nevermind

I know you didn't. The OP mentioned this in her post and I was providing what has worked for me as an alternative. I was offering my perspective as an older student and did not ask for your advice or judgement.

Thanks for your unsolicited feedback. Yes, I do "other things" in order to be successful. There are many ways of networking and cultivating interpersonal relationships, but "going out to bars" every weekend with your cohort doesn't have to be one of them.

I consider the PhD program as my workplace. I show up to class, am (hopefully) collegial to my colleagues, but I leave campus and go home...I'm not really involved in departmental drama (sometimes people fill me in, but I honestly don't know much). I focus on my work and keep it at that. I have a boyfriend who moved with me across the country and a dog...so when I'm not working, I spend time with them. I have a "social life" with them, but not really with my department. My colleagues know me in class and in a professional setting and I keep it that way. I'm 35 and, at the end of the day, I have different priorities than someone in their late 20's (e.g. finishing by the time I'm 40!).

I have moderate Crohn's Disease and I guess my suggestion would be to make sure you get your flare-ups under control as much as possible before starting a graduate program. In addition to establishing your physician/specialist relationship quickly and getting on the right meds, there's not a lot else you can do. I deal with fatigue a lot, but that's honestly something you have to push through. Because of Crohn's, gluten really aggravates my symptoms, so I maintain a gluten free diet (which I've done for YEARS), it just sucks because of all the "free food" at grad. events all contain gluten (pizza, cookies, donuts, sandwiches). I'm used to bringing my own food everywhere and adjusting as-is. I'm attending a language program this summer and have already established that this will be accommodated.

I agree with the suggestion about Huehnergard. You probably know that him + University of Chicago would be the top two places where you could do your work. I would recommend reaching out to him (Via email), explaining your career goals, and seeing what he thinks your background/preparation/aptitude would fit best. When I talked to him years ago, he discouraged me from doing philology specifically, since it's such a narrow field (and subsequently, hard to get a job in...FWIW, I also had Akkadian, Hebrew, and Aramaic). I think Arabic would also be beneficial in Comparative Semitics, so if you could get that during your M.A., I think it would help too. Honestly, Chicago sounds like it would best for you since (I think) they have a joint program with the linguistics department.

I would agree with this. I have a graduate degree in international development, so I think human geography / sociology would really be a stronger match than history (unless you can make a case for choosing history as a methodology...). I would recommend checking out Cornell's Development Sociology program - it's highly interdisciplinary and Shelley Feldman's work (http://www.atkinson.cornell.edu/about/people/fellows/view.php?NetID=rf12) might appeal to you.

This is SO true. You're not going to learn everything in the summer before grad school (and everyone expects you to be a little "green" anyway...I still am in many ways)...take FULL advantage of doing nothing. If you want to "be productive", you might want to check out "The Professor is In" (if you want a career in academia) and try to start crafting a 5 year plan (https://theprofessorisin.com/2014/05/02/why-you-need-a-5-year-plan/) to take to your advisor (grants/archives, etc. you want to apply for in the future).

Lucky!!! We go until mid-June. :-/

I can also relate to being in two departments...I'm history AND science studies, so it's certainly a balancing act...but it means twice as many emails. I've found some archives that I'm hoping to visit in the summer (I'm also doing a summer language program)...BUT. man. i'm exhausted.

YES. I write so many...I try to only respond (unless it's critical) during normal business hours because sometimes...you just have to unplug for sanity's sake.

If it's an online certificate program, I'd go with whatever's cheaper, assuming you have to pay your own way. It's really unclear how much online certificate programs carry the "prestige" of the school, so I would be wary of paying for UoC's "name".

The other responses are fantastic, but I'll add my two cents too. I have a lot of friends who are Near Eastern Studies and they're trying to position themselves for a job in a history department, but aren't grounded in the "right" methodology (or any directed methodology at all)...it's an uphill battle. I don't think WGS is like that and I don't see that getting the MA you're talking about being a "hindrance" to your PhD ambitions (in fact, it will likely help). For women and gender studies, I think it would really easy to do integrated within a history program (and the program I'm in even offers a WGS certificate if candidates are interested). I don't think you'd run into the same problems (as those in area studies) if you did history with a WGS certificate (or WGS as a minor field or something like this), and on the job market, you'd likely be marketable to both history departments and more interdisciplinary gender studies depts.

I think @SarahBethSortino studied at Edinburgh for her Master's. You may want to contact her as she likely has valuable insight into this (or if not, who to contact to ask these questions).

bahaha. the workforce wasn't freedom for me...i MUCH prefer academia. It was a good lesson to learn so that I appreciate my time in grad school more. Though I DO miss making $80,000/yr. instead of my meager stipend.

...it has been eons for me since undergrad...at least 13 years or so since I graduated.

That's fantastic! Congrats!

I think we're supposed to do this to a degree. Our advisor fills out a report about our progress and we have "the chance" to respond and have both assessments included in our file. I don't really think it's supposed to be part of the student's progress, rather it seems to be for the department's benefit...so they can show the institution (or whatever bureaucratic purposes). I honestly wouldn't be too worried about it.

If it does, it doesn't work that well. I use the hot spot on my phone to connect to wifi if I needed it. Usually, I just read.

This is true. Hillcrest is a good option. I live in North Park and it also seems to have a large grad student population. Parking at UCSD can kind of be a source of frustration from what I've heard...I take a bus to the HIllcrest shuttle (it goes from the UCSD Medical Center up to the LaJolla campus), which is a bit of a hassle, but I get work done on the bus, so it works out. (If I'm particularly lazy, I take a Lyft to the UCSD shuttle.) Hope that helps!

Without other sources of funding, it's not likely. I think that puts you below the poverty line, so you might be eligible for food stamps or some other assistance. But housing is extremely expensive here (I share an apartment with my boyfriend and we pay $1500 a month...so my share is $750), so your stipend *might* take care of housing, but not anything else. :/

Real or not, at this point, I'm going to peace out of TGC. Congrats to everyone who has heard and good luck to everyone that is waiting to hear back.

Now I see the condescension of the other poster was referring to. I didn't say that marketability was the ONLY factor to consider writing a dissertation on, but it is one of many factors that need to be considered. You don't want to propose an outmoded topic just like you don't want to propose a faddish topic just to cash in on the "trend". People should be working with their advisors on this (and I said "or other people in your university or departments who know you" precisely because I acknowledge that not everybody has a great relationship with their advisor).

I think one could also argue that it contributes to the perceived prestige of an institution that does have a determining factor in getting interviews, etc. However, there are so many other factors that matter more, as @Sigaba notes. Personally, my uni dropped from in the 20's to in the 40's, but that's life. It really has no bearing on how much research I produce.

Let's step back from the appeal to authority via Omid Safi. The advice above may have been directed to a particular individual's background/educational experience (minion banana) and thereby it might not be suitable to apply it broadly to all history graduate students or it could have been taken out of context/misunderstood altogether. What is important is: to ASK YOUR OWN ADVISOR about career goals or other people in your department/university who know you, who know the market and CONSIDER THEIR ADVICE more seriously than strangers on the internet (me included). My two cents is (1) you need to choose your dissertation topic wisely, to be marketable and of interests to people with different backgrounds ("why does this topic matter to people who AREN"T interested in my niche specialty"?) AND (2) You'll (most likely) get burnt out on what you write about, so don't think that it will necessarily be "easier" if you're in love with the project (it might be, but it might be a short-lived romance as well). I work on modern stuff, but that doesn't mean that I ONLY learn about modern stuff...you should be cognizant and conversant of other topics (and perhaps even the historiography!) of other fields. Whether or not that's useful for your dissertation is up for you and your advisor to decide. You don't want to lose out on a job because you were too myopic or too general in your preparation--the difficulty (like all things in grad school) is finding the balance.

Welcome to Ithaca. ;-)