CPetersen

Not to be too much of a downer, but given the job market I personally wouldn't consider going into any more than a very minimal amount of debt in order to get a PhD. I know it sucks to think about, but maybe take what you've learned this year and reapply next? Down the road you might well be glad that you had waited a year and figured out a way to get into a program that would fund you.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but does anyone have a sense of when the waitlist situation begins to clear up? I've heard about nightmare situations where people don't decide until April 15, but I guess many departments start pressing students to make decisions earlier. Does late March seem reasonable? For those who've been admitted, when are you planning to make your official decisions?

Talked to the Am. Civ. Administrative Assistant at Harvard today. Five admitted, five waitlisted, no set order to the waitlist — who they take off will depend on who turns them down. I guess I'll just have to sit tight.

p.s. I'm focusing on the American West, and I'm not a good fit for either English or History programs, which narrows down the list of top schools. Basically it's Yale and Harvard, and then I applied to Stanford because I like Richard White so much, but my history background wasn't strong enough. Most of the work I've done on the West has been as a journalist and book reviewer — I spent most of my time in college studying Europe.

Thanks. I didn't apply very widely, since I wasn't so desperate to go to grad school last fall, though now I'm starting to think otherwise. I got rejected by Stanford's American History program and I'm waiting to hear from Iowa's nonfiction program. Otherwise it's Harvard and Yale. Here's hoping I make it onto Yale's waitlist as well. My contact at Harvard is out of the office until Monday so I won't have a better idea of what the waitlist looks like until then.

well crap. congrats!

seriously Yale? you're going to make us wait out another weekend? seriously?

I was the one who got wait listed by the Harvard Am. Civ. program — got a form email earlier today. Since they're contacting waitlist people I would guess that if you haven't heard anything it's probably pretty unlikely at this point. They do seem to have moved away from the postal notifications of years past. Very grateful to still have a shot, but I so badly wanted to have this done with. I guess we'll see what Yale says — I'm a better fit there anyway.