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. :/

PhD- History Arizona: dukelover50 Brown: Attia, Ganymede18 (partner), virmundi Cambridge: superfluousflo Colorado-Boulder: grlu0701 Columbia: Cpetersen, Safferz Harvard: Safferz Illinois-UC: Gene Parmesan, R_Escobar Illinois-Chicago: crazedandinfused Johns Hopkins: Pugsley87 Michigan State: Cranston Minnesota: remenis, WendyDarling Northwestern: Ganymede18 (partner), genesisy, goldielocks Nebraska: R_Escobar NYU: Sequi001, uhohlemonster Ohio State: iamincontrolhere-haig, ticklemepink Oxford: alleykat Penn: Safferz, runner09, Pugsley87 Pitt: teachgrad/CageFree Princeton: easybreesy9, maeisenb, Roxelana, Safferz Rutgers: goldielocks SUNY-Binghamton: alleykat SUNY-Buffalo: goldielocks, Veilside1, wikichic, grlu0701 SUNY- Stonybrook: abacab44, always sunny, crazedandinfused Temple University: crazedandinfused, alleykat, superrockr1 Virginia: cupoftea_andasitdown UC- Berkeley: Astarabadi, CPetersen, telemaque UC- Davis: teachgrad/CageFree UC-Riverside: teachgrad/CageFree UC- SB: virmundi University of Exeter: Lureynol University of Chicago: Attia, calamari19, Sequi001 University of Miami: sandyvanb UNC- CH: cupoftea_andasitdown USC: CPetersen, virmundi UT- Austin: emerald54 University of Washington: Gene Parmesan UW- Madison: Attia, emerald54, hopin’-n-prayin’, RevolutionBlues, sequi001, telemaque, ticklemepink Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL): taybaxter, goldielocks West Virginia: grlu0701 Yale: Agora, Safferz, telemaque, virmundi, zb642 PhD- Other Harvard (AmCiv): CPetersen Kansas (AMST): Gene Parmesan Purdue (AMST): Gene Parmesan SUNY- Buffalo (AMST): R_Escobar UC- Davis (Cultural Studies): genesisy UC- Irvine (Culture & Theory): genesisy UC- SB (Classics): Attia MA- History Boston U: grlu0701 Cambridge: Lureynol Chicago: uhohlemonster Drew (History & Culture): naturalog Fordham: qbluecheers Indiana: GloFish Louisiana State: grlu0701 Miami U.: Kelkel Nebraska: grlu0701 Northern Illinois: Cranston Tel Aviv University: uhohlemonster Texas Tech: grlu0701 UMass-Amherst: crazedandinfused SUNY-Binghamton: Kelkel UT- Dallas: Kelkel William and Mary: historyguy12485 University of Vermont: jrah822

I'm very interested in info about the cost of living as well. I've been offered a stipend, but it's pretty low.

Thanks for the advice. I also have a few years of Spanish under my belt, so this is part of the reason why I feel I can put of starting my French and/or Italian until I have acclimated myself to my new surroundings. And my wife speaks a bit of French, so I can get a bit of homeschooling and hopefully jump in at the 200/2000 level courses at the university. On another note (and this may be relevant for the opening poster, so I don't think I'm hijacking), does anyone know if a funding offer with fall, spring, and summer tuition remission would cover summer language courses if they are vital to one's studies? I would guess so, but perhaps it depends on the specific department?

I am in essentially the same position that you are, minus the campus journal. I'll be moving with my fiance (wife on June 2) to whichever location I decide to enroll at and will be taking intensive language courses during the months immediately preceding my first semester. I have talked extensively with my adviser here at my undergraduate institution an he is adamant that language should be my #1 priority over the summer and that I should focus on the language that I know best right now (for me German). I also asked if I should start learning French or Italian and he said no, because the most important thing is to enter into a program with the ability to do research with at least one language, not merely to pass the proficiency exam. By having this language down at a research level, you can then focus your first semester on transitioning into graduate-level coursework (remember, I only have a BA, so you may already have done this). Hopefully some of this helps! I know that my plan is very similar to yours, so I'm interested in what other people think.

I'm just wondering if I can get opinions from some of you who may have a bit more experience than me in the realm of academia. I will be graduating with a BA (History and English double major w/ German minor) and entering into a history grad program this fall. I have received quite a few offers and narrowed my choices down to three. Of these three, the pros and cons of the offer are so different that I am having difficulty making sense of their comparative worth. First offer: PhD program with good research fit and the university's most prestigious doctoral fellowship. However, this university as a whole is less prestigious than the others. Second offer: PhD program with a good research fit and full funding but at a larger and more prestigious university. Third offer: MA program with a fantastic research fit and one of the leading faculties in my subfield. However, this program requires an MA to even be considered for PhD admissions and I'm not sure how they feel about internal "promotion" to the PhD program. This last option probably has the biggest "name" in terms of the university, and, like I said before, has a faculty dedicated to and well-known in my subfield. Broadly, I'm looking for any advice that you all can give me, or even just thought-provoking questions that you can throw at me. However, I also have a specific question: In your experience, which is more meaningful, the prestige of an institution or the prestige of a fellowship? (Of course, I know that in terms of the job market these are all trumped by the quality of one's scholarship, but lets just put that aside for now.)

I would guess it'd be a single-language dictionary, but that's just speculation based on the common practice in the upper-level German courses at my uni.

This is a great thread and that link that you (remenis) shared is awesome! I'm certainly a lot more confident about my German now that I see that.

I see that you're are an Americanist based on your profile info. Is your wife also an Americanist? I've haven't heard from many of my co-Europeanists regarding LSU. Even most of the entries in the results survey seem to be Americanists or non-specific. Did your contact at LSU give you any indication of the length of the waiting list? Hopefully some spots will open up for you two soon!

This is my first post in this giant thread, so I didn't go through it all. I anyone else applying to CU-Boulder? It's certainly my top choice in terms of location, but I feel that I'm needlessly driving myself crazy by checking the website so often - based on the results survey, it seems that they don't make decisions until mid/late March

PhD- History Arizona: dukelover50 Brown: Attia, Ganymede18 (partner), virmundi Cambridge: superfluousflo Columbia: Cpetersen, Safferz Harvard: Safferz Illinois: Gene Parmesan, R_Escobar Johns Hopkins: Pugsley87 Michigan State: Cranston Minnesota: remenis, WendyDarling Northwestern: Ganymede18 (partner), genesisy, goldielocks Nebraska: R_Escobar, grlu0701 NYU: Sequi001 Ohio State: iamincontrolhere-haig, ticklemepink Penn: Safferz, runner09, Pugsley87 Pitt: teachgrad Princeton: easybreesy9, maeisenb, Roxelana, Safferz Rutgers: goldielocks SUNY-Buffalo: goldielocks, Veilside1, wikichic SUNY- Stonybrook: abacab44, always sunny Virginia: cupoftea_andasitdown UC- Berkeley: Astarabadi, CPetersen, telemaque UC- Davis: teachgrad UC- SB: virmundi University of Chicago: Attia, calamari19, Sequi001 University of Miami: sandyvanb UNC- CH: cupoftea_andasitdown USC: CPetersen, virmundi UT- Austin: emerald54 UW- Madison: Attia, emerald54, hopin’-n-prayin’, RevolutionBlues, sequi001, telemaque, ticklemepink Washington University (WUSTL).: taybaxter, goldielocks Yale: Agora, Safferz, telemaque, virmundi, zb642 PhD- Other Harvard (AmCiv): CPetersen Kansas (AMST): Gene Parmesan Purdue (AMST): Gene Parmesan SUNY- Buffalo (AMST): R_Escobar UC- Davis (Cultural Studies): genesisy UC- Irvine (Culture & Theory): genesisy UC- SB (Classics): Attia MA- History Indiana: GloFish Louisiana State: grlu0701 Miami U.: Kelkel Northern Illinois: Cranston Texas Tech: grlu0701 UT- Dallas: Kelkel West Virginia: grlu0701