History_Nerd

Nice reference. This thread coming alive makes me feel like I've voted for Pedro and all of my dreams came true. Is anyone else curious what a year's worth of graduate seminars will be like? I'm curious how many students make it through graduate programs in history, but I can't really finds stats anywhere . . .

The problem with calling is that they tell you that you'll have an answer by the end of the week, or whatever - you never hear anything on time (which I didn't know at the time), so I'd end up calling a week or so after the deadline to find out what was going on. I could hear there little eyes rolling, but if they didn't feed me a BS line in the first place I wouldn't have called again. Silly. :roll:

I had all the grad schools I applied to on speed dial. I don't think they liked that.

That's right, I said it. Better stay tuned because you never know what crazy thing I'm going to say next. mhcrosefly311 - where are you heading off to again? And, you brittdreams? Also, what do you guys want to study? In some ways, I can't wait until August. Let the torture begin.

I think it would be safe to say that it is VERY difficult to get funding from Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge - which, by the way, are by far the best funded schools in the UK). At Cambridge, it is often all or nothing and it is very competative. You could win a Rhodes or a Gates scholarship and be all set, but have you ever read about the people who actually win Rhodes scholarships? Don't get me wrong, one of the people I work with won one, but this year they had a kid who went to Iraq to help build schools and was shot something like seven times, survived, and is going for his MPhil in International Studies - um, yeah, you deserve it, kiddo. To be perfectly fair, a lot of people conisder the MPhil programs in the UK to be 'cash-cows' for the Universities. On the other hand, I've heard great stories of people who applied to six schools in the US, got rejected everywhere, then went to go get their MPhil at Oxbridge and were accepted almost everywhere the next time they applied to American schools. If you have all the money in the world, studying at either Oxford or Cambridge would be a steller thing to put on your CV (as Minnesotan will probably attest to) but unless you get a Rhodes or Gates scholarship - I think the American programs are probably the best 'bang for your buck'.

I applied to three schools in the UK myself. It made the whole process pretty tough. I was admitted far earlier than when I heard back from schools in the US, which was nice, but I still hadn't heard back about funding from schools as of last week, when I told them that I was staying in the states. A lot less red tape and BS in the applications, though. Plus they were the only schools that I did phone interviews with - which was kind of nice actually. It would be an amazing experience to study in the UK or Canada though, I've been told they are far more plugged in to global trends in the study of history than in the US, but from what I'm told, it would be challenging to get your career going in the US. My sister studied archaeology at University College London and had that problem, and I was just speaking with a historian from Oxford yesterday who talked about what a tough time she had. It is "doable" however, and you end up getting your degree a lot faster, so I think it is kind of a push. I still hope to spend a year in Cambridge someday . . . I started off at school in Morris, finished at "The U" and lived in Uptown for a year before moving to Denver, where I am now.

Out of curiousity - would you mind devulging where in Minnesota you're from? I'm a St. Paulite myself. Are you starting a history program in the fall?

You hear about people looking at facebook and myspace accounts like that all the time, which I think is just crazy. Like most of you have said, personal lives should in some sense be seperated from your on the job performance. So what if I listen to hip-hop or have tatoos, etc. Will that make a difference in my academic or on the job performance? It hasn't up to now. Interesting stuff though. Ohh - and I'm pretty sure I was turned down by a school because I was on Girls Gone Wild . . .just kidding.

I picked up the grad school issue of US News and World Report at the book store and read an article about graduate/medical students writing blogs (I didn't end up buying the magazine, if you're curious). On the one hand the article said that graduate students make the perfect candidates for blogging, but on the other hand, some people argued that it might make it more difficult for you to get an academic job after your time in graduate school. I'm torn on this issue. I run a couple of blogs (see the links below) and I feel as though it helps me practice my writing for a popular audience. It doesn't take very much time, and I've also seen a lot of academics blogging recently (my own alma for example has been promoting a blog run by a biology professor). Thoughts? Is blogging a bad idea for graduate students? Excuse the poor spelling and grammer this evening, I'm a little tired.

I am going to be pondering a long-distance relationship myself and think that one thing people often forget about is that you will, in fact, still be talking at least a little once you move. You do have the option of seeing how things go once you move, and one of you, like you said, may decide to bite the bullet. From the sounds of it though, you sound a bit suspicious of what he is saying about your future.

I'm from Minnesota - by the way - Minnesotan. I only knew one dude that took a gender studies class as an undergrad. Maybe I should audit one while I'm in grad school - it could be enlightening. Who knows.

In the midst of my year off, I wished that I had just decided to go into grad school. Looking back on things now, however, I feel well rested and more confident about my decision. I worked a couple of different jobs, internships, and wrote a lot. If you take a year off, you don't have to sit in a cubicle all day - you could go teach english in another country, get a long term internship, practice your track and field skills, whatever. I'm sure it isn't for everyone, but I am glad I took a little bit of time off before school. Some people need to remember to have a little fun too . . .

$100 PER lecture. Whew.

Anyone have any info on the grad student apartments. . . Manville and Jackson (Jefferson? Whatever)? I applied to Manville and they said they would get back to me by June. Wouldn't leave a lot of time to find another apartment for August if I get turned down.

Ha ha!! Sorry for constantly providing outside links - but you guys might find this article interesting - "HNN Survey: What Kind of History Does the History Channel Show?" http://hnn.us/articles/24059.html Its pejorative nickname is the Hitler Channel. Is it deserved? The results of an HNN survey of three weeks of programming on the History Channel show that the channel mainly focuses on three areas: military history, technology, and religion. The survey covered the period between March 26 and April 15, 2006. Of the programs analyzed during this period, an average of 20 percent were devoted to military history. Of the military history shows, 70 percent covered World War II, with offerings ranging from programs about specific battles or weapons to a documentary about a family of Hungarian dwarfs kept alive by Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. The remaining military topics dealt mainly with the Civil War, with thirty minutes per week spent on the war in Vietnam, part of a rebroadcast of a 1980 multipart documentary, The Ten Thousand Day War. I love the History Channel and keep it on in the background when I'm at home (when I'm not watching Sportscenter). Sometimes it really isn't history at all, and some of the programs are just lame, but from time to time you find a fun or really informative program. Meh, anyway . . . I've worked in museums all of my life and I want to study the history of museums (similar in some regards to the history of education - a rather popular field). People simply can't understand why I wouldn't want to go for a Museum Studies degree. I tell them that I want to teach, maybe want to work as a history museum curator - nothing gets to them - they just can't understand why anyone would want to study museums outside of a museum studies degree. You can study the history of the sex lives of African-American women living in urban high-rises, sure, but study the history of museums and people get all crazy!!

Uh-oh, this could get nasty. Too bad we can't settle this over a beer. Can I just go ahead and have one anyway? I think it depends what type of history you do. I'm not going to even bother spell checking the following statement but anthropologists talk about qualitative research versus quantatative research all of the time - and I haven't heard of a lot of historians talking about the differences or why they matter to the study of the past. Historians who like numbers, graphs, and charts might be interested in this link: http://www.ssha.org/ And those who aren't, well, you might take comfort in the way that this journal is catagorized: http://jhc.oxfordjournals.org/ (The link is to a BRITISH journal however, and they drive on the wrong side of the road for crying out loud) Myself? I decided not to be an anthropologist partially because I hate math and numbers, and in my experience, historians have an easier time avoiding them and just exploring a narative than many of their partners in the social sciences. In your face GIANT Sociology thread!

Fact: I pulled a C- average in high school and was told, "I wasn't college material". Mwah! How sweet it is!!!

Should be the same deal for me as I move from Colorado to California - ohhh, wait, no nevermind. Good points to think about though. When I lived in western Minnesota - in the middle of nowhere - I was paying $125 a month in rent for a house with two other guys. $125!!! Gesh.

St. Paul is the city I was born in. So it rocks. Some fun things to do, if you are going to the St. Paul campus (vet. sciences, ecology, etc.) there is a really great little neighborhood on the border between Falcon Heights and St. Paul - across the road from the state fairgrounds, and just down the street from a bunch of places to eat, and a movie theater. If I were you though, if you are going to the Minneapolis campus (the 'main' campus) take a look at the Uptown area - which is probably the best place for a young person to live in Minneapolis, or near the campus itself in Dinkytown and move from there.

I found this on "Blog Them Out of the Stone Age" (http://warhistorian.org/wordpress/index.php) http://warhistorian.org/wordpress/?p=303 (See the link to read the full post) April 24, 2006 Grad School Barbie Filed under: The Craft of History — Mark G. @ 7:00 am GRADUATE SCHOOL BARBIE ™ Graduate School Barbie comes in two styles! Delusional Master’s Barbie ™ and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie ™. Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun-filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours: * Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first). * Adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes! * Two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans with 5-year-old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching “Go Screw Yourself

The link above is pretty interesting - thanks!

It is because you people are so well informed. :shock:

Good post, hydsnare. Thanks.

I think what you are going through is a natural feeling. In my experience, anytime somebody is about to go through a big life change they get cold feet. Weddings, moving to take a new job, starting grad school. It is all basically the same. Are you allowed to defer your admission at your school of choice? Some programs will let you, some won't. I took about a year off and am happy I did, but I have to be honest, at some points when I was working the whole 9-5 thing, I was kind of like, what am I doing here - I know I want to be a professor, and this really isn't helping me move forward much. At the end of the day though, I am really excited to start school and am pretty positive I made the right decision.

Psych is just loaded with websites for people looking to apply to grad school. It is sick and unfair. Mwah!