heulwen

Yeah I guess you're right. Thanks a lot for your comments and suggestions!

Selam Wow thanks a lot!! I applied to Mich. Sociology last year and I got rejected. I had a lower GRE score then, but I doubt it was the only reason. Clearly I wasn't a good fit for the department where there is not a strong focus on labor studies. F. Müge Göçek studies Ottoman Empire but her topics of interest hardly match mine. So I don't think I'll give it another shot this year. As for the Washington University, Near and Middle Eastern Studies sounds interesting.. I'm familiar with Reşat Kasaba's work on the Ot. Empire's integration into the world capitalism. He's an inspiring academician. The only thing that bugs me there is that it also looks like a department where no one is particularly interested in labor studies. But I'll certainly look more deeply into it. Stanford - Joel Beining: I'm really suprised to find about him ! Yes his research interests do indeed look very similar to mine.... I'll try to contact him as soon as possible! Thanks a lot for the recommendation I'd go try Leiden too but do you think they provide funding for the PhD students? As far as I'm concerned it's super hard to obtain funding from European universities. Again - Teşekkürler!!

Hello folks I'm a third year international MA student interested in the history of women's and child labor in the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries. My current research focuses on textile workers in the Middle East (Ottoman Empire), but I'm also interested in the South Asian and European contexts. I was thinking of applying to a couple of PhD programs in the US this year and looking for a history program that'll best match my resarch interests.So far I'm not very successful at identifying the right history program for me and I thought I'd ask for help. What departments/programs can you think of, with a focus on labor history and gender preferably in the Middle East? I know it's not a very popular topic and most probably I won't be able to find all three of these together, but it won't hurt to ask around. I'd appreciate very much any recommendations/suggestions. By the way, if these will help: My GRE verbal score is 160 and I have a working knowledge of Ottoman Turkish - research experience in the Ottoman Archives. Thanks a million in advance !!

So, I'm wondering if any of the JHU acceptances this year are considering other options. I'm waitlisted but don't think I stand much chance in a program which accepts 3 people in total every year !!

You were not on the funding waitlist were you?

.. so it seems Yale started to send the results.

I wish.

Good question. My guessing is they did.

I think a carefully prepared and evaluated written task or exam such as the one described by SocialGroovements here would be much more useful to measure academic ability rather than GRE scores or even writing samples (writing samples are re-written dozen times and in the process many arguments are challanged and sometimes corrected by proofreaders, so although I think they are good indicators, I wouldn't rely on them much). In my country, all serious sociology departments have these sort of exams or tasks, so it is not necessarily done in another universe. I also think that GRE is discriminating for international students. I considered myself having good skills in math but couldn't answer several questions in the GRE quant section because I didn't know the meaning of the mathematical term being referrded in the question (since of course, I have learned it in another language). Many of my friends here spend their time memorizing mathematical terms in English, which I find completely irrelevant to what we're supposed to do as sociology grad students. I don't even want to mention the verbal section.

Guys, when do you think they'll send out rejections?? I didn't hear anything from them and by now I'm almost certain that I was rejected, but enough waiting already.

How many of us are waitlisted for funding?

Wow, congratulations What are your other options? Let me know when you decide

I hope you are right.. The email says that only four departmental fellowships are available, so I think this means that in order for me to get funding, one of those 4 fellowship-awarded people must decide not to go. Four is a very small number, so I'm not sure about my prospects.... Were you accepted with funding or not?

Correction: The email was from DGS.

Hey guys It's me who got admitted to Rutgers without funding. It was a personalized email from the person who interviewed with me, and I received her message right after I sent her an email asking about my situation. I don't know whether to be happy or sad about this. Does this "being in the funding waitlist" ever work for anyone? I can't possibly go there without funding.

I haven't been rejected from anywhere yet too, but "no news is bad news" approach seems more convincing as time passes. I'm just hoping that after a reasonable amount of time spent in depression, I'll be able to get over it and focus on doing what I have to do in life (such as completing my thesis and preparing for the next GRE or whatever). Worse things could happen, right?

You're not alone. University of Michigan, University of Washington Seattle, Rutgers, not a word.

same here.

Travel Europe.

... and I don't like this personalizing business either. Why can't they socialize with their admits at a later stage? Just send out the results and the rest of us will start to think what to do with our lives

Hope so. The interview went well, at least that's what I thought.. In each case, I want to find out as soon as possible. I'm just too tired of refreshing my email in every 5 minutes.

Congratulations, guys. I was also interviewed but haven't got any acceptance or rejection messages yet. I have a bad feeling about this.