jmvargro

Hello everyone, After a while of lurking around these forums I decided to finally post for the first time. What I really want to know is if I stand a chance at getting admitted to any history PhD programs. I am 33 years old (a bit old to enter a PhD program I realize) but it is something I've always wanted to do. I have worked at a law firm for about four years doing the grunt work as legal assistant but I am ready to move beyond that and I am ready to go back to school. I am convinced that I want to teach whether that is at a community college or a four year university. I am not driven by the desire to work at a top school (provided that there are jobs available when I finally graduate). Here's the deal: I want to enter a PhD program in Latin American history. My major was Latin American studies from UC Santa Cruz. I did not take any history courses while at UCSC but during my first two years at community college I took four history courses in which I performed very well. My final GPA from UCSC is 3.83. I have yet to take the GRE but I am confident that I can perform well on it except for maybe the math section which has always given me trouble. As for LORs, I have enlisted two professors from the Latin American studies department as well as the department chair. The problem is that while at UCSC I had to work 30 hour work weeks so I did not have time to participate in extracurricular academic mentorship programs or anything. I didn't even get to write a thesis and instead opted for a "senior exit requirement course" which required a major work of research but does not compare at all to a thesis. Anyway, I would appreciate any advice in this decision making process. As a first generation immigrant and first in my family to attend college it is very difficult to decide whether this is the right path or whether I'm just dreaming. As I live in California I am interested in attending a school nearby. My top choices right now are, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, Stanford, UCLA, University of Washington, University of Oregon. Regards, jmvargas