Fall 2018 Applicants

[DGrayson]

53 minutes ago, telkanuru said:

Wait. I would suggest drinking heavily while you wait, but I understand this coping mechanism is frowned upon in certain circles.

More like squares...  

[TMP]

@kenalyass and everyone else,

More seriously, work on finding inner peace within yourself knowing that the world will not end if you do not get into Chicago or any place this year.  This year is only your first year and it may take at least two cycles to get in.  This isn't unusual: this is the fact in academia.  Nearly everyone has to apply more than one cycle to get that fellowship... that job... that highly-selective conference.  We learn to build cautious optimism/pessimism (depending how you look at the  glass).  Developing a realistic outlook from the get-go will serve you well on the long run.  Everyone also learns to create back-up plans and find peace with them until they have achieve their ultimate goal or realize that the path they've been on wasn't right after all.  

It will be emotionally difficult to cope with and you are absolutely entitled to your emotions but.... do not let them take over your entire life.  Speaking from experience

You are just entering the Real World of Academia.

[glycoprotein1]

11 hours ago, TMP said:

@kenalyass and everyone else,

More seriously, work on finding inner peace within yourself knowing that the world will not end if you do not get into Chicago or any place this year.  This year is only your first year and it may take at least two cycles to get in.  This isn't unusual: this is the fact in academia.  Nearly everyone has to apply more than one cycle to get that fellowship... that job... that highly-selective conference.  We learn to build cautious optimism/pessimism (depending how you look at the  glass).  Developing a realistic outlook from the get-go will serve you well on the long run.  Everyone also learns to create back-up plans and find peace with them until they have achieve their ultimate goal or realize that the path they've been on wasn't right after all.  

It will be emotionally difficult to cope with and you are absolutely entitled to your emotions but.... do not let them take over your entire life.  Speaking from experience

You are just entering the Real World of Academia.

This is great advice, TMP.  The last few months have been especially tough for me because I find comfort in planning everything out.  The admissions process obviously makes planning impossible because I have no idea where I'll be this time next year.  Uncertainty just isn't a comfortable feeling, but it helps to realize that this isn't my only chance.  If things don't work out the way I'd hoped, I'll figure out what went wrong and try again another time.  

[khigh]

My undergrad advisor called to check on my application today. 

I didn't ask him to, but when he called, he said the conversation was good but wouldn't give me any more information.  I don't know what to do with him sometimes. He really confuses me, but I know he means well. 

[fortsibut]

41 minutes ago, khigh said:

My undergrad advisor called to check on my application today. 

I didn't ask him to, but when he called, he said the conversation was good but wouldn't give me any more information.  I don't know what to do with him sometimes. He really confuses me, but I know he means well. 

He called your target school to check on it?  That seems really weird to me, but I'm not really an expert on application protocol, so I dunno.  Is it common for an adviser to call and do status checks?  I feel like there's a chance that might annoy the department.

[khigh]

28 minutes ago, fortsibut said:

He called your target school to check on it?  That seems really weird to me, but I'm not really an expert on application protocol, so I dunno.  Is it common for an adviser to call and do status checks?  I feel like there's a chance that might annoy the department.

He got his PhD from the same University and called his old advisor. They’re still really good friends. However, we call him Dr Sheldon Cooper for a reason. He’s amazingly intelligent but lacks social skills. He will call you during dinner or email at 2am if he thinks you had a bad day in class. He’ll do that for anyone. He will also stop class to get someone coffee if he thinks they look tired. For Religion and Magic in Early Modern Europe, he dressed as Harry Potter- robes and all. Downloaded a guillotine app to use during French Revolution class simulations. We also wrote memoirs for that class instead of a regular term paper. I used to translate his emails for other students because they can’t understand what he’s trying to say. 

It’s probably no where close to normal for him to call, but thankfully they know him. His old advisor spent 7 years with him, so I’m sure they understand his issues. Honestly, even if it hurts my chances, I would not trade my old advisor for the world. 

[dr. t]

37 minutes ago, fortsibut said:

He called your target school to check on it?  That seems really weird to me, but I'm not really an expert on application protocol, so I dunno.  Is it common for an adviser to call and do status checks?  I feel like there's a chance that might annoy the department.

If the adviser is of a certain age and training, absolutely yes. The old boy's network is not what it was, but it's not on life support, either.

[fortsibut]

14 minutes ago, khigh said:

He got his PhD from the same University and called his old advisor. They’re still really good friends. However, we call him Dr Sheldon Cooper for a reason. He’s amazingly intelligent but lacks social skills. He will call you during dinner or email at 2am if he thinks you had a bad day in class. He’ll do that for anyone. He will also stop class to get someone coffee if he thinks they look tired. For Religion and Magic in Early Modern Europe, he dressed as Harry Potter- robes and all. Downloaded a guillotine app to use during French Revolution class simulations. We also wrote memoirs for that class instead of a regular term paper. I used to translate his emails for other students because they can’t understand what he’s trying to say. 

It’s probably no where close to normal for him to call, but thankfully they know him. His old advisor spent 7 years with him, so I’m sure they understand his issues. Honestly, even if it hurts my chances, I would not trade my old advisor for the world. 

Ahhhh I missed the fact that he was calling people he knew; for some reason I interpreted your post as saying that he was essentially cold-calling the department which I thought would have been weird.  (Apologies if you said that earlier in the thread and I missed it.)  If there was an established relationship there that totally makes sense and that works out really well for you!

[ltr317]

Congrats to the person who was accepted to Illinois/Urbana PhD program on Jan. 5th.  That's really an unusually early decision, is it not?   

[Undercommoner]

On 5/1/2018 at 7:36 PM, gsc said:

In my experience, very early admits like these are the result of university-wide fellowship deadlines.

Often the 5 years in your 5 year funding package will come from some source internal to the department, such as TA lines or internal department fellowships. However, sometimes there are university-wide funding streams that all graduate departments are eligible for (usually like an excellence fellowship for incoming students, etc) where the money is not from the department directly but from the graduate school. If a history department wants any of its admits to get one of these fellowships, then it has to submit those names to the graduate school by whatever the school's deadline is, and these can be quite early. 

@ltr317, someone suggested early university-wide fellowship deadlines might be behind the earliness of this admit.  

[khigh]

8 hours ago, fortsibut said:

Ahhhh I missed the fact that he was calling people he knew; for some reason I interpreted your post as saying that he was essentially cold-calling the department which I thought would have been weird.  (Apologies if you said that earlier in the thread and I missed it.)  If there was an established relationship there that totally makes sense and that works out really well for you!

It’s still weird, but yes, he was calling people he knew. I hope it works out, too!

[ltr317]

2 hours ago, Undercommoner said:

@ltr317, someone suggested early university-wide fellowship deadlines might be behind the earliness of this admit.  

@Undercommoner  thanks.  I was away from this forum during the holidays and missed reading some postings.  The explanation makes sense. 

[jocorac]

Hello everyone! 

Finally, after reading all the posts long enough I decided to stop being shy and reply. 

Just a little about me and what I plan on doing. 

I Attended North Carolina Central University from 2011-2014, earned BA degree in History, Secondary Education. Went back to NCCU again (obviously I love the place lol ) from 2015 -2017, just graduated in December with a MA in History. My focus is African American Public History, primarily Civil Rights Movement. I am applying to 3 universities, NC State, Middle Tennessee and UNCG. Really hoping for NC State or Middle Tennessee. Strong GPA, GRE scores are not the best but thankfully, the departments at NC State and MTSU do not require you to send them if you have recently graduated with a MA degree (Just a tip I found out from the schools themselves). I have some internship experience so hopefully that will also push me over. I also taught public high school, was a TA and taught a college course at NCCU. My future plans include working in the museum setting, hopefully African American based or becoming a professor. 

Hope to connect with you guys on this journey. Apps are due soon so panic mode is slowly starting to set in lol. 

 

[khigh]

7 hours ago, jocorac said:

Hello everyone! 

Finally, after reading all the posts long enough I decided to stop being shy and reply. 

Just a little about me and what I plan on doing. 

I Attended North Carolina Central University from 2011-2014, earned BA degree in History, Secondary Education. Went back to NCCU again (obviously I love the place lol ) from 2015 -2017, just graduated in December with a MA in History. My focus is African American Public History, primarily Civil Rights Movement. I am applying to 3 universities, NC State, Middle Tennessee and UNCG. Really hoping for NC State or Middle Tennessee. Strong GPA, GRE scores are not the best but thankfully, the departments at NC State and MTSU do not require you to send them if you have recently graduated with a MA degree (Just a tip I found out from the schools themselves). I have some internship experience so hopefully that will also push me over. I also taught public high school, was a TA and taught a college course at NCCU. My future plans include working in the museum setting, hopefully African American based or becoming a professor. 

Hope to connect with you guys on this journey. Apps are due soon so panic mode is slowly starting to set in lol. 

 

If you have any questions about working in a museum, let me know. I worked at a history museum for two years. 

[jocorac]

25 minutes ago, khigh said:

If you have any questions about working in a museum, let me know. I worked at a history museum for two years. 

I’ll be sure to take you up on that! Thank you

[worldpeasplease]

On 1/9/2018 at 1:51 AM, ltr317 said:

Congrats to the person who was accepted to Illinois/Urbana PhD program on Jan. 5th.  That's really an unusually early decision, is it not?   

Hi all, I'm late. I'm the UIUC admit, logging into my account after 2 years to reply! I was originally also mystified by how early the decision was, and now I get it. I'm applying for African History with a focus on South African political movements - the African National Congress, specifically - that were exiled in East Africa during the 1960s and 70s.

@jocorac, I'm teaching high school US history now! Did you teach social studies?

Good luck to everyone!!

[psstein]

20 hours ago, jocorac said:

 My future plans include working in the museum setting, hopefully African American based or becoming a professor.

I don't want to discourage you, but the academic job market is especially tight these days. Outside of a few select programs, very few history PhDs are ever going to be tenured professors.

[Qtf311]

Well that sucks...

[psstein]

1 hour ago, Qtf311 said:

Well that sucks...

It's not impossible, but the further away you get from top 10 institutions, the less likely it is.

 

[Manuscriptess]

Has anyone started getting interviews or some form of communication from the dept? I know there is an option to put interview on the results page but I figured I'd ask. It seems like in past years, people were starting to get interviews around this week.

Also, does everyone who will ultimately be admitted usually get an interview? Do they still interview you if you've already talked to your POI? I know that these policies likely vary between departments, but what are the policies on interviews generally? Thanks! 

[jocorac]

12 hours ago, psstein said:

I don't want to discourage you, but the academic job market is especially tight these days. Outside of a few select programs, very few history PhDs are ever going to be tenured professors.

Which is why I stated two options. Also, I have a research background and many connections within academia. I'm not worried. Thanks for the concern though. 

[psstein]

11 minutes ago, jocorac said:

Which is why I stated two options. Also, I have a research background and many connections within academia. I'm not worried. Thanks for the concern though. 

I believe people should know the layout of the field. And, honestly, a lot of undergrads apply to grad school with the intention of becoming a professor. Almost all of them are disappointed at the end of the day.

[jocorac]

5 minutes ago, psstein said:

I believe people should know the layout of the field. And, honestly, a lot of undergrads apply to grad school with the intention of becoming a professor. Almost all of them are disappointed at the end of the day.

My intentions on applying to grad school aren't fully to become a professor. That's just one of my goals. I know the outlook is slim right now, but there are plenty of things that I can do with a degree of this nature. Like I said, I have completed a lot during my time as an MA student and have made numerous connections. If I don't become a professor, I have other options and goals that are just as possible. 

[OHSP]

13 hours ago, worldpeasplease said:

Hi all, I'm late. I'm the UIUC admit, logging into my account after 2 years to reply! I was originally also mystified by how early the decision was, and now I get it. I'm applying for African History with a focus on South African political movements - the African National Congress, specifically - that were exiled in East Africa during the 1960s and 70s.

@jocorac, I'm teaching high school US history now! Did you teach social studies?

Good luck to everyone!!

I was admitted to UIUC last year, also in the first week of January--they do it so that they have time to nominate you for UIUC's bigger fellowships. I didn't end up going to UIUC but from my experience the early admission is a good sign!

[khigh]

The first question I was asked when I went to look at the department of the uni I applied to was “do you need to be a professor?” My answer was no and they liked that answer. The reply was “good, you probably won’t be one.”