Sigaba

How many 400 level courses will you have completed by the time you graduate?

Did you participate in your department's honors program?

With respect, I don't think this is quite what the OP is saying. By my reading, the issue is how does one figure out how to match apples to oranges when sorting through all the information. If we're going to hammer bosun120 for wanting to pay someone to answer the questions "What are my chances? Where should I apply?" then what is to be said of the many who come to this BB and try to get those answers for free?

FWIW, the following thread contains posts that offer additional views on this topic. <<

I urge all applicants to consider the utility of spending a few hours "scrubbing" their presence in the digital world. Institutions in the private sector are increasingly performing internet background checks. I have it on good authority that academic institutions are increasingly taking their cues from the private sector for "best practices" when it comes to risk management. Apply the standard of not putting anything on the internet that you'd not be comfortable reading on the front page of the New York Times. Assume that a professional researcher who believes that "the personal is political" is going to spend thirty minutes on google using information in your application to find out what you've written on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LiveJournal, blogs, and internet BBs.

ZD-- In developing your options for the academic side of your issue, please please please do not settle for anecdotal information. Consult directly someone in your department as well as your graduate school so you know exactly what your options are. It would be very unfortunate if you went with second hand knowledge and it turned out that there was a sub-paragraph of a little known policy designed for situations such as yours.

Eisenmann-- Do not freak out! When you get the exam back, find some place quiet, and read through the comments a few times. Understand why your performance was not what you'd have liked. Develop a plan to do better. Then, if you can, go and talk to the professor. FWIW, I crashed and burned more times than I care to imagine. By treating those events as learning experiences and not worrying so much about the grades, most of the time my professors and I sought to turn the occasions into "teachable moments" so while there may have been a lot of frustration, exasperation, and anger, there was never any fear of probation/loss of funding, or of expulsion. HTH.

ZD-- Are there options that would allow you to finish out the term and later retake those courses in which you receive a low grade? Are there grading options that would serve as "place holders" until you retook the courses later? (These two options sound the same, but depending upon the institution, they could be very different paths.)

If I may, I recommend that participants in this spirited conversation define their terms and tease out their assumptions. What do you mean when you say "fair"? What constitutes "financial justice"? Why should a democratic form of government focus on addressing and resolving economic issues? @The historians. Please do keep in mind that when you get to graduate school, you'll be brawling over these and other issues frequently and at a level of intensity greater anything you've likely witnessed. Consider the rhetorical advantages of keeping a balanced tone and comporting yourself in a way that advances the conversation rather than escalating the discussion into an argument. My $0.02.

I think the disadvantage of hiring a consultant for the application process is that it adds a "layer" between you and what you can learn from going through the process first hand. As an example, when it came to developing the list of schools I wanted to attend, I learned a lot about other departments and established professors. The specific knowledge proved useful when I was doing coursework because I had a wider understanding of who were the significant players in the field--even if they seemed obscure at first glance. Also, the skill of doing this kind of research is useful to this day. Moreover, I'm very ambivalent about the privatization of this kind of knowledge. Yes, one has the right to spend one's money as one likes. But what are the long term consequences for one's own field--and the Ivory Tower in general-- if personal wealth becomes an even bigger factor in the admissions process than it already is? My $0.02.

Thank you for the compliment. However, if my recommendations don't help people get to where they want to go, they're useless. Or, to paraphrase Winston Wolfe, let's forgo the congratulatory hand shakes until we get the car to North Hollywood.

IMO, there are three risks to such a submission. First, in some quarters, "double dipping" is looked upon as a form of plagiarism. (On another BB, there was recently a good debate on the topic.) If a member of an admissions committee shares that view, and if that person does some background research, you may put your candidacy at risk--especially if it is unclear that you and the person who wrote the H-Diplo review are the same person. Second, it could ruffle feathers. Give it some thought. An applicant recycles an essay for one of the more important aspects of an application to a prestigious program could unintentionally send a message that he/she is "mailing it in." Third, elsewhere, you asked about making an issue of your "character" in your LoR. If you do travel that route on your LoR and then recycle a book review, how might that come across?

C: Then by all means go for it! Please consider the utility of the following if you address question "Is this a work of history?" First, point out how the work advances one or more historiographical debates. Second, if historians who specialized on the topic either use a multidisciplinary approach, anchor your work in that tradition. Third, be very artful when you define key theoretical terms. Fourth, do some extra legwork to see if a potential reader may really have a bee in his/her bonnet about either the book or its methodological approach. With this knowledge, you could deftly and respectfully acknowledge the issues of controversy and offer a thoughtful counter point. (Ah, if I knew then what I knew now...but I'm not bitter.) In regards to TMP's question regarding the Yale book review (YBR), please keep in mind that regardless of where you end up, you will be asked to write quite a few book reviews during your coursework. In some instances, those assignments will benefit from the leg work, stressing, and sweating you did in preparing the YBR.

If I were I in your shoes, I'd be swinging for the fences. If I were an aspiring graduate student and applying to the same programs on your list, I'd be worried about how I measured up against you. In regards to the guidance you've received from Sparky and SL, I'll offer a contrasting POV. While you may not have defined as narrowly your area of specialization and topics of interest as some UG history majors, based upon your posts, you have a relatively strong background in theory. IMO, this background is a huge advantage. Here's why. As a graduate student, one seeks to meet two basic objectives. The first is identifying a dissertation topic. The second is developing a usable set of tools to collect, to view, and to interpret primary source materials. While Sparky and SL correctly point out that your candidacy would be well served if you could identify topics of interest sooner rather than later, do not sell your self short. You have already demonstrated the ability to pick topics of interest. And you have already developed and used a "lens" to view those topics. In regards to maeisneb's description of your "competition," a small correction is necessary. Undergraduate history majors, even those who have been working towards grad school since they were in junior high, do not know their fields of interest "inside and out." Instead, they are allowed to think that they do. (This perception is shattered when one starts graduate school.)

Know your audience, know how the work fits into the historiography of the subject, know how it addresses the broader concerns of the subfield, field, and the profession, especially if you are applying to Yale. (Based upon my debriefing for why I did not get in, my choice of book played a significant role in the decision.) If you pick an older work, especially one like The Strange Career of Jim Crow, consider the utility of demonstrating a clear grasp of its impact on the field and the extent to which that impact has remained steady, or has increased, or has diminished. This task can be achieved by spending time with Reviews in American History as well as by finding longer historiographical essays in related journals. This grasp does not need to be detailed to the nth degree but it should reflect an understanding that historiographical debates change over time. If you pick the work that inspired you to become a professional academic historian, consider the value of being very discreet with your value judgements, especially if your field of interest is political, diplomatic, naval, military, or aerospace history or any other field that remotely sounds like "the great white man" top-down narrative approach to the past. Unless you've been very well schooled and carefully mentored as an undergraduate, you may be unaware of the intense debates among historians over field, subject, and method. Be true to who you are and how you see yourself developing. Yet, do not box yourself in. If your field falls into the category of contemporary history, keep in mind that you are writing for historians, not politicians or policy makers. Keep firm in your own mind the differences between analyzing and editorializing. If you pick a work that represents the cutting edge, such as Stephanie McCurry's Confederate Reckoning, consider the utility of curbing your enthusiasm. Regardless of how impressed you are, or think it settles long standing debates, or believe it breaks new ground methodologically, or believe that it raises new questions that will significantly alter a field's trajectory for decades to come, all such judgements--or the opposite--are provisional. (That being said, the history of the Civil War era will never be the same again. ) If you have in mind a book that invites for any reason the question "Is this really a work of history?" consider picking another book. If you insist on using such a work, nail the answer in a short paragraph. (That is, avoid sounding uncertain or defensive.) If you want to pick Tango by Professor Foxtrot because you either want to be like Professor Foxtrot or to work with Professor Foxtrot, and either Foxtrot or another SME might read it, consider discussing how Tango fits not only into the relevant historiographical debates but also in the trajectory of Foxtrot's career. Be certain to note if Foxtrot's view in Tango was reformulated, enhanced, revised, or renounced in a subsequent work. If you pick a work that is actually a collection of essays (such as Society and Culture in Early Modern France, History and Strategy, or Makers of Modern Strategy), identify ways to group the individual essays around themes. These themes should be more than the obvious but not so abstract that you come across as being "too cute". If you pick a work that has multiple editions, consider the utility of convincing your audience that you are intimately familiar with each previous edition and the relative merits of each compared to the most current iteration. But above and beyond all else, remember not to freak out and to have fun.

@Joe490 and @fuzzylogician Thank you both for the feedback on my point. I do understand where you are coming from, fuzzylogician. And I understand your skepticism, Joe490. With that, I'd like to throw in another two cents to explain where I'm coming from. The bases of that specific recommendation are parochial and therefore may not apply to Joe490's situation. Based upon my experiences in the Ivory Tower, the objective of "holding the line" against grade inflation is a growing priority. Moreover, within the discipline of history and especially within my fields of interest, there are ongoing concerns with plagiarism. Additionally, there's an ongoing debate over what constitutes plagiarism. Finally, during my work as a T.A. I've seen first-hand unrealistically wide discrepancies between the quality of a timed exam and subsequent performance on an essay prepared off campus. So, from where I sit, there's a lot room for concern if the component parts of an undergraduate's academic experiences and metrics don't fit together. So my recommendation that Joe490--in light of his specific situation--be careful is aimed so his overall application and its supporting materials present a "balanced narrative." Within this narrative, the quality of the LoR and the writing samples would make sense when weighed against the GPA and the GRE scores. In my estimation, too much support from a well-intended academic, especially if the GRE verbal scores end up being very low, could unintentionally skew this narrative. One last point, I did not intend for my suggestions here to be taken as a la carte options on a menu. To be clear, I certainly would not begrudge Joe490, or anyone else, for taking some, all or none of any recommendation I offer on this BB. That being said, in this specific case, the recommendation re the LoR dovetails with the suggestion for school visits and face to face discussions so that the Powers That Be could see the total package and conclude that Joe490 either had an off day when he took the GRE or to conclude that he needs to develop his standardized test taking skills and that graduate program X is just the place for him to do just that.

endowed chair

FWIW, in history, one learns that professional academic historians adhere to a handful of basic formats. One learns how to figure out those formats at a glance, how to read to develop an increasingly nuanced understanding of the relevant facts, and how to identify a work's primary, secondary, and tertiary arguments. And then one learns to stop reading a work once those arguments are identified. Developing this skill set requires a leap of faith that you struggled with yesterday will make ever more sense as you plow ahead. Might it be possible that works in your field have a similar rhythm? FWIW, one insight that I stumbled upon much later than I'd have liked was the realization that one will never be as ready as one would like for qualifying exams. This insight allowed me to relax somewhat and to focus more on learning as much as I could in the time than I had. It also helped me to spend less time FREAKING OUT about not knowing everything chapter and verse. (To the extent possible, in your waking moments, assume that you're going to pass, maybe even with honors. Visualize yourself writing your exams with poise and confidence. Suppress the question "What do I do if I fail?" Those nightmares will come after you pass your exams.) I do not know if this dynamic is "normal," but I strongly believe it is unhelpful, if not self destructive. IME, there's a lot to be gained from not worrying about how one matches up with one's classmates and instead focusing with ever greater intensity on how one matches up to one's own potential and to the skills/expertise/expectations of one's professors. (For example, rather than going round and round with fellow students about what "X" means while trying to avoid appearing behind the curve, go to a professor's office, leaves one's ego at the door, and start a conversation with "Hey, Professor Smith. I think X means this...am I on the right track?")

Do not let them, Klio, or yourself down.

Well, since you put it that way. For on line research, I use Google. Generally, I have a knack for picking the right four words that will get me useable results that will lead to more resources. For collecting information, I use DownThemAll, a Firefox add on, to download anything and everything that may be remotely related to the topic of interest. I use xplorer2 to make folders and subfolders to contain those files. Then, as I detailed in this I use Adobe Acrobat Pro and Google Desktop Search to index what I've collected. Also, I use Firefox's book marks tool bar to organize bookmarks to websites that I frequently visit. I've got drop down menus for news, academic/professional journals, digital archives of historical sources, theory, politics, economics, culture, technology, the American armed services, the U.S. federal government, private think tanks, and internet BBs (such as this one). For reasons that make no sense, my drop down menu for library catalogs is buried in a folder for shopping. (This is a major design error that I ought to correct but then where would I put the drop down menu containing Farmville? ) On Twitter (which I rarely use), I follow a handful of .GOV-type organizations/individuals (such as the White House and the Chairman of the JCS), a couple of broadsheets, and a few public intellectuals and academics (such as Cornel West), and some comedy writers/entertainers I like. (The last because I have a research in American mass popular culture.) On Facebook, I frequently "like" news outlets, television shows that are both popular and significant, and a few up and coming television comedy writers. (Because what I really want to be is a showrunner.) Invariably, I end up "hiding" most of these in my news feed so I can focus on what is truly important: Farmville. Finally, I get email alerts/articles from The Economist (although my subscription has expired) and Foreign Affairs. As a rule of thumb, these alerts are of little importance because I'm focused on what matters most-- FARMVILLE This post has been brought to you courtesy of Farmville, Remember "the first one is free."

@kalapocska FWIW, the distance from Seaton Hall University to NYU is about 15 miles (24.6 km), to Rutgers is 4.6 miles (7.6 km), to SUNY Stony Brook is 73.3 miles (118 km), and to Cornell is 211miles (339 km).

In my experience, undergraduates worry about their GPA while professors worry about grade inflation--to the point where some programs give little weight to an applicant's UG GPA and more to GRE scores, the SoP, the LoR, and the writing sample. @joe490. I recommend the following. First, start managing your expectations about getting into your top choice schools. This is not to say that you will not be admitted, but that you should do the best you can on your applications to those schools with the understanding that it may not be in the cards at this time. Second, do some soul searching. Given the fact that you know standardized tests are not your thing, take a long hard look at the steps you took to put yourself in the best position to succeed, why those steps did not work, and why you did not do more. After compiling a list of "lessons learned," and chewing yourself out, pick yourself off the ground, dust yourself off, and move on. Third, write/call the schools you want to attend and do what you can to arrange on campus visits. If those schools offer optional interviews, make sure that you participate. If those schools do not offer interviews, do what you can to have sit down/face to face discussions with DGSs and other Powers That Be. When you go, wear a pressed dressed shirt, and socks that match your shoes, if not also a tie and a suit. In these conversations, be cool, like the Fonz. Make sure your strengths shine through. Talk about what you've done and what you want to do. Spend very little time on your weaknesses. If (and only if) the chemistry is great should you mention your concern over your GRE scores. Fourth, during the interval, be very careful in how your professor "helps" you with your writing sample and LoR. If both are articulate, you might raise flags given your GRE verbal score. Fifth, give some thought to the viability of taking again the GRE after you've had some prep time. Do the leg work to find out for certain how far into the application process you can submit your GRE scores. Do not settle for what you heard from another applicant, or what you read on a website, or scuttlebutt. Figure out who knows the answer for certain and get your information from that person. Meanwhile, start preparing for your next effort. I understand that you face financial obstacles and I urge you to find ways to be resourceful. Ask classmates if they have spare prep materials they no longer need. Talk to those in your department about your situation. You never know when a professor or a department chair or a graduate student has knowledge of available resources. You never know when someone is going to reach into their wallet, pull out some cash, and hand it to you. (If this does happen, make sure you thank them with a hand written card--if not also a copy of the receipt). Last, if you've not done so already, see if you can get into your departments' honor programs. While you'll likely have to submit your applications before you finish these programs, your participation will not hurt your chances. HTH.

IMO, dyslexia is something that you should consider disclosing sooner rather than later. Academic institutions may have policies and resources that address the disabilities of students, faculty, and staff. Also, the disclosure may help you negotiate the administration of your qualifying examinations. When you take your quals, the last thing you will need during those long hours of desperate loneliness and feelings of complete and utter intellectual inadequacy will be the realization that you may have issues interpreting correctly and the person who wrote those questions/instructions nowhere to be found. FWIW, I've never experienced a situation where the disclosure of a disability or an illness had negative consequences. HTH.

IMO, applicants should seek LoRs from established professional scholars who are BTDTs in the intended discipline of study (if not the exact field), that know well the applicant, and that will write a honest LoR. I would only resort to a "master's level alumnus" for a LoR if I knew that both I and the writer of the LoR were members of an "old boys' network," and if person were either an experienced ABD or an established practitioner of the intended discipline, and if I were a top flight applicant attending a top five school. (And even if all those requirements were met, it might still be a roll of the dice.) My $0.02.

^ Wow! You ARE cranky.