Hello everyone! I'm a relatively recent college grad (2012) who is looking into various terminal masters programs for European Intellectual History. To be short, I was a scholarship student at university who screwed up, flunked out during my sophomore year for several reasons (my discovery that I have a genetic predisposition for depression amongst them), took some time off, then reapplied to college and kicked butt. My GPA when I flunked out was below a 2.0, but after reapplying I was able to raise it to a 2.85. I had several semesters of straight A's, (and two of 3.2-3.5), presented a paper at a local history conference, was on the President's Honor Roll, served on a Political Science Advisory Committee for my department, held several leadership positions in various clubs on campus, was involved in several social-activist campaign initiatives on campus, and established good relationships with several of my professors. Now, I am interested in pursuing a PhD in European intellectual history, and as of now tentatively plan on studying 18th-century French materialism (although this might change). I realize that my aggregate GPA will probably preclude me from entering any PhD. programs, and I'm therefore applying for a terminal masters in the hope of transferring into a PhD. program afterwards. I've already taken the GRE's and scored a 167 V: 154Q: 5.0W (and I honestly think that I could make a perfect score on the verbal and perhaps the writing sections should I practice more). Would these scores be ok, or should I take the test again?
I'm now gearing up to apply for masters' programs, but I don't really know how to look for terminal masters' programs. One of my professors recommended UW-Milwaukee, Northern Illinois State University, SUNY-Buffalo and ASU for terminal masters programs. Do these programs sound fitting for someone in my circumstances? I'm not sure how to gauge masters' programs, as the traditional advice of "find someone with whom you want to work and apply" doesn't work in my case. Neither of my parents attended graduate school, and I really don't know what I'm doing here. Where could I find a list of terminal masters programs for the kind of history I'm interested in? Any other advice? I'm sorry for sounding so lost, but....well, I feel a bit lost. Were I applying for a normal PhD. this would be easier, but as I'm shooting for a terminal MA I'm not sure how low or how high I should aim. Any ideas for where I should look with these numbers? Thanks in advance!