TMP

My UG advisor worked as a translator for the US government in Moscow... while Russia was still Soviet Union... made me feel like I was dealing with a double spy!

Berlin

Uggghhh I'm in the exact same boat! I'm trying to figure out if moving to Europe would make paying off the loans a bit easier given that the Euro is against the Dollar...

Fox

Oh goodness, I'll be in twitter all day to see what happened with someone else... Some of us won the bet that Yale would come out this week!

Completely forgot to mention this. I've learned 5 languages in the last 6 years (don't ask how or why) and to learn a language before third year/advanced level is difficult to do while doing graduate-level coursework. Seminars are very time-consuming and take a lot of time away from building a solid foundation in the language. My Yiddish is an evidence of this- I can read it but not as well as I'd like because I didn't devote enough time to really understand how it's structured. Now I'm learning German and I have no seminars to deal with and already I see the difference in how quickly I'm picking it up in the same amount of time as when I learned Yiddish while doing 2 seminars. My advisor agreed with me on this - languages and coursework don't mix well. Unless you're talented of course. (Of course, I'm hoping that my new-found knowledge of German will improve my Yiddish!) So yes, having a MA in your hand shows that you know what it's like in the academia but if you truly feel that having more language training is a priority, don't do the MA. Spend the money on language courses. I kinda wish I had done that instead- I'd be in Israel and Germany instead for all the money I spent on my MA!

Plan B? Applied for a fellowship. Except that's a crapshoot. Plan C? Work for my old obss.... internship again. Plan D? Move to Germany. But I'm damn broke. Plan E? Be a strip dancer.

I know Gilbert Joseph personally... he's so wonderful! And a real human being... as in actually has social skills. That's what I meant up there about knowing Portuguese- if I knew some, he'd take me on as a student even if our thematic interests are different.

Ugh, I think so too. *goes back to over-analyzing*

No, they won't. That's why you need to talk to the DGS and administrative assistants, as well as older MA students. I talked to two MA programs- both comparable in costs. I talked to one student from a very reputable program who had gotten several offers for PhD, including my dream school at the time, and had very similar academic background to me. The other one was still devastated by her process ("I got rejected from 5 schools and waitlisted at one! (that dream school)"! but still sung praises about her advisor and the people in the department. I knew I was taking a chance by turning down the former and going to the latter because what ultimately mattered to me at the end as a MA student was to GET out of the Northeast and work with my dream advisor even if the program's track was still spotty for history PhD (excellent for Near East). One professor told me that if I went with the former, I would have my choices of PhD programs simply because of this particular professor's name on the LOR. I sighed with relief the following year (last year) when my friend in the program went 3-3 for her PhD admissions. And now, it's my turn. YIPES. But anyhow, MA programs are designed to allow people "test the waters" to see if academia's for them. For all through who went through, some will decide that academia isn't for them and move on while others go ahead and do the PhD. Also, one of the things I dislike about MA programs is that you WILL share seminars with non-academic minded people who aren't looking to go for the PhD and are just taking courses and THEY will take more than 2 years to finish so... you really have to be the one to shape your own experience in the MA. If you can blaze the trail in the MA, your professors and advisor will be very impressed, and will write glowing letters. One of the things you DO need to look for when looking at MA programs is the thesis option. You want that for the PhD. Nonetheless, you will definitely find that many, if not all, MA students who are happy that they did the MA first before going for the PhD because of the confidence it gives you when you apply and talk to the professors. I can already see the difference in me.

Whatever you do, go cheap. Find the cheapest program that has the best track record as a feeder into PhD programs. Plenty of historians did their MA in state universities before doing the PhD.

Charlotte

I was actually told to do Latin America instead of US history when I spoke to potential professors after I told them that I studied Spanish when they asked for my languages. I freaked out because I hadn't spent much time reading up Latin America in time to write the SOPs! But maybe I'll pick it up while in the program... or *ahem* for the next round. Except for Yale unless I learn Portugese. I love Latin American history, especially Argentina in the 1950s and 1960s.

*big sigh of relief* Maybe it's not my competitor at all... I've seriously been obsessing in the last 24 hours over this. Now I can go back to focusing on life again instead of analyzing why she got in and I didn't.

Friends are free! I think I got my unofficial rejection and I spent like half hour just talking to a friend while sitting in the hallway, waiting for a class to be out for our organization's meeting. Felt MUCH better.

doggie

Wow. Two very different areas. If you're interested in making good use of all the Deutsch you used, think again about Central Europe. Germany had some colonies in Africa... But as for Southeast Asia, somehow you'd need to demonstrate your working knowledge of Hindi that the adcoms can see through your work or transcripts. Thankfully, you have until the fall to decide!

Me three! Don't be a lurker, come out who ever you are...

I second Sparky. One of my favorite scholars has written books on the history of Eastern European Jews. He's in political science! He's much more interested in how Soviet policies shaped Jews' lives so he's not all quantitative. Even he runs his courses more like history courses than statistical analysis. So when you look at political science departments, really find out what kind of approach they take and how they evaluate applicants. You're going to want a department that doesn't put a lot of emphasis on quantitative methods. And yes, Russian is a must in order to be competitive for Eastern Europe (history or political science). If you haven't done it yet, consider taking a year off to polish up your Russian.

In addition to the above suggestions, look for schools with relatively strong Near East/Middle East departments that will have faculty in other areas whom you can take classes from and add to your dissertation committee. Showing that you can take advantage of offerings outside of the History department is a great way for the adcoms to know that you know how to look for MORE opportunities beyond what the department offers.

maze

wrath

*bounces in glee* Where's the moon bouncer? We need one!

LOL My facebook profile is private that only those in my Networks can search me up. So the person who has my name on Google's search results... if you just look at my undergrad, you'll note that this person didn't go to my undergrad (good thing considering that the picture isn't really attractive!). It took me to the second page to find the real ME.... my universal Amazon book wish list. Fortunately, those are good books that I'm asking for! But I'm still fretting a bit about my Skype profile picture for one of the schools as the prof and I talked to each other over Skype (not video)... I actually changed my old picture of me holding my baby cousin not to give any wrong impressions to another picture of just me.

It's never okay. Just sit tight like the rest of us.