Fall 2018 Applicants

[Basura]

7 hours ago, TMP said:

I'd take CUNY if the offer is funded (which I understand is a good package) over a UGA master's.  Why else would you apply to CUNY for PhD? I would hope that you gave your application to each PhD program a careful thought that you would go there if it was the only PhD option before moving to the MA programs.

Georgia pools and places all of its applicants without Master's in the program it deems fit. I applied hoping to get into PhD, but am glad I got into the MA with a TAship instead. CUNY has very demanding teaching requirements. I've been told I'd be the IOR by third semester.

[OHSP]

17 minutes ago, Qtf311 said:

The NYC consortium is one of the major reasons why I am moving back to NY for grad school.  My POIs are also very high on the program.  Can anyone share any experiences with it? Positive or negative?  Or just general thoughts on it?  I’m really looking forward to taking advantage of it.

Personally I'm extremely grateful for the consortium--not just because I can take classes elsewhere but because it means that I meet people from other grad schools who have shared interests, I end up attending talks etc in other departments, and I have a broader range of scholars I can go to for advice. The latter's been super, super helpful so far. Faculty from other schools have led me to grants etc that my own advisors didn't know about, and suggested other grad students to work with on side projects. Not everyone draws on the consortium, and it's probably easier to make use of it from NYU than from Stony Brook (at least in the early years) but, for @Guest1101 as well, I have friends at Stony Brook (in their upper years) who live in Brooklyn and regularly attend talks at NYU and CUNY and work with NYC archivists. I think all of this is especially useful if you're at all interested in public history (defined very, very broadly) and/or community collaborations. 

[Qtf311]

LI to NYC is a commute but it is not difficult.  1 hour plus on the train.  I grew up in NYC, not LI but I do have friends who commute to work in Manhattan and my wife plans on commuting.  It is not a problem. 

who are you working with a Stony Brook?  PM me if you like.

[Qtf311]

Great perspective thanks.  It really makes a difference when you can work within a large network of students and faculty.

[TheHessianHistorian]

1 hour ago, gsc said:

Relatedly, if you turn down CUNY now, it is very unlikely you would get another acceptance there in two years' time. 

Is that because of a situation within CUNY (declining funding or declining acceptance rates), or because the ad-com would remember your name next time and not risk giving an acceptance to someone with a history of turning them down?

[Manuscriptess]

15 minutes ago, OHSP said:

Personally I'm extremely grateful for the consortium--not just because I can take classes elsewhere but because it means that I meet people from other grad schools who have shared interests, I end up attending talks etc in other departments, and I have a broader range of scholars I can go to for advice. The latter's been super, super helpful so far. Faculty from other schools have led me to grants etc that my own advisors didn't know about, and suggested other grad students to work with on side projects. Not everyone draws on the consortium, and it's probably easier to make use of it from NYU than from Stony Brook (at least in the early years) but, for @Guest1101 as well, I have friends at Stony Brook (in their upper years) who live in Brooklyn and regularly attend talks at NYU and CUNY and work with NYC archivists. I think all of this is especially useful if you're at all interested in public history (defined very, very broadly) and/or community collaborations. 

The consortium is great, but only really for the schools that are close to each other (i.e. any of them that are in Manhattan). The logistics of it can get pretty awful. Occasionally you have people from Princeton at Columbia and vice versa, but it ALWAYS seems like a huge pain to get back and forth. Plus commuting can get really expensive--not every department covers it. Going from anywhere in Manhattan to Princeton is usually a subway ride, a Path train, and the Dinky both ways. Also, many of the schools are on different academic calendars, meaning that when your school has spring break, you may have to still stick around to go to class at the other institution, or have totally different reading periods. I've found that going to NYU from Columbia is very easy (as would CUNY, I imagine), but anything else would be a huge time suck and a really expensive logistical nightmare.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Manuscriptess

[astroid88]

On 2/9/2018 at 7:28 PM, Banzailizard said:

I would like to do a mashup of economic and environmental history for the early modern world.  Personally I am interested in global and transatlantic but my language (German) limits me somewhat. I liked Minnesota because it has some economic historians (in history departments I mean) and some people working on historical demographics, though outside of the area I am interested in ( Steven Ruggles ,  J. David Hacker,  Stuart McLean ) Since I have an econ background with statistics, I and demographics fall sort of under both economic and environmental history, I figured it might be a good match. What were you trying to focus on?

I see why you are applying to Georgetown. John McNeil seems like a good person to work with for your interests. 

I study French colonial history, particularly in the Magrehb, 1830-1956. I like the theme of urban history. I’m excited about Georgetown because they have a really good Arabic program. I’ve checked in, and I’ve heard that we’ll be hearing soon.

Edited February 11, 2018 by astroid88

[OHSP]

6 minutes ago, Manuscriptess said:

The consortium is great, but only really for the schools that are close to each other (i.e. any of them that are in Manhattan). The logistics of it can get pretty awful. Occasionally you have people from Princeton at Columbia and vice versa, but it ALWAYS seems like a huge pain to get back and forth. Plus commuting can get really expensive--not every department covers it. Going from anywhere in Manhattan to Princeton is usually a subway ride, a Path train, and the Dinky both ways. Also, many of the schools are on different academic calendars, meaning that when your school has spring break, you may have to still stick around to go to class at the other institution, or have totally different reading periods. I've found that going to NYU from Columbia is very easy (as would CUNY, I imagine), but anything else would be a huge time suck and a really expensive logistical nightmare.

I agree but I also think Princeton's uniquely frustrating to get to and it's only one school in the eight school consortium. Going to Rutgers once a week isn't quite as bad. What I've found more useful than attending classes elsewhere is just being close enough to other schools that you can have an actual relationship with faculty and grad students who aren't at your school. 

[gsc]

45 minutes ago, TheHessianHistorian said:

Is that because of a situation within CUNY (declining funding or declining acceptance rates), or because the ad-com would remember your name next time and not risk giving an acceptance to someone with a history of turning them down?

The second. Taking the MA over the PhD basically says to them either 1) "I'm not serious about committing to the PhD yet, so I wasted everyone's time by applying" or 2) "I think I can do better than CUNY, so I'm going to take the MA and then apply to ~better programs later on." And acceptances are important currency, so why hand them out to someone who flaked in the past? Circumstances change and such, but I am just a bit skeptical of how that would play out. I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

32 minutes ago, OHSP said:

I agree but I also think Princeton's uniquely frustrating to get to and it's only one school in the eight school consortium. Going to Rutgers once a week isn't quite as bad. What I've found more useful than attending classes elsewhere is just being close enough to other schools that you can have an actual relationship with faculty and grad students who aren't at your school. 

Yeah, Rutgers is literally a five minute walk from the New Brunswick train station. Half our professors commute in from NYC anyways.

I agree, though, the value of the consortium lies less in the classes as it lies in the professional networks. It's much easier to attend different working groups, bring in visiting speakers, etc., when you can just bounce up and down the Northeast Corridor getting what you need. (I say this even though the last time I did anything at a consortium school was two years ago, whoops.)

[psstein]

8 hours ago, TMP said:

I'll agree with @psstein.  It really comes down to resources, quality of dissertation, and the student's willingness not to take anything for granted.  I truly stress that because the student's attitude and approach to the resources available at his/her university matter.  If students are in a state of mind of knowing that although resources are there at the moment, they can suddenly not be available due to a donor forgetting to write the check for next year or state budget crisis forcing the university to cut the department's budget that might mean cutting that fellowship for a writing semester or the Fed decided not to grant FLAS to one of the area centers at the university or any other possible reason.  With the landscape of declining funds in the public arena, there is an incentive to find scholars who know how to find funds and write outstanding grant applications (thus able to continue research if the university's going through a rough time).  To do that, one must be able to mold the dissertation in multiple ways to appeal to a broad audience.

Ivy League students do have the benefit of having visiting scholars but the question is, do they take advantage of the time with the scholar to network and pick their brains for ideas and insights in their research questions and projects?

This is especially timely for people interested in FLAS. It seems as though nobody knows if the government is going to fund it past this summer. On some level, I can understand why that is: FLAS seems like a Cold War remnant.

[minion.banana]

On 2/8/2018 at 6:37 PM, TheLearnedPig said:

Aaaaah!! Got accepted to University of Michigan! Six years funding! Perfect fit!

I would never have dreamt of this, and just needed to share with people who understand the trials and tribulations of grad school applications.


...Oh, and also just got rejected from Berkeley...

Congrats! I'm in my first year in the Michigan history program, and love it.

[fortsibut]

On 2/9/2018 at 3:59 PM, Siswa said:

Thanks for the info. I am applying to do 18-19th century Southeast Asian history, the islands specifically. It's one of the country's few institutions that admits at least one SEAsianist in each cohort. Have you been in contact with your POI? Mine writes very brief replies to my emails

Good luck with your wait!

Hi there!  Sorry for the late response; I was out of town for a couple of days.  I actually only reached out to my POI once, and that was soon after I submitted my application.  (Everything kind of came together last minute for me)  I never heard back, and I'm not sure if that's a bad sign or just an indication of how busy the application season is.  I did see that Assotto said that decisions were made last week, so hopefully we'll know pretty soon one way other the other.  Given the fact that they only have one student who's an Africanist right now, your odds are probably a whole lot better than mine.  =)

[AP]

@Basura I didn't get your research area. I understand the inclination to accept the PhD offer from CUNY but I am not in a hurry to dismiss UGA so quickly. UGA is in consortium with Emory, GATech, and GSU. If you are doing southern history, landscapes, architecture,... I think it could be a good place. Again, I am missing a big piece of information here (couldn't find it, sorry). 

[Basura]

2 hours ago, AP said:

@Basura I didn't get your research area. I understand the inclination to accept the PhD offer from CUNY but I am not in a hurry to dismiss UGA so quickly. UGA is in consortium with Emory, GATech, and GSU. If you are doing southern history, landscapes, architecture,... I think it could be a good place. Again, I am missing a big piece of information here (couldn't find it, sorry). 

I'm actually closer to eliminating CUNY. I'm an Americanist interested in Labor, Capitalism, AA, and the South. UGA is an exceptionally good fit for me.

[ltr317]

14 hours ago, TMP said:

I'd take CUNY if the offer is funded (which I understand is a good package) over a UGA master's.  Why else would you apply to CUNY for PhD? I would hope that you gave your application to each PhD program a careful thought that you would go there if it was the only PhD option before moving to the MA programs.

All PhD offers are funded now at CUNY GC.  Years ago, before funding cutbacks shrank cohorts, the GC would accept a few unfunded or externally funded applicants.  

[ltr317]

17 hours ago, psstein said:

Depends on your area: CUNY is a good, not great grad program in a very expensive place to live.

A funded MA is almost unheard of in history.

United States History is very good, based on their faculty publication output and reputation.  I've live here almost my entire life and NYC is doable budget-wise, especially outside of Manhattan once you do your research.  

[ltr317]

10 hours ago, anon1234567 said:

I had another course that included bringing in a scholar in residence from England to work with students, and consult privately on projects. This course also invited biweekly lectures from visiting scholars from the chemical heritage foundation, Hopkins, and Indiana-Bloomington. As a consotrium member you can take those courses. 

Most importantly, NYC has archives! Aside from the NY public library, Columbia has extensive archives, including the Butler library (rare books, and we just acquired medieval Islamic texts), Harriman institute, etc. All on campus.

NYU has impressive archives (Fales Library and special collections). And very accessible. There is the New York historical society archives, I think hosted at NYU library as well. 

There are special grants that only consortium grad students are elibgible for, but some of those maybe just open to Columbia and NYU grad students for now. 

In your decisions, the NYC consortium should not be taken lightly.

 

I would add Columbia's Lehman Center and its wonderful lecture series for Americanists. 

[ltr317]

7 hours ago, OHSP said:

Personally I'm extremely grateful for the consortium--not just because I can take classes elsewhere but because it means that I meet people from other grad schools who have shared interests, I end up attending talks etc in other departments, and I have a broader range of scholars I can go to for advice. The latter's been super, super helpful so far. Faculty from other schools have led me to grants etc that my own advisors didn't know about, and suggested other grad students to work with on side projects. Not everyone draws on the consortium, and it's probably easier to make use of it from NYU than from Stony Brook (at least in the early years) but, for @Guest1101 as well, I have friends at Stony Brook (in their upper years) who live in Brooklyn and regularly attend talks at NYU and CUNY and work with NYC archivists. I think all of this is especially useful if you're at all interested in public history (defined very, very broadly) and/or community collaborations. 

I can't move from NYC and the consortium is a big drawing card to most of the programs that I've applied.  Although coming home on weekends is quite doable for the two programs not part of the consortium.

[ltr317]

53 minutes ago, Basura said:

I'm actually closer to eliminating CUNY. I'm an Americanist interested in Labor, Capitalism, AA, and the South. UGA is an exceptionally good fit for me.

Please let them asap when you decide,  so those on the waitlist can move up.  Thanks. 

[anon1234567]

8 hours ago, OHSP said:

What I've found more useful than attending classes elsewhere is just being close enough to other schools that you can have an actual relationship with faculty and grad students who aren't at your school

Most definitely. The strength of a consortium is that it pools in resources: archives, grants, visiting scholars, and professors. Every course I've taken, aside from foundation courses that only permit Columbia students, had one or two students either from NYU, CUNY, Bard or Princeton. Often with those individuals one ends up becoming close friends, and sharing deep research interests that lead to fruitful collaborations. 

[HistoricScout]

Has anyone heard a thing from Indiana University (IU)?

I received my acceptances from Kansas State and Northern Illinois University. I was rejected from Purdue sadly. 

My MA is being done at Northern Illinois now, so I’m looking to Kansas State or IU for my PhD. I’m hoping that I hear from IU soon so I can get in touch with Kansas State. Though I am looking to defer my admission to next year. 

Edited February 12, 2018 by HistoricScout

[CBC]

Hi, for those of you familiar with Harvard's joint PhD program in History and Middle Eastern Studies, what's your take on the groundedness of the program and how it's perceived in comparison to the other typical History PhD program that offers an ME track. 

Their different admission requirements for instance raise a red flag . Whereas a writing sample is required for admission to the History Department, such an important requirement is discarded for admission to the other joint PhD program. This easily gives the impression that admission to Harvard's Middle Eastern Studies with a subtrack in History is more forgiving and less stringent than the History department's. 

I'd also love to know how would that  joint program position the academic focus and profile of its candidates. Would they be considered Historians proper with strong  preparation in the language of their region of study  among their peers in the History department? Or would they be immediately put in the category of Middle Eastern specialists whose focus is historical rather than contemporary or on the art for instance?

[grubyczarnykot]

If I had an extremely positive interview with my POI shortly after my application was received, is it okay at this point to check in to see when admissions decisions are expected to be rolling out? I don't want to be annoying, but they did tell me I could email them with any other questions I had at anytime. And realistically I should have asked during the interview but I was very nervous : p

[TheHessianHistorian]

56 minutes ago, grubyczarnykot said:

If I had an extremely positive interview with my POI shortly after my application was received, is it okay at this point to check in to see when admissions decisions are expected to be rolling out? I don't want to be annoying, but they did tell me I could email them with any other questions I had at anytime. And realistically I should have asked during the interview but I was very nervous : p

It is hard to wait, I know. My advice would actually be to do a search on the Results page to give you a good idea of when acceptances have typically rolled out from that school in years' past. I think there are some great questions that could be asked of your POI in the interim, if you haven't asked them already (ask more about some of the latest and most innovative scholarship being produced by the department; ask for clarification on something your POI said in one of the more intriguing publications they have written lately; ask for inside knowledge on the housing situation in the area where you may be moving to; etc.), but I would actually steer clear of asking about when decisions will be rolling out as it could come across as impatient.

And congrats on your positive interview! Best of luck to you.

[grubyczarnykot]

@TheHessianHistorian Yeah that's true. I'm worried because there's one acceptance reported on the results board but it doesn't say if it's a POI or official acceptance. And from what people told me after I talked to them about the interview, it sounded like the interview itself may implied I had a good chance or would be admitted or something? I'm just freaking out, it's been radio silence since then. But I will hold off on asking them about the status of the application. At any rate I'll probably hear by next week for sure. :/