borderlands

Your guess is probably as good as anybody's guess. It is really hard to say. Keep hope until you hear the official news.

A good book to check out is Donald Asher's Graduate Admissions Essays. It is a good resource to get freehand writing ideas for your statement of purpose. Highly readable and has a lot of tips. Best of luck!

I have always felt that calling someone "Dr.---" to a faculty member was too preposterous. I call faculty members "Professor ---" or if they are Latin Americanist and don't mind speaking in Spanish "Profe --". I have quite an interesting story where the "Dr." title might be handy. I was taking a class at UCLA and the history professor told us this story. He lives in Pasadena and one evening he had chest pain so he called his doctor and he told him to go to the nearest emergency room. Anyone who knows the Los Angeles area knows what hell it is to go to the ER, there are like hundreds of patients waiting, some with intensive pain and frustration of waiting. So Prof. goes to the ER and the medical doctor called ahead and told the hospital that "a doctor was on his way". They immediately let him in and began with procedural check up. They treated him like he was a medical doctor using all these medical words then he explained he had a philosophical doctorate not a medical doctorate. Moral of the story the title comes with perks. Not all of are going to agree on the proper title for faculty in history but we will continue pursuing a phd and one day hopefully becoming a professor at x or y university/college.

I think it really depends on where you live. If you can fly early enough from Nashville to make it home and catch the flight next morning (check available flights) to make the Michigan recruitment on time then that would work. I highly doubt Vanderbilt will want to pay for another day of hotel stay if they don't have to. The best way to deal with this situation is to be up front. They know you have other offers--call the history recruitment coordinator and let him/her know the situation. Tell them that you need an extra night of hotel stay and you won't need a flight back. Worse comes to worse just pay for an extra night and coordinate for a airbus shuttle to pick you up or wait it out at the airport. I have a visit to Davis March 5-6th and U of Chicago's visit March 6-7th. Unfortunately, there are no flights from Sacramento to Chicago that afternoon so I have to fly back to LAX then take an overnight flight to Chicago. I will miss the field dinner that late evening but I will be there early morning (with blood shot red eyes) for history day. I guess that's the way things go. Thanks for your response on the questions for advisor and vice versa. Anyone else with comments or experiences with recruitment weekend? I think the hardest part for me will be rejecting one school over another. I have never been good at "break up" thing in relationships. I tend to make them break up with me. This is going to be hard.

I have a couple questions about recruiting weekend and visits to prospective universities. Maybe those with experience with these visits can tell me/us a little more. Besides having read the research of our propective advisors what kinds of questions do they ask? Possibly about our future research plans or research in the past that we have done? Who we have worked with at our universities? What kinds of questions besides financial/ health insurance questions should we ask?

In the letter of acceptance from Vanderbilt they should have explained if they were going to book your flight or refund the flight. I think Vanderbilt has a travel agency that takes care of this over the phone. At least this was my experience with Vanderbilt two years ago for a prospective weekend where McNair Scholars were brought from just about every state. I would chose that either Vanderbilt or Michigan pay for it. It might sound kind of unfair but unless you are planning on booking this flight yourself and sending half the bill to each one, I would just ask one or the other. The best way to find out the situation on flights is to call or email. They are really friendly from my my experience. If they say they will refund your travel expences and you don't have any funds just be up front and let them know your situation; they will pay for your flight.

Sorry double post.

I don't know if the following information applies to everyone but I got an email from them this morning. Reads as follows, Dear borderlands: We are in the process of making a decision on your application for admission. You may review the decision after 8:00 a.m. PST on March 2, 2011, by accessing your UC Davis application on the online admission web site. Please contact the History program if you have any questions regarding this decision. Best regards, Office of Graduate Admissions and Academic Services University of California, Davis

It just occured to me to ask: what do you do with your acceptance or rejection letters? Of course, in this electronic day and age we use email but once in a while we get acceptance or rejection letters from graduate schools through snail mail. I open the letter read through it quickly looking for the words "accept or reject". If it's a rejection letter I rip the letter to shreads but before I look at the watermark if it has one. If the wording is not so negative I might use the back as scratch paper. I tend to keep all my acceptance letters in a folder even if I don't accept. Does any one else do this? What do you do with your acceptance or rejection letters?

I think most people have been getting rejection letters via snail mail. Mine was post marked February, 16th, and if I am not mistaken emails from Harvard, history program, normally acceptances. But I'm not sure.

Congrats on your acceptance to U of Chicago! I'm going to arrive Monday morning so hopefully we get a chance to meet each other. Fell free to message me.

If I may add, my two cents, I would suggest that there is no such thing as a safety school. It's all about fit. At least in history programs. One can have a perfect GRE score, two honors research thesis and great letters of recommendation. But if there is no "fit" or connection between the program and the applicant one will not be accepted. That's why it's important to apply to a wide range if schools.

Thanks for the congrats. To tell you the truth, I was quite surprised. That morning I had received a rejection letter from UCSD, and the day before I got Berkeley's rejection. I was waiting for another one specially since it was in the spam box. I feel truly fortunate. I think all of us are more than qualified to be accepted by a top program.

Yes, I think I'm. After a visit to another university that Sunday afternoon I am going to fly right in. I have never been to Chicago and I want to personally get acquainted with professors and the university campus before I make a decision.

I just got admitted to the U of Chicago it was marked as spam. Are there any other admits? If so, are you planning to visit for history day?

I took a risk and applied as an Americanist as a primary field and L. America as secondary field, since I study the US Southwest but the period I was interested was clearly Northern Mexico. We should have a field of North America rather than American and Latin American history. I guess that's were transnational history makes it's claims.

I got mine from the chair of graduate admissions committee with attached pdf to email. Generic letter no comments on the actual application other than my name.

I just got mine too! Well, I am not upset, after all, I did my undergrad here and perhaps it's for the best to move on to another institution. Lesson learned: one can never apply to too many schools specially if one is not in a major field with in that department, which is the case here, no graduate students from the Latin American field accepted. However, my sincere congratulations to those accepted!

For sure, I am willing to meet up some time in the fall. I am both a Latin Americanist and Americanist, studying what is now the U.S. Southwest and in the past Northern Mexico, hence U.S.-Mexico borderlands. I'm interested in the state-formation of California, from 1800-1900, the ethnic/racial diversity of Alta California, Spaniards, Indian nations, mestizos, and Africans.

UC Davis is looking like a very strong option since its my only accepance thus far. I have yet to hear back from other history programs, but I think they are taking their time crafting the rejection letter, if not already in the mail. No word on funding as of now but promised tuition and fees plus living stipend. How much living stipend means is a question in the air. I also looked on Craigslist and noticed a couple single bedrooms for rent around the range you mentioned but some a little lower. I don't think I will be able or like living with a family. It would be too ackward unless they are really cool folks. I have never visited Davis, next month would be the first time although I lived in Berkeley. Davis is a good fit, I believe, professors have similar interest and are open to new ideas. California state archives are close and I can take a shuttle to UC Berkeley from UC Davis when doing research at the Bancroft Library. I just want to know the details about funding. Visiting weekend for the history is March 5th. When is the English department's visit day? What are your research interests?

I have also been looking for another admit to UC Davis but in the History program. I guess not everyone uses gradcafe although I secretly wished they did. I doubt I'm the only admit this year. By the way congrats on your acceptace! If you dont mind me asking, how serious are you considering the English program at UC Davis?

I lived in Berkeley for four years as an undergrad. It's a nice city, one can find just about anything one can be into, while most graduate students do live off campus probably for the same reasons. The campus is largely dived into the "north-side" which tends to be more quieter and family oriented, whereas the south-side is much more student oriented. Most of the dorms are in the southside along with the fraternities/sororities and livelier side of campus. In Telegraph there is Amoebas and Rasputin music stores, plenty of local fast food places to eat with quite a variety: Indian, Korean, Italian, Chinese, Mexican food... ect Also People's Park is located on Telegraph, Moe's Bookstore, Mediterranean Cafe, plenty of smoke shops and pubs such as Blakes, Raleighs, Kips, and on campus the Bear's Lair. It all depends what you are into. I am sure you will find Berkeley to be quite an interesting place.

I know Berkeley does not have waitlists.

Those who hear back sooner than others is probably because professors identify their top recruiting priority early on. Whereas early rejections means that the application was not competitive enough. Keep hope they are probably waiting to hear from the college about planned funding for next year. I know this is the case for UC's since the state is demanding another 500 million cut. Most Ph.D programs offer full funding to their incoming students. It is all about budgeting and recruiting their top picks.

For Latin Americanists applying to UC Berkeley the chair of this sub- field was not planning on taking any graduate students this year. A professor from the department told me ahead of time but i still applied. Congrats to all those who got accepted!