Sigaba

Arguably the single most important post in the history of Grad Cafe is on a closely related topic. That post can be used to develop a blue print for the coming months and years.

FWIW, my standard recommendation for this dilemma is to see how attending school A (more money) and school B (more opportunity+ has played out for recent graduates by reverse engineering the career paths of individuals who have the kinds of jobs you will want down the line. So if you want Job 1, Job 2, or Job 3, figure if school B produces graduates who end up getting hired for those jobs. Another approach is to plan budgets for both schools so one can understand better the kinds of sacrifices one will have to make to attend school B, and then to see if there are ways to mitigate those sacrifices. For example, attending school B may require one to have a longer commute to campus because of the cost of housing. Can one mitigate the increased commute time by finding places to live that are close to multiple transit lines?

I strongly recommend that one only say a school is one's top choice if the statement is true. You never know if professors from different schools are talking shop about graduate admissions. "That's odd, I'm looking at an applicant who has a background very similar and he says that we're his top choice..."

Hi, @whatkilledthedinosaurs. There's a long running thread on another Grad Cafe forum centering around the experiences of first generation students. It may be of use to you. As part of your training as a graduate student, you will have numerous opportunities to learn how to contextualize your research in at least three historiographical debates. Depending upon how you want to develop your dual interests, your work may fit into two or three additional debates. You can also address your concern by matching what you learn to what you might potentially teach as a professor at a research university. You can likely find examples of what I mean by looking at the course catalogs of the departments to which you're applying and the CVs and teaching schedules of the historians with whom you'd want to work.

IMO, this take is controversial. An email gets caught up in a spam filter, a professor mis-sorts email on his phone, a historian is exceptionally busy when an email arrives and her intention to reply falls off her radar, a pending deadline, an ill kid, and a death in the family are among the myriad reasons why a professional might not reply to an email. To judge someone's level of helpfulness based upon a single exchange (one way or another) is not a beneficial practice.

Can you please clarify your research interest? Do you want to study how M-L ideology impacted state formation and nation building in the regions you mentioned or do you intend to use M-L ideology as a primary interpretative tool?

How far away are you from defining yourself as a historian by method, area of focus, and time period? The description in your OP is very broad Do you classify yourself as a social historian or a cultural historian? Is your area the United States or Western Europe? Narrowing your focus will make you a more competitive applicant because you'll be able to identify more efficiently programs and professors that may consider you a good fit. And, as importantly, you'll be able to write more compelling SoPs. (In any case, it seems that tourism, fashion, re-enactment, and fashion centered around wars, battles, and battlefields may offer ways to square the circle. If your focus is more on cultural history, you could look at the pattern in which combative sports and/or alpine-ism become fashionable in countries that are emerging from embittering wartime experiences. Do these activities allow participants to rehabilitate a sense of lost masculinity? Do these activities serve as an outlet for militarism? Do these cultural practices impact the domestic electoral politics of practicing nations? [Is there a relationship between "cross fit" and the resurgence of populism?] Another possibility is to study how historical pilgrimages centered around wars are increasingly in films, television shows, graphic novels, and games.)

IME "international history" and "transnational cultural history" are different fields. Please be certain you're comfortable with the way you align the two.

IMO, you specifically should not be worried about your MA GPA provided that you're on track IRT developing your understanding of the historiography of American foreign relations. I recommend that you assume that you'll get into at least one program. I recommend that you focus on getting a running start for the fall. If you have strong political views one way or another, I strongly suggest that you develop your understanding of the impact of contemporaneous events on the historiography of diplomatic history as well as the careers of historians. Academically and professionally, you will be better off if you can filter out current events. However, if being true to who you are and want to be requires a high level of activism, you may benefit from studying the ups and downs of pivotal debates among historians. My $0.02.

@mjsharif this issue comes up several times each application season. Unfortunately, applicants with traumatic pasts who come here seeking guidance rarely return to the grad cafe to disclose what they included in their SoPs or to share how the disclosures impacted their prospects for admission.

You have rates posted on your website. IMO, your consulting services are especially controversial since you went to a public school, you are attending an institution that is publicly funded, and professional academic historians do not charge each other for information.

Am I reading your posts correctly? You're using the Grad Cafe to further your commercial interests? You sell advice and guidance that is offered on this BB at no cost?

A side note. The professors' leave may impact your ability to take the classes you want if they don't teach the same courses every term. If you end up attending this school, I recommend that you figure out as soon as possible how you may need to schedule your course work around their absence.

Also, look at the faculty rosters at history departments where you'd like to work. Are there hiring patterns that suggest a EALC ph.d. will be GTG?

FWIW, I never worry about you or your work ethic. I know that you're going to figure out ways to exceed the expectations of your professors.

@historygeek, I would add that you are also competing against applicants who have a much clearer vision of what they want to do whereas you have changed your focus three times in three years. Yes, professors understand/expect graduate students' interests to grow, expand, and evolve. However, if such shifts do not reflect an underlying commitment to the craft and are unaccompanied by a high level of academic performance, the question @telkanuru raises becomes even more urgent. (Disclosure: when I changed programs, my GRE scores were forgettable, my grades were not great, and my focus changed profoundly [by the way Americanists look at things], but I was cut a lot of slack largely because of my commitment to history and my developing skills.)

Spend as much time as you can working on tasks similar to @WhaleshipEssex's guidance. Spend as little time as you can speculating on questions like the one below. The past does not predict the future. (And it's the kind of question that David Hackett Fisher warned the profession against fifty years ago.) I would also recommend that, time permitting, you do some efficient back ground research* on POIs in the nine programs to which you've applied so you could get a sense of where they stand on the big questions of international history. Is international history really that much different than what Samuel Flagg Bemis did? Does international history do more than provide insights into what elite groups did? Where are the women? Is the practice of contemporary international history critically undermined by the amount of unreleased archival materials? I also recommend that you go to each department's website and read up on program policies, requirements, time tables, and course offerings. The objective of this exercise is to develop a list of questions you'd ask during the interviews. For example, what can be done if the courses you want to take conflict with the courses you have to take? What standard of care will you need to apply to developing language skills? Can a language requirement be swapped for another skill set? Can you really have a professor from another institution sit on your committees? Other questions. Which historian or what historiographical topic might you write an extended essay at the end of your first year? What fields other than diplomatic history would you study? Do you have any thoughts on your outside field? Additionally, it would not hurt if you were to develop a broad understanding of the kinds of archival materials each of the nine schools has or is close to and how you would use them for your own research projects. I strongly advise that you phrase any such comments as provisional -- don't over state a desire of doing work on the Ford presidency if you go to Michigan. Thinking way ahead, what is your vision of your personal professional identity as an academic historian? (Hint: research, publish, research, publish, move the needle on key historiographical debates. Hint 2: no matter how much you want to be a great teacher of undergraduates, keep that goal under your hat. ) For the interviews themselves, figure out what you're going to wear.** If you're going on campus, think through all routine steps and how they can go slightly sideways so you'll have a plan to handle such gremlins. (It will be small stuff -- the pre planned route includes an intersection with a slow traffic light, paying for parking, having cash to buy something to drink, lip balm, having something to use for note taking, an extra pen, a dying cell phone battery.) If you're doing interviews remotely, check your technology up and down, do a sound check, check your lighting. Think twice before doing any full dress rehearsals. During your interviews, keep the following in mind. It is okay to say "I don't know." Just know how to say it like a historian. If the intensity of the interview starts to rise (especially if it is a group interview), keep in mind that the change may be a sign that you're doing very well. After each interview, quickly jot down some "lessons learned" as well as anything you think you heard but weren't sure at the time. Above all else, please keep in mind the following. There's a lot of talk about "fit" at the Grad Cafe. Over time, the meaning of that term has shifted. Now, aspiring graduate students increasingly speak (write) of how this school or that professor fit a student's plans, objectives, and ambitions. When you're participating in an interview, the professor or professors on the other side of the table likely have a different understanding of "fit." They want to understand if you belong in the House of Klio. Your mission is to convince them that you do.. ___________________________________ * By "efficient background research" I recommend obtaining copies of POIs CVs, abstracts of theses and dissertations (if not copies of those works), copies of first major articles in key journals, copies of first and second major works, copies of reviews of their first and second major works. If you get a good rhythm, consider expanding the search to include thesis/reports/dissertations that the POIs has supervised and/or reviews they've written as well as research on the POIs' POIs. (IME, knowing where American diplomatic historians learned the craft is always critically important.) Budget about two hours for each POI, thirty minutes for research, ninety minutes for going through your findings. ** There are a number of existing discussions on this topic here at the Grad Cafe, some are gender specific. (FWIW, my recommendations are wear layers, comfortable shoes, and the right backpack/bag if you're going to visit a campus.)

@CellucciK congratulations on receiving two offers from your top choices. Previous threads that discuss the negotiation of financial aid packages are available here https://forum.thegradcafe.com/search/?q=negotiating

I would focus on the following. Here's the thing. There are many threads centered around PIs relationships with their graduate students. I cannot recall one in which a graduate student talks about being treated better by a PI for doing the opposite of what the PI wanted. In the event you still want to explore your preference, see if you can get a list of previous recipients of both fellowships. Does the prestige of the national fellowship appear to follow its recipients? (Keep in mind that correlation is not causation...)

I do not recommend giving anything that has a monetary value to a professor for supporting your applications to graduate school. A brief handwritten note will be more than fine.

By when do you have to make a decision? Is the job you want to get the only one that will allow you to do the kinds of work you want to do?

I recommend that you review the photos available here https://eeb.yale.edu/people/graduate-students for examples of wardrobe choices. I would discount examples that clearly reflect fieldwork attire and normal day on campus attire. Also, if you're so inclined to do some digging (see what I did there?), there have been numerous discussions centering around "what to wear" at the Grad Cafe over the years. One or two of these discussions was gender specific. I recommend that what ever choices you make, you keep in mind how you do when you're stressed and it is cold outside. Will you benefit from wearing layers? Does exposure to winter air bring out the best or worst in your skin tones in a way that may prove a distraction? (As an example, my skin is generally dry. In colder weather, my dry skin can give me an ashy look.) I also recommend that you start budgeting now so that you will have enough pen money so that you won't be counting change in your mind's eye if you have the opportunity to participate in an activity that costs money. (And why not buy something with Happyland University branding if you kill it in the interview and you're told YOU'RE IN?)

I recommend that you ask to be put in touch with ABDs who are at least one year post quals for information about the department. Even then, I suggest that you manage your expectations -- IME a history department consists of black boxes intersecting with black boxes that contain black boxes.

I very strongly disagree with this professor's decision to cc the schools' admissions offices when she blasted you by email and I understand how she can consider your behavior rude. As you read, please keep in mind that my understanding of her argument doesn't make what she did okay or that I agree. (I will circle back to this point in a bit.) By the way you communicated with the admissions offices, she thinks that you made her look bad because it looks like she's being managed by a student. From her perspective, if I'm correct, this perception is especially onerous because missed the deadline may not really be the deadline For all you know, because you're on the outside looking in, she may well know that the deadline isn't really the deadline and that you're applications are not going to be impacted by her letters arriving after the due date. I don't know if you've had the opportunity to do a lot of reading here, but the issue of late LoRs comes up every season, and it is horrible because it stressed the heck out of applicants. But we never learn the other side of the story. Do late letters get applications tossed or does it depend upon who wrote the letter? Make no mistake, I get where you're coming from. I once freaked out because a professor who was a mentor did not respond to my many prompts about a LoR that seemed to be on the path to be late. I was calling his house! He ended up getting in on time and said to me with a stern shark's smile "Don't do that again." I also understand the desire to retaliate. I can act a fool like no one's business when I feel that I've been wronged. (Ask @telkanuru about some of the snits I'd get into with him because who remembers why...) So, for what it's worth, my guidance to you is to do an appropriate amount of venting in an appropriate venue (like a journal or correspondence with people you trust), and then work on going on with your life. If you decide to file a complaint or otherwise escalate the situation, I recommend the utmost caution. The bottom line is that she likely has more experience with this kind of conflict and she may end up cleaning your clock in ways you won't realize for years, if ever. Perhaps a better alternative would be to chalk this unfortunate matter to "lessons learned." And what have you learned? You've learned that you should not trust this professor (which. to be blunt, was evident the moment she had you write your own letter of recommendation). You've learned that it is good to have a wide enough pool of LoR writers that you can overcome a SNAFU--and this information will benefit everyone with whom you share it. And you've learned that you don't like being on the receiving end of this kind of bullshit. This last lesson presents you with an opportunity to develop your empathy. One day, you are going to be on the other side of this equation,, You will remember how stressful it was to have someone not be on time and then be uncommunicative, and then vindictive. So you may be able to say "Hey, I need to buckle down and bang out these documents I promised," and "Hey, I need to reply to these email messages and let this person know what's going on," and "Hey, I don't like the way this person is dealing with this situation, and now I'm pissed too...but I'm going to let my temper cool, then pull person aside, straighten things out (which may include standing on someone's head in private), and then go forward from there."

Does any program offer a funding package that does not include a year end review of a student's progress? If that review is required and funding can be cut for cause, it is a bit misleading to those who have not received such support to say that a funding package is "guaranteed."