maelia8

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My apps mostly said two pages double-spaced as the maximum. This comes out at around 1000 words, so I'd aim for that and tailor as necessary.

Another area in which I noticed a lot of variance in the Ph.D. applications I submitted was the length of the writing sample. I tailored at least four different versions of it in different lengths for different programs. I think that if schools have a different sample "type" they are looking for, having a common application for the rest of the generic stuff still probably wouldn't speed up the process much.

Does the program have a length limit for the writing sample? If it's ten pages or less, just attach your abstract and introduction. If it's in the 20-30 page range, add on your first chapter/main argument as well as portions of your conclusion. I'd go ahead and submit it, if you think it's good work that it definitely can't hurt.

I'm assuming they are asking because they will want to pull up your old application in the system to compare it with your new one and see what has changed. Since they will find out that you already applied eventually anyway, it's probably better that you inform them that you've already applied to speed up the process of evaluating your application. Not telling them might also be seen as disingenuous.

Everyone, please remember to relax a little bit over Thanksgiving, and, if possible, enjoy some time with your friends and/or family Try to take some time off from worrying about applications if you can.

My advisor has only 5 but he still barely has time to see all of us with his current limited office hours ... I'm surprised anyone can manage with more!

Feeling incredible crushing guilt about going home for Thanksgiving instead of spending those four days working constantly on my end-of-term paper/bibliography project. Am starting to think it might be less stressful if I didn't go home at all, but I really want to see my family

I often have days like this at certain points in the month hormonally, when I just feel super overwhelmed just doing the normal stuff that needs to get done that day. What helps me is telephoning with my sister, eating expensive "treat" snacks like dried fruit and fancy cheese, and watching TV shows or movies with superheroes in them. Another thing that I find helpful is doing simple "busy work" type stuff until I feel like I got something done and my mind is on track before I tackle the hard stuff.

Stitch Fix is way outside of my price range for clothes (the only items I buy new are shoes and underwear), and I find that their items (based on what I've seen in friends' boxes) are far too maturely oriented for me (I prefer a more youthful style, and stitch fix stuff appears to be mostly aimed at the over-30 crowd in terms of fashion sense). I wish that somebody would make a service like Stitch Fix in which the stylists go to thrift stores and find items for you, because I would totally be down for that Haven't had much time to go thrifting lately ...

I'd like the second the above comments and advise you to stick with your academic plans over radically compromising them for a relationship. Perhaps if you'd been together with this person for a couple of years already, had lived together for a while, and/or were engaged, I might say it's time to compromise and make sacrifices, but that this point, I think that you shouldn't be agonizing over big decisions about your life in terms of how they will affect a relationship that is still pretty new. Transferring grad school can be difficult and in some cases impossible (or require you to start over your coursework at the new institution because nothing carries over), so if you commit to this program, don't just do it thinking that you'll be getting out of it in a year anyway, but commit to see it through from the beginning if at all possible. Best of luck to you with your decision.

AGH I left my laptop charger plugged into the wall of a locked conference room when our meeting got out last night at 8 and now I have to go in super early in the morning to retrieve it before anyone has class in there. At least I know that the cleaning guy was in there before the meeting started and the room has been locked since we were in there so it can't have been stolen ....

Oh man I am getting a bit scared about the number of books I need to acquire and skim for my research bibliography due at the end of the semester, which is designed to function as a mini orals list ... At least I have my list of books as well as the thematic categories already set in stone.

To be honest, in my field if you don't get into a top-ten school, your chances of getting a tenure-track position in the future go down considerably, so I only applied to "reach" schools knowing that getting into a "non-reach" would not be worth it in the long run. I applied to only 6 schools total, and all of them were among the top ten in PhD rankings for my field.

Honestly though, most people I know submitted their applications in the last 24 hours before the cutoff, and it didn't seem to make any difference concerning whether they were accepted or not. Of course it would be great to get it in before then and have the weight off your back, but other than that, I think there's no need to worry that you're missing a round of application reading by the admissions committee, and if you submit your app at the last minute, your chances should be as good as anyone else's.

In my program, we are also required to take courses from another department as our "outside field," and since we are historians (many focusing on regions of the world other than North America), most of us take courses in ethnic studies departments, such as Slavic Studies, German Studies, Hispanic Studies, etc. These courses are helpful both for fulfilling language requirements and picking up more information and another perspective on the countries that we research historically.

What field are you in? In my field, it's quite common to "skip" the Master's and go straight to the PhD, which is what I did, because the Master's can be very expensive. I think this depends very much on whether a Master's is considered necessary in your field.

I like all of the people in my cohort and most of the people in my department, and we frequently go out for drinks after seminar or take our lunch break together. Most of these people are avid conversationalists, are eloquent, and are not prone to droning on or anything in that vein. That being said, a couple of them are absolutely incapable of making conversation about anything besides our field. And frankly, after spending a whole day talking about theory, methods, and research topics, I prefer my lunch break/dinner/happy hour to be filled with conversation about ANYTHING else: indie film, travel, sports, dreams for the future, relationships, tv shows, restaurants, cooking, recreational reading, gossip, pretty much anything but our field, because I feel like I'm going a little crazy if it's all I talk about all day every day (even my roommates are in my department, so that's all I talk about with them either). Sometimes I try to change the topic to something unrelated and the others look at me confusedly, and once I even mentioned politely that I'd rather talk about something besides our work for a bit, but within minutes, the topic had switched back to something field-related. Is this experience common? Do you prefer talking to people in your field exclusively about subjects within it, or would you rather save break time for other topics? I do have some friends outside of the department, of course, and talk with them about unrelated things when I have time

@Victoriana I didn't join the Peace Corps, I got a Fulbright to teach ESL in Germany for a year - my comma choice made that ambiguous, sorry I loved my years overseas (I managed to extend my program for a second year) and was able to get an internship in a museum while I was there that helped my grad school application a lot! Fulbright is a great option (obviously not in English teaching if you're going to the UK, but in research), and it is competitive but still possible to get one during a gap year if you show that you already have the affiliation and the experience necessary to carry out the research that interests you.

I want to second TMP about taking some time off between undergrad and grad school. Almost everyone in my program took at least a year off, either to work at a non-academic job, to travel, to do research, or to participate in an international scholarship exchange or teaching program, such as Fulbright or Peace Corps(that's what I did). I highly recommend taking this break because it will give you time to refine your interests, reassess why studying history at the grad level matters for you, give you life and professional experience outside of your undergrad institution (allowing you to diversify), and also give you a breather. I do think it's good that you're considering all of this early (I hadn't really thought of grad school except in passing until more than a year out of undergrad), but don't get hung up on the necessity of getting into grad school straight out of undergrad and trying to be the perfect candidate for admission right now. You seem to be a hard worker, have a great GPA, and varied interests, which is wonderful, so just keep on the way you're going and guide yourself by asking, "what can I do to make myself diverse and interesting as a candidate?" Since you specialize in British history, try applying for a program that will get you over there during a potential gap year to research or teach or work, just to give you a feel for what resources are available. Best of luck to you!

Another aspect to take into account is that your workload will probably shift over the course of your Ph.D. career in terms of how much you are teaching or working as a grader/lab assistant. These jobs are often mandatory for grad students and can eat up a lot of your time, so prepare for the possibility that your available hours for an outside job will be cut down considerably when you're teaching.

After I did a presentation and led discussion in seminar yesterday, the professor wrote me an email saying that I did a "really superb job" and that I will be "an exceptional teacher"!!!! So incredibly happy, as teaching is the reason why I got into this whole business in the first place (not that I don't like research, but teaching is really my passion). I am so lucky to be at this institution with these incredible people.

I invest 10% of my income monthly in an IRA, because it's easy and I don't have to worry about it. I am lazy and my father recommended it.

@VulpesZerda yeah I was thinking that it might not have been just the food, but everything else together. I'm just staying in bed today and taking it easy so that hopefully tomorrow will be better. The professor emailed me back this morning and said it was totally fine that the submission will be late and to get well soon, which made me feel a bit better I'm surprised this happened now since I've actually be getting plenty of sleep and water, though I have been a bit stressed since i had to present this week too while already starting to prepare for next week's presentation … I'll be glad when it's over and I have no more presenting to do this semester!

If you check the box and don't get accepted to PhD programs anywhere but DO get into a school's related MA program, it's a good indicator that your application is strong, but not quite strong enough yet. I'd do it regardless, because if you get into PhD programs then it doesn't matter, but if you don't, you still have the choice of the (unfortunately probably unfunded) MA if you really want to get started that year, and if not, you might have a better idea of what you need to change or work on in the interim in order to beef up your application for the following year.