Neist

Well, I could do loans, but I don't really want to do that. It'd take thousands of dollars. And I can apply for the scholarship later. The classes run pretty much every year. I wanted to take specialized bibliographic training at the Rare Book School. @Need Coffee in an IV might have heard of it before. It's a well-known organization, and they teach a wide variety topics. A lot of topics are, unsurprisingly, how to handle and deal with rare books, so some museum and archive folks end up taking the classes.

Aw, poo. Didn't get a scholarship that would have made specialized training possible. Welp, guess there's always next year.

Ergh. This last paper isn't writing itself very quickly. At least it's the last paper, and it's not due until Monday evening, so.

Good to see that you're still around. Good luck with your applications (as well as everyone else's)!

I'm sorry. A lot of people I know in the sciences are having a rough go at it. Scienc-y graduate programs sound a little hardcore! History programs don't seem to be horrendous, assuming you can keep up with the reading load, which admittedly is drowning.

@Need Coffee in an IV One thing that I've quickly discovered about graduate program life is that it's far more political than I would like. I sort of live in my own world, so I avoid a lot of it, but I certainly can tell it occurs.

Lol. I know, right? I personally know that I would never want to read a book review that large, and to be honest, if a person can't write a worthwhile summary in 500-750 words, they need to work on their writing.

Great advice so far! Thanks everyone! I think I'm going to mix a little of everything and try to discover a personal cocktail that works best. Ack! That sounds pretty intense! Do they have specific standards as to the type of journal that said article must be published in? Well, I think the question (at least for me) is more of a question of the amount of reading. I'd probably do some reading, but I read pretty fast. Two books would be painfully slow. Five would be leisurely. Ten to twenty ranges from somewhat fast to grindy. Even giving myself some slack, I'm hoping to get in at least 10. I've sort of wondered, what is your academic background? I imagine jumping into a directed museum studies program on a specific subject, if said subject is nothing something one is well-versed, would be relatively rough. I think this is pretty good advice. I guess I should have qualified the question more as: "How much reading should an overly bookish graduate student do over the break?" That statement better parallels my concerns, I think.

I only have one paper left (due next Monday). Hooray! Sorry to hear that. I hope everything goes okay! I sort of want to binge The Man in the High Castle. It's okay! I hope at least it's a good dinner. How much longer do you have until break?

Thanks for the replies! And, of course, I found a confusing typo. It should be written as, "I haven't enjoyed myself this much in quite a number of years." Ergh. @Klonoa I only had 1 day to myself during the break. A lot of my final papers were due relatively early. I used the break to burn through the last push. @TMP I'll definitely schedule some rest, then. Thanks for the tip. Thankfully, I only have to take two courses in the spring, so I'm hoping to have a little extra reading time next semester (decided to take a summer directed reading in lieu of another three course semester). Even so, I wanted to get a few books in during the break. I'll plan on reading some, but will try to not to overload myself too much; the small break idea sounds like a good one. This semester has been pretty rough with three courses plus TA'ing. I'm not sure how I could accomplish anything extra with that load. I've acclimated well, and I'm enjoying my courses, but there's little hope that I could squeeze in an extra book a week.

I'm about to finish my first semester, and everything is going well. To be honest, I haven't enjoyed myself in quite a number of years. That being said, I haven't been without something to do in years, and I was hoping accomplish a pile of reading during the winter break (sitting around doing nothing will probably give me anxiety). However, as this is my first year, I was curious if this was a bad idea. Should I spend the time resting/relaxing? Is burning through a pile of books a bad idea, considering that I enjoy reading the material? I don't specifically consider doing so bad, but I'm a rather novice graduate student and thought it apt to ask advice. I'm quite enjoying myself, but burnout is something that I'd rather like to avoid.

I agree with TMP, and I thought I'd add that I wouldn't consider a 3.5 uGPA as necessary low, nor would I think that it would necessary matter as you have a solid graduate GPA. I admit that I'm not incredibly informed, but I wouldn't be dissatisfied with your stats, and as long you as you can historiographically comment on your aimed specialization, and that's evident from your writing samples and application, I wouldn't worry too much about being a non-history major. I know several people who are history graduate students who were not history undergraduates.

Not sure if I could survive with my occassional booze. Though, recently I've had to drop most dairy. I think I've developed a milk protein allergy. Ergh. Gotta be careful with french press! It's easy to make it coffee into rocket fuel. I never touched it before graduate school. Probably wasn't a good idea to start. I suffer from too much anxiety to add coffee into the mix. Oddly enough, I drink quite a lot of tea, and tea has never given me the jitters the way coffee does.

Religious incunabula (don't get to use that word often....)

I can't speak directly regarding fine arts TAships, but most TAs/RAs/GAs get paid a flat yearly stipend under the assumption that one works a certain amount of hours per week (which is routinely 20 hours a week). However, the issue is more complicated than simply calculating X number of hours per each program's stipend. Some programs might not pay you during the summer. Some might expect you to work during the breaks. Some have extra stipends during the summers that one can apply to. That all said, I probably get paid around the $20 an hour mark, and I'm in a program that has pretty low stipends. Some well-funded history programs pay twice what I get paid.

You're brave doing that. I don't even re-read papers/writing unless I need to use it later. I have enough anxiety. I don't need more. Ignorance is bliss!

Might be. It's been well-documented that history enrollment is steadily dropping. Maybe it'll mean that we'll all have jobs when we finish our degrees. Right? Right?!? A person can hope.

Just finished The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976 by Frank Dikotter, and read Library: An Unquiet History by Grover Gardner before that. The first was quite good, and I think I'm going to read some more of Dikotter's work. The second was merely okay. Glad I read it, but I doubt I'll look up more by the author.

So, I think I'm going to have to give up caffeine. I ever do love caffeine's productivity boosting affects, but it doesn't help my anxiety. How can I ever call myself a graduate student without coffee?

Oh, I can casually, but they want unnecessary specifics, and the length comes a little like rambling. I once wrote 15 pages about a painting.

In the continuing drama of me trying to get ahead this holiday break, I've attempted to write an entire book review today (about the aforementioned read book). Whoever decided to assign a 1500 word book review can eat a shoe. No book review should be that long. I say if you can't articulate the quality of a book in the length of an abstract, you need to try harder. My day started 10 hours ago, and I think I'm going to retire for the evening. Not done, but eh well.

Even so, yesterday I was reading for 8+ hours. Bergh.

So, I read 428 pages today. I'm tired.

I agree with what has already been said, but I would like to add that many of your questions can be answered if you merely read a lot. Ask for a few book suggestions from a faculty member and follow the trail of footnotes to more material. Find topical journals and pour over articles. Immerse yourself.

I'm commenting in here a bit late, but subtle changes in formatting is very noticeable, especially when grading printed papers. Grade 30 papers and tell me you can't tell that a font size is slightly larger.