ashiepoo72

There are always new ways to interpret sources, even if something has already been written on a topic. Anyway, I think it would be arrogant for us to assume we have written on everything worth writing about. I'm sure the Great Man historians thought the same thing, before social and cultural history burst on the scene. More and more Americanists now are focusing on transnational history, which opens up a whole slew of new questions and archives and historiographies to be applied to previously written-on topics, and also makes them consider topics that have received little to no attention before, as is the case with my project which certainly has some secondary literature, but not much and definitely very little in English. Maybe I'm trying to justify my existence to some extent, but I think there are more worthy interpretations to be made, especially in the field of modern history, because the 20th century ended only 16 years ago...the 21st century isn't even legal yet. Archives are still being declassified, material is being uncovered, historical actors from my period of study are by and large still living, their potential papers not even attached to archives or libraries yet. Much of the 20th century is still so close to our own memories--my grandparents were born in the 1930s, my great-grandmother was born in 1903 (and yes, she lived long enough for me to know her...nearly the entire 20th century), my step-grandmother lived in the South in the 1950s and 60s, so I have a transgenerational, cross-cultural memory of nearly the entire 20th century--that we haven't even achieved enough distance to see all the ways we can interpret events in the recent past, let alone all the stories hiding in the shadows. I'm gonna stop there because I could go on and on and I have a final paper to write. I just wanna say that it's not always about the huge, groundbreaking interpretations or books. Meaning shouldn't only be ascribed to those. We don't know what'll be meaningful to people 100 years from now. I often wonder if Turner thought his frontier thesis would define much of US western history, and that even now it still has to be contended with by those who discredit it.

Davis sent out acceptances at the end of January last year. I got mine on the 30th. I think rejections come shortly after that, and I'm not 100% sure but I think there's an informal wait list, but don't quote me on that.

LOL! Best part: MAKE NOT TERRIBLE PLZ. I would ctrl-f the names of professors and universities in each SOP to make sure the wrong ones aren't used...that's what I did. Then I printed each SOP, read them each extremely (one might say neurotically) close, and uploaded them one at a time after they passed inspection. I very nearly misspelled one my POI's book titles...conservation and conservatism are two very different things... Also, beware of oceans. I wrote "pacific" when I meant "Atlantic" in my personal statement. Thank baby Jesus my cousin read the draft, because one of my MA classmates and a professor missed that egregious mistake.

This was the citation bible in my MA program: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0226816389/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr= its updated to include online/database references

I'm pretty much done with one final paper and working on a rough draft for the other, with the final draft due in about 2 weeks. I have one more week of reading, then I'm done with courses for the quarter. I have to say, I'm pretty floored that I got through this term unscathed. I guess the MA prepared me way better than I thought. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I'm sitting over here loving grad school, enjoying classes, not overwhelmed by the work, still able to get some good research done even though it's not really expected in the first quarter. I know it's gonna be miserable sometimes--I absolutely loved my MA program, but it totally kicked my ass sometimes--but right now I'm feeling good and wondering if that's a bad sign haha I hope everyone else is doing really well and the end of the term goes smoothly for you all! I wanna hear some recaps of your first-term experiences

We don't have set lists either. We go to our comps committee members with a list, and they might subtract things they don't like or (very likely) will add books they think are important, but we are supposed to structure it. My adviser suggested I start thinking about books that'll help ground my research more broadly, and to include those on my modern U.S. list. We have a timed written exam and then an oral examination on what we wrote.

When I sent emails, I wrote something like this: Dear Professor Blank, brief academic background (I received my BA from X in this year and am currently in the MA program at X) research interests (I will be applying to PhD programs for Fall 2015 and am interested in studying X field in X period. More specific detail in one sentence, including subfield, methodology, etc). why I'm interested in this prof (your work on X informed my work on Y, and I am interested in learning more about your current research on Z. Or I read your book Book Name in an MA seminar and it influenced my project on Y. Something specific about why you want to work with this person) "I would like to inquire if you are accepting graduate students for Fall of 2015." "Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you in the future. Best Regards, Insert name here"

Don't worry about it! mvlchicago is totally right, this will happen to all of us. My topic is surprisingly obscure (despite prolific writing on the Cold War), but I've found pieces here and there that touch on some aspect of it. I found a book written by a state official that is essentially my topic, so I'm gonna read it and incorporate it (while looking at it very carefully because there are obvious problems with "official" history). You should mine that dissertation's bibliography for sure! This happened to me when I was contacting POIs and told them about my writing sample research (another relatively obscure topic). One prof recommended an article that covered one of the two main themes of my paper, I read it and got totally bummed out, then realized I disagreed, not with the author's conclusions, but the means by which he came to them and also took issue with how he used some sources (he was talking about one agency, but used sources from the agencies that preceded it and had different people in charge), so I was able to critique parts of his thesis and methods but also used the stuff I found useful and agreed with. Long story short...read it closely and use it. You're bound to find points of divergence. Or you may agree with the author but have different methods or directions you want to go.

Footnotes aren't going out of style in the humanities so much as publishers/editors are insistent that scholars use endnotes when they publish their books to save on space and thus money. At least they aren't passé in my field, where some professors might give the option of footnotes or endnotes, but most insist on footnotes and none ever do on endnotes. OP--don't fudge anything on your application. Some programs, like Berkeley, offer the choice of footnotes or endnotes on the writing sample (again, in my field). With footnotes, the length is max 10 pages. With endnotes, you get an additional page for just notes. Other programs do not specify that you get additional pages for notes, so I wouldn't assume you do. Stay within the page limit even with notes. A huge part of the admissions process is following directions and paying attention to detail.

Why not look at local universities and do an MA at one of those instead? That's what I did...went to an MA not known for placing people in PhDs because it was close to home and cheaper. Many of these "unknown" terminal MA programs at local colleges are hidden gems--mine was for sure. Community college jobs are competitive too. Granted, not as bad as university jobs, but a distance MA may still prevent you from getting a CC job when you're up against applicants who got a brick-and-mortar MA.

I think it's totally normal. Who knows, you might encounter interesting methodologies or models in the outside field that you can apply in cool ways to your field. Or, like random_grad said, minors. I'm vacillating between two minors, so I'm planning on taking coursework in both before I decide. Both are very outside of my major field. The way I figure, the next two or three years are the last time we get to decide what classes to take...after that, it's all dissertation and specialization. I want to dabble a bit before I settle on a minor, and I think you should, too, if your interests have been piqued.

I highly doubt a distance learning MA will help your application. Why do you think you need a 2nd MA to be competitive? If your current MA is in a sister discipline to history, I'd worry more about getting a historical, primary source-based writing sample ready and finding 3 solid rec writers. Even if it's not related, plenty of people get in with just a BA. Unless your grades are poor, I don't think another MA is necessary, especially not a distance learning one that'll count for next to nothing to most admissions committees. For some fields, an online-platform degree is fine...history isn't one of them, particularly at the grad level when so much emphasis is placed on in-class discussion. I never took a single course in my MA where discussion was weighted less than 30% of my grade.

None of the programs that accepted me required students to take courses over summer. It's generally expected that you'll do research, language acquisition, maybe teach your own course when you've advanced to candidacy, etc during that time. I don't know that any of them even offer graduate courses over summer.

Loyola Chicago has a strong public history program. So does UCSB, but I don't know if they offer a standalone MA.

It sounds like you have a viable writing sample and list of programs, so why not apply to both MAs and PhDs and see what bites you get? It's always good to have a contingency plan, but if you already contacted POIs at PhD programs and will have the materials ready to submit by the application due dates, you might as well try. Also, if you do end up doing an MA, I don't see how it'd be a liability unless you bombed, and it doesn't sound like you're the kind of person who would. If you have a compelling research idea, strong background and good fit, an MA will only help you.

Nearly all the programs I applied to sent the LOR link to my professors when I entered their emails, not when I submitted the application itself. I would do it as soon as possible to give them more time. 500 words is hard, but doable. Be concise, cut out extra words, write in active rather than passive voice. No fluff. No fancy introduction. Get right into the meat of the essay. You need to think about the essence of what you're interested in, the most important experiences you've had and be to the point when it comes to fit.

I haven't in my PhD program but there were some notorious sexists in my MA. One professor made female students feel extremely uncomfortable. I'd give examples of some of his comments but don't want to squick anyone out. We were pretty good at shutting down sexist comments made by other grad students. One that comes to mind: a male student claimed the reason "only" the females in the class liked a particular book and its discussion of rape was because the author was also female. The other men in the class were even more offended than the women and told him they, too, appreciated the author's treatment of rape in the book, thought singling out the female students was offensive and effectively blackballed him. It was glorious.

Yay so glad to see you back, Josh! You should definitely check out Davis, we have great environmental historians (Louis Warren might be of interest), just hired another person specializing in U.S. West/environmental history and a good deal of grad students in that field.

Have you considered looking at religious studies programs? Several religious studies grad students are in my history courses at Davis. Maybe if you look at both departments at the schools you want to apply to, you'll have better luck. You could put together a committee composed of professors from both departments.

Haha @mvlchicago Here's the thing...it totally depends on the person (yes, I'm cliche). As a 22 year old freshly minted BA, I would've crashed and burned in a PhD program. I needed the MA, not even so much to expand my intellectual horizons as to grow the hell up and develop an appreciation for the professional world of history. I needed to work outside academia to appreciate how much I wanted to be in academia. I also needed something to bolster meh undergrad grades. Not everyone is like this. Some of my cohort members came in with only a BA and, for the most part, are incredibly intelligent and thoughtful humans who have well-articulated and reasoned plans and, frankly, blow some of my MA cohort members out of the water. Yes, I can occasionally detect some difference between PhD students entering with an MA v. BA (mainly, it's the "sophistication" of writing and proper use of Turabian), but this is stuff that is developed over the course of coursework. So, an MA isn't necessary unless it's necessary (and necessity is relative). Either you will self-select like I did, or you will have programs select for you (via rejections and/or MA offers). I would never ever recommend an unfunded MA to anyone ever, but I did an unfunded MA and don't regret it, so I won't judge if someone else does too. Basically, humans are complicated.

I never learned how to do a lit review in undergrad, even in the capstone historiography courses (and historiography is literally about how the literature has changed and is changing soooo...). It wasn't until I did an MA that professors began hammering home the importance of lit reviews. Everyone has different experiences in undergrad, but from what I've heard the first year or two of coursework in the PhD gets those coming in with a BA and/or little experience at the same "level" as those with an MA and/or more experience. It's funny, I've had professors who HATED the lit review aspect of scholarship, but I'm kind of obsessed. I love me some primary sources, but reading the more contentious debates in the literature (and some of them are straight up nasty and personal) is fun.

Most of what I've read in my current historiography course has been non-Western (written by non-Western educated scholars and thinkers). Since I had very little background in any non-Western lit, it's been a challenge and a boon. Ibn Khaldun is my fave so far. We are also going to touch on postcolonial debates.

We aren't reading any specific methods book in my PhD historiography course, either. We spent the first half reading stuff in the professor's field and from now on our readings are more theoretical. My prof did a great job of encouraging us to connect methods and theories from the books in his field with ours, but there was no central work explaining historical methods and theories. I get the feeling he's trying to show rather than tell.

I think the mini-essays annoyed me because I wasn't expecting them. They were repetitive and made the Davis application take twice as long as all the others. However, I'm now a happy PhD student at Davis, so I guess I can't complain much! Good luck!

It's not as serious as the SOP, but I would spend a decent amount of time writing it. You can look at it as a more personal extension of your research interests (which is what I did, also used it to highlight language training and teaching experience). It's also a good place to account for any peccadilloes in your record (I mentioned taking 2 quarters off in undergrad, why, and how I "bettered" myself because of the experience). This frees up space to be purely academic in your SOP. Also, the personal statement will be read by different fellowship granters. So even if it's not the biggest deal, I would still take it fairly seriously in that light. Don't fill 1-2 pages with fluff. Write as much as you need to get your points across. You should worry more about UCD's sneaky application mini-essays than the personal statement. Just a heads up.