Alicia1593

The women's history program at Sarah Lawrence College requires an autobiography. I can't find any guidelines on their page, excel that it should between 500 and 1000 words. I have no idea what to say or how to say it- any advice?

I'm really tempted to call them because there isn't any information on the website but I don't know what to say when I call.

I applied to Rutger's PhD history program and still haven't gotten word a decision. The results search tells me that people have been accepted to the program and have also been asked to interview but I haven't heard anything. It's really making me nervous. Thoughts?

Definitely helpful! Here's what it looks like now: Questions about women’s healthcare in today’s society deeply interest me as an American woman during a historical moment in which women’s right to healthcare is being hotly contested. My current research examines abortion practices post Roe v. Wade. This topic is couched within the political current discourse politics surrounding questions of the morality and how women should be allowed to access, birth control, abortion, and information about their sexual and reproductive health. I am currently working on my thesis and because it is not yet complete, my writing sample exhibits work done on a separate topic from a seminar class. I believe that studying at Rutgers will best facilitate the skills I need to investigate this important issue. Specifically, the question I am interested in for my senior honors thesis examines whether or not Roe v. Wade made abortion any more practically accessible for women. This project will draw on statistical data and first-hand accounts of activists who helped women access abortions found at the UIC archives. Accessibility will have a two pronged working definition in this thesis. Firstly, accessibility is defined financially. Namely, ability to get to a clinic, hospital, or doctor’s office, the ability to pay for the procedure itself, and any associated after care. Secondly, accessibility is defined in permission of access. Parental permission and the permission of a woman’s husband, as well as a doctor willing to perform the abortion were needed to procure an abortion, even though it was federally legal. Studying at UIUC prepared me to perform well at the graduate level, and in this specific sub-field. One of the first classes that sparked my interests in abortion was Women and Gender in Medieval Europe. The class briefly studied the ways that women practiced abortion, both through early surgeries and herbal concoctions. Another class was Gender, health, and Popular culture, a section of this class examined the history of American women traveling to foreign countries to obtain abortions. Over course of my undergraduate career I dealt with the effects of clinical depression and anxiety. These health issues affected my grade point average, but I have worked diligently to overcome these setbacks. Since the summer semester before my senior year I have regained the academic rigor representative of my educational goals. This is evidenced by my participation in the history honors program, my presiding as President of the UIUC Phi Alpha Theta chapter, and with my thesis research efforts. Rutgers is an ideal place for me to gain the skills necessary to make a career out of scrutinizing the recent history of abortion access. In particular, the work of Johanna Schoen, Rachel Devlin, and Jennifer Mittlestadt are of interest to me. The variation in interests of history faculty at Rutgers will strengthen my research by allowing me to examine abortion from different historical angles, including the medical procedure itself, policy surrounding abortion, and women’s healthcare. The wide breadth of history subfields at Rutgers, coupled with strong support available to graduate students provides a foundation on which I can make a solid contribution to abortion’s historiography.

Thank you for your post! I'll definitely open the conversation that way with the people who write my letters of rec as well as with professors I am interested in working with at the various programs I'm applying to.

Thanks!

Are you saying that the letter writer wants you to write the letter yourself? I would be hesitant to do this, it seems unprofessional of the letter writer. Disclaimer: This is of course, my opinion, I'm sure that you will get others here and you should go with what feels best for you. Another option may be to look up how to write a letter of recommendation and use that to create a draft.

Hello everyone! I'd really appreciate any advice or critiques about my SOP. It's currently 21 words over the Rutger's requirement of 500 words or less, so advice on how to pare it down without losing content would be greatly appreciated. I'm just going to copy and paste it here to save everyone from having to download a file and hopefully people will be more likely to read it as well. I have received some advice to include information about my methodology training but I am obviously out of room for such information. Questions about women’s healthcare in today’s society deeply interest me. For this reason I intend to research the history of women’s healthcare in the United States. My senior honors thesis project examines abortion practices post Roe v. Wade. This topic is couched within the political current discourse politics surrounding questions of the morality and how women should be allowed to access, birth control, abortion, and information about their sexual and reproductive health. Its relevance to my own life as a woman in America informs my interest in this topic. I believe that studying at Rutgers will best facilitate the skills I need to investigate this important issue. Specifically, my project examines whether or not Roe v. Wade made abortion any more practically accessible for women. I am curious if Roe vs. Wade actually allowed more women to obtain legal abortions. For this project I will draw on statistical data and first-hand accounts of activists who helped women access abortions found at the archives at UIC. In this project, accessibility will have a two pronged working definition. Firstly, accessibility is defined financially. Namely, ability to get to a clinic, hospital, or doctor’s office, the ability to pay for the procedure itself, and any associated after care that may have been necessary. Secondly, accessibility is defined in permission of access. Parental permission and the permission of a woman’s husband, as well as a doctor willing to perform the abortion were needed to procure an abortion, even though it was federally legal. My studies at UIUC have prepared me to perform well at the graduate level, and in this specific sub-field. One of the first classes that sparked my interests in abortion was Women and Gender in Medieval Europe. The class briefly studied the ways that women of the time believed produced abortion, both through early surgeries and herbal concoctions. The second class was Gender, health, and Popular culture, a section of this class examined the history of American women traveling to foreign countries to obtain abortions. Rutgers is an ideal place for me to gain the skills necessary to make a career out of scrutinizing the recent history of abortion access. In particular, the work of Johanna Schoen would help me expand my own interests. The variation in interests of history faculty at Rutgers will strengthen my research by allowing me to examine abortion from different historical angles, including the medical procedure itself, policy surrounding abortion, and women’s healthcare. The wide breadth of history subfields at Rutgers, coupled with strong support available to graduate students provides a foundation on which I can make a solid contribution to abortion’s historiography. Over course of my undergraduate career I dealt with the effects of clinical depression and anxiety. These health issues affected my grade point average, but I have worked diligently to overcome these setbacks. Since the summer semester before my senior year I have regained the academic rigor representative of my educational goals. This is evidenced by my participation in the history honors program, my presiding as President of the UIUC Phi Alpha Theta chapter, and with my thesis research efforts.

Thanks for the reply. I've been in touch with two professors at Rutgers. One is in charge of graduate studies and she tells me that the writing sample, personal statement, and letters of recommendation are basically what they base your application on. They do of course, require the GRE and your GPA. I am hopeful that I am not immediately disqualified as I was told that they are currently looking for and accepting people who study what my work is on. On the other hand, I am terrified that I will be immediately disqualified for my GPA. I am also concerned about applying for MA programs because as a matter of fact, I just can not afford to take on any more student debt.

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I'm a señor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. I study the history of women's reproductive right sin Modern American history, I am in the honors program writing about the effectiveness of Roe V. Wade in allowing women to access abortion. My overall GPA is 3.25. It dipped during my junior year due to some mental health issues that are now resolved, but I know that no matter how well I do, schools will not see my scores from this semester. I took a practice GRE tonight and received V; 153 Q: 153. I am not taking the GRE for another week, so I am hoping to improve and that this score was the result of being unsure of what to expect, as well as not being able to concentrate wholly on the test for it's entire duration. I am planning to apply to Sarah Lawrence (for just MA), Temple, university of Wisconsin, Rutgers, Temple, and University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. I will have at least two very strong letters of recommendation. My third will be solid, but maybe not as strong as the first two. I am looking for advice to make my application more competitive and also to find out if there are any other school suggestions for me that I may be a competitive applicant. If you have an insight on what to expect out of the schools I have listed here, please include it as well. Thank you.

This is really helpful because it helps me differentiate between the different documents.

While writing my SOP, I decided that it would be best to address a low spot in my college career. It did not result in horrible grades, my GPA is still over 3.2, but I want to address that I was dealing with outside mental health issues. Despite these issues, I am still working on an honors thesis and have been able to recover and continue working hard to excel in school. My question is this: Where do I place this information in my SOP? I am afraid of finishing my SOP with this, because I don't want to finish on something potentially negative. Roughly this is what my outline is: - Discussion of current research project - Other larger projects I have worked on, involving primary research (I am a history student) - Why I want to attend each specific school Any critique of this would be appreciated as well, I am not sure what exactly to included in terms of other projects that I have worked on.

Hello! Today I emailed a history professor about my interest in their program. However, when addressing the professor's research interest I mentioned something that their research is not entirely focused on. The professor researches women's pop culture and labor movements in 20 century America. I mentioned the professor doing work on sexual and reproductive health and access. The professor does teach a class on the history of desire that deals with some of my own research topics that I mentioned. I sent a second email apologizing for (a) needing to send it and ( to clarify what I meant and the ways that I understood the professor's research interest. I am very nervous that in doing this I have ruined any chance I had of getting into the school. I am well aware that my mistake looked bad, but I am hoping to have repaired some of the damage. How bad does this look and how much will it affect my chances of getting in? ( I know there is no magic "chances" formula, I'm just looking for opinions.) Thanks!