Sigaba

This generalization is overly broad, IMO. Sometimes, graduate students don't work hard enough to get the grade they want despite the best professor's best efforts.

Please keep in mind that there are [a] the reasons one thinks one did or did not get into a program and then there are the reasons one did or did not get into a program. Sometimes one can make some good guesses about [a], but one will really not know until one is actually enrolled in a program next fall and has had the time to develop relationships with professors who will tell you what factors went into the decision. (And by the time you're at that point, you may have so much on your plate that you look back fondly on the pain you experienced as an applicant. As for the sense of "powerless" many may be feeling now, please consider the following course of action after taking some time to depressurize. Assume that you are going to get into a program. What can you do in the coming weeks and months to get ready? Are there must read books that one can take a stab at now? Can you start planning your move now? If you're in a relationship and you've been deferring a potentially painful choice about who goes where, can you start preparing for that conversation now? Are there other skills that you can develop that will benefit you during the next stage of your development? If you have issues that you have wanted to discuss with a trained professional, is now a good time to start doing that work? If you have family members who don't understand why you want to earn an advanced degree in a humanity, now may be a good time to start figuring out how to push back (rather than next summer when you'll be feeling a lot of pressure)? If you want to make a difference for next year's elections, what can you do now so that you will have enough time and bandwidth to focus on your academic responsibilities next fall? But what ever you do, please make sure that you find some time to rest. The path ahead is ever steeper, rockier, darker, and twisted.

A factor to keep in mind. Even if you already have a master's degree in hand, upon starting a doctoral program, a department is likely to require you to do the work to qualify for a master's degree. This can happen even if your master's degree is in history and even if it was earned at a higher ranked program. In my experience, this sensibility may mean that you have to start from scratch in terms of fulfilling departmental requirements for numbers and types of courses you take. And, depending upon the rigor of one's new department and the vigilance of the faculty and staff, opportunities to re purpose/recycle what you learned and did before may approach zero. In terms of one's personal development and professional training, starting from (almost) scratch can be beneficial. But any such benefit is going to come at the expense of time. (The possibility/likelihood of having to start over is a key reason why I never have recommended to aspiring doctoral students the path of getting a terminal masters first for seasoning and experience.)

FWIW, the following is from the program's webpage. "In the third term, you will write a 10,000- to 15,000-word thesis. This is typically a desk-based study, since there is little time to undertake individual fieldwork within the nine months of the course. Although you may attend other options courses, you will only be examined on the core courses, your two chosen option courses and the thesis." If the thesis you produce is too far afield of the generally accepted practices for academic historians (e.g. references), a MSc in that discipline may not serve you as well as a master's in history (with a thesis/report option). A way to square potentially the circle, write two version of your MSc thesis. One for your committee and a version that will resonate among historians. This option sees you writing for historians and then editing it to the standards of the discipline. A second challenge you may face will center around perceptions (assumptions) of (about) the MSc program and its participants. You may need to demonstrate that your commitment to scholarship is orders of magnitude higher than your dedication to the global problem of forced migration.

At the same time, double check the fine print on all relevant documents for your graduate program and the parent college/university. I suggest that you make sure that you have and are answering truthfully questions like "Have you been charged with...?" I also suggest that you double check to see if your consent to a background check is open ended. That is, can your new institution go back and check again and again? (Will they see the XF, and then the F, and then something else if the whole thing gets dropped, and then, call you in and ask for an explanation?) Another issue to consider is your reputation. How you talk about this unfortunate event in the future is going to matter to at least one person who will have power over you and/or whose support you will need. Is the narrative you present in your OP the best way to tell the story? Is it possible for you to reflect upon the whole thing and figure out lessons learned? Under no circumstances should you admit to doing something that you didn't and it is important to understand how denials can sound to some.

i think that you're trying to have it both ways. You want to appear as open minded, disinterested, and concerned for the future of professional academic scholarship but you also have a POV as to whether current practices are right or wrong. IMO, the tension between the two, as well as the fact that you obviously joined this BB just to start this thread, makes your posts in this thread seem manipulative if not dishonest. The Ivory Tower in America reflects America in that a few have benefited from privileges at the expense of the many. Getting it right is going to take time and there are going to be mistakes, miscalculations, and unintended consequences. . As I've said a few times, I've been told that I would only have had a chance of getting a job if I'd been born in the 1950s because of my areas of specialization. Hearing that news was not fun especially since my physical self allows employers to check two diversity boxes.. (The professor, a friend, who shared the news, thought it hilarious.) I don't think that it is appropriate to sandbag aspiring graduate students is the way to address one's discontent with the way things are now and shall remain for a few decades yet.

I agree with the previous posts. If you still want to express your appreciation, I recommend that you wait until you find out where you've been offered admissions and where you haven't. Then send a thank you note. Make sure that you convey how interacting with the person to whom you're writing made you a stronger applicant over all. Be specific if possible. Under no circumstances should you express anything that sounds like sour grapes.

I am sorry that you're in this situation. Unfortunately, your experience is far from unique. Season after season and across multiple disciplines, LoR writers are late meeting their commitments and uncommunicative. In the strongest possible terms, I urge you not to contact the professor again about the outstanding LoR. You both know that he knows that it is late.. What ever he gets out of the LoR being late, your reminders increase the pay off from a dynamic that has very little to do with you. I recommend that you consider lining up an alternative LoR writer and checking to see if USC would accept it. Now, the order which you do the two tasks is going to take careful thought.The worst case scenario is that the alternative letter is not as beneficial to your application, it arrives moments before the late professor finally hits "send" on his, and USC reads the alternative AND the late professor gets wind of your back up plan and takes offense. Another alternative is just to let things beyond your control remain beyond your control. Trust that the late letter will eventually get there and USC gives your application the attention it deserves. This tactic will work out all right if you get into USC one way or another or end up in another program that brings out the best in you, but it will be a lot of nail biting until you know. What ever does happen, please come back to this thread and let us know what happened and share any "lessons learned."

IMO, guidance / advisement that one receives in person from a professor / advisor should generally supersede anonymous counsel received from internet message boards. You have a person in your corner and she's doing what she can to put you in a position to succeed. If more aspiring graduate students had that level of in person support, there'd be less need for the Grad Cafe. I suggest that you work on developing more trust in her. I recommend that you ask her for the journals she has in mind for submission. You could (politely, respectfully) ask if one of the journals you have in mind would be appropriate. If she says anything that doesn't resemble an enthusiastic "yes," I suggest that you stick to her list and nail it. Here's something that I ask you to consider. A first year graduate student would likely not know the literature of a field to know if it qualifies as a "niche" topic, even in the age of Google Scholar and Jstor. After World War II, there were more than 14 million refugees in Europe alone. Some of them were likely "unaccompanied" minors and there was likely a discussion of their plight somewhere. And the same can likely be said of any society that had suffered the ravages of modern warfare and/or the mechanization of ethnic cleansing. Unless your existing review consults sources in secondary works ranging back at least to the end of the American Civil War, and unless your review consults sources in non-Western European languages including Armenian, Vietnamese, and Korean, you may not be as far as long as you're going to be when it is time to submit to a specific journal that represents the leading edge of professional academic work. In the event you're determined to publish sooner rather than later in a niche journal, please do your due diligence to manage your risk. Read extensively in those journals to see how controversy is handled. Do academics get their reputation destroyed when they're too far off the mark? Are reviewers diplomatic when authors get some of the finer points wrong? Are the BTDTs with whom you want to work as a graduate student sober in their judgments or do they wield razor sharp blue pencils?

ALCON-- If you're not finding the answers you need, make sure you ask your questions! The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

Could looking at a different body of secondary literature count as "substantially revised"? For example, a review of how historians write about the Cold War followed by a review of how political scientists look at the Cold War.

Maybe not. In the aftermath of the Varsity Blues scandal, private academic institutions are reaffirming the right to rescind offers of admission for causes that include behaviors and activities centered around what might be argued is one's private/personal life. As an example, Stanford has affirmed a policy that allows it to rescind admission "if the University learns that an individual has engaged in behavior prior to the first day of enrolled Stanford attendance that indicates a serious lack of judgment or integrity." (FWIW, MOO is that SW is work and one's future opportunities should not be limited by one's previous jobs provided that one did the work ethically.)

Your best bet would be to consult your institution's guidelines/rules on academic integrity. If you read something that clearly states that your plan is okay, you're probably okay. If you don't find such clarity, you will want to reach out to the instructors of both classes to get their blessing. In the event either asks you "Why are you asking now?" --as opposed to weeks/months ago-- give them an honest answer "It hadn't occurred to you." If either says that your planned approach is not acceptable, try to ask for guidance on how to proceed.

IMO, you would be better served with a masters in technical/professional writing.

IMO, there are quite a few aspiring graduate students this season who are trying to overcome page/word limits. My concern is that while some are looking for sizing and spacing tactics that will get those last words/paragraphs in, others are crafting, refining, and rewriting their SOPs and WSs so that they're both in compliance with recommended limits and better works because of the effort. In your case, members of admissions committees could just say to themselves, "I couldn't make out this font, so I stopped reading, and moved on to the next application."

If you have such a conversation, please do remember remember that the best solution for the rep or the union is not automatically the best solution for you or the professional identity you want to build.

I recommend that you use use end notes rather than footnotes. The objective of this recommendation is to make sure your that your SOP clearly is within the recommended page/word limit. I further recommend that your notes be [1] in the appropriate format for your discipline, and [2] triple checked to make sure you're not presenting inadvertently someone else's work as your own. Also, please do all you can to budget enough time so that you can put aside the draft SOP for at least a day and then read a printing copy with a fresh[er] set of eyes. Finally, if you have time, make an editorial run through the SOP with an eye for efficiency. Get ride of prepositional phrase and passive verbal constructions.

Could you provide as your WS a summary of your senior thesis that includes a compact version of your literature review?

Hi, @turkishcoffee99. You may be able to find additional support in the history forum. https://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/38-history/

Well said.

Hi, @anbri FWIW, I put my name in the upper right corner, with the document type after a colon. Like this. SIGABA: Statement of Purpose. And while I'm neither paranoid nor #OCD, I would number my as Page 1 of x, Page 2 of x, so that readers would understand if pages were missing.

Welcome to the GradCafe, @valley I recommend that you apply to at least one doctoral program (the University of Texas at Austin merits consideration) if you can write a strong statement of purpose in which you define your interests as a historian. No matter where you apply, do your best to find at least one common theme that ties your evolving interests together. From January through September, I recommend working on your German and diving into the deep end of modern German social history. Prepare yourself for pain. The going will be painful.

https://www.apa.org/education/undergrad/research-opportunities I recommend that you see what you can do to participate in a summer program that will allow you to develop further your expertise as a researcher as well as relationships with graduate students and professors who may mentor you and/or write you strong letters of recommendation. I also recommend that you take a second pass at the schools you want to attend. Delve deeper into each program's perceived balance between research and practice. Do they generally favor practitioners or academics? (Do current faculty members have substantial experience as clinicians or just enough to do more research? Do programs place graduates in the type of jobs you want?) Additionally, please consider the advantages of cutting "etc." from your intellectual vocabulary for the next decade or two. Look at it this way. You've written a winning piece that has the POI reading it on your side-- until she realizes that her practice falls under the category of "etc." Finally, give some thought to figuring out if words like "love" and "passion" are appropriate for your field. Do words that convey emotion help or hinder aspiring graduate students seeking admission? Are such words appropriate for professional communication? Are there other words that generally convey the same level of drive?

LT-- Welcome to the Grad Cafe. Take a look at Wright State University. (IRT one of your published works on SWJ, I think that you'd benefit from taking a closer look at the historiographical debates centering around Kennan's impact on America's post-World War II national security policy. He himself argued that what the U.S. implemented WRT containment was a far cry from what he intended. And also, I think you may want to develop further your approach to using one's understanding of the past to inform contemporary policy recommendations if you plan an academic career down the line. "Applied history" is frowned upon in some corners of the House of Klio.)

I am sorry that the dynamic is such that you're feeling increasingly isolated from your cohort. As a rule of thumb, trust your instincts. if you feel like you're on the receiving end of inappropriate behavior, people probably are behaving inappropriately towards you. If you're feeling harassed, you're being harassed. Would it be possible for you to focus on your coursework for the balance of the term while you regroup and figure out how you want to educate members of your cohort on how they should treat you? Or do you want to write them off entirely for the present, if not permanently?