Applications 2019

[MARTINt]

7 hours ago, psstein said:

I agree that HYP+ Berkeley and Chicago represent a majority of TT US history professors, but I do want to point out that the study has some significant flaws, one of which is that it measures placement by "node" vs. placement by numbers. That's not a major issue due to the fact it only measures R1 placement, but it is one to consider. I think it ranks Brandeis in the top 10, which, based on numbers, is not accurate. Brandeis has an exceptional Jewish history program, but there are quite few Jewish history openings across the US.

There's also the incredibly important issue of sub-fields, advisor reputation, etc. The study is useful to understand the contours of the field, but one is far better served hunting down recent graduates' placement than solely relying on that study.

Where would you say UVA is? Pre-modern subfield. 

[AfricanusCrowther]

12 hours ago, psstein said:

 

There's also the incredibly important issue of sub-fields, advisor reputation, etc. The study is useful to understand the contours of the field, but one is far better served hunting down recent graduates' placement than solely relying on that study.

True, but then you often run into issues of sample size. In such a tight market, perhaps the only truly safe choice is to go to HYP for their best sub fields. 

Edited January 24, 2019 by AfricanusCrowther

[psstein]

7 hours ago, MARTINt said:

Where would you say UVA is? Pre-modern subfield. 

What do their placements tell you?

UVA has some good people in Classics, esp. Woodman (though I think he's now retired?).

[joebobthebumbo]

Congrats on getting into Duke, @Karou!!

On that note, is anyone else still waiting to hear from Duke?

[I_Am_In_Paine]

Just now, joebobthebumbo said:

Congrats on getting into Duke, @Karou!!

On that note, is anyone else still waiting to hear from Duke?

I am but not feeling too confident since it seems 4 people here posted acceptances yesterday.

[joebobthebumbo]

13 minutes ago, villageelliot said:

I am but not feeling too confident since it seems 4 people here posted acceptances yesterday.

Same, although if you look at results from past years, it looks like acceptances were spread out over multiple days. There's still hope for us yet!

[I_Am_In_Paine]

1 minute ago, joebobthebumbo said:

Same, although if you look at results from past years, it looks like acceptances were spread out over multiple days. There's still hope for us yet!

Indeed there is! Though I wish they (every school) would just post all decisions at once. I'm sure they have a reason for it, but I'd really like to know why they often take a couple weeks after giving out acceptances to post all their rejections. It's a weird feeling to know you've most likely been denied before receiving the official letter. 

[OHSP]

1 hour ago, joebobthebumbo said:

Same, although if you look at results from past years, it looks like acceptances were spread out over multiple days. There's still hope for us yet!

Don’t want to burst any bubbles, but Duke typically sends out all of their acceptances at once, via the portal. I was accepted two years ago in the same way that @Karou is describing and a “welcome” email arrived shortly after—Duke flies everyone in for the visit (they pay for international flights, which is rare) and partly because of this they settle things earlier than other schools. Congrats @Karou

[dr. t]

1 hour ago, joebobthebumbo said:

Same, although if you look at results from past years, it looks like acceptances were spread out over multiple days. There's still hope for us yet!

No, no school really does this. People just report them over multiple days. If you see a couple reports and you haven't heard anything, consider it  good time to practice that realistic self-evaluation mentioned above and a rejection. 

[joebobthebumbo]

@OHSP @telkanuru Thanks for the honest answer. Out of curiosity, though, what is the rationale behind releasing acceptances before releasing rejections?

[Procopius]

9 hours ago, MARTINt said:

Where would you say UVA is? Pre-modern subfield. 

It has solid placements. Overall, pre-modern is really good at UVA.

[ikeabookshelf]

Was recently admitted to USC, which is my first decision/acceptance (I'm an Americanist; focus is on 20th century race/gender). I'm still waiting on other decisions, but curious what people's impressions are of USC (program, reputation, etc.) Also would love to hear from anyone else who was accepted!

[fosgfp]

is there any specific day of the week decisions are more likely to come out on?

[AP]

5 minutes ago, fosgfp said:

is there any specific day of the week decisions are more likely to come out on?

Yes, after the AdComm met.  

Ok, really, there is not a specific day for releases of responses. But probably not over the weekend!

[OHSP]

25 minutes ago, joebobthebumbo said:

@OHSP @telkanuru Thanks for the honest answer. Out of curiosity, though, what is the rationale behind releasing acceptances before releasing rejections?

They’re focused on trying to secure the people they’ve accepted, and are not particularly worried about notifying the potentially hundreds of people they’ve rejected. Sometimes there are waitlists (sometimes unannounced waitlists) and waitlists can be formulated after first round acceptances are sent out, so that’s another reason not to send rejections right away. Telkanuru is right to stress that acceptances tend to come out at the same time, but some schools have advisors reach out to students personally to let them know they’re in, and then you can be waiting a little because your potential advisor has a pressing deadline etc (this happened to me and was not laden with meaning, just a reflection of my POIs busy schedule at that time). 

[Karou]

Thank you all for the congrats (I'm all out of reputation to give for the day unfortunately, but thank you!), I still can't quite believe it. And congratulations to those of you who have received admits! Looks like decisions are slowly starting to roll in.

@OHSP that's actually very useful information thank you! I received the follow up email you mentioned a couple of hours ago, and I replied asking whether the offer to pay for travel fees to come to the prospective students' event extended to international students as well. It wasn't specified in the email, and I didn't want to just go ahead and assume that they would just fly me out from Europe, but it's good to know that they actually do! That's pretty incredible. I'm not sure whether I will be able to go, but I really hope I can make it happen.

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Karou

[OHSP]

1 minute ago, Karou said:

Thank you all for the congrats (I'm all out of reputation to give for the day unfortunately, but thank you!), I still can't quite believe it. And congratulations to those of you who have received admits! Looks like decisions are slowly starting to roll in.

@OHSP that's actually very useful information thank you! I received the follow up email you mentioned a couple of hours ago, and I replied asking whether the offer to pay for travel fees extended to international students as well. It wasn't specified in the email, and I didn't want to just go ahead and assume that they would just fly me out from Europe, but it's good to know that they actually do! That's pretty incredible. I'm not sure whether I will be able to go, but I really hope I can make it happen.

 

Glad it was helpful! Duke’s funding is a PhD dream. Also I’m sure others will stress this in the coming weeks but school visits are so important—for eg after I received all of my decisions I was certain I was going to go to one school (the highest ranked and only ivy of my offers), and visits changed that completely. 

[Karou]

2 minutes ago, OHSP said:

Glad it was helpful! Duke’s funding is a PhD dream. Also I’m sure others will stress this in the coming weeks but school visits are so important—for eg after I received all of my decisions I was certain I was going to go to one school (the highest ranked and only ivy of my offers), and visits changed that completely. 

Agreed, I have a lot on my plate but I think I need to make time for this, it's an important step. Then again, I may not get any other admits and won't have a choice to make! (Which would be more than good enough for me to be honest). The letter I received also mentioned the possibility of familiarizing myself with the program in other ways should I be unable to attend, so I've asked about what that might entail, and I'll see what they say.

[Sigaba]

4 minutes ago, OHSP said:

Glad it was helpful! Duke’s funding is a PhD dream. Also I’m sure others will stress this in the coming weeks but school visits are so important—for eg after I received all of my decisions I was certain I was going to go to one school (the highest ranked and only ivy of my offers), and visits changed that completely. 

I remember you sharing your thoughts and your reasons for making your decision. 

12 minutes ago, Karou said:

I'm not sure whether I will be able to go, but I really hope I can make it happen.

 

IMO, it is especially important that you in particular make the trip. Because if you go to Duke, you're not going to a school in the United States, you're going to a school in North Carolina and all that entails.

[Karou]

Just now, Sigaba said:

IMO, it is especially important that you in particular make the trip. Because if you go to Duke, you're not going to a school in the United States, you're going to a school in North Carolina and all that entails.

Point well taken! I have lived in many different types of places in my life, so I'm pretty good with adaptability, but it's definitely something I have been thinking about and it certainly couldn't hurt to go there and get a feel of the place beyond the walls of the university.

[Sigaba]

3 minutes ago, Karou said:

Point well taken! I have lived in many different types of places in my life, so I'm pretty good with adaptability, but it's definitely something I have been thinking about and it certainly couldn't hurt to go there and get a feel of the place beyond the walls of the university.

Also, allergies, which was the first and last question I asked a staff member of the department of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

[historygeek]

I haven't heard anything yet, at all. ? From what I've seen on previous years' results, decisions will go out the first full week/the first two full weeks of February. 

Has anyone else applied to Loyola Chicago? I'm just trying to gauge how many people applied, since they're only accepting 3 people this cycle.

[daradara]

On 1/17/2019 at 6:10 PM, dauery said:

This post is inspired by the recent updates to the GC Results page, especialy those results pertaining to Yale's program. Filtering the results page by "history" reveals that 4 Fall 2019 History PhD applicants have posted about being contacted by their POI for an interview. The first of these 4 was contacted on January 7th, the second on January 11 and the third and fourth today, January 17. The last of these 4 included a comment about their POI saying that receiving an offer to interview "was standard routine for the most promising candidates." I am guessing that more people than just these 4 got interview offers in the past couple of weeks, but they just didnt post about it. 

Does this suggest that most of the "most promising candidates" have already been contacted for an interview? Yales own PhD admisions statistics page shows that about 30 offers go out every year to history PhD applicants. It's not unreasonable to think that besides the 4 who posted, another 20+ people were contacted for interviews, but we haven't seen those on the Results page because they didn't post them, aren't GC members/lurkers, etc. 

It would be great if past applicants to Yale's History program could respond with their own interview experiences or the experiences of those they know. If you got an interview, when were you contacted for it? Were you ultimately accepted or rejected? If you were accepted, did almost everyone else in your cohort get an interview?

 

Because my comment seems to have elicited several worried responses, I decided to make an account to post about this. Yes, it is true--despite some assertions to the contrary--that my POI told me it was standard routine to interview the most promising candidates. If you look at the interdisciplinary studies section of this website, you will also see that several applicants to Near Eastern Studies were all interviewed the same weekend, and someone in the literature section posted the following article about the debate concerning the change to make interviews required in the humanities https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/01/11/grad-school-divided-over-interviews/.  (Note that Near Eastern Studies is actually one of the disciplines mentioned in the article, but based on the words of my POI, it seems to go for History as well)

The above is precisely why I posted what my POI said, as applicants should know the process for each school. Now, it is not the case that not receiving an interview means that you will not be accepted, and the opposite holds true for those, such as myself, who did receive interviews. Additionally, it is unknown to me whether  "most promising" is decided by the first round of a committee, the professors in the sub-field you are applying to, or just the POI. Whether one gets in after receiving an interview or not receiving an interview may be dependent on such factors. Suffice to say, you should not be in panic mode just yet, as you certainly still have a chance, but the speculation that several others who are probably unaware of the existence of the GradCafe received interviews as the same time as I did is probably accurate.

For those in the future who may be interviewed, it is best to know that the interview may vary wildly. For instance, my interview was well over 2 hours and featured sections of more casual talk along with more intense, directed questions about my project, various parts of my application, and my views of the field. For instance, questions about my proposed project included how do I see my topic expanding or contracting spatially and temporally, how important are certain elements to my project and how do I plan to enact them, what other directions can I go in with the topic, etc. During the interview, my answers were noted down for review. Someone I know who once had a Yale interview mentioned that theirs was an hour, and was fairly relaxed but was also asked fairly similar questions, though the POI did not take notes. Those interviewed for Near Eastern Studies said theirs were 30 minutes in length, so it seems to be up to the POI how they wish to conduct the interview and for what length of time. 

I hope this will be helpful, whether now or in the future. If you have any questions (or anyone else for that matter), please feel free to ask.

Edited January 24, 2019 by daradara

[Karou]

19 minutes ago, Sigaba said:

Also, allergies, which was the first and last question I asked a staff member of the department of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Haha, thankfully I have never really struggled with allergies! (Yet?) Hopefully North Carolina won't prove to be my downfall in that respect.

[TsarandProphet]

22 minutes ago, daradara said:

Because my comment seems to have elicited several worried responses, I decided to make an account to post about this. Yes, it is true--despite some assertions to the contrary--that my POI told me it was standard routine to interview the most promising candidates. If you look at the interdisciplinary studies section of this website, you will also see that several applicants to Near Eastern Studies were all interviewed the same weekend, and someone in the literature section posted the following article about the debate concerning the change to make interviews required in the humanities https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/01/11/grad-school-divided-over-interviews/.  (Note that Near Eastern Studies is actually one of the disciplines mentioned in the article, but based on the words of my POI, it seems to go for History as well)

The above is precisely why I posted what my POI said, as applicants should know the process for each school. Now, it is not the case that not receiving an interview means that you will not be accepted, and the opposite holds true for those, such as myself, who did receive interviews. Additionally, it is unknown to me whether  "most promising" is decided by the first round of a committee, the professors in the sub-field you are applying to, or just the POI. Whether one gets in after receiving an interview or not receiving an interview may be dependent on such factors. Suffice to say, you should not be in panic mode just yet, as you certainly still have a chance, but the speculation that several others who are probably unaware of the existence of the GradCafe received interviews as the same time as I did is probably accurate.

For those in the future who may be interviewed, it is best to know that the interview may vary wildly. For instance, my interview was well over 2 hours and featured sections of more casual talk along with more intense, directed questions about my project, various parts of my application, and my views of the field. For instance, questions about my proposed project included how do I see my topic expanding or contracting spatially and temporally, how important are certain elements to my project and how do I plan to enact them, what other directions can I go in with the topic, etc. During the interview, my answers were noted down for review. Someone I know who once had a Yale interview mentioned that theirs was an hour, and was fairly relaxed but was also asked fairly similar questions, though the POI did not take notes. Those interviewed for Near Eastern Studies said theirs were 30 minutes in length, so it seems to be up to the POI how they wish to conduct the interview and for what length of time. 

I hope this will be helpful, whether now or in the future. If you have any questions (or anyone else for that matter), please feel free to ask.

My Yale interview was something like 25 minutes and involved no questions about my project, my proposed field of study or anything like that. Only casual talk.