Sigaba

A member of this BB that posted prolifically, earned a well deserved position as a moderator, and has since moved on to other platforms went to Cal Tech for his doctorate. If you do some digging, within a few minutes you'll figure out to whom I'm referring and where he has set up shop to offer guidance since his departure from the GradCafe. Take that I'm not telling you exactly who this person as both a sign of respect for your intellectual abilities and also some sidelong green eyed glances. (Not bitter, though.)

Painful painful memories. I'm sure that the full translation is "special path to pain for Americanists who want try to keep up with German social historians." Painful.

I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the policies of the graduate school and your department while also learning all you can about who will administer the exams and in what format the exams will be. As an example, a historian who speaks French like a native may show up for your exam, hand off to you a copy of a leaf of a manuscript, a piece of paper, and a writing instrument and tell you what to do without speaking a word of English. A different professor in the same department may set an equally high bar but in a different way. If you can satisfy a language requirement in that language's department, you should make sure that POIs in your department are okay with that option before going down that path. (Anything other than an enthusiastic "Go for it!" is an invitation to read between the lines of what the POI is telling you.) You may also want to understand the limitations of this option. "French for graduate students" may end up being a easy course for you followed by an even easier exam translating a selection you picked well in advance with the help of a dictionary of your choice. But if you're actually going to use your language skills to do archival research and for personal professional development opportunities, you may decide to focus on long term gains.

The objective of this thread to provide support specifically for current and aspiring graduate students in history. I ask that requests include basic information: areas/fields/methods status (undergraduate, transitioning to graduate school, graduate student, preparing for quals, post quals/ABD, "dissertating," waiting to defend, done and looking for work) a statement that summarizes the kind of support that is needed, and a statement that indicates which measures have been tried. The needed support can be technical, editorial (within limits), intellectual, emotional and psychological. Please note that all guidance provided in this thread is offered "as is." No warranties are provided nor implied. It is also assumed that individuals requesting support will do so in full and complete compliance with all policies governing academic support at their current institutions/programs/departments as well as the preferred institutions/programs/departments. (What this means is: Please do not ask for something--specific editorial recommendations-- that will put you in a bad place.) For those members of the GradCafe who are history majors, please make sure that your profiles are up to date. There are a few very experienced and wise lurkers who are historians but haven't fleshed out your profiles. For those members of the GradCafe who are not history majors, I respectfully ask that you exercise care before offering general guidance or guidance based upon experiences in other fields. At the very least, please identify your discipline and your experience with a post. While there are elements of shared experience among all aspiring and current graduate students, the craft of history has its share of idiosyncrasies. Pitch perfect guidance for a graduate student in English may lead to mis-steps for a graduate student in history. @juilletmercredi is, it should go without saying, encouraged to reply. Typically, I don't mind a level of high spirited debate with a barb or two cast here an there. For this thread, I'm asking that we all do our best to be the best versions of ourselves for each other and the craft of academic history.

Based upon the information available at the following locations and @cropop's post, I'd say a permit is probably not worth it if you don't have the money to spare easily. https://parking.indiana.edu/maps-locations/index.html https://parking.indiana.edu/permits/permit-rates.html?_ga=2.166767869.232146805.1585712153-413683175.1585712153 https://parking.indiana.edu/citations/pay-citation.html https://sustain.iu.edu/commitment/transportation/tdm-final.pdf The TLDR I would recommend instead that you find housing that's a short distance from mass transit lines that run frequently enough to campus OR you take a first mile/last mile approach that sees you driving from your residence to a parking area that's a short distance from mass transit lines that run frequently enough to campus. The money that you'd spend on your parking permit can be used to purchase transient parking as needed and/or to use a TNC (Lyft or Uber) when you're in a jam or the weather is especially bad and/or to buy a night/weekend permit. In the event that you do park on campus, make sure that you observe all posted signs and markings. IU has just finished testing LPR (license plate recognition) and will likely deploy it on a wider scale in the not too distant future. Some of the details The rate structure for permits, transient parking, and citations are likely too low to impact significantly where motorists choose to park and the risks they may take when it comes to parking policy compliance. Parking permits are serving as hunting licenses. The intense competition for some spaces (arrive by 7 AM is not a good sign) coupled with a general overall availability of spaces suggest a number of larger policy issues . The fact that permit holders can add multiple vehicles to their account is not a good sign. The policies shaping "sustainable transportation options" are limited. The accuracy of a run of the mill LPR system is north of 95%. A new system is going to be closer to 100% accurate than to 99% accurate. This is to say that if you park where you ought not, you will likely get a citation.

I recommend that you focus more on trajectories of debate among academics centered around topics and approaches that appeal to you. When you have gathered about two hundred scholarly works, see if anything jumps out at you so you can say "This is what I want to do and how I want to do it." Barring that result, start sorting and resorting the works based upon a growing number of increasingly refined criteria. Figure out what you think and feel about the results of your sorts and the patterns you see. Something to keep in mind. Your interests have greatly shifted since January. You may benefit from exploring the degree to which your interests have shifted and understanding what components of your interest have remained relatively constant. What ever array of tactics you use to define your interests and to identify potential POIs, please consider the benefits of increasing the level of effort and the amount of time you invest into your explorations. Your interests are complex. Teaching yourself how to take them apart and put them back together will help you to narrow things down to an increasingly concise statement of research interests in a statement of purpose.

I recommend looking into opportunities to work in an industry that is trying to navigate the increasing rate of technological innovation. IME, public and private clients are often eager to procure and to deploy technologies that are not quite ready for prime time or, more importantly, are not going to serve well the interests of end users.

Based upon the information you provided, you not only made the best decision based upon the information available at the time, you also made the best decision possible. As for the freaking out, do what you can to slow things down. Focus on staying healthy. Focus on keeping your head right. Know what to do if you experience certain symptoms. Look for ways to reach out for the support you need right now. Understand that you have been accepted into a top program -- that is awesome! Down the line, when we've turned the corner on this crisis, you're going to find that rather being "stuck" somewhere, you will have additional opportunities to learn more and more about your school -- buildings and halls and libraries that you've likely walked passed hundreds of places will all be ready for you to appreciate and explore.

I recommend focusing on tasks and activities that lead towards the objective of being in the right frame of mind so you can start preparing for your quals as soon as possible. Preparatory tasks can be as uncomplicated as thinking about what you'll wear when your taking exams, to reading threads/posts on this BB about preparing for quals, collecting the materials you will want to read, and so forth. You can also work on setting up a daily routine that you'd like to use when you do start studying. I recommend that you do what you can now so that you won't have to sit there during your exams, trying to figure out a question, while thinking "Shit. I would like to have back those weeks I spent developing skills and knowledge that are no use to me right now."

I very strongly recommend that you understand that what you can do may not be what you should do. While policies may allow for transfer credit to shorten the amount of coursework one does, the Powers That Be in one's department may have a different vision for what their students should do. A thing, if not the thing, to keep in mind is that professors, not policies, are the guardians of the profession you aspire to join.

No matter which path you choose, you will be wasting time if you work as hard as you can to do your best. Given the gloomy economic forecasts for post-COVID-19 America, I would recommend that you consider the possibility that a couple of years from now, spots in graduate programs will be especially competitive. If you look back through the years of this BB, you may notice that there was more activity during the Great Recession than the last couple of application seasons. While some of the decreased activity is likely due to the change of ownership, the availability of other resources, and more lurking, it's my hunch that ten years ago, some people went to graduate school as a way to weather the storm. A small point. As a student at Missouri, you will be required to fulfill the requirements for a master's degree. http://catalog.missouri.edu/undergraduategraduate/collegeofartsandscience/mathematics/phd-mathematics/ If you get to the point where you want to go elsewhere or do other things, you can do so with a master's degree in hand.

I recommend that you have a conversation with your department and your committee about potential disruptions to your scheduled exam due to COVID-19. What happens if you or a member of your committee takes ill during the process? What happens if you or they are forced to relocate on short notice? What resources can you use to manage the dual stress of your exams and the specter of the crisis? What are the opportunities to talk out sudden changes in rapport if members of your committee privately freak out and lash out at you? Would you want to reschedule your exams until after there's greater clarity about the local and regional impacts of the crisis? Don't ask for an extension if you don't want one. But be prepared if an extension is offered or suggested/recommended. (@MarineBluePsy's recommendations are awesome, especially the suggestions to talk with those who have been through the process is as good as gold and not to change your preparation process.) An additional recommendation. The pressure of the process can be incredible. So much so that members of your committee can be tossing softballs for you to crush but it feels like they're throwing rocks at your head. If a moment in the preliminary discussions seems to take such a turn, try to relax.

I work as an analyst at a "boutique" engineering consultancy that's a big fish in a medium - sized but important pond in an obscure industry. I am a generalist on a ten person team of specialists. I would recommend that graduate students in history who want to work in consulting do their outside fields in any of the following. Project management -- often, a project deliverable evolves from the time a firm gets the job, to the project kick off meeting, and as events unfold. And also, you will often have <x hours to perform tasks that nominally need 3x hours. Technical writing -- the best, clearest, wittiest, writing you've done in the Ivory Tower can get blank stares, glares, and "huh"s from very smart people. Conversely, what may strike you as repetitive, simplistic writing is exactly what is needed. (Some of the best sentences written in your reports will be crafted using copy and paste. Passive verbal constructions will be used by you. Cringe worthy typos will often not mattress.) Data analysis --clients and stakeholders increasingly want to talk about "big data" without understanding (or caring) that many forms of consulting are both art and science. ArcGIS - or other software platforms that support the visual presentation of data If you're going to work with non humanities types, you might profit from studying the cultural sensibilities of the dominant profession, especially if they're engineers. If inclusion, social justice, and life/work balance are very important to you, you will want to do your research on potential employers very carefully. There's a generational divide in today's work place that employers are still trying to figure out. Some older firms led by (mostly) men who have worked their entire careers at one place don't understand the sensibilities of younger employees. You will want to learn how to "pick your battles" or risk finding yourself on a career path with a lower ceiling. (Or so I've heard.) You will want to learn about opportunities for stock ownership. You will want to figure out ways to get questions answered about pay, benefits, and promotions with subtly and tact. (Qualified candidates have talked themselves out of job opportunities by asking questions with a tone of entitlement.) At a consultancy you may have to "learn by doing," to roll with the punches, to take kicks to the head, and to drink extra strong cups of STFU in ways that are more challenging than the Ivory Tower. Ultimately, working at a consultancy is about generating revenue by producing deliverables on time and under budget that exceed client's expectations (if not your own.) Sometimes that means working sixty hours but billing only forty for months at a time. Sometimes, that means supporting a project approach that, while ethical, is uncomfortable. (As an example, audits and projects centered around advanced technology can lead to recommendations that cost people their jobs.) The upside is that you can end up on a team with exceptionally smart and funny people with very kind souls. (And, alas, some butt heads.) You can find yourself doing policy-related work that checks a lot of boxes on your list of personal and political beliefs. And also, you can have a degree of intellectual and psychological distance from your work at a consultancy that's more sustainable than the work you do in the Ivory Tower. In the event you want to do consulting that relies heavily on the historians' skill set, point set your Linkedin account to get the appropriate alerts. Job descriptions can provide clues as to out what skills you can develop as a graduate student.

A person made a mistake. It happens. Lessons should be learned and corrective actions should be taken. Does focusing on the mistake get one closer to one's goal? (Has the aggrieved applicant taken any action? If the aggrieved had been accepted been among those cc-ed in an email would the applicant have the same concerns?) The comments I've offered may sting some, but they're not unkind. They're based upon experience in the Ivory Tower and in the private sector working on projects for private and public universities, as well as on this BB. Graduate school is a competitive environment. There are going to be set backs. Sometimes your fellow graduate students will come at you. Sometimes professors will use you as chew toys. When you work as a T.A., some undergraduates will pounce on any mistake you make to question your qualifications to evaluate your work. When you are at your lowest point during your qualifying exams, your professors will offer comments that are especially cutting. The skills and habits you are developing now, the words you choose to express yourself, will be crucial in determining how much help is offered and how much support is withheld. Arguably the most intelligent classmate I have ever had earned his Ph.D. and PNG in record time. What did he do wrong? He complained about the professional competence of members of the department. He could not take set backs in stride. He argued when he got beneficial guidance from faculty members. Hey, @histofsci, I would very much prefer not to get into a spat of name calling. If you feel the need to travel that route, send a PM and we'll work it out.

@whatkilledthedinosaurs, while you can certainly take what ever tone you please to express your dissatisfaction, it is more than "just venting on a grad school forum," not the least because you've provided identifying information about yourself on a BB that does not allow for the deletion of posts. What you are doing is developing a habit that may not work as well for you as a "this is only a temporary set back / the good of the profession is good enough for me" take it all in stride comportment. ICYMI, @AP has a Ph.D. in history and is a faculty member. A part of the big picture that you may be missing is that a critical mass of professional academic historians are not particularly fond of interacting with undergraduates. (Which is why the history fora are among the busiest at the Grad Cafe, season after season.) When you bring snark to the table, "mostly tongue in cheek" or not, are you helping to build a dynamic that encourages experienced members to stay and continue to help? Or are you sending a message that you're going to argue when you're given guidance you don't like? To be clear, no one is asking you to be inauthentic or to genuflect. But there's something to be said about giving respect to BTDTs to get respect. Returning to @AP's comment. You most certainly can argue what you "obviously know" or you can dial it down and understand the information you're being given. The path of an academic historian is strewn with obstacles and rejections. Between now and the time you are presented with a Festschrift , you're gong to experience people telling you "no, not what we're looking for/not good enough" even when you're damn sure that the answer should be "hell, yeah!" Feelings of frustration, disappointment, sadness, depression, anger, bitterness (not me, never), are understandable. However, the choices one makes when dealing with feelings are pivotal in the personal professional development of an aspiring academic historian. You have spent valuable minutes and intellectual energy "venting" and then defending your venting. You have sent a clear message to experienced members of this BB that you would rather be right than to receive information that will help you make choices that will get you where you want to go.

Congratulations on your admission to UCI. The main streets in Irvine, like in much of the OC, are raceways to freeways. The traffic lights are timed accordingly. IME, when driving in the area, oncoming cars are all moving much faster than one would expect--unprotected turns require extra caution as do lane changes. FWIW/FYI/ICYMI https://www.cityofirvine.org/transportation/bicycle-safety-tips https://www.cityofirvine.org/irvine-police-department/bicycle-safety https://www.ocregister.com/2019/05/10/at-least-14-road-cyclists-were-killed-in-orange-county-traffic-accidents-in-2018-but-there-are-ways-to-reduce-the-bloodshed/ If you do attend UCI, I work in the planning department of an employee-owned consultancy that may be looking for interns this summer. We have an office in OC. No promises or warranties offered, but if you throw your hat in the ring, there's no limit on how far an intern can go. (Be advised, the work will be hard in a "wax on / wax off" kind of way and also intellectually challenging.)

I am not sure why @ken5566 got dinged for voicing a dissenting opinion. The post is not disrespectful to the OP. Moreover, given @ken5566 's background, the view expressed may be informed by experience. Is the dissatisfaction centered around the word "ruining"? If so, consider the context. The OP writes of "saving" a GPA and of receiving a "failing" grade. Why does one member get dinged for hyperbole but not another? (The point I'm attempting to make is that graduate school is an intensely competitive environment in which dissenting views play a vital role in one's growth. Developing an argument in opposed to a stated opinion is going to require you to lean forward and make a case. And after class, you will have a coffee with the person with whom you disagreed and continue the debate.) What choice would you make if you knew that you were going to be admitted into a program? Which will AdComms appreciate more: an applicant's minor (and GPA therein) or her proficiency in a language?

I recommend layers and a light backpack / tote bag into which you can put layers as you shed them to dump heat. (And to store securely your cell phone so that people won't have the experience of seeing you swiping left while they're trying to talk you into accepting the admissions offer.) I also recommend cash. At least, enough to buy coffee, some mints, hand sanitizer, and parking. Some writing tools to take some notes the old fashion way (analog). To belabor the point. When you go on the visit, please consider all the advantages of leaving your phone in the trunk of your car or in airplane mode on your person. No one will ever think less of you for being an attentive listener. (Unless you're my boss or an ex, but I'm not bitter.)

@HistoryMan1001, this is the kind of question that sends a message one doesn't want to send, especially when it is asked in the clear, if one's objective is to be known for tact and discretion. (And asking the question privately is not, IMO, a sustainable tactic.)

If you are going to be a graduate student in a history program, you need to define yourself as a historian, identify which trajectories of historiography you want to address, and how you anticipate your work will move the needle in each trajectory. Your emphasis on critical race theory and black studies may need significant reconfiguration. You want to avoid a situation in which you're proposing an approach that is increasingly accepted as something that is cutting edge. You might also benefit from displaying a firm understanding of the appropriate balance between the needs of the profession and one's own political agenda generally and also within each department you would like to join as a graduate student. (Eventually, the quality of your work as a historian will be more important than you dedication to a cause, no matter how important it is.) You want to assure the Powers That Be that you understand that you have some catching up to do and that you're committing to doing it. You will also want to communicate to decision makers that while you may use the tools and some of the sensibilities of other disciplines, that you are, in fact, a historian who is loyal to the House of Klio. That is, while the craft of professional academic history may benefit from the use of X from Y discipline, history should not become Y discipline. (If you seek a program where you straddle two disciplines with one being history, you will likely want to send a different message.) Also, at least for history, leading with your stats likely puts you at a competitive disadvantage right away. Academic historians talk about history and historiography much more than their GPAs and what not. The names of institutions and professors are used as an elegant shorthand to compress schools of thought into a few words that support a focused argument. So "I went to Happyland University and studied under Professor Biles" isn't about bench marking or measuring johnsons, it is saying "So far, my analysis of X centers around A, B, and C." Additional guidance and resources for applicants to graduate history programs are available in the history fora, but especially at Lessons Learned: Application Season Debriefings Rejection Advice What type of writing samples did you submit? Crucial Theory for Historians #HTH

This depends upon how you perceive yourself and how you want to be perceived by people who will have an extraordinary amount of power over you until you get a tenure track job. You can be blunt ("This program is my third choice.") You can be indirect ("This program is among my top choices of the X offers I've received.") You can be vague ("I can very easily see myself here next fall...") You can be specific. ("I am intrigued by your generous offer, but I am concerned about X, Y, and Z...") The questions can be about funding or about requirements or about housing or about resources (including opportunities to do course work at a nearby school and/or have a professor from that school sit on your committees.) The one thing I would recommend that you not do is to come across as entitled. Hint: Do not say anything along the lines of "I'm trying to figure out how [enter department name here] fits my interests." Do not ask if you can bring your dog to class. Do not ask you count as an employee.

Can you take the class pass/fail or pass/no pass?

In the event you get information that addresses the questions @ashiepoo72 raises, be careful not to make a snap decision one way or another. You don't want to throw your hands up and say "This won't work for me" nor do you want to say "I can do this!" without additional information. As A72 suggests, you will want to talk to the combatant professors' graduate students. You will want to find a mix. Those who successfully navigated the tension, got their tickets punched, and got jobs. Those who are still figuring out the tension. Those who made changes to their committees. And those who ended up so discouraged that they walked away (temporarily or permanently). If you phrase your concerns diplomatically, you can also talk to the DGS and/or the professor who serves as the departmental rock. Another course of action is to do the research to answer the question "What's at stake?" Is the conflict essentially personal in nature or is a critical historiographical debate at the heart of the dispute? If it's less the former and more the latter, figuring out ways to navigate the human terrain may be akin to walking through an intellectual minefield during the most challenging years of your life so that you can have a reputation for walking on water after you get your degree.

The people competing for spots today are the same people the same people who will be competing for grants, jobs, and awards for years to come. Right now, at this moment, at least of those persons is in tremendous pain because of the uncertainty. That person is pushing through the pain and finding a way to focus on an essential work -- an article, maybe even a monograph. And that person will do it again tomorrow, and then the next day. That same person is eventually going to get in somewhere and go on to make contributions to the historiography of modern Europe. Why can't that person be you?

My recommendations are these. Before the weekend Obtain a list of the people who are scheduled to attend. Obtain a schedule of events. Ask, via email, for any documents, materials, or talking points the department wants you to have. Download, read, and study all available documents related to the graduate program, especially the graduate student handbook. Read and study the requirements for the program as well as the expected roadmap/time table for reaching various waypoints. Familiarize yourself with the faculty roster, their fields, and their interests. The closer in time and space you are to the faculty member, the more refined your knowledge should be. Select one or two (but not more than two) issues/activities immediately related to graduate life and study it. (For example, health insurance but the library system is safer.) Budget a reasonable amount of time to the tasks above. Coordinate your efforts with like minded students. Optimally, each person will understand who knows what. During the weekend When asked a question, answer it to the best of your ability. If you are not certain about the answer, indicate so. If you don't know, refer her to a colleague who is present at the event or that you'll get back to her with an answer ASAP. If the question is about graduate student life, restrict your answer to what you do to address an issue or concern. "During the winter, I wear a down jacket by Arcteryx" as opposed to "You're going to need a down jacket by this company made by this company with this kind of fill." Exercise the utmost discretion when answering questions about personal safety. Instead, have handy the department/program that will provide information related to on campus safety. If the question is about degree requirements and progress or other matters of policy, I recommend that you caveat answers with "It's my understanding that..." or "I believe that..." or "According to document so and so..." The surer you are of the answer, and/or, if you phrase the answer based upon your understanding of how the requirements apply to you, the fewer caveats will be needed. The objective of such "CYA" language is to protect you and the department from risk. The objective of the exercise is to provide admitted students with information, not to be a SME who is providing recommendations. When talking about the program, the professors, and other graduate students Make sure that you're offering a perspective based upon your experience and your experience only. Do not share inside information. Do not offer information that is confidential or was provided in confidence. Do not pass along gossip or scuttlebutt. Be very careful about offering any assessment about the level of difficulty provided by any task, class, or requirement. Most of all, do not, under any circumstances lie, stretch, fib, embellish, or exaggerate with to a prospective student. If you don't know, you don't know. If you don't agree with an assessment of a person, policy, or requirement you don't have to fall on your sword, but do not go along with the consensus view. You can just say "this topic is a matter of some controversy" and move on. After each event Write down quick notes on answers you owe and/or need to double check. After each day/or the weekend Document to the best of your recollection what you were asked and what you answered. (Who asked the questions would be great to add to your notes, but the names may be a blur by then.) My recommendations are centered around risk management because you are being instructed to function as a representative of your school and your program but you are not being provided training on how to fulfill the required tasks. (And this isn't good.) My recommendations are aimed to position you both to succeed at providing a potential student reliable information and to avoid being in a situation where anything you say gives that student a reason not to attend. ("I'm picking another school because @Balleu told me I had to buy an Arcteryx jacket and I cannot afford one...") [Can you tell that I work at a consultancy on projects with varying amounts of risk?]