Fall 2016 Applicants

[altiplano]

8 hours ago, Stefanie Xue Bai said:

Hello, has anyone heard decisions from Parsons, Pratt, or RISD? If didn't get an interview with them, it meant I was rejected??

RISD notified me by email on 2/8 (invitation for interview)

[fortsibut]

5 hours ago, YeshuaNgome said:

Mainly regional. I live in the Northeast and would prefer to stay there for grad school. Also, I returned from a few months in the DRC in mid November and the December 1st deadlines of Michigan and Wisconsin Madison were a little too soon for me to make sufficiently strong statements/applications.

I went to UMass Amherst for my undergrad and have come to know and love the history department there. My primary interest is in 20th century political history in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For my honors thesis, I worked under Prof. John Higginson and wrote a biography of Patrice Lumumba. Prof. Higginson used to focus on the Congo before the political challenges of the 1990s made it difficult for him to continue there. He shifted to southern Africa but still has a major wealth of knowledge and experience regarding Congo. Also, Prof. Christian Appy is an expert in American Vietnam War history, which has some tie-in with the Congo due to the Cold War mindset and intervention which the US brought to the Congo in 1960 and during the whole decade as they covertly propped up different governments centering around Mobutu.

Is there a specific field in Central Africa you are most interested in? 

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.

[Stefanie Xue Bai]

1 hour ago, altiplano said:

RISD notified me by email on 2/8 (invitation for interview)

What program did you apply? Mine is industrial design... I got their email on Feb 3rd said I might be contacted by the department but haven't heard anything after then... 

[navyblackmaroon]

5 hours ago, fencergirl said:

Yeah that is also my impression. Although two faculty members interests match mine pretty well, it's not that strong overall in Asian history and I wouldn't have many (any?) other Asianists in my cohort. 

Unless they admitted somebody last year, they have one Asianist graduate student in the entire program (unless you count the students working on US-China diplomatic history or the British Empire/India). 

[torideutch]

17 hours ago, Stefanie Xue Bai said:

Hello, has anyone heard decisions from Parsons, Pratt, or RISD? If didn't get an interview with them, it meant I was rejected??

I was accepted to RISD yesterday by email. Haven't heard from Parsons or Pratt. And didn't have an interview with any of these schools. Hope that helps!

[RamyaS]

Does Michigan interview for Planning? 

[MrMomo]

12 hours ago, dongs said:

Hi guys,  has anyone heard about Harvard HEAL (History and East Asian Languages) PhD program? 

Would like to second this post! Does anyone have any idea which department does the offers for these, and whether or not they have finished the shortlisting?

[Josh J.]

Apparently, Knoxville is covered in snow, but the University of Tennessee is still open.

Is anyone else here hoping to hear from them today?

[emiliajulia]

Congrats to everyone for making through the week, and arriving at a (possibly long?) weekend! take the time to get rest/treat yourself/stay warm/etc. 

[dongs]

19 hours ago, RamyaS said:

Congratulations on the admit!

Oh Yale, please say something already!!!

Tomorrow is the day for Yale, hopefully!

Any other Yale admits?

 

Yale...... Please ....!

[bettafish]

Tfw you get a 3 sentence website rejection from UChicago.  Its kind of hard not to be a little annoyed when the POI is still friends with you on skype.  

[nom]

19 minutes ago, bettafish said:

Tfw you get a 3 sentence website rejection from UChicago.  Its kind of hard not to be a little annoyed when the POI is still friends with you on skype.  

Did you get an email to check your website? I just checked my account and there are no changes to it... :/

[RamyaS]

Ugh I think Yale will say nothing today too. Ugh. 

I am bored.  

[bettafish]

27 minutes ago, nom said:

Did you get an email to check your website? I just checked my account and there are no changes to it... :/

Sorry it was actually from EALC department but since I got rejected there expecting the same from history department.  I applied to both.  Good luck just in case!  Looks like we are applying to the same schools with similar interests.

[Neist]

27 minutes ago, RamyaS said:

I am bored.  

Same. And I'm in my office today doing boring work and everyone else is gone for the day. It's just eerily quiet and tedious. 

It's going to be a long afternoon.

[Septerra]

Has anyone heard anything from Indiana? I'm not holding my  breath because my POI didn't reply for weeks after I sent her an inquiry back in October.

Also, I totally called it "University of Indiana" in my SOP - Doh! This is the third mistake to the third school I've found. Danggg

Edited February 12, 2016 by Septerra

[victoriana]

29 minutes ago, Septerra said:

Has anyone heard anything from Indiana? I'm not holding my  breath because my POI didn't reply for weeks after I sent her an inquiry back in October.

Also, I totally called it "University of Indiana" in my SOP - Doh! This is the third mistake to the third school I've found. Danggg

I am also waiting anxiously to hear from Indiana...they did send out a lot of notifications on February 12th last year, but it seems we may be waiting until next week at least for news.  

There is an entire thread about mistakes people have made in the "Waiting it out" section of the forum, so you are far from alone. 

[Septerra]

10 minutes ago, victoriana said:

 There is an entire thread about mistakes people have made in the "Waiting it out" section of the forum, so you are far from alone. 

Well, I misspelled my POI's name no less than 4 times at Ohio State and they eagerly admitted me, so here's to hoping they find small mistakes endearing!

[meo03]

56 minutes ago, Neist said:

Same. And I'm in my office today doing boring work and everyone else is gone for the day. It's just eerily quiet and tedious. 

It's going to be a long afternoon.

Indeed. This week that began with a bang will seemingly go out with a wimper.

I'm waiting for my rejection letters from Wisconsin and Chicago (and, presumably, from Columbia). Still holding out hope for McGill, CUNY Graduate Center, Notre Dame, and Lehigh. 

Happy weekend, folks!

[jstubbl4]

4 hours ago, Josh J. said:

Apparently, Knoxville is covered in snow, but the University of Tennessee is still open.

Is anyone else here hoping to hear from them today?

Yes, I am!  From everything I can tell, they usually announce admissions decisions somewhere between now and the end of February.  I'm checking the website like every 5 seconds!  The city of Knoxville comes to a grinding halt whenever it snows at all, but not sure about the history department.  I've got my fingers crossed for both of us!

[Josh J.]

26 minutes ago, jstubbl4 said:

Yes, I am!  From everything I can tell, they usually announce admissions decisions somewhere between now and the end of February.  I'm checking the website like every 5 seconds!  The city of Knoxville comes to a grinding halt whenever it snows at all, but not sure about the history department.  I've got my fingers crossed for both of us!

Thanks! Glad to know I'm not the only one.  What is your area?

I have a friend at UT who told me she had class today, but some professors have cancelled classes as well.  

[jstubbl4]

5 hours ago, Josh J. said:

Apparently, Knoxville is covered in snow, but the University of Tennessee is still open.

Is anyone else here hoping to hear from them today?

My area is medieval western religious history.  What's yours?  

[nightfarmer]

1 hour ago, meo03 said:

Indeed. This week that began with a bang will seemingly go out with a wimper.

Yep. With several schools sending out decisions to all applicants early in the week I thought for sure I'd hear from one of mine by the end of the week. But no. Request for parole [from purgatorial waiting] denied.

[nevermind]

3 hours ago, RamyaS said:

Ugh I think Yale will say nothing today too. Ugh. 

I am bored.  

Welp. There's Yale's decisions on the board. Congrats to those who made it!

[emiliajulia]

"i survived the yale massacre and all i got was this generic rejection email"

 

(congrats to admits! you braved the army of 10,000 and came out stronger on the other side)