historyandkittens

Wondering if anyone has any advice... I was accepted to an unfunded Master's MA from a prestigious school for a history program (which I had thought was my "reach" application). It is required to attend full time for two years. From conversations I've had, most of the students in this small program are well set up to then apply for PhD programs-- many stay at that school to continue on to PhDs (through a de facto admittance process), some go on to other top-notch PhDs programs, etc. To be honest, I feel that I would need something like this if I was to later consider applying to a PhD program-- my undergraduate record in history was good and my GRE scores are excellent, and I've been told my SOP is very strong and focused; however overall undergrad GPA is suffering due to an unrelated stint I had early on in undergrad with pre-medicine courses. I need a history-only Master's program to show that I am a capable performer in the field when I am not taking an entire 4-year history major in 1.5 years and working 2 part time jobs... So, overjoyed at the best prospect I had for opening the door to future options, I accepted. Meanwhile, I have been working another unrelated job in an unrelated industry since completing undergrad to attempt to save some small amount of money. Upon hearing that I was leaving in August for graduate school, I was offered a very significant raise to stay with the company. Not enough that would pay for an entire year tuition+expenses of the two year program or anything, but would significantly lessen my debt. With the understanding that, hypothetically if I took it, my company knows I would probably leave next year for a program anyway, thus they would have just delayed my leaving for one year. Unfortunately, that offer was ill-timed and happened just a few days ago, and I have already accepted my admissions offer to the program, submitted deposit etc, back in April. Additionally, I have a medical issue that *may* require surgery to occur relatively soon. I have more upcoming doctors appointments but will not know for several weeks probably if surgery is necessary. If it is, I will be crutch ridden for many months with a campus that is very difficult to access with crutches... Not impossible, but not ideal. I am not completely set on even attempting to put off school for another year, and also really do not care about the industry I am currently working in and would not stay past another year, but just wondering how to go about finding out what my options are. More background notes about the school: -The graduate school at the university has a deferral form online, so I believe it's not entirely dis-allowed, but most likely that is intended for admitted students who have not yet accepted. -Program accepts 6-8 students each year; at any given time, some of them are at one institution and some of them are the other (joint degree). Some pros/cons I've thought of if I were try to defer for a year... Pros: - earn more money/defray some debt (hoping they understand my reservations considering it is an unfunded program) - It is a 2 year joint program; 1 year of the program is in the UK. I was planning to do that portion in the 2015-2016 school year, which would have been my second year if I started Fall 2014 but which will be my first year if I start Fall 2015. Students have a choice of which to do when and I want to do it in that year regardless of if I defer, so then my second year would then be in the US in 2016-2017. Having extra money will, given that the UK year would now be first, make the Visa process easier and defray the amount of debt I will need to take out/have in the bank for the Visa approval. - If I do not wish to continue with the PhD program and wish to instead pursue employment prospects immediately following my MA completion.. It will be much better for salary negotiations to be able to report that my last salary was X amount (the high offer) vs. the current amount. - The extra time would potentially allow me to explore other funding options. (Thinking outside funding.. I do not expect that the program would be able to offer me any if I waited another year although I could be mistaken.) - Money to pay for medical treatments if they are necessary (beyond what is covered by insurance). Would not help with the school debt portion but would help with the general less-debt situation. Cons: - I do not want the school to frown upon me asking if it is an option. The admission is very selective and I do not want to p*ss someone off by making seem as if I have set the program aside for something else-- (more money and "maybe" surgeries..) because that is not the case. If it came down to it, I would do the program this year. I want to do it, period-- just want to know if I could possibly wait to do it for another year. But, will the director, professors, etc. immediately dislike me for asking? (from a prestige perspective) - I do not want the program to think I am not able to pay. I am willing to incur the debt for the opportunity, and I would this year, but I just would really prefer to save a little more money if I could. Sadly, I know I am probably one of "those applicants" that was accepted in part because they are not requiring funding offers. - Is there anyway they can take away my admissions offer if I ask? No, right? I submitted deposit etc... Anybody have any insight about this type of situation? "Deferring" if you've already accepted? Thanks in advance!

This is more of a vent than anything... In searching for recommendation letter writers, I feel like many people have their "primary" letter writer who will write a stellar review, and others who are a bit secondary, for lack of a better term. For one of my "secondary" letters I asked the professor who taught a very small academic seminar at a special research library in my area a couple of years ago. The class was one of my favorites, as it was very hands on and engaging-- I spent as much time as possible in the library doing extra research, and volunteered to write about my experience in the library's blog for the professor. In my personal circumstances, I needed to complete an entire history major in 1.5 years after switching majors and then finding that I could not afford a fifth year. That particular semester, my four history courses (including that one) required over 150 pages of writing to be turned in within the same 3 day period (not to mention countless other papers earlier in the semester). I became pretty ill during that time and missed 2 days of class the week prior to the paper deadlines. I emailed all of my professors whose classes I had missed with apologies and that I had documentation for the illness should they need to see it. I had already asked for an extension on the final paper for this course due to conflicting deadlines, but due the illness my other papers were extended as well to the same time. I turned it in the day after the extension with nothing but extensive apologies, and apologized again for having missed the class. I received an A in the course. Still, I recognize my shots at a stellar letter were not awesome given these factors. Having had pleasant interactions with the professor since the class ended, I expected that if she did not feel comfortable writing a strong letter she would say so. However, I feel that what I got in return was unnecessarily harsh: Dear ____, I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying [your continued research in the library of the seminar]. I’m afraid, however, that I don’t think I’m a good choice to write a strong recommendation for you. I went back and read over your final paper and my notes on that and your other work. The paper is a good one. But my strongest recollection of you as a student is that you seemed sleepy in class every week and struggled to keep your eyes open. And in going through our past correspondence, I noted that your final paper was turned in days after the extension I granted you and that your apology for that delay also included an apology for missing class. These might seem like small points, but they do get in the way of writing a recommendation strong enough for acceptance into grad school. It does seem like you are doing a good job of exploring your interest in [the program fields], and that familiarity will surely help you craft a compelling application. With best wishes, ____ ... I know that she found my correct emails, and if anything I figured that the lateness of the paper might be a reason she would say no. However, the other bits about being sleepy in class, and unable to stay awake, simply are not true. I wondered at first if she had me confused with another student. I did not have problems with alertness in class at all, and was actively engaged in conversation. I also did not realize that it was taboo to apologize, again, for a class missed due to an illness- I thought that I was being polite in letting her know that I was really disappointed to have missed class. Apart from the one class, I did not have attendance issues. She could have offered any of the other reasons alone, or declined more briefly, without having gone on a laundry list about 5+ reasons why she would not write the letter. The reason it stings is not so much that she said no, because I was not very sure she would say yes-- it is that I feel like all of her reasons except for one are simply unfair. Is it taboo if I do not answer? I am so dumbfounded by her assessment that I don't even know if I can muster an appropriate response, so my inclination is to just leave it. Has anyone else gotten similar replies?

Hi all! (reposted my same post from the History forum here, for another perspective) Just wondering if anyone has insightful input into experiences they've had or heard about regarding dual programs for History and Library Science or Archives? (Yes I know LS and Archives are drastically different but I am interested in both for different reasons) I don't want this post to be about me or my chances, so I'll just say I would be happy in a History MA program but happier pairing it with another field of skills that I am also very interested in. I am leaning more towards these specialized fields within LS & Archives: Digital Archives, Digital [anything], e-Government. I know some MLS programs have a simple specialization in Archives [and/or Records Management], so that route is also an option. Trying to weigh which type of programs I'm interested in to apply this fall. How do you guys like your dual programs like this? Pros? Cons? Good bad and ugly? Do you know stories of what people end up doing after receiving dual-degress (whether it helps in the Library/Archives field to add the history aspect? Vice versa?) Any freeform advice is hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

Hi all! Just wondering if anyone has insightful input into experiences they've had or heard about regarding dual programs for History and Library Science or Archives? (Yes I know LS and Archives are drastically different but I am interested in both for different reasons) I don't want this post to be about me or my chances, so I'll just say I would be happy in a History MA program but happier pairing it with another field of skills that I am also very interested in. I am leaning more towards these specialized fields within LS & Archives: Digital Archives, Digital [anything], e-Government. I know some MLS programs have a simple specialization in Archives [and/or Records Management], so that route is also an option. Trying to weigh which type of programs I'm interested in to apply this fall. How do you guys like your dual programs like this? Pros? Cons? Good bad and ugly? Do you know stories of what people end up doing after receiving dual-degress (whether it helps in the Library/Archives field to add the history aspect? Vice versa?) Any freeform advice is hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

Hiya peers! I am new to this site but have already ready several useful threads. I am not so good at the searching so sorry if this has been discussed, but what are people's thoughts on how to explain a somewhat lower-than-wanted GPA? My undergraduate career was very academically disjointed: Enter as Psychology major with intentions for pre-med. Take biology and chemistry, do decently. Take Organic Chemistry, do horribly. Discover History as passion junior year, declare minor. Give up pre-med. Take 3-4 history classes that year. Summer before senior year: declare double major in history and psychology, since I was basically finished with my psychology degree minus one class and decided to pursue history full time (5 history classes/semester). This was obviously very straining, with so much reading. That said, I did decently in most classes, shone in a few specialty classes that interested me, took part in a selective intensive field library course on rare materials, and did very well on my thesis all at once. I would have had a top GPA had I completed this major over the course of 4 years. I never ended up taking that last psychology class, so voila: history degree and psychology minor. My main issue is this: a cumulative GPA of 3.19. My history major GPA, depending on which interdisciplinary electives I count towards it, is between 3.4-3.5 (still not stellar, but obviously much better when you take Organic Chemistry out of the equation.) Is it worth distinguishing the two? How where to explain? If a school says that they have a min 3.25 GPA ("although there are exceptions") for their program- will they even look at mine?! womp