geigwm6

I don't see why you wouldn't polish your paper, regardless of whether it was graded. I'm doing an independent study for credit to continue polishing up my paper, see if your professor will do that with you.

I am interested in southern history too: My list so far is: University of Georgia, College of William and Mary, and Wake Forest University and maybe LSU. UVA, UNC, Duke, Rice, Florida, Vanderbilt, WUSTL are all great too, but I think they are too large of reaches for me--I will probably apply to two of those.

Not exactly, it has to do with this, but isn't baseball during the civil war or anything. Everything I have seen or researched deals with the history of baseball or the influence or presence of baseball throughout the civil war. What I am interested in is more focused than that.

How exactly would you go about pitching an idea like that to an advisor without a paper or anything? I have some ideas concerning sports that I like, but I wrote my thesis paper on something very different. Both my sports ideas and my thesis are on the American Civil War though. I would just be afraid of not being taken seriously, if I don't have a significant paper to back me up.

I agree. I also have a secret interest in doing sports history. The problem I have briefly observed is I am very much afraid, skeptical of committing myself to a graduate program about sports.

I feel a little lost. I recently talked to the Graduate Director at a University and it kind of knocked the wind out of my sails. He pretty much told me that my topic was way too generic and that anything with the Civil War is pretty much overdone (my topic I thought I wanted to do was the Eastern Band of Cherokees and W. H. Thomas during the Civil War). I know I want to do the American South, but now I am really lost. My application will be a mixed bag. I think my writing sample will be well done. I will have great LOR's, very good GRE's, and I have a 3.1/3.5 (cumulative/history) from a top 30 school with pretty rigorous grading. I will use the Italian language (pretty worthless) and I am going to try to submit my paper for publication. My top choices are W&M and UGA MA program.

The requirements for MA's are generally more liberal than that for the PhD. I want to get my PhD, but I feel like I'm not an outstanding applicant, not all of us have perfect scores, grades, and writing skills at this point. Some schools, like UGA and LSU, allow you to be automatically admitted into the PhD program after your first year if you fulfill some requirements.

I've asked about the nature of funding. I'd rather not waste their time and the application fee. I don't care if its crass really, everyone has responded with details and been fine about it.

Georgetown has a MA in Political Science.

If the person that wrote the LOR is stupid enough to tell someone about it, then they deserve to get caught. I have no sympathy to people who cheat.

I agree with that. There is no excuse for a sub-500 score.

I'm thankful.

Georgetown's History program isn't the best renowned, but the Middle East History is great.

What are the benefits of joining say the Southern Historical Association? Thanks!

UNCW has some great faculty in American Indians (I like Indians in the South, Civil War Causation, and Southern Filibusters). Furthermore it is only a MA program. Do you think I should even apply to better schools even if my GPA is only 3.2/3.6 at a rigorous school? All the other parts of my application will hopefully be good, it just depresses me to think that a few nasty grades will screw me over for graduate school.

That is a lot of loans. I'd just wait. Get a job, earn some money, do some reading, etc.

Well, I don't know what my thesis will be or anything. I am interested in the American South from Revolution to Civil War. I like American Indians, Southern Adventurers in the Caribbean, and Civil War causation. I am becoming more and more disenchanted with my thesis topic though, it is on American Indians in the Civil War, but while I have slaved over it, it really hasn't gotten too far :\ Of course I am prepping for the GRE, but from what little I have done thus far I am pretty confident I will get a good score.

Tulane is pretty strong in Southern History. That is the only one I'm iffy about. My top two are LSU and William and Mary. I would be ecstatic to get into one of them.

That is probably a solid idea. I'm thinking: PhD- Vanderbilt and UVA MA- William and Mary, LSU, Tulane, George Washington, NCSU, UNCG, UNCW That seems to cover reaches/matches/safeties

I have been wondering--I realized I am shooting for all M.A. programs--albeit M.A. programs with the possibility of funding. Is this a good idea? I'm not a super qualified applicant. I'm working hard on my SOP and my writing sample so they will be good and I generally test well so I would imagine I will have good GREs and I'm not worried about my recommendations. My grades are a bit low--at a rigorous institution--but some of my professors have told me to apply to only PhD programs. In addition to my lackluster grades, I am not exactly sure what I want to study (Southern History from the 18th-19th century probably). Thanks!

On the Administrative side, I've had professors and adcoms be forthright on financial issues, such as funding (or in this case lack there of it in abundance)

GWU is a really nice school, and 5 years of funding in Foggy Bottom is great.

What schools are you all looking at? Does anyone else have suggestions for schools good in Southern history?

Wake Forest doesn't have an MA program anymore.

Does anyone have any advice/opinions concerning Baton Rouge (more specifically LSU) in terms of safety/culture/friendliness? Thank you!