2022 Application Thread

[TexasTiger]

Yeah, I was waitlisted there. Just waiting out the waitlists, I guess.

Edited March 7, 2022 by TexasTiger

[Go Weast Young Man]

Regarding waitlists - do people who have been watching this process for a couple cycles have a general idea about how the likelihood of getting called up from a waitlist changes as we get closer to the mid April decision deadline? My intuition would be that the odds go down a little each day as the pool of uncommitted accepted students dwindles, but not sure if is offset by a last minute rush of late deciders or anything like that.

I know that at any particular schools it's really just dependent on what a handful of accepted students decide, but just curious about the overall trend 

[WhaleshipEssex]

3 hours ago, Go Weast Young Man said:

Regarding waitlists - do people who have been watching this process for a couple cycles have a general idea about how the likelihood of getting called up from a waitlist changes as we get closer to the mid April decision deadline? My intuition would be that the odds go down a little each day as the pool of uncommitted accepted students dwindles, but not sure if is offset by a last minute rush of late deciders or anything like that.

I know that at any particular schools it's really just dependent on what a handful of accepted students decide, but just curious about the overall trend 

Waitlist movement is entirely dependent on how the institutions you applied to structure their waitlists. Some go by field, some don't. 

[flowersandcoffee]

7 hours ago, Go Weast Young Man said:

Regarding waitlists - do people who have been watching this process for a couple cycles have a general idea about how the likelihood of getting called up from a waitlist changes as we get closer to the mid April decision deadline? My intuition would be that the odds go down a little each day as the pool of uncommitted accepted students dwindles, but not sure if is offset by a last minute rush of late deciders or anything like that.

I know that at any particular schools it's really just dependent on what a handful of accepted students decide, but just curious about the overall trend 

An admin officer from Harvard told me that most students (even if they've made up their mind months ago) tend to wait until the April deadline to reject their offers. This seems to be the general trend and it must be a psychological thing. Even my friends who had numerous offers last cycle and KNEW which school they wanted to go to, waited until April to reject their other offers (even though they had accepted their main school ASAP). Anyway, that's just what I've heard/observed. Other people may have a different experience/understanding. 

[AP]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:51 PM, flowersandcoffee said:

An admin officer from Harvard told me that most students (even if they've made up their mind months ago) tend to wait until the April deadline to reject their offers. This seems to be the general trend and it must be a psychological thing. Even my friends who had numerous offers last cycle and KNEW which school they wanted to go to, waited until April to reject their other offers (even though they had accepted their main school ASAP). Anyway, that's just what I've heard/observed. Other people may have a different experience/understanding. 

And in my experience is just the opposite, probably because most of the people I know are international so there are other considerations to take into account when accepting an offer (ie visas). 

Bottom line: waitlists and responses to offers do not have one trend. Personally, I would treat being waitlisted as a rejection until you hear otherwise. This is because you don't know many of the forces that work in the waitlist. Eg: you don't know how big the cohort is this year, you don't know if someone declines others would be admitted (typically, programs accept more people than they enroll), you don't know where you are in the waitlist or if there is ONE waitlist (eg: there could be one for US history but not for African). So, for one's own mental health, treat it as a rejection. 

[sonnybunny]

Anyone have a general sense of reputation between University of New Mexico and University of Vermont? Obviously not the only factor I'm considering, but I'm enrolling for the MA and want the best shot of matriculating to a good PhD program after.

[Sigaba]

5 hours ago, sonnybunny said:

Anyone have a general sense of reputation between University of New Mexico and University of Vermont? Obviously not the only factor I'm considering, but I'm enrolling for the MA and want the best shot of matriculating to a good PhD program after.

Please consider the benefits of going here

http://library.uvm.edu/collections/theses?search_type=dept&dept=33

and there

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/

and finding theses supervised by potential PIs and then finding out where graduate students went next.

As an alterative, you could contact each program's DGS and ask questions centered around outcomes.

[sonnybunny]

1 minute ago, Sigaba said:

Please consider the benefits of going here

http://library.uvm.edu/collections/theses?search_type=dept&dept=33

and there

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/

and finding theses supervised by potential PIs and then finding out where graduate students went next.

As an alterative, you could contact each program's DGS and ask questions centered around outcomes.

Thank you for your advice, much appreciated!

[4everstudent]

Has anyone heard anything from University of Pittsburgh?

[JJ8885]

On 3/11/2022 at 4:45 PM, 4everstudent said:

Has anyone heard anything from University of Pittsburgh?

No, just this:

"Decisions on both admission and financial aid will be announced around March 15th."

 

[charmsprof]

I am really sorry, because this is bad news for Pittsburgh people, but they've already sent out acceptances.

Edited March 15, 2022 by charmsprof

[4everstudent]

36 minutes ago, charmsprof said:

I am really sorry, because this is bad news for Pittsburgh people, but they've already sent out acceptances.

Right after I posted I found out I was on the waitlist there. 

[aurelie426]

I'd love to chat with any fellow NYU admits who are considering the program! Feel free to DM me as well! 

[history110]

I'm on a waitlist for UBC -- I know there's just a couple people ahead of me, so if you've gotten offer and know for sure you don't want to go, please let them know! 

[wynntir]

Anyone here attend/know much about UMass-Amherst's MA program? I was accepted to the masters and not the phd and am having a difficult time deciding whether or not to attend.

[Maguire]

Any other Emory admits around? Would love to connect before August  

[flowersandcoffee]

For anyone on UC Berkeley's waitlist, apparently 50% of admitted students have not accepted or declined their offer 

[AP]

On 4/6/2022 at 4:42 AM, flowersandcoffee said:

For anyone on UC Berkeley's waitlist, apparently 50% of admitted students have not accepted or declined their offer 

This doesn't necessarily mean that people will come off the waitlist. 

Programs make offers knowing there will be a yield. For instance, if they have ten spots and they anticipate a 50% yield, they will make twenty offers, which means they will have their spots filled and no one will come from the waitlist. 

(Sometimes it happens that programs get a higher yield than they anticipated too and they have to shrink the next cohort). 

Of course, YMMV. 

[Strider_2931]

I haven't yet posted here this cycle. I have to make a decision on two offers and I wanted to have the input of this forum when all is said and done. Maybe someone has faced a similar dilemma between a program offering better financial support and a program offering a stronger intellectual fit. The programs are equal other than this dilemma. I'll be studying twentieth-century US environmental and social history come the fall.

Based on the advice I've gleaned here over the years, my instinct is to go with the program that provides a slight edge in support, via a recruitment fellowship with a release of teaching for three years. The catch is that I wouldn't be able to continue studying environmental history exclusively because the department lacks a specialist in this field.

The other program offers a 12-month TAship package, with built-in research time. I've also been attracted by the year-long editorial assistantship position at the flagship environmental history journal that is housed in the department. This department actually has one of the top collections of environmental historians anywhere. So, not getting to study with this group is a significant downside in going with the program offering the recruitment fellowship. Though I would have this fellowship, and it is no doubt a prestigious and competitive award, I would have to find an outside scholar if I wanted to continue to engage with environmental scholarship.

My experience with this forum has ingrained in my thinking the importance of financial support. Having three years free of a TAship, to set up and start a research plan, to write more for publication, to gain other professional experiences beyond teaching, seems to me to be the way to go. With the caveat that I wouldn't be exclusively an environmental historian upon completion of this program. Am I missing something that would change my instinct to go with the program offering the fellowship?

[wluhist16]

I would think about university rank and placement record, as well as ultimately what your goals are for your future career.

If you want to teach at a very research-oriented university to the exclusion of considering schools with high-teaching loads, then the recruitment fellowship might be worth it, although those jobs are few and far between. However, I'd also say that since the majority of jobs right now are at teaching-focused institutions, you could be a disadvantage in future job applications if your CV appears too research-oriented. (Not to say that you can teach your way to a job, you can't, there has to be balance, but teaching positions want people with... teaching experience and an understanding of pedagogy.) I'm just speaking from personal experience as someone who is about to defend, was on the market this year, and accepted an offer at a regional public university with a 4-4 teaching load. I needed the fellowships/publications to get noticed, but all of my job interviews were focused on classroom management and pedagogy. 

If you have other career goals, then disregard and pick the university where your scholarly relationship with your advisor is best, regardless if they are a strictly environmental historian or not. My project shifted during grad school and no longer aligned with my advisor as closely as when I entered, but a good advisor is a good advisor regardless.

[psstein]

On 4/10/2022 at 3:24 PM, Strider_2931 said:

I haven't yet posted here this cycle. I have to make a decision on two offers and I wanted to have the input of this forum when all is said and done. Maybe someone has faced a similar dilemma between a program offering better financial support and a program offering a stronger intellectual fit. The programs are equal other than this dilemma. I'll be studying twentieth-century US environmental and social history come the fall.

Based on the advice I've gleaned here over the years, my instinct is to go with the program that provides a slight edge in support, via a recruitment fellowship with a release of teaching for three years. The catch is that I wouldn't be able to continue studying environmental history exclusively because the department lacks a specialist in this field.

The other program offers a 12-month TAship package, with built-in research time. I've also been attracted by the year-long editorial assistantship position at the flagship environmental history journal that is housed in the department. This department actually has one of the top collections of environmental historians anywhere. So, not getting to study with this group is a significant downside in going with the program offering the recruitment fellowship. Though I would have this fellowship, and it is no doubt a prestigious and competitive award, I would have to find an outside scholar if I wanted to continue to engage with environmental scholarship.

My experience with this forum has ingrained in my thinking the importance of financial support. Having three years free of a TAship, to set up and start a research plan, to write more for publication, to gain other professional experiences beyond teaching, seems to me to be the way to go. With the caveat that I wouldn't be exclusively an environmental historian upon completion of this program. Am I missing something that would change my instinct to go with the program offering the fellowship?

I would certainly go for the 12 months of support. Personally, I had 9 during the summers (last paycheck was May 31st, first was September 30) and things could get very challenging in the first month back from the summer. I'd recommend looking at the placement records of each department before making a decision.

FWIW, if you're going to work with an environmental history journal, you're likely to have exposure to other scholars in the field. Please PM me, if you're willing, and we can discuss programs at some more length. 

[dr. t]

Yeah, I'm with @psstein - I don't see enough information to make a good judgement. How much is the difference, and is the financial difference $30k vs $35k or $15k vs $20k - the same difference matters more in different circumstances. How does cost of Living in the respective cities factor in?

(NB: as of this year, most Ivy+ schools are offering $40-45k as a stipend. Unionization works ✊)

[TMP]

On 4/11/2022 at 11:10 PM, psstein said:

I would certainly go for the 12 months of support. Personally, I had 9 during the summers (last paycheck was May 31st, first was September 30) and things could get very challenging in the first month back from the summer. I'd recommend looking at the placement records of each department before making a decision.

FWIW, if you're going to work with an environmental history journal, you're likely to have exposure to other scholars in the field. Please PM me, if you're willing, and we can discuss programs at some more length. 

Keep in mind, folks, as you calculate your stipend and cost of living (COL), please divide the total stipend by 12, not 9 and take out required student fees and 12% for taxes (at minimum!) to get your actual monthly take-home pay.  If the school says 9 months, divide the total by 12 anyway.

Ask grad programs about student fees -- they should have a list handy. You should also see which ones can be opted out. If your school offers health insurance and it's solid, find out the cost.

If your university offers a retirement plan (like a state pension), please, please contribute if you can. The savings will build up over time and be transferred into a IRA. It might seem like a nightmare to give up $200 monthly for retirement when you can use it for a bigger apartment or a car in a place you don't really need a car (like NYC), you will be glad after 5-8 years in the program that the first $200 yields to, say, $10k or so when you finish and that number will get higher over the next 40 years.

Far, far too many first year students don't think about this until the spring when they realize that they need to find summer jobs to pay their rent instead of doing language or another training program or studying for their exams or researching for MA thesis.

 

@wluhist16  I chose financial stability over intellectual.  My adviser and I were the only ones doing our field but being a minority forced me to challenge myself intellectually in order to connect with other areas of history. In fact, it has made me a solid grant-writer and a teacher who can offer a variety of courses based her own area of specialty.  I made sure that I attended the yearly conference in my field and networked with other scholars and grad students who I could communicate with to flesh out my research ideas and prepare for my candidacy exams. If I had to make this choice all over again, I would even if I was frustrated and/or  intellectually lonely many times.

 

More info is still needed for us to really help you figure out your situation.

[Strider_2931]

Thank you all for the input. My potential advisor at Program A (the program offering the 12-month stipend with the chance to be a journal assistant) echoed what was said here about the realities of success on the job market and taking on teaching responsibility as a PhD student. My potential advisor at Program A even suggested I bring up the fellowship offer to the chair of the department there to see if any extra funding could be arranged to make the prospect of foregoing the fellowship more bearable. The chair didn't budge at my question about additional financial support. His viewpoint seemed to be that the opportunity to teach and work at the journal were worth their weight in gold.

Worth something to me at least is the fact that Program B offers a strong foundation in public history to go along with the fellowship. It is possible to make public history a minor field and there's a dedicated director of public history in the dept with the rank of associate professor. The PhD students I talked to spoke highly of the program's record in connecting students with faculty public history project funds and the program has coordinated summer funding for students to pursue their own public history endeavors. This is even more important to me because the Program B fellowship offers no summer money.

The details of the programs/offers are fairly equal, in terms of placement record, quality of potential advisors, support through graduation/an emphasis on professional and career development. Which is the essence of the dilemma. Neither is an Ivy or prominent state school; both are R1 land-grant unis. Both offer funding ~23k. Re: cost-of-living, the stipends compare well to programs in major metro areas. Program B even provides health insurance on the fellowship and for their PhDs generally. I counted this as part of the total package in comparison to the 12-month stipend at Program A which only provides a small subsidy for PhD student health insurance.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Strider_2931
clarity

[dr. t]

11 hours ago, Strider_2931 said:

His viewpoint seemed to be that the opportunity to teach and work at the journal were worth their weight in gold.

This isn't IU, is it? But this is nonsense, regardless.