ashiepoo72

Anotherapplicant, with all due respect, this is an open forum meant to benefit not only current members, but future members who may one day have similar questions to the one you asked. While you can remove yourself from the conversation, it isn't really your place to try and shut down the debate others may want to have. Moderators close threads that are duplicated or devolve into ugly fights, not ones that provide advice we members don't agree with. As someone strongly in favor of Title IX--in fact, of bolstering its protections, especially when it comes to non-physical harassment--I feel strongly that Northwestern went off the deep end with Kipnis. It was an inappropriate avenue to bring the complaint, if a complaint was warranted at all--no one in her opinion piece (emphasis on opinion) was directly named or discussed at length. Bottom line, people who abuse Title IX make it harder for more protections to be implemented, because these abuses give anti-Title IX legislators rope to hang these protections. I think this article does a good job at explaining why the Kipnis thing was ridiculous and damaging: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/06/08/a-kipnis-accuser-speaks-and-kipnis-corrects-the-record/

My field is history, and there is lots of talk about the dearth of jobs for those who complete the PhD. I think the most important thing is having the conversation about the job market before anyone enters a PhD, and at that point applicants go in with their eyes open. I WANT a TT job, but I won't die if I don't get it at the end. I knew about the exigencies of the job market long before I applied, and I want the intellectual fulfillment of completing a PhD anyway. Does this mean I won't work my ass off, produce my best work and try to get my dream job at the end? No, of course not. But I feel that my expectations are reasonable, because I was well aware that getting a job in academia is extremely difficult. I've worked many crappy, low-paying jobs in my life. At the end of the day, the PhD gives me 5-7 years of steady employment--yes, it's a job. Perhaps unlike most, but working as a TA and even getting paid via fellowship to do research and coursework is a job. I signed a contract stipulating I not seek outside employment because students in my program are meant to treat the PhD as their main job. The difference between this and my waitressing gigs is I'm going to develop valuable skills that I may or may not use in my field, but I WILL use them in some capacity. I have never had a job that guaranteed me employment for half a decade or more, upfront, as long as I fulfill my end of the bargain, which is making good progress to degree. Yes, if I chose a different field I could be establishing myself in a career, but in the PhD I get to do what I love for several years while getting paid and gaining skills--no other field would give me that. The question of whether programs should cut the number of admits is interesting. Many programs are doing this--mine has over the last few years. Academia has a responsibility to graduate students to some extent, but applying to PhD programs and completing the degree is a choice made by individuals for many different reasons, and I don't think the only focus when it comes to program sizes should be the job market. People DO get PhDs for other reasons--even if the main one is the hope for an academic job. It isn't academia's place to regulate that. I do, however, think programs that do not should seriously consider only admitting students they can fund, which is a more serious problem in my opinion. It's one thing to do a PhD knowing you might not get an academic job and being okay with that, and another completely to finish a PhD with an inordinate amount of debt.

I'm on "vacation" too. On my way to the Nixon library archives...wait, vacations are when you go outside your city of residence right?

Princeton rescinded his employment offer. Here is the link to the article in case anyone hasn't seen it yet: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/06/princeton-rescinded-its-offer-to-michael-lacour.html

I'm a day after you Heimat! Getting excited?

Prestige matters, but so do placement records. Also, the programs with good placement aren't just relegated to the top 20. Telkanuru linked to something that showed the programs with the highest prestige factor on the job market, and some of those are outside the top 20. Anyway, my program is ranked 27 by US News, but I know my adviser has placed all her recent grads in TT jobs and several Davis grads ended up working at my MA university--a generally well-regarded state school, although not one known for its history program despite having stellar scholars. Obviously if you wanna work at a top tier program you better not look outside of the top tier for grad school, but there ARE programs outside of the top 20 that have good reputations and placement records--OSU and UMinn for example, tied at 24 according to U.S. News.

In the humanities, what you do in class is extremely important. I've never had a professor who didn't care if we came to class or not. 25% or more of all of my grades throughout my MA were based on class discussion.

I would agree that a PhD probably isn't required for what you want to do--you would spend the next 5-10 years doing coursework, research and writing a dissertation, when what you really want to do is curate. Not that the PhD work wouldn't be useful, but with an MA you could be working in your field in two years or less. If you're already geared up to apply to MA programs, don't let all that work go to waste. However, it might be a good idea to throw one or two PhD applications out there to the top programs in your field--just in case.

It's not the end of the world if you miss class, but I wouldn't do it because friends are "peer pressuring" you. I missed several classes last semester because I was visiting PhD programs that had accepted me, and all of my profs were very understanding. I submitted any work via email and there was no problem. I've had to miss class because I was sick, once when I had a severe panic attack, and I even skipped one or two the week I took my MA exam. I got the notes from a classmate and, again, my prof was very understanding. You need a good reason and to do the work you would've done anyway. Also, I know peer pressure is a thing, but if you miss class because your friends bugged you about a concert, you need to take responsibility for the choice you made. Grad school is full of choices, and I don't think any prof will take you very seriously if you say you missed because your friends harassed you into it. Grad classes generally revolve around discussion of readings and the like, so it's not like missing an undergrad lecture where you have a gap in information because you didn't show up. At the end of the day, what you're missing out on is the engagement that comes from having a discussion with your peers, an essential tool and experience in grad school and academia. Missing a few of these won't screw you up, but I personally wouldn't miss any class unless the reason warranted it.

I think OP's question is valid, but I also think everyone who responded that 1. you can't just jerry-rig yourself to suit a trendy topic and 2. the trends today are likely to not be trends in a decade when we are all on the job search, have even more valid points. They provided OP with great advice--do something you enjoy and are prepared to do because you will have to live with it throughout a career that oversees many changing trends.

I'm covering in a survey summer course, so I get to lecture on a HUGE amount, from the Great Depression to LBJ. Gotta love survey courses. Luckily it's my wheelhouse! Congrats on finding a place! Now we all need to move to our respective cities and start our programs. So exciting! Let's make sure and stay in touch throughout, I'd love to hear about everyone's classes and projects as they progress

In about two weeks I get to give two lectures for a bunch of undergrads while one of my MA profs is at a sweet conference

One of the hardest things about being a mom is overcoming the guilt when you're apart from your children. I have a 6 year old, and I wish I could say it gets easier. I've come to accept that I deserve time to be a person beyond a mother, and that's the best I can do. When you're busy with work and school, finding time for yourself feels like a selfish act. You're already away from your child doing "responsible" things that need to be done, why should you do "selfish" things in the time you could be with your child? At the end of the day, though, we need to teach our children to be whole people, and part of that is living as whole people ourselves. I know it's really hard, but all children have some level of separation anxiety and it's good for them to learn that, while their parents will be there to support and love them, they can't always physically be around. That's just life, something kids have to deal with. When they go to school, you can't be there. As they grow older, they need to learn independence, which means parents have to take a step back. It's really, really hard to do, but in the long run benefits your child. Don't let anyone tell you having a child in grad school is a bad idea! Honestly, my daughter is the reason I turned my life around and became serious about school. Before her, I was a rebellious and lackluster student, but once I had her I realized I needed to buckle down. I want her to see higher education as the norm, that pursuing her dreams is a worthwhile endeavor. Raising her while I go through the process is the best way to do that, in my opinion. Accept help where it's offered. Ask for help when you need it. Don't feel bad if you need a break for mental health or whatever reason and need to leave your child with a sitter. Raising a child, even in a society such as we have, requires a village of people and a lot of understanding. Don't let being a mom consume your entire self. It's a huge part, maybe the biggest part, but it's not all you are and no one should make you feel bad for nurturing all the parts of yourself. And you really do need to nurture all those parts--for your own happiness and fulfillment and to show your child that loving and caring for herself is what she should do as well.

I buy books on Amazon (if you don't mind writing and highlighting in used books, you can get them really cheap) or abebooks.com. Sometimes you can find stuff on paperbackswap.com, too, and I think you get free credits when you sign up. I'm someone who writes all over books, so I need to buy them, but if you don't then definitely check out the library, which may have print and digital copies. Is the bibliographic essay an assignment in the course or something you have to do for entry into it? You should contact the professor for more detailed information on what they want, but it sounds like a literature review to me.

I had depression before I started my MA and school was one of the few things that felt good. I love what I do, enjoy the work and made lots of great friends in the program who I looked forward to seeing each day. The problem was when I let the stressors in my personal life get out of hand. This exacerbated the normal stress most graduate students feel into an almost panic mode for me. I think it's important to have good work-life balance as others have said, and to make sure and address any problems in your personal life quickly. Even if I can't fix everything right away, I know that beginning the process of dealing with personal issues helps me maintain my emotional health, and this really improves how I feel about school. I once let everything go when I was working on a huge project (ended up being my writing sample so it was a big deal for me to get it right), and after several weeks of non-stop research in the archives and sitting in front of a microfilm machine, I made myself physically ill. Shortly after I returned the microfilm, my anxiety manifested physically to the point where I thought I was dying (this is fairly common with anxiety), I experienced almost full-body numbness and went to the ER where they found nothing that would indicate a physical problem. I learned a hard lesson on not letting stuff go in my personal life and masking it with work, because the time it took me to recover actually took away from my ability to work. Once you find your balance, you become more productive AND healthy.

I'm tiny too! I'm 5 foot even and flat footed, so I get a lot of back pain. I used to use totes which were terrible for my hips and back, so I bought this backpack and couldn't be happier with it: http://www.timbuk2.com/parkside-laptop-backpack/384.html?dwvar_384_color=2094&dwvar_384_size=7

I felt the same way when all my cousins near my age were getting married, so I almost married the wrong person. Then I realized all my cousins were smart enough to marry people who really loved, cared and respected for them and I deserve nothing less. Also, I began questioning the institution of marriage, but that's another story.

Shameless is probably the best show I've ever watched. So so good. William H. Macy is a genius.

Timbuk2 has hands down the best messenger bag

The word convert made me lol I don't want to convert anyone to this field. I want people who love it and know how shitty the job market is but opt to study it anyway. Eyes wide open and all that jazz.

You should check out Louis Warren at Davis. There are strong Latin Americanists on the faculty too, so you'd have good coverage for a transregional project.

You guys, I got an apartment in Davis for a stupid good deal only three blocks from my department :)

History isn't second tier over here? Every time I tell people I study history they ask what the hell I'm gonna do with that or make some comment about me not liking money.

The GRE won't get you in a program but it can keep you out. Some programs have GRE cut offs because it helps them weed through applications quickly. Others that don't have hard cut offs may use GRE scores as an across-the-board comparison, because grades are often subjective and a B at one institution is like an A at another--how else do adcomms do a real comparison? Also, if you have holes in your application, high GRE scores can act as "filler." I had a low undergrad overall GPA, but I did pretty well on the GRE (165v 5aw). I should qualify that statement with my history GPA as an undergrad was like a 3.75. I know that's way more important than my high GRE scores. Honestly, just about all other parts of your application are more important than the GRE. The writing sample and statement will make or break you, and if you have reasonable scores (I'd say around 85th percentile verbal, at least a 4-4.5 in aw, and screw the quant unless it's like 20th percentile) you should forget about it and start working on the real money makers.

Ahhh I'm like an hour away from graduation! This is crazy guys! Tonight is gonna be wild.