whatshewrote

I'm reviving this topic! I'm heading to Leeds in September, and right now travel is the main thing on my mind. Does anyone have any advice about the best time to buy a one way plane ticket to England? (I'll probably be flying from Dulles, in DC.) I haven't bought mine yet, and I don't want to wait too long and have the prices start going up again (not that they're exactly "down" now - the cheapest I've been able to find is around $800...grrr). Anyone else travelling to England have some insight on this??

Alright - I am in the throes of a major decision crisis. And, since this board seems to be the place for laying out me-focused, personal choices, I would crave your indulgence and ask for any helpful advice you might have to dole out. I'm heading to the UK this fall to pursue a Masters in Medieval Studies. I've gotten into Oxford, Leeds, and York. Right now, I don't know what to think about York...I'm still waiting to hear some funding results. Mainly, I'm in a huge quandry over Oxford vs. Leeds. Leeds matches my research interests very well. They have the International Medieval Congress. They've also been extremely personal and friendly. The director of the program made an effort to speak to me over the phone, make sure all my questions were answered, and offered to review my scholarship application. Which I was successful in - I received a 4000 pound scholarship, which would certainly make a dent in my tuition. Plus, there's a strong chance of a paid internship at Leeds. And it seems like they're a well-ranked, respected university, although it's been hard for me to get a complete grip on that. But Oxford is Oxford. They didn't offer me any funding, but would it just be stupid of me to pass up the opportunity to study there? Should the name alone trump all other possible schools? I do want to go on to a PhD after completing my Masters, possibly at the school where I do the MA (so Leeds or Oxford), just b/c this seems like it would be easiest. And I've heard many versions of the UK PhD marketable/non-marketable theory. But, honestly, I'd really like to stay in the UK to work, so my US employability isn't my top concern at the moment. I suppose I could do my MA at Leeds and re-apply to Oxford for PhD...but I'm already in now, so should I just go? Phew - ok, I know this is a fairly specific problem, but if anyone out there has any sort of opinion whatsoever, I would love to hear it! And I really, truly appreciate it, so thank you!

Another person with a medieval interest - how cool! What is your focus? I also wonder if funding is more abundant for PhD students... I guess I'll just have to wait and see, although I have no idea how I'm going to go about making a decision. Unfortunately, I won't be in Leeds for the Congress this July. I hope you have a great time! Are you attending or presenting? I certainly hope to make it there in the future, whether or not I wind up at Leeds or elsewhere in the UK.

I received my official letter this morning as well. Mine had no word on funding, though - it seemed to imply I had to wait for the college decision to receive any final info. Based on what I've heard, I'm not holding out too much hope for funding. I wish they'd let me know sooner though, since the letter said I had to notify them of my decision by May 1st, while I presumably won't hear about funding til after that date...which seems like kind of an unfair situation. Ah well. I'm still just thrilled to have been accepted!

I was also an applicant to the department of History! (For the MSt Medieval Studies.) I emailed the department yesterday afternoon (at graduate.admissions@history.ox.ac.uk) and heard back this morning. The woman who wrote me, Susanne Heinrich, said, " We expect to send the letters out in the coming days. This will be done by email." I hope this means you'll be hearing soon! Although "coming days" is pretty annoyingly vague. You could try emailing once more, maybe, since that's pretty odd that you never heard anything back. What specific program did you apply to?

I, too, am now going to throw in my vote in favor of emailing. Thanks to everyone's encouraging words here, I emailed my department and rapidly got a polite response saying letters should be going out via email in the coming days, and they were happy to say they'd be making me an offer. (Yay!!) No further details on funding, college, etc, but it's such a relief just to know finally. Thanks again to everyone!

Thanks for all the words of wisdom...although, of course, I'm not thrilled by how much more waiting it sounds as if I should be prepared for. The wait continues!

Ok - I applied for a Master of Studies (aka taught MA) at Oxford by the January deadline. According to their website, decisions are supposed to be made by this Friday, the 18th. And that's at the latest! But I STILL haven't heard anything, and, as time ticks away, I'm going more and more nuts. Especially because I don't know if they notify by e-mail or snail mail. Looking at the Results board, most Oxford notifications seem to have come by e-mail, which makes me happy, because I don't want to have to wait who knows how much longer in limbo while my decision travels UK to US by post at some indefinite, post-18th time. Argh! Has anyone applying for a taught program at Oxford heard who applied by the January deadline? Or, for anyone with prior experience, do they always wait til the last minute? The website also said they don't want people e-mailing them about their status, so that's ruled out... Sigh.

Thanks for letting me know about the "Under Review" thing - I've come to hate those two words. Maybe I'll cave an email the Centre. Although, honestly, I'm in the same boat. That is, if I'm accepted, I already know I'll probably have to say no, simply due to the complete lack of MA funding for US students. But I'd still like to know either way!

I'm waiting on this too! It still says "Under Review" in my online application. Grrr. Wish they'd hurry up. I noticed some other UofT MA acceptances appearing in the Results board, but not in Medieval Studies.

Haha - this is ultra cheesy, but when I received my first acceptance, the first song I listened to (driving home from work, singing at the top of my lungs) was Katy Perry's "Firework." That's right.

I'm going to bump this topic, since I'd like to find out more about Kalamazoo as well. I've been accepted to WMU, but, of all the schools/cities to which I applied, it's the one I know the least about. Is it fun? Freezing? Friendly? What's the story? I'd love to hear about the academic environment, too, if anyone can offer insight on that. Thanks!

Hi again, RecycledViking! I hope I can help a little here... Coincidentally, I am also a medievalist AND have done historical archaeology (also because of a love of the study of material culture). After I finished undergrad (where I was also a history major - I can't foresee that being a problem), I worked for almost a year as a field intern at James Madison's historic home, Montpelier, in VA. I actually did this since I'm interested in, perhaps down the road, exploring medieval archaeology. I agree w/ anthropologygeek - a field school is the best place to start. You can learn all the basics there, and it's the easiest way to get a sense of whether archaeology's a career that would appeal to you or not. I did my field school at Montpelier, and there's an arrangement there that if you complete the field school, you can stay on as an intern. There's a (small) stipend and free housing, so it was a sweet deal. I don't know if other field schools have arrangements like this, but you should check around. I will just add that Montpelier was an awesome place to work (shameless plug). Yes, it is absolutely sloooow, painstaking work. And there's a lot of stopping and filling out of paperwork involved. And it's eight hours a day of physical, dirty labor. One thing I missed was wearing nice clothes and not having dirt permanently caked under my fingernails. However, it can also be extremely rewarding, and tons of fun if you like your coworkers. I mean, you're outside, in the fresh air, and you can talk and joke while being productive! I hope this helps. Browse around for some field schools that look interesting, and maybe look for an internship after that. You definitely need an advanced degree if you want to move beyond field tech, but, by gaining experience, I bet you'd qualify for one w/ no problem. Best of luck in your decision process!

Hello there! I apologize for the late reply - I thought I was getting email updates on this topic, but apparently not. Anyway, it's great to hear from some fellow medievalists! Let's see...my interests are primarily in 12th/13th century England, the Plantagenets, social and political history.... Needless to say, I have a LOT of narrowing to do before I start any PhD work. I get a bit intimidated when I hear other people saying, "I want to research THIS certain trend in THIS certain decade in THIS certain country/author's work/what have you. But I'm hoping to remedy that soon! I also love hearing any positive feedback regarding Leeds and York. The MA's do have separate funding which you can apply for (and I have), but I don't know what my odds are. I'm certainly not crazy about the idea of forking over that lump sum w/ no help. Especially when I keep getting mixed messages on the usefulness of UK degrees and UK university's attitude toward US students ("Oh, they let them ALL in b/c they just want your money." - That kind of takes away from the excitement of getting accepted. ). RecycledViking - I did indeed look at Yale, but, since their deadline was earlier than my other schools (Jan 2nd), I just didn't have everything ready in time. I don't know anything about UConn, though; I'll have to check that out. I just heard back positively from WMU, too; so I'm pretty excited about that! Do either of you have any experience w/ WMU or Kalamazoo?

Congratulations to all acceptees! I have a question - did everybody here apply by the November deadline, and that's why you're all hearing back right now? I applied for an MSt, but by the January 21st deadline, not the November deadline. I'm assuming this means I shouldn't get my hopes up for hearing anything imminently (according to the website I should know by mid-March). Anyone else in the same boat, or are there people who applied in January and are already getting letters? (In which case I'll definitely start to freak out.)

Haha - that's okay. I appreciate everyone's words of advice. As I understand it (which is hopefully correct, since it was the basis of my application for this degree), an MSt (Master of Studies) at Oxford is a taught program, while the MPhil is a research-based program. I wish to use the taught course as an opportunity to narrow my research interests and focus on something I can then carry on into PhD work, since I don't have a specific enough topic at the moment to jump right into a research degree.

THANK YOU for this post! It pretty much sums up how I feel all the time now - swinging constantly back and forth between thinking, "I AM a smartie! I CAN do this!"...followed shortly by, "I have no chance. What was I thinking? I am mediocre, at best." And I especially appreciate it coming from a medievalist.

Thanks. They are, indeed, taught programs, so that's what I'd assumed. Good to know, though! I'm hoping the whole taught MA in England turns out to be a wise/useful choice...

Haha - thanks. That makes me feel better. I also wonder if the fact that I wasn't selected had anything to do w/ my field of study. It seems like Fulbright would be less inclined to give funding to a Medieval Studies degree over a more current, "modern" topic like medicine or science or something that could have a direct effect on the modern world. What's your field?

I am applying for Medieval Studies MA's this fall at York, Leeds, and Oxford (actually it's an MSt there), and I'm just wondering if it's important to contact professors there the way it seems to be here in the US. Should I be looking for professors whose research interests match my own (although I must profess my own research "focus" to be incredibly loose at this moment) and sending them emails telling them how great I am (in so many words) and that I've applied to their school's program? Is that done there? I've been in contact w/ the administrators for the different schools, and they've been very helpful/friendly, but I haven't actually contacted any professors (my applications have already been submitted)... The same question goes for U. of Toronto, I suppose, where I also applied, have been emailing the dept. secretary, but haven't contacted any professors. Help! Am I dooming my applications?

Just found this topic and have been interested in skimming through - a form of masochism, I suppose, since I already got my rejection letter. Nice to have the waiting over with, though. Still, there's nothing worse than seeing that email and suddenly getting completely nervous and excited, thinking, "This is it!" Plus, I couldn't stop myself from having that gut-reaction of imagining myself moving to the next round. Ah well. I'd applied for master's funding w/ the joint Fulbright York or Leeds scholarships for Medieval Studies. Anyone else heard back positively from the UK? I think I remember that being one of the countries w/ the highest number of applicants...or am I mistaken?

Greetings, all! I just happened to stumble upon this site and was ridiculously excited to find a place to get so much helpful info. from fellow students/applicants. It was particularly exciting since I so rarely hear of anyone else applying to a medieval studies program - there's not exactly a bounty of info. out there on this graduate field. I'm in the midst of the application process and am alternating between feeling fairly confident and freaking out and thinking I have no chance of getting in anywhere. Anyhow, I saw that there was another "Medieval Studies" topic but that it hadn't been updated in a while, so I thought I'd throw a new one out there. I feel like my school choices are all over the map (literally), but they all appeal to me in one way or another. Cornell (my biggest reach school, for sure, and the only direct-to-PhD program) Western Michigan University University of Toronto U. of York (this is probably my dream top choice) U. of Leeds U. of Oxford So - is anyone else out there applying to these schools? Or have opinions/advice about them? It's been hard for me to get a grasp on how selective each one is. I definitely did well in undergrad, and I've had interesting/relevent jobs since graduating in '09, but I haven't published or done anything jaw-droppingly amazing. Phew. I hope this post isn't too scattered. I just couldn't wait to jump into the conversation! -Natalie

Thanks! I'm also going to re-post this under "Interdisciplinary Studies," which is where I meant for it to end up in the first place!

Greetings, all! I just happened to stumble upon this site and was ridiculously excited to find a place to get so much helpful info. from fellow students/applicants. It was particularly exciting since I so rarely hear of anyone else applying to a medieval studies program - there's not exactly a bounty of info. out there on this graduate field. I'm in the midst of the application process and am alternating between feeling fairly confident and freaking out and thinking I have no chance of getting in anywhere. Anyhow, I saw that there was another "Medieval Studies" topic but that it hadn't been updated in a while, so I thought I'd throw a new one out there. I feel like my school choices are all over the map (literally), but they all appeal to me in one way or another. Cornell (my biggest reach school, for sure, and the only direct-to-PhD program) Western Michigan University University of Toronto U. of York (this is probably my dream top choice) U. of Leeds U. of Oxford So - is anyone else out there applying to these schools? Or have opinions/advice about them? It's been hard for me to get a grasp on how selective each one is. I definitely did well in undergrad, and I've had interesting/relevent jobs since graduating in '09, but I haven't published or done anything jaw-droppingly amazing. Phew. I hope this post isn't too scattered. I just couldn't wait to jump into the conversation! -Natalie