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_etruscan

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  1. I mean, what is it that you want to do with your graduate history degree? Teach only, or do research as well? When I received my M.A. in History, I was able to find a job at a community college as an adjunct. The pay wasn't great, but if that is something you want to do, you can do it without going in for your PhD. As for your question if you are too old: I was probably one of the younger people in the department meetings we had. I didn't ask for ages, but about the third of the faculty had grey hair Thus being an instructor in a community college setting is perfectly doable for you if you decide to go that route. If you can do it - and ideally not pay for it - go for it! Just be mindful what's in store career-wise once you do graduate. Good luck!
  2. I use Papers 2, and for a time, everything else seemed inferior. That is until the developers released Papers 3. Anything else is superior to Papers 3. The developers made it a pain in the rear end to transfer files between Papers 2 and 3. Like, instead of doing a simple transfer, you have to upload everything into Dropbox for it to read it. The UI is confusing, and I'm not even sure today how to add documents into it. Whereas Papers 2 would allow you to go into any database's website and download the file within the app, Papers 3 tries to do everything for you...without showing you the respective database's website. This attempt for ease of convenience simply results in a muddle mess. The fact Springer's purchase of the developers coincided with the release of Papers 3 makes it clear what happened. Papers was subsequently purchased by Readcube (owned by Wiley), so we'll see if anything happens. But given that I still don't trust Papers 3, I'm still using Papers 2. It does what I need it to do. And even if the citation generator isn't up to snuff, I still prefer it over the alternatives.
  3. Working on my French this summer. But mostly learning the best way to move to Nashville with the least possible round-trips back to Dallas
  4. Yep, it was a modified chapter from my Masters Thesis. One that both expressed my interests I wrote in the SOP and showed my writing, research, and argumentative skills. Worked out really well
  5. Even if it's not worth it, if someone knows a rough outline of the top 20-ish "list," I won't mind if they share it here
  6. I'm attending Vanderbilt this Fall. The funding is great, and I really loved it when I visited a couple of weeks ago. Now I need to find an apartment in Nashville! ?
  7. I wouldn't worry about rank. What is it you want to study and research? That is far more important than simply wanting a PhD. Once you determine that, peruse through the faculty listing of every school you're interested in and see if there's a professor who matches your interests. Read their papers/books and build a personal statement around wanting to work with them. You may find that a highly rank school may accept you and a lower-ranked one will reject you all on the basis of whether your interests align with the faculty at the given school. Good luck!
  8. I mean, where do you want to teach? Do you have a hope of teaching at an Ivy? Or would you be content getting tenure anywhere? Because you can get a job with a TAMU degree, it's just that their PhDs tend to teach inside Texas. The silver lining is that TAMU is a very wealthy university. Having your endowment tied to Texas's oil industry would do that. So additional funding should be available for travel and expenses. But archersline is absolutely correct: if you want to get a TT job, you have to hustle and be the best historian you can be. Overwhelm interviewers with your CV. Good luck!
  9. Congrats! I'm not a Religion major, but I did get accepted to Vanderbilt for the History PhD program. I was accepted with full funding last month, but last week I was informed that the History department put my name up for their Provost Graduate Fellowship, which I ultimately won. So yes, it is possible that your department may have put your name up for additional funding from the graduate school. Honestly, it wouldn't hurt to ask them. It's not like they can take your acceptance away for asking them about funding. Good luck!
  10. I mean, I'll take a different tact here. I got accepted Vanderbilt this year with a very generous funding package. It's a high ranked program, and the POI there advocated for my admission. There is no way in hell that would have been possible if I jumped from my BA to applying to a PhD program. I flunked out of my first year at UT-Austin. I was immature and not serious about college. Took me awhile to get my BA, going part-time and working full-time. GPA when I graduated was a 3.37. I will add that I jumped through various majors, first poli-sci then international relations. I was dissuaded from pursuing history because of "marketability" (which isn't wrong, tbh). But I finally did the change, and my major GPA was a 3.8. But that was good enough for to get into the MA program at North Texas. And I did, with the assumption that this can either be where I can show I'm PhD material or it can help me get a job as a teacher if that didn't pan out. So I did it. I developed my research topic for my Master's thesis. I began to submit conference papers. And I got a feel for what a graduate program entails. And I prospered. My Master's GPA was a 4.0. And professors I've worked with knew what I could do, and their letters of recommendation reflected that. No doubt that my GRE scores helped (92% Verbal, 98% Analytical). But if for anything else, I realized what I wanted to research and work on. And that's what a PhD program is looking for: they're looking for whether you have the fortitude to succeed and if you match well with the department's focus and faculty. I'm not going to tell you that paying for a Master's degree is "right" or "wrong." I was lucky to have a job that gave me the flexibility to do that. And maybe sprucing up your application can help. But there's a world of difference between undergraduate history and graduate history. Between writing a term paper and understanding the historiography of a given subject. Of learning how to do research, of networking with students, and just understanding what a historian should and shouldn't do. The writing sample I sent to Vanderbilt came from my thesis. When the POI asked to see my thesis, I sent it his way. He told me that sharing it with his colleagues solidified his (and their) support for my application. Honestly, would that had happened if I applied when I graduated with my BA? No, of course not. I demonstrated an aptitude that erased their concerns for my earlier travails when I started college. My MA and thesis proved I could to this. And that was the point. But at the end of the day, how much do you want this? And are you okay with only having a Master's degree when this is all said and done? I can't say what is best for your case. But what I can say is that I do not regret paying for my Master's degree. Your milage may vary, of course
  11. Sorry to hear that I was accepted by Colorado, although it seems I was in the "second-wave" as they deemed it for funding. Apparently, CU-Boulder accepts more people than it is to fund them all. Their assumption is that many applicants will go to other schools, whittling down the field to something manageable. In that case, it doesn't sound like they have a waitlist. In any case, I have to decide between Colorado and Vanderbilt. Coincidently, Vanderbilt sent me info on their funding package. Suffice it to say, I don't think CU-Boulder can top that. But I'll make a final decision once I visit both schools in March.
  12. Hmmm, anyone heard back from CU-Boulder? I'm seeing people post up in the results page of acceptances/rejections today. But I haven't received anything. And my status is still "Submitted." Why do they tease me so?
  13. _etruscan

    Nashville, TN

    Thanks for the feedback!
  14. _etruscan

    Plan B?

    Thankfully, I don't need to use my Plan B. But if I did, it would be to find a job teaching high school history. In fact, I've been trying to get a high school job for the last two years, but couldn't as I did not have the necessary experience required for the job. Most of my interviews were at lower income schools where the principals wanted someone to "manage" a classroom, and not in how I was going to teach the given class. The intent was to teach for a few years before deciding if I wanted to go for a PhD. Looking back on it now, I'm thankful I didn't get those jobs. Nonetheless, I managed to get a job as an adjunct instructor at a local community college. Horrible pay, but I went from having no experience to some. And the job gave me the confidence to apply for a PhD program at long last. And it worked! Now, given the job market for academics, maybe I'll need to do my plan B after all :x But I'll worry about that in 5 years /o/
  15. _etruscan

    Nashville, TN

    Figured I'd bump this thread. I've been accepted to Vanderbilt for Fall 2016. Pending something odd, I am going to attend because, hey, funding! In any case, I have never lived outside of Texas before, living in DFW or Austin most of my life. Now I'm obviously looking for a place to live. While the idea of living near Vanderbilt is appealing, one look at the rent nearby dissuaded me of that idea immediately. So has anything changed since last year? What are good neighborhoods to live in? And how's the public transportation in Nashville, specifically to Vanderbilt? I'm a car owner, so commuting wouldn't be a problem. Lastly: where do all the Mexicans live? I'm Mexican-American and given that I've lived among my people for most of my life, does anyone know how large the community is in Nashville, as well as where all the Mexican tends and carnicerias are? Mexican food is just food for me
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