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general_jr

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Posts posted by general_jr

  1. Well, I think I'm done on gradcafe now. I'm going to chalk Columbia up as a "no," since a friend of mine still hasn't heard from them, two years later... Best of luck to everyone. PM if you need anything.

  2. general_jr,

    Congrats on your acceptances, particularly to Northwestern's Ph.D. program! What do you hope to study?

    Thanks, sbyoda. I'm really psyched about NU (History Department, actually). I'm interested in the late-medieval Catholic church and lay piety leading up to the Reformation. Kieckhefer, Elliott, and Newman at NU are pretty much perfect for me. I'm still pretty giddy about that. My fianc

  3. I just got off the phone with Sandy Dowling at Chicago, who said that they were sending the mail out in batches and the last batch went out today.

    I can't help but think they'd have sent out acceptances first, though...

    I live in Hyde Park and just got my MA acceptance yesterday, so I'm not sure that they do acceptances first. I wouldn't hit the bottle yet...

  4. "The Department of History is highly selective. Every year, we decline more qualified applicants each year than we have the resources to accept. We typically receive 300-350 applications. We admit 50-60 students, all of whom receive some kind of financial aid"

    I just want to dispel this misinformation once and for all. This is either a misprint, or it counts their MAPS (MA) program. The PhD program has 10-15 students and will likely be smaller this year. For example, they admitted two medievalists and waitlisted one more. If you look elsewhere on the website, gives better numbers.

  5. I was admitted to Fordham's History MA program (concentration in MS), so I can't speak to the MS program, but I assume they are on roughly the same schedule. I got a call Feb. 23 by a prospective adviser (Richard Gyug). He laid out the financial info and rattled off all of the reasons I should come. Really a wonderful guy. I will almost certainly end up "pursuing another opportunity," but it seems like a great place.

    I hope you hear soon and that it's good news.

  6. I'll reiterate language-study if you're able to swing it. Applying as a medievalist, it is really important for me and, I think, perhaps the strongest part of my app.

  7. OP, I wouldn't take anything off the board just yet - even talking to a faculty adviser. If you have someone whom you trust and feel comfortable discussing this with, I would recommend getting their perspective. Only, though, if you feel comfortable with them.

    As for actual recommendations: First, I would go have a glass of wine and celebrate that you have the choice. Next, I'd hope you'll visit Chicago before deciding - even bring your SO. Chicago is a great place and worth at least looking at (airfare will definitely be cheeper than a new round of apps...). You and your SO have to make the final call, but it might be easier if you make Chicago a reality first.

    One word of caution about Chicago: You seem pretty interested in practical issues, Chicago does not have a stellar track-record of catering to those (though I have no clue what the South American History faculty is like). If this is a concern for you, look into how much you could draw on the Law School or Public Policy School's resources; they are much more praxis-oriented.

    Just take your time and talk to everyone you trust about it. It is a great department, though, and a great city... And if it's any several friends of mind did the long-distance gig from Chicago and it has worked out for all of them so far, so it can be done.

    Good luck!

  8. veilside, I saw that statistic the other day. But if you look around their site a little more, it says somewhere that they admitted about 17 or so (I can't remember) students in 2007. I know the history department pretty well and that sounds about right. I'd expect this year's class to be 10-15. Perhaps the 50-60 students refers to the PhD and MAPSS program? That said, no matter what the stats are, good luck!

  9. admissions stats and statements about how many got into what field both intrigue and irk me, because I'm a Byzantinist, so I'm in a different box at every school- Chicago and Harvard have Byzantium as its own field, at Penn and Ohio State I applied as ancient, at UIUC late antiquity, at St. Louis, Catholic and Michigan medieval, at LSU and Florida pre-modern Europe.

    You're right, they don't make a whole lot of sense for us, but they make somewhat more sense for the faculty and graduate school. At Chicago, for example, our medieval faculty was told they could only admit 2 students this year so the 3-4 of them have to decide who gets a student... Of course, medieval is a somewhat larger field than Byz, so I understand your frustration... :wink:

  10. FormerFlyer, I had a "View Decision" link on Thursday and received an e-mail with funding info on Friday. I didn't get an e-mail that the decision was made, though, I just checked. Maybe they're doing them in batches? I have no clue, sorry.

  11. I'm glad to read this. It's nice to think that some of the results posted by people who heard from future advisors don't necessarily mean that everyone who has been accepted has already heard.

    I don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule either way. A friend of mine at Chicago was contacted by two profs as soon as he was accepted. That said, no one at Northwestern broke it to me before decisions were posted. It's not worth fretting about either way.

    Also, number's of 50-60 seem awfully high to me. I know that they are only allowed to admit 2 medievalists, for example. It's been a really rough year for Chicago.

  12. Argh, STILL waiting, and fighting the urge to call or email. It's frustrating, knowing that someone heard from Northwestern last week, but I still haven't heard anything from them myself, nor have I seen anything else up on the results board :(

    Anyone else having trouble getting their work done this week? I'm so distracted!

    Yeah. Pretty much nothing is getting done. Northwestern seems to be holding their cards particularly close. Kieckhefer and Elliott have been very friendly in e-mails (Elliott went so far as to say that she "enjoyed" reading my file - God only knows what that means), but not very forthcoming about the process. That said, I've been abiding by the unspoken rule that I shouldn't ask direct questions about my application status.

    At first I thought this rolling admissions concept was great, but now I wish we just had a firm date on which results would be released.

    Good luck with the waiting!

  13. Hmm, one of my seniors had to pay for at least his first year in Chicago. Fortunately for him, he was able to cough out the dough. This was a couple of years ago.

    They changed their graduate funding about two years ago. I think 5 years/20k is pretty standard now. The 1-year masters (MAPS/MAPHS) is mostly unfunded and pretty much a waste of time. But it has nothing to do with the history department.

  14. I can speak to Chicago's situation as an undergrad here. The history department's budget was sliced, but this will have an impact on number of admitted students, not quality of funding (our President says, anyway). My advisor mentioned that the class size for next year has been sliced in half!

  15. Genghis, the student is in the Religion department and was referring to their admissions. Kieckhefer gave no hint as to how the history department was coming along. I'm hoping they'll let me know soon.

    I would think that they would release the decisions pretty much right away, but that said, there are so many applicants, I don't know what's going on anymore.

  16. I heard from a student there that they had already made their decisions. I assume they'll let you know soon. I applied to the history department and spoke with Kieckhefer on Friday, but he was mum regarding admissions... We'll see.

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