RegniRegis

Hello all, The program requires around 100 pages for the thesis, and most people there tend to hit 95-115. My thesis was 150 pages of essay, with a 150 page appendix of the documents I had translated. My adviser would not allow me to summarize them, they had to be translated verbatim from the Latin. Once I got over to my new adviser and showed her what I had done, she told me that it was not normal for people to have to do that for an MA. The sad part was that I didn't even include all of the documents I had done. So that was fun. Yes, the extra two years were pretty much purely thesis -- I took a class a semester, and the rest of it was research and translation, then writing and revision for the last six months or so. I also ended up having to work full-time during the last year, because I was helping my mom stay afloat financially. The sad part about the 6-year MA? It wasn't just one person, it was several. He only graduated 3 phd students in a 35 year career - a statistic I wish I had known going in.

Hi all, Thank you for your replies. Telkanuru -- it was a 2 year program, hypothetically. Based on what I ended up hearing from my new advisor, though, people have apparently languished in an MA under the former advisor for over six years. There were many more issues than I actually mentioned, and at this point, my understanding from the graduate director and department chair is that he likely won't be getting any more students because of it. That said, none of this is stuff that I want to air to a grad committee. I have four letter writers, three from my graduate program, and one that was my outside thesis committee member, and they will all write strong letters, likely with explanations of the situation. I just wonder how much it will matter, in the long run. At this point I really regret not switching the second things started to get weird, but I was determined that I was going to change my advisor's mind and force him to acknowledge that I was good. Tilting at windmills.

Hi everyone, I wanted to get your opinion on my situation, so that I can be realistic about my changes at acceptance. I graduated in May with an MA in medieval history from an okay school in Texas. It was not a great experience, and it ended up taking me four years to finish the degree. I know what you're thinking -- jeez, that's a pretty long time for an MA -- and I totally agree, which is why I'm worried. I spent the first 2.5 years in a very difficult advisor/student relationship. Essentially, my advisor told me how stupid I was on a daily basis, with the goal of "thickening my skin". Ok. Fine. I will say that I learned an extraordinary amount from this professor, and all of my research was based on Latin primary sources still in their original written manuscript form. This amounted to between 100-150 documents that I ended up transcribing and translating for my thesis, and I ended up publishing an article on my findings. I am certain that I would have completed my MA at the end of that third year, however at the beginning of the spring semester, my father suffered a catastrophic illness, lingered for six months, and then passed away that summer. I managed to keep up with my teaching and my class work, but I was also spending alot of time overseeing my dad's care (I went to school in the same city where he was hospitalized). I really wasn't able to focus on my thesis at all during this point, and, taking the advice of some other professors, I made the decision fairly early on that I would need at least another semester to complete the thesis. Meanwhile, my then-advisor sent me an email the day after my father's passing that detailed how he felt that I would never complete a thesis, let alone a dissertation, and that I should just give up. I sought the advice of several other professors, some medievalists, some not -- all of whom were aghast -- and all of whom advised me to change my advising situation as soon as I could. I changed my advisor as soon as I was able, but the unfortunate side effect was that as my new advisor was on sabbatical for the fall semester, leaving me unable to defend until the spring. Ultimately, my thesis was 300 pages, based entirely on primary sources that had not been referenced previously by other historians in the field. I passed my thesis defense with distinction, and graduated this past May. My new advisor, thesis committee, and department chair have all encouraged me to apply to doctoral programs, but I am deeply concerned that my experiences in my MA program will be enough to keep me out of any program at all. Some stats, just for the purposes of fleshing out my credentials (such as they are): GRE: 168V/154Q/5.5A GPA: 3.96 (MA) 3.64 (BA) Publications: 1 What are your thoughts? I feel like the best thing to do is be totally transparent about this, but i also really don't want to badmouth my former professor. I liked him very much as a person, and I don't feel it would be right. I also don't want to be thought of as a troublemaker. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you,