History Admissions 2009

[feisty]

Ha, yeah I definitely laughed out loud a few times. HF really rained on this guy's parade, but part of me wonders whether it might be valuable advice. The picture he painted of it made me think of Universities I've visited like Western Illinois University, and (probably closer to it, academically) Illinois State. Fine places to drink for a weekend, I might add. But I wouldn't want to live there.

.

Illinois State isn't bad. One of the finest education schools in the country, for one.

It's not the best, and I didn't apply there, but a person could do much worse.

Western, I'll give you though.

[Nicolay]

I have noticed that the flip side of the very tough job market for history Ph.D.'s is that small and not-well-known universities are often filled with very high quality faculty. While the ranking and reputation of a graduate program are definitely factors to consider in deciding where to study, even at lower ranked and unknown programs we might well be taught by graduates of top schools and other very well-prepared faculty. Several unknown state schools near me with no particular academic reputation are blessed with very sharp history faculty members from UCLA, Duke, Virginia, Illinois, Columbia, Wisconsin, and etc. I can't speak from experience as to the particular schools that have been mentioned here, and don't know whether they are located in places folks would find congenial, but those schools may well have many fine faculty.

[StrangeLight]

Congrats on your acceptance to CMU. My husband went there for undergrad and loved it. My husband always jokes about how one can experience all four seasons in a single day without warning, though I'm sure this is due to his sensitivity to change in temperature. Then again, if you're from Canada you probably won't mind the cold. He can't stand the cold. We visited CMU for one of his alumni reunions and I really liked the town and school. And the stipend is awesome for living in Pittsburgh.

thanks! it's nice to hear good things about CMU. i don't mean this as negatively as it will undoubtedly sound, but i was surprised to see their history program is ranked top 50. they weren't really on my radar at first but there are some fantastic people who teach there and they've got close ties with pitt, which also has three really great scholars in my field.

i'm from toronto originally, so i'm used to experiencing all four seasons within a 24 hour span, but i've been living in vancouver for the last 5 years and it'll be an adjustment to move back to a cold place. the weather here is pretty mild, just like seattle's weather. i've been to pittsburgh before and i love the town. something distinctly un-college town about it, which is actually its biggest draw for me. that, and i can blow my stipend on steelers tickets.

[riss287]

I have noticed that the flip side of the very tough job market for history Ph.D.'s is that small and not-well-known universities are often filled with very high quality faculty. While the ranking and reputation of a graduate program are definitely factors to consider in deciding where to study, even at lower ranked and unknown programs we might well be taught by graduates of top schools and other very well-prepared faculty. Several unknown state schools near me with no particular academic reputation are blessed with very sharp history faculty members from UCLA, Duke, Virginia, Illinois, Columbia, Wisconsin, and etc. I can't speak from experience as to the particular schools that have been mentioned here, and don't know whether they are located in places folks would find congenial, but those schools may well have many fine faculty.

I definitely think amazing faculty can be found at smaller, lower ranked schools.

And I'm sorry to whoever just got rejected from OSU by email. I wish they would just send out notices instead of us having to email them to find out we've been rejected (which I really don't want to do).

[spamalot]

I'll just come out of lurking to state that Princeton history students received a $28k stipend this past year. Still a lot, but no $40k.

I just discovered this forum today: but I got into Princeton as well - with a $28k stipend. Only applied there - so I feel very lucky!

[TheMole]

+1 to the individual who said that lower-tier schools often end up with faculty from quite prestigious schools.

Now, I'm not going to toot my own horn - I spend large portions of every day trying to figure out what sort of ganga the admissions people were smoking when they decided to let me in - but I'm a PhD student at Rutgers, and I can tell you, I'll take the job I get. Period. I've got some amazing colleagues from great places who teach at GSUs (Gigantic State Universities). Example: Scott Eastman from UC Irvine, a really fabulous school for Spanish History, teaching at Creighton, out in Omaha. Should someone go do a graduate degree under him (if that's even possible there), they'd find him really quite wonderful to work under.

In other news, y'all, I'll offer a small story about my own experiences applying, which might give you some hope. I did not have my shit together in 2003, when I first applied to grad school. 3 apps, to Columbia, Yale and JHU. Crappy personal statement. Shit writing sample, in my opinion. Predictably, I got the door in my face. The next year, I applied to ELEVEN schools, all top-notch institutions. The least prestigious one was Northwestern. Yeah. Better (but not at all customized) personal statement, same crap writing sample. 10 rejections, one unfunded MAPSS program acceptance at Chicago. Naturally, at 52K+ for the year (and not even a history degree to show for it) I said no. The next year FINALLY I got my shit together, modified each personal statement for each application, and selected some lower-tier schools too. I ran about 50-50 that year, and ultimately went to the University of Georgia.

There, I did pretty well, wrote (if I may say so) a damn good MA thesis, exited the PhD program with said MA after two years, and, 9 more applications later, got into a whole slew of great schools, including UCLA, UCSD, UCI, and, of course, Rutgers.

So, stick with it, if you don't get accepted anywhere. And if you do get in somewhere that's not quite what you want - don't sweat it. You can always switch institutions, and time in grad school is never a waste. If nothing else, you'll have more of your relevant literature under your belt, right? Plus, I'm increasingly convinced that this is all a numbers game. It's not really about ability, but about playing the system, and knocking on the door over and over and over again, until the admissions folks finally cave.

[TheMole]

Oi, I do want to ask people, on behalf of my wife, who has also made the terrible life choice that is grad school:

Has anyone heard anything about the CUNY Graduate Center? They usually, we think, notify mid-March - anyone heard anything definite on that subject, or on whether decisions are being/have been made?

[Highfructose]

Oi, I do want to ask people, on behalf of my wife, who has also made the terrible life choice that is grad school:

Has anyone heard anything about the CUNY Graduate Center? They usually, we think, notify mid-March - anyone heard anything definite on that subject, or on whether decisions are being/have been made?

I was probed by a prof who found my app interesting and had a question. I am also snooping around for more info but from what I can tell CUNY seems to usually be one of the last places to notify, and I am not expecting anything till mid March.

[rwallace]

Thanks for that post Mole, your story makes me feel better about my whole grad school situation right now.

[StrangeLight]

what sort of ganga the admissions people were smoking

white rhino.

i mean, what?

[TheMole]

This question is for HighFructose:

So, if you don't mind my asking, what subfield are you? I ask because, from what I've heard, different admissions subcommittees meet at different times...

On the plus side, mid-March is a week away...

[fortiesgirl]

Oi, I do want to ask people, on behalf of my wife, who has also made the terrible life choice that is grad school:

Has anyone heard anything about the CUNY Graduate Center? They usually, we think, notify mid-March - anyone heard anything definite on that subject, or on whether decisions are being/have been made?

I applied there as well and am anxiously waiting to hear from them. I was told mid-March to hear from the department. Applicants on this site posted mid-March acceptances last year.

[Highfructose]

This question is for HighFructose:

So, if you don't mind my asking, what subfield are you? I ask because, from what I've heard, different admissions subcommittees meet at different times...

On the plus side, mid-March is a week away...

I am US History.

[daydaydvd]

Oi, I do want to ask people, on behalf of my wife, who has also made the terrible life choice that is grad school:

Has anyone heard anything about the CUNY Graduate Center? They usually, we think, notify mid-March - anyone heard anything definite on that subject, or on whether decisions are being/have been made?

CUNY GC is not a good place to pursue Phds. I was there in 2004. First, their funding is very limited, only few students are fully funded(I mean tuition+stipend). This means that most Phd students are NY residents. Without funding, I do no think that they have nation wide attactions. Second, the orgnization of CUNY GC is very special. Their faculties do not get paychecks from GC, but from their own affliated independent colleges. I do not know if their faculties have ever had chances to get together. The department of GC totally has no control of their faculties(actually, they are not their faculties). Because all cuny colleges are independent, CUNY GC has no undergraduates. This means that the department can not offer you TA or instructing training, though you can always equally compete some open adjunct positions in CUNY undergraduate colleges with graduate students in Columbia and NYU and sometime Princeton and Rutger. Lastly, CUNY GC is only one building in the center of manhattan. Do not be fooled by its 16th in 1995 NRC History ranking.

[rustonite]

w00t, got into St. Louis with funding.

[Sonic]

Congrats, rustonite!

[Highfructose]

CUNY GC is not a good place to pursue Phds. I was there in 2004. First, their funding is very limited, only few students are fully funded(I mean tuition+stipend). This means that most Phd students are NY residents. Without funding, I do no think that they have nation wide attactions. Second, the orgnization of CUNY GC is very special. Their faculties do not get paychecks from GC, but from their own affliated independent colleges. I do not know if their faculties have ever had chances to get together. The department of GC totally has no control of their faculties(actually, they are not their faculties). Because all cuny colleges are independent, CUNY GC has no undergraduates. This means that the department can not offer you TA or instructing training, though you can always equally compete some open adjunct positions in CUNY undergraduate colleges with graduate students in Columbia and NYU and sometime Princeton and Rutger. Lastly, CUNY GC is only one building in the center of manhattan. Do not be fooled by its 16th in 1995 NRC History ranking.

Interesting. I had the impression that since CUNY includes so many colleges under its umbrella that it would help facilitate getting a gig teaching more easily. But if as you say, I would have to compete with Columbia/NYU/Princeton/Rutgers grads on an equal basis then that does raise the stakes.

Their placement record isn't exactly hot, but a great deal of grads seemed to end up working at one of the gillions of cuny colleges which I found encouraging. Anyway I am a pretty darn good fit there so I'd very seriously consider attending if they threw me some decent funding. Thanks for your imput, it's helpful because I haven't found a great deal of discussion about CUNY GC around this board. Anyone else have any interesting tidbits like this?

[TheMole]

I'll chime in a bit on the CUNY question.

Obviously, I'm no authority on the subject of the City University of New York, but I DO know a thing or two about at least one of the other universities in the area.

I know of very few (if any) Rutgers grad students teaching in the CUNY system. Put simply, we don't need to - our funding packages get the job done. We get TAships at New Brunswick (though since I live in Manhattan, I try to stay the hell away from those), TAships/Adjunctships/Instructorships at Rutgers-Newark (my current gig, teaching Western Civ II there), one of any number of assistantships at various institutes, and two years of fellowship support. I've seen some adverts for adjunctships passed around the department, but all of them were NJ schools - not once have I seen an announcement, I don't think, for a school in NY. I should also add that we're not really going to be heavy competition in the future for most of those adjunct positions - our funding packages are getting pretty severely limited in order to shove us out the door ASAP (mine is only 4 years long, b/c I came in with the MA). I think Rutgers kids are going to come and go pretty quickly in the future, so we won't be around without funding long enough to need recourse to external teaching opportunities.

Dunno, of course what the situation with Columbia or Princeton is, though I will mention this: Princeton's funding is supposed to be stellar, long-lasting and largely independent of teaching. So, unless a Princetonian goes a-searching for a teaching opportunity, you won't have to worry about them. Not to mention that they'd have to be living in NYC. My roommate does the commute to Princeton a few mornings a week, and I cannot imagine going through that hell consistently, only to have to teach at the end of it. It takes me a minimum of 1.5 hours to get to NB, and Princeton's a bit further.

Anywho, just hoping for the best for my sweetie. Some people apparently get funding, so I'm just counting on her copious awesomeness getting the recognition it deserves. Luck to you as well, Se

[daydaydvd]

For CUNY issue, I am talking about adjunt positions, not TA. While adjunct postions bring people money, they bring experince as well. Adjunct position means that you are independly responsible for a course. This experince will be a big plus in CV when looking for real jobs. For this reason, I know that a Chinese history adjunct position from city college in 2006 received more than 5 applications from graduate students in Columbia+Princeton.

[Louiselab]

I think CUNY's graduate structure is a little... peculiar, let's say. In part because faculty are "appointed" from various colleges (City, hunter, brooklyn, etc.) to the grad center and so the dept. does lack the cohesiveness, let's say, of a department where everyone spends all their time together (relatively speaking). I got accepted to CUNY graduate last year with no funding and passed. TA jobs are usually dolled out for the undergraduate institutions, so she would probably be teaching at Hunter or Brooklyn College, something along those lines. I think you could do a lot worse. Barbara Welter is great at Hunter and she occassionally teaches at the GC. Plus you already qualify for in-state tuition (although I think Patterson wanted to jack it up what, $600?) so it actually might be rather affordable. I could've done my MA at Hunter for under $9,000.

Hope she hears soon (and it's good)!

[riss287]

I'm seriously becoming really annoyed with OSU right now. The second person had to email them to find out he/she had been rejected. When do they suppose that they're going to send out rejections? May? I'm half tempted to just change my signature and chalk it up as my first response/rejection, but then there's a part of me that stupidly still has hope. I'm too mad that they aren't letting people know to be upset about it actually, hah.

[misterpat]

w00t, got into St. Louis with funding.

Congrats. SLU's campus is pretty. WashU is in the loop, my favorite area of STL, but SLU's area is cool as well. And it's a really cheap city to live in, so your stipend should go a long way.

[Nicolay]

Congratulations, Rustonite!!! I'm very glad you received good news.

[riddimorrhyme]

do you guys reckon that all those who were supposed to hear from NYU have already done so? i was rummaging through the submits page and it painted a very disheartening picture: those who were accepted were notified on the same day (albeit through varied means, i.e., snail-mail, e-mail, phone, etc.).

i suppose that's that then. sigh.

[gallipoli]

I have not heard from Harvard and Michigan YET. Anyone have updates? I'm 0-2 now and am losing hope rapidly.