TMP

OP, Only you can decide if you want to do the PhD. Be mindful of the opportunity costs, financial and otherwise, that you will face for being a PhD student for 6+ years. PhD stipends in the humanities are not high as those in the STEM so you will need to take this into account, especially with cost-of-living at places like NYU or Princeton or Harvard (even though Harvard has significantly raised the stipends). Museums are still quite tough to come by; one does not need to have a PhD these days. Connections matter more. I agree with @jpc34about your thesis adviser's letter. As long as it's strong, it's all it matters. Only the review committee and your POIs (persons of interest) can determine if you're ready to dive into this topic. which I imeagine would be simultaneously rewarding and challenging.

It's a school in the Deep South, @dr. telkanuru. The Program B, if I think what it is, sounds like a better deal to me, @Strider_2931.

Keep in mind, folks, as you calculate your stipend and cost of living (COL), please divide the total stipend by 12, not 9 and take out required student fees and 12% for taxes (at minimum!) to get your actual monthly take-home pay. If the school says 9 months, divide the total by 12 anyway. Ask grad programs about student fees -- they should have a list handy. You should also see which ones can be opted out. If your school offers health insurance and it's solid, find out the cost. If your university offers a retirement plan (like a state pension), please, please contribute if you can. The savings will build up over time and be transferred into a IRA. It might seem like a nightmare to give up $200 monthly for retirement when you can use it for a bigger apartment or a car in a place you don't really need a car (like NYC), you will be glad after 5-8 years in the program that the first $200 yields to, say, $10k or so when you finish and that number will get higher over the next 40 years. Far, far too many first year students don't think about this until the spring when they realize that they need to find summer jobs to pay their rent instead of doing language or another training program or studying for their exams or researching for MA thesis. @wluhist16 I chose financial stability over intellectual. My adviser and I were the only ones doing our field but being a minority forced me to challenge myself intellectually in order to connect with other areas of history. In fact, it has made me a solid grant-writer and a teacher who can offer a variety of courses based her own area of specialty. I made sure that I attended the yearly conference in my field and networked with other scholars and grad students who I could communicate with to flesh out my research ideas and prepare for my candidacy exams. If I had to make this choice all over again, I would even if I was frustrated and/or intellectually lonely many times. More info is still needed for us to really help you figure out your situation.

I worked as an administrative assistant (part time) in an organization related to my interests for money. The skills and projects that I did were helpful for job interviews after my MA (when I didn't get into any PhD programs) as I did not take any time off between BA and MA to keep building my resume.

FWIW, if you are anxious about the job market, it is worth having a conversation with the current graduate students and departments. How were people getting TT jobs? What did their CVs look like? Most graduate students start off wanting to be a professor but that number declines toward the end as graduate students begin to learn the ropes of academia and university-level teaching and/or have unexpected changes in their personal lives that make going into academia untenable. Out of 19 people in my cohort, I can say that less than half of us are still in academia. Everyone else either jumped ship during the PhD or decided to leave after getting the PhD (one became a professional indexer, one went into working for a non-profit public history education organization, etc.). Those of us who were lucky enough to stay in academia have vastly different CVs. There is no surefire way to "game" the system. You put your best foot forward and hope for the best while keeping your eyes wide open. So many things, such as diversity considerations and internal departmental politics, are beyond your control, just like PhD admissions right now. That' s all I can offer in the way of "solution" to concerns about the realities of the job market.

they're in engineering and tech sectors... we're in a neoliberal economy where love/passion for something gets exploited with low pay. meanwhile, tech is the future!

Since @pssteinpulled me in a bit, I'll offer another perspective. I am in my first year as a Visiting Assistant Professor teaching 6 courses/year total. I applied to 19 academic opportunities before landing this job (and had 2 subsequent interviews to see if they were better fit/make a better offer, neither panned out). I never planned to become a professor but I discovered ways that made being a professor seem like a good path to take in addition to others I thought about. My original goal was to work in a museum's academic research center but a lot happened in that place during those 7-8 years and it got to the point where I really don't want to work there right now. Also, I finished and defended my dissertation in middle of a pandemic so the economy was/is in total shambles. So I took the first job offer, which was this one. Do I have regret of doing my PhD? No. I was very lucky in many, many ways -- having excellent faculty support, out-of-the-world advisers, excellent record of funding, and fulfillment of one of my life dreams (traveling around the world, literally!). Am I upset about the financial opportunity costs that @pssteinmentioned? A bit. While my salary as a VAP is a serious boost from my grad salary and quite livable here, I wish I had a bit more money to be able to travel for a vacation and not have more savings than in the past. To offer an insider's take. I did try to discourage a very bright student of my own, who decided to apply to a PhD program after he took my class and go straight after graduation (in a different discipline, however). The real reason, that I just did not have the heart to tell him, is that the realities of the academic job market are that underrepresented groups are hot, hot, hot for hiring. (This student did not fit in any of the groups). In my opinion, it is absolutely fair that underrepresented applicants should get looked at more seriously because undergraduates want professors who "look like them" and these groups have been ignored and underappreciated for far too long. I am a member of two categories and I completely understand and it's why I am here and fighting the job market. While my student decided to forge ahead, I adjusted my approach to focus on teaching him how to "be an informed consumer" as I have done on these boards since 2009 and he has appreciated my mentoring. He has gotten into 2 PhD programs so far and I'm happy for him. Am I being discriminating? Are we being discriminating? Yes and no. Our generations (millennial and Gen Z) are victims of an entrenched old boys' network that needs to be dismantled in order to make room for those who do not conform to upper class, white cishet male ideal; those who would not otherwise have a chance to enter in academia, say, 15-20 years ago. As a PhD applicant, I saw sexism and ableism firsthand and I am telling you, these behaviors -- committed by older cishet while men -- were so gross and offensive, and I want to see less of such people in the future. I was intentional in finding professors who would accept my background and be advocates (I did a lot of informational interviews. The only men who made the cut were Gen X!). Bottom line, in my POV, if you are upper class white cishet male applicant, you need to think very hard how you will contribute to making academia a better place and support students from a wide range of backgrounds. Use your privilege, not abuse.

Have you considered doing fully-funded MA programs? You would not be the first international student to do it, even on their own country's history. Getting MA here in the US will help you in many ways - your English, familiarity with US academic and university cultures (we are really, really different here!), and having connections with professors who will know others who can work with you at the PhD level. The ranking of MA institution does not matter AS much as that of the PhD. The best MA programs for Russian/Soviet history will likely have Title VIII funding to establish Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies like Ohio State and Indiana University. You'll have a chance to live in the US for 2 years too.

Agreed here. Make sure that your PhD adviser would be the FIRST to know.... not through rumors. To deceive your department for that long might be hard to do because you will need to build collegial relationships (and you will through graduate seminars) in order to survive (and thrive) in a grueling MA/PhD program. If you alienate yourself deliberately, believe me, no one will then care and ignore you. But then again, it's a long time to be lonely. I've seen it happened -- those folks had to build a life, like, literally, outside of the university in order to make it to "mastering out." There are still plenty of MA programs with funding if that's what you're looking for -- a way to fund your MA degree. (I still have a little chip in my shoulder after witnessing students who received the department's money in competitions master out when others really needed that money in order to finish (and they did but not without cost... they could have really used that money.).)

Even if you get a response something like "Thanks for letting me know. I look forward to reading your application" or "Thanks for your note, it was delightful to speak with you as well." or any version of that.... keep your expectations low. You don't know what the application pool looks like and a lot of times it's beyond, beyond your control.

"Throughout history.... " or anything like that will elicit groans. Make a bold, declarative opening sentence.

I'd list all the history courses for History PhD and science courses that would have some relevancy to your research interests.

Keep in mind, a positive sign from your POI (Person of Interest) should still be taken with a grain of salt. You never know what the ultimate pool will look like. Notwithstanding, this is a good start to begin networking for your PhD career and beyond.

search.... function?

That is incredibly broad topic, which makes it sound like you can apply to most programs. What brings you to the PhD specifically? What books spark your curiosity? Are you interested in transnational or comparative methods?