remenis
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Posts posted by remenis
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I think your question is a tough one because the best programs for any given sub field will vary a lot depending on what in particular you want to work on. For example, some medieval history programs are great for the Mediterranean but bad for northern Europe or great for economic history but bad for intellectial history or vice versa so you can't make a definitive list of what programs are "the best" for the whole subfield, you just need to sort through the pool of available programs for which would be the best fit for your own interests. I do medieval history as well if you want to PM me.
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Re: Others will sit you down in their office and proceed to have a conversation with you about your field of study in the language under review. And that will be just for starters.
Whoa whoa whoa... I can read French, but if you asked me to speak a bit of it I wouldn't be able to say more than "Je ne parle pas Francais." I do a pretty good French guffaw and "oui oui," but I don't think that counts for much. But seriously, are we actually going to be accountable for speaking in our research languages conversationally? Because I'm only 1 for 2 in that department...
I think your professors will expect you to get to the level of french speaking ability that you will actually need. For example, if you intend to go to france and look at french documents in archives, you need to be able to say at least a few things in french - if you can't ask the archivists questions about the documents your work is going to be at a disadvantage. But if you are not ever going to need to do that, it probably won't be a big concern.
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http://csl.uchicago.edu/languageexams/index.shtml
This page is a link to the language exams administered at the University of Chicago for a few years - they should give you a pretty good sense of what most language exams are like. Take one of the Spanish ones and try it as a test to see how you do.
- runaway, grlu0701, uhohlemonster and 1 other
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yo, what's up with chicago? where's my rejection?
I am in the same boat - I'm assuming I'm rejected but haven't heard anything. I think I might call soon to withdraw my application anyway.
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Any thoughts on mentioning that the school is your top choice (only when it really is, of course)?
No issue with telling them that - if they've given you the funding information. If they're still working on getting your funding package together, don't mention it in case they give you a lower offer thinking you'll still want to go because it's your top choice.
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Safferz - I think it may be that these non-ivies all assumed you were so awesome you'd choose an ivie so they didn't give you an offer. I've heard from a professor that schools do actually consider things that way.
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What does it mean that my UCLA app says no decision?
Uholemonster - I have no idea! But my UCLA online app still says no decision and I got a formal written offer from them (one that said: your acceptance has also been posted on the website).
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In emailing POIs at one institution, once I got an offer, the professor not only asked me to call him by his NICKNAME (i.e. Joe instead of Joseph), but signed it that way too. And he referred to the other POI the same (which is how this POI signed all correspondence). Then again, I'm on the West Coast and I think we are a lot more informal out here than in the rest of the country.
I got that too! I was asked by a POI to call him, so I did and when he answered the phone I said "Hello, is Professor X there?" and he said it was him and then said, "First off, everyone calls me..." and asked me to call him by his nickname. But even though he had been signing emails that way, I would never have adressed him that way until he told me to.
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Maybe they're not done accepting people?
They're not - I got an email from a POI at Columbia last week as well and he said no official decisions would come out for a few weeks. Professors have been slowly letting people who are definately in and definately not in know, but most people (some of whom will get in) will not know for a while.
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Any predictions on what schools we'll hear from next week?
I was told most of the UCLA decisions will come out in the next week.... could be wrong though.
Oh I also definitely predict that Yale will have their Valentine's day rejections like they have in the past.
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I got a University of Minnesota admission as well
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Lurkers are those who don't post ... I believe? I could be wrong though
Yeah - lurkers are those who read the threads but don't post.
obviously those who don't read and don't post aren't here to be lurking
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posting this here so as not to fill up the admissions thing with chatter-
I kind of think the admission page would be more useful if it has subfield on it - because often if someone is going to turn down a position, they are going to be filled by another person in their subfield so someone in a different subfield who is waitlisted at that school would really get no help from it. (I believe this is not true across the board at all schools - but some do fill waitlist spots by subfield).
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P.S. What is going on with Yale? It seems that by this time last year they had sent out decisions, right?
Do you think it's coming on Friday?
Last year most of the Yale answers came out on Feb 14 i think - which is still a week away unfortunately even though it seems like this should all be over so soon.
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Oooh, who are the medievalists for Berkeley? Congrats to you both!
I second this - I see one of you was accepted to UIUC and USC too! Congratulations
Always happy to see medievalists doing well. -
3. How are US students int'l students?
US students are International Students in Canada because they're not Canadian.
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Here's my theory about Yale (based totally on speculation and not on any insider knowledge, so feel free to poke holes if you know otherwise).
The Department has been asked to do interviews, and I think they are leaving it up to POIs how they want to do them. Some POIs are doing actual, formal interviews, where they are interviewing a few candidates and will make selections. Others, I think, are just selecting the candidates they want to admit, and then doing an informal chat and letting that be the "interview". That's why I don't think this process is done and people could probably still hear back.
Anyway, just a theory. Could be totally wrong.
I think this seems really likely. Especially since this is the first year they are doing interviews.
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By the way, i remember looking at the Columbia committee a few months ago. They were all European historians. Do you know/think that has any bearing on who gets in?
I would hope that it doesn't because that seems unfair and they can't just choose a cohort of only european scholars - but its obviously a big help if a professor who wants to work with you is on the committee and if no one in your subfield is on the committee they dont get that final decisive vote.
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Yeah I think that at Columbia the professors in each subfield meet up and make a first cut and then pass the applications they like on to the committee - at least this is what my POI there told me, but I don't know much more than that.
I guess we just have to keep waiting
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Hi Invinchiva - from what I know about Columbia the final decisions are made by a hist dept committee - meaning that, she may want to accept you but the decision won't be up to her and she may be trying to tell you that the committee doesn't often accept students who haven't completed a masters degree.
I also applied to Columbia straight out of undergrad so I'm in a similar boat.
What's your subfield out of curiosity?
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Since I posted about correspondence I'll clarify mine: I contacted some POIs before my applications and haven't heard anything from any of them since (except one who was just alerting me to a missing peice of my application), but in the last month I've heard from several POIs who I had not contacted and who all initiated the correspondence.
This is pretty much in keeping with what superfluousflo is talking about.
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I've been told that unless they're extremely powerful (politically), they literally have no say in the decisions. They have access and can read applicatiosn but don't get to lobby for an applicant. I don;t know anyone who's been able to get in when the chosen POI is on leave during the process.
So yes, I'm sorry to say this but I wouldn't count very much on any application if the POI is on leave this semester. That's one of the purposes of contacting faculty prior to applying- to see who's on leave for the spring semester.
I have to say I don't think this holds true across the board at all schools. While I'm sure it's true in many places, I don't think every single school operates this way. I've been getting a series of very encouraging emails from a POI at one of my schools, hinting that I will be accepted and she is on leave. But this program's website says that students can only be admitted if a "faculty mentor" selects them and lobbies for them, which is a bit different from how many programs choose students, and the professor in question is on maternity leave and thus close by - (not far away in the archives).
I have also gotten a call from another POI at a completely different school who told me that he had recommended my application for admission and that I was very likely to be accepted - he is also on leave this semester.
Obviously, both cases are a bit unsure still, and I have not recieved official acceptances, but I don't think that you can say that a POI being on leave is going to kill your chances. I'll also put out that, it may come down to subfield as well - since my field, medieval history, is relatively small there are a lot fewer applications for a medieval professor to read while on leave than there would be for an americanist or modernist.
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finally found a solution that can distract for a few hours: beer + translating texts from Latin.
Haha Loimographia - I love this! I think I will try it too.
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owls, I have a quick question as well which I think might be helpful for some people - had you been in contact with any professors at Yale before you applied or was this the first you were able to speak with your POI there?
Congrats as well by the way!
- taybaxter and goldielocks
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School Suggestions for History/Anthro PhD seeker
in History
Posted · Edited by remenis
My advice is - don't avoid any schools just because funding isn't guaranteed. I also do medieval history and almost didn't apply to several programs because they only fund a select portion of the students - but you may get lucky - I did and got a 5 year offer from a school that offers most students no funding. The funding can vary widely field to field, year to year within a single department.
One program gave me a relatively low funding offer and said, they were very sorry they couldn't offer more but that the year before they had accepted three medievalists and gotten full funding for all of them - it just wasn't the medieval historians "turn" my year to put a strong funding package together. It can really vary widely from year to year, but it's worth it to try because this might be the year the medieval professors get the money for their candidate and that candidate could be you.
Additionally, in my opinion your list of schools is lacking a lot of the bigger name programs - at least, the ones I recognize as being strong programs for medieval history. I don't know the strength of your application or if you are interested in applying to a lot of the Ivy League schools, but I would still recommend you consider adding to your list.
Just from a quick look at their department pages, it doesn't seem that Tufts, Temple and UCSD would be particualarly strong choices for this field. Temple and UCSD seem to have only one medieval historian listed and Tufts, if you search their website by faculty area of expertise they don't even include a subfield for medieval europe - that should be a red flag.
Obviously, fit is extremely important, so I really can't say that these departments are not good choices for you, it just seems like a surprising list if you are really set on Medieval history. The issue is that even if one professor there is a great fit, the department as a whole may not be well suited to preparing you in the field as a whole - and if other historians don't perceive it as a strong program for Medieval history you could have a harder time finding a job at the end.
Feel free to PM me if you want some suggestions for more programs.