New England Nat

You guys have no idea how glad I am that my information + some guess work was right. The last day or two I felt a bit guilty that I might have gotten the timing wrong (for no particular reason but still). Congrats to all of the recent admits to everywhere. The Princeton admits who would like to unofficially ask questions of a current first year can PM me. I will be happy to tell you what I can.

Wow, StrangeLight when did you start watching me (sheepishly eyes her apartment).

Do not make that assumption. The ivy's are full of people who will gladly tell you about all the rejection letters they got from "lesser" institutions.* *I do not believe that anything not an ivy is a bad school, the fact that people treat me differently as a scholar (and they do) because of the name of the institution on my name badge at conferences annoys me ever the fuck...

It's called imposter syndrome. I've had it bad both at my masters program and now in my phd program.

Yeah, it's irrational. When it happened in 2009 it basically took the entire economy collapsing in a short time. Still, I knew a half dozen people who had it happen and I wasn't on the internet (at least at a place like this) at the time.

I'm sorry. I think I said earlier I saw that happen a lot in 2009, it was really painful and mostly do to the collapse. Don't let it destroy your confidence.

I was afraid this would happen this year. Be careful of results on the board that are singular. Hoaxers happened last year too.

Yale didn't inform last year until the 11th or 14th I think... It was either the next business day or two after my Princeton offer came and all I still have in terms of emails and paperwork is the Princeton stuff. I got crushed by Brown at 10AM on the 10th of Feb. last year and was over the moon by 1PM when I had a note from Princeton. By the time I got rejected by Yale a day or two later it didn't matter at all to me Do not read the the times in the above paragraph to reflect that i believe the time of day will be the same. That's crazy

I had an up and down hectic weird day today and I was all set to feel sorry about my crazy life tonight and than I thought i'd check in here. And I remember that i've had it much worse this time last year. Congrats to those of you accepted to Brown, Penn and Indiana today.

In past years Princeton sent out decisions by email from the graduate program secretary. No reason to think it will change. Last year Brown and Princeton announced on the same day, and Yale the next day or two.

That's certainly part of it. It's also because the school sells itself to the undergrads as a place where they will be taught by professors and not graduate students. I think this is more the real motivation. YMMV.

Princeton does not allow it's students to precept (TA) until after they are done with course work, and then it is voluntary. The compensation increases if you precept but it also alters for tax purposes so it really doesn't go up. Most everyone precepts even if they are not required, and most people at least do a semester of adjuncting at one of NJ's other fine institutions for the purposes of having teaching experiance on their CVs. It doesn't seem to hurt people on the job market, on the other hand I know some people on hiring committees say it is a handicap.

As a general heads up, now that acceptences are coming in fast and furious... There are a couple of schools with very highly regarded history departments that offer some level of funding, often year to year, who will try and tell you that it is easy to get yourself reclassified as an in state resident for tuition purposes. You should be very very skeptical of such a claim. I don't know if it's the departments or the PoI not knowing but just assuming or what. Get such information directly from the university administration not the department. Ask detailed questions about the processes. I know some of you will decide to go to those places anyway, because they are beautiful places with amazing faculty and you assume that of course you'll get funding that second year or it wont be so bad... If you are going to violate the old rule about paying for a humanities PhD... at least know what you are getting into first.

I don't know which ones do, but I know UC Davis did last year.

This is a very important thing to remember. My funding package is very nice, but it comes with living in one of the most expensive areas of the country.

There will be instructions on how to accept their offer in the paperwork, have no fear.

His son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was the first African-American to attain general officer status in the US Air Force.

Both Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were presidents of the AHA. Though Wilson was president of the AHA after his presidency of the USA and you have to wonder exactly how that worked...

I'm very late because you know... I sleep. I would not have gotten into Princeton if I had not done a Masters. It made my application infinately stronger and even though it wasn't fully funded it wasn't something I regret for a second. The PhD History job market is so rough that any advantage a stronger PhD brand name gives you is to be taken. I know that only a handful of people in my cohort came in straight out of undergrad. Most have masters degrees (and a couple of law degrees). There was a joke earlier this semester when someone didn't realize this fact tried to puff up his image by talking about his masters degree in a group of the other first years. Someone at the table asked who there had a masters degree and everyone raised their hands. I know that Cornell is mostly taking people with masters degrees as well. It's not just that they save on funding (Princeton doesn't since you still have to take the course work here), but what it does do is cut out on their burnout rate. Most people burn out in course work so having a masters proves to them that you are capable of scholarship on the graduate level. My disertation topic also came right out of my masters work.

I wouldn't expect that many email or website postings on fridays on the whole. Now the postal service is a different matter...

My adviser for my masters thesis told me (I think correctly) that you should withdraw all pending offers of schools you rank lower on your list than your first acceptence. I waited on one that i fell in love with, but withdrew five or six applications after an acceptence.

This is accurate to what I said. Princeton is still operating on the traditional calender, with the fall semester ending in mid to late January. The Spring semester starts monday (I've been reading for the first day of class all week).

Bess Truman was incredibly displeased with suddenly having secret service protection for life after the Kennedy assassination. The secret service agents assigned to her would live in the house across the street and try not to draw her wrath. Most of them spent their tour on her detail taking college courses down the street.

Okay, that's kind of seriously freaky.

The person who told it to me was in that field and thought it was a brilliant idea. I optimistically am hoping that his enthusasm for the concept prevented him from describing it accurately. But than again I'm not that impressed with the particular discipline involved.