grlu0701

What particular fields are you interested in? If you are interested in cultural or intellectual history, you may want to check out LSU. They have a very strong modern German faculty (although Dr. Lindenfeld will be retiring in two or so years, that'd be okay for a MA student) and have recently hosted some pretty impressive conferences on fin de siecle German culture. Look into Dr. Marchand -- she is extremely nice and everything that I've heard from her students has been positive. Although I ultimately decided to decline LSUs offer, I was offered a TA position as an incoming MA and it came with a stipend that could fully support a single person. If you can develop an impressive application and are interested in cultural or intellectual history, don't discount this school! (Plus, it has great football!)

Don't let your UG institution stop you from applying! I am currently wrapping up my BA at a public university and, like yours, mine rarely sends students to grad school (except through its own programs). Additionally, while I wouldn't say that my professors are not involved in the current debates, they are not the historians who get the most attention. Still, I decided to apply to grad school because it was the path I envisioned for myself even before I finished my freshman year here. I applied to twelve schools, got admitted to seven, and had tuition+stipend offers at four. My advice is to extensively reserach particular professors that you wish to work with. That way, you can apply to work with a professor rather than applying to a school because of its name. I had far greater success when I focused in my SoP about my desire to work with a particular individual rather than when I focused on the resources of the program/university. Catch the eye of a particular professor with your application and you'll find that it's nice to have someone fighting for you from the inside!

I did a search for a WVU meet and greet thread for this year, but didn't find one. Anyone else headed to Morgantown next fall? I'll be entering into the PhD program in history.

German annieca, kotov, Kelkel, Ganymede18, grlu0701 Spanish annieca, crazedandinfused, Ganymede18, grlu0701 (kind of) French theregalrenegade, Ganymede18 Hebrew uhohlemonster, crazedandinfused (ktzat) Italian Latin Kelkel, Ganymede18 Greek Ganymede18 (New Testament) Russian Polish runaway Romanian kotov Japanese kyjin Italian is next on the list for me -- having the basics of Spanish should help with the transition.

I also received a rejection for my first response -- my first 3 actually, so I know what you mean about rejections shaking one's confidence. Still, I think that, based one how the admissions process is handled by many universities (in which they send out rejections as they eliminate people), receiving rejections first is natural. I ended up 7 of 12 including my first three rejections, so hopefully you'll bounce back too!

First of all, a "rule of thumb" is never a legal matter. The term is certainly not synonymous with "law," so I'm not sure to what exactly you are objecting. Second, I agree with farnsworth and Eigen that hoarding offers is bad practice. By all means, if you are completely baffled, do not reply immediately, but normally people that have 3 offers can choose at least one that is significantly less appealing the others.

I'm waiting until a few days before the 15th (probably the Friday before) because I've been waitlisted for funding at one of my top choices. I've figured out which program I'll enroll in if I don't end up getting funding, but I don't want to make a final decision and then get a better offer from the waitlisting institution. I'll be happy either way, but I don't want to commit before knowing all of my options.

Yeah, almost all of my acceptances have said that I must respond by the end of the business day on the 16th.

Thanks for the thoughts Sigaba. I didn't even consider how handwriting could impact qualifying exams. Mine's pretty bad, so I'm hoping that computers are allowed.

When I read through monographs I normally take notes in a word document. I create large documents based on topic with all related monographs in the same document for easy use of the search function. I'm just finishing my undergrad this semester and it has worked great for me, especially while writing my thesis. It has saved me a lot of time, as I do not have to return to the actual texts and can keep my notes for use during my graduate studies. Does anyone have any thoughts on this process? It seems like it may be too slow for grad school, given the massive amounts of reading we are expected to do.

As of right now, I've rejected four programs by email and have received a response from each of them. I'd imaging that at least some sort of response is common practice. It's very odd for them to simply ignore you.

I'd advise anyone that is concerned about living costs to look outside of Boulder county. (I think that's the official name of the county?) I know that rent costs are only a fraction of a cost just over the county line and in many of the surrounding cities there are bus lines that regularly run into Boulder. This was the advice given to me by my fiancee's parents, who live about 20 min outside of Boulder.

Congrats! I see that you were also accepted at SUNY-Buffalo. Are you heading to the prospective student weekend next Friday?

Does anyone have experience with being waitlisted for funding? I was accepted into the PhD at Colorado-Boulder, but my offer is not funded. That being said, the admit letter made it clear that funding may be forthcoming in the future, so I havn't given up hope. CU is one of my top choices (and my fiancee's #1 for location and family reasons), so I'm still hoping I may receive some good news. I'd guess that funding preference is given to those students admitted right away w/o funding over those who are later taken of the admit waitlist... But then again, I know about as close to nothing about intra-departmental dynamics as possible. Any thoughts?

I've been admitted to the PhD in history, but I'm waitlisted for funding. I've heard that CU is relatively strapped for cash, but does anyone have anything more detailed than this? And does anyone have any info on the funding waitlist process at CU? I've already began seeking out alternative sources of funding (such as teaching freshman writing courses), but haven't had any luck. :/