slawkenbergius

I had the same experience as synthla (only I was 800/770/5.0). No one I talked to, either among the professors who helped me with getting in or in the departments I visited, so much as mentioned my GRE score. It's personal statement and writing sample all the way.

In my experience, something like 95% of Americanists work on slavery in some fashion or other. (OK, I'm exaggerating. But you get the point.) Even if you were both interested strictly in the legal-history angle, you'd still be fine. It really depends on whether your prospective advisor wants to take any more students.

I won't start at Harvard for another month, but I'd strongly suggest that you make it your first choice. Not only does Ferguson teach there, but there's also a very strong focus on international history/world history in the department. You're encouraged to do archival work internationally and there are a ton of area-studies centers and institutes that provide funding and office space. EDIT: The "hard" side of international history is pretty well-represented too, although I think intellectual history is somewhat stronger.

Aw, chill out a bit, will ya? Why would you waste all that cash? 1270 is an okay score, and it will most likely be the least important part of your application anyway. Assuming you have a decent GPA and research experience, you've got a good shot even with a score like that, and 40 points won't make much of a difference anyway.

OK, just making sure. Extracurriculars, incidentally, are not very likely to be relevant or helpful in your application--focus on your great research experience and how it informs your future plans. GREs won't really matter for you unless you don't make the (unofficial) cutoff, which depends on the school

For God's sake, don't write your personal statement like this. It reads like marketing copy. Trust me, anyone you'd want to work with already knows what the Newberry Library is. By the way, the word "prestigious" doesn't mean anything anymore. It means "we want to sell you something." Using that word marks you out as a dupe. Otherwise, don't sweat it, you'll be fine.

18th century Russia and the Enlightenment. What's yours?

I'm going for a PhD in History. I'm hoping to move up in August sometime.

I'll be attending Harvard for 18th century Russia/the Enlightenment.

How is the T compared to the New York subway? How long would it take to get, say, from one end of the Red Line to the other? How painful is it to have to transfer from, say, the Green Line to the Red? (Might be going to Harvard next year, so I'm trying to figure out where to find affordable housing. Is there a Brooklyn-like area, where you can trade "reasonable" rent for a more seedy or dangerous neighborhood?)

I got in on Thursday and had dinner with a grad student. On Friday, I had a schedule that was completely packed with meetings and a conference, from 8am to 9pm. (Well, actually, more like 1am, since we decided to go get drunk with a few grad students...) On Saturday, I just walked around the town for a bit and had some unstructured time before I left for the airport. And yes, there is a free bus system, but I didn't try it out--I was being driven back and forth by people.

I just got back from there a couple days ago. The program looks great, everyone seems happy and invested in their community. Bloomington's got a lot of amenities (restaurants, music scene), although the only way out is an airport shuttle that costs $25 each way...so if you don't drive a car, it might be a pit of no return. I'm not sure yet if I'm going, but it's definitely very strong and, I would say, worth campaigning for.

Yup! Thank God for gradcafe--I could tell I was rejected three weeks ago.

I went there for my undergrad, and I can say it's kind of a mixed blessing, since the fashion victims from the theater department often think it's a great idea to put one pair of jeans in each washer. I moved to Brooklyn after freshman year and never looked back. You overhear a lot of interesting things sitting outside the 24-hour laundromat in the ghetto at 1 o'clock in the morning...

Where did you hear this? I've heard $21500, which is standard. Maybe they mean stipend+tuition?

I wanted to go there mostly because of its reputation for early modern cultural history/history of the book, and because Michael Gordin was there--he does great work on the Russian intelligentsia. But now that Robert Darnton is gone, there really isn't anyone else there (except Anthony Grafton, I guess) who does the kind of eighteenth-century work I'm interested in, and the the history of the book fad is really dying out. So meh, whatever, though I guess that's sour grapes at this point.

Yup, I just got rejected from Princeton too. So it goes. It would really have been a sin to ask for more acceptances.

Thanks! (I feel like kind of a dick announcing my acceptances here.) I have a pathological fear of saying "no" to people, so I'm putting off the moment when I say no as long as I can. I will definitely do it before mid-March, though, so the spots on the waitlist can fill up. I lived in LA about six years ago, and I couldn't imagine going back there. Especially since I can't drive. (I guess it was poor thinking to apply to this program, then....)

Just got into UCLA, but without any communication from ANYBODY. I just logged into the website and there was an acceptance letter that mentioned nothing about funding and was clearly a generic form letter. Come on, you can do better than that.

No, I haven't heard anything yet. I'm assuming it's a rejection, though. I really hate schools that wait for two months to notify you!

Jeffrey Brooks's Thank You, Comrade Stalin! is pretty damn great. But really, all the Russian history you need can be found in Saltykov-Shchedrin :wink: !

Congrats! I'm waiting to hear back from them too, but I won't feel too bad if I don't get in.

Incidentally, I'm really impressed with the casual secondary-source reading you people do. I find it difficult to get through modern secondary sources unless there's a concrete project I'm working on, when I can just power through a stack of books looking for intersections with my topic. If I'm not working on anything, I generally just read classics.

I was just about to recommend Southern! To my knowledge, Huizinga is now considered more like literature than history, though I'm no expert on this field. Umberto Eco also has a cool essay from the '80s called "The Return of the Middle Ages," where he talks about the various forms of neomedievalism.

I read the crappy, half-abridged Brehaut translation. (It didn't bother me, since I was just reading it for fun and I don't think I could have taken another story about how Gundoric slew Childebert or whatever.) I blogged a bit about it here.