2020 application thread

[killerbunny]

17 minutes ago, historyofsloths said:

Not to mention that people on Reddit actively discourage users from using GradCafe, as the Results Page can be a bit of a Skinner box at times.

Yes, Reddit does do this, mostly to discourage obsessively checking results and to replace waiting in anguish with adopting a que será, será attitude. Grad Admissions Reddit is mostly full of applicants in STEM, anyways, very few humanities folk. 

[historyofsloths]

1 minute ago, killerbunny said:

Yes, Reddit does do this, mostly to discourage obsessively checking results and to replace waiting in anguish with adopting a que será, será attitude. Grad Admissions Reddit is mostly full of applicants in STEM, anyways, very few humanities folk. 

Very true and unfortunately there's no real niche subreddit for History/Humanities people to discuss graduate school, unless I'm just unaware of them

[Aithera]

For anyone applying to Pitt:

Decisions should be out sometime next week. Info I got was that committee is meeting this week, and then decisions will go to grad dean and be sent out, which means next week.

Also, Pitt saw something a 50% increase in apps this year. So if you are rejected or waitlisted, know it may have just been the class of apps they received.

Lastly, no Rediker does not really take students anymore.

 

I’m a current Pitt grad student, so if anyone has questions, I’m happy to answer to the best of my ability

 

[historyofamanda]

1 minute ago, Aithera said:

For anyone applying to Pitt:

Decisions should be out sometime next week. Info I got was that committee is meeting this week, and then decisions will go to grad dean and be sent out, which means next week.

Also, Pitt saw something a 50% increase in apps this year. So if you are rejected or waitlisted, know it may have just been the class of apps they received.

Lastly, no Rediker does not really take students anymore.

 

I’m a current Pitt grad student, so if anyone has questions, I’m happy to answer to the best of my ability

 

Thank you so much for the update @Aithera! I'm currently waiting to hear back from Pitt so having some new info is great.

[Balleu]

10 hours ago, FruitLover said:

I wonder why previous years' application threads reached 60-70 pages, and this year's is only at 27 pages by mid-February... Fall 2020 applicants must be busy doing important things that will get them ahead of those of us who are on Grad Cafe ?

I also remember our application thread from last year starting much earlier in the cycle. We  had more questions and conversation during the process of researching programs in the summer and writing our applications in the fall. This year folks came in with applications already mostly done and it's more of a results chat. You all were more self-sufficient during applications, it seems! ?

[OHSP]

33 minutes ago, Balleu said:

I also remember our application thread from last year starting much earlier in the cycle. We  had more questions and conversation during the process of researching programs in the summer and writing our applications in the fall. This year folks came in with applications already mostly done and it's more of a results chat. You all were more self-sufficient during applications, it seems! ?

Perhaps fewer applicants / dare I (jokingly) say the words "dying discipline"**. 2 of the 40 students I'm currently teaching in a history class are history majors or minors, and that was roughly the same last semester. 

**maybe hibernating rather than dying. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by OHSP

[Manana]

Does anyone know if Chicago has an explicit waitlist?

[historyofamanda]

Any other Carnegie Mellon University applicants here? Looks like acceptances for Fall 2019 went out around this time last year, but nothing on the results page for this year yet.

[Madrugada]

6 hours ago, Aithera said:

For anyone applying to Pitt:

Decisions should be out sometime next week. Info I got was that committee is meeting this week, and then decisions will go to grad dean and be sent out, which means next week.

Also, Pitt saw something a 50% increase in apps this year. So if you are rejected or waitlisted, know it may have just been the class of apps they received.

Lastly, no Rediker does not really take students anymore.

 

I’m a current Pitt grad student, so if anyone has questions, I’m happy to answer to the best of my ability

 

I didn’t consider Rediker as a potential POI at Pitt for this reason as well as only marginal subject overlap between our fields, but Rediker’s work on pirates, specifically his “Under the Banner of King Death” and “History  from Below the Waterline” articles were what originally inspired me to seriously pursue history as a career.  

 

If anyone is looking for something to read to pass some time between refreshing your inbox I highly recommend them. 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Madrugada

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

Anyone hear from Boston College today?

[historyofsloths]

2 hours ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:

Anyone hear from Boston College today?

I think some staff had Presidents Day off, hence the relatively low amount of results posted today. That's just a guess, though, I could be off.

[BalkanItinerant]

So I've looked around on the NYU portal and have found that I have an entire profile and assigned email address set up despite having no response on my application yet. I have full access to their online library archives and everything.  Is this standard NYU practice or is this a hint of acceptance? If the former, why on earth do they assign emails, netid, and UID numbers before even accepting you?

Edited February 18, 2020 by BalkanItinerant

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

8 minutes ago, BalkanItinerant said:

So I've looked around on the NYU portal and have found that I have an entire profile and assigned email address set up despite having no response on my application yet. Is this standard NYU practice or is this a hint of acceptance? If the former, why on earth do they assign emails, netid, and UID numbers before even accepting you?

Where do you see an email? I have a NetId and University ID at the top of the application status page. 

Edited February 18, 2020 by jocelynbymarcjacobs

[BalkanItinerant]

3 minutes ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:

Where do you are an email? I have a NetId and University ID at the top of the application status page. 

I logged into the NYU Home page and went to profile. An email with my initials was displayed under it.

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

11 minutes ago, BalkanItinerant said:

I logged into the NYU Home page and went to profile. An email with my initials was displayed under it.

My apologies, I do not see a NetID. I only have an application reference number and UID. Did you find the NetID in the application portal?

[BalkanItinerant]

1 minute ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:

My apologies, I do not see a NetID. I only have an application reference number and UID. Did you find the NetID in the application portal?

Out of curiosity, I'd tested out the UID to see if it would do anything on the net ID portal with this link after hitting the 'don't know netid' option on the top right. It gave me one, and from there allowed me to log in to an online profile. I'm skeptical that it actually means anything but I now have access to the course explorer, online library, student housing info, etc.

https://start.nyu.edu/ibin/start0.cgi

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

3 minutes ago, BalkanItinerant said:

Out of curiosity, I'd tested out the UID to see if it would do anything on the net ID portal with this link after hitting the 'don't know netid' option on the top right. It gave me one, and from there allowed me to log in to an online profile. I'm skeptical that it actually means anything but I now have access to the course explorer, online library, student housing info, etc.

https://start.nyu.edu/ibin/start0.cgi

Interesting! Turns out, I have a previous NetID from acceptance as an undergrad, but I don't see a profile. I hope this means good news for you!

[OHSP]

51 minutes ago, BalkanItinerant said:

So I've looked around on the NYU portal and have found that I have an entire profile and assigned email address set up despite having no response on my application yet. I have full access to their online library archives and everything.  Is this standard NYU practice or is this a hint of acceptance? If the former, why on earth do they assign emails, netid, and UID numbers before even accepting you?

Hopefully you get in anyway, but I wouldn't read anything into this--it's typically the case that you go through a manual procedure of setting up email access etc, and I can 100% believe that this would be a system glitch because they're pretty common. It's odd though--perhaps a reason to email the graduate administrator and ask when you might be hearing back. 

[Rauschenbusch]

Got word from UNC this weekend – on a Sunday! – that I've been waitlisted for their history program. A pleasant surprise because I thought they did interviews and had written them off when I didn't hear anything earlier. Guess I was wrong! Just throwing this out there in case anyone is waiting from UNC, that they're still making decisions, or at least sending out notices. Also, best of luck to those still waiting for an acceptance or waitlist. Sometimes even the schools you think are the most unlikely can surprise you.

[dr. t]

14 hours ago, Manana said:

Does anyone know if Chicago has an explicit waitlist?

They did when I applied. If acceptances and rejections are out and you haven't heard, expect a MAPSS offer.

[histrees]

I logged into my UChicago account today and it is now asking for official transcripts for my BA and MPhil programs. Was this something I was supposed to do? I had uploaded transcripts that still appear as 'received' on their application checklist, but now they seem to be asking for the official ones. I'd hate to think this was an oversight on my part, as the last time i checked (maybe 2 weeks ago) they weren't asking for any additional materials. Does anyone have any insight into this, or is this appearing on everyone's account now? 

[AP]

7 hours ago, Rauschenbusch said:

Got word from UNC this weekend – on a Sunday! – that I've been waitlisted for their history program. A pleasant surprise because I thought they did interviews and had written them off when I didn't hear anything earlier. Guess I was wrong! Just throwing this out there in case anyone is waiting from UNC, that they're still making decisions, or at least sending out notices. Also, best of luck to those still waiting for an acceptance or waitlist. Sometimes even the schools you think are the most unlikely can surprise you.

That's a great department! I hope you are moved to the "happily accepted" list soon!

[Michael Scarn]

2 hours ago, histrees said:

I logged into my UChicago account today and it is now asking for official transcripts for my BA and MPhil programs. Was this something I was supposed to do? I had uploaded transcripts that still appear as 'received' on their application checklist, but now they seem to be asking for the official ones. I'd hate to think this was an oversight on my part, as the last time i checked (maybe 2 weeks ago) they weren't asking for any additional materials. Does anyone have any insight into this, or is this appearing on everyone's account now? 

No answer for you, but I checked my own account and saw the same missing information. I last checked the portal last week and didn't see this. From what I know Chicago doesn't require official transcripts unless you get accepted? Not to get mine or anyone's hopes up, because there is no status change to my application, so I really am not sure why it has changed on the portal. 

[historyofsloths]

26 minutes ago, Michael Scarn said:

No answer for you, but I checked my own account and saw the same missing information. I last checked the portal last week and didn't see this. From what I know Chicago doesn't require official transcripts unless you get accepted? Not to get mine or anyone's hopes up, because there is no status change to my application, so I really am not sure why it has changed on the portal. 

Just an FYI, apparently people in other programs are experiencing the same issue (Results Page, under Sociology), so it may be the system itself rather than a decision. Still, fingers crossed for all of you!

[thattaiwnanhistoryguy]

26 minutes ago, Michael Scarn said:

No answer for you, but I checked my own account and saw the same missing information. I last checked the portal last week and didn't see this. From what I know Chicago doesn't require official transcripts unless you get accepted? Not to get mine or anyone's hopes up, because there is no status change to my application, so I really am not sure why it has changed on the portal. 

I see the same request for official transcripts as well, but I doubt it has any significance.