History Admissions 2008

[eahistory]

Has anyone heard anything from Maryland yet? I know after getting nothing but rejections, it might just be a pipe dream to get into one school, but thought I would ask. I anticipated a possible two year attempt for applying to Ph.D. programs anyway. I just spend another year where I am, finish a second master's degree, start to learn a language, defend my thesis, and reapply.

[NSGoddessQ]

Has anyone heard anything from Maryland yet?

Not yet -- I'm waiting too, although they were not quite as well-aligned with my interests as some others that accepted me, so I'm not as curious about them as I am UNC. I have a friend there who says that they are habitually late notifiers in many departments though. :roll:

[Cornell07]

I'm not as curious about them as I am UNC. I have a friend there who says that they are habitually late notifiers in many departments though

Well, I already have my UNC rejection via snail mail.

[samantha20]

So, what is going on with the University of Chicago? I am confused with the latest posts on the results page. If I have not heard from the department, should I assume that I was rejected?

[NSGoddessQ]

Well, I already have my UNC rejection via snail mail.

I should have been clearer. I meant that Maryland is typically a late notifier. Although I've also heard similar about UNC from grad students here, so I don't know! I have heard neither hide nor hair from either at this point.

[Gumby]

It's great that they're giving you that kind of assurance. I *am* curious about the funding thing -- everywhere that's accepted me has waited to do it until they've either been able to give me a package, or to say "we're funding you -- details on the way." It's interesting to see how different places do it! I don't seem to remember the UNC app being due much later than others, so I wonder why their funding isn't set yet. Would it have to do with budget stuff, negotiations, or the NC legislature? All conjecture, of course.

My other question (if you don't mind) -- what history field are you in? Just wondering if my subfield has started telling people yet.

Again, congrats, and I hope they get it all worked out quickly and to your satisfaction!

Sorry, haven't checked this in a while. My subfield's Modern Germany, with sub-subfield being the Holocaust.

[UofChihopeful]

So, what is going on with the University of Chicago? I am confused with the latest posts on the results page. If I have not heard from the department, should I assume that I was rejected?

samantha20, you are not the only individual curious about what is going on with the University of Chicago. I have not heard anything. I was the individual who posted the question on the results page a day ago in reference to whether or not rejections had been sent out or not. I am beginning to draw the conclusion that if you did not receive an email last Friday, you did not get in, which is very unfortunate as this is the last of three schools to which I have applied (U of Penn and Northwestsern being the others). It is even more disconcerting, if true, because the University of Chicago was my top choice and the one that one of the faculty members stated as being the best place for me to conduct doctoral studies. Now, it looks like I am a scholar without a residence.

[crauson]

Add me to the list of people waiting to hear back from Chicago. I'm not so sure the round of emails last Friday were all the admissions. There were only four admissions posted on the results page and they admit ~50-60 people a year. Compare that to Rutgers, which admits ~20 and for which we have 3 admissions posted on the results page. Of course this could very easily be an anomaly, a simple case of Rutgers applicants being overrepresented among gradcafe goers, but lets err on the side of hope, shall we?

[NSGoddessQ]

Sorry, haven't checked this in a while. My subfield's Modern Germany, with sub-subfield being the Holocaust.

OK. I do American history, so maybe they're just working at a different pace...

(This board needs a ::shrugging:: smiley!)

[nicacar]

I have a question for you all.

I have been accepted to the University of Utah's History Department and am very happy about this [had been rejected from all of my other choices]. Although I realize that this school is not well known, my potential adviser is a very well known-scholar in my field. I want to work with this scholar, but I wish I knew a little bit more about the University of Utah's History Department. Does anyone have any information as far as how it ranks?

Thanks!

[UofChihopeful]

Add me to the list of people waiting to hear back from Chicago. I'm not so sure the round of emails last Friday were all the admissions. There were only four admissions posted on the results page and they admit ~50-60 people a year. Compare that to Rutgers, which admits ~20 and for which we have 3 admissions posted on the results page. Of course this could very easily be an anomaly, a simple case of Rutgers applicants being overrepresented among gradcafe goers, but lets err on the side of hope, shall we?

I am a prisoner of hope right now. Of course, I am hoping that they tried to email me but the email got lost in cyber space and I will get some wonderful admission letter soon. The mail has come today and I did not have anything from U of C. Can they send the decision already?!?! Some of us long for closure and a day to determine our next options. For some, that might prove to be a MA. For me, I have a MA in hand and will truly need to consider the all important "next."

I feel like such a victim of irony. My wife, who is a professor of English, said it was important to get out of the month of February. She said if you can get past the 29th of February, you would be okay and likely admitted into the program since it is her belief that rejections are sent first or, at least, that's how her institution handles it. And so when I see the individuals who have been accepted into Chicago's history program thus far were accepted on the 29th, I cannot help but to feel that I am the victim of the worst sort of irony.

[amanda1655]

Nicacar: I don't know about how it ranks. The NRC did not include it in their 1995 Rankings of the top 111 History PhD programs. It's ranked 80th in Political Science, 54th in Psychology, but nothing for history.

If you have any questions about the area, though, I grew up on the Idaho/Utah border - close enough that I could have had in-state tuition for either Utah State or University of Utah. I also know a few students there and have some family that lives in Salt Lake City.

[dmh26]

This may be of interest to history applicants. Here is the full list of history department rankings published in the 2008 edition. Note that they were last ranked in 2005. Enjoy

History (Ph.D.)

Ranked in 2005*

Rank/School Average assessment

score (5.0 = highest)

1. Yale University (CT) 4.9

2. Princeton University (NJ) 4.8

University of California

[samantha20]

I am a prisoner of hope right now. Of course, I am hoping that they tried to email me but the email got lost in cyber space and I will get some wonderful admission letter soon. The mail has come today and I did not have anything from U of C. Can they send the decision already?!?! Some of us long for closure and a day to determine our next options. For some, that might prove to be a MA. For me, I have a MA in hand and will truly need to consider the all important "next."

I feel like such a victim of irony. My wife, who is a professor of English, said it was important to get out of the month of February. She said if you can get past the 29th of February, you would be okay and likely admitted into the program since it is her belief that rejections are sent first or, at least, that's how her institution handles it. And so when I see the individuals who have been accepted into Chicago's history program thus far were accepted on the 29th, I cannot help but to feel that I am the victim of the worst sort of irony.

Have you thought about emailing the department administrator? She seems nice and helpful.

I am going to wait until the end of this week, and if I hear no news, I am going to call or email her and ask if all acceptance notifications have been sent out.

[samantha20]

Also, I wish Columbia would hurry up and notify everyone their decision.

[Cornell07]

Also, I wish Columbia would hurry up and notify everyone their decision.

I thought that they were being FedEx-ed last Friday if you got in. Surely someone here would have heard some good news by this point if they actually mailed on Friday.

[NSGoddessQ]

I have a question for you all.

I have been accepted to the University of Utah's History Department and am very happy about this [had been rejected from all of my other choices]. Although I realize that this school is not well known, my potential adviser is a very well known-scholar in my field. I want to work with this scholar, but I wish I knew a little bit more about the University of Utah's History Department. Does anyone have any information as far as how it ranks?

Thanks!

Hi nicacar,

I think you summed it up pretty well. As a school, they don't appear to be very well-known, but if they have a professor who is well-known in the field who wants to work with you, I would say go for it! If this is a small department, you may get some really good mentoring out of it. The potential downside is, as you say, a lack of "name-recognition" -- but if that specific prof has the name-recognition, I would think that might go a long way towards countering that objection, especially because other people in your field would presumably know the prof and recognize the school.

The link here has some info on the program:

http://graduate-school.phds.org/university/utah/program/profile/history/23104

Good luck with your decision!

[NSGoddessQ]

This may be of interest to history applicants. Here is the full list of history department rankings published in the 2008 edition. Note that they were last ranked in 2005. Enjoy

Can I just complain about how much it annoys me that they haven't been ranked since 2005?! I mean, USNews makes this whole big deal about releasing these rankings each year, and half of them are just reprints of old numbers. If I tried to turn in the same work each year, not only would I not sell millions of copies -- I would FAIL.

In any case, thanks for the info, dmh. If anyone would like to see them, I actually have some of the sub-field specific breakdowns saved: cultural history, US colonial, US modern and women's history. Of course, they only do about the top 15 or 20, but whatevs. :roll:

[el217]

ooh ooh, can you post the Women's History list? I always meant to go to the bookstore to look at the USNews rankings, but I never got around to it. Everyone was just screaming "fit! fit!" before so it didn't seem so important. But now that I'm trying to make a decision, ranking seems to matter more.

Thanks! :mrgreen:

[Nofia]

Yeah, I would love to see the US Modern rankings too!

[NSGoddessQ]

As requested! Sorry for such a long post, but I hope these are of help. Caveat emptor of course, being that they're from 2005 (and it's all so arbitrary!) but:

History Specialties: Women's History

Ranked in 2005*

1. University of Wisconsin

[UofChihopeful]

Have you thought about emailing the department administrator? She seems nice and helpful.

I am going to wait until the end of this week, and if I hear no news, I am going to call or email her and ask if all acceptance notifications have been sent out.

I have thought about doing this. Kelly has been very kind and helpful. Of course, my fear is that I have not seen anyone who has emailed the school and, subsequently, got accepted into the program. Perhaps, it's just coincidence. I think by Friday, however, I will have no other recourse but to call or email Kelly for an update.

[BC08]

Since I'm running out of options and prospects are looking slim for me this year, I have a few choices for next year while I tighten up my application and try again next year. I was hoping someone might just let me know how these sound.

1) Stay at undergrad for 1 year. I'm 6 classes away from an additional A.B. in English and love to write (my SOP emphasized that I want to be a writer-cum-historian a la Foote and Tuchman, perhaps to my peril), so if I get a job at the University I can pick up the degree free of charge. I figure this will keep me busy and further develop my writing style while also allowing me to dig deeper into cultural history.

2) Enroll at Harvard University Extension for ALM. Again, this would be tuition-free if I can score a job at Harvard, and would hopefully allow me to network with GSAS faculty as I develop a thesis and further specialize my interests. I know it's not a 'back-door' into the Harvard PhD program but I'm sure it can only improve my chances of admission to a solid program. I don't know if I'd complete it or transfer right away, but it's an intriguing program.

I'm also toying with sending out a last-gasp application to the Columbia-LSE MA program since my primary research interest is the theme of conflict in Western history, but I'm not optimistic due to my current lack of success.

I'm still keeping my eye on the prize, but I'm trying to act relatively quickly so I will have stability in the coming months. Thanks for any input.

[bleistift]

Since I'm running out of options and prospects are looking slim for me this year, I have a few choices for next year while I tighten up my application and try again next year. I was hoping someone might just let me know how these sound.

1) Stay at undergrad for 1 year. I'm 6 classes away from an additional A.B. in English and love to write (my LOR emphasized that I want to be a writer-cum-historian a la Foote and Tuchman, perhaps to my peril), so if I get a job at the University I can pick up the degree free of charge. I figure this will keep me busy and further develop my writing style while also allowing me to dig deeper into cultural history.

2) Enroll at Harvard University Extension for ALM. Again, this would be tuition-free if I can score a job at Harvard, and would hopefully allow me to network with GSAS faculty as I develop a thesis and further specialize my interests. I know it's not a 'back-door' into the Harvard PhD program but I'm sure it can only improve my chances of admission to a solid program. I don't know if I'd complete it or transfer right away, but it's an intriguing program.

I'm also toying with sending out a last-gasp application to the Columbia-LSE MA program since my primary research interest is the theme of conflict in Western history, but I'm not optimistic due to my current lack of success.

I'm still keeping my eye on the prize, but I'm trying to act relatively quickly so I will have stability in the coming months. Thanks for any input.

I am basically in the same situation you are in, except I basically already took option 1. I stayed an extra summer and fall semester at my undergraduate institution to complete a second thesis and pick up my third foreign language because I felt my history experience was lacking (I switched from an Electrical Engineering Computer Science major to History). Luckily I received a research fellowship and another academic scholarship, both of which funded my extra semester (I attend a public university and I had a great deal on a rent-controlled apartment so my expenses weren't very high to begin with). But even after the extra semester of research experience, additional time with my primary LOR writer, and an additional foreign language (important for international history applicants from what I understand), I can't gain admittance into a top-tier Ph.D. program. Admittedly I didn't earn another degree and I didn't stay the full year, but my feeling is that you've already built relationships with your professors at BC and there's not much you'd be gaining from option 1 other than personal satisfaction and practice at writing. I'm guessing you are probably already a superb writer, and I don't think you need another A.B. to prove that. My opinion is take the 2nd route if your only goal is to get a Ph.D. in history -- getting to know professors personally at a top-5 graduate program sounds like a better deal to me.

Edit: And I forgot to mention, it kind of sucks staying an extra semester. All of my friends were earning big salaries, moving out to nice lofts in the city, buying new cars, and playing golf after work, while I was stuck in the library wishing I was on the driving range with them. In hindsight my extra semester was still worth it (especially since I didn't pay for it), but I think I would've made a better use of my time by graduating with my friends and moving on to a Master degree program.

[nicacar]

NSGoddessQ and amanda1655,

Thank you both for your advice. I appreciate it very much!