Fasnacht

I feel like I have the opposite problem. I know Gender/Religion seems to be hot, which is good for me, but domesticity seems to be really fading. It seems to have hit a boom in the early to mid 1990s and I seem to be a Janie Come Lately in terms of what I hope to study topically. I hope it's more than your department, Annieca. Social History is something I love. As an aside, I agree, modern political history seems to be growing, at least among my friends...

I'm finally participating in the App threads! I joined ages ago to ask a question that the forum was so helpful with and now I am participating more fully at the start of my own application cycle. I made a signature listing my schools and interests. Please tell me if you think my signature is totally annoying. I think there is a fine line between informative and helpful and totally unneeded and annoying. Hopefully I adhere to the former in terms of my signature. As always, I welcome school suggestions and the like. I will do my best to reply in kind. I just wanted to post on this App thread to introduce myself to people going through the process with me. I've begun researching POI's and studying for the GRE. I wrote an SOP for a class last fall that really sucked, though I'm working on improving that bit by bit. I'm graduating college in December and hope to start grad school in the fall. My interests center mostly in history, though I have a strong interdisciplinary interest in expressions of domestic life in regards to both religion and gender. I also love the Progressive Era and 20th and 21st American Protestantism. So, you can call me Fasnacht. And before you ask, I'm not really an anthropomorphic pastry on the other side of the internet, though I may or may not be wearing a silly hat. I'm so glad to be more involved on GradCafe.

Wow! Poland is a beautiful country. I'm sure it'll be awesome. Congratulations, StephanieJ!

In 1756 the town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts granted Lydia Chapin Taft the right to vote in the colony because her husband had recently passed. Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, was the first and only foreign-born first lady.

How bad, in your estimation is the weather? Without giving too much away, I have very little frame of reference. Friends have told me the winters feel like a frozen tundra. I'm not too sure on forum conventions, so I hope it is okay to go slightly off topic. If not, I will delete with all the hastiness of a new member.

Wow! Thanks everyone for the advice, everyone! Yes, I have talked to my professors. My advisors have been very supportive about various programs, and I imagine very honest, too about where they feel would be a good fit for me. What I'm doing is making a great big excel sheet of programs with various factors and notes. Seems obsessive, but it is helpful. As someone said, I'm looking at a mix of programs, MA and Ph.D, simply because I don't want to put my eggs in too few baskets. Also, I'm doing an undergraduate thesis on (certain author's) exploration of women's roles in (certain place) at (certain time), so I do have some diversity in my areas of interest, though it is broadly focused in women's history and culture. It's helpful to hear things and feel some sense of validation in how I'm going about this. I am so thankful for the support. ETA: Removed (Possibly) Identifying Details.

Thanks for the laughs! I especially love the acronyms upthread! Brilliant!

Okay. I’m finally posting. After two years spent lurking. Or so. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever find a way to make up a good list of schools to consider. I just feel like I’ve finally found where I fit as far as my interests are concerned, and now I’m more confused than ever. I am at the point where I’m becoming frustrated with my inability to think beyond some of this. So, at the font of wisdom that is the gradcafe, I ask your advice. (Yes, I’m one of those people ) Details: I’m interested in Women’s History, especially the history of homemaking and the home economics movement, and domestic culture on a larger scale. I tend to study the United States between the late 19th and 20th centuries. I have several schools in mind, but I honestly don’t know how to begin. I’ve spent hours and hours on websites, and I end up feeling more overwhelmed than ever. I am also interested in women writers and their expression of issues like marriage and motherhood, especially from feminist writers. I love literature, and although I have defined my research interests, I still want to be exposed to new ideas. However, programs like FCS and related areas don’t interest me as much because I have no interest in things like high school teaching or public policy. Advice on how to widen my approach or my process of finding some direction? What would you do? Any advice for directions I might explore that I haven’t thought of? Should I go for a more interdisciplinary approach? Thank you for taking the time to read the ramblings of a confused undergraduate.