Fall 2015 Applicants

[L13]

lol, so.

 

Knowing that professors are a fickle and forgetful lot, I requested not three but four recommendation letters, expecting at least one of them to be forgotten about or not submitted.

 

I was totally right to expect that because one of my letter writers simply did not turn in their letter to the two PhD programs whose deadlines came up first. The other three, however, did, so I was happy and did not pursue the matter further (meaning, I did not email the delinquent professor to remonstrate with or beg them).

 

Well, today my fourth letter writer submitted their letter! A week late, but it seems to have been accepted at both places because it appears on my applications.

 

I'm pleasantly surprised.

Edited December 23, 2014 by L13

[ashiepoo72]

L13-- that sounds terrifying yet hilarious. Good on you for having a contingency plan! I have to say, I'm so glad my rec writers didn't put me through that kind of torture. I've been peeking at the LOR forum and it seems like a lot of people suffer in agony over at least one rec writer submitting close to the deadline or late.

I'm also glad I'm so busy prepping for the MA exam and next semester's classes, I have yet to feel stressed out about applications...*knocks on wood*

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays!

[BlackBear50]

Long time lurker, now that it is time to finally get serious I've decided to join.

 

Third year undergrad; History major, Spanish minor.  In the name of brevity: I am interested in subaltern studies, but particularly in labor/marxist historiography. I also am most interested in the colonial era, think Class Matters. I speak Spanish near fluent and am at the intermediate level in French.

 

I'm looking at, for Ph. D:

 

- UPenn, Boston College, William and Mary, Dalhousie, Brandeis

 

MA:

University of Maine (my current school), University of Vermont, Dalhousie, Memorial University

 

And am, of course, open to suggestions. My personal leanings are that Dalhousie is perhaps my best fit, though I don't know much about Dalhousie besides its faculty I've looked into. There is also a Prof. I'd love to work with but he's at Montana and I do not want to leave the East Coast.

Edited December 30, 2014 by BlackBear50

[Heimat Historian]

I thought it time to put down my final list of applications as I hope it will help my anxiety a little bit.

 

All are for PhDs, coming in with an MA (4.0), excellent verbal GRE, good letters of rec, strong writing sample.

 

U. of Colorado-Boulder

U. of Indiana - Bloomington

U. of Kansas

U. of Minnesota

U. of Illinois-Urbana-Champagne

Rice University

Washington University in St. Louis

SUNY - Binghamton

George Washington University

U. of Iowa

UT-Arlington

Brandeis

U. of Florida

Central European University

Drew University

 

 

I don't know how quickly any of these schools will get back to me, but I hope to have a few choices.  We'll see what happens. I'm open to any advice/words of encouragement.  Happy New Year!

[ashiepoo72]

I can tell you that Minnesota tends to begin notifying at the end of January, Indiana in early February and Binghamton in late February. Some schools do admission in waves--not to mention acceptances off the waitlist--so these dates don't really tell the whole story, but I totally get wanting to know! I have notification date ranges on a spreadsheet haha

[ToomuchLes]

Where can i find information about notification dates for each program? Im going to check department websites, but I feel like I would have stumbled upon them already when I was researching programs. 

[ashiepoo72]

I got them off of department websites, POI correspondence or via the results search here on gradcafe. That's why I have ranges instead of anything concrete. Most programs don't have it listed on the department website.

I think it's safe to say that some schools start at the end of January, but most will start sometime in February. But we all already know that, so the date ranges really aren't useful except to feed our collective mania.

[TiLeR]

Long time lurker, now that it is time to finally get serious I've decided to join.

 

Third year undergrad; History major, Spanish minor.  In the name of brevity: I am interested in subaltern studies, but particularly in labor/marxist historiography. I also am most interested in the colonial era, think Class Matters. I speak Spanish near fluent and am at the intermediate level in French.

 

I'm looking at, for Ph. D:

 

- UPenn, Boston College, William and Mary, Dalhousie, Brandeis

 

MA:

University of Maine (my current school), University of Vermont, Dalhousie, Memorial University

 

And am, of course, open to suggestions. My personal leanings are that Dalhousie is perhaps my best fit, though I don't know much about Dalhousie besides its faculty I've looked into. There is also a Prof. I'd love to work with but he's at Montana and I do not want to leave the East Coast.

You might look into Boston University and John Thornton.

[BlackBear50]

You might look into Boston University and John Thornton.

 

Thank you! I keep adding and removing BU from my list, simply because I don't want it to be "too big." Thornton seems to add an interesting facet to early-modern Atlantic history that I must admit I am not the best versed in though I desire to, obviously, improve on that.

[dr. t]

I had heard a few years back that BU's funding situation was iffy, so you might want to check into that.

[TiLeR]

I had heard a few years back that BU's funding situation was iffy, so you might want to check into that.

A year or two ago they went to 5 years full funding for all admitted PhDs. They don't fund MAs.

[dr. t]

Die große Stille.

[ashiepoo72]

If you're referring to this thread, I'm sure it'll heat up in like 2-3 weeks 

 

Holy crap. My heart just skipped a beat when I realized how close we are haha I've been strangely calm so far...hoping it holds for awhile longer...

[ToomuchLes]

Haha. Im calm too but still alittle anxious. 

 

I noticed someone called me earlier, and left a voice message. I didnt recognize the number, so I automatically assumed it was one of my programs. I was so nervous, I accidentally hit "Call Back" instead of "Play Message." Then I was like .. oh sht! and started to relentlessly stab the "End Call" option with my finger. It was a very dramatic 3 minutes in the middle of the grocery store. When I finally got around to listen to the message, it was my friend's girlfriend asking if he left his phone at my place on New Years Eve. 

 

EDIT: The new Hobbit movie is worth watching if you need a 2hr escape from reality  Just saw it and it was so sweet. 

Edited January 4, 2015 by LeventeL

[emhafe]

Hello! I have creeped on this site for a while and thought today I should comment. I'm finishing up my undergraduate degrees now at a small private college but am hoping to attend a large, public university for Masters beginning this fall. I've applied for MA degrees in public history, museum studies, and history/museum studies. Hoping to get that doctorate one day in history or American studies!

[Catria]

So I have to wonder whether the historical applicant pool has shrunk like the English applicant pool did...

[ashiepoo72]

LeventeL - lol, awesome story. I had a similar experience this morning--unknown number in the Midwest--but it was a spam call 

Welcome emmd and all the new posters!

 

Catria -- I didn't realize the English applicant pool had dropped. Do you know if it was significant? I know some history programs are receiving less applications, but the top ones still get a ton.

[sankofa]

I was starting to wonder about applicant numbers too after a program I applied to extended their application deadline. Not to mention how sparse the thread replies are this this year. o_O

[Catria]

LeventeL - lol, awesome story. I had a similar experience this morning--unknown number in the Midwest--but it was a spam call 

Welcome emmd and all the new posters!

 

Catria -- I didn't realize the English applicant pool had dropped. Do you know if it was significant? I know some history programs are receiving less applications, but the top ones still get a ton.

 

 

I was starting to wonder about applicant numbers too after a program I applied to extended their application deadline. Not to mention how sparse the thread replies are this this year. o_O

 

The only indication I ever heard about that pointed towards fewer applicants in English graduate programs was that Rutgers decided to extend its application deadline for their English PhD program. Now, I don't know how hard the English applicant pool was hit...

[TMP]

Well, I was told today that for my subfield, the applications dropped from 22 from last year to 11 this year.  I was told that most of those applications weren't great.

 

I wouldn't be surprised, really, if it happens across the board, across programs.  It doesn't mean admissions will get easier; professors do want strong and compelling applications.

 

Besides, with unemployment rate below 6%, it's not so bad to make real $... compared to the kind of life PhD students have for 6-8 years.

[ashiepoo72]

TMP--thanks for the inside tip. I kind of assumed that dedicated students of history would be the ones to apply year after year regardless of job market trends and the like. And I'm sure many still do! Just surprised to hear that most of the applications aren't great :-/ but I agree that making actual money isn't a bad thing.

Now that I think about it, applications to my MA program have dropped drastically--I was told the year I applied had a fairly high number of applicants (I started in 2012), which dropped by half the following year and has continued dropping, though not as drastically, since.

[dr. t]

 

NB: comic was first published in 2008, hence "Guess who's coming to grad school".

Edited January 6, 2015 by telkanuru

[sankofa]

I agree with the illustration above.

Personally, although I am working a full time job in the banking industry I haven't given up on pursing my PhD.

But hey guys, we are all dedicated historians. Surely we will be rewarded. :-D

...right?! Lol

[a.rev]

Thank you! I keep adding and removing BU from my list, simply because I don't want it to be "too big." Thornton seems to add an interesting facet to early-modern Atlantic history that I must admit I am not the best versed in though I desire to, obviously, improve on that.

I wouldn't apply to BU on the hopes of working with Thornton alone. He's a very big name (pretty much a rock-star in Atlantic world history) and, from what I understand, does not take on many students. I plan to put an application into BU so I wish you all the luck but it's better to be realistic, although BU has a phenomenal African Studies department so if that's your thing then go for it! I thoroughly enjoyed reading Thornton and highly recommend Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World. It's an older book (20+ years I think?) but he talks about how Africans came from a place of power within the Atlantic world, instead of being taken advantage of, which is the standard for discussing Africa post-1400.

[Heimat Historian]

Just tying up loose ends.  The waiting is terrible as well as the anxiety of waiting for those final letters of recommendation.