miscellaneous

this is all great information. thank you!

Hi all! From Portland and heading to Chicago for a humanities PhD. I've heard that Hyde Park does not have the best amenities and was wondering what options there were in terms of fresh produce and such. Are there any farmer's markets or similar venues for vegetables such as, say, fresh kale? Or do people have to commute for this? If that were the case, is having a bike enough? Thanks for all the help!!

Thank you all for this feedback! It is really really helpful. fuzzylogician, these are crucial questions: - Two of three senior faculty at school B are retirement age (late sixties, the second 70). The faculty member I am most interested in as advisor material and who is most professionally connected in the department is in prime publishing age and doesn't seem to be running out of steam anytime soon. One of the two junior faculty's work is close to mind enough that I can be sure of two more than solid people on my committee in six years should the two senior faculty retire. At the very least, I think I can take seminars with all the faculty that are there right now. - I plan on staying in academia. The professor who runs the show at the higher ranked school is incredibly well connected. - The stipend from school A is enough to live on. My funding situation is a bit strange: I have an outside fellowship from a private organization that makes it so that if I attend school B (the Ivy), I have a good stipend for six years guaranteed funding. With School A, I get less money overall (as a ratio of money to years of guaranteed funding), but actually have more to live off of from year to year (and less years to finish: five). - Honestly, the interdisciplinarity at this point is just nice to have. I don't see how my current work is that interdisciplinary, but part of the attraction to school A is that I may have to stretch myself intellectually and can be certain that what I write on in six years will be very different from what I plan on writing on now. School A feels like the riskier choice, while with School B I know what I'm getting (in terms of academic/methodological training). Does anyone have any advice?!?! Thank you all again! This is an incredible community.

Hello everyone! I was hoping that someone could quickly look at these two schools and tell me what they think. Both have similar job placement records, so that's not a factor. I'm just so lost that I can't come to a decision and need an objective pair of eyes. School A Ranked highly in my field Not a name you immediately think of One senior professor I am very interested in, a younger one with a fascinating project, two others with interesting research areas Good balance of senior and younger faculty Lower stipend / have to finish in six years and get out Better city, though high crime A celebrity culture among faculty and slight competition among grad students More interdisciplinary (dept. very connected to humanities as a whole) Great and supportive grad student community -- characterized by more intellectual collaboration and helping out with the diss. School B Lower ranking than school A in my field An internationally recognized name (ivy league) One senior professor I am very interested in, a super old one with a fascinating approach, a younger faculty member with exciting research going on imbalance between senior and younger faculty (very old dept.) Higher stipend all around / can finish in 6-7 years guaranteed Worse location, also with high crime A very nurturing environment Much less interdisciplinary (dept. sort of does its own thing) Great and supportive grad student community -- more social support and less intellectual support A or B? Perhaps even why? Thank you!!!

matecocido: I agree about the imbalance between natural sciences and humanities (or, as the Germans used to say, "sciences of spirit" --Geisteswissenschaften unite!) I have similar options to choose from (vacillating between UChicago and Yale now), but can say that Princeton seems to be dominated by undergraduates, though there is some fantastic research going on there. Not quite related to your concerns about academics, but I've heard that the graduate student housing provided by the university can be unsatisfying (basically a big dorm with a bar in the basement). Berkeley seems to have some great people (Martin Jay in intellectual history, Judith Butler of course, though she's teaching part time at Columbia and may stay there permanently perhaps, etc), and I've always found their designated emphasis in critical theory really attractive (the designated emphasis system itself is pretty unique, I think, comparable to my knowledge only with the many interdisciplinary committees at UChicago). I can also totally agree, at least according to my impressions, that Berkeley has an amazing strength in things medieval. I got to know an Oxford-trained medievalist in the English department and she was incredibly kind (totally contingent fact that doesn't expose a pattern or institutional strength, I know, but perhaps a useful tidbit?), and Niklaus Largier in the German department is an expert in medieval German mysticism. From what I've learned, Hopkins humanities overall is a very tight-knit community and the advising/mentoring one gets is amazing. The Humanities Center has some very renown scholars whose work is pretty cutting edge (Hent de Vries, Michael Fried, etc.), but not quite related to your stated areas of interest. In any case, it looks like a very positive and supportive environment within which to grow as a scholar. I did not apply to Stanford and so didn't really research it, but I can say that one person working on Italian and German literature there, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, consistently puts out amazing scholarship (his pet concept is "presence"). More on the theory-side of the humanities, though. Unfortunately, I don't have any knowledge about the UC system and am myself waiting for funding to come through from Berkeley. Anyhow, hopefully these informations are useful in some regard! For late medieval intellectual history, I would go for Berkeley and, if funding fails to come through, perhaps try giving them the "your my first choice, but I have an offer with better funding, etc" line. If that doesn't work, maybe go with Princeton. Good luck and congratulations!