History 2010

[VampireLincoln]

I think visiting schools you've been wait listed at is a really good idea if its convenient. At the bare minimum it will show those schools you are really interested so if a spot opens up, they might give you preference. But yeah, I can see how could be really soul crushing if a spot doesn't open up

Haha, I am now totally mortified...I emailed Indiana to see if there was a good weekend to visit, and apparently they are of the opinion that it would be "soul crushing" too. First my advisor told me he was going to be out of town most weekends in spring (maybe I should've taken the hint?) and then the DGS told me they don't like to "encourage" students who haven't been admitted to visit. Looks like I may be moving down the wait list, haha.

[jz83]

So, who else is almost done hearing from the schools they applied too? I only have three left, Georgia, Boston College, and the now apparent UNC rejection. Short of a making a pair of campus visits (including the Wisconsin recruitment weekend), I'm about ready to make up my mind. Anybody else on the precipice of making a decision or already has made a decision?

I'm still waiting to here from Indiana and NYU but my #1, Maryland, gave me an offer that I can't refuse and so I'm basically set.

[USHist]

I'm still waiting to here from Indiana and NYU but my #1, Maryland, gave me an offer that I can't refuse and so I'm basically set.

If you don't mind, how and when did you hear from Maryland? Thanks!

[Joe Lordan]

Hello guys, I have a question for you!

So I was accepted to Northeastern University today, something I am pretty happy about because it is 1) in my hometown of Boston and 2) has a professor who is specializing in the field I'd most like to study in (World War 1). The rub, though, is that of the schools I've applied to it is further down on the list of ranked history programs (I think it is in the low 90s). Not all that good, but that isn't where the question I have lies!

It has been hinted that I'll probably be able to be a TA and get a tuition waver, this is a big deal for me since, as a masters' applicant, I was expecting to take loans out and pay most of my way. By going to Northeastern I'd be able to save even MORE money since I'll be crashing at my parent's house and be covered by my wife's health insurance, so I wont have to pay for either of those things too.

Now, here is the rub: I'm not entirely convinced I want to be a professor; I'm torn between using the MA as a stepping stone to either that or government employment as an analyst. So, with that in mind, does it make sense to go to a worse school if they're offering a ride? Does it matter where I get my MA from (if I choose to get a PhD) if I do well there and have sweet writing samples and LORs? I'd think that being a TA for a spell will let me know if I want to spend the rest of my years as a teacher, so there is that... but I've gotten into better schools, they just wont nearly do as great a job at funding me.

Anyways, thanks in advance!

Edited March 9, 2010 by Joe Lordan

[soleprovider14]

May I ask where you live? This is my first choice, and would love to know when the later was dated, etc. Sorry I don't want to pester, and CONGRATS on your funded acceptance! That's the dream

The letter was dated March 5th and I live in Wisconsin. Good luck with your application to USC!

[BumblebeePlan]

I emailed NYU's graduate secretary LAST WEEK and....nothing.

By "nothing" I don't mean "I didn't get in."

Nor do I mean "they don't know yet."

I mean, "she literally did not even reply to my message."

Thanks, NYU. Thanks.

[Nytusse]

Is it just my imagination, or was last year's history results thread much more positive (I read the whole thing about 20 times, and I wonder how many of you did the same!)? Was this truly that much worse of a year? I feel like so few of us got really great news.

[Nytusse]

Is it just my imagination, or was last year's history results thread much more positive (I read the whole thing about 20 times, and I wonder how many of you did the same!)? Was this truly that much worse of a year? I feel like so few of us got really great news.

I realized after I posted that it sounded almost like I counted myself as some sort of privileged few, when what I meant by "us" is all the history applicants. Even the people who got admits have gotten no/little funding, or not-so-good fits, etc. The "happy" ones still seem to be pretty meh.

[Mercer]

Is it just my imagination, or was last year's history results thread much more positive (I read the whole thing about 20 times, and I wonder how many of you did the same!)? Was this truly that much worse of a year? I feel like so few of us got really great news.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was more positive. From what I've heard last year was possibly the worst year ever to apply for grad school and this year is exceeding that one in awfulness.

[Sparky]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was more positive. From what I've heard last year was possibly the worst year ever to apply for grad school and this year is exceeding that one in awfulness.

Yup. And make no mistake, I think I am one of the few absolutely ecstatic ones here, but I am still a member of the "All you need is one" club (1 funded acceptance out of 4, and one app withdrawn). More importantly, I also managed to find what may be the only humanities program in the U.S. that did not see both/either an astronomical increase in the number of applicants and/or a forced decrease in cohort size. Although I think it's the latter that hurts more than the former--as one of my profs put it, when advising me against applying to Harvard Div, "I could see you as one of the top 2 out of fifty. I doubt you would be the number one candidate out of twenty-five." (Meaning, spots per subfield. He saved me $120; I think I can afford to buy him a beer now, yes?)

Hopefully colleges can get their economic feet back under them before next year, or else PhD admissions could be really brutal. Think of all the people who started MA programs this year after being rejected from PhD ones, who will now be applying again, with better qualifications. Ugh.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Sparky

[Alea Iacta Est]

Yup. And make no mistake, I think I am one of the few absolutely ecstatic ones here, but I am still a member of the "All you need is one" club (1 funded acceptance out of 4, and one app withdrawn). More importantly, I also managed to find what may be the only humanities program in the U.S. that did not see both/either an astronomical increase in the number of applicants and/or a forced decrease in cohort size. Although I think it's the latter that hurts more than the former--as one of my profs put it, when advising me against applying to Harvard Div, "I could see you as one of the top 2 out of fifty. I doubt you would be the number one candidate out of twenty-five." (Meaning, spots per subfield. He saved me $120; I think I can afford to buy him a beer now, yes?)

Hopefully colleges can get their economic feet back under them before next year, or else PhD admissions could be really brutal. Think of all the people who started MA programs this year after being rejected from PhD ones, who will now be applying again, with better qualifications. Ugh.

I'm a card carrying member of the same club. I'm utterly relieved to have been able to get in to a good school this time round, because as an international student from a country, an MA is simply not an option for me, either in the US where I simply don't have enough money, or back at home where there is simply no instruction in my subject of interest. I was already stunned (and not a little terrified) to see how much better qualified than me most of the Fall 2010 applicants were, and my chances would only have deteriorated significantly after this year.

I truly hope that's not the case for people who plan to reapply next year and that you get opportunities to improve your application profiles and fit (whatever that means) in the intervening time.

Edited March 10, 2010 by Alea Iacta Est

[StrangeLight]

last year sucked too. i also don't recall seeing that many people get admitted to top programs. i remember more bad news than good. it did, however, seem like people were either admitted for the PhD or rejected outright (or waitlisted and then rejected). i don't remember very many from last year (on this site) getting MA offers. i'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. surely an MA offer is better than an outright "no," but funding, and guaranteed admission to the PhD, would be nice. perhaps schools are in something of a transition, more willing to admit masters students who pay their own way and "fund" the PhD students who don't do coursework anyway (and therefore have no tuition to waive).

i will say, though, that in early february, this board sounded VERY cheery. much more so than that time last year.

but yes, applications are up (but not by that much more than last year) and spots (and spots with funding) are down, significantly. that is rough. and that's also why i'd advise people take what's being offered to them, if anything. forget about your big name undergrad prof who tells you that you're top 10/ivy league material. there are great faculty and students at any top 50 program (seriously), there are jobs for any student that does top notch research (seriously), and that undergrad prof is really out of touch with the way the admissions work nowadays (seriously).

i had a professor, one of the top two scholars in his field (depends on where you fall in the ideological debate if he's #1 or #2) tell me that the top schools would be fighting over me to recruit me. he was shocked when i was only accepted to 1/3 of the places i applied to. it's not the 80s anymore. the talent pool is larger and the spaces are smaller.

[utsusemi]

i had a professor, one of the top two scholars in his field (depends on where you fall in the ideological debate if he's #1 or #2) tell me that the top schools would be fighting over me to recruit me. he was shocked when i was only accepted to 1/3 of the places i applied to. it's not the 80s anymore. the talent pool is larger and the spaces are smaller.

StrangeLight, that anecdote sheds light on one perplexing element in my conversations with professors at a few of the schools I applied to. I was told several times, "I'm sure you'll have other offers"--twice in the context of referring my app down to an MA program, once from a top-50 program where I was asked 'don't string us along,' implying that I'd actually be in a position to do so (!). I was too polite to say skeptically, "Really? Sounds awfully optimistic to me...," but I was certainly thinking it (for my field, I have a deficit in language training that is a serious weak point in my apps, and in two out of four such conversations I was, after all, being turned down on that account).

But now I realize we applicants probably have a clearer view of the big picture in some ways. Perhaps faculty are too enmeshed in their individual departments' financial crunches and the way it's affected their own recruiting last year and this year, and haven't yet truly internalized that their schools are not anomalies, that this is the new status quo, at least for now. I'm sure they know all the same dire statistics we do, but it may not have sunk in on a subconscious level that there's no longer such a good chance that the strong-but-not-quite-a-fit applicants one school reluctantly turns down will still have plenty of other offers to choose from.

That said, my own undergrad advisor was pretty candid with me, I think--very kind and polite about my abilities, because he is that kind of person, but he nevertheless did tell me right off that he had had good students, even in better economic years, who didn't manage to get in anywhere despite applying widely.

Edited March 10, 2010 by utsusemi

[limeinthecoconut]

I got lucky this year - a waitlist and a funded offer from my top two choices. Last year was an epic fail for me (one unfunded offer).

So, if things are worse this year than last year - take my example, and believe that there might be hope next year!

Good luck to all still waiting.

[StrangeLight]

ever wonder if this is worth it? how long it will take the hard work for graduate school to pay off?

the answer is 8 months. this summer, i'll be presenting at conferences in nicaragua, montreal, and barbados. open bar at the barbados conference. don't worry, people, you'll be sipping alcoholic slushies on a hammock on the beach in no time.

[limeinthecoconut]

ever wonder if this is worth it? how long it will take the hard work for graduate school to pay off?

the answer is 8 months. this summer, i'll be presenting at conferences in nicaragua, montreal, and barbados. open bar at the barbados conference. don't worry, people, you'll be sipping alcoholic slushies on a hammock on the beach in no time.

I knew there would be light at the end of the tunnel!

[tmartillo]

I emailed Fordham earlier this week and received an acceptance email with the .pdf copy of the letter. No funding for the Masters program, but I am still thrilled that that even happened. I didn't have strong GREs but good grades, experience, recommendations.

Still waiting to hear from USC and Rutgers.

[Sonic]

last year sucked too. i also don't recall seeing that many people get admitted to top programs. i remember more bad news than good. it did, however, seem like people were either admitted for the PhD or rejected outright (or waitlisted and then rejected). i don't remember very many from last year (on this site) getting MA offers. i'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. surely an MA offer is better than an outright "no," but funding, and guaranteed admission to the PhD, would be nice. perhaps schools are in something of a transition, more willing to admit masters students who pay their own way and "fund" the PhD students who don't do coursework anyway (and therefore have no tuition to waive).

I was in last year's applicant pool, and I think this is right. Last year was bad, but a lot of schools didn't know how bad it was going to get. The program I'm in ended up overenrolling last year (because their usual formula of admits-to-enrollment ratio was off), and now this year they are underenrolling to make sure there will be enough money to get everybody through. A lot of schools are probably trying to funnel students into the MA programs while they try to get a handle on what the funding situation is going to look like for the next few years.

Good luck to everybody, and hang in there!

[rsahk]

I see that some of you are considering unfunded offers from Wisconsin (and possibly other places as well). Every year the Wisconsin issue seems to arise and people make different decisions about it. The conventional wisdom, with good reason, is don't take unfunded offers, no matter what any school says about how it's ok. A friend of mine went to Wisconsin and left for a different program because the funding situation made things incredibly difficult--and he scraped together funding, though never from the history department. The following information comes directly form him (I'm enrolled in a funded PhD program elsewhere, but was admitted to and considered Wisconsin).

According to him, the funding problem is acute and poorly handled. For example, TAships are doled out semester by semester based on a points scale. This means that you can be funded one semester but not the next. He knew third years who did not have TAships because there are limited number of TA spots and those with fellowships are guaranteed spots after their first year (which is a true fellowship). So, if there are 30 spots and 15 fellowship students, there are only 15 spots per semester for the other students to fight for and there are far more than 15 people who want those spots. While he was there, no first years TAed in the history department, though some people were able to get TA positions in other departments. He also said the funding situation means a disproportionate amount of time is spent dealing with funding -- talking about it, complaining about it, applying for it. This took time away from academic work. He also said that the intellectual climate suffered as a result because people griped about money rather than talked about ideas.

He's told people (myself included) not to go without funding (again, I considered Wisconsin given the strength of faculty in my field). He said that there are some faculty there who are mavens of finding funding for their students. If you're considering it (and they get a good number of people who were waitlisted at other top programs), talk to your potential advisor as s/he might be good or might not be. Talk to his/her students: are they funded? how/by whom? how often have they been funded? when did they know they would be funded? Finding out August 25 that you have funding for the fall means spending the summer anxious about funding rather than productive about work. Be wary. Get a lot of information. Be skeptical. Then make a decision about whether you can live with uncertain funding for 7-9 years (their average time to degree is 8 years in US history, more in other fields).

[MsScarlet]

aa

Edited March 11, 2010 by MsScarlet

[history_mom]

I am one of the USC acceptances. My area is early modern Britain with an emphasis on gender and empire.

In early February, I received a phone call from Dr. Harkness informing me that I had been admitted with 5 years of funding and the next day received several emails from other faculty members welcoming me to USC. I received the official offer in the mail about two weeks later. I received my funding offer in the mail about a week ago (and Dr. Harkness emailed me a .pdf copy of it the day before). Next weekend is the recruitment weekend on campus and in the email I received there were about 8-10 names. I have no idea how many of those have been accepted and how many they are still vetting.

My sense is that the definite "yes" candidates have already been selected, but I would contact the department and find out.

[monkeyface]

<br/>I am one of the USC acceptances. My area is early modern Britain with an emphasis on gender and empire.<br/><br/>In early February, I received a phone call from Dr. Harkness informing me that I had been admitted with 5 years of funding and the next day received several emails from other faculty members welcoming me to USC. I received the official offer in the mail about two weeks later. I received my funding offer in the mail about a week ago (and Dr. Harkness emailed me a .pdf copy of it the day before). Next weekend is the recruitment weekend on campus and in the email I received there were about 8-10 names. I have no idea how many of those have been accepted and how many they are still vetting.<br/><br/>My sense is that the definite &quot;yes&quot; candidates have already been selected, but I would contact the department and find out.<br/>

CONGRATS, and thanks for the info! man, i'm in CA, where the heck is my rejection letter?

[Nikki]

I just check the website and found out that I got in to Texas A&M. Does anyone know what kind of funding packages they give for PhD students?

[BumblebeePlan]

So a friend of mine was at a party in Chicago and ran across someone who got into NYU's history program two weeks ago....

[heu mihi]

So a friend of mine was at a party in Chicago and ran across someone who got into NYU's history program two weeks ago....

Yeah, I was at Northwestern's admitted students thing last week and a couple people there had gotten in as well. Weird that no one posted it on here. I heard a while back that I was waitlisted. I guess they've made their decisions.