History Admissions 2008

[Cornell07]

I envy law school applicants, because they have one central system through which they submit all of their documents, LORs, and apps. No fuss regarding recs arriving on time or being forgotten by their senders. No fuss regarding missing docs. Sigh.

[missycari]

I agree that latecoming rejections are terrible. I feel lucky in that the rejection I've had so far came at the same time as acceptances. Made it easier to get over it quickly. I don't know why it's so hard for these schools to do the same and let both groups, admits and rejects, know all at once (early e-mails from professors notwithstanding).

I did not apply to NYU but is my impression correct that they are actually conducting interviews to determine admissions?!

[amanda1655]

NYU is interviewing some of its applicants for admissions. Anyone who applied for a joint program may or may not be invited depending on the program. Unfortunately, NYU doesn't list which programs these are. I applied to a program in Irish studies and History so who knows if I even would have been invited. I am just going to assume it's a rejection as well.

I like Yale's way as well. I received notice that I wasn't going to be invited to join the PhD class before they even sent out rejections, mainly I think because they wanted to move my app to their MA program. It felt nice to know that they had been at least interested in my app.

Historically, Princeton has notified rejections within a few days of their admissions e-mails, so hopefully, that's the case this year.

[jaw17]

Does anyone know of good (or halfway decent) ranking systems besides U.S. News, ideally honing in on specific regional fields? E.g. Is there any semi-objective measure of a department's strength in, say, Middle Eastern or Russian history other than word of mouth?

[Cornell07]

Does anyone know of good (or halfway decent) ranking systems besides U.S. News, ideally honing in on specific regional fields? E.g. Is there any semi-objective measure of a department's strength in, say, Middle Eastern or Russian history other than word of mouth?

1) Pick the top "recently" published books in your field

2) Find out where the authors teach

3) More well-published authors at a given institution = better program

[jaw17]

1) Pick the top "recently" published books in your field

2) Find out where the authors teach

3) More well-published authors at a given institution = better program

Of course, that goes (I think!) without saying. The tricky thing in this case is that Central Asia spans a few different regional fields - both in terms of studying and ultimately placement - and so I was wondering if there was a specific way to gauge the external perceptions. Not that important, though...

[nicacar]

I don't know about Russian history, but as far as Middle Eastern history is concerned, UT-Austin, WUSTL, UNC, Columbia, Princeton, University of Chicago, OSU, University of Utah, and Georgetown all have great Middle Eastern Studies/History programs.

[jaw17]

Thanks, that's really helpful! At this point, husband is leaning pretty strongly towards Princeton based on their overall ranking combined with a great Eurasia prof, but I wanted to check whether he needed to be paying more attention to the relative strength of the Persian side. Great to hear that they're considered right up there on the Middle East front, too.

(And yes, at this point I have lost any remaining sanity and patience and so am living completely vicariously through him while I tear my hair out waiting for my own responses.)

[missycari]

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[NSGoddessQ]

I am about to find out if it was worth it to apply to BU. BU has a decent program, but I was mainly applying because they have a number of international relations historians.

I thought about applying to BU, because I love Boston and Harvard is not exactly a "mid-range" school, but neither BU or BC seemed to have enough people in what I want to do. The boyfriend is not in history, though, so my pass on them has nothing to do with his choice. :wink:

[NSGoddessQ]

"We've received a number of requests for information about admissions; you should receive something in the mail soon, in the next week or so. If you do not, call me." Harvard's history department graduate studies coordinator.

She asked for my name, which I told her. I thought that was a bit odd. I do hope it is not for Santa's (John Harvard's) Naughty-Nice List for being a bad boy who called...

Thanks for making the call, Cornell. Wish they would have been more specific. I might call tomorrow myself...

And thanks for the info about the admit weekend, Missy. Of course that conflicts with Rutgers! I suppose that the course of true [grad school] love never did run smooth...

[Cornell07]

Cornell07 wrote:

"We've received a number of requests for information about admissions; you should receive something in the mail soon, in the next week or so. If you do not, call me." Harvard's history department graduate studies coordinator.

She asked for my name, which I told her. I thought that was a bit odd. I do hope it is not for Santa's (John Harvard's) Naughty-Nice List for being a bad boy who called...

Thanks for making the call, Cornell. Wish they would have been more specific. I might call tomorrow myself...

Any idea why they wanted to know my name? I hope it wasn't b/c I had already been rejected and they aren't allowed to tell you that over the phone. :|

[jaw17]

I wouldn't worry about there being special significance behind asking your name - I mean, whenever I answer my phone I want to know who I'm talking to simply as a common courtesy. I frankly find it odd - good, but odd - that the program coordinators don't usually bother.

[Cornell07]

Well. It was not just my name. I said "[My first name]" and they said "...and your last name?". Trust me: no one gets my name written down in one try without having me spell it out.

[missycari]

Perhaps s/he was just checking the list to confirm a decision had been made for you and you would not be waiting in vain.

[Cornell07]

Sorry for sounding a little paranoid. Harvard, because of certain faculty members, is easily my top choice school and match and I'm looking for any indication about what may have happened.

[missycari]

Oh, I think we're all familiar with the paranoia, don't worry. Cornell, I'm pulling for you and for everyone else on this board. And here's hoping everyone will hear soon, one way or the other....

[el217]

Cornell, I admire your bravery in calling at all. I'm much too terrified to call any school, even the ones I already heard from.

Congrats to the two people who posted they got into Northwestern! Care to reveal yourselves and share any more details (who notified, when the visit is, etc.)?

[Historylover]

If the two Northwestern people do respond, would you be willing to indicate your field?

[missycari]

Cornell, I admire your bravery in calling at all. I'm much too terrified to call any school, even the ones I already heard from.

No joke, I would never even consider calling anywhere.... I'm chicken.

[Cornell07]

Call me crazy but I've called most of my schools starting in mid-February, usually when I am most anxious! On that note, where the heck is Columbia's decision??? They said last Friday that they were going to release them Friday or Monday and it's almost 5 o'clock here in NYC. Mmm... I could actually hit up the subway and be there before 5 pm if I was very lucky and a subway would be right on the platform when I arrive.... On second thought... nah! :wink:

[luvalicious]

Hi all,

I just found this forum and decided to post on in. I've been accepted to UM Ann Arbor in the Joint Phd for Women's Studies & History, via phone call at 10pm last Sunday night and then today, I received an email with my funding package and whatnot.

I got accepted into Northwestern University today. They sent me an email with an attached official letter this morning and then this afternoon I got a phone call from Nancy MacLean, the head of the department.

I'm still waiting to hear on my final school but I'm glad I found this forum last night because it was really comforting to see people in the same position as myself. I only applied to three schools and was discouraged by my advisor from having a lot of hope, and my life has been a constant barrage of bad luck so please, guys, don't give up hope! and I wish you all the best of luck in admissions and beyond.

[amanda1655]

Congratulations on your acceptances! UM Ann Arbor said that that they only accepted 33 people. We must know about 1/5 of the entire cohort by now. I have friend who went to Northwestern for history. She had an awful experience with her advisor (a British historian) and ended up dropping the program, but she said the rest of the faculty and students were fantastic!

[TMP]

I'm still waiting to hear on my final school but I'm glad I found this forum last night because it was really comforting to see people in the same position as myself. I only applied to three schools and was discouraged by my advisor from having a lot of hope, and my life has been a constant barrage of bad luck so please, guys, don't give up hope! and I wish you all the best of luck in admissions and beyond.

Ah- same here. 3 programs... but my advisor's another story- she's opposite of yours. Loads of confidence and I'm about to shatter it on Wednesday when I meet with her for my thesis... with one rejection. Oh boy. I"m tempted to wait until I get definite answers but I think I'd lke to see her squirm a little :wink:

No joke, I would never even consider calling anywhere.... I'm chicken.

For me, I didn't call out of courtesy and I know that they know that I'm alive- at least for Mich and Penn when I contacted them in late January about new materials for my application. NYU, on the other hand, has silent ever since.

But, I'm definitely the kind of person who would call up people to get answers. You haven't lived in Israel- unless you can be direct and upfront there, you don't get anything in your way! So I actually called up Michigan today... I said that I already heard that I didn't make it in but I would really like to be considered for a MA program in Jewish Studies, so would they mind moving the application over? I'd really like to strengthen my application for the next round of PhD applications. The director of grad admissions was SO nice- she thought it would be a wonderful idea and said she would get in touch with the department and see what she could work out. I said, wow, thank you sooo much, I still would really like to go! Then she said, Great, I have your contact info right here and I'll get back to you when I find out.

Holy cow, she didn't even ask me to repeat my name (or spell it!). I think all those e-mails back in the fall paid off haha. So there is a silver lining in the clouds and I'm not going to lose my faith in this! 400 applications...and she remembers me. Not to rub it in your faces but it's certainly comforting when you've been rejected with 92% of other applicants and just NOT a piece of paper! (Unlike Penn...)

Congrats to the NW people- one of the students is there for Polish history from my school that my advisor's been telling me stories about. Apparently, the student's loving the program!

[Vordulak]

As there still appears to be some confusion regarding NYU's admissions proceedings, permit me to share what has transpired thus far concerning the matter. Over this past weekend, the history department at NYU held a visitation weekend for all of its prospective students. Since the number of prospectives in attendance, which did not include many international students, significantly exceeded the anticipated size of the matriculating class, I imagine that both those destined for admission and those intended for waitlisting were present. It is now Monday evening, and we have yet to hear back from the department concerning its final admissions decisions.

On a related note, the prodigious amounts of alcohol consumed by certain graduate students would shame even the most bacchanal of college freshmen.