oseirus

Well we're in that window where moves are being made so I guess if we could get feedback from folks who have posted updates on facebook, that would be nice

I've posted each of my acceptances and have received an overwhelmingly positive response on each one (10-35 likes per status). I've never been anything but happy to see that distant friends from high school or even who I haven't seen since middle school got in somewhere as well.

Who cares what people think....its your Facebook and you should be proud to tell your friends of an amazing accomplishment!

LOL I would ask you to expound on that, but I fear this could cause a minor panic and I do not want to unleash that sort of chaos on a weekend

Man for you Hogwarts applicants ... I hope those Owls have left b/c I hear the weather is going to get pretty crummy over that side of the world next week

I guess I can enjoy the exhortation of Virgil when he wrote "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit"

If it were me, I'd leave all my technology at home. I'd want to go tech-free so I can really enjoy nature... Bye bye phone.

Chime to that! I think that sounds like a well-deserved chance to relax and escape from application neuroses.

Also, C&C — have you tried just contacting the assistant to the DGS? She's been helpful with my questions. If I can be of any more help, just shoot me a message!

Well don't worry, even if they try to reach you I'm sure they'll leave a message. Go have fun! Unwind and hit up the slopes!

I just got a Yale interview you guys! Please do NOT give up hope just yet, the applications are under review and it's too soon to count yourselves out. Speaking to the professor in a few hours, wish me luck!

True, but there are people reporting acceptance emails, and everyone that seems to email about their status gets an email back from the coordinator saying how competitive it has been and that their application was denied...

So I REFUSE to email the coordinator! lol

Can't wait for the Durmstrang interview process!

I think we can def. discard that piece of advice! Wish these Emily Post types would evolve for the digital age & come up w/practical solutions. You can't fit telegram manners into the twitter age. That's my humble opinion

If I may chime in w/a former child-of-a-PhD student's perspective. I think it's been already stated but I don't think the move is going to be that bad on the kid. Like all moves, it sucks losing friends but I remember when we moved, were living on campus and there were a lot of other kids around whose parents were doing similar things, so we formed our community of sorts. There were moments I could tell sucked for my mom because she had the stress of trying to be a parent and being a student at the same time, i.e., making it to silly school plays, taking me to piano recitals, sports and the like, when I'm sure she really could've used a night in. As far as the money situation, I never knew we were poor (at the time) till she told me years later. Somehow food magically appeared and I maigcally got cloths, granted it was never the 'cool' kids cloths I always wanted. Not to say that all kids' experince will be the same but I promise you, your kid will be fine if he can find one or two other kids to bond with. Kids are weird that way

If I may chime in w/a former child-of-a-PhD student's perspective. I think it's been already stated but I don't think the move is going to be that bad on the kid. Like all moves, it sucks losing friends but I remember when we moved, were living on campus and there were a lot of other kids around whose parents were doing similar things, so we formed our community of sorts. There were moments I could tell sucked for my mom because she had the stress of trying to be a parent and being a student at the same time, i.e., making it to silly school plays, taking me to piano recitals, sports and the like, when I'm sure she really could've used a night in. As far as the money situation, I never knew we were poor (at the time) till she told me years later. Somehow food magically appeared and I maigcally got cloths, granted it was never the 'cool' kids cloths I always wanted. Not to say that all kids' experince will be the same but I promise you, your kid will be fine if he can find one or two other kids to bond with. Kids are weird that way

If I may chime in w/a former child-of-a-PhD student's perspective. I think it's been already stated but I don't think the move is going to be that bad on the kid. Like all moves, it sucks losing friends but I remember when we moved, were living on campus and there were a lot of other kids around whose parents were doing similar things, so we formed our community of sorts. There were moments I could tell sucked for my mom because she had the stress of trying to be a parent and being a student at the same time, i.e., making it to silly school plays, taking me to piano recitals, sports and the like, when I'm sure she really could've used a night in. As far as the money situation, I never knew we were poor (at the time) till she told me years later. Somehow food magically appeared and I maigcally got cloths, granted it was never the 'cool' kids cloths I always wanted. Not to say that all kids' experince will be the same but I promise you, your kid will be fine if he can find one or two other kids to bond with. Kids are weird that way

If I may chime in w/a former child-of-a-PhD student's perspective. I think it's been already stated but I don't think the move is going to be that bad on the kid. Like all moves, it sucks losing friends but I remember when we moved, were living on campus and there were a lot of other kids around whose parents were doing similar things, so we formed our community of sorts. There were moments I could tell sucked for my mom because she had the stress of trying to be a parent and being a student at the same time, i.e., making it to silly school plays, taking me to piano recitals, sports and the like, when I'm sure she really could've used a night in. As far as the money situation, I never knew we were poor (at the time) till she told me years later. Somehow food magically appeared and I maigcally got cloths, granted it was never the 'cool' kids cloths I always wanted. Not to say that all kids' experince will be the same but I promise you, your kid will be fine if he can find one or two other kids to bond with. Kids are weird that way

If I may chime in w/a former child-of-a-PhD student's perspective. I think it's been already stated but I don't think the move is going to be that bad on the kid. Like all moves, it sucks losing friends but I remember when we moved, were living on campus and there were a lot of other kids around whose parents were doing similar things, so we formed our community of sorts. There were moments I could tell sucked for my mom because she had the stress of trying to be a parent and being a student at the same time, i.e., making it to silly school plays, taking me to piano recitals, sports and the like, when I'm sure she really could've used a night in. As far as the money situation, I never knew we were poor (at the time) till she told me years later. Somehow food magically appeared and I maigcally got cloths, granted it was never the 'cool' kids cloths I always wanted. Not to say that all kids' experince will be the same but I promise you, your kid will be fine if he can find one or two other kids to bond with. Kids are weird that way

Yes, one of my biggest concerns! I didn't apply to one program that would have been a good fit because I thought the location would be very difficult for my child.

I have one child in middle school - a little different situation from younger ones. All through the app process, I've been explaining why I'm applying and showing him pictures of the schools/cities on the internet - but also emphasizing that it's very possible we won't go this year and will try again next year. If I get in anywhere, I plan to spend a lot of time setting up some support structures for him in advance (schools, activities, pen pal) and making sure he has some tools for looking forward & backward (skype, videos, etc.).

There are also a lot of good books on moving for children, such as Dinosaurs Move. My son is a little old for this, but if I get in, I'll look for it or a similar one.

Actually, we should have a whole thread in Decisions, Decisions on children going to/in grad school.

(And for us older people, another thread on stuff like - how do you get your coursework done when you've misplaced your reading glasses? )

you guys are nuts. you're all panicking about what is the easiest part of grad school: getting in. not to say that getting in is easy (it isn't), but the rest is harder.

one girl in my program broke down sobbing and stopped eating for days when she thought she wasn't going to get a summer fellowship to do research abroad because other people in our department heard they had won the fellowships before she did. her parents were on the verge of flying out here to take care of her because, literally, she had stopped eating. and only maybe 2 days after others had learned they won fellowships, she found out that she had won 2 or 3 and would have more money than anyone to do summer research.

another colleague in my program was having panic attacks because, after being held up for a full year by her dissertation committee who wouldn't approve her dissertation proposal because some of the formatting in her footnotes was wrong (i shit you not), her advisor quit her and no one else would work with her. they believed that these delays to be her fault rather than her committee's (in truth: it was a little of both, but 75% committee politics and maybe 25% of a weak proposal). eventually, she scraped together a committee, and will finally be leaving to do her dissertation research after an 18-month delay.

yet another colleague has just had a baby and has no fellowship for his research year, which should be happening next year. he can't even make progress on his fellowship applications because his advisor will not certify that he has proficiency in his research language, despite taking several certification tests (and passing all of them) in that language. because she is the only person in our city that has the credentials to approve his language training, he's stuck until she's satisfied he can translate the language (he's damn near fluent in it, by the way, coming from other grad students who are native in that language). so, next year, he's faced with no fellowship, potentially being thrown out of the program for failing to meet the language requirement on time, AND he has a newborn to care for.

yet another new daddy is on the job market this year. he was on it last year and got a lot of interest but no campus visit invitations, so he added a chapter to his dissertation just so he'd have employment as a TA this year. it's better to spend 1 more year in grad school than 1 year outside of academia all together if you're looking for a job. getting that TAship was dependent on new students turning our school's offer down, so just getting that funding was a nightmare for him. now, his second year on the job market, he had only 2 top 10 interviews (less interest than his first year, when he had fewer publications and a less clear project). only one resulted in a campus visit, which he just completed today. last week he did a mock job talk in our department and was ripped apart by the faculty because it just... wasn't good. if he doesn't get this job, he will be unemployed next year, because there is no way to squeeze one last year of funding from our school. he will have his PhD in hand but have no job. and a baby. and a self-employed wife whose income ebbs and flows.


these are all the problems you'll face once you're actually IN graduate school. so... build your coping skills now by still having your life and your sanity as you wait until february for these acceptances to come in. professors and departments are very busy and adcoms don't meet as often as you all think they do. just because schools may be talking to people in january doesn't mean they won't actually meet and decide on admissions until mid-february. calm the eff down, people.

WOW I take a day off from this thread and so much has occured. Congrats to Owls for the interview and hope you knock it out of the park. As for everyone else, just remember, only a week (and 2 days) away from Feb!

That kind of killed the mood

a couple things (i'm in procrastination mode. eff comps):

1. regarding teaching and education experience at US vs. european schools... european (including UK) PhD programs do not generally have seminars, or at least not what american schools consider graduate seminars. at a US school, you'll take courses with 8-12 (and sometimes more) other graduate students that, depending on the size of your department, may or may not be close to the general subject of your dissertation (like "race in latin america" or "18th century france"). at a UK/euro school, you will instead have independent studies with your advisor and maybe 1-3 other students, and the topic will be narrowly focused on what you're researching (like "travel account narratives in 19th century southeast asia" or "public health in early 20th century caribbean").

because graduate and undergraduate education are so fundamentally different, being a US-born student with a US undergraduate degree in no way prepares you to lead US graduate seminars if you get your PhD at a european school. in fact, the biggest gulf between the educational styles of US vs. european schools is in graduate training, so american schools will want a european PhD candidate to prove that they can advise grad students and lead grad seminars in the US style before they hire someone. it is a distinct transition from the european to US style (and vice versa) and it is often difficult to make. some US schools will take chances on people with european PhDs, believing that they have the ability to grow and adapt as mentors and teachers, but this whole conversation does put a european-earned PhD at a disadvantage compared to US-earned PhDs.

2. regarding interviews: read the department's website carefully. read their graduate handbook front to back. you do NOT want to ask anyone a question that could've been answered by reading their website. it looks bad. i recommend checking the department's course offerings and asking how often X seminar is taught. know something about the work of all of the professors you will be speaking with. ask if you'll get the opportunity to TA and how the TA assignments are determined. ask what sort of research funding the department can provide. ask about the publication rates and job placement statistics of grad students in general and grad students in your subfield in particular. REALLY important: ask what it's like to live in that city/town (it's an easy question and one people love answering, including profs). ask about grad student morale (all you need to do is check the "officially grad students" subforum here to realize that, often, morale is low). ask your potential advisor about his or her new work or next project. ask what people do for fun, ask if there's a good running trail or yoga studio or microbrew. beyond letting them know that you're smart, you want to demonstrate that you're nice and that you're a well-rounded complete human being with a life.

in terms of questions you will be asked, one of the softball questions (in their mind) is "why do you want to come here?" "because it's an ivy league" is not a good answer. good answers include "i'm interested in race and gender in latin america, and i feel like the latin americanists here ask the sort of questions i'm interested in answering in my own work. i like their approach to questions of social construction and inequality." or whatever. but link the answer of why you want to go there to your potential advisors' own research and arguments. "i want to live in new york" is a terrible answer. so does everyone. "i love history" is a boring answer. no one cares. they all love history. "i'm really interested in modern europe." of course, otherwise why would you want to write about it for the rest of your life? if you don't know the work of your potential advisors at these schools, then 1) why are you applying there? and 2) learn their work, learn about the types of questions they ask and arguments they make, and link your answer to that.

as far as clothing goes, dress business-casual. we're dealing with academics here. until you meet them, you don't know if they wear suits every day or jeans and tevas every day (my own department? jeans and tevas. profs wear sandals until there's snow on the ground). wearing a suit might put people off and make you seem like you approach history as a business. dress too informally and they may think you're not serious about making this your career. dress pants or khakis and a button-up shirt/blouse or a nice sweater never really offends anyone, but a power suit or jeans and a t-shirt might, and you never know what the department culture is like until you get there.

3. the matter of stipends: this is a VERY touchy subject. asking a professor this question is tough, because different students are offered different funding packages (you're not all treated equally in the same department), and a prof doesn't want to lead you to believe you'll definitely get fellowships or definitely only receive TAships. also, frankly, most profs don't know what their students' salaries are. i know that in my own program the profs were particularly shocked to learn that the cost of one credit (out of 30 in a year) is higher than our monthly stipends as TAs. so they have no clue. but you can ask if students usually receive or win research fellowships and dissertation writing fellowships, how well they do competing for national fellowships like the ACLS mellon or the SSRC.

odds are, on a campus visit, you'll meet with a few grad students for lunch or coffee. DO NOT ASK THEM HOW MUCH THEY MAKE. they don't all earn the same amount of money. some will have fellowships that pay a few hundred dollars more a month than the people with TAships. don't ask them what the normal incoming funding package looks like, because they're all different, and some people might be upset that they make less than others. it's a very sensitive subject. and if you ask it, they'll hold it against you (i've seen it happen) and if you decide to go to that school, it can take people a while to forget the uncomfortable situation you put them in with your seemingly innocuous question. so what can you ask? ask if the stipends are usually livable. ask if you'll need to take out loans to cover your expenses. ask if people can afford to keep a car. ask if it's easy or hard to get research fellowships that allow you to go abroad to use archives. grad students will then volunteer as much as they're comfortable with regarding how much they make.

because here's the bottom line on stipends: when you're accepted to a school, they'll tell you how much they'll offer you. it won't be a mystery. and if you don't get in, then who cares how much that school pays their students anyway? it really is none of your business what your fellow grad students make. you'll know the stipend amounts when the acceptances come in from the schools. then get a cost of living calculator and compare your offers. you don't need to make your future colleagues uncomfortable by asking them how much they make. it doesn't matter. what matters is how much that school offers you. again: DON'T ASK THEM HOW MUCH THEY MAKE.

I know this point has been beaten worse than a child in a third world sweatshop but the job of the historian is to report things objectively. You give the facts and data as they occurred, with no slant, like a journalist is supposed to do. With OWS, the historian will be tempted to make a comparison but that is the slippery slope in history where we can lose focus and resort to simplistic assessments. I remember reading in Time Magazine a while back ago comparing the Arab Spring to the Revolutions of '48 and sure there are some tangentially similar issues at hand, but the uniqueness of revolution shouldn't be discarded so you can make a cheap point. Now this isn't to say that you can't take the lessons learned from '48 to use as a road map to predict how the Arab Spring could shape out. A historian can look back and say, x followed this path and we can make a similar assumption about Y because of this, that, and the proverbial third. Flat out contrasting for contrasting sake to me is a dangerous path because a lazy assessment can be made of somethings that are wholly unrelated. For example, if you watch anything on that anathema of a network, the "History" Channel, this seems to be their bread & butter. The sad thing is they even get accredited historians to spew about certain pablum that is then accepted by the mainstream as having historical merit. Thus in my estimation, OWS shouldn't present a problem as far as historical documentation because it was important enough of a milestone in the US (to some people) that it would warrant mentioning in any decent assessment of the early 21st century.

Can't wait for the Durmstrang interview process!