TMP

Just always have another plan for life after graduate school.

Whatever you'd like. I'm 5'2" and I don't want to be looked down. My adviser is probably 5'11" and she still puts on heels (low-medium) in professional settings. It was only a suggestion if you can find wearing heels to be comfortable. (By the way, is saying "put on a tie" sexist as "put on your heels"?)

Back to OP's question. For example: At conferences, expect to divide your time between socializing and attending panels. It takes a few conferences to find out your tolerance level of how many panels you can attend without going through a "post-big conference illness" (as defined by feeling hungover, laying in your bed a day, and not wanting to do anything with academia for a whole week). Don't bother complimenting a senior scholar how amazing his/her work is. They really... DO...NOT... care in general. If they do care, either they're very insecure or you two are actually on friendly basis and s/he gets that you're genuinely interested in him/her. Spend most of the conference walking around by yourself- with confidence. When people travel in pack, it makes it harder for others to approach and "interrupt" to talk to you specifically. Moreover, you want to demonstrate independence. You'll also want to try to get to a session a bit early and get your own seat- you never know who's going to sit down next to you. Use that time well- make quick introductions. If you're a woman, throw on your high heels to force yourself into a good posture that spells out assertiveness and confidence. Dress well also helps. Make use of the (long) coffee lines in the coffee shop at the hotel and make small talk about the weather or food or something neutral. If you see someone sitting by him/herself and looks a little busy but you want to say hello, approach them carefully as you don't know exactly what they're preoccupied with. Ask politely, "Please excuse me if I'm interrupting but I would like to speak with you if possible about J. I'm TMP and from X University. Do you have a few minutes?" Most of the time, people don't mind small interruptions, as long as they're short. There are others that I can mention. But all in all, you'll want to be very observant of your surroundings and do a lot of people watching. It's okay to sit nearby and "pretend" to read the conference program or whatever ads you get in your tote bag while actually watching.

You want to be strategic about conferences. The Professor Is In offers great tips and insights on conferences. Google her. Ask your adviser which conferences are important for your field. Consider attending the national (or "annual meeting") conference in your major field as a spectator for the first few years so you can get a good feel for it and begin to know faces. Once you can make friends there, at least you know that you can pull them in when you do (finally) give a paper. Use regional and local conferences for your first presentations while you're still learning how to present. Try to go for the ones that DO offer some kind of funding or does not cost you more than $200. Don't overdo the graduate student conferences- you don't want to run out of papers before you hit the big stage. "Recycling" papers is... not the most useful thing to do for yourself and others. I love conferences because they get me out of my department circle and meet like-minded people. They also re-energize me and remind me of why I do what I do and love what i do. At the moment, I do about two a year- one for giving a paper and the other at my field's annual meeting. Be observant of all the unwritten social etiquette.

That is an outrageous assumption about tuition in the UK. It's simply economics. As long as international students demand the opportunity to study in well-regard universities like Cambridge or Berkeley, those universities can charge higher for out-of-country students. International students (and would-be like yourself) want to study in another country and are willing to pay extra for that chance. In Germany, you do need to pass Deutsche Am Fremdsprache exam which is equivalent of TOESL for German universities. if you get one of the DAAD scholarships, you will be required to study German language for six months prior to entering the university (and continue thereafter until you really master the language). Universities are free to German citizens but are fairly cheap... yet, international students will run into numerous bureaucratic issues (university, the city, the embrassy, etc, etc) and shell out money to get this form or that visa or this or that. You will need to do some serious homework. Try visiting some ex-pat forums.

One thing you should be very, very aware is that many, many fellowship programs do not give additional support for dependents to travel with the grantee. When you apply for funds to travel/study language/whatever, your wife and child do not factor in. You'll want to reach out to married students in the humanities/social sciences and find out what it's like to be a Ph.D. student with a family (especially young children). it's not impossible but takes plenty of logistics, understanding, and patience to make it work. (I'm at a PhD program where a good number of students came to the program married and sometimes with very young children so I hear a lot of those issues).

It is true that your overall GRE score will help with university-wide fellowships, usually in public schools where you must be nominated by your department. However, there ARE waivers but departments have a certain number of waivers that they can use (though my sense is that the less they use waivers, the better they look). Breathe. If you don't think you can get your GRE scores up higher, just let it go. You've done your best. Stay focused on the SOP and writing sample.

I agree with Riotbeard. It works if you're in the MA/PhD program, not a direct PhD. Know that your chances of a successful transfer will mainly depend on your advisers' willingness to bat for you. You might want to devise a conversation in a way that transferring comes up as your adviser's idea, not yours. I've heard that some advisers will sometimes challenge their first year advisees' interests as to whether or not they're compatible with them and their program and if not, the advisees might want to think about transferring to another program. You might want to focus on your changing interest and see where the conversation goes. Your adviser's job is to guide you. You should also present evidence of your research on the university's current resources.

Trust me, professors do appreciate when you do take time away from academia and do other things. Don't waste your money on a history graduate course as Sigaba suggested. Enjoy your free time . Seriously.

Here's the deal, professors will almost never e-mail on their own accord. Just send them e-mails and if they wish to e-mail you, they will use the latest e-mail address. When they say "keep in touch," they mean that YOU must contact them. Alternatively, you can share your personal e-mail with them if you don't want to worry about the issue of switching professional e-mail constantly. I would not ask for their cell numbers without making the offer to give them yours first.

"This seems intuitive enough, but also sounds like the beginning of an incredibly tedious and protracted search through website listings of the faculty of one randomly picked school after another. In selecting schools for my application ordeal, it has already proven difficult enough to find out which programs are as good as their optimistic self-descriptions claim that they are. " Welcome to research This will make up most of your time in the graduate program. Research. Research. Research. You're always going to be looking for needles in the haystack.

This is not the right forum to post such question. You should really ask the folks at TAU and check out the Israeli labor laws for foreigners. But I cannot promise you that you will have an easy time with the Israeli security at the border control when they see the Iranian stamps in your passport.

The best way to know, really, is to e-mail the professors whom you're interested in working with. It sounds like you would need a school with a comprehensive East Asian faculty so that you might be able to work in Japanese and Korean (though you will need to explain WHY you have to engage those cultures). But e-mail the professors and explain your interests and ask whether or not they would be willing to supervise you. Generally, the key for "intellectual fit" with the adviser is to be aware of the adviser's research interests and questions for the purpose of passing the comprehensive exams. The adviser tends to shape their comprehensive exam list around their own knowledge and questions with some bits of the student's. For example, if you have zero interest in the military during the pre-Modern period and you adviser does, be prepared to read a couple of books in that area (or negotiate your way out). My adviser and I share identical questions and historiographical concerns as well as geographical breadth so making the list wasn't difficult at all (as my other two fields, which has taken some negotiations). Your adviser holds the pen to signing you off to be an ABD. (Know this: No faculty wants to talk about something that they don't know about during oral exams.) Ultimately, the dissertation is YOURS. You will create a committee where each person can contribute his/her area of strength. You will make connections with others at conferences who share your interests. This is where a school with a solid East Asian studies faculty will come in.

Only you can decide how informal you'd like to be. I've been out of undergrad for 6 years and have gone through a MA and now am in a PhD program. Until I entered in my PhD program, my undergrad adviser and I kept a fairly informal communication. Neither one of us knew where I would be going with my life. Since I got into a PhD program, we've taken a bit more professional approach though we've taken a trip together abroad and seen each other in pajamas. What I have learned over the years is not to give TMI. You can say you're going to Paris to see this awesome exhibit at the Louvre but please do not mention the hot club scene. You need to really, really feel it out with them to know how much you can share and how much they truly care about you as a person, not just a budding scholar. Believe me, it will take a good, good, good while before you can talk about anything else other than research, teaching, conferences, publishing.... Some professors will never stray beyond those boundaries. Bottom line: Follow their cues. If they mention their kids or travel, you can say something about your family or next vacation. If they talk about the newest Italian restaurant in town, you can share that interest (or not).

Agreed with above. ECs do not matter. You can demonstrate the strength of your writing in the statement of purpose (SoP) and writing sample. They'll pay most attention to your grades in your history courses.

Nothing wrong with taking time off. Your experiences will enrich your conversations with others and inform your understanding of the world around you and history. I spent some time in Berlin between my MA and PhD and it clearly defined what I wanted to study-- the notion of belonging for minority groups and defining national identity (though my dissertation has nothing to do with that... it's another story). I spent that time working on my German and seeing a bit of Europe. I actually loved my trips to England, Switzerland, and Denmark- each tickled me with a particular historical question. Immerse yourself in something new to you while doing something related. I thought I would be visiting a lot of Holocaust related sites in Germany because it's what I've been studying. Except.... the only time I ever did anything "Holocaust" related was going to Saschenhausen and Dachau camps and the museums in Berlin with my parents. That...was... it. However, if you have undergrad student debt, I STRONGLY urge you to work and pay it off for a bit. You don't make much as a grad student as you do as a salaried employee elsewhere ($12K-$20K, depending on university/COL in the area). Interest accrues and to defer loans while in grad school will only increase the amount of money you will be paying in interest. As for LOR writers, it's also worth asking your adviser for his/her opinion. Sometimes professors want to be able to coordinate their letters. Also, your adviser might have a better insight on how forgiving your proposed third referee might be.

broad historiographical concerns based off the comps list- why are they on the list in the first place? How are they in conversation with one and another?

I can't believe you're taking them before me! I'm not taking mine until November (spent too much time traveling for research last and this summer ). Amazing how departments differ. We're allowed to write our own questions with the faculty and prepare outlines ahead of the written exam (48 hours for 20 pages). I've been doing what others have suggestion. I've learned to take other students' experiences with particular professors with a grain of salt. Better to talk with your committee members. You should feel comfortable asking questions as you go along.

Yes, the Immigrant field sent out acceptances. I got in So excited- this is my dream pre-diss fellowship!

go with "Hello Professor..." and see how he responds. But honestly, I've never heard of cases where advisers and advisees speak in any language but English (except for language departments). I would just go in expecting English since it's the business language of our discipline in the US.

I applied three times. The first time, I only got 2 waitlists. The second time I had 1 waitlist (to the SAME school the year before!) and an unfunded acceptance, Third time, 2 fully funded acceptances. I could not have done the third round of applications without critical support network from my work colleagues and a couple of very trusted POIs who had learned of my previous records. I truly did want to take a year off after applying for two cycles straight but my support network encouraged me just to go for it and helped me out. I'm really glad that I did though it left me completely emotionally and mentally exhausted, burned out, and traumatized about the whole graduation admissions process (it's another story). I tend to see this whole process as a game of Russian roulette. Just keep on spinning but be kind to yourself in the process.

Make sure you ask your prospective adviser (point-blank) and his/her graduate students about summer and research support and how they're funded when they run out of guaranteed funding. Ask his/her advisees what kind of role their adviser have played in their program and what's his/her general style of advising. Also, make sure you allow yourself an opportunity to talk about other faculty members who you know who works with who and their particular strengths. Find out how sensitive the faculty is to the increasing costs of going through a PhD program. If you do have to write a MA thesis, find out how the research is supported. Our graduate students get no funding from the department for out-of-town research so either students pay their way or find funding elsewhere or stick to what's available via Inter-Library Loan (ILL).. The key is: Leave the PhD program with little debt as possible. Also, find out how is the courseload on a TA-ship vs. fellowship. Fellowship students have to take one more course, which is a lot to handle if not carefully managed (just a lot more intense work than being a TA, where most of "busy work" is grading (and prepping for discussion sections if part of the duty)). Being on a fellowship at my university is definitely brutal.

I'd actually press them to find out why. Usually they will do this if your funding package is transferable, which in that case, if you are pretty sure you don't want to go there, they'd like to know sooner than later so they can recruit another student. If your funding package wasn't transferable, then programs wouldn't be pressing you to make a decision sooner than later. As for applications vs. chances, First, your application has to merit the attention of your POI(s) and graduate admissions committee. More often than not, it's the department politics so getting an offer is much like trying to win an Olympic medal (yes, I'm watching skiing right now). Once you've made the cut, anything goes. Smart and good advisers will not supervise more than 2 pre-candidate students at a time. If your POI already has 3 students between Years 1 and 3, your chances have been reduced. There might be hiring going on in a particular field. There might be a bunch of graduate students in one field graduating. There could be planning for some change-ups in the department's profile (i.e. Penn State's restrictions against Modern US and European history). I can go on.

No. Stay put unless you have another offer.

Just ask them to the DGS for sure. S/he should know most of the answers you have. I would also pose those questions to your POIs- to get a sense of how s/he sees the job market and intends to prepare you (will s//he also be open to supporting you if you choose to go for a non-academic career?) and how successful his/her previous students have been in gaining funding. If his/her students aren't getting any extra funding for summer or dissertation, that's a red flag. Something's amiss.