Aubstopper

I think it's more of a SNOMG ( snow-mah-gawd/snow-em-gee) than a Snowpocalyspe. Something to look forward to if you decide to go to school anywhere not in california

That's awful. I'm sorry. I wonder how many other people applied who didn't realize they'd just be 'making a donation' to the school. I wouldn't have known myself if I hadn't seen the facebook drama. Where else did you apply?

In cali, I did have school canceled because of mud slides, flooding, earthquakes, and fires. Never a dull moment.

That crazy snowfall of 2010 in DC was when I happened to be scheduled for my interview. I was staying in old town alexiandria and ended up stranded in my hotel for an extra 4 days. It was crazy because there wasn't food in grocery stores for days!

I remember telling that to non-cali people and them looking at me like I was crazy. Haha.

I didn't really appreciate growing up in Southern California until I moved to Chicago. I never even really had been in snow before and I definitely never owned a jacket heavier than a sweatshirt.As a kid, my parents would 'take me to the snow' for a few hours then we would drive back down the mountain to our 75F weather. The first time it ever snowed for me was when I was 21 and living in East Jerusalem. I ran outside and was squee-ing; everyone else thought I was nuts. I think since then, I've more than made up for missing snow-time. Within my first year at UofC, I went to DC for a security interview (I was offered an internship at US Central Command doing translation stuff) and was snowed in for 4 extra days (couldn't even leave the hotel). I called that one the Snowlocaust. Then the following year was the Chicago Snowpocalypse which shut down all ways in and out of Hyde Park. That wasn't enough for UofC who sent us emails saying classes were NOT cancelled. Never had a class at UofC which was cancelled because of snow or -30 degree weather. My family thinks I'm insane for even being anywhere but somewhere with perfect weather.

Merhaba and welcome! This sounds like a good thing. If your mentors think you're ready for a PhD, the school you applied to thinks you're ready for a PhD, and a PhD is your ultimate goal, why not go for it? Multiple MA degrees isn't really necessary, in my opinion, unless you're completely switching interests. It really depends on what you're comfortable with in the end.

MA degrees are cash cows for universities since they are for the most part, unfunded. History PhDs are typically fully-funded with free healthcare and a living stipend. Naturally, MA programs, being a huge money maker, would accept waaaay more students than PhD programs (which is an investment in you on the part of the school). I was one of the few lucky people who had tuition remission thanks to the Humanities department and FLAS. All those Persian language courses came in handy after all.

Oh good! I was hoping I wasn't the 'asshole' you were referring to! I was thinking that I somehow managed to offend single mothers, supportive partners, the military, etc all in one full swipe. Ya, I didn't even take out loans for my actual degrees, but to do intensive language learning and to travel the world. It was seriously the best time of my life and led to experiences that I wouldn't take back for the world, but was not careful and did not think about the financial consequences. oopsies. My mother worked SO hard to make sure I was debt-free as an undergrad, but as a result of her student loans, my only option was community college --> state school. Luckily, the state schools in cali are among the best in country, so I'm not complaining, but private universities were never an option. My dad is extremely wealthy (he works in Hollywood), so the whole FAFSA thing was skewed. They were under the impression my parents had the money to pay for my whole undergrad when in reality it would have been only my mother helping me out. Im single, never married, no children---just a temperamental cat.

My post certainly was not meant as an attack against anyone, but rather, underlying the fact that there are certain things that happen in the course of our lives that can make the road a little harder or at least place limits on our possible choices. I certainly was not referring to anyone in this particular thread/board subsection nor trying to lessen other people's accomplishments; however, not having money and long gaps in education (esp in areas that require multiple languages) are both a real hindrance to having access to the best and most elite programs. I was also not insinuating anything about people with supportive partners--I was more so referring to people who have parents to pay their way through. A girl I went to school with, her parents paid for her entire MA and they paid for her PhD in history at Oxford. There were unfortunately an inordinate amount of trust fund kids that I happened to run into with relatives on university boards who have skewed my views on the fairness of the whole enterprise. I'm not insinuating either that I've had things worse off than others by any means---was just trying to tell my story. My mother, now a professor, was discouraged from going to college and didn't start until I was 2. When I was 18, she received her doctorate. So I have the utmost respect for parents (especially single mothers) who are doing the whole grad school thing. I know from her experience that we could not move out of state (due to custody issues) so she had to turn down some really great opportunities. Then later when she was offered a position at Harvard, she had to turn that down as well.

I am in total agreement with the fact that academic opportunities can shut out the unfunded. It can also shut out people who have children, are married/in a serious relationship, and who took any time off between any degree. I sort of lucked out though on the language front. I can't really pretend that I knew what I wanted to do with my life until the middle of the first year of my MA program, but I filled up a lot of my elective credits for my majors with language courses because I love grammar (I've studied something like 6 languages). After I graduated from UofC and was barely shut out of 2 phd programs (made the short list at UCLA and Cornell) and given an MA option with reconsideration for PhD program after a year (Columbia's program was in major flux re: modern Jewish studies), I decided to take some time off from academia. It was only supposed to be a year of working to pay down my loans, but my health quickly declined and the job market was awful. I was simultaneously over and underqualified for every job I applied to thanks to my education, and I had to dumb down my resume in order to get even the most basic of positions. I did receive job offers from the government (CIA, DIA, etc) who heavily recruited people in my MA program (an inordinate number of CIA analysts are UofC grads), but I didn't want a career--I just wanted something that could allow me to get back to academia or provided relevant training. I still need German proficiency (it's extremely important to my interests as well as a requirement in most Humanities departments) and even when I was working at Northwestern and getting 80% tuition remission for all courses, I never had the time. I realized then how difficult it would be to do anything academia-related (such as language learning, traveling, research) AND pay the bills unless I was already in academia and someone else was paying my bills. I struggled SO much just to get to the point of applying again and I had to start saving a year ago for this entire process. As it is, I don't have the money to visit schools or the time to take off of work. It's difficult sometimes for me to not feel frustrated/jealous/depressed to see how easy some of the posters on this site have had it (financially) to be able to do the things that they have done. I went all in this round. I literally poured myself into these apps; I tried my absolute best. I haven't heard back from any schools either way yet, but given that my current job is only keeping me until I (potentially) leave for graduate school, it's a distinct possibility that I could be rejected from everywhere as well as a jobless at the end of this cycle. Everyone tells me "oh, you're one the smartest people I know. I'm sure you'll get in everywhere." It's hard to explain that intelligence and acceptance into a grad program don't necessarily go hand-in-hand and it's even more difficult to relay the fact to someone like your boss. This is also pretty depressing: Systematic inequality and hierarchy in faculty hiring networks

Ya, I bet. Even their website stated that they would not be accepting students for islamic studies this time around (http://nelc.yale.edu/graduate-program). It really is sad given that they're apparently the oldest nelc program in the country. I've applied through their religious studies department (they've all been very kind and helpful) and they've properly convinced me to attend if I were to be accepted. Seems there are several faculty members working on political messianism.

Best thing on the results page is the printer support, PhD from ITT tech. Claimed they were interviewed, but were ultimately rejected due to forgetting to plug in the printer. Ha.

Upvote for Game of Thrones-academia correlation.

I've been out of school for almost 4 years. Graduated in '11 with my MA. I wish I had school to distract me! My job is done purely remotely over the computer/phones, so I literally sit in home in my pjs with work on one computer screen and my email inbox/grad cafe on the other. SO not healthy!

Other boards on this site are definitely not like this. I feel like a lot of the gist I was getting was that there are a lot of people who act like a bunch of peacocks, strutting their stuff, and telling everyone how impressive they are. It has a distinctly competitive and elitist feel to it. I had people in my general field send me PMs about how impressive they are to try to psych me out. I got the feeling that a lot of people stretch the truth re: their stats. On here, not so much. I've pretty much read through this whole thread (too much time on my hands, clearly) and you guys are so supportive and kind! It really is a good bunch of people applying this cycle to history programs. If anyone is in the Chicago area and wants to commiserate in person, PM me and we'll do coffee and obsessively check our emails together.

From what I understand from professors/former students, Yale is seriously considering dropping the entire NELC program altogether. I see you've posted an article saying as much. There was more drama, apparently, even beyond what the article indicated. There is a prof I'm friends with who attended Yale for NELC and he had such bad experiences when he was there that he was advocating that the program should be suspended. Yikes. There was this huge argument among Yale professors and current/former students on this prof's fb status re: whether the department should stay open or not. Excluding the actual topic at hand, it's kind of funny to see academics argue on social media. So, really. Take it as a blessing.

Sorry to hear, Doobz. I think next week is the big week according to past decisions on the results page. Yale and Princeton at least...

I have friends in the program (and two of my LORs are associated faculty). What I heard was that decisions have been made but not yet released (I don't know when they'll be released). They don't interview either.

Me toooo. You and I are in the same boat atm. I really wish people irl would stop asking me if I've heard anything yet.

I almost went to Berkeley for undergrad and I was at Chicago for grad school (and currently live in Chicago). I can tell you that it is much, much cheaper to live in Chicago than Berkeley (maybe why they upped their offer package?). I live in a 1400 sqft flat, near transport in a nice area 3 beds/1 bath for $1400 a month. When I was in Hyde Park, I lived in grad apartments; mine was $800 a month for a 1 bed/1 bath 650 sqft apt walking distance from the uni. I know people who found even cheaper housing when they looked outside of grad housing...though in some places it can be quite sketchy (we were encouraged to not walk alone after dark--esp women). It might end up evening out either way--so it might just come down more so to where you feel the most comfortable.

I received this really helpful advice from a POI who has been a dream to me during this process. I thought I'd share an excerpt here: "Remember, too, when you get offers - or don’t - that universities are looking both to the quality of the student’s thinking and writing, and to the need to match up the student with appropriate supervision. It’s common enough that the ‘match’ isn’t right no matter what the quality, and for a student to embark upon something as long and difficult as a doctorate without the right supervision is a disaster waiting to happen. I say that because from your perspective, too, the match needs to be right - ie you need to be confident that you’re going to receive the kind of guidance you need. So it’s the university assessing things from its side, and the applicant should be doing precisely the same. In other words, a two-way process."

HUJI is not a bad option, but it's too bad they don't have the funding for you. I still have not heard back yet from one freaking university, so naturally, my mind goes to "well, duh, because they've all rejected you." I'll reply to your email soon (I haven't forgotten!). I have been without a computer for the past week and so it's more difficult to write long responses to things.

Sorry to see that. I hope JHU pulls through for ya!

If you're anxious about decisions, I'd email your POI directly rather than administration. They're known, btw, to forward unsuccessful, strong applications to various MA programs around the university with partial funding (1/2 tuition with second year possibly fully-funded if you keep above a 3.5).