History PhD in the Midwest?

[HistoryDude]

Hello, I am hopeful that I might make a connection here with somebody who can shed some light on Indiana, Illinois and possibly UIC or WUSTL for PhD admissions in History. I have applied to all of the aforementioned, but am clueless about how I stack up against the competition. Please do drop me a line if you went through the process successfully or have any tips. Thank you-

[Minnesotan]

I have a history app in this year at WashU. What field are you in? PhD or MA?

I have an MA already, and am going into Colonial/18th C. American, studying the classical influence on political/intellectual history of the early republic. I also have apps out in the history of rhetoric at some of the major Midwestern campuses, but those are all under the aegis of English programs.

[amanda1655]

I am also applying to Illinois and WUSTL. I have spoken with one of the professors there and a few graduate students whom she put me in contact with. What exactly do you want to know about the program? I can't give you much more information about the competitiveness than they offer on the website. The average GRE score is in the 80%, and they don't mention the average GPA.

The professor that I spoke to was extremely welcoming and even mentioned possibilities for my dissertation committee. This was before I mentioned any of my statistics or much more than what I wanted to study. The graduate student with I spoke said that she was extremely happy with the department and its collegial environment. She also mentioned that she felt like she was able to maintain a balance between school and her personal life. She also spoke highly of the other students. Overall, I have really liked the feel that I have gotten from the department and would probably choose it over some of the higher ranked schools to which I applied.

[HistoryDude]

Hello to Both:

At Indiana I jointly applied to the NELC and the History PhD. I also will have an M.A. at that time, a year of teaching experience here at Central Michigan, and a decade of "real life" such as it was, working with the DoD and State Departments here in the US and in Afghanistan. I am interested in cultural history, particularly the transmission of spiritual ideas at the frontier regions between Sassanian Persia and Byzantium and the formation of hybrid communal identities at the borders. Thus, I need an institution where I can continue my study of Greek as well as Arabic, and an accommodating faculty. Indiana recommended a dissertation committee for me as well. They have been really been wonderful with the direct and candid communication.

Illinois has a major figure in my field (late antiquity) who was quick to respond to me. I grew up in Illinois so I must confess that I'm a bit biased, but UIUC was always the gold standard for the lower midwest not only in History but obviously "hard" sciences. I had the same experience that you did. They were wonderful with me. I'm just a bit worried that my past sins as an undergraduate a decade ago (less than stellar GPA) coupled with mediocre GRE scores will overshadow my conference presentations and 4.0 in Graduate school.

Among other schools outside of the Midwest, I aimed at UIC as well. They have great faculty in my area, and since they belong to the Big Ten consortium there in Chicago, I can take classes at Northwestern or even the University of Chicago proper to apply directly into my program. This was of interest to me. Despite the game of pedigrees in our field, I've found out that it's the people that matter. For all of my worries about these Big Ten programs, I'm most confident that I'm very competitive at an Ivy, due to the personal connections of the people I've met in the field. I have thoughts that these will translate into job opportunities for me (and all of us) someday, regardless of the name on top of my PhD. Probably best to avoid getting ahead of myself, however.

[Minnesotan]

Connections are good later on, but "fit" normally means more in the application process. In your case, you probably had to be very careful about where to apply, making sure that there was at least one (and preferably a bunch) of the experts in the field, whose research closely matches yours. You can connect all you like with the big names, but if they don't like your research ideas they likely won't fight for you.

I was going to apply at Illinois, but their history department never got back to me after two polite emails sent in September and October. I said screw 'em! There are better places for me, if they can't get their stuff together. It looks like the two of you had better experiences with them.

[amanda1655]

What surprised me when I was contacting professors was how different their responses were, even within the same university! At one school, I e-mailed one professor and received no response. I decided to e-mail a different professor and received a very positive response within hours saying that he thought the school would be a fantastic place for me to pursue my studies. My undergraduate advisor explained the situation to me this way. As a professor, you sometimes receive e-mails that interest you and that you kind-of want to respond to but you are busy and they get lost in your inbox. I think that may have been what happened with the first faculty member I e-mailed.

That said, I had the same general attitude as you. Several of the professors that I e-mailed said that they didn't feel like the department could support my interests. I tried to view their candor in a positive way. After all, they were saving me time and money. If they didn't think that I fit with the program, it was unlikely I would be admited.

[Minnesotan]

Yup. Fair enough. I treated the initial email probes as a way to test the waters with potential advisors and PDs. If they were helpful and enthusiastic, I might take it to the next step. If they didn't reply, or were curt, I decided I had better find a new contact, or save the application fee.

Funny thing - one guy at a west coast school yelled at me (via email, heh) because I said I thought our research interests were very similar.

Apparently he disagreed. lol

[Minnesotan]

Indiana doesn't get that cold, mate. Then again, it's all relative; nothing south of Iowa gets all that cold to me.

Yeah. I've dealt with a few East and West Coast universities through the years, and I have to agree that people in the Midwest seem much more helpful, as if they genuinely care about you and your education. When compared to, say, the Grad Center at CUNY, it's like taking a degree on two different worlds.

[snowcapk]

HistoryDude,

I saw that you originally wrote that you were "clueless about how you stack up with the competition." Although this site is great for figuring out when programs send their interview requests, it sounds like you are looking for the profiles of previous applicants and whether or not their applications were successful. http://www.graduateschool.whogotin.info/ is a good site for that. For example, when I search for History applicants at Indiana University, two profiles come up (only one of them is completely filled out). You can see the applicant's GRE scores, GPA, publications, experience, and how he/she fared at other schools. Although there may not be applications on that web site for certain programs, you can do a general search for History applications, and look at similar schools. Hope that helps!

[dmh26]

I am also applying to Illinois.

I applied there also! It's one of my top choices! Maybe I will see you there

[Minnesotan]

Maybe I should have applied after all. We could have swarmed Urbana-Champlain Grad Cafe style!

Or not.

[dmh26]

Maybe I should have applied after all. We could have swarmed Urbana-Champlain Grad Cafe style!

Or not.

We totally could have! Where else besides Indiana did you apply? I was going to apply there because they have a great Russian history program, but for some reason, I didn't..lol

[amanda1655]

So.... DMH in another forum you said that Illinois is deciding next week. Did they mention whether they would just be contacting people eligible for the language fellowship or whether they would be contacting everyone? As someone interested in British history, I am certainly not eligible for a FLAS. On a side note, the website says that all top candidates will be notified by February 15th. People admitted but with significant funds will be notified after that date.

If everyone from this forum stormed Urbana-Champaign, we would probably double the size of the town.

[dmh26]

So.... DMH in another forum you said that Illinois is deciding next week. Did they mention whether they would just be contacting people eligible for the language fellowship or whether they would be contacting everyone?

Hey Amanda,

That part wasn't all clear. It may be just for people applying for FLAS scholarships, but then again...it could be everyone. Sorry I can't be of more help!

[amanda1655]

I heard from Wisconsin, and I'm IN, but my stomach still sinks every time I see a response from a school I applied to. I still haven't heard from Illinois or received an interview invitation from Yale. :|

At least I'm in at one of my top choices. Now hopefully, a few more acceptances will follow.

P.S. I thought I would give my GRE scores to give hope to those people who have been lamenting their situation on the GRE Score/GPA Cutoff thread. I received a 670 Verbal, 680 Quantitative, and a 6.0 AWA. Those scores are good (the Verbal is in the 93%), but there are nowhere near the magic 700 posited on the board as the magic number for top history and English programs, and Wisconsin is number 11 overall, number 1 for women's studies, and number 4 for European history.

[polisciapp]

I heard from Wisconsin, and I'm IN, but my stomach still sinks every time I see a response from a school I applied to. I still haven't heard from Illinois or received an interview invitation from Yale. :|

At least I'm in at one of my top choices. Now hopefully, a few more acceptances will follow.

P.S. I thought I would give my GRE scores to give hope to those people who have been lamenting their situation on the GRE Score/GPA Cutoff thread. I received a 670 Verbal, 680 Quantitative, and a 6.0 AWA. Those scores are good (the Verbal is in the 93%), but there are nowhere near the magic 700 posited on the board as the magic number for top history and English programs, and Wisconsin is number 11 overall, number 1 for women's studies, and number 4 for European history.

Amanda,

What subfield are you in? What day is the letter dated? Thanks for the info and congratulations! Also what was your GPA?

[amanda1655]

My subfield is British history, getting any more specific that than will give me away. I had a 3.94 GPA. I haven't read my Letters of Recommendation but... I assuming that they were good. My undergraduate advisor promised me a fantastic letter, and another professor told me that my graduate advisor had told her that I was one of her favorite students and that she would be surprised if I didn't get in some amazing places.

The letter was dated January 28. My status was still pending when I was received the letter but changed this morning to read Congratulations.

[Minnesotan]

Congrats on the acceptance. UW-Madison is a great school, in a great area! I'm officially jealous. =)

[amanda1655]

Minnesotan: Thanks! I'm sure you are going to get in somewhere amazing. I'm a bit jealous of your stats every time that I see 'em. I really wanted to break the 700 mark but was too lazy to study for the GRE.

Where did you apply? I have a hard time keeping your profile straight since you applied to English and History schools in a wide geographic area and seem to post in every forum.

[Minnesotan]

I can hardly keep myself straight; I'm not sure why anyone else should be expected to do so. =)

I'm applying all over the map. I've got apps out in English, History, and Humanities programs in the Northwest and Midwest of America, and in Ontario. Sorry if I'm not more specific, but I'm getting more and more superstitious as this process goes along. Now I know why they say that the longer you stay in academia, the weirder you get - I'm losing my bloody mind!

Anyway, I may or may not have applied to the school we were just discussing, possibly in a different discipline from you, and I may or may not really really really want to get in at said school.

(Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more!)

[amanda1655]

Hmm... I wonder how many white male people from Minnesota who have over a 700 on the Verbal and a Master's Degree apply for Rhetoric programs in the Northwest. No matter how hard we try, the adcomms could always find out who we were if they had a mind to. Especially if we had a few more pieces of information gleaned from your posts.

MA from halfway across the country.

SOP focuses on research interests.

Research could be achieved in either a history or English department.

[Minnesotan]

Ermm... I'm not a white male. I just like to play devil's advocate with the discussions you're referring to. I think some people get carried away with their lines of thinking. But, again, this isn't the place to discuss such things.

As for being superstitious, you're right. If someone really wanted to sift through all of my previous posts, they could likely make a pretty good guess at whether or not I'm the person applying to their program. Then again, thousands of Minnesotans are applying to grad school in the humanities this year. Surely some of them have similar opinions and histories to mine. It would be pretty careless of an admissions committee member to assume anything.

[amanda1655]

Sorry... I just assumed from the squabble/snafu/brawl (I'm not sure what to call it) in the posts about the Ford Fellowship that you were.

Good luck, though, especially with your schools in the NW. I so badly wanted to go somewhere in Portland or Seattle but there were no schools with matching profs. Oh well, I walked through 4 ft. snow drifts before and I can do it again whether it be in Madison, WI or Ann Arbor, MI.

[Minnesotan]

It's not a problem. Race/gender issues only get me riled up when people think they should be able to decide who to employ or help out based solely on those criteria (note: I'm merely explaining myself in the context of this conversation, folks - I'm not starting a debate). In person, you likely couldn't tell what race(/s) I am, so people in the real world make similar misprognoses, especially when I get going about exclusion issues, etc. =)

Anyway, to bring this back to a less controversial subject, the snow is fine for me - I've lived in it for most of my life. I actually limited my geography to some degree because I can't deal with warm weather that well. Anything over 80F makes me sluggish and unwilling to do anything but sip cool drinks on the beach.

So much for that UNC-Chapel Hill app!

[amanda1655]

I think I may have a desire to only live in extreme temperatures. For the last three years, I have been living in the Southwest where it is over 105 degrees from June to October. In July, it is routinely 115 degrees. When I went home for Christmas, my mom asked if I wanted to borrow the car. I took one look at the snow on road, realized that I hadn't driven in snow in three years, and said no.

And yet here I am... considering moving to a place where the ground doesn't even thaw until April.