Safferz

Congrats, SamAli! You'd definitely want to check out the interviews forum in the 'applications' folder, but I'm sure others who have gone through the process can give you some history-specific pointers here as well. Interesting. I suspect next week will be big for Yale interviews.

Bad idea. You really don't want to interfere with the admissions process in any way while they're actually reviewing applications. The prof will know you mentioned him/her on your application when he/she reads it, so just sit tight and wait for a decision.

I hear you! But there's really no reason to think about *any* school until late January, at earliest. The review process has just started. I've accepted that and it's keeping me sane for now. Yale is a bit of an anomaly because of the interviews that will take place before decisions, but for the most part it's the week of Feb.6-10 that makes me nervous

Relax, guys! I think it's a bit silly to think Yale is done this early, when most schools have only been open for two weeks since the holidays. The application was due on December 15th, and it appears the graduate school closed for the holidays on the 23rd. We all got the email when the graduate school made applications available to departments for review (Jan. 11th), so I think it's highly unlikely the history department has gone through all the applications in a week. My guess is that next week and the week after is when successful applicants will be contacted for interviews - assuming that Yale is sticking to the same timeline as previous years, rather than pushing back decisions later in the month to accommodate interviews.

Sigaba, I find your comment rather condescending. I am well aware of how academic historians work. That said, I stated my opinion of a contentious public figure and I stand by it (and I was being nice).

Yes, and he only got in because he was a legacy student from a notable family. I don't see how this is comparable to MLK though, GWB was mediocre then and he's mediocre now.

Well if it makes you feel better, a lot of major works use the term 'feminist' to refer to early women's rights activists. It's my pet peeve though lol

Exciting and terrifying at the same time!

Congrats, CPetersen!

I'm anxious too, but I'm trying to think rationally and remind myself that I won't hear anything until February! Trying my best to relax for a few weeks.

Perhaps develop what you mean by 'work in academia' -- that you'd like to do research, make contributions to your field, teach, etc. And since it's an MA program, you'd also want to add that you plan to continue on to a PhD program.

I hear you. I also wasn't nervous at all about waiting this month until I saw everyone here freaking out (and I mean us humanities students, not the science kids who actually have interviews and results coming out), so now I'm starting to freak out too. I'm trying to be rational and get back into my original mindset, because there really is no use in even thinking about applications until February.

You have to go to the actual application, and under 'downloadable forms,' there's an 'application status form' that they update when they've received your materials. I submitted my application back in November, and they only updated my form today.

Same here. Only it says that they want me to resend my transcript because it's unclear, so I'll have to call them tomorrow morning and deal with that.

My position here is heavily influenced by my background in African history, postcolonial theory and gender studies, so I struggle to see how the question is up for debate! I think history writing, like all forms of knowledge production, has a political dimension. African history itself only emerged as an academic field some 50 years ago to write *against* European historical production that for centuries represented the continent as primitive, timeless and outside of History (re-phrasing Hegel here), which then in turn became the dominant discourse used to justify the imperial project. So I really don't agree with the idea that the academic historian somehow possesses some objective 'view from nowhere,' because like all people, historians are subjective actors shaped by their social, cultural (and I should note, institutional) contexts. And I think history shows that

There's a cover of this by Karen O, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's opening credits. SO GOOD.

The admin posts monthly stats in the 'announcements' folder I find the slow board a bit unsettling though... seems to match the silence of the waiting process. Then bam, February!

According to forum stats for 2011, January had 9,541 posts and February had 25,344 posts. So you're right! We won't see too much activity around here until decisions start rolling out.

*bump* I just think we need more of this thread

Nice to meet you!

All the movies I'm looking forward to come out in late spring and summer, long after results All of my programs appear to notify applicants in February. But with films like the Hunger Games, the Avengers and Dark Knight Rises, it looks like I'm set to have an awesome summer after all of this is over!

Good luck, sending you positive vibes -- I'm sure your POI will have great news to report! I'm holding up well, and it's only just starting to hit me that it's January and decisions start rolling out soon. I don't expect to hear from any of my schools until February, so I feel pretty relaxed right now and glad I'm not still working on applications

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!! Wonderful news, goldielocks! So happy for you!

That is awful! Early in the fall I started an application for University of Michigan's history program, which was suspended this year because of a larger than expected incoming cohort last year. They hadn't updated their department website at that point, but within a few days of starting the UM application I received a personal email from the department chair apologizing and explaining the situation. The situation at Brown is just so strange, I'm also curious about what could have happened to explain such abrupt and unprofessional behaviour. Really sorry this happened to you!

Don't give up so quickly! Apparently Yale has a special email address in the email your referee should have received from the application, they'll help him/her through the technical issues. I was having issues with one of my referees as well, so what I did was delete the recommender and re-register them on the application so they received a fresh link and it worked perfectly. Try that and see if it helps, this is your top choice after all so try everything in your power before resigning yourself to an incomplete application!