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Sigaba

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Posts posted by Sigaba

  1. 5 hours ago, sonnybunny said:

    Anyone have a general sense of reputation between University of New Mexico and University of Vermont? Obviously not the only factor I'm considering, but I'm enrolling for the MA and want the best shot of matriculating to a good PhD program after.

    Please consider the benefits of going here

    http://library.uvm.edu/collections/theses?search_type=dept&dept=33

    and there

    https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/

    and finding theses supervised by potential PIs and then finding out where graduate students went next.

    As an alterative, you could contact each program's DGS and ask questions centered around outcomes.

  2. Hey, @BrotherB. Welcome to the GradCafe.

    You may find more information in the History forum. There's also a forum for Anthropology.

    Generally, your age should not be an issue in and of itself. As a holder of an endowed chair said to me, "History is an old [person's] game." By that, he meant that one doesn't enter one's prime as a historian until one's fifties.

    I would be less worried about your GPA because there's only so much you can do about it. I'd be more concerned about having professors willing to write strong LORs (letters of recommendation) on your behalf, a well crafted SOP (statement of purpose), and a writing sample that reflects your skills as an aspiring academic historian.

  3. To @jpbends's point, the "received wisdom" of this forum is that one should not pursue an unfunded terminal master's degree in history unless one has deep pockets. AFIAK, this guidance is more word of mouth/rule of thumb than the outcome of qualitative or quantitative research.

    The rigors being in a master's program while having to worry about funding and your applications for a doctoral program could limit what you get out of that program in terms of your development as an academic historian? Will professors care enough to bounce you off the walls so that you grow or will they just nod and smile with dollar signs in their eyes when you speak?

    Also, if you earn a master's at a program and then go on to a doctoral program, you'll most likely end up having to jump through many of the same hoops all over again--up to the point where you could earn a second master's in history.

    What are the alternatives? Maybe consider enrolling in a program in which you can earn a degree or even a certificate in what will be your outside field as a doctoral student. Maybe this path could center on developing a skill that will help you get part time work during the summers or full time work if you ultimately decide that things are as bad in the House of Klio as many say. Or, if you're not an Americanist, you could enroll in a language program that will allow you to knock out a requirement or two in a doctoral program.

  4. On 2/22/2022 at 7:30 AM, Atsm said:

    Any grads have advice for older applicants?

    Do what you can to pivot towards the sensibilities of an academic historian as soon as possible. Your UG GPA, your success rate in previous cycles, and the rankings of where you applied are not very useful to you.

    What kind of history do you want to do? How might your research impact existing historiographical debates of your specific field, your area/time period, and the overall profession? How do you see your career as an academic unfolding over the next thirty years? <==Talking about these kinds of questions is likely going to draw more initial interest than your backstory from academics.

  5. On 2/21/2022 at 9:28 AM, ghfjk1568 said:

    [...]I can't tell if it's just anxiety and overthinking or if I'm just too young and I should just take some time off and figure it out.

    Before you accept or decline, please consider the resources at your disposal for performing a vigorous due diligence for each of your potential options. Please way the benefits and challenges (not pros and cons) of each option.

    FWIW, The way I see it, you have at least five centered around attending graduate school

    • defer
    • accept with intent to push through to the doctorate with your intended fields
    • accept with the intent to reassess after earning a masters with your intended fields
    • accept with the intent to earn a master's degree while (covertly) developing skills for a job outside of history.
      • You could use the outside field requirement to develop a skill in data science or project management.
        • Just make sure that the skill isn't something with a very limited shelf life. 
    • accept with the intent to earn a doctorate with fields that will help you get a job outside of the Ivory Tower.
      • As an example, if your top 10 school's name starts with a Y or a H or a P or a J, and your interests are anywhere adjacent to security studies/grand strategy you could put together a path of study that leads to a job with .GOV or .MIL

    For options in the private sector, I recommend that viable alternatives should comparable favorably to what you'd be giving up by not going to graduate school. That is, you have an offer of "guaranteed" underemployment with health insurance and great amenities (like the library) during an interval of

    • intensifying great power rivalry,
    • economic uncertainty,
    • a pandemic that doesn't care if people think it should be classified as an endemic,
    • political turbulence.

    Please also take a look at your theory that you're overthinking things. To what extent is "over thinking" a trait that that has kept you out of bad situations or a potential character flaw that has led you to walking away from opportunities for personal fulfilment and success. The latter can really become a grind if left unchecked. Or so I've heard.

    Please do consider talking to your professors candidly about your ambivalence. Before initiating such a conversation, make sure that you're going to be able to speak frankly about your hopes, your fears, and your understanding of their expectations. (On this last point, I think that @AP will prove to be right. I think that your professors like you personally.)

  6. On 2/11/2022 at 6:00 AM, Anonymous Questioner said:

    What do you think I should do? Thank you for reading!

    I think that you should confer with your professors. If you leave your program now, will their disappointment impact the quality of LORs they will write on your behalf as you look for work?

    On 2/11/2022 at 6:00 AM, Anonymous Questioner said:

    Ultimately, my question is this--if my hope is to leave the scholarly profession, but pursue teaching and my own creative work, does it make sense for me to leave this PhD? I hold an MFA in creative writing as well as a scholarly MA (which I earned en route to this PhD). I could try to teach at community colleges or at other types of higher ed jobs that don't demand PhDs.

    What happens if you end up competing for these kinds of positions against applicants who the same academic degrees and career goals--and doctorates as well? 

  7. On 3/14/2015 at 1:22 PM, mvlchicago said:

    I have a preliminary syllabus, a set of primary sources, and even pre-emptive questions for class discussions all set up for my landmark course called "Historiography and Historical Methods in Star Wars." It was inspired by a professor at Chicago who hosts a History class on the works on J.R.R Tolkien every four years. The class would primarily function as a course for advanced undergraduates who are about to embark on thesis research. My experience with such classes has normally been the wide diversity of interests often serves as a hindrance for discussion, since everyone is situated in different sets of primary and secondary sources and no one felt like they could seriously engaged with the projects of other classmates. By using the sources given within a variety of contexts for Star Wars, it would (hopefully) teach how to seriously interrogate primary sources and allow for open discussion given that everyone will be learning within the same specific historical context. Rigorous but enjoyable.  

    As long as it was made clear that Han shot first, this sounds like a promising topic.

  8. On 2/9/2022 at 7:27 PM, AfricanusCrowther said:

    That’s silly. It’s an analogy. Of course I don’t presume to know your views on consumer product regulation. You are the one who is arguing in bad faith — by suggesting that I only criticize your claim because I’m somehow seeking to damage your reputation.

    It's unfortunate that you continue to take things in this direction.  It's not so much that I'm concerned about my reputation. It's that I am looking for ways to avoid responding to you in a tone similar to yours. If you want to continue going down this path of personal characterizations, shoot me a private message and we can figure something out. Otherwise, I urge you to consider the benefits of not attempting to denigrate my intellect or my character.

    IRT the topic of this thread, let me try once again to take things in a different direction.

    Klio is a hearbreaker. How each person deals with that heartbreak is different and how each person deals with the pain can change over time. For now, I'm dealing with mine by taking responsibility for what I could have controlled. I've shared my thoughts with a couple of professors, including a person in a position to make changes in his department. Beyond that, I'm working on sublimating a shifting constellation of thoughts and feelings about the historical profession and my experiences in graduate school.

     

  9. 8 hours ago, AfricanusCrowther said:

    In my view, it's desirable for institutions to limit the range of bad decisions that people can make. Your logic appears to me to be the same as those who argue, e.g., for limiting the regulation of consumer products, or allowing retirement plan managers to offer bad investment plans so long as they also offer good ones. I would prefer unsafe products to be taken off the market than to rely on consumers to make informed decisions about whether they want to buy a death trap of a car or baby toy. 

    I would like to think that we respect each other enough not to resort to making assumptions about views on topics unrelated to our comments on the topic of professional academic history.

    Your deployment of conjecture under the guise of logical appearances is bad form. I would prefer that you ask clarification if my comments are unclear rather than attempting to put words in my mouth or thoughts in my head.

     

  10. @KinOfKafka, if you ever circle back to this thread, take a look at the History forum. There you will find conversations about the benefits and challenges of applying to doctoral programs with a B.A. as well as information on how aspiring graduate students can navigate an application season. 

    Two points worth mentioning here. First, if you are offered admission to a graduate program with a B.A. alone, you will almost certainly have to earn a master's degree before reaching candidacy for your doctorate. You may have the opportunity to earn your M.A. by passing your qualifying exams but if you're in it for the Ivory Tower life, you may decide to produce a thesis or report.

    Second, the study of academic history can be expensive. Even if you earn lucrative funding packages, fellowships, and grants, there are no true "free rides." Even if you're extraordinarily disciplined when it comes to spending money, brew your own coffee, and live at the interlibrary loan counter, there are going to be "life happens" moments and dozens (if not hundreds) of books and articles you have to have in your permanent possession.

  11. On 12/13/2020 at 4:50 PM, Calgacus said:

    This sounds like you're trying to excuse a clearly systemic short-coming of both academia broadly and graduate education specifically. The soft skills you outlined (juggling teaching and research responsibilities, being able to synthesize information, etc.) are not developed in the dynamic way you imply they can you used for.

    The bottom line is that it should not be the responsibility of grad students to find external "side" gigs that will enable them to be employable at the end of the PhD, but that is the reality today. And this reality is what leads @remenis and others to underscore the PhD's immense financial and time cost. The vast majority of programs still insist on running programs geared towards developing students for TT jobs. With TT jobs now being virtually nonexistent, the PhD itself becomes the side gig (or labor of love, or vanity project, or however one wants to frame it based on their level of cynicism). 

    Your framing seems to miss the scale of the problem at multiple levels-- the viability of the careers of individual graduate students that the discipline continues to churn out, *and* the viability of the discipline/"profession" itself. Excusing the deeply problematic ethics of individual faculty, specific programs, or of academia broadly that maintain the current system because it provides grads with life lessons/opportunities to fail/succeed seems misguided and borderline cruel to me. 

    I feel attacked. I feel misunderstood. I feel like you didn't read my comments and instead launched into an airing of your grievances with me as your straw man. How about that. 

    Before I put my meticulously written hurt feelings report in the circular file, I'll offer a clarification and ask a couple of questions.

    Here's the clarification  so that there's no confusion about what I'm saying. I'm saying that I'm responsible for the choices that I made as an undergraduate (not working hard enough on the fundamental skills I would need as a grad student) and as a graduate student (not learning how to look before leaping). Yes, I can point to pivotal instances where I wish this professor or that one or that one had been more professional but those let downs were the products of my choices. 

    Here are the questions. If should not be an individual's responsibility to develop resources and skills to find gainful employment upon leaving school, then what should that individual's responsibilities be? (Well, since, you got a little salty in your reply, I'll rephrase. For what outcomes of your chosen path do you, @Calgacus, take responsibility?)

  12. 12 minutes ago, charmsprof said:

    I mean, I guess I'm mistaken, but I thought that this was the thread that people wanted to post about admissions stuff? At least that's what various people have expressed that's what they're wanting/thought they were getting/what they had prior to yesterday from the thread? 

    I'm genuinely not trying to police people or force them to communicate be a certain way. However, if someone is saying that their intent is x, yet their impact is y, then we'd be pretty crappy historians/teachers/educators if we let them continue on x path, oui? If someone is saying that they want to help, guide, teach, and multiple people are saying it's coming off as bullying, condescending, cynicism, arrogance, then... In a course, if a professor isn't teaching to meet their students, and a couple of students say something, the professor would be in the wrong to berate the class, right? 

    Like I'm not getting what the issue here is. It's not about "being to my liking." Some people are saying they're trying to help, others are saying its not helpful (and are asking them to redirect the energy). There are people on here saying they feel like they are being bullied when all they want is to know if they got into a program, and have the continued support of others in this space if they didn't. I'm not getting why we're not trying to fix that.

    Unless you're using an alt account, it seems that you've been here a short while. I think that if you were to take a deep dive into @AP's post, you'd quickly find that this individual is the exact opposite of the person you're describing.

    To me, the issue you are having has something to do with you. I think that you're sending a clear message that if you don't get what you want when you want it and how you want it, you're going to go into attack mode. 

    FWIW, here's something I learned. History professors (like @AP) give very subtle guidance. Why? I don't know. Maybe they don't want to blowback that can follow if the recipient doesn't like the message. I do know that sometime students mistake coaching for criticism. I also know that it sometimes takes a while (or in my case, years) to figure out the wisdom, care, and respect that goes into such guidance.

  13. 11 minutes ago, charmsprof said:

    It's this. Why are you being underhanded and snide? 

    That's my issue. I don't care if y'all are coddling, nice, whatever. I had a great conversation today in DMs (with someone you tagged) where they genuinely challenged and forced me to think through my commitment to getting a PhD, and have multiple plans if things go south. That is what being a resource is. That's what is useful and productive.

    These statements interspersed through these posts are what I have a problem with. If you care, why are you being condescending, belittling and making it seem like people's concerns aren't valid? People are saying that they just want a space to talk to each other about notifications/acceptances/etc. I don't think that's asking people to be "cuddling." There are two other pages on here where people have had these convos in depth, one starting in 2015 that has had recent activity, and one in 2020. Someone even suggested, to which a few people agreed that there should be two topics on this. 

    At this point, some of y'all are just being assholes and masking it as "helpful advice." You want to be helpful? Stop making blanket statements, and actually provide help. There have been multiple requests from one person asking how do we make it if the job market is shitty, and only a handful of people provided useful solutions (paralegals, real estate, etc). You nor your friend worried about finances have offered any solution, but you are claiming to be the authority. Stop making blanket statements about how bad shit is, and not actually help people when they are begging for it. If you want people to take the advice, make it constructive. Tell us how bad it is, tell us what YOU are doing in this hellscape, tell us what your friends are doing. Guide people to resources. 

    People don't get to be mad when they are giving unsolicited, hateful advice and pretending that It's "help." You're being a bully. 

    What is stopping you from starting the kind of a thread that you want?

    If you find a certain person's post not to your liking, why are you continuing to read them?

  14. There's a certain irony to people saying "We're all adults here" and then attempting to dictate what others should not discuss in this thread so they can get their own emotional needs fulfilled.

    Change of topic. The "opportunity costs" of graduate school are not just about the money you don't make from having a full time salaried gig with health benefits and PTO. It's about the compound interest you don't earn on retirement accounts and other investments. It's about having fewer opportunities for owning a home. It's about still being in school while your friends and classmates are going onwards and upwards in their careers and personal lives. It's about understanding the declining marketability of your skillset in a society that undervalues a historian's skillset and sensibilities. (If I knew then what I know now, would I have taken that left turn to North Gate and into a computer science class rather than strolling on to Dwinelle for a class on Jacksonian America? I have no idea.) 

    Congratulations to those who have received offers of admission. Believe it or not, in a year or two you'll be longing for the relatively certainty and stress free days of your application season.

    To those of you who are hitting "refresh" thirty times a second and/or are frantically reading the tea leaves of others' "I got in" posts to figure out your chances, hang in there. Please consider other (less self destructive) ways of passing the time. You could contribute to the "Lessons learned" thread. You could do your best on focusing on your current academic projects. You could assume that you're going to be in a graduate program this fall or next and start preparing for your next set of challenges.

    To those who have had an unsuccessful application season, consider the benefits of getting some rest before deciding your next step.

  15. 1 minute ago, Theory007 said:

    I honestly have no idea what you mean by this - I am not tying to control any conversation, but I do have an interest in not occupying the thread with this stuff so others can use it as intended. Let's please be done with this. I'll DM @LatinAmericanFootball if he is still interested in an answer but will not otherwise partake in this further.

    I think that you're gaslighting.

    You have no idea of what?

    • How to use a moderator's control panel to split a thread?
    • How to use the message system to reach out to other moderators to ask how to split a thread?
    • How to start a new thread and post a link to it in this one?
    • How to go to the Invision Community link that is at the bottom of every page of every thread in every forum at the GradCafe and click the help button?
    • How to use Google to search for "Invision forum how to split threads" which leads one here?

    @LatinAmericanFootball's question was posed to you in the open to something you posted in the open. Why not answer it in the open as well? You're comfortable calling people you've never met cheaters out in the open but you want to go private when the accused holds you accountable. This is not a good look for the Grad Cafe. 

    I think that it's incumbent upon you to answer the question openly for the sake of your personal honor and intellectual integrity to say nothing of your credibility as a moderator. 

    Here's the thing. You and no one else started this shitshow by brushing aside concerns about the GRE, some held by actual professional academics who agree that the exam can be useful predictor of performance, and by alleging without proof that many, if not most, of the people who took the GRE at home last two years cheated. (Newer members must be brimming with confidence in this message board knowing that a moderator thinks so highly of them.)

    You have deliberately escalated the temperature of this thread with snide comments that reflect a lack of situational awareness. You talk about experience in a graduate program. Well, I've witnessed graduate students and professors eat alive individuals who have made comments similar to yours in this thread. It was because of these experiences that  I threw you a softball by suggesting that you be more precise in your comments. Rather than hitting the ball out of the park by referencing any of the dozens of studies available, you decided to go in another direction.

    You have failed in your efforts to control the conversation by dismissing alternative points of view that the GRE is disadvantageous to members of under represented affiliations and maybe not in the best long term interests of professions that use the Ivory Tower as a training ground.

    Yes, there are studies that indicate that the GRE predicts performance by members of certain programs. Yet, you are being overly broad by suggesting, without offering a level of proof equal to your tone, that the correlation between GRE scores and performance in graduate school holds true for all affiliations in all programs.

    Maybe your concern is that using different metrics for future admissions will somehow undermine your performance on the GRE. (Or maybe you are concerned about who might get in if GRE scores are no longer required.)

    Either/or/something else entirely, you've made it clear that you like the GRE and that you believe that it serves a useful purpose in making admissions decisions. It worked for you so no need to ask if there are better ways.

    You've also made it clear, despite your claims of being genuinely curious, that you're not really interested in considering carefully on your own accord alternative viewpoints in a debate that will shape the life choices of aspiring graduate students for years to come. For worse and for better, this debate will continue among professional academics and decision makers in higher education regardless of your faith in GRE scores.

  16. 58 minutes ago, Theory007 said:

     

    Either way - this is derailing this thread and I suggest that we end our discussion here so people can use this space more productively. The admission process to political science programs continues to be grueling, and I - like many others - are here to help and support the best we can.

    Then split it into a separate thread so the conversation you're trying to control can continue. Then you could answer the question posed to you by @LatinAmericanFootball

  17. 2 hours ago, Theory007 said:

    As you will learn if you enter a graduate program...

    "Some" and "some" are, IMO, dismissive broad brush comments in a discussion like this one. How many is some? Some in what kinds of programs? Yes, I'm aware that there's a lot going on in this topic, which is why I prompted you to not be as glib as you were--and as you continue to be. 

    On 12/10/2021 at 11:19 AM, Theory007 said:

    This was probably the real reason that they made the GRE optional because anyone who took the test over the past two years could have cheated and probably did. 

    On 12/11/2021 at 9:47 AM, LatinAmericanFootball said:

    Do you have any evidence to back that up, e.g. people in adcoms saying they don't trust the GRE At Home? I took it at home and know people who took it at home last year, and I can assure you that even if I wanted to cheat (which I obviously did not) it would have been very hard to do so, as ETS protocols are very rigid. In fact, GRE online boards are filled with people that got their tests cancelled because they did something slightly suspicious which the proctors understood as possible cheating even if it wasn't.

    I'll rephrase @LatinAmericanFootball's question, which you have chosen to ignore. Do you have the same level of evidence to support this claim as you insist that those who disagree with you provide?

    IMO, you're taking an odd tone on this topic, especially given the push back you continue to receive.  It remains interesting that you just don't lay out via references the basis for your understanding of this issue because, apparently, you're busy, but insist that others prove their position to you.

    Also, do you bother to read profiles before you post? You question others' reading comprehension but you seem to be challenged by "ABD." But since you went there. Yes, I have been to graduate school. What I found is that "genuinely curious" people do their own research when they encounter positions that differ from their own.

  18. 5 hours ago, sonnybunny said:

    Thank you for the warning. My POI and I had a fairly lengthy discussion regarding the housing shortage there... I'm not above commuting from Ventura/Oxnard, but this is great to keep in mind as decisions are made. Thank you!

    If you're not already used to traffic in southern California, the drive may be something to think long and hard about.

    This link will take you to a Google Map of the area between UCSB and Ventura with a traffic overlay. You can use the controls at the bottom of the map to get a sense of typical traffic conditions by hour and by day.

    I don't make it up that way that often anymore. The last few times were for a job and the traffic was brutal heading up during the morning commute. (Some of the traffic was due to a freeway widening project but when do those actually help?) If you add on campus parking to the mix, you could be in a situation where you're going to campus hours earlier than you need just so you can compete for a parking space.

    All this being said, it's one of my favorite areas and the UCSB library has a surprisingly robust collection of titles in military history/military affairs. There's a Costco nearby, so you won't be lacking for the essential food groups (caffeine, sweet, fried, and pork).

  19. 18 hours ago, sonnybunny said:

    Just submitted my first application. University of California-Santa Barbara. Anyone else applying there?

    Finding affordable housing may be a challenge. I'm in a FB group in which a rising senior was liquidating assets and seeking guidance on how to live out of a vehicle for an academic year. 

    You might benefit from trying to develop options now if you think you're going to end up there, even if you have deep pockets.

  20. 1 hour ago, jewishdrummerboy said:

    I'm going to my first in-person conference in January, and I also got my abstract accepted so I'll be giving an oral presentation as well (woo!)

    But, I have no idea what an acceptable dress code is- for a male, is a suit and tie too dressy? Would khakis be too under-dressed? It's a new environment for me and I'm worried about looking out of place.

    Thanks!

    Congratulations on having your abstract accepted!

    You could use Google to find video and photos and social media posts from previous conferences to see what others in your peer group wore and go from there. Specific affiliations within an academic discipline may go up or down a level from what you see.

    Unless you're absolutely sure that you're not going to experience any stress while giving your presentation, consider the benefits of making wardrobe and grooming choices that help you seem cool, calm, and collected even though you may feel uneasy.

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