synthla

I complete agree on the post-acceptance treatment. And placement is certainly a concern and I don't mean to downplay it (and you don't need to worry it sounds like!), but at least in part you have to be doing grad school for its own sake and as an ends itself because the subject is something you are obsessed with; otherwise, how do you get through 7+ years? And if you're not going to enjoy it on it's own terms, there are certainly more sure-fire ways of getting a stable job.

Agreed on the job-market aspect, but I've been surprised in my conversations with grad students about how non-competitive grad school itself seems (at least between students). Law school was super-competitive but that's because, in part, everything was graded on a strict curve where most students received Bs, and you were interviewing for jobs one year after starting. Most of the humanities grad students I've spoken to have been more concerned about their own work and research than what everyone else is doing, and As and A-s are the expectation (and you have to be failing essentially, not to get them). You're competing with yourself for sure, but hopefully you can win that one. The application process IS competitive, I'll give you that, but more indirectly...

My experience has been more than brief, unfortunately... several years now. Time to get out before the cynicism completes it's takeover.

I suppose it's not a coincidence that I have a J.D. and simultaneously feel pretty good about what I'm getting into with seeking a doctorate...

I've been reading the book as well; I think he is certainly a bit over-the-top in some areas, but overall doesn't scare me that much. I work in a job that places a high value on many of the same traits he describes as critical, so I read the stuff and think it sounds great - more of the same sort of thing I've been doing for years, just in a much, much better context. In fact, it many ways, it is very reassuring.

I would be considerably more on edge at this point, were it not for Indiana. I agree on the placement record issue, but everything else I've heard has been great. I'm visiting in the next few weeks - they're picking up all travel expenses even though I did not request it (working full time in a professional field, I feel somewhat dirty asking academia to pick up my airfare but they insisted) and they've been more than friendly. In all reality, Indiana has been my top choice from the beginning from a holistic standpoint - not the highest ranked school to which I applied, but the overall package looked at in its entirety is very attractive to me. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on Princeton - that would be fantastic!

I've heard UCLA is a zoo anyway and that their history grad students are generally not well supported or as happy as in other departments, but I would love if a current UCLA student (or anyone else) could correct me on this. I've applied there as well, but they have made their way to the bottom of my list as far as interest/excitement in attending.

Yeah, I'm always getting these "history - what the hell is that?" type questions from my friends in the hard sciences. It's sort of a tough concept to explain... I always start with having them think back to what they had for dinner the day before and then explain that it's like that but even further back, and often more complex. I up the ante by asking them to imagine that they'd eaten at a French restaurant and the difficulties they would have had doing their dinner-selection research in a foreign language. This is usually where I lose them... :wink:

Congrats on the acceptance! Did you get an email from a professor? I'm beginning to think it's likely I did not get in to UC-Davis now, which is very disappointing, but I'm also beginning to think that the UC system may not be the place to be for the next few years. I applied to a number of UCs because I'm already in California and enjoy living here and have some other constraints that I won't go into here, but imagining that the State of California would have enough foresight to realize that cutting the UC budgets even further will have (very) bad consequences in the long term was apparently a mistake.

That's great, congratulations! Why unexpected? Seems like you applied to uniformly well-respected schools... don't undersell yourself.

That's helpful actually; thanks for the information. I live in Southern California, but I like Davis as well. It feels very midwestern (Sacramento area has that feel generally due to all the agriculture), but the weather is definitely better than the midwest (as you expect), and you're close to the Bay Area. And I'll second your recommendation on the junk mail... I've found school correspondence there before as well. I certainly wouldn't mind finding more... :wink:

For the UCSB people out there, I did find out today that there are acceptances still being processed, so not having heard anything at this point is not necessarily a bad thing. However, also learned that the number of admits is being cut from previous years, with the expectation that there will be a higher than average yield among those admits.

Congrats! I'm also a UC Davis applicant... after I saw your admit on the results page, I checked the application website and now see that there is a "status" page where there was none before. Is your admit reflected there too? All of my application materials are listed, with a date/time stamp showing they were just posted on the system this afternoon (though received long ago), so this status page must be a pretty new addition. Have you visited the campus?

:wink: I get it; I have to keep reminding myself that I have at least a few weeks to make these decisions (although I guess right now that would be between going to grad school and not going, as opposed to deciding between schools). Luckily, summer isn't much of a concern, being that I'm out in the real world right now; I'll just keep working until the last minute. Anyway, wish I had something more valuable to add, but I'm just crashing this sociology thread. Good luck though, it really is a pleasant problem to have.

Only 2 months and 5 days left to decide... clock is ticking...

Don't worry, I'm white, middle class and male. But you sociology types seem fun. Glad you're all applying to Indiana.

Very logical assumption; the real story is pretty obscure and not that interesting - I was trying to think of a user name years ago when I was in NYC (for some other random purpose) and happened to be going through a personal revival of synth(esizer)-heavy music from the 1980s, so I used synthnyc. When I moved to LA, I switched the suffix.

That is interesting; obviously I'm not in sociology myself so what might be understood as basic knowledge to someone in the field is new to me. In the complete absence of concrete "tells," I find myself assuming that Gradcafe posters are female, and I'm not, which is thought provoking.

Definitely; I didn't think Yale History would get 9500 on its own, but just making the point that Yale attracts a lot of applications where the reaction upon rejection is "not surprised." I wouldn't have been either, so didn't bother.

If you don't get one this Friday, you'll have another chance on Friday March 13th. :wink:

I think Yale must be in a category of its own as far as the number of applications it attracts based on its stature. Call me pragmatic, but I just assumed there was no way in hell I was getting in, so my resources were probably better utilized elsewhere.

I think you're in for a much more pleasant graduate experience. Good luck with all of your applications!

It had occurred to me that assumptions of gender in the context of online forums might be an interesting study in and of itself. But I agree, and I would be interested to do a poll and see what the breakdown is... I wonder whether there would be much of a difference if it was broken down by field, or whether the online forum context attracts a more uniform ratio of genders than one would find in different departments if taken individually and outside the online forum context.

That's what I'd been anticipating, so I wasn't sure about the source of the tone of surprise in the other post. Sure can't wait to poison the youth of america with all my intellectualism.

Is most of academia typically considered to be a bastion of social conservatism?