Sigaba

IMO, the difference is that historians who are in the Ivory Tower will be playing by the same set of rules overall--in particular, "publish or perish," with the specifications of a published work falling within established standards. So unless two historians have some truly bad blood between them (Eugene Genovese's vendetta against Herbert Gutman comes to mind), there is still going to be a foundation of professional respect. By contrast, a historian who is a superstar outside of the Ivory Tower could be making his bones by coloring outside the lines. For example, Victor Davis Hanson is increasingly prominent as a public intellectual and as a historian who is popular among laypersons who are right of center. However, as he is now emeritus and as he often deviated from the trajectory of professional academic history, one might argue that his star is a bit tarnished. Evidence of this tarnish can be found in a recent review of one of his works in the Journal of Military History took a couple of subtle but vicious jabs at Hanson personally.

@czesc-- I strongly recommend that you do some background research on this person before asking him to write you a LOR. Historians who are held in higher esteem outside of the Ivory Tower than inside of it can manage to generate bad blood and ill will. Sometimes, the hard feelings are a matter of personal jealousy. Sometimes, the "superstar" has made some serious mistakes. Other times, it is a combination of the two--or the result of other additional factors. My point here is that you do not want to send to Happyland University a LOR from a POI who is PNG unless you're taking a calculated risk that reflects an informed decision.

How is it "confrontational" when you're asked simple questions regarding the basis for your guidance? Does your reply represent the approach you intend to take with you to graduate school and you're asked similar questions face-to-face? Snark will only get you so far before someone takes an active interest in your sources and in your expertise.

In that case... I recommend a reverse-weave sweatshirt by Champion, in grey, with the school's emblem. (Do keep in mind that this piece will shrink down at least one full size.) In my experience, this specific type of sweatshirt--with or without an emblem--can be a very versatile item in one's wardrobe. My $0.02.

Something to keep in mind. If something goes wrong in a flat you're renting, the issue will inconvenience you but it is someone else's problem to fix. However, if something goes wrong in a flat that you own, you're the one who will be on the line to fix it. Given the demands of graduate school, will you have the time to deal with such issues? (And, down the line, assuming things go according to plan, will you have the time to sell your place while proceeding with the next step?)

Been there, done that, and done that more than once. The professor in question was (he has passed away) also a mentor. Once, I got late word on something (I don't remember what) and needed him to do something with very little turn around time. I burned up every line of communication with messages, paused for a moment, and then proceeded to transmit the same messages. Wash, rinse, repeat a third time for good measure. When I next saw him, I grinned at him sheepishly as he glared at me. The same professor had a favorite joke that he told me just about everytime he saw me. He also had a wry, and somewhat playfully sadistic sense of humor. One day, we were walking along in a small group and I got ahead of myself. I admitted to him that for years I'd worried that I was missing the humor of his jokes until I realized the problem. "You're not funny," I deadpanned. He reminded me of this comment on a regular basis for the next couple of years.

I'd buy and wear clothes in line with the first impression I'd hope to make. For me, the options would be either a polo-style shirt or button front shirt with a collar over a white t-shirt a nice pair of pants, a very good pair of shoes with socks and belt to match the shoes. I'd wear a light weight jacket that was windproof (if not also waterproof) and that had armpit zippers for extra ventilation. I'd have close at hand a pen and something to scribble notes. My cellular phone would either be turned entirely off or left in the car. I'd have at least forty bucks in cash, with at least half of it in ones and fives. I'd have some gum. Intellectually, I'd have the gears throttled up to full, just in case a professor happened to be looking for a chew toy. I'd keep in mind that the process of being evaluated probably did not end when I was offered admission.

@psychgurl What experience do you have either in the field of history or as a graduate student when it comes to communicating with established professionals? Are you aware of the role private written correspondence has played in the growth of the profession?

@oswic I think following up with the POIs you contacted is a good idea. In addition to covering the points you outlined in your OP, you might also put in an open-ended request for tips on how to get through the first year of graduate school--including any tips for the summer before the first term. I do think it would be a nice touch if you were to send note cards/letters via post instead of by email. (If you go this route, be sure to include your email address in your note.) Also, if you've not done so already, please do start the process of saving every piece of correspondence. Assume that, way down the line, your personal papers are going to be of scholarly interest.

The Forty Acres is a sobriquet for

I'd check to see what kinds of reciprocal agreements the program at UNC has with Duke University. If the agreements are anything like those in other fields--such as history and anthropology--I'd think long and hard about UNC. (For example, could you, as a student at UNC have the opportunity to take art history, history, and business classes at UNC and Duke?) A minor caveat. If you have allergies, you might want to talk to someone at UNC. When I started graduate school, I was initially in Austin, Texas and the cedar pollen was a constant source of misery. When I decided on a change of scenery, UNC got crossed off the list when someone in the history department told me that things could get bad.

FWIW, I am two for two. The first was a conference hosted by school. In the grand scheme of things, the conference and my presentation were very minor affairs. The second was a regional conference co-hosted by the professional association most relevant to my field of study. Although I felt like I got eaten alive by the moderator--he snarled and sneered at me --I was offered a standing invitation to come back and present at future conferences. I attribute the acceptance of my proposals to having research interests that fit nicely into the themes of the two conferences. I've heard and read that, at least in the field of history, the way to go is to organize a panel and to fit your paper proposal as part of the plan.

@czesc As a practicing attorney, you already have advanced training and experience in domains of knowledge that will get the attention of admissions committees. I had as a classmate an attorney who had little difficulty earning a master's in history at the Forty Acres. A former mentor of mine, once a promising naval historian, made the transition to law and he's having a successful career in which he wears several hats. (Have we had this conversation before?) While the transfer of skills from the field of law to history may not end up being a one for one lateral trade off, I think it is important for you to understand that you're farther along than you realize. In addition to a proven ability to do hard work, you also have a range of experiences and competencies that you might use to your advantage both as an applicant and, later, as a graduate student. As an example, Victor Davis Hansen, a classical/military historian turned political polemicist , drew upon his life experiences as a farmer and presented a reinterpretation of classical warfare. More recently, Jon Tetsuro Sumida, informed by his training as a pianist, offered a remarkable interpretation of the history of American navalist theory and its impact upon the U.S. Navy. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that you should conceptualize the practice of history as an exercise of autobiography. I am simply saying that you've got gear in your tool kit that you can make work if you're willing to put in the time and effort. HTH.

This thread provides another opportunity for readers to balance the guidance being offered with the experience of the person offering advice. That is, it isn't by accident that fuzzylogician, Eigen, NeuroGal, and StrangeLight are suggesting a very high level of discretion. Those who do not yet have time in a graduate program might benefit from considering the possibility that there are factors to consider that remain unknown to you before offering advice to graduate students. To put it as politely as I can in my highly caffeinated state, I respectfully ask those of you who are not yet graduate students AND have not faced situations similar to a given thread, to spend time walking the walk before telling others how they should walk. @LadyL, in the future I suggest that you put your dissent in your back pocket and not do anything in front of students that might undermine the authority of a professor. If it helps, think of your professor as the project manager, the students as clients/stakeholders, and the project is teaching the students the course materials. Your task in this formulation is to support the project manager's efforts to complete the project successfully as he--not you--sees fit. Understand at all times that the "project" is the professor's class, not yours. If you think the project is going off the tracks, then privately express your concerns to the project manager. Proceed to lay out sustainable solutions to the issue, and then execute what ever adjustments the PM decides to make--if any. Once the professor has made a decision, that's it. Unless the professor is doing something unethical or illegal, that's it. Here's the deal. As noted above, as a graduate student, you should be in situations where you know more and more than your professors because your mission as a graduate student is to create new knowledge. That is, you are tasked to figure out the limits of what is known and to extend the boundaries, if only incrementally. Some professors do a very good job at staying at the leading edge. Others, as a senior historian frequently complained, "close up shop" as soon as they get tenure. How established professionals makes the choice to stay current or not is up to them, not to graduate students. Yes, you can comport yourself in such a way that you nudge slumbering professors to wake up. Yet, understand that you do so at your own peril. Unless you know exactly what a professor knows and doesn't know, and unless you really know what it is like when academics start going after each other, you should be very careful before engaging in a game of "stump the band." HTH.

Have you ever seen what can happen when a graduate student inspires doubts about his/her integrity among The Powers That Be ? Is this side job so lucrative that you can afford to lose the financial support that you do have and be on the wrong side of your program? Will this side job help you to establish relationships with people who can help you get where you need to go in your program if your POI and other professors decide to send you a clear but subtle message? (Even if the answer to all three questions is "yes," I think you should still honor the contract you signed. If your program concludes that you're word is no good on one issue, what is stopping people from broadening that judgement to all aspects of your conduct?) My $0.02. [FWIW, I once offered to work for free so I could get experience as a teaching assistant. As I was on a fellowship, it was made quite clear to me that it was my job to study, and nothing else.]

I would go through the first year of classes before taking the exams for two reasons. First, as ANDS! points out, the course work can serve as a refresher. Second, the year would give a student time to figure out the dynamics of the program and the personalities of the Powers That Be--(especially one's POI). While there may be an opportunity to take the exams right away, doing so might push buttons one could just as easily avoid. (For example, members of your department may want you to jump through some hoops to see how well you can jump through hoops.) Also, and I don't mean to sound like a downer, one might think through carefully the consequences of declining to do the first year of study before taking the exam, and then not passing.

@Alamako Are you in a position in your life where you can embrace the suck of being a student again after experiencing the ups and downs of life in the private sector? If pursuing a master's is primarily about career management, are their options you can pursue while staying in place that will have a similar net effect? Additional questions. In what industry is your current job? How will your position fare if the economy continues to drag along or worsens? What is the state of the relationship between the United States and the country in which you'd be studying? How close is that country to "hot spots" that might boil over in the next couple of years? (Will you be able to put in place a viable plan to get back to the United States or to hunker down and go grey if SHTF?)

Can you take the course that interests you on a P/NP or P/F option?

MOO, while managing relationships with stakeholders and projecting poise may be overlooked aspects of a doctoral students' training, they are but small parts of the professional training one receives as a doctoral student. More crucial is the development of the technical and (for lack of a better term) the artistic skills of a historian. Examples of the former include knowing the contours of the profession's most significant historiographical debates, dynamic memory skills that can rapidly access short and long term memory, knowing the boundaries and limits of history (that is, what makes the study of history different from other closely related domains of knowledge) the ability to demonstrate a very high level of competence when discussing one's areas of specialization, the skill of rephrasing very complex arguments into cogent thumbnails, and, most of all, the ability to use archival sources and secondary works to create new knowledge. Examples of a historian's "artistic" skills include writing very well, the ability to present engaging lectures, the skills to debate verbally multiple points of view of a given topic, and a way of thinking critically that undermines surety. And, when appropriate, to brawl intellectually. (Professors will deliberately push your buttons to assess --what I still haven't figured out yet.) My $0.02.

I am NOT at all jealous of people who have MBPs. I am perfectly happy with Windows XP Pro. Yep. (This unbitter remark aside, if I can afford to get another ThinkPad when it is time for a new laptop, that's the way I'll go.)

@Taybaxter I think you're going to end up being the kind of historian that many of those who said "no" to you will end up scratching their down the line while wondering "What were we thinking?"

Was your Lenovo a ThinkPad made for business customers? Or was it an IdeaPad?

^ Love the avatar.

I was just picking up what was put down in the OP.

More and more, I have an issue with graduate students who describe themselves as "character" driven and report their own actions as a reflection of their "honesty," and then chalk up their self-inflicted misfortune to the "politics" of the Ivory Tower, or the ethical and moral failings of their professors. What does it say about your principles and ethics that you had such strong negative views about a professor but that you were only willing to share your views anonymously and in a way that could cause her profound difficulties? Does your matrix of principles, values, and ethics give you the personal courage to go to a professor during his or her office hours, closing the door, sitting down, and saying "I've got an issue with the way you do X, Y, and Z?" If so, then why did you not take this course of action? In your journey of religious exploration, did you ever happen upon Matthew 7:12? Or are these questions too political?