Cornell07
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Posts posted by Cornell07
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No. No. All of this is helpful. Assuming I don't get it to my last ditch back-up masters program, I will be reapplying in the fall to MA programs, with a couple of long shot PhD programs for good measure. Thanks all!
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FYI, the deadline was yesterday.
It is probably impossible to do the degree part-time as one year is spent in London. I had no problem having my PhD app moved to the MA folders. I just emailed the program coordinator and she moved it for me. Very helpful!
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barrydancer wrote:
If you're considering Columbia's MA in American Studies, I would say don't bother. I'm graduating from the program in May and if I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't. The university treats Liberal Studies students, which the MA is offered under, as second-class citizens. Many professors won't let you into their graduate level classes because you aren't a PhD. student. The department has gotten a little more helpful with some recent personnel changes, but it's still a crapshoot. You have no adviser, just a bureaucrat behind a desk, and are pretty much left to your own devices. Developing a personal relationship with a professor or two will make the experience more enjoyable.
egh! I'll keep this in mind! Honestly, from the description it didn't sound like they think much of people who enter into this program...but I hoped it was something I was just imagining!
I do hope that their MA in history program is not as bad!
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Did anyone apply to Columbia+London School of Economics new MA/MSc program in World and International history? I was up at Columbia today, talking with one of the program coordinators, and she says the decisions should be available by mid-April! Talk about one hell of a turnaround time. Two to three weeks to make all admissions decisions! I guess it must be much easier when you don't have to worry about funding your applicants.
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Proud with my 0/7.
Let's see if anyone can beat that !
0/9 ...
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I bit the bullet. Tore through my personal statement. Expunged many paragraphs and re-wrote significant chunks. Less wide-eyed optimism and lofty goals... more reasonable sights for now (ie don't stress or mention the desire to do interdiciplinary work). More specifics. Only 500 words to work with!? Come on, Columbia; do you really only have a New York minute to read my app?
Read. Rewrite. Read. Rewrite. Rinse. Repeat.
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Well, kiddos, I've sucked it up and overhauled my personal statement; I'm going to take a crack at the new Columbia-LSE MA in International & World History. Back to the revision process!
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Cornell is perpetually gray from December through March. It may not always be snowing, but gray and wet are a near constant for those months.
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I got a email a while ago linking to my rejection on the website.
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Off the top of my head, I know that there is someone at Harvard who studies this topic (I was a bit concerned with it for a while actually, doing an indep. thesis on the impact of dormitory architecture on education).
Edit:
A quick google search brought up this journal on the history of higher education; I've linked to the masthead: http://www.ed.psu.edu/hied/annual/editorialboard.html
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Many of the same rules apply as with most graduate programs. There are of course many more things to do when you get to within about 6 months of the app deadline; these are the things you should focus on now:
1) Research. Research. Research. Write. Write. Write. Do an Honors Thesis, an Indep. Study, assist a professor with his book, assist archivists etc... Use primary sources! If you are really motivated, try to get something published or presented at a confrence. It doesn't have to be in a major publication or confrence, because anything at this stage in the game looks great on a CV.
2) Get to know a couple professors really well. Take smaller seminars, go to office hours, speak-up etc... The better a prof knows you, the better the rec he can write. After you finish his class, maintain a line contact such as a friendly email from time to time such as when you come across a recently published article, news story e.g. that you think that he'd be interested in.
3) Determine your field roughly and start to learn as many related languages as you can. As a colonial Americanist, it depends in large part on which area of the country you have a particular interest: Spanish and German are usually the big languages from what I understand: French, Dutch etc... also help.
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It was funny in Ithaca when the first snow would come and all of the California students would stand around in amazement. My roommate my senior year was a scrawny transfer student from Vietnam and boy was he cold. The poor kid didn't even own a mildly heavy jacket!
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For those interested: I emailed the admissions office, and they told me that the doctoral program in history at Columbia received between 500 and 600 applications and accepted around 20 to 25 students for the 2008-09 academic year.
Holy crap.
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I second the thoughts on being a lawyer. Though I am making more off the bat as a paralegal than almost all of my other humanties friends, I could never consider this a vocation. True, I've met lawyers content with their money and some trial lawyers who do enjoy their jobs, but the majority, making gobs of money work on mindless contract law. Many enjoy the money; few enjoy the work.
If I don't get into a back-up MA program next month, I'm doing everything I can to get the funk out of this damnable profession and into something more worthwhile and stimulating like doing foreign policy analysis for the state dept or think tanks.
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Mwahahaha!!
"We can't accept you! We are filled with regret! However if you are ever in the area we encourage you to stop in and have a cappuccino from the machine we bought with your application fee. Really, they're fantastic, thank you so much for applying."Hahahahaha.
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Well, as one of those people who did not get in anywhere, I still can say many many congrats to people like Missycari and redwine who got into a number of top notch programs. I may be envious, but I am not bitter. :mrgreen: They haven't rubbed their good luck in anyone's face and have continued to be supportive of those of us who are less fortunate. I only wish I knew their secrets to application success so that I may too next year face such difficult decisions!
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I've had some painfully short letters. I think BU's was about four lines long.
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It looks like both history and english were kill zones this year.
It honestly wasn't this bad when I applied two years ago. One of my programs this year had double (yes, double!) the amount of applicants from the year before. Jesus Haploid Christ!
How do they expect us to avoid getting real jobs when @#$% like this happens?
My advisor at Cornell warned me this might happen. He said that while I'd stand a good chance in "normal years", I would face excruciatingly high competition this year. Damn you job market!
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Well, I'd dare say the Berkeley one gives something to aim for!
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Well... I've been rejected everywhere! 0 for 9, baby!
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No surprise after being rejected by BU. I was rejected by Columbia. 0 for 9. And now I'm spent.
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So, I thought that I had solid LORs, a decent GRE score, undergrad at an Ivy, and a good research writing sample. Somehow, I've been rejected everywhere, not only by Top 20 schools but a school ranked #59 that accepts ~30% of all applicants and only recieves 6 out of 210 Ivy applicants.
If I had to put my money on a weak point in my application, I'd say that my personal statement must have been it. I approached it like I did my undergraduate application essays, largely without reference to any sort of examples or books on how to write a personal statement. Now that I've gone back and looked at sample essays, it seems that I was waaaay off. I tried to be like Bill Richardson when I should have been more like Barack Obama; I rested far too much on making an argument about my resume, credentials, goals, faculty matches etc... without much of an exciting narrative.
People who got in, what sort of assistance did you use to help write your statements: books, friends etc...? I am in the process of rewriting my statement to apply to a couple of late deadline MA programs, so any input would be helpful.
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Seriously, that's awesome that people are making those sorts of plans...maybe the Americanists will order in and watch CNN? Alternatively, if it's down to me to organize an American History happy hour, I say that we call it the Whiskey Rebellion. (Cold water and Shirley Temples will be served for all cultural historians and students of temperance reform movements.)
Columbia-LSE MA/MSc Applicants?
in History
Posted
I'd say it seems to be mid-April... Well, if I don't end up getting into this program and don't take on +30k of debt, I doubt I'll be too distraught. In the meanwhile, I've applied to some awesome jobs in the foreign policy field with the gov't. I didn't realize how much they love foreign policy wonks with a social science background. *gunning for the position in Naples, IT*