Fall 2016 Applicants

[emiliajulia]

14 minutes ago, herstory said:

Same story here. For folks accepted at Indiana: Was your email from the DGS or a POI?

I initially received an email from the DGS, and then a follow-up from my prospective advisor shortly after. 

[alain]

Sometimes I think all the info we get on grad cafe makes the whole process even worse. I wish I hadn't known anything before. 

[Neist]

1 minute ago, alain said:

Sometimes I think all the info we get on grad cafe makes the whole process even worse. I wish I hadn't known anything before. 

You are a wise, wise sage.  

[Septerra]

Thank goodness I have my thesis and my comps to distract me from obsessing more than I already am.

[alain]

2 minutes ago, Neist said:

You are a wise, wise sage.  

haha no wisdom here, just reflecting after speaking to people who went through the process blind. they seemed so much happier. 

[PhDudette]

I think Gradcafe is good and helpful, but I don't think people are very cognizant of the effect they might have on people in their ways of responding to acceptances, etc. People are just bragging to strangers and making others feel worse in the process when they post things like "Accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Chicago - eek how do I decide?!?!?" People can be like this on facebook too, though. But it is actually nice to know as soon as possible about where an app stands, since sometimes rejections can take a long time to send out (for me it is, anyway)

[nevermind]

8 minutes ago, PhDudette said:

 But it is actually nice to know as soon as possible about where an app stands, since sometimes rejections can take a long time to send out (for me it is, anyway)

Yeah. As someone who has only received rejections so far...it really is nice to know what to expect earlier, so it's not a huge shock when the letter comes. But the "I got into all these amazing schools with less-than-stellar credentials" posts kind of stings when you have competitive stats and are just getting dinged across the board. 

[nightfarmer]

48 minutes ago, herstory said:

48 minutes ago, herstory said:

Same story here. For folks accepted at Indiana: Was your email from the DGS or a POI?

Same story here. For folks accepted at Indiana: Was your email from the DGS or a POI?

Watching this IU story unfold with bated breath... I mean seriously, who sends out rejections as well as acceptances one at a time?

[Neist]

5 minutes ago, nevermind said:

Yeah. As someone who has only received rejections so far...it really is nice to know what to expect earlier, so it's not a huge shock when the letter comes. But the "I got into all these amazing schools with less-than-stellar credentials" posts kind of stings when you have competitive stats and are just getting dinged across the board. 

At this point I'm happy to have one funded offer. BGSU Popular Culture only seems to accept with funding, and they've had really low application numbers the last few years. I'd like to pat myself on the back for getting in, and I'm sure I'm qualified, but I know they probably accepted a much larger contingent of students this year compared to previous years. In a nutshell, I was lucky enough to apply on a good year.

As it stands, it's highly unlikely I'll get any other funded offers. I'd either have to get into Cornell or earn a NSFGRFP, both of which isn't super likely.

[insidethesun]

There are so many people "over the moon" that they must be colonizing Mars.

[Neist]

Hm. Turns out I'm high on the wait list for funding at OU history of science. Maybe I'll get lucky.

[ashiepoo72]

It's very hard to curb enthusiasm when acceptances start rolling around, and this forum is a place for people to be excited about their choices. I think it's important for people still waiting not to take other people's results to heart, but also for people who've had success thus far to keep in mind there are people still in limbo who are feeling very vulnerable and unsure right now. It's one thing to excitedly report an acceptance, another to discuss the "agonizing" choice between several great programs. It totally is an agonizing choice, and people should be able to discuss it somewhere (There is a "decisions" thread in the general forum somewhere, and you can also create one in this forum, for example) but the fact of the matter is, so many people don't even have an option yet, let alone a choice.

[savromat]

Hey everyone, I am the author of this boastful post about having to make a choice. Its outstandingly stupid indeed and I am really sorry about that. Please take my apologies. My bad. I wish I could delete it, but I do not know how. If you know any ways - please let me know. 

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by savromat

[nevermind]

3 minutes ago, savromat said:

Hey everyone, I am the author of this boastful post about having to make a choice. Its outstandingly stupid indeed and I am really sorry about that. Please take my apologies. My bad. I wish I could delete it, but I do not know how. If you know any ways - please let me know. 

 

It's really okay--hopefully, none of our emotional states are that fragile. I think most of us were lamenting the pros/cons of checking TGC, not trying to begrudge the successes of others. Congrats on your choices and your successful application season!

[Neist]

24 minutes ago, savromat said:

Hey everyone, I am the author of this boastful post about having to make a choice. Its outstandingly stupid indeed and I am really sorry about that. Please take my apologies. My bad. I wish I could delete it, but I do not know how. If you know any ways - please let me know. 

I agree with @nevermind.

These boards, especially during this time of the year, are stressful. There's a lot of emotions floating about, and I don't think anyone here is deliberately trying to make others feel bad. I'd like to give soothing advice to all parties, but I'm not quite that articulate. I think it's probably inevitable that everyone's feelings are going to be bruised once or twice during an application season.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Neist
Ugh. Typos.

[betwixt&between]

Received my rejection letter from Brown last Friday, 2/12. It was the only program I applied to, due to mobility constraints this year. Thankfully, I learned an enormous amount of helpful tips for next application season, when I have the ability to expand my radius. Congratulations to all admits everywhere, and for my fellow 'rejects,' we are now forearmed for next year.

[YeshuaNgome]

On 2/12/2016 at 1:26 AM, fortsibut said:

That's really interesting, and UMass sounds like a really solid program.  I grew up in the Central African Republic where my parents worked as medical missionaries, so I fell in love with the region pretty early on.  I've been doing work in missions and gender history for my honors thesis, (self-funding research trips, since my undergrad college doesn't have much funding to help out) and I'm mostly interested in the C.A.R, D.R.C, and Cameroon.  I'd be willing to expand to East Africa if that's what it took to get into a PhD program, a lot of interesting study there too.  But I really feel that Central Africa as a region is way understudied, and ideally I'd like to focus there.  Tough to find a good fit though, my early picks would be Wisconsin, Northwestern, Oxford, Yale, Michigan State, Michigan, and Boston U.  Pretty exclusive group though, so I'd have to really kill it on the GRE, although I have good grades and recommendations and a couple of conference presentations coming up.  As far as topics within the region, I'm interested in missions, religious syncretism, slavery, and gender issues, among other things.

Do you have a specific topic or idea for your PhD, or have you not gotten that far along yet?  I'd be interested to read your bio of Lumumba if you ever post it publicly...what a sad story that whole situation was.  Also sad that your adviser had to switch his specialization because of political turmoil.  I guess in a sense it'd be refreshing to switch it up a little, but after years (decades?) working in an area you love, that's tough.

Hey fortsibut, sorry about the slow response. That is awesome about your background with the Central African Republic. From what I understand, admissions committees will look favorably on your extensive experience of the place you want to study. I can imagine the last several years have been pretty difficult for you with all of the violence. I just read an article about them having a good election there so that I hopefully a step in the right direction! In terms of your interest in the history of missions, I did some really fun research for a paper in my undergrad on a missionary surgeon to China who lived through Japanese occupation in WWII and wrote extensively about her time there. I personally am Christian and have done some missions work in a couple of Middle Eastern countries.

My connection to Congo is also missions related as I spent two months in the Eastern DRC this year as a English teacher/missionary with a local organization. This has been my only experience of actually living there. I can definitely send you my undergrad thesis but it is pretty long (105 pages) and not as cleaned up as I'd like. I also totally agree about Central Africa being understudied from a history point of view. Your picks for PhD programs seem very solid from what I gathered in my own research for this years application rounds, except I wanted to stay in the Northeast and thus only did Yale, BU and UMass. 

In terms of my interests historically, I am very interested in the DRC's political history, especially during and after colonization. Belgian colonization seems me to have been a unique breeding ground for significant ethnic tensions escalating into major conflict. The DRC, Rwanda and Burundi have all had massive ethnic conflict throughout their histories. I could certainly study the political dimensions of this. For me the most interesting span in African history is the period immediately surrounding independence in the early 1960s.  Two topics I would like to move toward for a potential dissertation are: American covert interventions in the Congo from 1960-1965 and the effects of these interventions on the  (mis) development of the DRC's political system and the perspective of everyday Congolese on independence, Lumumba's time in power and his removal/murder. I feel like the Congo crisis is often approached only through its geopolitical implications and not for the impact it had on Congolese individually and corporately. Anyway, I am sure there are many great discussions we can have given our overlapping interests. I will pm you. 

 

 

[Chiqui74]

8 hours ago, PhDudette said:

I think Gradcafe is good and helpful, but I don't think people are very cognizant of the effect they might have on people in their ways of responding to acceptances, etc. People are just bragging to strangers and making others feel worse in the process when they post things like "Accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Chicago - eek how do I decide?!?!?" People can be like this on facebook too, though. But it is actually nice to know as soon as possible about where an app stands, since sometimes rejections can take a long time to send out (for me it is, anyway)

I disagree with this statement.  I doubt that people are bragging about acceptances. Rather, they are genuinely excited and want to share.  The bragging is more in the perception than in the intent.

I am a firm believer in that people should not have to walk on eggshells for someone else's sake.  I'm not saying that people have the right to be a-holes or purposefully do hurtful things, but they are allowed to rejoice in their accomplishments without being chastised for it.  There are always people who have it better and people who have it worse, in all ranks of life and all situations.  If only misery, as it were, was the accepted shareable feeling, it would be a grim world indeed.

[dr. t]

8 hours ago, PhDudette said:

I think Gradcafe is good and helpful, but I don't think people are very cognizant of the effect they might have on people in their ways of responding to acceptances, etc. People are just bragging to strangers and making others feel worse in the process when they post things like "Accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Chicago - eek how do I decide?!?!?" People can be like this on facebook too, though. But it is actually nice to know as soon as possible about where an app stands, since sometimes rejections can take a long time to send out (for me it is, anyway)

Yeah, no, I'm coming down super hard on this nonsense. People are allowed to be unironically happy, and talk about their success and the choices they have in this space. And many people who are just admitted to or are currently attending top-ranked programs got shut out in their first (or second) go-around. If you feel like their success is hurtful to you, that's definitely not their problem.

No one here owes you their silence, and this post makes you sound like a petulant five year old. Grow up and get over it.

Edited February 16, 2016 by telkanuru

[ashiepoo72]

Well, based on memories of the crazy range of emotions from my application season, I think the ridiculously giddy reaction to acceptances and the downright miserable reaction to hearing nada except the joy of others are both perfectly normal emotions, and technically this space is for both extremes and everything in between. All I'm saying is that we all take to heart that there are many people on this forum going through many different things, and to try to show each other a bit of patience and respect. Then again, no one died and made me queen of the castle so feel free to ignore me. I'm a Bernie fan, so you know I'm a dirty commie pacifist.

[_etruscan]

Huh, there was so much I've could've learned if I only found gradcafe sooner. In any case, I got accepted to Vanderbilt with 5 years funding. From my conversation with my POI there, Vandy is a perfect fit with my research interests. 

I fully expect to be rejected from UT-Austin, Minnesota, and Rice. But whatever, just happy I got in

[prosopographer]

Just received a very happy email from the Penn DGS! Fellowship/stipend for 5 years and summer travel support. Really exciting news after being rejected by Princeton last week. Are there... any other potential members of the cohort around here? 

[nom]

5 hours ago, prosopographer said:

Just received a very happy email from the Penn DGS! Fellowship/stipend for 5 years and summer travel support. Really exciting news after being rejected by Princeton last week. Are there... any other potential members of the cohort around here? 

Congratulations! I'm hoping to hear from Penn also! Fingers crossed! Did your application status change? 

[CTKopster]

Any UConn news? 

[Neist]

7 hours ago, prosopographer said:

Just received a very happy email from the Penn DGS! Fellowship/stipend for 5 years and summer travel support. Really exciting news after being rejected by Princeton last week. Are there... any other potential members of the cohort around here? 

Congrats!  And not me!

On an unrelated note, you're interested in prosopography? I am as well, although I'm probably closer to the metabiography side. Don't see many people interested in these sort of methodologies, or at least I don't.