A visit to a New York university

Or, the story of a prospective student's weekend. Just for posterity - the real dirt is written in my little black notebook. :)

Thursday I left Kris and Rebecca's Portland apartment at 6:30 AM PST and finally arrived, with a delayed flight, at LaGuardia at 8 PM EST. I arrived at the hostel at 9:30 PM, got a sandwich, and met Zain, a fellow prospective student. She and I hung out a lot over the weekend. That night was horribly loud in the hostel as our room was right by the front desk - I barely slept for a few hours. This was the story of the weekend, I'm afraid - but I drank lots of coffee and actually feel pretty good and awake, even at the end of it. The rest of the nights we were lucky enough to be able to move up two floors to a quieter room.

So, on the first day of events, my first official action was to meet a professor who works in US South and African American history. She seemed really nice and really interested in Celia. So, that was sweet. I then ate lunch and met the other 35ish prospective students. The whole weekend involved lots of explaining my undergrad and interests over and over again. That afternoon we listened to some interesting presentations on current research by the grad students. Basically, that got me excited to be back in school and researching again. After that I had a meeting with the profesosr who would be my advisor if I went to NYU. She was very nice, and I've heard only great things about her from her current graduate students. She's also on leave this semester, which leaves a good chance that she would be around for at least a few years while I would be there. So, that was positive.

After that, I met Zain and two other students who were chatting in the atrium of the history building. A professor came up and the five of us talked for an hour as he sold us on the program. He noted that the department was very collegial and interdisciplinary and interested in cutting edge work. He knew all of our names and disciplines, as he is on the admissions committee. Good memory.

Then there was a meet and greet dinner with profs in a hot and crowded room. My feet were killing me (haven't worn heels in six months and wore boots - bad choice) and none of "my" profs were there for long (have I mentioned they're either currently on leave or left? Right.) My mind was empty of all the questions I had before I left and so every time a prof not in my field asked a polite "so any questions for me?" I was left dumb and smiling awkwardly.

After that, I went back to the hostel and hung out with Zain, staying up late talking. The next morning we had to be at breakfast at 9:30, and then listen to the grad director talk about all the great things about the department and the usual schedule of PhD progress - first year, 6 courses. Second year, 4-5 courses and preparing for qualifying exams - 3 days of written tests on your major and minor fields (mine would likely be 19th century US and African American history, or perhaps women's history or early America.) Third year, a few more courses and writing a thesis prospectus, which you defend orally. Fourth year, research. Fifth, writing. Sixth, editing and job hunting. I'm sure it goes that smoothly.

The real dirt came out in the grad school students panel. There, I found out SECRETS THAT CANNOT BE REVEALED. Well, actually, mostly stuff about rents, health insurance, offices, and getting jobs.


This continued over beer at a pub (in between I had coffee with a college friend) where we talked about grad school long distance relationships and other things not specifically NYU. I think the best part about this trip was meeting the other prospectives and remembering how much I love history and history nerds, and meeting the grad students and realizing that I am at their level now and can hold my own, both in "coolness" and academicness, if you get what I mean. After having dinner with KKaren and Brian and her mom and friend, I went down to a little grad student get-together in Brooklyn with Zain. There I talked with another 19th century guy, for a while, and also to someone who is doing a joint JD-PHD in Atlantic world history, and he thought that route would be useful for my research...but to do it at Yale. Go figure. The hostess of this party had a beautiful apartment and an extremely cute beagle named Igby. I was summarily turned into a cooing mess over Igby, and was in awe at the hostess' spacious and well-appointed apartment until I found out her partner works in hedge funds. Go figure. Overall, got the drunken view on the SECRETS THAT CANNOT BE REVEALED. Took the subway back to the hostel with Zain and packed, staying up way too late since I had a taxi at 6 AM.

After getting three hourse of sleep, I finally made my way home even though I had a layover in the Twin Cities which got a foot of snow last night and Northwest threatened cancellations on flights to and from MSP. My original flight was delayed, but I used my Batgirl skills to get onto an earlier flight, along with a new friend, Natasha, who was also Portland-bound. Made it to MSP, ate breakfast for free because the service was horrible (go me/us for complaining and not paying on principle!), and then flew pretty uneventfully back to Portland. Aaron and I stopped for the most delicious Mexican food on the way home.

All in all, a great trip. I have more thoughts that I'm not comfortable posting on such an open forum, especially considering I haven't been admitted yet. I enjoyed the faculty and atmosphere at NYU - now the question is, can I enjoy NYC for 6 or 7 years?