CPetersen

I got a personal email from the Vice Chair for Graduate Education. It was addressed to me by name, but also seemed like it was clearly a form email...

Finally waitlisted by Rutgers, rejected by UCLA. For some reason the lower ranked programs don't seem to like me, even though UCLA is definitely a better fit for what I do than, say, Columbia. I don't get it. Anyhow, not complaining!

I would guess they're just talking about rejections — they sent rejections last year on March 1, if I remember correctly.

Hey folks, I've mostly been on the History board, just peeking here now that I'm anxious about hearing back from the Yale American Studies program. Thought I should say: I was the person who posted the Harvard Am Civ acceptance. I got it by mail, but the Graduate Administrator sent an email to all of the accepted students about a week ago, so I'm guessing that if you haven't heard by now, a direct acceptance is probably unlikely. That said, waitlist notifications could well still on their way. Good luck to all! Meanwhile, what's up with Yale?

Looks like it's postmarked February 17, last Friday...

Waitlisted at Harvard last year (and rejected everywhere else), so this is especially nice...

There's no single person with whom I'd like to work at Harvard, but James Kloppenberg would definitely be involved in some way. Good luck!

I just into Harvard's AmCiv program! I had pretty much given up hope! Quite possibly my top choice! Yes! Letter in the mail — after seeing that waitlist notice go up on the board last week, and not getting any phone calls, which is how they've notified in the past, I had assumed there was no chance. But no! Now to wait for Yale...

Very helpful to know. Can't say I was desperate to move to Princeton in any case, but I'll just assume from now on that I won't be getting in, which makes the decision making process a little easier. Now if only we'd hear back from the American Studies programs at Harvard and Yale...

Um … who just got waitlisted for Harvard's AmCiv program?!? Congrats Goldie! I know Seattle pretty well, if you want any advice.

I'm afraid further Columbia acceptances are probably unlikely — the department sent out an email earlier in the week with information about the visiting day on March 2. The email was cc-ed to all of the accepted students. The total appears to be 34. Pretty strange that they're not doing a waitlist, though.

I think this summer I'm going to be pretty busy trying to get caught up on this whole 'history' thing, as I've never taken an American history class in my life, and I only took one history class at all in college (which was seven years ago). My background is in literature and philosophy — which I'm told is not that unusual for people in intellectual history, but, well, I'm going to be spending the next five years or so hanging out with historians, so I don't want to embarrass myself too badly. Any ideas for where I should start, assuming that I mostly just want to not sound too much like an idiot when I walk into my first history seminar? I've read plenty of people in my field (William Cronon, Richard White, Patty Limerick, Kerwin Klein, Donald Worster, John Mack Faragher, et al), but beyond that I'm kind of an historical idiot...

Sorry to deliver bad news, but I just got an official form email from Columbia, so I'm guessing it's unlikely that there will be many more acceptances after this. Then again, it could have just been for Americanists...

Yes, Stanford details, please!

I'm on the Princeton waitlist. So much for my, until now, perfect record! The email reads, "Over the next several weeks we expect to make a small number of additional offers of admission," which is odd, because that doesn't exactly make it sound like the waitlist depends on other students declining. New England Nat, do you have any insight? Not too surprised, since it would be a little difficult for me there with Daniel Rodgers retiring, but Martha Sandweiss would be a great fit... Congrats to everyone else! Still a lot more places to hear back from.