Fall 2012 Applicant Chit Chat

[remenis]

Yeah I think that at Columbia the professors in each subfield meet up and make a first cut and then pass the applications they like on to the committee - at least this is what my POI there told me, but I don't know much more than that.

I guess we just have to keep waiting

[irvinchiva10]

Oh man, really? I had no idea that's how it worked! After my POI told me that, I was too depressed to ask more questions about the admissions process, so I just asked about her work.

By the way, i remember looking at the Columbia committee a few months ago. They were all European historians. Do you know/think that has any bearing on who gets in?

[crater21]

Acceptances come from the graduate program administrator or assistant, I don't know which of the two of them will be doing it. The professors generally will not email you until the official notice is out but I had emails from professors in my box before I'd even stopped jumping up and down and running around crazy showing my roommates the print out from the first email.

The graduate school paperwork came two weeks later, with the perspective student weekend sometime mid march.

Thanks for the response. From your experience last year, do you know of timelines / processes at any other schools (i.e, when to expect to hear, how decisions are sent, etc)?

[crazedandinfused]

By the way, i remember looking at the Columbia committee a few months ago. They were all European historians. Do you know/think that has any bearing on who gets in?

Whoa. How did you find out who was on the committee? That's like the one detail that my obsessively neurotic brain has been agonizing over.

EDIT: Oh, I see. Columbia actually posts that info. It would be nice if other programs did as well. One more morsel for the madmen(women)...

Edited January 29, 2012 by crazedandinfused

[CageFree]

2. I will not respond to prospective students at 2:30am. One POI did this to me - she lit into me for contacting her and trying to influence the admissions decision (this was in September)! I wrote back and explained my intentions, interests, etc. She wrote back and apologized profusely for clearing out her inbox so late at night. She was embarrassed by her tone AND by all of her typos!

I had one of those "middle of the night" responses too. She didn't light into me, but she called me by the wrong name (funny, it's usually students who do this lol). After a couple more emails I decided not to apply to that school... and that first email was one small reason for the decision. :/

[remenis]

By the way, i remember looking at the Columbia committee a few months ago. They were all European historians. Do you know/think that has any bearing on who gets in?

I would hope that it doesn't because that seems unfair and they can't just choose a cohort of only european scholars - but its obviously a big help if a professor who wants to work with you is on the committee and if no one in your subfield is on the committee they dont get that final decisive vote.

[CageFree]

And also, please don't think I'm a weirdo but I am so worried about jinxing myself if I post any specifics on here about POIs/my research. I will be happy to share when the decisions are out!

I've done the same. There's enough info to make me identifiable if someone really digs through archives... that's why I have not listed the other schools I applied to.

[CageFree]

Hello peeps,

I'm a long time stalker, first time poster.

Like most of you, I applied to several PhD programs this year and am waiting for my acceptances/rejections. Just last week, however, I was finally able to meet my POI at Columbia University. I had not contacted her before because I was preoccupied with health related matters (a long bout with tuberculosis, to be precise). During our meeting, she told me that she had already read my application and that she would love to work with me, but warned me that it is "very, very, very, very hard for Columbia to accept students coming straight out of undergrad." Now, being the paranoid person that I am, I am not sure how to interpret this. Was she just trying to temper my expectations of getting admitted or was she trying to inform me of my rejection in a very subtle, polite way? Near the end of hour long meeting, she also told me that I had made the "first cut" and that there are two more final cuts coming up in the next few weeks.....

Thoughts? (chews nails off)

I think she was telling you that you had a great application but it wasn't completely up to her.. and hinting that if you don't get in, try going for a master's and reapply.

[Kelkel]

Sigh. I don't know how much longer I can make it, guys.

[crazedandinfused]

Sigh. I don't know how much longer I can make it, guys.

It's SO almost February!

Ok, we have to change subjects here. Two questions:

Can any of the Africanists recommend a good survey history? I guess I'm looking for something pre-Berlin Conference if there isn't an all encompassing synthesis.

Also, is it just me or are the websites thoroughly useless? They've said the same darned thing since I submitted my app. I never understood why people use Twitter (I don't believe anybody does. I think it's all a media sham), but now I really want to know what all the adcomms are up to. I like that Columbia posted their committee roster. If any of the schools I applied to had done that I would have crafted a very targeted SOP.

Edited January 29, 2012 by crazedandinfused

[Kelkel]

It's SO almost February!

I know. Let's hope it does indeed begin happening once it hits.

[Hopin'-n-Prayin']

Ok, we have to change subjects here.

Nope! Must remain singularly focused on looming admission decisions...now to back to my regularly scheduled obsessing...

[telemaque]

Um. Does anyone want to discuss why there's a Michigan Middle Eastern history interview on the results board...when Michigan wasn't accepting applications this year?

[Kelkel]

Um. Does anyone want to discuss why there's a Michigan Middle Eastern history interview on the results board...when Michigan wasn't accepting applications this year?

Um, yeah. I would like to know what's up with that. I still harbor resentment about that...

[TMP]

Michigan does allow applications for joint programs in women's studies, anthropology and ancient history. Middle East strikes me as odd as the department doesn't have affiliations with MES/NES departments... I'm guessing spam.

[telemaque]

Michigan does allow applications for joint programs in women's studies, anthropology and ancient history. Middle East strikes me as odd as the department doesn't have affiliations with MES/NES departments... I'm guessing spam.

I was thinking the same thing...still strange.

[crater21]

Doesn't Michigan have a Centre for Middle Eastern Studies or something? Maybe the poster meant that program rather than the History department?

Or maybe he/she is doing the joint program in History and Anthropology with a focus on the Middle East? Who really knows.

These results forms are not the best designed, so it's possible that people don't know what exactly to enter.

[Hopin'-n-Prayin']

Just "re-discovered" the results board.

Ironically, that results survery is the first page I saw on this forum 6 or 7 months ago, but I had totally forgotten about it till I read the recent posts referring to people posting results on it.

Finally I determined to find it when I read the above post about UM- which is by the way very disturbing if that is the actual History Dept. I was a good fit there and had good pre-app. POI contact there (because that is doing me sooo much good with my other apps!)

So basically, I am officially sick to my stomach- not only does this results board take the obsessing to new, even more dizzying heights, but now I have to come face to face with the fact that some one received an unofficial acceptance to UNC-CH with funding two weeks ago...!

Edited January 29, 2012 by ADMITedlyLucky

[superfluousflo]

It's probably nothing, but the UM post has it located in Ann Harbor.

[Tigalily]

Hello All,

Just wanted to chime in and say I was pretty disturbed by that UM post as well. I'm doing Middle East and really wanted to apply there. It can't be legit.

[Hopin'-n-Prayin']

It's probably nothing, but the UM post has it located in Ann Harbor.

lol..."A" and "H" are no where near each other on the keyboard...

[Kelkel]

Maybe they applied to U Mich at their little known campus in Ann Harbor.

[goldielocks]

Three days until February. When are we really expecting things to speed up? Mid-February? Earlier? Later? I can't decide.

[Kelkel]

Three days until February. When are we really expecting things to speed up? Mid-February? Earlier? Later? I can't decide.

Mid-February definitely. I would hope for earlier, but I expect it won't be until after the 15th realistically.

Which is only one more pay period for me. (Well, two but I count this current one pretty much over).

Edited January 29, 2012 by Kelkel

[telemaque]

Mid-February definitely. I would hope for earlier, but I expect it won't be until after the 15th realistically.

Seriously? Not the second week of February maybe??