TMP

Precisely. I told an incoming student of my adviser that if she talks to the three of us (her advisees) about our adviser, she'll get three different versions. My advice to this person was, "Just go in for yourself." I agree with Sigaba, reading the acknowledgments is probably the best way to go. You'll learn more about the person's network. It was one of the big reasons why I chose my current adviser- I want(ed) to interact with all these scholars who provided help and guidance.

annieca, I've been watching you for the past year or so. I think you should try, try, TRY to take things one day at a time. I know you like to plan a lot and do it carefully so things go in your way. At least to the best of your ability. What i can tell you from my own experience of having just finished my first year of PhD (with a MA in hand), this kind of attitude can be troublesome for everyone around you. You have three years. Your professors are hardly not thinking that far ahead; they would like you to spend your first year settling in before making any big decisions like whether or not to do your thesis and which fields you'd like to take your exams in. If your professors are good, they will take things one day at a time and not quite go into deep about your thesis, exam, or future plans until it's time. So for PhD, that isn't going to happen until after your second year! I learned the hard, hard way and I was very lucky to have a patient adviser who stood her ground while I attempted to push ahead when it wasn't necessary (like thinking about a deadline for a summer fellowship when it wasn't due for another two months!). Yes, graduate school requires you to be independent but there is a delicate balance between being proactive and marching in step with your (wise) adviser/professors. You need to try to concentrate what's in front of you- your first year of graduate school including adjustment, meeting new people, finding a routine, etc- and what's in periphery will come to the forefront sooner or later for you to deal with. I hope you don't take this personally but this is for everyone on this board too. Doing these things will make you a better colleague and advisee.

Go easy on your first semester, seriously. See if you can "audit" that course with that professor. TA will be a lot of work in your first semester as you get your feet very wet.

@AndeanPat, to ask personal questions is actually against the law in the US when making "hiring" decisions. They're considered discriminatory categories. You can find them in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The only way to bring up these issues if the candidate thought it might be advantageous to the "hiring" process.

I would try to have conversations with your adviser/DGS in your prior program and your MA professors and see what's the best way to handle this. LORs can usually do the work for you. I'd tailor your application based on responses (i.e. if School A says to be honest, you can add a line in your SOP, if School B says "don't wanna know about it" then don't say anything at all).

Learning German is important if only you really need it for your dissertation or you're doing European history. Don't torture yourself with it if you don't need it. "German for Reading Knowledge" is the best text out there. Also, I'm sure that there must be a "German for Reading" course at your new university.

@oseirus None of my fields relate to diplomatic history (though my dissertation does deal with it). Remember, transnational doesn't necessarily mean diplomatic or military history. You can go transnational in social history when you examine networks (social, economic, labor, activism, etc) and migrations. My primary focus is naturally transnational in nature (though much of it has been Europe-centric). I'm not really into world or global history though I do like to examine history through global perspective. PM me if you have any more questions.

I wrote up this post some time ago: http://tmphistoryphd.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/hello-professors-making-the-first-contact/ Mid-October is an ideal time- professors will have settled in the semester and can think about next year's admissions (though in reality most don't *really* want to until the application files get dumped on their computers).

University of Virginia comes to ind as I've just read a book on Sino-Japanese politics by a Chinese diplomatic historian who did her PhD there. She had an excellent dissertation committee.

It's a bit shocking at times when I compare my first year of PhD at 27 and my first year of MA at 23. I had to spend 2 years (as any very long time GC visitor knows) out doing various things. While those years were miserable because I really wanted to be in academia so badly, they were a mixed blessing. I've brought plenty of experience to the table in my program and professors and graduate colleagues appreciate them. Overall, I feel more mature and able to handle the challenges of being a very young academic and academic politics better. I'd sometimes say to my PhD adviser, "I really did NOT know what I was doing" and "I really did NOT do this kind of thing" when we discuss something relevant to my MA experience (we share graduate degrees from the same university and she knew the faculty and system to relate). I'd shake my head in amazement how far I've come along in terms of being socialized into academia. Taking time off helps you break that "undergrad" mentality more effectively than going straight through and get you in the mindset that you ought to treat the faculty as colleagues, not authorities, and have them treat you like one, not an undergrad, within 2-3 years, not 6. I will make a point- money. If you go straight to PhD, it'll be quite some time before you can have a taste of real money. It's hard enough as it is as an undergraduate when you're dependent on your parents and/or working your way through for at least 4 years. Do you really want to live like that for another 5-8 years? Do you really want to live close to poverty line for upwards of 12 years straight? It's nice to be able to earn a little and life in comfort for a bit in between. It's hard to take decent vacations on your own as a graduate student because various life and professional expenses come up ALL...THE...TIME. Entering academia is not free. At all. It's essentially an exclusive social club that requires dues. As someone said recently, "You're essentially trying to live like a middle class person without a middle class income." I've got a colleague entering in her sixth year who is seriously itching to get out and "make real money like an adult." She went straight into a PhD program with undergrad loans. I'm not bitter as I manage my own budget carefully and take in pride the fact that I've done things that I wanted to do before entering in a PhD program like living in exciting cities in the US and Europe.

Fellowships depends on what part of Europe. A French historian in my department lamented how Fulbright for France is much more difficult to get than Germany because Fulbright is subsidized by governments and everyone wants to go to Paris (and it's not a cheap city!). She's encouraging her graduate students to go "transnational" with Africa to expand their list of fellowships to apply to. Central and Eastern Europeanists and Russianists, basd on my own interactions, have had great success with fellowships because there seems to be plenty of support such as FLAS, DAAD, and fellowships from those countries (like Poland and Ukraine). Those regions prioritize scholarly research as part of post-1989 national reconstruction efforts to reclaim the past that's been lost in the Second World War. Jobs? It's a bit of a mixed bag. I've seen a good number for France and Eastern Europe this past year but they are still very, very far and few. Focusing on a category of analysis (like race or gender) or transnational seems to be the strategy for my department's Europeanists to make oneself marketable. The real issue for academic jobs is the higher ups in the university. The College governing the History Department isn't interested in Europe; the higher ups want to "globalize" the university by bringing in scholars specializing in non-Western regions. So if the Department wants to get more faculty and money, it's quite literally at the mercy of the University's higher ups' goals and wishes. Of course, this means that Romance language departments have to do their best to demonstrate the importance of learning European languages to remain relevant and avoid cuts in budgets and future faculty hirings.

That's another animal there. It does depend what time period you're interested in. You'd definitely need Italian. Latin might be useful, especially if you're looking at early modern period. Do your research on finding faculty support for what you want to do and look up program requirements. For most part, I do think proficiency does depend on A) the faculty adviser you'd work with and the politics of the field in the department. Sometimes the POI may not care about language proficiency as much as his/her colleagues, figuring that the student's smart enough and will be motivated to get the language up to speed. Other times, the POI will care A LOT while his/her colleagues might not (and you'd know through communication with other faculty). For European history, you'd need to pass at least 2 reading exams. They're not terribly difficult. Most people do French or German as the second language. Wait to apply until you are absolutely sure of what you want to study and have adequate preparation in terms of language and background. Whatever you do and choose your topic for your dissertation, it's something that you can imagine yourself loving every single hour of your time in the PhD. Sure, there will be times you will be fantasizing about doing another field or topic but the love has to be there to get through those tough and wayward moments.

Whatever it takes to have exposure to Arabic.

Your Arabic needs to get much better than "very elementary." You will be expected to start doing original research from your second year (if not from the very beginning) and wouldn't you need it for your study of Syrian and Lebanese politics? If you're still working on your MA, is there a FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) fellowship? Another option would be to apply for the Kathryn Davis fellowship at Middlebury next summer. Even if you somehow manage to get in with Arabic like that, your professors will start worrying as you approach your candidacy exams if you haven't improved substantially. Some might actually assign readings in the language as part of your candidacy exam list (My adviser has an article in my primary research language and said to ALSO pay attention to the footnotes).'' That would be the first thing I'd worry about.

Not unusual at all. Make sure that your writing sample shows original research and analysis, in historical framework if possible. Make connections with your undergrad coursework with your desire to pursue history at a graduate level. While I would be cautious to say that Civil War is well researched, there are certainly some gaps. Take some time to read up the historiography to help you make a strong case for wanting to study the Civil War period that won't make your readers sigh and roll their eyes. It's not a bad idea ta all to apply to MA programs (with funding if possible) too if you're aiming to apply to PhD programs. Also know that US history is the most competitive in terms of admissions, fellowships, and jobs. There are simply not enough fellowships and jobs compared to other fields. Be sure to think long and hard if this path is for you.

As someone who endured 3 rounds of PhD applications... it's a testament that there is no such thing as "safeties" when it comes to PhD programs. Half of the decision is based on the strength of your application. The other half is...surprise- department politics! Unfortunately, I was a victim of the latter for the first two cycles as I was hinted by my POIs.

Not much. We missed you and your humor!

If you take the time to read many of the threads here, many of your questions will be answered with a number of perspectives

Yep, I was told this by a DGS at NYU (not the history department but another one). Yeouch and I was one of the wait-listees. Still haven't forgiven him for saying that to me. My program pretty much hit its yield this year, maybe a bit over by a few people.

You do need to accept or decline an offer by April 15th otherwise you lose your funding package. There IS a process in which you do have to formally withdraw your offer from another place in order to formally accept another offer. I'd imagine that the DGS would help you go through the process of doing so. It happens every year. So if you're still on the waiting list and have yet to be notified on the 15th of whether or not you're off, you do need to decide right then whether or not you will accept the offer you already have. When the clock strikes midnight for April 16th, you are then locked into that program. From there, you do need to go through a formal process of withdrawing and accepting offers. HOWEVER, if you do hear from another program saying you're off the waitlist after you've accepted an offer and it's not midnight yet for April 16th, you are STILL free to switch. You can accept an offer and then be off the waitlist an hour later and you can go back to the original program and say "never mind, I just got off the watilist at my top choice but thank you for the offer" and accept that other offer. All no big deal so as long as it's not April 16th yet. The DGS in my program just told me all this (and she is a stickler for rules). (And no, this was actually before I saw the questions concerning this issue .) Makes sense?

In my department, we've had finalists with European PhDs (on the younger side) for our searches in the US. They've been asked to submit FAR more evidence of teaching to satisfy the current faculty than any other candidates. They all found ways to demonstrate teaching experiences (though I'm not sure exactly how- I didn't pay close attention). And yes, they've been offered positions. You have all the cards in your hand- feel free to ask your CUNY contacts ALL of these questions and tell them that you have a funded offer from Cambridge. See how they react. The only complaint I've heard about Cambridge is gaining the right teaching opportunities. My friend has a dissertation project located in South Asia but she's much more interested in teaching the history of British Empire, not South Asia itself...yet somehow Cambridge has her down for South Asian history, not British colonial/imperial history. She has no training in that history nor wants to be a professor in that area (she doesn't even really have the languages!).

What about the Kathryn Davis Fellowship at Middlebury Language Schools? They also have a lot of grants as well.

The experience is very, very helpful. You learn what it takes to write an original 30+ page research paper based on primary sources, not secondary. Your writing sample needs to be just that- a demonstration of your capabilities as a future historian to be able to collect, interpret, and analyze various sources and reconstruct historical accounts with a methodological approach. If you have a seminar paper like that, then great! Use it! If you don't want to take honors courses to be able to qualify for a thesis-writing course, ask a trusted prof for an independent study/research course. I'm sure s/he will be delighted at the opportunity to teach the historian's craft in a serious, intimate manner.

Yes, they will be upset that you applied elsewhere without telling them, especially your adviser. But they will grudgingly let you finish with passing grades. The very fact that you went behind their back like this seems to suggest that you don't trust anyone to support your decision. If the word gets to your new program, how will you handle that? Your new adviser might question you more than you'd like. When you do tell your adviser, apologize for not letting him know of your intentions and you mean no disrespect. You were simply afraid/nervous/etc and just did not know how to communicate. Now you are potentially paying a price and will accept responsibility for your actions. I know that this seems to be harsh but academics do not appreciate betrayals of trust.