Fall 2016 Applicants

[stillalivetui]

31 minutes ago, JTE said:

I expected UT-Austin and UC-Davis to have their decisions out already. Last year they announced acceptances and rejections by the end of January. Has anybody heard anything from either of these programs?

Someone received an invite to their recruitment event apparently.

[knp]

@emiliajulia How did the interview go?

[raran]

Hi all-- another longtime lurker here. I've come out of the shadows to fully succumb to my anxiety as February gets going! I applied to 5 programs this cycle and haven't heard back from any (had an interview at Yale.) My focus is on American urban history and activism. I've heard from a few folks that have been waitlisted/ accepted/ AND rejected from NYU but have yet to hear anything. I didn't have a POI I was in touch with, but many faculty I'd love to work with who I sort of...emailed in vain. I also had to request a UID from their kind of antiquated system, as I realize I never actually got one and can't independently check the status of my application. I know the conventional wisdom is that it's not over til the fat lady sings, but does anyone have any experience/ urban legend experience with faculty NOT reaching out to an acceptance or decisions being made in a staggered way? Am I going to get a horrible form letter? Despair...etc. 

[DGrayson]

2 hours ago, JTE said:

I expected UT-Austin and UC-Davis to have their decisions out already. Last year they announced acceptances and rejections by the end of January. Has anybody heard anything from either of these programs?

UT Austin has formalized their short list and are in the process of inviting students for the visiting weekend. I was told that final decisions would not be completed until the first week of March. 

[RamyaS]

49 minutes ago, raran said:

Hi all-- another longtime lurker here. I've come out of the shadows to fully succumb to my anxiety as February gets going! I applied to 5 programs this cycle and haven't heard back from any (had an interview at Yale.) My focus is on American urban history and activism. I've heard from a few folks that have been waitlisted/ accepted/ AND rejected from NYU but have yet to hear anything. I didn't have a POI I was in touch with, but many faculty I'd love to work with who I sort of...emailed in vain. I also had to request a UID from their kind of antiquated system, as I realize I never actually got one and can't independently check the status of my application. I know the conventional wisdom is that it's not over til the fat lady sings, but does anyone have any experience/ urban legend experience with faculty NOT reaching out to an acceptance or decisions being made in a staggered way? Am I going to get a horrible form letter? Despair...etc. 

Hi @ranran Congratulations on the interview with Yale! Hope it went well!

I applied to Yale as well, American urban history. I am assuming, though I was rejected since I didn't interview.  

[Josh J.]

5 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

Hi @ranran Congratulations on the interview with Yale! Hope it went well!

I applied to Yale as well, American urban history. I am assuming, though I was rejected since I didn't interview.  

My understanding is that Yale accepts many people they don't interview. Don't give up hope just yet. 

[RamyaS]

Thanks @Josh J.! Yale would be a dream come true. But I am expecting nothing  

[raran]

5 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

Thanks @Josh J.! Yale would be a dream come true. But I am expecting nothing  

Definitely don't give up hope! My interview was MUCH more like a conversation and I think meant to address some questions around how interdisciplinary my research interests were.

If you don't mind me asking, who was your POI at Columbia? I noticed you mentioned that you had been in touch with someone taking new Grad Students. Sam Roberts by any chance?

[insidethesun]

8 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

Thanks @Josh J.! Yale would be a dream come true. But I am expecting nothing  

Stay positive. We've all done our best work and put forth solid apps. It is really out of our hands at this point.

[Josh J.]

8 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

Thanks @Josh J.! Yale would be a dream come true. But I am expecting nothing  

I hear you. I applied to Yale last year, had a really excellent fit and my advisor is good friends with my POI there. But they get flooded with applicants. 

[RamyaS]

1 minute ago, raran said:

Definitely don't give up hope! My interview was MUCH more like a conversation and I think meant to address some questions around how interdisciplinary my research interests were.

If you don't mind me asking, who was your POI at Columbia? I noticed you mentioned that you had been in touch with someone taking new Grad Students. Sam Roberts by any chance?

That sounds promising @ranran. I do hope Yale offers you a spot soon!

Sure, my POI at Columbia is Karl Jacoby. He only wrote to me that my project sounds interesting and that he is looking for new students  No word from him or Columbia since. I saw a couple of interview notices for Columbia. 

My interests are borderlands, and specifically urban history and the US Canada borderlands

[Watershed]

1 minute ago, RamyaS said:

That sounds promising @ranran. I do hope Yale offers you a spot soon!

Sure, my POI at Columbia is Karl Jacoby. He only wrote to me that my project sounds interesting and that he is looking for new students  No word from him or Columbia since. I saw a couple of interview notices for Columbia. 

My interests are borderlands, and specifically urban history and the US Canada borderlands

I've seen that name before! We're reading "Crimes Against Nature" later on in a seminar that I'm taking this semester.

[RamyaS]

8 minutes ago, Watershed said:

I've seen that name before! We're reading "Crimes Against Nature" later on in a seminar that I'm taking this semester.

Nice!  I quite enjoyed it!

[raran]

30 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

That sounds promising @ranran. I do hope Yale offers you a spot soon!

Sure, my POI at Columbia is Karl Jacoby. He only wrote to me that my project sounds interesting and that he is looking for new students  No word from him or Columbia since. I saw a couple of interview notices for Columbia. 

My interests are borderlands, and specifically urban history and the US Canada borderlands

Thank you... I certainly hope that too, but, as you said...looooong shot. I hate this process.

If it helps at all, I wouldn't worry too much about the CU interviews. I think that they're one-off's and they haven't historically done interviews. It's my first choice,too, so...that's what I've been telling myself. 

 

[RamyaS]

@Josh J. One of my recommenders teaches at Yale. I also spent a year at Yale as a research fellow. What struck me when I was there was how nice and approachable people are and just how much interdisciplinary work is encouraged.  But I think when it comes to admissions, I was told by my faculty mentor there that, they are flooded with apps, and if Yale wants you, you'll know. If you don't hear, it means you probably haven't made the first cut. This is especially true of the anthropology department. Unfortunately I know little about the history department and how it works. 

@ranran  I hate it too. Let's hope Columbia says something soon. I have an admit from MSU, which is a relief. The one person I know who got into Columbia a couple of years ago, heard sometime in early February. He had spent the Fall semester interacting with faculty and he was an obvious choice. 

[Josh J.]

Congrats on the University of Washington admit! Now my anxiety just went through the roof!

[insidethesun]

2 minutes ago, Josh J. said:

Congrats on the University of Washington admit! Now my anxiety just went through the roof!

You'll be fine.

[DGrayson]

Am I too late for the Yale party?

[RamyaS]

10 minutes ago, DGrayson said:

Am I too late for the Yale party?

@DGrayson haha.. did you apply to Yale too? And  were interviewed?

[DGrayson]

I did indeed! I wasn't interviewed, but I spent quite a bit of time conversing with my POI during the fall and spoke with another professor (who I would be working with in the Economic History group) over the phone as well, so I'm hoping that they know my research interests well enough to not need to interview. Probably wishful thinking lol! I did notice that a lot of the interview requests for Yale (at least the ones that I saw) were for the American field. I don't know what Early Modern is doing. 

Edited February 2, 2016 by DGrayson

[emiliajulia]

5 hours ago, knp said:

@emiliajulia How did the interview go?

I think it went just fine! it was with a POI I mentioned in my SOP--he primarily seemed interested to hear about my proposed research, language background, and whether or not I would be interested in a FLAS fellowship. also, thanks @insidethesun!

and I'm also a Yale applicant (Modern Europe)! quite obviously a bit of a reach, but I think it's a reasonably good fit for my research interests.

[RamyaS]

7 minutes ago, DGrayson said:

I did indeed! I wasn't interviewed, but I spent quite a bit of time conversing with my POI during the fall and spoke with another professor who I would be working with in the Economic History group over the phone as well, so I'm hoping that they know my research interests well enough to not need to interview. Probably wishful thinking lol! I did notice that a lot of the interview requests for Yale (at least the ones that I saw) were for the American field. I don't know what Early Modern is doing. 

That sounds promising! Good luck to you!

I applied to Yale quite last minute; given that my current graduate degree is in Urban Design, I was looking at urban planning and architecture PhDs. So I discovered Yale, quite late in the day. I sent a few emails to people, I heard from one of them I think but the people I really wanted to work with (who have worked on the US Canada border in the Pacific Northwest), I did not hear back. Given my specific area of interest i.e. Detroit, Yale does not have faculty who have worked on the midwest (to the best of my knowledge) for either borders, or cities. 

My field is American history, so no interview call probably means its a no no. lol  But again, I would not be too bummed in the likelihood that I am rejected by Yale. 

[DGrayson]

16 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

That sounds promising! Good luck to you!

I applied to Yale quite last minute; given that my current graduate degree is in Urban Design, I was looking at urban planning and architecture PhDs. So I discovered Yale, quite late in the day. I sent a few emails to people, I heard from one of them I think but the people I really wanted to work with (who have worked on the US Canada border in the Pacific Northwest), I did not hear back. Given my specific area of interest i.e. Detroit, Yale does not have faculty who have worked on the midwest (to the best of my knowledge) for either borders, or cities. 

My field is American history, so no interview call probably means its a no no. lol  But again, I would not be too bummed in the likelihood that I am rejected by Yale. 

We have very similar stories! I'm getting my masters degree in Economics right now and decided to switch about a month before applications were do. It was an insane month but hopefully it pays off (for the both of us)!

[RamyaS]

47 minutes ago, DGrayson said:

We have very similar stories! I'm getting my masters degree in Economics right now and decided to switch about a month before applications were do. It was an insane month but hopefully it pays off (for the both of us)!

Let's hope so!

[knp]

@RamyaS I actually think one of my very best applications was the last one I submitted! I only ended up having a day and a half to tailor my material to that school, so I did that part in a righteous hurry. Without the time to over-think "fit", though, I think I might have been more eloquent than the ones where I was trying to split the hairs of exactly why I was interested. I got an interview for that one (over in anthropology), so you never know how the circumstances of writing an application will affect anything! I dunno if I'll get admitted, but I was Super Not Expecting to even make it to an interview there.