History 2010

[deuterides]

Thanks! I'm really happy, particularly because I have a sinking feeling my offer at UVA will be without funding!

Hey, What gives you this idea? I'm under the impression that UVA is good (but not great) with funding?

[bakabeth]

Hey, What gives you this idea? I'm under the impression that UVA is good (but not great) with funding?

It is just the impression I got from my PA there, that this is a particularly rough year for funding at UVA. I'd love to be mistaken though.

[quickbrownfox]

anyone planning on turning down their Brown offer?

[chickadee21]

It is just the impression I got from my PA there, that this is a particularly rough year for funding at UVA. I'd love to be mistaken though.

I'm excited to have gotten in to UVA, but I'm afraid to get too excited until I find out about funding...their website makes it sound like they're not great for funding first years. Fingers crossed...

[deuterides]

I'm excited to have gotten in to UVA, but I'm afraid to get too excited until I find out about funding...their website makes it sound like they're not great for funding first years. Fingers crossed...

I really curious now. I was told my multiple people, including a POI that first years have trouble getting full funding, especially first semester, but everyone gets something. I've even have had my professors here (two of whom are somewhat familiar with UVA) that Virginia is good about funding, especially compared with Wisconsin my other admit (and alot of other people's on here)

[ChibaCityBlues]

Did anyone here go to the NYU prospective students thing? What was it like? Were there a lot of people there? Did you get the impression that those invited were those likely to be admitted?

According to the ad com chair they invited many more people than will be admitted.

[africanhistoryphd]

According to the ad com chair they invited many more people than will be admitted.

So does that mean if you weren't invited to the weekend you are totally out of the running?

[ResPublica]

On 2/22/2010 at 4:31 PM, history1920 said:

Congrats on your acceptance to UCLA. Something in your post caught my attention and I wanted to share what information I have with you. I grew up in LA and I know someone in the History Department at UCLA who accepted their non-funded offer last year. I think there are some hidden costs beyond your notion that "I will only have to come up with a loan for tuition." So here are a few cost related things about living in LA and going to UCLA:

1. You have to pay student fees and health insurance in addition to tuition.

2. Will you have a car? If yes that's expensive. FYI, your insurance rates are determined by where you live in LA. If you live in an area where your neighbors have fancy cars expect your insurance to be outrageous. Parking at UCLA is over $1,000 for the year; no street parking. If you don't plan on having a car you probably want to live in an area relatively close to UCLA that has bus lines--really freaking expensive.

3. My friend, in his second year, said there is no guarantee of funding (TA or Readership) for grad students beyond the first year, unless otherwise indicated on your acceptance letter, but the department tries to find something for you and usually does.

I just wanted to offer you what I know and have heard about that program. Best of luck

Thanks for the candid advice, but I have given this a great deal of thought and research, otherwise I would not be considering it. I already figured the cost of fees in with tuition, and I have excellent health insurance through my wife's benefits package with her employer, and will therefore be getting a waiver for the student health insurance. Her job also pays enough to cover the cost of living near UCLA, for what that is worth. As for the the funding, I am well aware of what I am getting myself into. The situation was laid out from a member of the UCLA adcomm to my advisor at Davis, who told me that I would be competing for TAships in the Ancient History courses with a handful of other students. Precedence in Greek history, for instance, is given to those who actually read Greek, a rare commodity in History departments believe it or not. Although my BA is in History, I am currently in a Post Bac program in Classics, and so my Greek is quite good, as is my Latin.

Frankly I am thrilled to have gotten into UCLA, having done my undergrad at an unranked, no name school, and having received across the board rejections last year. A lot of you people posting here seem to forget that not everyone is necessarily top tier material. If I want a job someday, having UCLA on my PhD as opposed to say UC Irvine (my other acceptance) at the cost of a couple 10k debt is an easy decision to make.

[TMP]

Hm, true, looking at your list of schools. If you do want to teach history, go for UCLA then! I also came from a small school so attending my MA program is a big boost to my applications so I do feel you.

(gosh, I hate being an out-of-state MA student, which is why I'm taking all-or-nothing approach to funding)

[StrangeLight]

to all of the unfunded acceptees....

1. congratulations on being admitted.

2. being unfunded will not only hurt your wallet, it will negatively affect your ability to secure fellowships, grants, and tenure-track positions down the line. the people who are admitted with fellowships are the ones that win more fellowships and grants. the people who are submitted with full funding in the form of TAships only have a good shot at departmental grants, but they're poorly positioned for more competitive university-wide and external fellowships.

3. besides worrying about your finances, you should worry about the school's. if they can't afford to pay their grad students, they probably can't afford summer research or conference travel funds for everyone either. if you don't get those summer research fellowships and you can't afford to go to conferences, that's just making your CV look shorter and shorter and that will hurt your employability.

if you take the unfunded offers anyway, i wish you all the luck. i have heard a few stories people getting TAship offers for their second semesters, so you may only have to do one unfunded semester. not having the guaranteed package will cause you a lot of stress every 4 months, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll never secure funding. it can be done but it isn't easy. if it were me, knowing all the crap i just told you about what a bad idea it is to go unfunded, i'd probably enroll anyway, incur the debt for the MA, then reapply for PhD programs. i wouldn't do the PhD unfunded, but there are plenty of people that pay out of pocket for MAs (good idea or not) and then get fellowships at other schools for the PhD.

edit: if you want a job in academia, you need a long CV. UC irvine is a fine school and an 8-page CV full of fellowships, grants, conference presentations, publications, and teaching experience from a top-30 program is probably worth more than a half-page CV with no awards from a top-15 program. a degree from UCLA is no more a guarantee of employment than one from UC irvine.

if irvine is funding you, i'd go there, do the MA on their dime and reapply to UCLA for the PhD. if you get funding, move there. if not, stay at irvine. what's more, you can work with professors at UCLA easily and the names attached to your dissertation committee count for more than where the degree is from if your aim is to work in academia.

Edited February 23, 2010 by StrangeLight

[history1920]

Thanks for the candid advice, but I have given this a great deal of thought and research, otherwise I would not be considering it. I already figured the cost of fees in with tuition, and I have excellent health insurance through my wife's benefits package with her employer, and will therefore be getting a waiver for the student health insurance. Her job also pays enough to cover the cost of living near UCLA, for what that is worth. As for the the funding, I am well aware of what I am getting myself into. The situation was laid out from a member of the UCLA adcomm to my advisor at Davis, who told me that I would be competing for TAships in the Ancient History courses with a handful of other students. Precedence in Greek history, for instance, is given to those who actually read Greek, a rare commodity in History departments believe it or not. Although my BA is in History, I am currently in a Post Bac program in Classics, and so my Greek is quite good, as is my Latin.

Frankly I am thrilled to have gotten into UCLA, having done my undergrad at an unranked, no name school (Eastern Washington University), and having received across the board rejections last year. A lot of you people posting here seem to forget that not everyone is necessarily top tier material. If I want a job someday, having UCLA on my PhD as opposed to say UC Irvine (my other acceptance) at the cost of a couple 10k debt is an easy decision to make.

I think you misunderstood my comment. I was not offering you advice; I was offering you my (very limited) knowledge of UCLA's history department and my own experiences with the less obvious costs of living in LA. I really don't think "advice" is the right word. I did not give my opinion about the nature of unfunded offers or whether or not you should take it. Now I am going to offer you some advice....if you visit/attend UCLA try "Father's Office" in Santa Monica. It's arguably the best hamburger in the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.

You definitely seem to have done your homework and i'm glad UCLA is accepting your partner's insurance.

I think StrangeLight is right in that the quality of your work and who you work with are probably more important than the name on your diploma.

Best of luck to you.

[BumblebeePlan]

Did anyone here go to the NYU prospective students thing? What was it like? Were there a lot of people there? Did you get the impression that those invited were those likely to be admitted?

I went to my own little lonely separate NYU interview due to a schedule conflict.....anyone else do that? It was kind of scary, but I liked the people quite well. Does anyone who went know if they or any of the other attendees did early- or pre-modern East Asia?

[figurefive]

Brown yesterday; Penn today. A rejection a day keeps the ... potential advisors away?

Oh well. At least we're finally starting to hear!

[cgking]

Columbia didn't interview this year, right? My application got referred to the History department from Art History, so I'm sort of lost (even though I strangely want to go to Columbia even more now!)

Congrats to everyone who's heard good news so far!

[cm125]

UT-Austin results are up on the website.

[jmhc]

Hey, who is the BU admit? What field and was the e-mail from a potential advisor and if so who?

Just wondering, I go to BU undergrad and applied for grad. I know most of the profs here so really just curious.

Thanks and congrats!

[TMP]

Got verification from Emory from my POC. All first round offers are out. So if you still haven't heard anything, you're just... well, still on the pile waiting to be reviewed again if they decide to do another round of offers.

Okay, maybe I don't have to accept this as a total rejection.

[Nytusse]

These last two days have just been awful...who was the wise person who said f&#% the economy? I have admissions to programs with two potential advisors I would love to work with, and neither one is going to give me a dime.

People usually say to try again next year, but sheesh, it's only going to get worse.

[tourist]

These last two days have just been awful...who was the wise person who said f&#% the economy? I have admissions to programs with two potential advisors I would love to work with, and neither one is going to give me a dime.

People usually say to try again next year, but sheesh, it's only going to get worse.

What's also bad is having to wait for postal mail rejections. Why can't they all be swift and relatively painless like those who send you an email? We don't live in the middle ages to wait weeks and weeks for a shitty, f'ing letter with two lines of meaningless words. (no offense to those studying medieval history) Absolutely ridiculous! *Rant over. Thanks for listening.*

[TMP]

These last two days have just been awful...who was the wise person who said f&#% the economy? I have admissions to programs with two potential advisors I would love to work with, and neither one is going to give me a dime.

People usually say to try again next year, but sheesh, it's only going to get worse.

I call it! I say "F#$% the economy" daily. I was talking with my friend about this and she said don't worry you'll be MUCH stronger applicant next year... I said, no, that's not the point. The point is the psychological toll of applying to PhD programs AND waiting!!

Edited February 24, 2010 by ticklemepink

[Nytusse]

I call it! I say "F#$% the economy" daily. I was talking with my friend about this and she said don't worry you'll be MUCH stronger applicant next year... I said, no, that's not the point. The point is the psychological toll of applying to PhD programs AND waiting!!

What worries me is that I honestly do not think there is much I could do to improve my application at this point. People are always worried about their GREs and maybe retake them, or they decide to get a Master's first before applying again. I graduate with my Master's this Spring, my grades are good, GREs are great, languages are where they should be. I think it is my actual ideas that are not very interesting, and what the heck am I supposed to do about that?

I think the worst pain was being accepted two places I would love to go without funding. I would have rather been rejected, I think, especially since I took the early Wisconsin admit as such a good omen.

[limeinthecoconut]

What worries me is that I honestly do not think there is much I could do to improve my application at this point. People are always worried about their GREs and maybe retake them, or they decide to get a Master's first before applying again. I graduate with my Master's this Spring, my grades are good, GREs are great, languages are where they should be. I think it is my actual ideas that are not very interesting, and what the heck am I supposed to do about that?

I think the worst pain was being accepted two places I would love to go without funding. I would have rather been rejected, I think, especially since I took the early Wisconsin admit as such a good omen.

Part of this whole process is also simply crapshoot. I ended up in this situation last year, whereby I only had unfunded offers. Like you, there was little I can do to improve my application. In fact, this year, I reapplied to places with exactly the same application - and ended up with much better results. 'Tis a random process.

Anyway, you are still waiting for four more, so keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Edited February 24, 2010 by seahistory

[goldielocks]

Congratulations to the University of Pittsburgh admit! I was wondering if you could tell me what your concentration is/who you were planning to work with? I applied for the MA program, and didn't hear anything. I'm guessing that means a rejection. Oh well, I suppose.

[bleistift]

I think the worst pain was being accepted two places I would love to go without funding. I would have rather been rejected, I think, especially since I took the early Wisconsin admit as such a good omen.

Lack of funding is a serious issue, but I am a little bit more optimistic than some of the others who have posted their opinions about it here. Depending on the department, there is the chance that you will be able to secure a TAship after your first semester or first year. It's important you inquire about the exact statistics (if these are not provided, try gathering yourself via interviews) to see if this is a possibility. In some places, like the UK, unfunded offers are standard for PhD programs, which means you are often left to your own initiative to finance your expenses. It's a draining process, but it is possible.

[mushpuddle]

Congratulations to the University of Pittsburgh admit! I was wondering if you could tell me what your concentration is/who you were planning to work with? I applied for the MA program, and didn't hear anything. I'm guessing that means a rejection. Oh well, I suppose.

hey, want me to pm you about it?