well—especially by the second speech—to know that it wouldn’t be something in discussion if I hadn’t thought all of that through). And yet, he still told me to go for it if it was what I wanted and has been endlessly supportive in between teaching and current-student advising duties. I have a friend who was doing her masters at the same time I was—different historical area (she’s history of science), different institution—and she ended up going on to her Ph.D straight from her masters (I went into the private sector for a few years, then back to school again for a second bachelor’s degree). She gave me similar advice, warned me about the job market. She also knows me and knew that I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t something in serious consideration. No matter what they tell you about the job market, you’re going to decide what you’re going to decide. And you’ll figure everything out for yourself later, one way or another.

@MatildaMedievalist These are usually done in rounds and it could be something as funny as them not doing that letter of the alphabet for your last name yet or it could be that they’re deciding between a few people in a sub field, checking on funding, etc. could be waitlist, too—there are any number of reasons why you haven’t gotten an update yet. Just hang tight, even though that’s usually the hardest part.

@MatildaMedievalist Just take a deep breath and wait. Do you have another offer in hand? (I don’t remember if you did or not.

Seeing some Princeton admits! Congratulations to them!

@charmsprof not necessarily. It could be that the English department got their batch of recommendations to the dean sooner than, say, the history department.

@ATAH last year they came out on the 15th.

I mean, if they’re taking more or as many as they did last year, that’s good news for folks who applied and are hoping to get accepted. It may or may not be indicative of other trends, but we will have to see how that all plays out. On the other hand, might not be so awesome given the job market, but that’s a whole additional can of worms, right?

Congrats to whoever our second U Chicago POI confirmed acceptance is! Just saw the second one this morning after @automatic_peas posted theirs Personally, I’m expecting not to hear anything until mid-month on my own app (U Chicago was a last-minute decision for me to reapply after last year’s rejection). Seems like we’re seeing a lot more of the history, humanities, and social sciences starting to roll in now (lots of English, lit, political science, and anthro popping on the results listing the last few days). Keep breathing and good luck to everyone.

@automatic_peas You are correct, U Chicago was one of the ones where you selected multiple fields. Congrats on getting word from your POI on acceptance!

I haven’t seen any emails from Northwestern yet—last year they sent emails to tell applicants that decisions had been reached. Last year, they were sent out on the 30th around noon eastern (I know because I still have the email—don’t ask me why I kept all of these rejection notices, but I did). I’d keep a loose eye on your inbox and try not to panic too much? It looks like the latest they came out in the past few years, looking at the results lists, was the end of the first week of February—which would be by the end of this week anyway.

@jpc34 That’s what I was suspecting, too, though it’s interesting that their acceptance notification came so much later than ours. Wonder if it’s also linked to field, though.

Is the other UWM admit (the one who just posted today with the note about MA at UWM and funding) on the forum? Just wondering how you were notified about funding. In my admit email, I was told that we’d be getting word about funding by February 1 and nothing’s come through yet. Just wondering if I need to be checking the portal/PAWS at this point.

@dr. telkanuru I can definitely see how that would be the case. Applying for jobs and interviewing for said jobs brings up a lot of the same kinds of anxiety that this process can bring up. You’re absolutely right—developing coping strategies is a must.

@wynntir That’s a very enlightened approach. I applaud your wherewithal—I know that I certainly lacked it when I was in my first season. Fingers are crossed for you in your season for certain.

Agreed—the stress is still pretty crazy. All of the schools on my list adhere to the April 15 rule, which is good, but at the same time I would love to hear sooner rather than later because that means I can start figuring out what my life may or may not look like in seven to eight months. The good news is, if patterns hold, the floodgates for a lot of schools open pretty soon. Northwestern, if patterns hold, should be sending out notifications by the end of the month and UChicago should be sending theirs around the 15th of February. Cross your fingers, remember to breathe, and no, checking your email 97 times a day won’t make the information come faster. Trust me.

@TexasTiger The nerves are real. This is my second season and I remember barely being able to concentrate on virtual classes, etc. once I heard back from the first school (Loyola sent out their notifications super early last year because their cohort was so small) until I heard from the last. The waiting isn’t easy—it’s still not easy. If it doesn’t go your way this season, it is entirely possible that it will feel like the end of the world. I can guarantee that it’s not, but it’ll feel that way. I don’t know about anyone else, but I cried after most of my rejections and it’s 100% okay to do that. The one thing to keep in mind (and this will sound incredibly trite) is that it really isn’t personal, especially in this era of COVID admissions and a ton of uncertainty in academics at large. There just aren’t enough spots every year for everyone who applies, no matter how qualified. After the season, after you’ve processed outcomes, you breathe. If you had a bad season (last year I did), then you take some time to sit and decide whether or not you’re going to try again or if you go a different route with your life. Part of why we’re here is to support each other through this process. I wish everyone the very best of luck, regardless.

Re: UWM - I got a really good feeling about the people in the program, but I’ve got some pretty grave concerns about the funding situation. Still, after my wholly unsuccessful season last year, getting in feels amazing and I’m hopeful. I’m still waiting to hear on the funding piece, and from my other apps, because in between applying and getting accepted, I had a major shift in my career (to the point where I’m now making twice what I was making at the time I applied for PhD programs—I literally got all of my apps in and then got the job offer), so there is a lot more at stake for me now. Luckily, I’m single and have the backing of my family, so all I have to worry about is myself and two cats. Very exciting time and good news (if slightly stressful news!) coming when we needed some. What’s your field?

Congrats to all the folks who are interviewing and best of luck to you all!

Probably because of my nerves, really. I do have some emails out regarding various things and will be reaching out to some faculty and possibly some graduate students this week as I attempt to narrow down my prospects for the upcoming cycle. I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets anxious about essentially cold-emailing someone you've never met who's higher up on the career and academic ladder than you are.

I've added more schools to the potential list, which is currently in flux. Had some contact with Loyola's public history program and based on that have probably taken their public history/US History joint PhD off my list (in part due to my own background and how they handle folks who come in with a master's in hand). A few others that either weren't on my radar last cycle or were taken off my list of schools that I actually applied to are probably ending up on this year's list (U Wisconsin at Milwaukee being one of them). After going back and forth like crazy about which of my writing samples I want to use, I've decided to revise both but will likely use one because it better fits what will likely be my research focus (mid-19th to early 20th century settlement and community patterns in urban spaces - asking questions about the factors that caused people to settle the way they did in the patterns that they did and what caused some of these communities to persist while others dissolved). Statements of purpose come after I've narrowed the application pool.

In digging through the page's archives, I've only found one or two really good replies on this subject (from a couple years ago now), so I'm going to ask and hopefully someone will answer and leave me enough lead time to reach out. In a couple weeks, I'm going to be in Chicago and would kind of like to reach out to some of the programs that I'm applying to see if it would be possible to talk to someone about the program or maybe at least just get a feel for the campus (the trip is not expressly for this purpose; my cousin is getting married in the suburbs and I'm staying in the city for a few days after the wedding). Has anyone reached out to a DGS on this recently, or is everyone still in the same mode I am where it's weird to think about asking to actually meet someone face-to-face in the era of COVID-19?

Thanks @TMP -- knowing what your experience was with regard to this, and the advice about just flat-out asking DGS about the certificate numbers and the nitty-gritty is definitely going to help me sort through these options that weren't on my list the first time around.

I can't give you any insight on either program, but I will tell you this: go where your research interests would be best served. It won't matter where you're living if you hate what you're studying. Then again, if you hate the idea of living in Manchester, that's also something to consider.