emeraldsapphire

Congrats on the interview. What's your subfield?

Hi, all. I completed master's degrees at Notre Dame and Yale, and am currently a PhD at UC Berkeley (so am familiar with the GTU) if anyone has questions about any of those places. Best of luck with everyone's apps this season.

Ah, ok. They must be moving faster then. Which subfield are you in? Feel free to DM if you'd rather.

Actually, no, this is one of the few things the strike seems not to have upended. It has something to do with the fact that last year, they had to make decisions early for some kind of fellowship deadline (I'm not clear if it was an external or internal fellowship), but that pressure isn't there this year so they want to give faculty and the AdComm more time to review. That's what I understand at least.

FYI to any Berkeley applicants: The timeline for decisions will be later this year than it was last year. So if you're looking at the timeline on last cycle's forum thread or the results page, it probably won't be a good indication. The AdComm isn't even meeting until early February this year. Current Berkeley student so happy to answer any questions.

As a former ND PhD student who was flown up for an interview, just wanted to say don't judge South Bend based on the airport ? (It can get you from point A to point B though)

If any current applicants would like to participate in an alternative platform for discussing applications/notifications/decisions, PM me.

It seems that there are competing ideas about what this thread should be used for. Would it be possible to have a thread (this current one or another) devoted simply to people who want to discuss the application process/notifications/decisions and another for people who want to give or solicit advice about whether one should do a PhD vis-a-vis the job market? I think that could diffuse a lot of tension on here.

@TexasTiger, I was a PhD student in the History department at ND for awhile. I'll PM you.

Got into Wisconsin. Will be turning down though.

No advice other than to say I've been there (I am there).

@medievalpeasant, I think generally, a PhD in a methodological discipline like History (or English etc) is preferable than an interdisciplinary degree insofar as you want to get hired in a disciplinary department (insofar as jobs in any department exist in the current market). However, for medieval, the Institute at ND is such a big name, you would be ok so long as you tailored your time there heavily toward History (or whatever relevant field): taking lots of History coursework (including methods courses), doing archival research, getting historians as letter writers etc. @Trail_Blazer, I don't know the field of History and Science/Medicine as well, but a high ranking program known for that field can, I think, help to compensate for interdisciplinary angles. And if everyone's basically doing "history proper" just geared toward a certain subject matter, then it's probably historically based enough anyway. So generally, if you're in an interdisciplinary program, the burden is on you to prove your historical chops. Others know more than me, though.

Congrats on Yale, @MikhailM! Happy to answer any questions about Yale/New Haven (I'm at Yale now).

Hear hear

Sorry to all those who received rejections from Berkeley. @BalkanItinerant, I totally get how the lead up (interview, finalist etc) makes the disappointment worse. I was among those who somehow got in, but I'm sitting here devastated I didn't get into my top choice and feeling the sting of that. The grass is always greener, I suppose... Best wishes to everyone waiting and/or making decisions right now.