annieca

Oh yes, history with all the art taken out of it would be a pretty dull affair.  It always makes me a little sad to enter the phrase.  Brings to mind all the charts in the appendices of social history texts.  
 
*braces for criticism by social history chart lovers*

Ah the curmudgeon professors.

I think that yes, more people are applying to graduate school than normal. For some it's a back-up plan for not getting a job, not wanting to face the real world. Others this is honestly the thing they want to do. Add that with degree inflation and you've got our current state of people in grad school programs.

I don't think that you HAVE to have a 3.9 to get into "tier 1" programs. They take into account a lot more than just GPA. Make your personal statement shine. Do the absolute best you can do on your applications. That's all you can do.

Ah the curmudgeon professors.

I think that yes, more people are applying to graduate school than normal. For some it's a back-up plan for not getting a job, not wanting to face the real world. Others this is honestly the thing they want to do. Add that with degree inflation and you've got our current state of people in grad school programs.

I don't think that you HAVE to have a 3.9 to get into "tier 1" programs. They take into account a lot more than just GPA. Make your personal statement shine. Do the absolute best you can do on your applications. That's all you can do.

Did they say in what ways they weren't equivalent? Because, contrary to hustlebunny's point, my impression is that some UK universities, especially the ancient uni's, consider the US Master's degree to be roughly equivalent to the final year of a UK Bachelor's degree. The thinking goes that a UK Bachelor's is specialized from day one and so, in the three years, your subject specific knowledge and skills are developed to a greater extent than they would be during a US degree, where you spend a huge amount of time studying other subjects. Also, a fair number of US Master's degrees don't require a thesis, which is a central requirement of a UK Master's degree (almost universally). So, for PhD admissions in the UK, a US Master's might not be seen as sufficient preparation for the UK PhD, which is solely research based. I've heard of Cambridge not recognizing US MA's before and requiring PhD applicants to complete a second UK Master's degree before they will accept them for PhD study. Of course in the States, they think a one year Master's degree is too short to learn anything useful and tend to consider UK MA grades as a very, very small aspect of the applicant's education during admissions, or so I've been told.
 
Honestly, as an international student, I find the levels of ignorance about other country's higher education systems from within the academy pretty depressing. 
 
I think the OP's question was specifically about a practical field, though, in which accreditation issues abound, and not about UK degrees more generally (which are certainly considered equivalent to US degrees in general). I would be especially careful with something like this OP, as you could end up spending a lot of money on a degree that will not allow you to do the kind of work you want, and you may then have to spend more in order to become accredited in the US. Sweetpea makes some really great points -  definitely think about what she/he has said.

They don't do all their rejections at once. I know they've been rejecting some of the obviously unsuitable candidates in the past few weeks (which obviously hasn't shown up on the results board because gradcafe folks are the most creative, brilliant and attractive applicants out there). But I wouldn't be surprised if another wave of rejections has hit, or is about to.

I woke up to find an acceptance to St Andrews in my inbox!! Yay!!  Though UK acceptances are bittersweet since now the hurdle is securing funding from scholarships. But hey, one down right??
 
Congrats to all the admits and hugs to the others...This board has been blowing up!! 
 
Happy Valentine's Day!!
 
P.S. czesc I have a feeling this is your day~ 

i knew i'd get called out on throwing iowa around like that
 
let me be clear, i by no means am disparaging iowa, but i'm sure the UofI's satellite campus in Podunksville is nothing special

imri, you could probably find information on tuition, fees, and health insurance on the university's webpages but, I guess you could ask the department. I wouldn't bother but that's only because a bit of googling for the information would take less than 5 minutes.

I second the recommendation to look outside of the London area. I've heard great things about Edinburgh's History program. St Andrews as well. I would recommend my study abroad university but only if you're Library Science or InterPol. Since you're neither, I wouldn't suggest Aberystwyth.
 
The UK process is seriously the most straightforward process I've ever seen. Depending on the university it is also remarkably quick. The only problem seems to be funding. UK PhDs are more likely to be funded than MA's, like in the US, but they decide funding really late. I won't know about funding at Aberystwyth until July and that goes the same for PhD candidates.
 
But don't panic for now. You've got time!

Congrats everyone on acceptances!

I have, quite crazily, decided where I'm going and the only thing that will change that is a *hell* of a funding package from one of the schools.

I'm going to graduate school! Eeeek!

Baltimore is a weird city in my experience. It's DC suburbs (seriously!) so it's expensive but not as expensive as DC. It's got quite a few things going for it - the zoo has penguins! - but it also feels very much like the younger brother of DC that tries to live up to the nation's Capital. But... that was just my experience there a bit this summer. 
 
Also, a word to the wise about commuting to DC from Baltimore - depending on where in DC  your partner lives, it can be a *nightmare*. Metro is notorious for being slow. Trains from Baltimore come into Union Station so if you're near there or don't mind walking, then that's all fine and good. If it's a job in Alexandria, Franconia, Springfield or Falls Church I say forget about it. The commute would be, I think, two hours each way. I know it's over an hour from Union Station to Franconia-Springfield, the end of the blue line. I'm not sure about the trains from Baltimore to DC.
 
Just something to think about! I know in the end you'll choose where you're meant to go. As for stipend, the security isn't something to feel bad about. I am choosing Aber because I will only have between $5-10k in debt versus over $50,000.

Definitely considering all this! And it's great advice. Princeton does offer subsidized housing though, although Baltimore would of course give me more options on where to live. If I go to Princeton, I'd probably eventually move to Philadelphia (which has roughly a cost of living similar to Baltimore), but hopefully I'll be able to pose the "living in another city" question to some grad students during my campus visit. And to throw out some personal details -- I share housing costs with my partner and he'd be able to make a lot more in his line of work in the NYC Metro region than in Baltimore (though there is DC). Just a lot to think about.

My best advice: Pace.

Seriously - it helps. You will have a lot of nervous energy and pacing helps get that out. Plus, you speak clearer and more articulately when you are standing up.

That, and I would recommend dressing up a bit. If I'm in pj's, I feel like I'm not serious about what I'm talking about as much as if I'm in khakis and a nice top.

Congrats everyone on acceptances!

I have, quite crazily, decided where I'm going and the only thing that will change that is a *hell* of a funding package from one of the schools.

I'm going to graduate school! Eeeek!

Hit that screenshot button until it breaks!

I don't know which part of me said it was smart to do two reading-intensive classes, my thesis and two of the most prestigious MUN conferences when I knew I would be waiting for decisions. 
 
This has literally been my train of thought this morning:
 
"I should check my South Carolina app...I need to do a little more research on the debt crisis for LiMUN...and I know absolutely nothing about my topics for ScotMUN which means I probably should start that...and oh yeah, I should check when I have a meeting with my diss supervisor although I don't think he remembers me..." 
 
Scatterbrained, much?
 
Don't worry everyone - it should be over soon!

Is that what happened to your computer!?

Congrats! As long as you don't *root* for the Trojans, I'm happy for you!

I don't know how I feel about the MA/MS being where you're a "student" still and not training for a job. Maybe that's the case for most MA/MS's but not for my program. I go into my program knowing it is job training and it is THE best job training I can get. Might also be different because it's basically a terminal Master's. It's really, really hard to find a PhD program in Archives.

As I've had more sleep, I have to also say that it's offending to hear "Well, you're doing an MLIS(MLS) so it's not as competitive and therefore you can get in with crap grades." True, library science is easier to get into than a History PhD but that does not make the acceptances any less rewarding.

Congrats on LSU and Northwestern peoples! And regrets and hugs to the Duke rejection.

I'm now fairly convinced there was a typo in one of those two sentences.

Got into my favorite today!!! No word on funding though.

We all seriously need chill pills. Not that this isn't probably the most important decision that is out of our hands so far but... we all need to calm down. Driving everyone within spitting distance insane too is probably not a good idea.

On the other hand...

My beef right now is with time differences. I'm five hours ahead of my East Coast schools, 6 for Indiana. So when I wake up at 10 on a Monday to check my email and see if anything's changed, well, it's 4 in the morning Central Time. Yeah, I understand midnight, but no decision is going to come in at 4 in the morning.

My South Carolina apps have gone from "Reviewing applications" to "Decision Pending." No idea what that means but I'm just going to go with it. That's all I can do, right?

Got into my favorite today!!! No word on funding though.

Got into my favorite today!!! No word on funding though.

Got into my favorite today!!! No word on funding though.