PhillyPhan896

I was accepted to UNC and will be going there in the fall. Send me a message with any specific questions you may have, although I am an Americanist, so I don't know diddly beyond that world. Good luck!

Does anyone know if UPenn has sent out rejections yet? Or alternatively, is it safe to assume that they have sent out all acceptances, and the rejections are only a matter of time? Also taybaxter, did you receive the Harvard reject via snail mail?

Thanks for the congrats and the advice!

Hey Y'all, I've been keeping very silent on the board these past couple weeks, partially because I was rejected from the first three programs I heard back from (Duke, Princeton, Brown). This week, though, I was accepted by my top remaining choice, UNC-CH! I'm thrilled and basically 99.9% certain that I will accept their offer. I will be in the American history program, so if anyone else out there is considering studying Am His at UNC-CH, definitely hit me up. My only reservation about accepting UNC right away is that I still haven't heard back from numerous schools, including Yale, UPenn and Columbia. Even though UNC is above them on my list, it almost feels wrong not to wait for the other decisions. What do people think about this situation? Also, any idea about when the rest of us will be hearing back from Yale, etc? I'm assuming that I've been rejected from them all, since they've already sent out a number of acceptances...

I was rejected by Brown as well. First Duke, then Brown, indeed. I find it interesting that not one person on gradcafe posted an acceptance from either of these schools... coincidence?

I also got rejected from Duke this morning (although I did not post it in the admissions bank). It was a little surprising, since I had several pleasant conversations with my POI earlier in the fall, and our interests matched up exceedingly well. Perhaps they are taking a smaller cohort this year... that's what I'll keep telling myself, at least. Better luck to everyone in the days ahead!

Honestly guys, do we even know that Yale will be conducting interviews for history? I mean, the only piece of evidence I've seen is an article in the Yale newspaper noting the resistance of many departments and professors to this new policy that was supposedly mandated by Pollard in recent weeks. Does anyone have a link to the actual policy somewhere on the GSAS or History Dept website? If so, then pardon my skepticism. But if not, I would seriously doubt the policy's viability. Having spent a year in the History Dept at Yale, I can't imagine who would contact me for an interview, and I certainly can't imagine such an interview carrying any weight in the application process whatsoever. That's just my two cents. I still expect to receive a decision the week of Feb. 6, which is precisely when I received my decision from Yale two years ago.

This is interesting. Where did you hear that there was only 1-5% chance of being called for an interview? Or are you just referring to the admissions rate in general...?

Including the two-inch top margins, I assume... What's that, about 850 words?

So is it supposed to be two pages double-spaced, or two pages single-spaced? On the website, they are very clear about saying that the writing sample should be 25 pages double-spaced, but they do not specify for the book review. This is kind of nit-picky, I realize, but it is a difference of roughly 500 words, which is substantial.

OK, great! Thanks, taybaxter, this is hugely helpful.

yes, it was the grad_info email... oh well. did you include an abstract with your submission, or just begin the excerpt with a small introduction?

Yale's 2-inch margins on top are a big hassle, and I am also in the process of trimming down a 30-page paper to fit the requirement. So I know how you feel. However, since I'm also applying to Columbia and Harvard, which both have 20-page limits, I'm probably just going to get it down to 20 pages and use that version for Yale as well. Might as well kill three birds with one stone. And yes, I'm applying to Penn as well. I sent them an email last week asking about whether to include an abstract at the beginning of the 10-page sample (since my 10 pages will be from the same 30-page paper), but they never responded. I'm guessing that means "no." Ouch.

orient: from my experience, it does not matter as long as you submit the applications by the stated deadlines. some programs encourage you to submit them earlier, but that is more for their convenience than anything else. i wouldn't worry about it. is anyone here applying to upenn? if so, any suggestions about choosing an appropriate 10-page writing sample? i'm definitely struggling with this one, especially since it doesn't seem like they want you to include an abstract if it's an excerpt from a longer paper (which mine is). also, i'm finding that editing the writing sample to 20 pages for columbia and harvard is super tricky/annoying. i don't have a question about it, just wanted to vent. arrgghhh!

Has anybody else noticed that there is no section for uploading one's C.V. or manually listing one's employment history in the application for UC Berkeley...?