Deadwing0608

So, I am an advanced PhD candidate in history who did exactly what you hope to do, except I went the other way from America to Europe. I did not have to deal with the political issues that you are describing. In many ways my decision to change fields was (I think) somewhat of a relief to my initial advisor, but that's a whole different conversation (feel free to PM, or I am happy to elaborate here). I would just like to emphasize (and I cannot emphasize enough) the part of Sigaba's post that I quoted. Just saying "I have been interested in U.S. history for a long time" or "hey this person I like left" will satisfy no one ( I am sure you have more to say than that!). What you need to do, and what I did not do and so learned the hard way, is have a clearly articulated way of framing how and why your interests shifted. You need to be able to explain how the questions that animated your earlier work do in fact come into the new project, and you need to be able to connect up the path you are traversing from European to American history. It is there. I did not see the long-term development of my work toward Europe until much later on, and I think if I could have articulated it sooner the transition would have been smoother. So, sit down and really have a think about how you will address those questions. Setting aside the political issues that I can't comment on without knowing more, it will be your answers to those questions that do (or do not) get your new possible advisors excited about you and your research.

Hi All, Going to be having a meeting with my committee in the next week and I know that one of the issues for me to work on that will come up will be my participation in seminars. This is something I struggle with. I have gotten better in the past year, but I am nowhere near where I need to be comparable to my peers...It's gotten chalked up as shyness so far, but that's not really it. I am not generally shy. I do tend to be quiet and I think slowly on my feet, but that's not the same thing...really, the problem is that I am just uncomfortable and inexperienced in the seminars. I'm a first generation, non-traditional college student, and this is my first real go at articulating my interpretations/opinions of readings in seminars. I never imagined myself going to college (just barely graduated high school!), let alone landing in an elite PhD program (I didn't even know what graduate school was until the last year of my BA). It's intimidating sitting in a room full of people who, as far as my knowledge goes, always considered education a part of their lives, something they had a right to. This is all very new to me, and I think it shows the most in the seminars. I feel like that ability to participate/articulate thoughts/etc are skills that I am only just now starting to build where the rest of my cohort have been building them their entire lives.... So, my question. Should I leave things with my committee at "I am shy and will continue to work on this," or should I consider being more forthcoming. The issues that accompany coming from a lower class background in higher education are thorny and one part of me thinks they ought to be acknowledged, and the other isn't sure I want to go there.... Thanks!

I am a first generation student. Neither of my parents went to college. I grew up well below the poverty line in a single-parent household and was completely supporting myself by 17. Academia has been a huge adjustment. I know some working-class students, but I did not grow up in the working-class. I do not have supportive but clueless parents. It makes for awkward conversations when faculty ask very basic questions about my family (what do your parents do? where did you grow up? are you going home for the summer/holiday/etc?), and I can't answer because I don't really know them, when i did live with my mother we moved constantly, and the home I have built for myself here is my year round home. At first I as intimidated by all things academia, being in rooms with people that had tutors, went to Ivy league undergrad (I'm in an ivy league phd but went community college to no-name state school for the BA), but that mostly faded. The only real, persistent difference I notice between my peers who come from middle/upper (and sometimes working) class backgrounds and I is the ease with which they express themselves and how quickly they can articulate their opinions. Believing that you have something worth saying and knowing how to say it are skills that I know I lack, and I am sure many other first generation students do as well.

I am a person that takes awhile to gather my thoughts before speaking, and it doesn't matter for me what kind of conversation I am having. Even in a light chatty conversation it takes me time to compose my thoughts. Taking those moments, accepting that I need those silences, is one of the ways that I've managed to move past a crippling inability to speak at all in conversations not with close friends, family, etc. No idea if your PI is similar, but I thought I'd throw it in the mix.

Thanks for the replies! I will be taking the class. Once the professor heard I had the language skills he basically handed me a reading list. Oddly, it was my fellow grad students that found it really out there that I would want to write a paper unrelated to my dissertation work! I tried to explain that I wanted to just immerse myself in something entirely different, since, as ashiepoo suggested, this is it before dissertation writing consumes all things...but I only got perplexed stares.

Hi All, Just curious if anyone does coursework/research significantly outside their primary area of interest? I am in my first semester of a PhD program. I came in with an MA, an MA thesis (slated to be a chapter or at least a part of my dissertation), a clear proposal for my dissertation, and an advisor pretty excited about the work. Some of my coursework this first semester has, however, piqued my interest in significantly different directions (geographically, temporally and thematically). although I have the language skills for this particular interest. Next semester there is a course being taught on my new interest and I am thinking of taking it. The chances that I would switch fields are very small. Unless I find the archival equivalent of the holy grail I am committed to my original proposal. I am wondering if people take courses or do research significantly outside their area of interest? How common is this sort of experience among first year students? Do others feel the itch to do something different? Should I resist the temptation and continue taking only courses that are applicable to my comps/dissertation work? Thanks!

I do not fill out footnotes completely as I go. I could not write that way. At the same time I could not fill them out from scratch at the end. For basic footnotes without digressions I put in a shortened title of the book/article/report + page number. When I'm using a bunch of different archival collections (I'm in history) I assign them all a letter or a number or something and use that + short title + box # + folder # when I'm writing. I fill those ones in and format them properly at the end. As far as digressions go, if I think I will use a footnote that way I just type in whatever pops into my head in a very informal format to get the idea down. Sometimes it's just me talking to myself, you know, remember to say that x scholars matters or reasons y + z but those are less important for your work than b thing talked about in the body. I usually highlight those so I don't forget and leave a conversation with myself in the footnote....

I went to two community colleges over the course of....7 years and did not even get an AA out of it before transferring to finish my BA at a no-name state school. I got into a top 15 program...I wouldn't worry too much. I mentioned my time at CC in one sentence in my SOP.

Definitely this. I entered my MA at 28 with 12 years or so in the work force and 5 in professional/career positions. I definitely think it made me more adept at navigating work place politics (as avflinsch suggested). Many of the people in my cohort who had never held a job outside history/work-study stuff were disappointed/surprised when they discovered the department could be qutie catty, that there were serious fault lines drawn around seemingly petty disagreements, and that they had to navigate their path through all that. I also think I am more comfortable with the likelihood that I won't get the academic job I hope to after I finish the PhD, and because of that I do work at keeping my resume current (meaning working when I can in jobs similar to my former professional positions) and building the alt-ac section of resume.

Although my situation was different in the particulars, I was in a similar position on the GPA front when I entered my junior year of college. I graduated with a 3.2-ish overall GPA and a 3.89 in major. The overall GPA won't kill you, at least it didn't kill me. To improve your application, I would suggest two things. First, that you start thinking about writing a senior thesis. So you're interested in African history...but what time period? what theme/methodology are you interested in? Have you started looking for primary sources? Once you have some concrete ideas about what you're more specifically interested in I would approach a professor in your program. They can likely help you talk through and develop your interests. In my case, I wrote an honors thesis based on translated primary sources and it ended up being my writing sample for the applications I completed during my senior year. Second, I would suggest that you set your sights on funded MA programs. That's what I did after I finished up my BA. I have spent the last two years in a fully funded MA at a well-regarded state school. I'll be starting my PhD at a top 15 school in the fall.

countrynyc- I consider myself a non-traditional students for two reasons. I didn't finish my BA until my late 20s, and I had an entirely different career prior to entering my MA program. I am more than happy to discuss grad life as a non-traditional (and in my case first generation) student in a PM if you'd like.

It seems like you have already completed an application season, but before you go for the "cash cow" MA I would encourage you to look at fully funded MA programs. They are not common, but they exist. I did a fully funded MA and it improved my applications immensely. I am a non-traditional student and really needed the past two years to develop my interests and learn how to situate my little slice of research in the broader historiography. I was also able to have well-respected members of my field on my MA thesis committee, and I think those letters of recommendations were instrumental in my acceptances this season.

Mine was 3.96, and I think that was about the average in my cohort. I never got the impression it mattered much since grad students (in my program anyways) were expected to make A's (or, in a less than ideal semester A-'s) across the board. B's indicated serious problems in the program and rarely happened.

Literally just when I thought I had my imposter syndrome under control...

I got an e-mail (addressed Dear Applicant) about applying to a dual MA with the London School of Economics, which will be a hard pass given that I already have an MA....