Applications 2019

[Taorluath34]

UVA decisions are in on the application portal. Well, that completes my 2019 application cycle. It has been really great to follow the comments here. I am sorely disappointed in the results, considering that I thought I was a competitive candidate. Thanks for all your insights and for sharing your experiences! Best of luck to all of you as you begin your new journies! 

[Ccthomas95]

2 minutes ago, thisisnew said:

Out of state tuition cut down to instate, plus a stipend from the apprenticeship to help a little too. 

Cuts the cost to ~$12,000 from what would have otherwise(absolutely no funding) been ~$34,000

It blows my mind how expensive MA degrees are in the US! My one year MA at QMUL in the UK was less than £5k!!

[L13]

3 hours ago, OHSP said:

Some (not all) MA students do seem to have funding--not a stipend, but they're not paying tuition. It might just be worth looking into how MA students fund themselves--I wouldn't call NYU's MA program a cash cow, a lot of MA students are very integrated (for serious want of a better word) into phd classes/the phd "community" and professors do take MA students and their dissertations very seriously--there have been two instances where I didn't actually realize that someone was a masters student until they were like "I got into PhD programs". In other words, it's a real admission and a sign that they actually do just think you'd be better suited for a PhD once you've done an MA/would like to work with you and help you get there. 

The fact that professors are nice to master's students doesn't make the program something other than a cash cow.

[andnothing]

Congrats to everyone so far! I've been accepted to six MA programs which is exciting. I haven't heard anything from the 7th so I am assuming that it is a rejection. Unfortunately, news about funding hasn't been as exciting. Still waiting to hear back from 3 programs and I'm on the wait list for 2 of the schools. My top school has me on their wait list for funding, but the graduate director said there is still an "excellent chance" to receive a GE position. I know to not put too much into that but it gives me some hope.

The pessimistic side of me is thinking that I won't receive funding anywhere and, honestly, I don't think I could accept an offer where I would have to take loans out to pay for tuition. It definitely puts a damper on my excitement.  

I know there is still a month and half to go but this waiting has been excruciating.

[Ternwild]

On 3/2/2019 at 8:32 AM, telkanuru said:

If you want to do a 1 year MA without a gap year after, you're asking your new MA profs to write for you after they've know you for maybe 6 weeks. 

Well, I mean,  you could apply for Spring admissions, surely, to gain more rapport.

[OHSP]

5 hours ago, L13 said:

The fact that professors are nice to master's students doesn't make the program something other than a cash cow.

Sure but ... that’s not what I said. 

[I_Am_In_Paine]

15 hours ago, Ccthomas95 said:

It blows my mind how expensive MA degrees are in the US! My one year MA at QMUL in the UK was less than £5k!!

The funny part is $12k is extremely cheap for an MA here. Higher education in the US is really a disaster.

[I_Am_In_Paine]

15 hours ago, OHSP said:

What would be the costs? Can't quite tell if you're saying that it'd be tuition free. If you don't have to pay tuition and thus don't have to go into huge debt, William and Mary is a great school that's likely to prepare you well for phd applications. 

Yeah what @thisisnew said is accurate. Plus I just really enjoyed my visit there. Fingers crossed I get off the waitlist for PhD, or admitted to one of the other two I'm waiting on, but if not I'll just take the MA from W&M. 

[historygeek]

10 hours ago, Ternwild said:

Well, I mean,  you could apply for Spring admissions, surely, to gain more rapport.

From what I've seen, spring admission doesn't really exist in history PhD programs. 

[Ternwild]

32 minutes ago, historygeek said:

From what I've seen, spring admission doesn't really exist in history PhD programs. 

Yeah, it doesn't really exist for Physics, either.  Outside of Master's programs.

[dr. t]

12 hours ago, Ternwild said:

Well, I mean,  you could apply for Spring admissions, surely, to gain more rapport.

I can't speak for physics, but there are no programs in History that have spring admissions and are worth attending. 

[historygeek]

My assumed rejection from Toronto was wrong! Just got the acceptance email. No funding, though. 

[underthewaves]

Waitlisted at my number 1 choice for MA program. I guess they rank their waitlist as they told me I was #1 on it, which I suppose is potentially a good sign for getting off the waitlist. First round offers have another ten days or so to accept or decline their acceptances, so I suppose I'll hear back either way sometime later in March.

[joebobthebumbo]

Does anyone have recommendations on finding funding to complete MA programs? I struck out on all my PhD applications and just found out today that I was accepted to Columbia's Medieval and Renaissance Studies MA, but the cost seems prohibitively high--judging from their published costs, it would come to around $85,000. They have offered me a fellowship, but I would also need to find some other funding sources to make the program worth it. Anyone on here have any experience finding funding for an MA and could give me some advice? Naturally, I am very wary of taking too much money out in loans to help fund it as well.

[TMP]

1 hour ago, joebobthebumbo said:

Does anyone have recommendations on finding funding to complete MA programs? I struck out on all my PhD applications and just found out today that I was accepted to Columbia's Medieval and Renaissance Studies MA, but the cost seems prohibitively high--judging from their published costs, it would come to around $85,000. They have offered me a fellowship, but I would also need to find some other funding sources to make the program worth it. Anyone on here have any experience finding funding for an MA and could give me some advice? Naturally, I am very wary of taking too much money out in loans to help fund it as well.

It is worth asking the DGS and contacting graduate students to learn of other possibilities.  Does the fellowship allow you to work on campus as a TA or in another position? Does the fellowship cover the entire tuition?

[urbanhistorynerd]

Anyone at Northwestern University visiting?

[eks933]

Just got rejected from Chicago PhD but accepted to MAPSS w 18k funding. Currently my options are University of Mississippi and then now this offer for American History..thoughts? 

[psstein]

1 minute ago, eks933 said:

Just got rejected from Chicago PhD but accepted to MAPSS w 18k funding. Currently my options are University of Mississippi and then now this offer for American History..thoughts? 

IF you can afford the MAPSS, then it's a far better option. If you can't, my answer is "take neither."

[fortsibut]

Got into Syracuse's museum studies MA with 30% funding but without a GA'ship I can't justify attending.  If I'm gonna sink $30k into a second MA it's gonna be HiLi, which I'm still waiting to hear from.

[potsupotsu]

Does anyone know what happened to the "lessons learned" thread? I was going to make a post.

[dr. t]

8 minutes ago, potsupotsu said:

Does anyone know what happened to the "lessons learned" thread? I was going to make a post.

It's merged and stickied at the top of the forum

EDIT... Huh. It's been merged somehow?

[dr. t]

OK so there has been some nonsense and someone merged 3 threads into one. I've tried to pull them apart to the best of my ability, but I'm sure I've left some posts behind in this thread. If you see one, please report it using the report function and tag me in the comments. I'll move it to where it belongs.

[DanaJ]

10 hours ago, telkanuru said:

OK so there has been some nonsense and someone merged 3 threads into one. I've tried to pull them apart to the best of my ability, but I'm sure I've left some posts behind in this thread. If you see one, please report it using the report function and tag me in the comments. I'll move it to where it belongs.

Thank you for clarifying! I couldn’t find the thread I was looking for this morning and this explains it!

[underthewaves]

I've been a silent follower of this thread (but a faithful reader and have appreciated all the advice and help people have shared, especially those more experienced with the process of applications) and despite some waitlist fears yesterday, I was admitted into my top choice MA program (I really want to use the two years to firm up my research interests before applying to PhD programs) with a fellowship which fully covers tuition and a TA position. I'm familiar with the department as I'm currently finishing my BA in the honours program here and will be continuing with my honours thesis supervisor, which I'm thrilled about. 

[eks933]

3 hours ago, underthewaves said:

I've been a silent follower of this thread (but a faithful reader and have appreciated all the advice and help people have shared, especially those more experienced with the process of applications) and despite some waitlist fears yesterday, I was admitted into my top choice MA program (I really want to use the two years to firm up my research interests before applying to PhD programs) with a fellowship which fully covers tuition and a TA position. I'm familiar with the department as I'm currently finishing my BA in the honours program here and will be continuing with my honours thesis supervisor, which I'm thrilled about. 

First of all, congratulations! is this a Canadian MA program? If you don't mind sharing, I'm really curious about what university has a two year MA. I'm an undergrad at McGill and ours (as well as UofT and UBC I believe) is only one year.