oseirus

1. obamacare? really?

2. the school in all likelihood won't give you anything back if you opt out of their health insurance. they don't deduct the cost of insurance from your paycheck, they give you the insurance for "free" and tell you it's valued at a few hundred dollars a month. i tried to opt out of my school's insurance, because i already have great coverage, and their insurance runs the cost of over $200/month. gouged. but they told me i wouldn't see that extra $200 because they technically don't charge me for the insurance.

In an effort to be less neurotic, I am supposed to be taking today (my day off) to do something fun and relaxing. I am also going to attempt to stay away from TGC until at least this evening. Baby steps.

I keep thinking I'm not too stressed out, but then I'll jump each time I hear my email alert go off. I'd follow the advice to stay away from the boards, but I know that 1. I would be more stressed out not keeping in touch with other people going through the process and 2. I wouldn't be able to "just forget about it" until notifications come.

I vacillate between stress and genuine curiosity. I just want the next month to fly by. I'm sure we all do.

Relax, guys! I think it's a bit silly to think Yale is done this early, when most schools have only been open for two weeks since the holidays. The application was due on December 15th, and it appears the graduate school closed for the holidays on the 23rd. We all got the email when the graduate school made applications available to departments for review (Jan. 11th), so I think it's highly unlikely the history department has gone through all the applications in a week. My guess is that next week and the week after is when successful applicants will be contacted for interviews - assuming that Yale is sticking to the same timeline as previous years, rather than pushing back decisions later in the month to accommodate interviews.

That kind of killed the mood

Hugs for Spriteling's roommate.

And to all of you who need one. :*

It's true... We get so wrapped up in our worries and fears about moving forward that we forget how fortunate we truly are to have come so far and accomplished so much already. Virtual hugs and support for your roommate! Hoping for negative results (and positive feelings).

Spriteling, hoping the best for your roommate.

I received my application fee reimbursement from Brown yesterday -- or, rather, Embark -- and it wasn't as promised. Their financial representative contacted all of the former applicants and said we'd be refunded through the same means of payment (in my case, that'd be my debit card). Instead, they took what I presume is the lazy way out and simply sent the application fee via PayPal to my e-mail address. Of course, PayPal takes a small chunk out and now it'll take 3-4 days to transfer to my bank account. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of my fellow applicants don't even have PayPal accounts.

I'm still out my GRE score report fee and transcript costs, and never received any responses to my inquiries. I suppose it's time to just leave it be.

I just found out that my flatmate might have cancer; she has to wait until Monday to find out.

Sort of puts my waiting into perspective now, heh.

That kind of killed the mood

I myself would prefer to be a Slytherin grad student just to show everyone that not all amoral scumbags are pure evil ... either that or go beauxbatons ... I saw the veela girls ... can't go wrong there

That kind of killed the mood

That kind of killed the mood

I myself would prefer to be a Slytherin grad student just to show everyone that not all amoral scumbags are pure evil ... either that or go beauxbatons ... I saw the veela girls ... can't go wrong there

That kind of killed the mood

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.

good thing I used my generic email address, so I don't get too jumpy but then again I'm going through the waves that I'm sure everyone else is going through. The intense moments of wondering, the creeping moments of despair and then the general "I just don't care anymore" moments.

Come on now ADMITedlyLucky ... if you spell "you're" as "your" then there's NO way Yale will admit you ... I keed I keed ... but in all honesty congrats to CPetersen the most envied person on this forum right now ... how did you get so lucky? I guess now the angst is going to be ratcheted up to a new level ... a lot of the schools I've contacted have said their ADCOMs weren't meeting yet b/c school is barely starting so for some the wait will be even worse (looking at you Ivy kids) ... the game's afoot!

Come on now ADMITedlyLucky ... if you spell "you're" as "your" then there's NO way Yale will admit you ... I keed I keed ... but in all honesty congrats to CPetersen the most envied person on this forum right now ... how did you get so lucky? I guess now the angst is going to be ratcheted up to a new level ... a lot of the schools I've contacted have said their ADCOMs weren't meeting yet b/c school is barely starting so for some the wait will be even worse (looking at you Ivy kids) ... the game's afoot!

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.

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.

So from the smattering responses I've read on here, I have come to the following conclusions: meetings POIs will help you, it will hurt you and they have absolutely no bearing on the outcome of your app. I love it! I realize how subjective the whole thing is but you would think there would be some uniformity, outside of the applications themselves. Even the style of SOPs (from what I've read on grade cafe) seems to be different. Although there seems to be some sort of consensus that you shouldn't mention your life-long love of history but outside of that, there seems to be no hard and fast rule as to what is to be expected. I come from a background where everything is regimented and even the most illogically-seeming act has a rationale, so this whole process fascinates and intrigues me. Be of good cheer friends!

Undergrad Institution: A top party school in the South, grad in '05
Senior Thesis: It was optional and I didn't know how important it would be down the road so I took the seminar instead
Honors Program: Yes but again it was optional, and I wasn't that forward thinking at the time.
Major(s): History/Poli Sci.
Minor(s): Art History, French, Aerospace Science
GPA in Major: 3.63
Overall GPA: 3.40
Position in Class: Unsure but I know I graduated. I have pictures to prove it. My mother baked a cake and a lot of people were happy
Type of Student: Domestic, from an academically inclined family (both parents have a PhD), 2 sibs w/a doctorate.

GRE Scores (revised/old version): Revised GRE - no excuses could be better
Q: 148 (?%)
V: 164 (?%)
W: 5.0 (?%)

Research Experience: Unpublished personal research done in the field of my interest.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Academic Team (college bowl, quiz bowl) awards,

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Been out of academia and in the real world for the past few years, but I am ready to return now.

Applying to Where: Direct-entry Ph.D programs for African History - Harvard, Columbia (checked off MA option for consideration), UCLA, Berkeley, Princeton, & University of Florida

Research Interests & Areas of Focus: pre-colonial/colonial west Africa

Languages: Fluent in a relevant African languages and I understand some French (intermediate reading and writing ability)

Letters of Recommendation: I didn't read my LORs but I hope they were strong, otherwise those professors all set me up for the okie doke. They were all mentors & professors who had highly encouraged me to pursue a PhD when I was in undergrad.

Statement of Purpose: I tried to explain why I wanted to get a PhD and why I'm coming back to school after being gone for almost a decade. I wanted to give them sense of my academic personality and what would compel me to stick with a potentially arduous endeavor. I tailored it as best as possible to each school but obviously there were certain overlaps that was unavoidable.

Writing Sample: I submitted a term paper from one of the professors who was writing one of my LOR. I slightly tweaked it but it was difficult to rewrite it as much as I wanted to because I couldn't get a hold of a good amount of the books I used as citation but them there's the breaks, as they say.

Communication with POIs: I emailed a ton of them, called them and I established a dialogue with a few. However some schools seemed to have a hands off approach and didn't seem to be very willing to communicate. The fault was probably on me because I waited till very late in the process to even try to contact them because I didn't know any better.

Lessons Learned from Application Process: I learned the following things
1. It is a process and you have to approach it like you are following a checklist. You can skip around somewhat but at the end of the day, there has to be systematic understanding of what you are doing.
2. Keep in touch with your professors and develop those relationships, even if you aren't sure you are going to pursue a higher degree. Their letters of recommendation come in handy not only for schools but for other things, such as jobs, etc. It is difficult to go trolling for a professor 5 years after you last communicated.
3. Give yourself some room to work with. I am sure most people here wished they had spent more time working on their application or wished they had more time to work on it. Time is never your friend because there are certain things that are out of your hands, such as when
4. Try to contact students at the schools you're applying at. You're eventually going to be studying with some of these people so get to know them somewhat and see if the school is a place you'll fit in personally. I often hear a lot about academic fit but I rarely hear a lot about personality fits. If you are one for the bright lights of the Big City, then I'm sure a school in pastoral setting isn't for you and vice-versa for someone attracted to the simplicty of countryside.
5. Learn to deal with anxity because the waiting will hurt. You basically become like a junky, fiending for that sweet hit of information. Will I learn something new today? What time is it? Dammit, why haven't I heard back from professor such and such? Did I make a mistake somewhere on my app? Did I leave out something pertinent on m SOP? Should I have done more than 3 LORs? Should I do a "surprise" visit to the schools? Trust me, you are going to think of at least ONE of these things at least once, whilst you wait. However, there is nothing, short of inventing a time machine, that will speed up the process, so enjoy the anxiety.

Just out of curiosity, is anyone here applying for a PhD in African history? I tried to find a thread dedicated to that topic but I can't seem to find anything specifically so I'll see who I can find here. Trying to see the general calibre of students who have applied, what their experience has been up to this point, what are the general numbers usually associated with acceptance for African History, etc. I know this is kind of vague (probably redundant) and kind of late but whatever info I can get, I'll be appreciative.

Thanks in advance!