Fall 2017 applicants

[ToomuchLes]

NWU, UCLA, and Rice have already made decisions. 

[angesradieux]

I'm back to stressing over visits. I feel like I'm just going to make an idiot out of myself and have to reassure professors that I'm not always a stuttering, inarticulate wreck. I just printed out a bunch of articles and ordered a book. Hopefully if I make sure I'm familiar with their work and it's all fresh in my mind I'll be able to come up with something reasonably intelligent to say? Like, I was prepared to meet with a couple people. But now I'm getting e-mails like "Oh! When you come I should introduce you to so and so. You may end up working together at some point," and I'm like more people...? 0.o On the one hand, it's exciting, but on the other I'm really bad at meeting people and it makes me incredibly nervous.

[OHSP]

For those waiting on Princeton, they will release decisions tomorrow - such a long shot for me but either way I'll be very happy to stop waiting for that email.

[sovietviolinist]

On 2/11/2017 at 8:01 PM, SarahBethSortino said:

FYI Clark is meeting on February 16th to make their final decisions

helpful, thanks much! It's an unusual program, so not much on the results boards.

[ziggysunshine]

11 minutes ago, OHSP said:

For those waiting on Princeton, they will release decisions tomorrow - such a long shot for me but either way I'll be very happy to stop waiting for that email.

Thanks for letting us know! How did you find this out? I'll be sitting nervously at the edge of my seat, but I'll just go into it assuming a rejection as well.

[OHSP]

6 minutes ago, ziggysunshine said:

Thanks for letting us know! How did you find this out? I'll be sitting nervously at the edge of my seat, but I'll just go into it assuming a rejection as well.

I shamelessly emailed the graduate administrator Not my finest moment but the endless waiting is getting to me. 

[Antebellum]

37 minutes ago, angesradieux said:

I'm back to stressing over visits. I feel like I'm just going to make an idiot out of myself and have to reassure professors that I'm not always a stuttering, inarticulate wreck. I just printed out a bunch of articles and ordered a book. Hopefully if I make sure I'm familiar with their work and it's all fresh in my mind I'll be able to come up with something reasonably intelligent to say? Like, I was prepared to meet with a couple people. But now I'm getting e-mails like "Oh! When you come I should introduce you to so and so. You may end up working together at some point," and I'm like more people...? 0.o On the one hand, it's exciting, but on the other I'm really bad at meeting people and it makes me incredibly nervous.

Hey don't worry at all about meeting professors and your visits! First off, just be thankful you have visits to go to and aren't stuck in limbo waiting for any acceptance like some of us haha. It's definitely a good idea to familiarize yourself with their work, but don't worry about memorizing everything they have written and every argument they have made. From what I understand, the purpose of the visits is to see if the school and faculty are good for you, not if you are good for them (they already know you're good for them since they invited you to visit). Overall just relax and be yourself because they want to get to know you!

14 minutes ago, OHSP said:

I shamelessly emailed the graduate administrator Not my finest moment but the endless waiting is getting to me. 

Haha someone had to do it and it is greatly appreciated. It would honestly be like winning the lottery for me--not just because it would be so amazing but mainly because my chances are the same! Either way, I look forward to tomorrow and wish all other Princeton applicants the best of luck!

[OHSP]

1 hour ago, Antebellum said:

Haha someone had to do it and it is greatly appreciated. It would honestly be like winning the lottery for me--not just because it would be so amazing but mainly because my chances are the same! Either way, I look forward to tomorrow and wish all other Princeton applicants the best of luck!

Happy to take one for the team. I should actually say that she said they "expect" that the graduate school will release them tomorrow so if we don't hear anything then I guess it still should't be too much longer. 

Edited February 13, 2017 by OHSP

[Man Without Qualities]

I just got accepted to Oklahoma this afternoon. Received email to check the website. No word yet on funding opportunities. Very happy that the wait is over! Is anyone else planning on attending?

[wjd]

On 2/11/2017 at 2:49 PM, nhhistorynut said:

Just curious here...

How many schools did most people apply to this round?

I applied to only one this year. That might sound silly, but because I havent completed my MA yet and my writing sample was from a seminar and not part of my thesis, I felt like it was a long shot. My plan if I don't get in is to reapply to this school next year, and then another 4 or 5. But even 5 or 6 apps is starting to seem like a short list. Is it better to apply all over and see what happens?

I'm a 20th century Americanist with an atypical admissions profile, so I cast a wide net at the advice of my mentors. They said that I was good enough to be competitive anywhere, but my application just had to get lucky and fall into the right set of hands. What did that translate to? 11 schools. 

Right now I'm 1a(UNC-CH)/4r/0w/6?, which means that barring a serious winning streak, my advisors weren't wrong. I'm just happy to have a spot somewhere!

[Antebellum]

15 minutes ago, wjd said:

I'm a 20th century Americanist with an atypical admissions profile, so I cast a wide net at the advice of my mentors. They said that I was good enough to be competitive anywhere, but my application just had to get lucky and fall into the right set of hands. What did that translate to? 11 schools. 

Right now I'm 1a(UNC-CH)/4r/0w/6?, which means that barring a serious winning streak, my advisors weren't wrong. I'm just happy to have a spot somewhere!

Aw man, I'm an Americanist too and also applied to 11 schools. One of them was UNC and I haven't heard back from them yet so I'm guessing that is not good news for me. Congratulations though! It's tough for us US historians and I really think it does come down to a decent amount of luck. 

[wjd]

7 minutes ago, Antebellum said:

One of them was UNC and I haven't heard back from them yet so I'm guessing that is not good news for me.

I'm not entirely sure that you should give up hope yet -- they explicitly told me that they were only contacting me early (3rd week of Jan.) because they were nominating me for university-level fellowships. I am not sure if they have sent out all of their acceptances yet.

& thanks for the congrats. We only need one acceptance, right??

Edited February 13, 2017 by wjd

[ctg7w6]

7 minutes ago, wjd said:

I'm not entirely sure that you should give up hope yet -- they explicitly told me that they were only contacting me early (3rd week of Jan.) because they were nominating me for university-level fellowships. I am not sure if they have sent out all of their acceptances yet.

I was just told by the graduate director that they are still in the midst of application season.

Edited February 13, 2017 by ctg7w6

[nevermind]

47 minutes ago, Man Without Qualities said:

I just got accepted to Oklahoma this afternoon. Received email to check the website. No word yet on funding opportunities. Very happy that the wait is over! Is anyone else planning on attending?

 

Congrats on your acceptance! I believe @Neist attends the HoS program. He may be a good resource regarding the town, the university, etc. 

[Man Without Qualities]

15 minutes ago, nevermind said:

Congrats on your acceptance! I believe @Neist attends the HoS program. He may be a good resource regarding the town, the university, etc. 

Thanks! I also live in Norman so if anyone has questions about the town, etc. I'm happy to try and help.

[realmarcelproust]

Fyi I think Rutgers is releasing decisions because I just got an acceptance email !!

[realmarcelproust]

@ziggysunshine I was also wondering about travel reimbursements for NYU... I was also admitted to the joint PhD with the IFS, and all of my contact has been with my POI there who, though he trained as a historian (w/my undergrad thesis advisor actually lol), he's technically in NYU's French department. All that's to say I haven't yet spoken to anyone from the NYU's actual history department. Though I do know that the admitted student visit days are March 3-4, if that helps. 

[OHSP]

20 minutes ago, realmarcelproust said:

Fyi I think Rutgers is releasing decisions because I just got an acceptance email !!

Congrats! I am also wondering about NYU travel reimbursements - my plan was to wait until they sent through the more official email but I'm not actually sure when that will be. 

[Neist]

2 hours ago, Man Without Qualities said:

I just got accepted to Oklahoma this afternoon. Received email to check the website. No word yet on funding opportunities. Very happy that the wait is over! Is anyone else planning on attending?

 

As @nevermind stated, I attend Oklahoma (I'm assuming you meant U. of Ok), so if you need any information, ask away! I'm in history of science, not history, but I've been on this campus for a very long time. As per funding, I'm unsure how funding will be in history, but it was pretty tight last year in the history department. However, that said, it's pretty easy to find GA positions on campus, in my experience. Last year's history of science contingent only had two offers of funding out of five ultimate enrollees, and now, one semester in, everyone has funding. There's a lot of quasi-generic options for GAs on campus.

[realmarcelproust]

9 minutes ago, OHSP said:

Congrats! I am also wondering about NYU travel reimbursements - my plan was to wait until they sent through the more official email but I'm not actually sure when that will be. 

Yeah, I wasn't sure either, so I just bought tickets. But I'm lucky because I'm flying in from Chicago so tickets are relatively inexpensive to pay for out of pocket, and I have a handful of friends in NYC already so I knew I would have somewhere to sleep. They really should let people know soon, though--especially for those of you coming from abroad. I didn't realize how quick the turn around would be between decisions and campus visits! It makes it difficult to plan even when you're a quick two-hour flight away...

[Man Without Qualities]

47 minutes ago, Neist said:

As @nevermind stated, I attend Oklahoma (I'm assuming you meant U. of Ok), so if you need any information, ask away! I'm in history of science, not history, but I've been on this campus for a very long time. As per funding, I'm unsure how funding will be in history, but it was pretty tight last year in the history department. However, that said, it's pretty easy to find GA positions on campus, in my experience. Last year's history of science contingent only had two offers of funding out of five ultimate enrollees, and now, one semester in, everyone has funding. There's a lot of quasi-generic options for GAs on campus.

Hi and thanks for your response, Neist! I'm going to start feeling out the GA situation on campus so I might have some questions for you. It's good to know that there are a lot of options!

[TMP]

5 hours ago, angesradieux said:

I'm back to stressing over visits. I feel like I'm just going to make an idiot out of myself and have to reassure professors that I'm not always a stuttering, inarticulate wreck. I just printed out a bunch of articles and ordered a book. Hopefully if I make sure I'm familiar with their work and it's all fresh in my mind I'll be able to come up with something reasonably intelligent to say? Like, I was prepared to meet with a couple people. But now I'm getting e-mails like "Oh! When you come I should introduce you to so and so. You may end up working together at some point," and I'm like more people...? 0.o On the one hand, it's exciting, but on the other I'm really bad at meeting people and it makes me incredibly nervous.

@angesradieux  Easier said than done-- don't go crazy over reading their works, especially if you never mentioned their names on your applications.  They do expect that you're familiar with their general research areas (which you can look up on their bio pages) but would rather discuss YOUR work and hopes for the program than what they've done.  You are their future.  They'll make their research questions known when you get to talking.  They're more curious about your interests and the kinds of questions you'd like to explore.  A lot of these introductions have to do with the faculty figuring out what graduate seminars to teach and works to assign snd potential exam/dissertation committee commitments.

(A lot of times the faculty in my program won't even put together readings -- or even add/drop courses-- until they know who exactly is coming.)

So, put away those articles and books and enjoy the attention!

[OHSP]

I just received an offer to U Penn and am so enormously relieved/happy! Hopefully this is a good news week for everyone. 

[realmarcelproust]

5 minutes ago, OHSP said:

I just received an offer to U Penn and am so enormously relieved/happy! Hopefully this is a good news week for everyone. 

I did too!!! Congrats to you, and good luck to everyone else. I'm over the moon. 

[OHSP]

3 minutes ago, realmarcelproust said:

I did too!!! Congrats to you, and good luck to everyone else. I'm over the moon. 

Congrats! I suspect Penn is the one for me but I'll have to pro/con list for a while. I assume your subfield is European?