2020 application thread

[psstein]

3 hours ago, gsc said:

Honestly, though, modern British history has been going this way for 20 years. The imperial turn is not new; it's almost now a baseline requirement to seriously engage in British studies. And it only takes one or two trips through the British studies conference program to see this in action. Nearly all the new up-and-coming scholars have some imperial/global angle or edge to their projects, if not projects entirely about the empire.

Pretty much. Even some of the biggest names in Cambridge School intellectual history (Pocock, for example, who's still alive and publishing in his late 90s!) have turned to the empire and the colonies. I wish I'd also copied your remarks about advisors. Far too many are engaged in the field, but only halfway care what their students do. It's sort of sad, if you think about it.

A discussion for a different time, but I'd bet that placement has just as much to do with advisor quality and reputation as it does program reputation; it can't be a coincidence that certain advisors, even at institutions I wouldn't call "top-tier," consistently place students in TT roles.

[DanaJ]

21 hours ago, psstein said:

As for @telkanuru's point about adjuncting, it's not called "adjunct hell" for nothing. Far too many PhD students (and recent PhDs) end up something I call the "teaching experience trap." What I mean is the idea that "I just need to teach 1 more course to be a competitive candidate/to get a TT job." I don't call it a "trap" lightly. On the balance of it, though, it's probably more worth devoting your energy to finish the dissertation than it is "just teaching 1 more course."

I have a question regarding "teaching experience." I am currently funded with a TA position. I like to think of that as teaching experience, which I would HOPE can help me when I hit the job market and maybe help me to avoid adjunct positions. I attend an R1 school, but there are sometimes other funding opportunities available. These other opportunities generally replace the TA position. Would you recommend holding onto the TA position if another opportunity arose, or sticking with teaching?

On a personal note, I LOVE being in the classroom. Even when I'm bombarded with papers or exams to grade and my own deadlines are looming, I never regret accepting a position that allows me to work in a classroom with undergraduates. 

[AfricanusCrowther]

50 minutes ago, DanaJ said:

 Would you recommend holding onto the TA position if another opportunity arose, or sticking with teaching?

Can you clarify what you mean by this? In general, teaching your own course is worth much more than TA-ing.

[AP]

1 hour ago, DanaJ said:

I have a question regarding "teaching experience." I am currently funded with a TA position. I like to think of that as teaching experience, which I would HOPE can help me when I hit the job market and maybe help me to avoid adjunct positions. I attend an R1 school, but there are sometimes other funding opportunities available. These other opportunities generally replace the TA position. Would you recommend holding onto the TA position if another opportunity arose, or sticking with teaching?

On a personal note, I LOVE being in the classroom. Even when I'm bombarded with papers or exams to grade and my own deadlines are looming, I never regret accepting a position that allows me to work in a classroom with undergraduates. 

Like @AfricanusCrowther, I'd also want to know more about these other opportunities. 

If you are not instructor of record, Thing can help you personally but not professionally. (I'm not saying you won't get a job with just TAing, but it won't certainly because you TAed). If you don't have the choice to be instructor of record, then try diversifying your teaching experience. Eg: In some schools, you can work for the Teaching and Learning Center facilitating workshops for faculty/grad students. There are also things like a digital scholarship center where often they hire grad students to provide support and even provide instruction on some digital tool. A friend of mine worked at the University rare books library where he eventually designed an exhibit. 

[dr. t]

2 hours ago, DanaJ said:

I like to think of that as teaching experience, which I would HOPE can help me when I hit the job market and maybe help me to avoid adjunct positions.

You should definitely have teaching experience. But having a lot of teaching experience will not generally help you more than having some teaching experience, and it will make it harder for you to write a good dissertation.

[psstein]

2 hours ago, DanaJ said:

I have a question regarding "teaching experience." I am currently funded with a TA position. I like to think of that as teaching experience, which I would HOPE can help me when I hit the job market and maybe help me to avoid adjunct positions. I attend an R1 school, but there are sometimes other funding opportunities available. These other opportunities generally replace the TA position. Would you recommend holding onto the TA position if another opportunity arose, or sticking with teaching?

I would just echo what other posters have already said. It depends on what the opportunities look like and what they offer.

TA-ing is worth much less than being an instructor of record, but the sort of trap I'm referring to the idea "I just have to teach one more class as an IoR before I can graduate," when you've already taught 3-4 courses. IMO, finishing the dissertation in a timely fashion is more important than teaching "just one more class." I realize this is a bit of an unpopular opinion, but you might be able to outpublish a mediocre teaching record. You're not likely to out-teach a mediocre publishing record, especially given the contours of today's field and how even more teaching-oriented universities have prioritized research output.

Put another way, TAing and teaching other courses as an instructor of record is valuable experience, but it can also prolong your time to completion. FWIW, I found it very tough to summon the energy to write or do much beyond some light reading after coming home from a day of teaching.

Edited February 23, 2020 by psstein

[AP]

16 minutes ago, psstein said:

I would just echo what other posters have already said. It depends on what the opportunities look like and what they offer.

TA-ing is worth much less than being an instructor of record, but the sort of trap I'm referring to the idea "I just have to teach one more class as an IoR before I can graduate," when you've already taught 3-4 courses. IMO, finishing the dissertation in a timely fashion is more important than teaching "just one more class." I realize this is a bit of an unpopular opinion, but you might be able to outpublish a mediocre teaching record. You're not likely to out-teach a mediocre publishing record, especially given the contours of today's field and how even more teaching-oriented universities have prioritized research output.

Put another way, TAing and teaching other courses as an instructor of record is valuable experience, but it can also prolong your time to completion. FWIW, I found it very tough to summon the energy to write or do much beyond some light reading after coming home from a day of teaching.

Absolutely.

In none of the searches I've been familiar with (as grad student and as faculty) did I witness "this candidate has a crappy dissertation but, hey, they've taught three courses". On the contrary, I've seen relative green teachers get positions. Your research is far more important.

A done dissertation is right there at the top.

[AP]

Re: Adjunctification

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/03/12/adjuncts-serfs-of-academe/

[FruitLover]

Just found an interesting 2019 article that talks about an earlier point (about the limit on how long after getting a PhD you’re still a viable candidate) made by @telkanuru

“Last year’s faculty hiring favored very recent PhDs. Of the 52 assistant professor searches about which we have outcomes data, 54 percent of the jobs went to candidates who were fewer than two years removed from earning their PhD, and 12 percent of the jobs went to candidates who were still ABD at the time of hiring. The number of individuals hired before defending their dissertation has been trending upwardsince 2010–11. While 10 percent of these positions were filled by individuals who earned their degree five or more years ago, these numbers largely confirm anecdotal evidence that the faculty market sharply favors very recent PhDs.”

Also interesting: “This year, 117 advertisers replied to our query, 61 of them regarding searches resulting in tenure-track assistant professor hires. Unsurprisingly, these openings attracted high numbers of applicants: a median of 82 and a mean of 122 per position. The large gap between median and mean results from significant variation in the number of applicants, which ranged from as few as 12 to reports of almost 700. Eight advertisers reported receiving 200 or more applicants, compared to 12 reporting 50 or fewer.”

https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2019/the-2019-aha-jobs-report-a-closer-look-at-faculty-hiring

 

[psstein]

Whether or not it's fair, if you're more than 2-4 years out of a PhD program and haven't won some prestigious postdoc (or VAP-ship), you're probably not going to get a position. Far too many adjuncts think all they need is a few more classes to "prove" to the department that they can handle a TT position. Sadly, for most of them, that day never comes.

I would also bet, @FruitLover, that the position receiving 12 applications was either in an extremely niche field or at a university in an incredibly undesirable area (think something like Mohammed Bin Salman College of Petrochemicals and History).

[FruitLover]

53 minutes ago, psstein said:

I would also bet, @FruitLover, that the position receiving 12 applications was either in an extremely niche field or at a university in an incredibly undesirable area (think something like Mohammed Bin Salman College of Petrochemicals and History).

That makes sense. And would you say the ones with nearly 700 are for Europeanists or Americanists, open rank or something else broad in a desirable area?

[psstein]

10 hours ago, FruitLover said:

That makes sense. And would you say the ones with nearly 700 are for Europeanists or Americanists, open rank or something else broad in a desirable area?

Probably something like "19th century US with special focus on the postbellum period." Much like with any job, too, a fair number of the candidates aren't particularly qualified. For example, people with only tangentially-related backgrounds will apply to a job.

[ithaca99]

I was wondering if anyone knew about waitlists. Do they admit only the exact number of spots they have? Or, do they admit more than the number of spots, assuming there will be a some people who won't accept the spots?

I'm primarily wondering about Emory. I'm on the waitlist and it is my top choice.  I was looking at the data on the website and it looks like last year there were 10 offers made, and 5 eventually enrolled. So just wondering if 5 offers were initially made, and then they went to the waitlist, or 10 offers initially were made and from that 5 committed. 

Sorry if this has already been asked somewhere and hope this question makes sense!  Thank you all! 

Edited February 24, 2020 by lietuva96

[historyofamanda]

Hoping to hear from Pitt this week! Fingers crossed ?

[TMP]

1 hour ago, lietuva96 said:

I was wondering if anyone knew about waitlists. Do they admit only the exact number of spots they have? Or, do they admit more than the number of spots, assuming there will be a some people who won't accept the spots?

I'm primarily wondering about Emory. I'm on the waitlist and it is my top choice.  I was looking at the data on the website and it looks like last year there were 10 offers made, and 5 eventually enrolled. So just wondering if 5 offers were initially made, and then they went to the waitlist, or 10 offers initially were made and from that 5 committed. 

Sorry if this has already been asked somewhere and hope this question makes sense!  Thank you all! 

Procedures vary from one program to another.  You should ask the DGS at Emory how it works there AND cc your POI.  Be sure to emphasize your interest in the program and how it's your top choice. If they say it's a ranked waitlist, ask where you stand. Stay in touch, especially after visitation day at Emory (whenever it is...).

Edited February 24, 2020 by TMP

[MarkySharky]

When do y'all think is a good time to email the program coordinator about the timeline of the application process? I applied for an MA program Feb 1, and basing it off of the 3 posts about the school I applied to on here, most people got a response first week of March. I'm mainly just going a bit nuts - the status page hasn't changed at all beyond "your application is ready for review by your department". It's my top school, and they seemed extremely interested in me (when I visited I got told I was an excellent candidate, the coordinator emailed me out of the blue the day before the deadline asking if I had any extra questions, etc), so I'm just hoping really hard I get in! I'm also extremely impatient so that does not help.

[TMP]

1 hour ago, MarkySharky said:

When do y'all think is a good time to email the program coordinator about the timeline of the application process? I applied for an MA program Feb 1, and basing it off of the 3 posts about the school I applied to on here, most people got a response first week of March. I'm mainly just going a bit nuts - the status page hasn't changed at all beyond "your application is ready for review by your department". It's my top school, and they seemed extremely interested in me (when I visited I got told I was an excellent candidate, the coordinator emailed me out of the blue the day before the deadline asking if I had any extra questions, etc), so I'm just hoping really hard I get in! I'm also extremely impatient so that does not help.

In your case, wait until after March 15.  Keep yourself busy with other things as hard it'll be.

[AP]

5 hours ago, lietuva96 said:

I was wondering if anyone knew about waitlists. Do they admit only the exact number of spots they have? Or, do they admit more than the number of spots, assuming there will be a some people who won't accept the spots?

I'm primarily wondering about Emory. I'm on the waitlist and it is my top choice.  I was looking at the data on the website and it looks like last year there were 10 offers made, and 5 eventually enrolled. So just wondering if 5 offers were initially made, and then they went to the waitlist, or 10 offers initially were made and from that 5 committed. 

Sorry if this has already been asked somewhere and hope this question makes sense!  Thank you all! 

Emory, like other departments, is shrinking its cohorts. Typically, you will get an offer when someone else declines. This can happen after the invitation to campus. IDK when Emory holds those.

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

Was just rejected from U of Washington. 2 rejections, still waiting on 3 schools. Anxious I’m not going to get in anywhere at this point. So it goes. 

[historyofamanda]

Just now, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:

Was just rejected from U of Washington. 2 rejections, still waiting on 3 schools. Anxious I’m not going to get in anywhere at this point. So it goes. 

So sorry to hear that, I just got my rejection e-mail from UW too. Wishing you the best with the schools you’re still waiting on!

[jocelynbymarcjacobs]

1 minute ago, historyofamanda said:

So sorry to hear that, I just got my rejection e-mail from UW too. Wishing you the best with the schools you’re still waiting on!

Same to you! The rejection letter was extremely kind, at least. I think the program was very competitive this year. 

[historyofamanda]

Just now, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:

Same to you! The rejection letter was extremely kind, at least. I think the program was very competitive this year. 

Thank you! I agree.

[Procopius]

9 hours ago, lietuva96 said:

I was wondering if anyone knew about waitlists. Do they admit only the exact number of spots they have? Or, do they admit more than the number of spots, assuming there will be a some people who won't accept the spots?

I'm primarily wondering about Emory. I'm on the waitlist and it is my top choice.  I was looking at the data on the website and it looks like last year there were 10 offers made, and 5 eventually enrolled. So just wondering if 5 offers were initially made, and then they went to the waitlist, or 10 offers initially were made and from that 5 committed. 

Sorry if this has already been asked somewhere and hope this question makes sense!  Thank you all! 

I was in the same exact situation as you were in in 2018. Emory was also one of my dream programs and I got waitlisted there. Other posters already answered your question, but to add on, I think I waited until the last couple of days before the deadline before moving on and what I had heard was that if only a few more people had declined their offers, I probably would have made it in. I think I was basically at the top of the waitlist, but things didn’t work out

[AP]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I was in the same exact situation as you were in in 2018. Emory was also one of my dream programs and I got waitlisted there. Other posters already answered your question, but to add on, I think I waited until the last couple of days before the deadline before moving on and what I had heard was that if only a few more people had declined their offers, I probably would have made it in. I think I was basically at the top of the waitlist, but things didn’t work out

Again, if you are waitlisted and receive an offer elsewhere, do email the first program to reiterate your interest. It never hurts and might help you. 

[Titus Flavius]

5 hours ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:

Was just rejected from U of Washington. 2 rejections, still waiting on 3 schools. Anxious I’m not going to get in anywhere at this point. So it goes. 

We don't get in anywhere, the plan is we form our own university. Outlaw academics, roaming the high seas pirate-style. Shiver me citations, matey!