marte108

Yes. This is exactly the type of idea I am talking about (and suggestion I am looking for) from all of you! We as experts, practitioners, and teachers of history are uniquely positioned to know exactly what tools we (and our current or future students) need to accurately evaluate and learn history. The largest aspect of the platform I am building is the SHARING of history--aka making it easier for people to bring their own knowledge of, and resources on, history to a greater audience, and to have a place to interact with other historians--both professional and amateur historians---including the average person with relatively little/no historical training but an interest in a historical topic/idea/person/place/time etc. One of the most difficult aspects of learning history (in k-12 classrooms, in higher education, and beyond) is the detrimental structure of HOW we study history. Giving a student a boring, long, and dry textbook, and forcing them to memorize facts so they can be tested on "twig history" is WRONG. As a nation, we have disconnected and undervalued the study of history for so long that is comes as no surprise that most Americans barely know any of our own history, nevermind the history of the world beyond the United States (see every Kimmel-like video that shows students and adults alike failing to know or recall even basic historical facts). Therefore, the biggest challenges I am trying to tackle with this platform is a radical restructuring of how we see, LITERALLY, see history. The visualization of history must catch up with the technological advances offered in our modern times. For anyone interested in what I mean by this, or want to get an understanding of the direction I am taking, watch this ted talk on visualizing knowledge

CALLING ALL HISTORIANS: This is a conversation you won't want to miss. I hope the somewhat cryptic opening got your attention because I want to ask all of you a question that has--in part--inspired the radically unique online platform I am currently developing. This platform aims to improve the way we learn, think, discuss, share, and teach History. I am intentionally keeping details of this technology vague in this thread post (here is a very general hint: think social learning network (SLN) collides w/ Digital Humanities (DH)) because I truly want to spark a creative discussion amongst ALL OF YOU, not just discuss my own ideas. I found the History grad cafe community when I was applying to PhD programs in 2014 (although I did not end up pursuing the PhD path) but I was (and still am) blown away by how talented, passionate, supportive and *not to mention* all-around-badass-historians you people are, which is why I am posing my question to this specific online community. This is supposed to engender creative + untraditional thought, so...Here is goes: Question: If you were given the option to create + add ONE feature/tool to a new Digital Humanities/Online Learning Platform, what would your first choice be and why? (Note: your responses can be anything--real or imagined...maybe you would want this platform to include a powerful annotation tool that fosters scholarly debate across digitized primary documents. Or maybe you have an idea for a quasi-unrealistic feature that literally doesn't exist yet in any discipline or online platform--either way, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts)

Crossing my fingers for you JTE! under review is a good sign!

ADVICE/THOUGHTS: So this application season (my first time applying-I graduated undergrad in May 2014) has not gone as well as I had hoped: AKA I have not received any acceptances. I did however get an interview at Emory but was eventually rejected because as my POI very kindly explained "they accepted mainly Latin American / African students this year, and accepted only 1 European student (I study Modern European-Germany) so although she really liked me and my application, it was basically not my year to get in" So my question for all of you bright aspiring historians is this: What do I do between now and next year to strengthen my application? I am feeling a little lost seeing as I had a decent amount of accomplishments listed on my application this go around (a publication, 2 internships at relevant museums/archives, Phi Alpha Theta executive board member and editorial board member of my university's undergraduate history journal --we won both best chapter and best undergrad journal in nation while I was participating in these boards, currently working for a former professor copy-editing her upcoming history book, fluent in 1 language and working on a second......I think you get the point. Nothing earth shattering but a solid amount of good work thus far including of course a strong application (or so I thought :/ ) with good GPA and GRE and good LORs I don't want to feel aimless and like I'm "putting my life on hold" while I prepare to reapply so I am looking for good suggestions that are realistic (able to be completed/worked on during these next few months to a year) that will help me be a more competitive applicant next time around. My POI at Emory said she really wants to stay in touch and wants to let her know what I'm up to, so do I look to her for suggestions? Is the typical "work on language skills, try and write a new article and publish" good enough? What about auditing grad courses at programs in my area? Doing archival research in Germany? Basically do any of you wonderful people have names of programs/seminars/workshops/etc that you or someone you know attended that facilitate an academic setting for students like me who are not in grad school but are working towards that goal, or perhaps anyone here wish to reveal a personal experience with this matter and subsequently have a list of what kind of Do's and Don'ts you would recommend? I know many of you are veterans of this process so this post is for everyone like me on this forum: feeling freshly down trodden and in the dumps do to no acceptances and at a loss of how to "get back in the game" so to say. Thanks!!

3 Vanderbilt admits up already......anyone want to claim them?

In talking about moving and living in new places if anyone needs advice about moving to Southern California (i.e out of state and just accepted at a program here) I have been living here for the past 5 years so housing, cost of living, etc are all types of questions I have answers to. Just PM me!

So on my Duke applicant ID portal (applyweb type-thing) I now have the option to withdraw my application? I haven't heard one way or the other from the program so why are they giving me the option to withdraw my application?

Great question Heimat. Another question I am currently pondering: How much do you think an interview/informal skype/call (whatever you want to call it) from one's POI at a program influences your chances? Does anyone have an experience they would like to share regarding getting an interview at a program but then later being rejected? Or not getting an interview/having any contact with POI and then getting in to program? Basically just looking for some seasoned opinions about this aspect of applying!

I really want to believe this but the results page already shows a few admits for Emory which has deflated much of my hope! does anyone know if they do 2 waves of admits or have any insight into their process? I had an interview with my POI but we were so focused on talking about other stuff that I forgot to ask how the notification process works...all I know is that the graduate school committee has the final say on admits (therefore a POI can recommend you for admission but might not happen because of the committee's decision)

Does anyone know if Emory does two waves of acceptances? I saw one admit posted today, and I had an informal interview with my POI that went really well but haven't heard anything yet.

I am praying Emory notifies today...I don't think I can go through another whole week of waiting.

Josh, I applied to modern Europe (Germany) to work with Blackbourn and Applegate. Both geniuses so I am very eager to hear back...but if you say it'll be a few weeks then I guess my waiting is not over yet!

Anyone know when Vanderbilt will start sending out admits?

Thanks for the advice everyone! I was wondering what everyone is up to this next academic year as we apply and hear back? Are most still finishing undergrad while applying? In an MA program? Taking a year off? For those of you out there that are graduating in a few weeks (like myself) what do you have planned this summer and throughout next academic year? ...Are there any veteran applicants reading this thread who are already in grad programs or have applied in past cycles and would like to share some advice and thoughts regarding the best course of action for students who have decided to take a gap year between receiving their B.A and grad school? What looks best on applications and what are schools looking for in terms of the way we spend this time "off"?

Hello to everyone on the this thread (this is my first post ever) and congrats to all of us for being bold/brilliant/insane enough to apply to MA/PhD programs in History! In response to your question kblooms, my own writing sample is going to be a section/condensed version of my senior thesis which focused on a particular art dealer in Switzerland who traded on the Nazi looted art market during WWII. My theoretical/methodological interest is in microhistory therefore my thesis focused on this Swiss art dealer between 1939-1949 as a way to approach the place of Swiss neutrality and national identity during the international shift towards moral diplomacy in the early/mid 20th century. The topic is a bit bold because the paper suggests current scholarship on the matter is misguided in its condemnation of the Swiss as Nazi collaborators. I recently presented a version of it at a conference and got very positive feedback so sometimes bold is better. I would love to hear what everyone else is thinking about using for their writing sample! I also wanted to pose a question to all of you out there: I would like some advice on LORs as I have two professors who I know will write strong LORs for me, but I recently had a minor falling out/growing apart with my third prospective LOR professor, I still think this professor would write a somewhat good LOR for me, but I worry that in this competitive application process, "good" is not good enough, but I also feel that any other professor I have strong relations with does not know me well enough as a student (i.e I have not taken enough classes with them recently) to write a LOR that speaks to my abilities as an academic. Should I try patching things over with this third LOR writer or try and build a new relationship with another professor through some other channel such as possibly assisting them in research over the summer etc.? Thanks for the advice!