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paint

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  1. paint

    Ann Arbor, MI

    The roads aren't the best for biking but it's doable (and totally fine for commuting). The highways are in good shape for the most part. Grad students looking for places to live should also look south of campus, south of the undergrad area (south of Wells). Burns Park is where a lot of faculty and families live and there are a decent number of nice apartments in the area (almost all in houses). You can go further south along Packard and get some good deals but you'll have to take the bus to campus. Woodbury Gardens is a decent complex if you prefer that.
  2. I would complicate this a bit. The advisor is clearly key -- both in terms of the scholarship the student produces and in terms of connections and networks that produce jobs. That said, the link between advisor and institution certainly matters. But the connection may not hinge on prestige. To take the example of someone in the news today, Bill Cronon has stayed at Wisconsin despite a plethora of offers from other institutions. As he notes in his blog post about the current insanity, were he somehow to lose his position, he could hop over to any number of places and get hired and paid significantly more. He has been turning down offers for years. If you want to study environmental history, get into Wisconsin (and get funded), there's no reason not to go work with him. He's not leaving Madison voluntarily any time soon. Seduction happens, but only to those who want to be seduced. Ferreting out who might be interested or willing to leave would be a wise move before making a decision. It's true that prestigious and wealthy institutions can fill holes more quickly than others. But in this economic climate, even that is slowing and when it happens, it's hard to predict who the department will hire. Given this, I would suggest that it is the advisor + overall department that matters. As one mentor said to me, "your advisor could get hit by a car tomorrow, are there enough other people to work with that you will be ok." Most schools allow for outside readers on dissertation committees which means that you can replace 1 person with an equal from another institution (provided, of course, you have built a relationship with someone else). This also means that should your advisor pick up and move in 2 years, s/he would usually stay on the committee of his/her students. The real question is who else already in the department will fill out your committee and push you along. Don't go anywhere that lacks a good supporting cast.
  3. I think the biggest consideration with faculty is will they support what you want to do -- whether it's what you said in your SOP or you change your mind. I have a cmte of people who all touch on the work I do but none do exactly what I do. It's fantastic b/c they're all committed to my success and like the promise of my work. My advisor certainly has experience with some of the materials I'm using, but my scope and project still differs from the main thrust of her work. My topic hasn't changed all that much from my SOP but my approach, methods, scope, and thinking about it has changed significantly -- in a good way -- because all the people I work with, including those not formally on my cmte, have pushed and critiqued to sharpen my thinking. Whatever I produce by the end will be better because I've worked with people who want me to succeed and each person lends his/her ideas, methodology, topical expertise, and critical eyes to my work. It's important not to hate the location, but the faculty and program environment are the most important factors and should weigh more in calculations. p.s. if you want to pm me specific info, I'll comment if I know anything about the programs/people you're considering.
  4. Good to know. I didn't realize he was retiring (one of my friends works with him, but he'll finish in the next couple of years so I guess retirement doesn't really affect him).
  5. I'd add David Hollinger to your Berkeley list of possible people with whom to work, especially if you veer toward intellectual history. While I know of the work of the people you list, I don't know enough about how they work with students to contribute palpable information to that question. I do think, however, that finding the group of people with whom you want and will feel comfortable/confident working is crucial. You can always move after coursework; you can't necessarily find a different group of scholars with whom to work. The range of the Harvard list seems broader chronologically and thematically which may be good or bad, depending on whether they work together well or not. Talking to students at these programs is really the best way to find out if the combos you list are viable.
  6. paint

    Waitlists

    They're probably waiting to get back to you pending more info. That is, until they hear from some accepted students, they don't really know whether or how they'll use the waitlist (for an Amiercanist v a Europeaninst v Africanist, etc). So they can say "in the past, x, y, and z happened" but that could be meaningless this particular year. If you know you won't go even if you get in, then decline. But if you would go, you may as well wait. People have gotten in off the waitlist before, but it's often close to April 15.
  7. paint

    Waitlists

    I know people waitlisted at Penn, Johns Hopkins, and Michigan. In each case, the departments fully fund everyone, so they're waiting for a sufficient number of people to decline spots and thus open up another for someone on the waitlist. As others have said, it's not a one-to-one correspondence to a declined offer and a space opening up. Rather, there are target numbers and if they drop below, they will offer a spot to someone else. In this sense, these waitlists are for everything: a place in the program and funding. If you're waitlisted at your top choice program it's probably worth waiting until Apr 15 to make a decision. Programs may or may not be able to tell you where they stand -- it all depends on numbers and the way their waitlist works. That is, whether they have a number of slots per region or time period, whether it's a ranked waitlist, etc. Ask politely for info but be prepared to be told they can't tell you anything. An organized program should know by early April what the numbers look like (assuming a decent number of accepted students respond by then) and whether there's a chance they'll use the waitlist or not.
  8. Reading seminars: 1-2 books or 1 book + articles/week. Sometimes response papers too. Research seminars: intended to produce an article-length paper (35-45 pages). sometimes w/a reading load, sometimes not. Then there are classes in other departments or schools or advanced undergrad classes which may have a lecture + extra work as a grad student.
  9. Some books need to be read carefully, some don't. The more you read, the more you'll find that it's the argument/interpretation that you need to glean. You know the basic contours of the history of the period/event/figure/issue so you don't need to read the particular version of it except for how it offers an interpretation of it. This is a gradual process. Reading gets quicker -- it's impossible to read every book well for prelims in the time you have, so you make decisions about which to read well and which not to. If you're lucky, you're professors will help steer this. Then when you're working on your dissertation, you'll go back to slower, more careful reading because at that point, it's specific info you need to help make your argument. In the end, the goal of the reading determines the pace of the reading.
  10. Congrats on your Princeton acceptance! I don't think there's any reason to withdraw your Cornell application. Wait and see what happens. You have a great offer from Princeton in the bag. See what Cornell says. At the very least the decision will give you a chance to contact the people you are interested in at Cornell and thank them (either for an acceptance or for the decision), inform them of what you plan to do, and keep in touch in the future. If they accept you, you have a decision to make. If they don't, you know you're off to Princeton and can still communicate with the Cornell STS folks.
  11. I don't know about Vanderbilt, but if you read most schools' offers closely, they are all contingent on making satisfactory progress. So the language focuses on the 5-year (or whatever) guarantee but is premised upon meeting program (and university) milestones. I wouldn't read anything into it; Vandy is just being more candid.
  12. I think it's great that you had such a wonderful experience at PSU. I would delay making a decision until you've visited Michigan as well. Make sure to talk to students who have families there as well, as their "read" on Ann Arbor will probably be more in line with what you want/need to know. I assume from your post that you didn't apply to the joint WS/History program at Michigan. I have a friend doing a certificate in WS in addition to a history degree there, so it seems like you can do both, though perhaps in different forms, at UM as well. Whether the faculty match your research interests is another question, however. I'm assuming your family is east if State College as Ann Arbor and State College aren't that far apart, all things considered. If it matters to your research/family, you may want to think about airport access. Detroit is a big international airport with direct flights to most places so that could ease transportation concerns. I know people who love State College and love Ann Arbor. I've never been in State College, so I can't compare. Even if it's not your field, you may want to talk to Minnie Sinha at Michigan as she went there from PSU and could offer a faculty perspective on the 2 schools, programs, and locales. In the end, I wouldn't worry about rank, but about fit in the most capacious sense of the word: program, faculty, location, family, etc. And go with what feels best. But visit both and think about both before making a decision. ETA: TAing your first year could be good or it could be overwhelming. Assuming you will TA at Michigan, just not your first year, you'll get teaching experience in both places. I'm not sure it matters which years the teaching occurs, as long as it occurs.
  13. Yep. Schools know that other schools are hosting recruitment days and prospectives are often moving between them. You may even find yourself on a flight w/someone else from your schools. Just ask! If they're putting you up in a hotel, they may not be able to pay for an additional night but there are probably some students in the program who would host you. Or figure out where you can get a cheap hotel room, stay there, and book the flights accordingly. At this point, schools have admitted you; as long as you're polite, there's no harm in asking for help. Just be polite -- admins will remember the non-polite people.
  14. Is there a chance you will be funded? If so, use the email as a way to show you're interested and will await funding news. If not, well, thanks are still in order though expressing reservations about the funding seems fair too.
  15. This is really key -- dental issues are often what nail budgets. On the Princeton/Michigan debate: I'm not in LA history, so I can't offer specific comments in that regard. However, I would urge anyone to visit a place before cutting it from the list. Latitude and longitude are only 1 part of what makes a place. Weather is surmountable, cohort/department/institutional life is less so. I've been to both Princeton and Ann Arbor; frankly, I don't see them as all that different. Sure, Princeton is closer to NY, but it's also a suburban college town with lots of snobbery -- and that comes from a family friend who is a faculty member elsewhere but had a Princeton Advanced Studies fellowship. He and his wife said they'd never live there again. What I'm saying is that there are locale differences but I'm not sure which ones you're really getting at or how meaningful they are. Are you concerned about cold weather or local restaurants? I wouldn't say locale isn't a factor in decisions, but atmosphere, program environment, and mentoring seem more critical to me. And I'd visit both programs to see how you react to the universities, faculty, and grad students. Multiple Ivies have consistently tried to lure Rebecca Scott away from Michigan (Harvard last year) and she has stayed every single time. There must be something about the LA program and department that keeps her there. You applied, they accepted you: at least give it as serious consideration as you are to Princeton. People here are offering you info that you seem to resist. If your mind is made up, fine, but there's no need to seek out info about Princeton if you've already decided to go there. If this sounds snarky, well there are plenty of people who would like to have your options; the least you can do is take them seriously OR say no to one immediately to potentially open up a waitlist spot.
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