Dirt

Congratulations! Maybe I'll see you there in the fall.

For some of us, it's much easier to get time off during the week...

Having been there and done that, much to my regret, keep in mind that if you buy a house you could be stuck with it for much longer than you might like. Unless you want to buy my condo (a mere four hours from IU!), in which case you can't go wrong. :wink:

I applied to an M.A. program right out of undergrad, mostly because I wasn't prepared to commit to a Ph.D. program. It was probably the smartest move of my academic life. I finished undergrad with a 3.4-ish GPA (probably a little lower in history) and exactly one history professor who actually liked me well enough to remember my name (and he wasn't in my subfield). I finished my M.A. last year with a 4.0 graduate GPA, four semesters of a language that's actually useful to me, a published journal article, a thesis that contains another article or two in embryonic form, several conference papers (two of them award-winning), two years' experience as a TA, and some really great letters of recommendation from faculty that I worked with intensively over the course of several years. Plus I actually know what I want to study now, so I was able to be pretty discerning about which doctoral programs I applied to. I'm no boy genius, but I'm definitely in better shape than I was before. The downside of M.A. programs really is the lack of funding. I would recommend looking at programs that offer the M.A. as their highest degree. My TA work took care of tuition and brought in a small stipend, but I also had to take out loans (really dumb) and work a full-time job through the whole thing in order to eat and pay my mortgage. At times, that really got crazy; I had to make a lot of sacrifices.

That's me! Wife *and* baby, in fact. Making a decision shouldn't be too hard: I only have one offer at the moment (and don't really expect another), but that one offer comes with a financial package that should allow us both to leave our current jobs. Moving, on the other hand... :roll: Our biggest issues right now are: 1) Deciding out what to do with our condo, which we bought 4.5 years ago. Should we try to sell it and hope for a decent price? Should we take our chances renting it out until the market picks up? 2) Figuring out whether or not we can bring our dog with us. And, if not, figuring out who to leave her with.

I'm waiting for official word on one that I know is a rejection and one that I'm pretty sure is a rejection...

Well, I'm impressed. 8) I would recommend using the Chronicle of Higher Education's cost-of-living calculator to see what 30,000 Miami bucks would be in Pittsburgh bucks. If Pitt's offer is still competitive given the lower cost of living there, I don't think the situation is much changed--you pick the school that's the best fit and that can get you a job. For you, that sounds like Pitt. If Miami's offer is way higher regardless... Well, I would definitely consider that offer.

Anyone have more info on the Storrs/UConn area? Where to rent, where not to?

It looks like UConn History and English have both made their decisions now. MS would probably take a bit longer, being an interdisciplinary program, but if these contributing departments have made their picks I would expect to hear something pretty soon. Good luck, and hang in there!

I was pretty sure this would be the case. I don't think they have any active, tenured faculty in Modern Britain at the moment--that is, no one available to advise new students in the field. Glad I didn't apply.

I still haven't heard from Indiana or UC Davis, both of which started notifying people weeks ago. I'm choosing to be positive and interpret this to mean that I'm on a waitlist. (I at least know that I haven't been rejected yet by UCD.) If someone has info to burst my bubble, though, please do share--at least I'm in somewhere now, and should be better prepared to handle another rejection or three.

Is the UConn admit on here? What's your field, if you haven't already said? I was starting to think I was the only one here... It looks like I'm in there, but, since they can't make funded offers without a state budget, my wife won't let me call it an acceptance yet.

I did for both of mine; I've been told that it's a good idea to do so (although I've never planned to reapply next year). One DGS wrote back, just repeating the obvious about the large number of applicants and the limited number of spots available. This made me feel stupid and incapable of performing simple math. So perhaps I should infer that my application led them to believe that I am stupid and incapable of performing simple math? :wink:

Agreed. If you have a specific question that you really need answered, something not directly related to your application, OK. If they contact you, awesome. But I think anything else can come across as schmoozing and/or pressure, and neither helps your cause.

I just wanted to express my appreciation to all my fellow historians for the civil tone that's been maintained here (crazy NYU wannabe from the other day notwithstanding). We've all taken some hits--and some of us doubtless will take some more--but by and large you've handled your damaged nerves with dignity and grace. I haven't seen many historians resort to profanity when Harvard fails to recognize their peerless genius. (That's why it's called Harvard, people! Get over yourselves already!) I wish that I could say the same for everyone on this site. The one that really drove me batty yesterday was the guy/girl who posted a rejection from a top 25 program by griping about an "unsolicited" e-mail from a "lowly office secretary." I don't imagine that anyone specifically "solicits" a rejection, but really? Did s/he just not want to know? And a word to the wise from someone who's worked in academia off and on seemingly since some of you were in junior high: Do not disrespect those "lowly office secretaries." They hold far more power than you know. You want them to like you.

I'll second that, especially if you're looking at public history. This seems to be one of the [many] fields that slip through the [many] cracks in USNWR's system. Reputation does matter, but I personally think a program's placement record is the best measure of that.

The New School is very much a niche institution. Do they even offer a doctoral degree in history? Northeastern's program is very small and relatively new--only seven Ph.D.'s conferred since it started ten years ago. It takes time to build up a reputation.

If it doesn't happen this time around, I'm out. I'm too old to go through all this again, and too poor to pay the application fees, transcript fees, printing fees, etc. I'll spend the summer trying to get back into shape and apply to the Navy. And if that doesn't pan out, I'll hope for a raise and try to find some adjunct work.

Um, yeah: it's the "or before" part that keeps me up at night. If I knew that no decisions would be made for two more weeks, I could sleep like a baby until then.

Minnesota just sent me an e-mail version of the rejection letter I got earlier in the week. And they CC-ed (not BCC-ed) it to 100+ other rejected applicants. That is rather obnoxious; I feel for those Berkeley Sociology folks now. The mail's here, and I still haven't seen anything from the two schools I was sure had rejected me last week. I never thought I'd be so relieved to think that a decision has *not* been made yet.

The AHA website has info for every program for the fall of 2004. Don't know how "average" those numbers were, but it's something.

Congratulations again, slawkenbergius! And I wish you well with Princeton. Looks like UIUC has made their decisions; I'm out. Fields were Global Histories and Colonial/Postcolonial. They weren't high on my list, but I'm really ready for some good news. Last night I read Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Lottery in Babylon." It felt strangely appropriate.

Ditto that. The advice I've always heard is that you choose the best-ranked school *that will give you funding*, and that sounds very reasonable to me. If I can't find someone willing to take me on as a TA or RA for a few years, what does that say about my future prospects for *real* employment in academia? Even with funding, we're all taking our chances. Sure, maybe you can stick it out for a year and then find something, but in my mind that's quite a gamble. Personally, I won't (i.e., can't) accept any offer that doesn't come with a pretty decent financial package--I have a wife and baby in tow, and those silly people expect to eat! Now, I did do the first year and a half of my M.A. without funding, but I was going to school part-time and working full-time.

I was thisclose to applying to Iowa (for modern Europe), but was very disappointed by a campus visit. Two of my five appointments stood me up. (One e-mailed me later to apologize; I never heard from the other.) Another professor--whom I was referred to by the Grad Studies director--outright refused to meet with me. Almost everyone I talked with, faculty and students alike, seemed stressed and unhappy. There were some other issues too, but I won't get into them in a public forum. Just my experience, of course, but it was enough to drive me off.

Congrats, Slawkenbergius! Indiana is a great place.