2022 Application Thread

[Canaryyy]

Just received acceptance to Vanderbilt. I'm in disbelief 

[wynntir]

34 minutes ago, Canaryyy said:

Just received acceptance to Vanderbilt. I'm in disbelief 

Congratulations!! Well deserved, I'm sure. Don't let imposter syndrome get in your head!

[CatsGhostwritingEssays]

Does anyone have any advice on handling rejections when you already have acceptances? My dream program rejected me so I'm struggling with feeling like an ungrateful jerk for being sad when I already have a really solid program I'd be thrilled to go to :(

[TheWitWitch]

hey, anyone heard anything about Columbia? 

Edited February 4, 2022 by TheWitWitch

[TagRendar]

Academic twitter is really similar, but with more ups and downs in the assessments.  Yes, the job market is shit. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was blessed to have one of my profs give me a speech on why I shouldn’t do a Ph.D not once, but twice (and I sat through it and smiled and he smiled because he knew me well—especially by the second speech—to know that it wouldn’t be something in discussion if I hadn’t thought all of that through).

And yet, he still told me to go for it if it was what I wanted and has been endlessly supportive in between teaching and current-student advising duties.

I have a friend who was doing her masters at the same time I was—different historical area (she’s history of science), different institution—and she ended up going on to her Ph.D straight from her masters (I went into the private sector for a few years, then back to school again for a second bachelor’s degree).  She gave me similar advice, warned me about the job market. She also knows me and knew that I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t something in serious consideration.

No matter what they tell you about the job market, you’re going to decide what you’re going to decide. And you’ll figure everything out for yourself later, one way or another.

Edited February 4, 2022 by TagRendar

[Minsc]

5 hours ago, medievalpeasant said:

What is everyone's opinion on the more interdisciplinary degrees like Medieval Studies as opposed to history? As a medieval historian, I get heavily mixed reviews. I would prefer a history degree and a lot of my professors have told me that if I want to teach, a history degree is better; however, a lot of POI's I spoke to heavily encouraged me to go into Medieval Studies instead since most of the medievalists seem to end up supervising MS degrees anyways. 

Does anyone have experience or know of how it is teaching at a university level with a MS degree rather than history?

Interdisciplinary degrees can really be a crapshoot. Coming from an area studies background, my MA program was at a state flagship that also had a pretty robust interdisciplinary area studies PhD. Some of the alums from that department left academia entirely, at least one ended up on the tenure track in history at an Ivy within the last couple of years. The degree is what you make of it and the sorts of jobs you'll get after you finish are highly dependent both on what you do during the program, and the luck of timing.

[TagRendar]

If you applied to UChicago, check your portal. No email went out, but I got my “we regret that we cannot offer” notification this afternoon.

[TheWitWitch]

4 minutes ago, TagRendar said:

If you applied to UChicago, check your portal. No email went out, but I got my “we regret that we cannot offer” notification this afternoon.

Yup, feeling deeply sad. I really liked the program and had such a good connection with my POI. 

[jpc34]

13 minutes ago, TagRendar said:

If you applied to UChicago, check your portal. No email went out, but I got my “we regret that we cannot offer” notification this afternoon.

Same here. 

[medievalpeasant]

30 minutes ago, TagRendar said:

If you applied to UChicago, check your portal. No email went out, but I got my “we regret that we cannot offer” notification this afternoon.

Just got checked my portal and also got the rejection. 3 rejections so far! 

[TagRendar]

I want to take a moment to lift a glass to the poor person who got six rejections this week. I am so sorry and hopefully you’ll have better luck upcoming soon.

[emeraldsapphire]

3 hours ago, CatsGhostwritingEssays said:

Does anyone have any advice on handling rejections when you already have acceptances? My dream program rejected me so I'm struggling with feeling like an ungrateful jerk for being sad when I already have a really solid program I'd be thrilled to go to

No advice other than to say I've been there (I am there). 

[jgw050111]

Hey y'all! I applied this cycle to the Ivies and Ivy-adjacent PhD programs and a few of the apps were dual PhD-JD. I've been rejected from UChicago and Princeton (not too disappointed as there was minimal faculty for me to work with at both). 

I still haven't heard anything (since my application confirmation) from Northwestern (Dual JD-PhD so I don't expect to hear soon), Columbia, NYU, Yale, and Harvard. Anyone else in the same boat? Should I just expect rejections at this point?

 

~fyi~ I study American Indigenous social and legal history and I'm in my last term of a M.A. in Atlantic History/Politics, so if any of y'all have recommendations for literally anything let me know!

Edited February 5, 2022 by jgw050111

[charmsprof]

Is anyone that posted the UOregon stuff on here? I just have questions for you

[bookshelforganizer]

12 hours ago, charmsprof said:

Is anyone that posted the UOregon stuff on here? I just have questions for you

Hi, I posted about UOregon! What questions do you have? 

[charmsprof]

 

53 minutes ago, bookshelforganizer said:

Hi, I posted about UOregon! What questions do you have? 

I'll PM you!!

[dr. t]

On 2/4/2022 at 12:54 PM, TheGradCocaCola said:

Everytime I read this Reddit post I feel very bad, so I am sharing it here in case you want to feel bad too:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/96yf9h/monday_methods_why_you_should_not_get_a_history/

 

The poster there is a bit of an idiot and not the best historian I've come across. They (and other "experts") posted enough wrong information that I got frustrated and then banned from that sub for calling them out on it... almost a decade ago now? There's a lot of hyperbole, and they don't consider that, if you apply to the right program, you can spend 5-7 years doing what you love with comp'd trips to Europe, as I did, which isn't a bad thing. 

But there is a kernel of truth there: there are no academic jobs, there will not be academic jobs, you will not get an academic job, and you are not special. The quality of your dissertation, number of publications, or prestige of your institution will not change that. 

[TheGradCocaCola]

1 hour ago, dr. telkanuru said:

The poster there is a bit of an idiot and not the best historian I've come across. They (and other "experts") posted enough wrong information that I got frustrated and then banned from that sub for calling them out on it... almost a decade ago now? There's a lot of hyperbole, and they don't consider that, if you apply to the right program, you can spend 5-7 years doing what you love with comp'd trips to Europe, as I did, which isn't a bad thing. 

But there is a kernel of truth there: there are no academic jobs, there will not be academic jobs, you will not get an academic job, and you are not special. The quality of your dissertation, number of publications, or prestige of your institution will not change that. 

Would you happen to know how are job opportunities in government? In some occasions, out of curiosity, I've looked for it and saw some openings like in the State Department or some military-related institutions...
I also read somewhere that community colleges are nice places to work...
Thanks.

[Tuxiido]

Canadian Music student joining the conversation! I only applied to two universities (UVic and UBC) because they were the only universities with a specialized curriculum and advisors that matched my research interests. It feels like a huge long shot and I’m sweating bullets waiting for the results. I was invited and did an audition and interview at UBC so far but heard nothing from UVic, although my application has passed several rounds of committee meetings there according to my application portal, so I haven’t been rejected outright yet.

From GradCafe results, I’m expecting final letters to go out in March. The wait is taking years off my life.

[OHSP]

19 hours ago, jgw050111 said:

Hey y'all! I applied this cycle to the Ivies and Ivy-adjacent PhD programs and a few of the apps were dual PhD-JD. I've been rejected from UChicago and Princeton (not too disappointed as there was minimal faculty for me to work with at both). 

I still haven't heard anything (since my application confirmation) from Northwestern (Dual JD-PhD so I don't expect to hear soon), Columbia, NYU, Yale, and Harvard. Anyone else in the same boat? Should I just expect rejections at this point?

 

~fyi~ I study American Indigenous social and legal history and I'm in my last term of a M.A. in Atlantic History/Politics, so if any of y'all have recommendations for literally anything let me know!

Definitely don't just expect rejections -- I know from your perspective it feels late in the season, but it's still early, especially given that waitlists exist. NYU sounds like a fit for your work so just be patient even though it's difficult. 

[dr. t]

1 hour ago, TheGradCocaCola said:

Would you happen to know how are job opportunities in government? In some occasions, out of curiosity, I've looked for it and saw some openings like in the State Department or some military-related institutions...
I also read somewhere that community colleges are nice places to work...
Thanks.

Not many of those, no, and veterans get hiring priority in that kind of work. CCs are as nice or as terrible a place to work as any other job, and there's not an abundance of CC positions around, either.

The key is to distill your skillset and then craft an argument that it applies. For example, I'm trained as a historian to work with linguistic nuance and an exceptionally close reading of texts while maintaining a mastery over the broader picture on both a historical and theoretical level; I work as an editor-in-chief. 

(My IRL identity, btw is not a secret on this forum, though I usually don't advertise it.)

 

[Bikuud]

Hi. Is anybody here who got acceptance from penn state university? I reaaaaaaally hope to get acceptance!

[AP]

This is unsolicited advise for those who received an offer. 

First, I want to reiterate and heavily insist on what several of us veterans here try to convey periodically: there is more to a program than the imagined prestige of the university. Not all programs are fit for everyone, so as you get acceptances, research everything that tilts your needle: research funds, summer stipends, healthcare, teaching responsibilities, living costs, etc. 

Secondly, I'm sure you are aware of the Harvard Anthropology Dept issue taking up much of Twitter this week (tl;dr: A prof in the dept was put from paid to unpaid leave because of the findings of a sexual harassment complaint. The problem is that big names in Anthro and outside of Anthro (especially historians) from Harvard and off-Harvard have closed ranks in two open letters, protecting their colleague). [I'm not characterizing Harvard or any department here, but I personally find it troublesome how tenured folks quickly closed ranks without having all the information, which neither have I].

To this end, I share a resource you might find useful, a database of sexual harassment complaints and their status: https://academic-sexual-misconduct-database.org/ 

I hope you find it useful. 

[Maguire]

Good luck to everyone this week in what will likely be a big decision week! At the end of the day, the judgment is not about your worth as a scholar but more about the “fit” within the department. Nevertheless, best of luck!

Edited February 7, 2022 by Maguire

[TheGradCocaCola]

On 2/5/2022 at 8:50 PM, dr. telkanuru said:

Not many of those, no, and veterans get hiring priority in that kind of work. CCs are as nice or as terrible a place to work as any other job, and there's not an abundance of CC positions around, either.

The key is to distill your skillset and then craft an argument that it applies. For example, I'm trained as a historian to work with linguistic nuance and an exceptionally close reading of texts while maintaining a mastery over the broader picture on both a historical and theoretical level; I work as an editor-in-chief. 

(My IRL identity, btw is not a secret on this forum, though I usually don't advertise it.)

 

Thank You for the insights.

When you say that "the key is to distill your skillset and then craft an argument that it applies", that means it is necessary to show to a potential employer that your specific habilities, experience and training make you specially well-suited for the job?

(Sorry if I got it wrong, English is not my first language)