technocat Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I thought about that. My other top choice, Chicago, is also having trouble though. Not sure if this is what you're referring to, but I heard from faculty that CST at Chicago can only admit three students this year b/c of budget cuts where they usually admit 7-8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feisty Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Not sure if this is what you're referring to, but I heard from faculty that CST at Chicago can only admit three students this year b/c of budget cuts where they usually admit 7-8. I hadn't heard that, but not surprised. My friend is applying to their English program, and actually received an email saying something similar (don't know the numbers though) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smo2102 Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I know that Columbia History cut the number of admits this year by 10% due to budget cuts. Things ain't great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirt Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Stupid question: how many people on average get accepted per year to top history programs? I know it varies, but a ballpark? The AHA website has info for every program for the fall of 2004. Don't know how "average" those numbers were, but it's something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pawnee68502 Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Are any admits to UC schools concerned about the struggling California economy? Will this factor into your decision to attend? Yesterday, I was speaking with a professor whose opinion was that students entering graduate school this cycle are in a somewhat fortunate position. Next year he predicted that wide-spread, deep budget cuts will keep many more students from being accepted than will this year. He said that budgets are currently being evaluated and departments are primarily making minor changes. Also, he said that those entering grad school now were much more fortunate than students almost finished with their graduate work, who are now heading out into (a pretty sparse) job market. I know at my university (and dept) faculty searches have recently been called off. It's unfortunate,but I think in the next year or so the situation will probably get worse. That being said, being a student admitted with funding to a UC school, I will certainly take the financial situation into consideration, but won't base my decision off of it. Funding is definitely important to me, but as a future humanities grad student, I've never expected to be rolling in dough. Just my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_E Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Stupid question: how many people on average get accepted per year to top history programs? I know it varies, but a ballpark? Depends what a "top" history program is. According to US News? According to specialists in your field? If you want a general number, I dunno, ballpark maybe between 1 in 10 and 1 in 20, depending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general_jr Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I can speak to Chicago's situation as an undergrad here. The history department's budget was sliced, but this will have an impact on number of admitted students, not quality of funding (our President says, anyway). My advisor mentioned that the class size for next year has been sliced in half! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auzzfest Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Yesterday, I was speaking with a professor whose opinion was that students entering graduate school this cycle are in a somewhat fortunate position. Next year he predicted that wide-spread, deep budget cuts will keep many more students from being accepted than will this year. He said that budgets are currently being evaluated and departments are primarily making minor changes. Also, he said that those entering grad school now were much more fortunate than students almost finished with their graduate work, who are now heading out into (a pretty sparse) job market. I know at my university (and dept) faculty searches have recently been called off. It's unfortunate,but I think in the next year or so the situation will probably get worse. That being said, being a student admitted with funding to a UC school, I will certainly take the financial situation into consideration, but won't base my decision off of it. Funding is definitely important to me, but as a future humanities grad student, I've never expected to be rolling in dough. Just my two cents. Pawnee, do you mind sharing what your funding package from UC Davis looks like. UCSB is yet to release funding information, so I'm just wondering what a package in the UC system might look like. I guess it might vary considerably from school to school, but maybe not. In response to the budget crisis in California and the UC system, I can't imagine that a program could drop your funding a year or two into your degree if they awarded you a 5 year deal up front. On the UCSB funding website for example, it mentions that you sign a contract for the entire financial package. It is not reevaluated year by year, as long as your academic performance doesn't falter. But I guess who knows anything could happen. Maybe I am naive but I am confident in the strength of the UC system, particularly in its commitment to graduate studies and research. However Pawnee I am sure that you are right that next year the financial crisis around the country will significantly alter admissions and funding. On a side note: Synthla Congrats on the UCSB news!!!! Any more insight you can give me after visiting? For now, you leaning towards SB or Indiana?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pawnee68502 Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Pawnee, do you mind sharing what your funding package from UC Davis looks like. UCSB is yet to release funding information, so I'm just wondering what a package in the UC system might look like. I guess it might vary considerably from school to school, but maybe not. I would certainly let you know--but they said I wouldn't receive funding details until March! However, I plan to speak with my potential advisor, and the grad chair early next week. I can pass on what I find out. What I do know is I have full funding for the first year, and then "...our PhD students typically all receive TA-ships for a consecutive 4 year period after." Something else that was mentioned by the prof I was talking to yesterday was that he said by law, in the UC system they can only offer the first year of funding, but then renew or do TA-ships or whatever. I really have no idea if this is true, (I don't know much about the UC system and it's rules) but I'm sure there are others here who have first hand knowledge. Maybe they'll share. I'm guessing California schools outside of the UC system have different guidelines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curious Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 does anyone know if Harvard has notified everybody it has admitted? Should I give up hope? I hate the idea of bothering a department about status but I'd like to just know now that I've been rejected. Then I can come up with new dreams sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limeinthecoconut Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 does anyone know if Harvard has notified everybody it has admitted? Should I give up hope? I hate the idea of bothering a department about status but I'd like to just know now that I've been rejected. Then I can come up with new dreams sooner. Same question that I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthla Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Are any admits to UC schools concerned about the struggling California economy? Will this factor into your decision to attend? Yes and yes... never thought I would compare the financial condition of states in making my decision, but my understanding is that Indiana is in much better shape, fiscally, than California. And what's a guarantee of funding really worth if you have no confidence in the guarantor? Most grad students aren't going to have the resources to sue the UC system to compel them to honor the funding letter. :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthla Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 That being said, being a student admitted with funding to a UC school, I will certainly take the financial situation into consideration, but won't base my decision off of it. Funding is definitely important to me, but as a future humanities grad student, I've never expected to be rolling in dough. But you don't want to be stressed out about making your rent every month while you're in grad school either. One of my POIs, in a department where full funding isn't a consistent offering, said that they wouldn't recommend accepting an offer that didn't include a funding committment from the school solely from a practicality standpoint, and this is someone who would otherwise really like to see me attending their school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earlyamerican Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I can speak to Chicago's situation as an undergrad here. The history department's budget was sliced, but this will have an impact on number of admitted students, not quality of funding (our President says, anyway). My advisor mentioned that the class size for next year has been sliced in half! Fuck. You realize Chicago's kind of notorious for accepting people with little or no funding, right? Do you mean they'll perhaps admit just the people they actually intend to fund (like sane schools) or will they play the same games, but with fewer people? As far as UCs, I happen to know that Berkeley History has restructured some stuff so that grad student stipends are largely covered by private donations from alumni-types. It's a little more crisis-proof, which is why they've released funding package info though none of the other UCs have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthla Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 On a side note: Synthla Congrats on the UCSB news!!!! Any more insight you can give me after visiting? For now, you leaning towards SB or Indiana?? Thanks Auzzfest! PM me if you want any more specific details so I don't bore everyone, but I came away with a great feeling about the UCSB department. Had lunch and/or met with most of the people in my field, including my initial advisor, and had coffee with a couple current grad students. Obviously the environment is beautiful, but that's just icing on a cake, not a reason to go one place or another. There's a good fit between me and faculty interests, so spent a considerable amount of time just talking shop, which was fun. I'm not leaning too far in any direction at this point. I'm visiting Indiana next month, so I'll have a better evaluation of them at that point. They've been very helpful since the admission decision was made, but I've been in touch with the people in my field at UCSB for weeks on their initiative, so that gets them points. On the other hand, Indiana's already given me the funding details - 5 years of tuition, insurance and stipend (2 years fellowship, 3 years with light TA duties). I got the impression that UCSB students have a much heavier TA load, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, given that teaching experience is very valuable when going out on the job market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technocat Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Fuck. You realize Chicago's kind of notorious for accepting people with little or no funding, right? Do you mean they'll perhaps admit just the people they actually intend to fund (like sane schools) or will they play the same games, but with fewer people? I'm pretty sure Chicago's policy is to fully fund all incoming grad students in all departments, at least since a couple years ago: http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2007/2/13/ ... tudent-aid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feisty Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Yes and yes... never thought I would compare the financial condition of states in making my decision, but my understanding is that Indiana is in much better shape, fiscally, than California. And what's a guarantee of funding really worth if you have no confidence in the guarantor? Most grad students aren't going to have the resources to sue the UC system to compel them to honor the funding letter. :wink: The resources to hire a great lawyer, no, but would grad student unions deal with this sort of thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterpat Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 misterpat- I don't know if this helps, but when I applied to Temple in the past, I was notified of my acceptance on Feb. 20. I was notified online via the Temple portal system. My previous application is still there and the decision date is still posted. I'm waiting until that date to check my status. I applied there as well. That is doubly useful, since it lets me know roughly when to expect a decision AND assures me that there is some value in obsessively checking these online status-checkers. You're awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterpat Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I'm pretty sure Chicago's policy is to fully fund all incoming grad students in all departments, at least since a couple years ago: http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2007/2/13/ ... tudent-aid Except they're notorious for rejecting you, but offering to wave 1/3 or 1/2 tuition for their MLA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limeinthecoconut Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I'm pretty sure Chicago's policy is to fully fund all incoming grad students in all departments, at least since a couple years ago: http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2007/2/13/ ... tudent-aid Hmm, one of my seniors had to pay for at least his first year in Chicago. Fortunately for him, he was able to cough out the dough. This was a couple of years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthla Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 The resources to hire a great lawyer, no, but would grad student unions deal with this sort of thing? Fair point, but my guess is that most funding "contracts" have sufficient outs for the university that they could find a pretext to cut you if they really wanted/needed. Sure it makes them look bad to future prospects, but there are probably 6 or 7 people out there who would trip over themselves to get your spot no matter what the school had previously done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technocat Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Except they're notorious for rejecting you, but offering to wave 1/3 or 1/2 tuition for their MLA. Oh yeah, but that's just their cash cow terminal MA program, and the department isn't affiliated with it and doesn't decide the funding for it. I thought the OP was referring to PhD admits being unfunded. I don't think that's been true since around '07. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general_jr Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Hmm, one of my seniors had to pay for at least his first year in Chicago. Fortunately for him, he was able to cough out the dough. This was a couple of years ago. They changed their graduate funding about two years ago. I think 5 years/20k is pretty standard now. The 1-year masters (MAPS/MAPHS) is mostly unfunded and pretty much a waste of time. But it has nothing to do with the history department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortiesgirl Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Saw my rejection letter from Penn posted on my application site earlier this afternoon. Oh well. One down, six more to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atomnc Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 For those of you waiting for Stanford, I emailed the grad coordinator (trying to get a definite yes or no on whether decisions have been delivered; though my prof source said they had, as you all know, miscommunication is rife in department stuff) and got this response "I'm afraid decisions have not been handed out just yet. As indicated in my message back in December, decisions go out in early March or before. Your patience is greatly appreciated." So, though I hate lingering in limbo, it looks like there is still hope. Assuming I'm not misinterpreting this again. Ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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