Fall 2017 applicants

[OHSP]

6 hours ago, Neist said:

Well, think about it.

At a December 1 deadline, the semester is still wrapping up, and once the semester finishes, I consider it unlikely that they'd start the grueling admissions process before the winter break. So, according to my logic (which is admittedly very relative), no one will even look at your application until January.

I guess that the reason that so many of the sciences hear back this early is that the interview process is somewhat involved. Interviews have to be scheduled. Flights have to be arranged and paid for. Meetings have to be codified. It's all very time-consuming. In history, I imagine that the process is far more straightforward. I imagine a small-ish group of people sitting around a table looking through files, and after a week or two of several hour-long meetings, they come up with an accepted student list. 

I'm pretty sure that some history programs interview, but none of mine did. Although, none of the programs that I applied to are what I'd consider large. My interests are somewhat esoteric, and my program options were limited.

Then again, a school with a mid-December deadline got back to me 3 Jan - and I think this had to do with that school's deadlines for fellowship nominations- so you never really know what's happening. How reassuring... 

[catofthesecondstreet]

Hello! I am wondering if anyone has gotten an email from POI at Yale that he would like to have a phone call and ask few questions. I would really appreciate if anyone could share his/her thoughts on what he might ask. Thank you! 

[Sigaba]

1 hour ago, catofthesecondstreet said:

Hello! I am wondering if anyone has gotten an email from POI at Yale that he would like to have a phone call and ask few questions. I would really appreciate if anyone could share his/her thoughts on what he might ask. Thank you! 

Try shooting @natsteel a PM.

[OHSP]

1 hour ago, catofthesecondstreet said:

Hello! I am wondering if anyone has gotten an email from POI at Yale that he would like to have a phone call and ask few questions. I would really appreciate if anyone could share his/her thoughts on what he might ask. Thank you! 

Hey @catofthesecondstreet - first, congrats on the interview and, second, if you search for Yale history interview there are some useful comments from past years. What's your subfield by the way? 

[Sigaba]

ALCON--

It is easier said than done, but do try not to worry about the stuff you cannot control. It's going to be what it's going to be.

Instead, I urge you to give thought to the possibility that you're going to be admitted somewhere. There's no time like the present to start preparing yourself for being at that somewhere.

In your fields, there are books that "one ignores at one's peril," cutting edge monographs and dissertations, and state of the art historiographical essays galore in relevant journals. Do you know what those books are? Do you have copies of those books and essays?

Do you have that short list of scholars/topics that you'd like to write that extended essay in the introduction to historiography seminar you'll take your first term? What about the primary source materials you're going to need for that first research project in graduate school?

How are you coming on doing deep back ground research on the faculty members you want on your committees? Take it from one who learned the hard way -- look before you leap. And then look again. (But I am not bitter.)

Find ways to get refocused and do your best to stay focused. Try not to let your angst draw you into the shit show surrounding POTUS elect 45. While you're in competition against your own current limitations as you stride towards becoming professional academic historians, down the line you're going to be competing for jobs against true believers who are focused, focused, focused.

[voprosi]

Reporting back on my skype interview.. I can confidently say that the interview was an anomaly in the application process. As I discovered while looking back at my application materials, I found out that I attached the wrong SOP targetted for a different school!  To say I was mortified was an understatement. At least I got a chance to explain that Columbia is indeed one of my top choices. 

[catofthesecondstreet]

@OHSP Thank you for the advice - I do East Asia! 

[angesradieux]

10 hours ago, catofthesecondstreet said:

Hello! I am wondering if anyone has gotten an email from POI at Yale that he would like to have a phone call and ask few questions. I would really appreciate if anyone could share his/her thoughts on what he might ask. Thank you! 

Not Yale, but when I was in a similar situation with my POI at another school, it wasn't a particularly stressful conversation. I took a kind of unconventional path through undergrad, so he asked me to talk a bit about how I ended up applying for a PhD in history. He also asked me a little about my research interests, specifically to talk about which period I'm most interested in, since this far I've kind of worked on the tail end of one and the beginning of the next. What I would say was probably the most important thing he brought up in terms of making admissions decisions was how interested I am in their program--essentially, how many schools I applied to, and where they fell in the ranking. Not sure how similar it will be for Yale, but my experience with a phone conversation with my POI was a pretty low stress kind of thing.

I'd take it as a good sign that they're taking the time to schedule a phone call.

[ziggysunshine]

1 hour ago, voprosi said:

Reporting back on my skype interview.. I can confidently say that the interview was an anomaly in the application process. As I discovered while looking back at my application materials, I found out that I attached the wrong SOP targetted for a different school!  To say I was mortified was an understatement. At least I got a chance to explain that Columbia is indeed one of my top choices. 

Thank you so much for reporting back! Good thing you got a chance to explain the wrong SOP! Do let me know what happens with Columbia for you- if NYU works out for me and we end up in the same consortium of schools, we'll probably run into one another.

[ziggysunshine]

Hey everyone, reporting back regarding my NYU interview. It seemed pretty standard in the sense that the professor talked a bit about his own work, asked me a little more about mine, and then did the whole sales pitch of the department. It did seem like no decisions were set in stone yet though , so to the others who applied- do not despair!

[SarahBethSortino]

I saw on the Grad Café results page that one person got an interview at my long shot but still top choice. I've been checking my email every five seconds now. I didn't think I would be devastated by this first bit of bad news but I am. :-(

[ziggysunshine]

4 minutes ago, SarahBethSortino said:

I saw on the Grad Café results page that one person got an interview at my long shot but still top choice. I've been checking my email every five seconds now. I didn't think I would be devastated by this first bit of bad news but I am. :-(

Hey, are you referring to the post sometime made about an interview with UChicago? ): I saw that too and now I'm worried.

[SarahBethSortino]

1 hour ago, ziggysunshine said:

Hey, are you referring to the post sometime made about an interview with UChicago? ): I saw that too and now I'm worried.

Harvard. BUt I think its the same person since they posted the same exact message twice with two different schools. I mean literally, applying to Harvard was an insane idea anyway. I just kind of wish my first news would have been good news.

[novazembla]

On 1/13/2017 at 1:09 PM, angesradieux said:

Well, the phone call happened. Nothing's official, but he said that he's going to advocate for the department committee to nominate me for a university wide fellowship and he hopes that I'll be in the first group of students they send acceptances to. So there's actually a decent chance I may be a PhD student in the fall.

I'm just seeing your post now. I also got email from the professor I'm interested in at UNC on probably the same day you did. I talked with him over the weekend, and it went similarly -- he encouraged me to apply for a FLAS fellowship as well. I was pretty nervous, but I figured that a professor wouldn't call me up at 9 AM on Saturday to say, "Ha ha! No chance!"

[OHSP]

To those also waiting on Wisconsin Madison, I received an email from my POI that says they are close to making decisions, they are only selecting a small incoming group from a pool of very competitive candidates, I am in the top bracket, and they want to maximise the chance that candidates will accept their offers. There's also a more personal note from my POI re how it's a great fit etc - U-WM's faculty is like a dream given my interests. Did anyone else get this email and also does anyone have any tips re responding? It's definitely not an admission - seems more like an opportunity to convince them that I want to go there. 

[french_historynerd]

11 minutes ago, OHSP said:

To those also waiting on Wisconsin Madison, I received an email from my POI that says they are close to making decisions, they are only selecting a small incoming group from a pool of very competitive candidates, I am in the top bracket, and they want to maximise the chance that candidates will accept their offers. There's also a more personal note from my POI re how it's a great fit etc - U-WM's faculty is like a dream given my interests. Did anyone else get this email and also does anyone have any tips re responding? It's definitely not an admission - seems more like an opportunity to convince them that I want to go there. 

Bahhhh! This makes me very nervous and unsure of my application now. My POI told me straight up that she doesn't connect with students until after they are admitted to the program so my well-written thought out intro email and questions kinda felt wasted and like she wasn't accepting students. Feels even more so since your POI seems very involved.  What's your field in? As for advice, I'm not sure on that one since this is my first ever cycle as well. 

[bigbangdeux]

46 minutes ago, OHSP said:

To those also waiting on Wisconsin Madison, I received an email from my POI that says they are close to making decisions, they are only selecting a small incoming group from a pool of very competitive candidates, I am in the top bracket, and they want to maximise the chance that candidates will accept their offers. There's also a more personal note from my POI re how it's a great fit etc - U-WM's faculty is like a dream given my interests. Did anyone else get this email and also does anyone have any tips re responding? It's definitely not an admission - seems more like an opportunity to convince them that I want to go there. 

 

Do you mind asking what's your subfield?

[OHSP]

30 minutes ago, french_historynerd said:

Bahhhh! This makes me very nervous and unsure of my application now. My POI told me straight up that she doesn't connect with students until after they are admitted to the program so my well-written thought out intro email and questions kinda felt wasted and like she wasn't accepting students. Feels even more so since your POI seems very involved.  What's your field in? As for advice, I'm not sure on that one since this is my first ever cycle as well. 

Sorry to increase anxiety! I wouldn't take the lack of contact as a bad sign - to me the email felt more like they are just finalising their list and trying to scope out more info on some students, i.e. the how much do you really want to go here question. If you've already made it super clear that you're keen then an extra email might be unnecessary. My field is modern US/gender and sexuality. 

[french_historynerd]

11 minutes ago, OHSP said:

Sorry to increase anxiety! I wouldn't take the lack of contact as a bad sign - to me the email felt more like they are just finalising their list and trying to scope out more info on some students, i.e. the how much do you really want to go here question. If you've already made it super clear that you're keen then an extra email might be unnecessary. My field is modern US/gender and sexuality. 

It's okay. I've accepted that this process just makes one very anxious. Especially since it seems like History is taking forever to come out with admission results this cycle. The person who I want to work with directly is specialized in the work I did during my undergrad thesis. So I'm hoping and wishing that she will want to work with me. My field is French History, World War II/Post World War II, Gender and Sexuality. 

Edited January 19, 2017 by french_historynerd
typo

[ziggysunshine]

1 hour ago, SarahBethSortino said:

Harvard. BUt I think its the same person since they posted the same exact message twice with two different schools. I mean literally, applying to Harvard was an insane idea anyway. I just kind of wish my first news would have been good news.

I know! I mean I'm glad I've heard back from one school at least, but the radio silence from the others (including my alma mater, where my old professors who normally respond to me in like five minutes have just stopped responding at all..is that just a bad sign?) is making me really nervous.

[ziggysunshine]

Also: if any of you guys reading this thread are the person who posted about the UChicago interview, please let me know what subfield you're working in!

[sociologicalpizza]

1 hour ago, french_historynerd said:

Bahhhh! This makes me very nervous and unsure of my application now. My POI told me straight up that she doesn't connect with students until after they are admitted to the program so my well-written thought out intro email and questions kinda felt wasted and like she wasn't accepting students. Feels even more so since your POI seems very involved.  What's your field in? As for advice, I'm not sure on that one since this is my first ever cycle as well. 

I worked with a graduate student as an undergrad who had a similar experience with a professor in the program she was attending and said it actually ended up working really well for her, when she did start the program he remembered her and her email and they had something to start talking about.

[SarahBethSortino]

41 minutes ago, ziggysunshine said:

I know! I mean I'm glad I've heard back from one school at least, but the radio silence from the others (including my alma mater, where my old professors who normally respond to me in like five minutes have just stopped responding at all..is that just a bad sign?) is making me really nervous.

I honestly think its their MO to go into a little hole while they are evaluating applicants. Apart from whatever contact we had with POIs before the application, I'm sure they don't want to give the impression of favoritism to anyone by reaching out to them directly without the blessing of the committee. I mean, that's just what I think. I had a fantastic meeting with a professor at Brown before I submitted, so I hope I hear from him directly regardless of if I get in. But still...its like crickets over here.

[ziggysunshine]

13 minutes ago, SarahBethSortino said:

I honestly think its their MO to go into a little hole while they are evaluating applicants. Apart from whatever contact we had with POIs before the application, I'm sure they don't want to give the impression of favoritism to anyone by reaching out to them directly without the blessing of the committee. I mean, that's just what I think. I had a fantastic meeting with a professor at Brown before I submitted, so I hope I hear from him directly regardless of if I get in. But still...its like crickets over here.

I really hope that's it! I didn't contact all of my programs directly when I applied, so part of me just worries that I won't know when decisions go out/have been made. Guess that's why I'm checking this website/the results forum so frequently LOL.

[praxis34]

I was almost convincing myself not to refresh the results page every minute, until I saw the recent entries and posts.