hist07

I registered just to reply to this comment! As a current grad student, I think your relationship to your adviser is crucial to your success and happiness in the program. I have a wonderful adviser who is very excited about my project. Her advisees get more jobs, publish more frequently, etc. than many other students in my program, in large part because she is an exceptional adviser and teacher, and knows how to work with graduate students effectively. You *could* train yourself in the historiography of your field (which, from your account, is very strong at school A and weak at school B ), but why would you want to, when you could take seminars with fellow students and a core faculty? Another factor to consider is your cohort -- will you be able to work alongside students in your field? I am able to talk through my ideas almost daily with a group of fellow students who know the literature as well as I do -- it has made my experience infinitely more pleasant, and I am a better scholar because my ideas are (constructively) challenged all the time. I disagree with the previous poster -- it is concerning that your potential adviser did not even contact you to let you know that you could not meet during recruitment weekend. It's understandable if they had to be away for research, but you are making a large commitment to work with them for several years, and they should take that commitment seriously. But I agree with borderlands on the last point: you need to know the conditions under which you will thrive, and figure out which program provides those conditions.