hooleeya

I actually hoped to come across just the opposite and offer some hope to those of us who don't have perfect GRE scores, extensive language preparation, or LORs from the top names in the field. I'm in a very small subfield, too, and I think it worked to my advantage. All the best!

I am! I've read over and over that the whole process is a crapshoot, and now that I pretty much know where I'll be going next year, I can say that I completely agree. I've been fortunate enough to end up on the good side of everything and have been accepted to my top choice - the only concrete reason I can come up with is that my interests fit very well with many of the faculty in the department because my GRE scores weren't stellar, I only have Latin, Italian, and Spanish (no French or German) and I'm applying from a small LAC. Granted, many of the faculty with whom I'll be working have visited my school and know its academic reputation, and my writing sample, SOP, and LORs were all strong, but there are many more qualified people who frequent this board alone who probably should have gotten in instead of me. Anyway, my point is that if you didn't get in where you wanted this year, you should beat yourself up too badly about it since so often it really does seem to be good fortune rather than credentials that gets people accepted.

I heard from Emory via email on February 9 - their department secretary has been very helpful so I would call/email if you haven't heard anything. Good luck!

Northwestern has started posting admissions decisions on the website - let the compulsive checking begin! :wink:

Also, for Scottish history, Steve Murdoch has written a lot on Early Modern Scottish history, particularly the relations between Scotland and the Scandinavian regions and the Dutch. I worked with him when I studied at St. Andrews and was very impressed by how he employed some of the more underused sources in Scottish history.

I just ordered the Cantor book from Amazon - thanks for the recommendation! I absolutely think that good writing is essential to good scholarship. After all, who wants to read something that's dreadfully boring. Some of the best scholars in my field (medieval religious/gender history) such as Bynum, Newman, and Kieckhefer, are all excellent writers. The first paragraph of Bynum's introduction to her newest book, Wonderful Blood, is a perfect example of how introductions should be written.

I just finished Huizinga's Waning of the Middle Ages which I found interesting from an historiographical perspective, though of course writing history in "sweeping brushstrokes" would never be acceptable now. I'm also going through a couple of Bynum's books again for thesis research.

Regarding Northwestern - Newman indicated in the email I received from her last week that the history department would be making final decisions this week, so hang in there!

Thanks, lbw! Good luck to everyone as decisions start pouring in!

That was kind of my gut feeling, too. The people at the other school (WUSTL) have been nothing but wonderful and very friendly, and while their program isn't as highly ranked as Northwestern, the campus/department environment is a really important factor for me, particularly since I'm coming from a small liberal arts university, which I chose for its atmosphere over some "better" schools.

Thanks! I'm coming in straight from undergrad, so no idea whether that helped or not. Good luck - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Hi all, I just found out that I've been accepted, with funding, to my top choice school (Northwestern - yay!) leaving me with a possibly awkward situation. I found out at the beginning of the week that I'd been accepted to another program which has offered to pay for all my travel expenses to come to a weekend for accepted students. I RSVP-ed and said I would be coming and emailed the professor with whom I had been in contact saying that I was looking forward to visiting and meeting with her. While this program was not my top choice, it was at the top of my list so I did want to visit. However, since I've gotten into Northwestern after I committed to traveling to the other school, I don't feel right going to visit the other school knowing that I won't be accepting their offer. How should I handle this? I'm still waiting to hear back from three other schools, but I'm 97% certain that I'll be accepting the offer from Northwestern. Also, I haven't yet gotten an official letter from Northwestern or the history department, just an email from the head of the interdisciplinary "cluster" I'm interested in saying I've been awarded a fellowship and should be getting an official letter once the history department finishes making their decisions, so based on that I'm assuming (hopefully not incorrectly) that I'm in, but I don't want to make any decisions until I know for certain.

I just got an email from the head of the Medieval Studies cluster at Northwestern saying that I've been awarded a fellowship in additional to full funding, etc. She said I should be receiving an official letter next week after the history department finishes its admissions decisions. I am beyond thrilled as this was by far my top choice!

To the person wondering about Emory on the results board - I got an email from them on Monday morning notifying me that I had been accepted with full funding and have been invited to a visit for accepted students the last weekend in February. The email said that they'd had a much larger and stronger pool of applicants this year.