Fall 2016 Applicants

[prculus]

2 hours ago, RamyaS said:

Hi everyone,

I am little late to the forum. I have applied to a whole bunch of schools in various disciplines. I have interests in urban history and US history (19th and 20th century), specifically Detroit. I am currently finishing up a Master's in Urban Design and have two previous Master's degrees in Political Science and STS. 

I have applied to 5 history programs, primarily based on POIs: Yale, Columbia, MSU, George Washington, Wayne State; 3 urban planning programs: MIT DUSP (CDD); Harvard GSD and the University of Michigan; and 1 STS program: Cornell. 

 

I have an admit from MSU (phew) and I am pretty happy with that. Given that I have not heard from Yale or Columbia (though my POI at Columbia did say that he is looking for new doctoral students), is it safe to assume that I did not get in? My concentration is US history in both. 

I am not sure what to (or when to expect anything from the urban planning programs. Or Cornell. Does Cornell (for STS) conduct interviews?

 

Cheers,

Ramya

These programs shouldn't have admissions decisions until February, unless you're in contact with a POI who might be able to tell you more; if you look at the history of the results page this is indicated there.

[emiliajulia]

4 hours ago, telkanuru said:

A general FYI: I was told Brown's selection will be finalized and sent to the graduate school today; final turn-around is about a week.

aaah, thanks for the info! looking forward to a rousing week of nail biting, stress eating, and strong wine......

[Neist]

3 hours ago, RamyaS said:

I am not sure what to (or when to expect anything from the urban planning programs. Or Cornell. Does Cornell (for STS) conduct interviews?

I do not believe so.

I'm waiting with you. That program is one of my top picks, in fact. I'm not holding my breath, but time will tell.

It's so nice to hear from another STS applicant. Isn't a lot of people this cycle floating on these boards, or at least if they are, they aren't posting.

[hbnj]

@DGrayson: THANKS!

Had interview today. They asked lots of questions about the current research I'm doing. One of the things I have going against me (I think), and something they were hinting at is my pursuing a PhD directly out of undergrad without a Master's degree. Has anyone else noticed this? 

Edited January 28, 2016 by hbnj

[mvlchicago]

Just now, hbnj said:

@DGrayson: THANKS!

Han interview today. They asked lots of questions about the current research I'm doing. One of the things I have going against me (I think), and something they were hinting at is my pursuing a PhD directly out of undergrad without a Master's degree. Has anyone else noticed this? 

This is something I worried about a lot last year. It's basically correlation: because so many more applicants have Masters degrees, the applicant pools from which AdComs evaluate for safe investments have become amazingly more specialized: who would you take, a person just finishing undergrad, or a 27 year old with two years in "the real world" and a masters degree coming back from archival research in their region of interest?

That is to say, if you're coming from a reasonable pedigree of school, and have done archival work on your own, don't worry too much about the Masters students. Most of them needed the masters degree to figure out what they wanted to do, or show that they knew enough to carry out the project. If you're getting interviews, it's fairly safe to say you're qualified for your work. 

[RamyaS]

@Neist I know that the MIT HASTS program does conduct interviews. I tanked my interview with them out of sheer nervousness. I would be glad to not have to do interviews, not because I do not feel like I have much to say but interviews become such a marketing match.

I really enjoyed being able to talk with faculty at various universities before applying. I was surprised that professors from the Ivy league took the time to actually skype with me to give me advice, while they were talking. They don't have to. A case in point was Yale, where despite a good fit, the person I would have liked to work with didn't actually reply. But someone else did.  I know that at MSU talking helped and I was offered a spot there. 

I have no idea if the talking to the professors at Ivy league institutions will help. We'll see. 

If you don't mind sharing, are you in contact with your POI at Cornell? I wrote to mine (before I applied, to discuss my application) and was told that it is a committee decision, and individual faculty members don't always have a say. I expect nothing from Cornell. It is a top program. 

Edited January 28, 2016 by RamyaS
typo

[Neist]

21 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

If you don't mind sharing, are you in contact with your POI at Cornell? I wrote to mine (before I applied, to discuss my application) and was told that it is a committee decision, and individual faculty members don't always have a say. I expect nothing from Cornell. It is a top program. 

I am not in contact. I could not think of anything meaningful to add that was not already available on their website. Cornell has quite an informative web space. Well, that and my POI is of a higher position in the department. I didn't want to bother him needlessly. However, my situation is probably slightly different than most. One of my letter writers is an acquaintance of my POI, and another letter writer graduated from the program in 2000. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if my references contacted him beforehand or addressed him directly in my letters. 

Like you say, I expect little. It's one of the top STS programs in the US. Their matriculation rate usually hovers around 7-8%, so even if I'm an outstanding candidate the odds are probably stacked against me. I'm also applying to RPI's STS program, and I've already been accepted into Drexel's (although funding there is sort of paltry).

[MrMomo]

Just got rejected by Berkeley. Sad start to the cycle

[RamyaS]

@Neist I believe directly addressing the POI in letters of recommendation are a good thing! Good luck at Cornell! 

I really thought of applying to RPI's STS program, but my niche topic does not (strangely) fit with a lot of STS programs. 

[DGrayson]

To the person who calculated the cost per word of the Berkeley rejection letter--I salute you. 

Edited January 28, 2016 by DGrayson

[stillalivetui]

Jeez, here's hoping that someone will get accepted to Berkeley. 

[emiliajulia]

oy, I just got the email from Berkeley and based on the results page I think I know what it says, but....I have a date tonight and my first day of teaching tomorrow and I refuse to face the music until I can sit down and brood like a proper applicant. ?

[anxietygirl]

I've had two rejections (honestly a little relieved about berkeley because it was definitely not a good fit), but I'm still waiting on eight schools...starting to be afraid that i'm about to have 10 solid rejections this season. 

Hopefully some good news will come soon! 

[Neist]

5 minutes ago, anxietygirl said:

I've had two rejections (honestly a little relieved about berkeley because it was definitely not a good fit), but I'm still waiting on eight schools...starting to be afraid that i'm about to have 10 solid rejections this season. 

Hopefully some good news will come soon! 

Well given the fairly widespread national trend of downsizing education budgets, I'm pretty leery of getting anything funded.

I work full-time at university, and I applied to this university because the fit is exceptional, but we just an email about $20 million in budget cuts over the next few years. Something tells me funding here might be... problematic.

[anxietygirl]

9 minutes ago, Neist said:

Well given the fairly widespread national trend of downsizing education budgets, I'm pretty leery of getting anything funded.

I work full-time at university, and I applied to this university because the fit is exceptional, but we just an email about $20 million in budget cuts over the next few years. Something tells me funding here might be... problematic.

It's just a tough time to apply. Even if you do get in, without funding, you can't even really attend without mountains of un-payable loans. I guess we will all know in the next few weeks? 

[sts4656]

1 hour ago, Neist said:

I am not in contact. I could not think of anything meaningful to add that was not already available on their website. Cornell has quite an informative web space. Well, that and my POI is of a higher position in the department. I didn't want to bother him needlessly. However, my situation is probably slightly different than most. One of my letter writers is an acquaintance of my POI, and another letter writer graduated from the program in 2000. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if my references contacted him beforehand or addressed him directly in my letters. 

Like you say, I expect little. It's one of the top STS programs in the US. Their matriculation rate usually hovers around 7-8%, so even if I'm an outstanding candidate the odds are probably stacked against me. I'm also applying to RPI's STS program, and I've already been accepted into Drexel's (although funding there is sort of paltry).

@Neist @RamyaS Hey guys, I am with you too!  My field is medical anthropology and applied to both MIT HASTS and Cornell STS. I haven't heard anything from them too, but I guess MIT should be sending interview e-mails around these days. Nice to meet you both and good luck!  

Edited January 28, 2016 by sts4656

[Quickmick]

25 minutes ago, Neist said:

Well given the fairly widespread national trend of downsizing education budgets, I'm pretty leery of getting anything funded.

I work full-time at university, and I applied to this university because the fit is exceptional, but we just an email about $20 million in budget cuts over the next few years. Something tells me funding here might be... problematic.

Interesting and good point--in contrast if you are in the sciences around the Gulf Coast the Deepwater horizon money is getting figured out so they a bit more to work with. In any case, I was thinking about overall chances of admission in terms of the number of applicants/spots without regard to talent. If we look at the top 50 programs and say they take 15 each (maybe high?) say 10 each that is 500 spots. It looks like the top 20 programs (maybe the others [20-50], I didn't look) get 300-400 applicants each. The unknown is how much overlap there is between schools and applicants. I wonder if anyone knows the number of total individual applicants that usually throw their hat in the ring? 1000? 2000? Obviously there are a lot of other factors (specialization/fit/talent/etc), and the schools don't have a minimum # to accept but I was just curious.

Anyone know how many  individual applicants there are in an average year?

[datini]

To mvlchicago:

You've made an unfortunate generalization about history MA's: they are not necessarily people who needed to go to an MA program "to find out what they are doing."

Someone on the results board said about their rejection from Berkeley: whatever, they're all communists there anyway.  If this was a joke---and the tone was not joking but insolent---it is a stupid joke.  If it is serious, Berkeley was smart to reject you.  You've embarassed everyone else by such a vile, ignorant comment.

About MIT HASTS: are there other applicants to HASTS who have been interviewed or contacted for interviews besides the person who posted above?

[stillalivetui]

Lighten up, buddy 

[ashiepoo72]

FWIW, @mvlchicago's generalization fits me and the people in my MA cohort who applied to PhDs to a T. Not saying every person in an MA follows this pattern, but a lot of people do MAs because their undergrad experience didn't prepare them for a PhD or, like me, they had a lackluster undergrad career. Other reasons I've encountered were people who majored in disciplines other than history or people who were shut out when they applied to PhDs but were accepted to MAs.

The pattern I found at almost every place to which I applied was about half the cohort entered with an MA and half with a BA. Most of the people with BAs had completed at least one significant research project and/or took several years off to acquire languages and work in the "real world."

Let's not be too harsh on overly-emotional rejectees. This process is very stressful and, while the joke was in bad taste, I prefer to be generous and view it as a coping mechanism. No one likes to be rejected.

[fencergirl]

9 hours ago, telkanuru said:

Your POI should be contacting you very soon, so, patience. 

A general FYI: I was told Brown's selection will be finalized and sent to the graduate school today; final turn-around is about a week.

Thank you! I don't know why but I didn't really even think that they would contact me on their own. It wasn't that I was impatient I just honestly wasn't expecting it (for some reason!) Anyway, I got an email today

9 hours ago, Oliveur said:

Congratulations on the acceptance to BC! I am hoping to hear from them myself. Chestnut hill is a wonderful part of Boston.

Thank you so much! I don't have a B.A. in History let alone an M.A.so I was worried about getting into Ph.D.programs at all. And I really like my POI at BC so I am really excited! Hope you will hear soon! I don't think they've historically notified quite so early? Seems like it's usually been early February.

Edited January 29, 2016 by fencergirl
typo

[dr. t]

17 minutes ago, fencergirl said:

Thank you! I don't know why but I didn't really even think that they would contact me on their own. It wasn't that I was impatient I just honestly wasn't expecting it (for some reason!) Anyway, I got an email today

Once they have accepted you, the shoe is very much on the other foot. They are now courting you, so enjoy it

[Neist]

3 hours ago, sts4656 said:

@Neist @RamyaS Hey guys, I am with you too!  My field is medical anthropology and applied to both MIT HASTS and Cornell STS. I haven't heard anything from them too, but I guess MIT should be sending interview e-mails around these days. Nice to meet you both and good luck!  

Same to both of you!

Maybe we'll be the 3-4 people who get into Cornell STS.  

[anthrostudentcyn]

As to the debate about master's/not master's: as someone who's coming out of a very good undergrad with a good GPA, would my application be helped by a master's? What would be an advantage or disadvantage? The one I'm thinking of would probably fund me most of the way, and I thought it might be a good option if I get my (expected) straight rejections. 

[Neist]

37 minutes ago, anthrostudentcyn said:

As to the debate about master's/not master's: as someone who's coming out of a very good undergrad with a good GPA, would my application be helped by a master's? What would be an advantage or disadvantage? The one I'm thinking of would probably fund me most of the way, and I thought it might be a good option if I get my (expected) straight rejections. 

I've thought about this, and, just for me, the best thing I could come out of a masters degree with is a theoretical framework that I could not gain from within a program I'd want to obtain a PhD within. I'm not sure if it would make me more attractive, but I do think it would make me a better scholar.

For example, a library degree, cultural studies degree, or digital humanities degree could all greatly benefit my future studies. However, I couldn't necessarily study what I want how I want within programs like these. 

At least that's the sort of MA programs I've applied to. Good solid backups if I don't get into a PhD program, but said programs would readily compliment and enhance my understanding of my interests in ways not typical of an ultimate PhD.