rising_star

There's lots of relevant posts in the Teaching subforum. I'd start with this here: See also:

Honestly, read, read, and read some more. Where are the gaps in our historical understanding of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany? Once you identify those, it'll be easier to come up with a prospectus.

There are definitely programs with people interested in STS (science and technology studies). Looking for scholars in that field might help you narrow your search. Alternately, your interests sound like behavioral/social psychology to me.

How long are the other professors willing to wait to hear back from you? Is their funding guaranteed? Are these folks at the same institution or different ones?

How is that relevant to answering the question at hand?

If you're interested in plants, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) website is the wrong place to go for information! (If anything, you'd want to look at USDA but even they likely won't have the answer to such a specific question.) Have you tried reviewing the book chapter Eigen posted, checking out its references, and going from there in your search?

What type of interview did they state it was in their initial email asking about your availability? Personally, I think it's a bit much to ask someone to drive 6 hours for a first round interview but, if you've already completed a preliminary phone/Skype interview, then this might be an in-person interview that they're requiring of everyone. If that's the case, you'll either need to find a way to make it there in person or politely withdraw from the search.

Agreed that most people overestimate what they need. Would I pay the premium for a MacBook Pro when I could get a PC with all the same features for half the money? Probably not. But that's largely a personal decision. (FWIW, I'm in the social sciences and can do 70% of my work from a Chromebook if I want to.)

I'll be honest. At the end of the semester, current students are my priority. And, in the summer, I'm not under contract to do work so I only check my work email sporadically and only answer the things that are urgent. The rest can wait until I'm actually being paid to do that work again.

I think this is difficult for anyone to predict, tbh. In terms of other skills, a mix of quantitative (statistics, machine learning, programming) and qualitative (psychological and cultural understandings) skills are always good to have. Depending on your more specific interests, GIS, remote sensing, and other spatial analysis tools could also be of interest or value. IMO, it makes more sense to focus in on what it is you like and could see yourself doing, rather than solely trying to figure out what employers might be seeking 3-5 years down the road. (For example, Russia and Russian studies waned in the early to mid 2000s but are likely increasing in popularity again. Who can really know what might be next?) It could also be the case that you take a couple of GIS courses and realize that though it's something an employer may want, it's not something you actually want to spend 40 hours a week doing.

At what level are you expecting to learn those languages? Do you have any background in either? I ask because both could prove difficult to learn, especially to proficiency in a 2 year program. Given that, you may be better served learning other skills that will be an asset and instead spending a summer/year doing intensive language training.

I don't think it matters how any of us would view it. Some diversity fellowships are restricted to URM students while others aren't. If the eligibility criteria say that you're eligible, then you should apply. I wouldn't worry about what other people think about it.

I read Carol Anderson's White Rage and it was awesome. I also enjoyed Monkey Girl by Edward Humes.

@AP, my comment was specifically about the poster's comment about avoiding departmental drama and keeping their head down to do their work and only their work. That doesn't prepare one well for dealing with the drama that all workplaces have. Some of that department drama can have a direct impact on graduate students so it behooves students to at least pay some attention. (For example, my department ended up having a multi-year external search for a department chair. As a result, other faculty had to take on that work, leaving fewer advisors for PhD students and slowing down their grant/publication activity, which also affects PhD students. Consequently, a group of us paid close attention to the search and would explain to the faculty how and why we were being affected by it. That doesn't mean that we got dragged into being on the search committee but, it was something worth being aware of as a member of the department.) I also think some people have a different idea of what it means to treat graduate school as a job than I do. For me, that means yes, you have friends outside of school but it also means that you have to build a network in school (in your department and around the university). It means working with people in your department. It means not being so selfish that you only focus on your own work, never pausing to help out others. None of those things are useful in the long-term as a grad student (and same for any workplace because no one likes the self-centered colleague who can never help anyone out with anything). This last part might be because I come from an interdisciplinary field but, here goes anyway. If you don't have a broader understanding of your field and how to make your work interesting to people outside of your specialty area, then you're setting yourself up for a rough time on the job market (whether that's academic or not). One of the easiest ways to start learning how to do this is by having informal discussions with other students about what you're working on. If you're only there to go to class and do your own work (which is what the person I was responding to said), then you may not be allowing this to happen or you might view such conversations as a waste of time. My advice was a caution against that.

Honestly, I would just browse some academic publishers websites, focusing specifically on the sociology section, and choose the ones that look interesting to me.

I would look at reading lists for comprehensive/qualifying exams and go from there... A few links to get you started: https://socy.umd.edu/graduate/comprehensive-exam-reading-lists https://www.pdx.edu/sociology/comprehensive-exam-reading-lists https://sociology.arizona.edu/graduate/reading-lists See also: http://libraries.uta.edu/dillard/subfiles/ClassicalSociologicalTheory.htm

I'm not sure that your interests would really fit into an anthropology program. Have you considered comparative literature?

Have you asked the program if you would be able to do the year in Salamanca when you're ABD, rather than in between the MA and PhD?

The best grades you can get. Grades, GRE, writing sample, and SoP are all going to be key to your admissions. Sometimes GPA is the thing that keeps people out more than it is what gets them in though.

I feel like the timeline expands every year (that is, the first ads go up sooner and the last ads extend later after the academic year ends).

Can you take a graduate course somewhere to show you're capable of doing graduate work? Can you get a research position in a lab?

@HigherEdPsych, no, I was thinking of the standards required for licensing in various states. But, a quick lit search does not equal a systematic review, as I'm sure you already know. I'll just reiterate my earlier point that you might be better served by having this conversation with social work faculty, graduate students, and practitioners so that you're not just speaking into an echo chamber.

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been traveling with no internet access for 2+ weeks. I'm only going to respond to this because you're doing a common thing, which is taking anecdotal evidence based on your experiences and extrapolating from that to denigrate an entire discipline and draw conclusions about how that field should be changed, without actually informing yourself about the training MSW students receive. I've interacted with clinical psychologists who tell LGBT persons that the issues are all in their head but that doesn't mean that I think all clinical psychologists are that way. Have you conducted a systematic evaluation of the social workers you've met, which includes factoring in their training? If not, then I'd suggest that you avoid making such broad, sweeping statements.

No, they don't. Your post is surprisingly modest and humble, almost as if you don't recognize your own accomplishments. Many, if not most, applicants do NOT have a 3.9 GPA. Most people, especially in the humanities, haven't done paid summer research and done a thesis. Ummm... I don't know of any graduate program where people who are ambitious would be poorly received. People are looking for ambition. And, no quality program is trying to encourage people to have mental breakdowns for any reason, and especially not just because one thing doesn't go their way. I just wanted to respond to a few of the things in your post. As for staying sharp with history, continue reading historiographies and monographs that come out. Doing so will help you narrow down your interests, as well as keeping you current on the field. If your interests bridge to anthropology, start reading ethnographies in general and related to your interest (e.g., dance). But, also, remember that you're pursuing a MA in TESOL and that should be your academic priority, not reading for a history degree that you're not enrolled in.

Make sure you're not suggesting everyone go to frat parties every weekend and you should be fine. Be as mature as you are. Be the person who got admitted into the program.