irvinchiva10
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Posts posted by irvinchiva10
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I had no idea there was a thread for the Ford. I applied to it this year. Good luck to everyone!
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For what it's worth, during one of my visits I was told not to read anything pertaining to history, but to instead focus on growing in other respects (e.g. practice a new language. travel abroad, etc.) However, since I was so insistent on wanting to read something, I was told I could do either one of two things: (1) figure out which first-semester course will be the most challenging by speaking to other grad students; obtain the course reading list from the appropriate instructor; beging chipping away at it. OR (2) Read a book that reviews the historiography of your field. For Americanists, American History Now by Lisa McGirr and Eric Foner was recommended.
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I think they finish their selection process in April.
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The government is monitoring us. It's an attack on intellectual freedom. I'm definitely deleting my account.
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"Oh you study history?"
(proceed to ask you a bunch of questions about the future).
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these are all the good ones!
although el-p, das racist, killer mike, danny brown, and despot are the real greats right now.
How you have all failed to mention Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole is really beyond me. I'm upset.
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Claiming Columbia rejection: I sent an email asking about my status, they said if you haven't gotten an email yet that amounts to a rejection.
Anyone accepted to Cornell planning on taking another offer?
Yah. I just got an email from Columbia with a link to the rejection letter. I hate that they make it so hard to get to the darn rejection.
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I just got a letter from the CUNY Grad Center with an offer of admission. The online application also shows that I have been admitted. I probably won't be going there, but it's a great school, so congrats to any other admits.
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Hello Psychology peeps!
I am a History student, but I am writing on behalf of my fiancee who is a psychology major with strong interests in cross-cultural psychology. Basically, I will be going to Harvard in the fall and she is moving to Boston with me. Since she was planning to take a year off anyway to focus on her application, this is not much of a problem. However, while she studies for her GREs, drafts her SOP, etc., she would like to work as a research assistant in the Boston/Cambridge area. She has been working as a research assistant here in NYC for the past 3 years in a social psychology lab and a sleep lab as well. My question in short is, how does she go about procuring similar positions once we move? Since we will be there starting in August, should she email professors at various universities, asking if they are interested in taking her on? Or does she limit herself to those positions that are posted online? What's the usual process? Are there interviews involved? Any help would be highly appreciated. She knows how to get positions within her own college, but she has no clue how to approach this particular process in the most effective way possible.
Again, any help would be highly valued!
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Waitlisted at Harvard last year (and rejected everywhere else), so this is especially nice...
Congrats!
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Well, my undergrad profs sign emails with their first names too. I always say "Professor ___" and will continue to do so with POIs until I'm asked otherwise.
I'll second Safferz. The relationship between a student and an advisor/POI is a professional one and as such necessitates certain formalities. However, if you are comfortable with a more casual relationship with your POI feel free to address them by their first name. I just prefer to keep it formal and respectful, so as to not blur the lines between an advisor and a acquaintance/friend.
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I disagree. Make the most of your time in college! Take courses in other departments. Curious about how the sun was born? Take astronomy. Take courses in other disciplines that complements well with history such as philosophy, English, foreign languages, geography, sociology, etc. At a top program like Michigan, they do require students to take one field outside of the department to ground them a bit more. Also, it really can't hurt to take at least one quantitative thinking course like stats as those kind of skills will be the new norm for historians down the road.
There is a reason why I love history so much: it complements with so many disciplines well that the other disciplines really do make a difference in my own work in terms of methodology and perspective. For example, I've taken literature courses and listening to the professors' methodological approaches to the language of the text, many it be in English or a translated work, helped me to be more critical of my primary sources (in English or another language) and how I understood them. You'll gain better analytical skills this way.
I forgot to mention this since I assumed you weren't planning on taking just history courses from here on out. But, tmp is right. As you complete your history coursework, you should also look into classes that pique your personal interests. For instance, I've taken astronomy and art history courses just for the hell of it and, if nothing else, they are quite entertaining.
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I actually think that's a great plan. Not only will your application look all the more impressive because you challenged yourself beyond your school's requirements, but you will probably learn much more than you would taking a bunch of intermediary courses. Also, a light course load, at least in theory, gives you more time to focus on other things that are just as or more important when in comes to getting into grad school. For instance, you'll have more time to study for the GREs, cultivate strong relationships with faculty at your school (for LORs), discover your specific interests, develop a substantial thesis, and reach out to historians you want to work with at a PhD level.
in short, go for it. It sounds a lot like what I did, except I overestimated the amount of time I would gain (e.g. I crammed for the GREs, I didn't get a chance to really reach out to potential advisors, etc.). But, this approach earned me one acceptance so far, so I think it should serve you well.
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Well there goes my Phoenix education
lmao.
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Okay, I've been lurking on and off all day BUT it is Valentine's Day and I have spread rose petals on the bed, candles around the room and just made fresh white and milk chocolate covered strawberries. Ribs and twice-baked potatoes for dinner. Then I'm taking my husband hostage.
Rejections? What rejections?....
Damn, I wish my girlfriend did this for me! The burden usually (always) falls on the man. Props, FB.
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So to get back to the original intent of this thread ("chit chat") a bit, what is everyone planning to do this summer? Traveling? Trying to prepare in some way for their first semester of a PhD? Language study? Vacation? A combination of these?
I'm hoping to intern with a yet-to-be decided NGO in Europe, plus do some grammar review for language exams. Some of my friends want to travel around Spain in May as well, so that might happen.
Interning abroad would be awesome. I'm going to be working as an intern at Amideast in Tunis, Tunisia. My work will be to assist students with their college applications, especially their essays. It's also a good chance to work on my struggling French skills.
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Alright, so I sent a few emails, and did some more snooping around the Ford website. I found the answer to our question buried in the FAQ sections, which I probably should have looked at first. Sorry!
Anyways, here's what it said:
Enter your first choice of Ph.D. institution in your fellowship application. The review panelists do often factor in their application review the suitability of choice of the proposed Ph.D. institution for the proposed area of study. If you are notified that you have been chosen as a fellowship awardee and will not be attending the proposed fellowship institution indicated in your fellowship application, it should not be a problem as long as you have been accepted in a similar program at another fully-accredited Ph.D. degree granting institution in the U.S. Those decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.
There's a worry of my mind. Thanks! Great job at reading thoroughly!
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CONGRATS!!! If you don't mind sharing, what's your subfield?
That is amazing news. I hope you go celebrate today!
Thanks to everyone for the congrats. I'm going for American History, mostly immigration and immigration regulations in the 20th century.
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Woah. I just woke up to an email from Harvard. I made it!!!!!! This is unbelievable. I don't know what to do with myself.
But, for all those still waiting for acceptances/rejections, I honestly expected every single school to reject me. I may quite literally come from the crappiest college in NYC (open admissions) yet somehow I made it into Harvard with nothing more than a BA in History and some heart. That's not to gloat but to give you hope that anything is possible. Anything.
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I was going to say if you were close you could email then but now that I think about it, let the process play out ... most of these people who received emails said they got it from the POIs ... now I have only seen one person say they've been rejected so right now you're Schrödinger's cat ... you are both in and you are out ... I know it doesn't help but tomorrow is here now so keep hope alive!
haha thanks. I'll keep my hopes up for 24 more hours or thereabout.
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How close were you to your POI?
I met with her once about two weeks ago for 40 minutes. So, in short: not very close.
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You guys think Columbia is done notifying people? I hope not
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Thanks. I certainly hope thats the case, particularly because graduate programs want Ford Fellows (it boosts their reputation). It seems silly to have pre-doctoral student applicants list only one school especially when a multitude of schools would be good fits for some people.
Irvinchiva10, can I ask how you chose your inevitable one-listed school? I chose mine based on which school would be most competitive for funding.
That's exactly the same reasoning I used. But, if my memory serves me correctly, I also used one of the essays to expound on why I would be a good fit for the schools I applied to. So, in the end, they must know I applied to more schools than the one I listed (Columbia).
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Hey guys: I also applied to the Ford. It's my understanding that you can use it at any of the schools you get admitted to, even though the application itself only lets you list one school. As for the scenario in which a student gets the fellowship but doesn't get admitted to at least one school, I am inclined to believe it is highly improbable and something you shouldn't worry about.
Fields?
in History
Posted
American History
R_Escobar (20th century, American Indian), crazedandinfused (antebellum, intellectual), hopin'-n-prayin' (southern, religious), stevemcn (transnational), Simple Twist of Fate (early American), zb642 (20th century, labor/working-class culture), BCEmory08 (19th-20th century Catholicism, labor), irvinchiva10 (20th century, immigration/immigration reform)
European History
Kelkel (Modern Germany, political), goldielocks (Britain), SapperDaddy (Eastern and Central Europe), kotov (Modern Romania, Holocaust, labor), RevolutionBlues (Modern Western Europe/France labor and leftist politics), theregalrenegade (18th/19th cent British Empire/environment), jrah822 (19th century Britain; emphasis on colonial relationship to India), grlu0701 (Intellectual & cultural history, fin de siecle Germany and Italy), naturalog (modern European [mostly German] intellectual and cultural/sexuality and gender/political radicalism), runaway (Eastern/Central, memorialization & visual culture)
African History
Oseirus (precolonial/early colonial West Africa), Singwaya18 (20th century East Africa), Safferz (20th century Horn/Northeast Africa)
Latin American History
teachgrad (20th century, Southern Cone), BH-history
East Asian History
alleykat (Modern China)
Near/Middle Eastern History
uhohlemonster
Atlantic World
sandyvanb
Global/World History
cooperstreet (Cold War)
Jewish History
uhohlemonster, hopin'-n-'prayin, kotov (Holocaust),
naturalog (sometimes modern European/Holocaust), runaway (memorialization & visual culture)
Science/Technology
shaxmaty1848 (Cold War)