Josh J.

Congrats on the University of Washington admit! Now my anxiety just went through the roof!

I hear you. I applied to Yale last year, had a really excellent fit and my advisor is good friends with my POI there. But they get flooded with applicants.

My understanding is that Yale accepts many people they don't interview. Don't give up hope just yet.

I'm drinking scotch for the rest of the night. Between waiting and the amount of stupid I've encountered today, it is one of those kinds of nights.

Two of my schools could notify this week (based on past years) and I am anxious as all hell now. I've been mostly fine up to this point...

Yale supposedly got 10,000 applicants last year, according to their rejection letters...

Baylor does do formal interviews. They take 1 to 3 people per year, and interview about six people for those slots.

I would be curious to hear where you are applying. I'm applying to environmental history programs, and have somewhat of an interest in the history of wildfire management on public lands. I was a wildland firefighter for about 8 years, so it is more than simply an academic interest.

This is an issue that I actively struggled with for sometime. I've got a BA in History, and an Masters of Theological Studies degree from Vanderbilt. My plan was a PhD focused on American Religious History, and I could do this in either a history department or a religious studies department. Emhafe is correct in that, in the Religion department, it is more theologically oriented. You will be taking coursework from historians that are also theologically trained, and you might also end up taking some courses in theology, ethics, or sociology of religion, as well. I think this is a positive thing if you are interested in the history of religion. I should mention, however, that there is a big difference between a PhD in Religion focused on Historical Studies, and a PhD in Religion focused on Historical Theology. The later is intellectual history focused on the development of theology. You will, of course, get more than just that in a program like that, but its much more theological than it is historical. In a program focused on historical studies, historiography and secular history will end up being emphasized much more. In the history department, you won't get much in the way of religion. Sure, you will be working with professors who study religion, but they may or may not be trained in theology. You won't be pushed to take courses in theology or sociology of religion. If that doesn't matter to you, this is a good route. The deciding question that I would ask, and which you identified, is what do you want to do with your degree? If you want to teach in a seminary, then either of those degrees will get you to where you want to go. The Religion degree might get you a bit more mileage in that scenario, since there might be a better chance that your advisor and professors are better connected to people in the seminary world..but it could be that historians of religion are as well. But here is a question: If you can't get a seminary job, but have the option of teaching in a liberal arts college, what do you want to teach? Are you more interested in teaching history courses (with varying content, religious and not?) or are you more interested in teaching religion courses? In a liberal arts college, especially a small religious one, you could get stuck teaching Introduction to the Life of Christ, textual courses on 1 Peter, etc. Whereas in a history department, you might teach US History I or World Civ. Which appeals? For me, I'd rather be teaching the history classes than "bible" courses. Also, for Vanderbilt as you mentioned above, I should say that in the Religion department, you also earn the MA en route. Many PhD programs in religion want the MDiv. Vandy, for one, will definitely take people with an MA, MTS, or MDIV...they don't care as long as the degree is in religion. They don't take BA to PHD in Religion, but the History Department does.

Finally done with applications. I was going to apply at one more place until I talked to a professor and was told that NO one gets full funding, and consequently, there are no stipends. Factor that in with studio housing at $950 a month...and I'm done paying out application fees.

A decent amount of programs hire people who are ABD, so you should definitely apply. If you aren't location bound, apply for every last job that you are qualified for.

Does anyone have any insight into how things work at Claremont? They only have four core faculty members in the history department on the Claremont Graduate School, but then list a million or so historians in the Claremont Colleges. I reached out to a historian who does exactly what I'm interested in, and he told me that I would have to talk to one of the four core faculty. I'm going to call over there on Monday and talk to the chair hopefully, but I was curious if any of you have any knowledge about them?

Hey there, Who here is going to Atlanta for AAR this weekend? If you are going, are you presenting? If so, on what? I will be there, presenting on U.S. government suppression of religous conscientious objectors during World War I.

It depends upon the program. The people I talked to at Baylor last year said you were highly encouraged to take summer courses, though it wasn't required. But you should be doing research during the summer...

Being from the Pacific Northwest myself, and having just moved back from Tennessee, where I was for two years, I would advise against MTSU. Its a crap school altogether, and the people I've talked to there have had nothing but problems to talk about and nothing good to say...

I posed this question to my class today as I was talking to them about the sources they will need for their final paper. As you analyze your sources, questions of veracity and provenance have to be asked. Considering the originals are classified and unavailable to researchers, the historian has to ask if they believe these sources are fake, edited originals, or totally true. Use a hermeneutic of suspicion, for sure. But you can still use them and be skeptical. We use Denmark Vesey's so-called confession written by a lawyer who questioned him as a primary source, and it's highly questionable, but still enlightening, so why not Wikileaks? The only reason I see for saying no way is ideology...

Leo, As a historian, I would say that using documents from Wikileaks as primary sources is a part of your prerogative. Evaluate the source just as you would any other primary source, but pay special attention to credibility. In your opinion, is the archive of documents from Wikileaks that this document is a part of real? Or was it manufactured and leaked to Wikileaks as part of a disinformation campaign? No matter your answer to that question, you still have a primary source... But you will use a discredited source in a different way. I haven't seen any historians write on using Wikileaks sources, but there are some scholarly articles on Wikileaks as journalism and boundary policing on the part of newspapers and such. Search jstor or ebsco for Wikileaks and journalism and they are bound to appear.

I agree that the quant GRE score is pretty much meaningless. For humanities programs, they will look at your language and writing as far as admissions goes. When it comes to your quant, it will probably only be used if you are nominated for a University Fellowship, aka bump-up funding. They like to give those to people who have high all around GRE scores. As Ashie and turnings have stated, the MA isn't gonna hurt you. Apply to both, but I would suggest with your profile to lean into PhD programs more. My personal thought is not to do free research for people...sure, it might look good on the CV if the person is well known, but don't let yourself be taken advantage of.

I would mention that fact in your statement of purpose, and yes, it should also be listed in your CV.

Hello all, I am in the midst of working on PhD applications. This is my second round. One thing that has been pounded into my head is the question of fit. Last year, I applied to some top programs, but my fit probably wasn't the best (it wasn't awful, but not great). I want to change that this year. I'm going to be applying to various schools, with two very different projects, but I will tailor my SOP to fit each program. Last year, I did religion and war exclusively. This year, I've added environmental history--another passion--but have found that most of the schools I'm looking at are a better fit for environmental than for religion and war. So, where might I apply that has strong graduate faculty in Religion and War in U.S. History? Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee are already on my list. Where else should I be looking? I should probably clarify, I am most interested in history programs, and not religion programs.

Thanks, Ashiepoo. I will definitely check out Davis, and pm you.

I agree with Nevermind, in that the majority of people you are seeing with an MDiv and an MA got the MA en-route, as in, they were awarded the MA as part of their PhD program for passing qualifying exams or after also being required to write an MA thesis or multiple research papers. So many of them didn't get a stand alone MA. However, that said, many church historians do get multiple masters, because having extra training in theology and philosophy is considered a requirement or at least a major perk in some traditions. The MDiv usually qualifies you for PhD studies, however, at most schools, so unless you really want or feel the need to study multiple fields in religion, I would suggest moving from the MDiv straight to the PhD.

Hello everyone, This will be my second time around applying for PhD programs... I must be a glutton for punishment. I am applying for two different types of programs this year. My master's is in American Religious History, with my thesis focusing on Religion and War, specifically the American home front during World War I and the federal government's attacks on conscientious objectors. I am interested in continuing my work in this field, as I know the historiography very well and the topic really interests me. I'm also going to be applying into some programs for History of the American West/Environmental History. I am teaching at a small liberal arts college right now, and I had the opportunity to design a course this fall in whatever I was interested in, so I am teaching a course on Environmental History in the Pacific Northwest. I'm having a ton of fun in the topic, have been reading in the historiography of the field, and I went to The Netherlands and presented a paper in the field back in May. My main topic of interest in this field is in the History of the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Park Service, and their relationships with the public in forming federal natural resources policy. I've been doing a lot of research and writing on the Bull Run Watershed, a joint federal-city owned municipal watershed that provides water for Portland, Oregon, where I'm located. Good luck to everyone, and its good to see several people from last year...I'm looking at you, ashiepoo, telkanuru, mvlchichago, heimat, JJWS, etc.

Hey all, I am sorry for disappearing for a while. I've been catching up on all the stuff I should have done while anxiously awaiting all of my application results. Sounds like I missed some drama while I was gone. I just signed a contract to teach a course on Environmental History and Justice in the fall, and will probably also pick up a couple of Introduction to Historical Studies courses as well.

Hello all, I am planning on spending the next year doing some language acquisition. I took French in high school (which was 20 years ago), and don't remember any of it (and didn't learn much anyway since I was a slacker in high school). I don't need the language for research as far as I can see, and am applying to programs that only need one language. I will be applying to some programs that focus on the American West, so Spanish seems to make the most sense, but again, I don't plan on working on projects needing the language. I'll also apply to some programs not related to the West. My dissertation field will probably be American Religion. So, what languages would you all recommend? Why? And most important of all, what self study resources would you recommend for reading comprehension?