OnceAndFutureGrad

I had a wild ride in 2008-9 for history and medieval studies programs. MAs, MPhils, PhDs - anything I could throw an application at, I did! After nothing but rejections I was very lucky to get picked up for an MA at my last school, and now I see a dozen things concerning my application that need serious improvement. For example, I had no idea what the PS/SoI was meant to do, or why it should be different for each school. And I thought that as long as GRE scores were above average that they didn't really matter. (Wrong! I think they explain the number of very early rejections I received.) So, this time around I'm doing everything I can. I'm staying local for personal reasons so I'm able to visit each school and meet potential advisers before I even write the apps. I'm retaking the GRE and NOT underestimating the verbal section! I've presented at a conference and I'm using a grad seminar paper as the writing sample. And now I know both the general jargon, and how best to describe myself to each individual school, for the PS/SoI. Here's hoping for another successful season!

The nice thing was that I got the news in an e-mail, and now there's a lovely thick packet on its way in the mail, so it's like I get to win TWICE! Alestorm without a doubt has the best song chorus in the world, and in both English and German. (For the benefit of those who don't know Scottish pirate metal: "I want more wenches (hey! hey!)/More wenches and mead (hey! hey!)/I want more wenches/Lots of wenches is what I need" und auf Deutsch "Ich will mehr Weiber (hey! hey!)/Mehr Weiber und Wein (hey! hey!)/Ich will mehr Weiber/Viele Weiber, ja das muss sein".) Tyr is really more what I'm looking forward to though. I fell in love with them when a fellow re-enactor played me the video for Regin Smi

Well the acceptance e-mail finally came today. MA at UConn with a TA and the chance to go on for a PhD. (Hail Odinn and Manannan - I can finally get on with my life.) I was at the top of the waitlist for UConn - a professor who I want to work with actually called my house to tell me so. I was in Ireland at the time interviewing for a pie-in-the-sky PhD fellowship when he called. That was the first glimmer of light in weeks. Things had been really dark for me as of late, friends with worse credentials getting multiple acceptances and me with nothing but a string of rejections and a sinking feeling of inferiority. The only thing that kept me going, I swear to you, is this board - such eloquent, intelligent, passionate people getting screwed over by graduate school alongside me. I know that now I've got my acceptance I'm on the "other side" but I just wanted to let everyone know - MDLee in particular - how much I really appreciate the weeks of stress ventilation and agony release spent in "Waiting it Out". Now I've got a thesis due tomorrow (!) and a Tyr concert on Saturday so I'll be off, but I just wanted to say - thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

First time poster to this thread - but I just wanted to say - I got accepted to UConn Medieval Studies with a teaching assistantship. I know I was on a waiting list. Sooo happy. Best of luck to everyone else.

I'm numero uno at UConn MS too. Unfortunately there are only a couple spots for acceptance so the chances are smaller than at big programs, but I'm confident that things will work out for me. (They have to! Agh!)

I was called by a professor who I want to work with and told that I'm at the top of the waitlist at UConn. I'm anxious but scared but nervous but hopeful...nyah!

Update: I am at the top of the UConn MS waiting list, and I must beg of anyone who has been accepted to UConn MS and will be turning it down, please let them know ASAP so I can get my life in order. Cheers!

At University College Cork, in the Early & Medieval Irish department, an MA is a one-year programme involving a 40 000 word thesis, while an MPhil is a two-year with a 60 000 word thesis. A PhD is three years but I don't know the dissertation length. You can go to postgraduate study for any of these individually.

Yale Harvard Princeton WashU Fordham Cornell Lined-up broken dreams Those accepted to UConn but not attending Better tell them NOW! Medieval Studies Wants students who aren't TOO Specialized, damnit. There is a distinct Shortage of border collie Puppies and shortbread. Friends and family Just don't get it; "You'll get in!" Is not all we need. Bonus Shady Irish haiku: T

Originally I applied to 7 schools. Of those, I am now 6 rejections and 1 waitlist. I initiated back-up apps and have an interview at one and nothing yet from the other. Here's hoping for a miracle.

Holy shite gang, I think we're on to something. :shock: Let's go to the Oslo Ship Museum and demand a replica ship constructed for all the rejected grad students!

Dear Recycled Viking, We are thrilled by your thesis work, research experience, and study abroad credentials. Similarly we are greatly impressed by your skills in spearfighting, swordsmanship, brewing, period clothing construction, and your bitchin' Medieval Irish tattoo. Unfortunately at this time we are incapable of accepting someone as truly bad-arse as yourself as turf longhouses are outside of our budget, the local forest does not have old enough trees to construct a full-size replica dragonship, we cannot provide nearly enough barrels of mead to satiate your thirst, and berserker rages are not covered in our student insurance policy. And frankly, with what we've read on TheGradCafe.com, we're concerned that you may have tendencies towards arson. Please don't raid us. Cheerfully, Patrick Columbanus the IV Medieval Studies Department Draugr

0. RecycledV

Thank you man of the world I get the feeling that there were only minor things wrong with my application. My GRE verbal was great and quantitative pretty good, and then I got a disappointing writing score - not low-low, but not great. A friend of mine got lower and has an acceptance (she does MS as well) so I know that it wasn't enough to knock me out of the water, but if I tried everything again I would probably put in the time and money to improve my GRE. Language isn't an issue, I don't think - I have reading comprehension in Latin, Early Irish, Middle English, and French, and basic comprehension in Modern Irish, German, and Spanish. I would like to improve my German and add Old Norse to the list, but I doubt not knowing Old Norse as an undergrad has kept me out. It's not like I had an opportunity to learn it and turned it down! I think the real issue with my application was two-fold. The first is that I'm too specialized. I already have very specific theses in mind, on topics that American graduate programs don't regularly support - Ireland 400-1169, Iceland 874-1262, Isle of Man 700-1266, and so on. I know that most people applying to MS have topics like "French high medieval history" and "Italian early medieval history", which are inherently well-attested in American grad schools. However, I'm not giving up my specific interests for "English Dark Age history"; I'm going to keep trying until I find a department which can support my interests, which at this point looks like overseas! The second is that I haven't gotten buddy-buddy with specific professors, which in hindsight was pretty damn stupid. I thought I'd be bothering them and they would be annoyed and that grad school should be a leap of faith into an app com/dept that knows nothing about you apart from the papers on the table. Ha! Well now I know. I know people have gotten into grad schools without knowing professors, and people who knew professors well but were rejected anyway (!), but it just can't hurt to have a contact on the other side.

What can I say? You're in EXCELLENT company. I think the thousand or so of us should form a roving band of freewheelers until economic times improve - rove the country doing what work we can for food, communal living, that sort of thing. Very f

While no one should use the economy as a catch-all excuse for a lousy application (either in form or content) I must agree with this statement. My aunt who has an MA and MBA and works as a college financial assistant, told me that I had a strong application and that she felt very confident that I would receive multiple acceptances. This was backed up by a professor who was a recommendator and who is on an app com at my undergrad. My aunt became absolutely shocked as the rejections poured in. The professor let me know that there was exactly one grad student admitted to his dept's program, when there would usually be as many as 5-6. I feel very grateful to have a waitlist and a chance at foreign acceptance. You look at the stats for most programs, especially more specialist humanities programs, and slots have dropped by halves, two-thirds, or more. That can add up to the loss of a hundred slots across the country, and that's one hundred students who would be accepted in brighter economic times - in one type of program. I think I would hazard to say that the number of dissolved slots across the States numbers around a thousand. And you know that up to a point, there's just fairly no picking out the 3 best of two dozen thoroughly qualified and impressive candidates. It's going to come down to some app com saying - I like the sound of that name, I like that turn of phrase in her SOP, I personally know his recommendator, we need someone from the West Coast this year. Really arbitrary stuff. I think it's fair, more fair this year than ever, to say that getting rejections from graduate schools is absolutely no indication of a lack of ability, promise, determination, or intelligence. I certainly have met some VERY eloquent, deep-thinking, and passionate people on this forum who are striking out, and I KNOW that it's not from a lack of anything.

The exact person who sent me the letter. The e-mail was signed "__. _____" so I used "Dear __. ______ and the Graduate Application Committee" and replied to the exact address.

Totally hear you. Outside: Ohh I'm so happy for you it's such a great program! Inside: :evil: Godamit I KNOW I had a better chance than you, WTF, you lucky sonuva----- Now that's what I'm talking about.

I received my waitlist notification from UConn last week. After that weak ray of sunshine in the midst of rejections, I couldn't decide what to do with that e-mail. Do I reply? Long or short message? Or let it sit and pray that the kinetic energy takes me into an acceptance? I left it alone for a few days and then came across this website: http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=407&article_id=19581984&cat_id=2731 Essentially, the advice is to reply to a waitlist notification (from a school you really want to go to) with a succinct but unambiguous letter telling the program 1. thanks for consideration 2. you still want in 3. advances made since your application 4. exactly why you want in. I composed and sent an e-mail based on these suggestions, and I already feel a little closer to acceptance. I hope this advice helps those stuck in waitlist purgatory!

For instance, medieval studies. There are no safety schools. Only big famous schools, including big famous state schools, have medieval studies graduate programs. Undergrad is hard to find as well. Whereas in Europe every school has a medieval studies department, at least within history, in the States there's just no such thing as a safety school that supports a medieval program. I know from my advisor that Rutgers, my undergrad, accepted ONE (1!) medieval studies graduate student this year, and Rutgers was probably considered a pseudo-safety by a lot of its applicants.

All I know is that my undergrad was offered admission into the Ivy League...and turned it down! Bwahahaha! I've enacted a last minute Hail Mary play - it's not over yet, people. Turns out Columbia still accepts Medieval Studies MA applicants through March 15. This time I'm going to do what I should have done more of and make absolutely sure my "target" professor 1. actually knows me 2. is accepting graduate students. I don't know how he'll feel about a student appearing from out of nowhere less than two weeks from the application due date but by the gods I'm going to try to make this work. At the very least I'll have the dubious honor of five matching Ivy rejections. I'm on my way to a whole set! Collect 'em all!

The only one I have left as a complete blank is Cornell. Seeing the places I've been thrown out from, I'm pretty sure there's a rejection letter with my name on it flying through the post. Unless UConn decides to bring me in or UCC decides to throw money my way, to quote Half Man Half Biscuit, "I'm up the creek but never mind the paddle, boy I haven't even got a canoe."

I'm right there with you. The vast majority of my family does not have a college degree. Therefore I'm this little brainiac which every school MUST accept according to them. For years my friends have told me how smart I am and I've gotten the better scores than them. Guess who's laughing behind my back now!

I'm immune too I guess. Just got the fifth rejection, and the last American school is my first choice that I'm 99% certain is just taking their sweet time rejecting me. UCC was my backup and it just may turn into my ace in the hole if I 1. am accepted for the one spot they have 2. get a non-EU student waiver so I can worry about

I wrote this pretty plea asking general_jr to cede his spot, and now it's pointless so whatevs. Enjoy being a medieval studies graduate student, I'm feeling very much so that I'm not going to find out what that is.