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Fifster

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  1. Thanks for all of your advice. I had "applied" to a couple of temp agencies in the past, by which I mean I filled out their little online forms and never heard a thing from them. At the time, I was less seriously looking for work and was more interested in finding a (semi-)permanent position, so I never followed up. I know that it's much better to follow up, appear in person, etc., so I think I'll plan on starting down that road soon. Thanks!
  2. Ok, so here's a conundrum. I went to a top liberal arts college, worked for a few years in academic administration after graduating, and then went on to do an MA in a humanities subject at an Ivy. The MA was intended to help me decide if I wanted to do a PhD, and after seeing the dismal career prospects and stress of TT jobs and such in that field, I decided that it probably wasn't worth it. After asking a lot of people for advice, I decided that I would be better suited to a position in academic librarianship, so I applied for MLIS programs to begin in fall 2013. I now have 3/3 acceptances, and I'm waiting on funding information to help make my decision. Sounds great, right? Well, the big question is...what the heck do I do until the fall? While I've had real jobs (well, one real job anyway), pretty much all of the rest of my experience has come from positions during undergrad or grad school, and there's not exactly much demand for humanities researchers in the private sector. Last fall, I moved back in with my parents, and they've been generous enough that I don't have any huge concerns about food and shelter, but I still would like some spending money and something to help me get on my feet wherever I end up going to library school. After I moved back home, I spent a few months applying for administrative-type jobs similar to my previous job at local universities. I had several interviews, but no offers. At this point, though, as the fall gets closer, I feel increasingly uneasy applying to jobs like those, especially since I more or less have to hide that I'm leaving to get another degree in the fall. I've also applied for a few jobs at local libraries, and will continue to do so as they pop up, but, as of yet, no luck. What I'd really like is a boring, minimum wage job at a bookstore or something...but not only do I have no experience in that area and no real-world knowledge about how to get such a job, I also fear that any hiring manager would take one look at me, see my Ivy MA, and scream, "Overqualified!" I know that many career websites have recommended leaving advanced degrees off of a resume if they're irrelevant, but I have real ethical qualms with that. Besides, most of that advice seems geared towards people who are pursuing real "careers." I just want a (temporary) job. I'm planning on bringing some applications to some bookstores soon, but I wonder if anyone has any advice about presenting my credentials in the best light? For that matter, while I'm targeting bookstores simply because they seem like a plausible place to work, where else should I be looking? I check Craigslist various local non-profit job boards, as well as simplyhired and indeed, but it really seems difficult to find anything that I could plausibly do until then. O Internet, what are your thoughts?
  3. It does strike me as unfortunate that the prevailing view is that it is necessary to hide one's outside interests from one's advisor. A lot, I'm sure, does vary by program and by advisor. I should emphasize, I suppose, that I'm not categorically opposed to tenure-track work -- it's more like I'm just quite enthusiastic about what else I could do. As you said, ticklemepink, I wouldn't even consider a PhD if I thought that all it could do was give me a shot the minuscule number of TT jobs. But in any case, thanks, all of you! These replies have been incredibly helpful. I'm doing a bunch of informational interviews with various librarians, editors, and other types like that around my university, most of which has confirmed what you've been saying. I'm confident that I'll find something neat to do one way or another, though!
  4. I received my BA in a humanities field 4 years ago, and went on to work for a couple of years in international education, before deciding to apply to PhD programs in a related humanities field (I work on long 18th century British cultural history, and history of the book). I didn't do a very good job of contacting potential advisors and I was switching fields, so I wasn't admitted to any doctoral programs, but was accepted to a funded, two-year MA at a top university, which I was told could give me the necessary background to try again. I've just now completed that MA, and I've not yet reapplied for doctoral programs because I'm increasingly uncertain of what my best move might be. I'm quite familiar with all of the admonitions that prospective humanities PhDs get: the job market is nonexistent, grad school can destroy your soul, etc. In part because of this, but also because I've become increasingly familiar with other "para-academic" careers--in administration, libraries, museums, etc.--I'm no longer convinced that I want to take the "traditional" PhD-to-tenure-track-job path, even if such a thing were more obtainable. My graduate experience thus far has convinced me that, while I definitely have the capability to succeed in a PhD program, I really would prefer a more "public service"-oriented field, such as librarianship, which could let me maintain links to faculty and students, but without having to sustain the research agenda that a high-powered tenured faculty member might. The problem is that many of these jobs, it seems, require PhDs (in addition to MLSs if they're library jobs), and so many humanities PhD programs seem adamantly opposed to admitting that their graduates might take careers outside of the "traditional" path. I've often heard that one should absolutely not undertake a doctoral program "for the fun of it"; rather, one should do so only if one's intended career requires it. In general, the "intended career" implied is that of university professor -- but now that so many other "para-academic" careers seem to require them, is it legitimate to apply for PhD programs with that sort of aspiration? I'm tentatively planning on applying for MLS programs this fall, and seeing where that might get me, since that could at least lead directly to a job, unlike a PhD program, which I might never finish. The more I learn, the more I feel like the job that I would most like is "bibliographer" -- a path that combines aspects of history, librarianship, and archival management and that, sadly, doesn't seem to exist much today. Still, being able to work as a special collections librarian and publish or teach occasionally seems like the closest thing. Am I just tilting at windmills here? Or am I placing artificial stumbling blocks in front of myself? Do you, O Internet sages, have any thoughts?
  5. Fifster

    Co-advisors

    These are definitely good arguments in favor of co-advisors -- however, be aware of some possible pitfalls as well. I'm speaking more from undergraduate experience here, but you want to make sure that both advisors are ok with each other, and also make sure that there is a clear division of labor. You don't want one of them to be able to just assume that the other advisor is taking care of problem X. Once you get towards the dissertation stage, I would think, as well, that you would want a single person to chair your committee, although co-advisors would be welcome members of the committee.
  6. Fifster

    Offer Accepted

    Well, as you can see by the stats in my sig, I only have one option, Yale, so it looks like I'll be going for that. It's an MA instead of the hoped-for PhD, and it's European Studies instead of history per se, but after a lot of discussion with current students, faculty, etc., it actually seems like the perfect program for me -- so color me excited. The only wildcard for me is funding, so I haven't actually committed yet. The whispers seem to be that I am likely to receive a FLAS, but I also seem to have heard somewhere that the Department of Education may not make final FLAS allocations until June (!), which means that I may be in limbo for a while. I'd rather be in grad school than not, so I would go anyway, but still -- it's stressful! Does anyone know anything about how this works? Also, it looks like the collective wisdom is mixed on whether or not an area studies master's is helpful at all as far as getting into straight history PhD programs. The neat thing about this particular program is that it's quite flexible, so I'm comfortable with the decision -- regardless of how it impacts PhD admissions down the line, it certainly can't hurt, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
  7. Fifster

    History 2010

    Hmm. Interesting perspective, and I think you are partly correct, but you overlook some important things. Here are my thoughts -- keep in mind that I'm not yet in a PhD program, but I have a few years of experience working in academic administration, and discussing these sorts of things with faculty. First of all, I think that ChibaCityBlues may have been referring to the "2% that make it" into academia -- not that make it into PhD programs. There is a distinction. 2% is probably a lowball guestimate, but just because you get into a PhD program, you are by no means guaranteed of "making it" as an academic, regardless of where you go to school. There are so many filtering processes -- first you have to get into a PhD program, then you have to pass comps, then you have to complete your dissertation, then you have to secure a tenure-track job, and then you have to achieve tenure. And that's the most straightforward route. It's a brutal business, and it's not fair, but it's true. I agree with you that admissions committee are not passing judgment on your intelligence, on your worth as a scholar, or your potential for success. It often comes down to luck and serendipity. But that doesn't mean that you should continue to plunge ahead if you are unlucky. As for the historians that you mentioned -- I think that going to "top" schools has become increasingly important in this generation, and that the average PhD student from Claremont Graduate School would not achieve that kind of success. Yes, there are outliers, and Joyce Appleby is one of them. If you are that phenomenally skilled, then it may not matter where you go. But most of us are not that phenomenally skilled -- we are skilled enough to be good teachers and scholars, and probably make waves in our field some day. But we are not geniuses. Those without PhDs who you mentioned never held permanent academic appointments. They are scholars, and publishers of fine histories (both academic and popular -- and I have absolutely no problem with well-done popular history), but they are not academics. Those of who who want to become academics (which is a particular shade of "scholar" -- and not always the best shade to be!) need PhDs. On this subject, I would really encourage you to read the phenomenal essay "Journeyman" by Alex Pang, a historian of science, available here: http://askpang.typep...eyman_gett.html I also think that you are unnecessarily disparaging the Ivies here. Certainly, there is no guarantee that attending one of them will "set you up" for life, and an ambitious BU student could go a lot farther than a lazy Harvard one. But I take issue with your statement that those schools are "likely" to make you lazy or complacement. The fact is, becoming an academic is hard, and it's not for everyone. I don't really yet know if it's for me. I would certainly like to have a scholarly career, but I'm all right if it's not in academia (again, read Alex Pang's essay). Remember that admissions committees are not judging you as a person -- but if you are NOT lucky enough to get into the right schools and do the right things, I think it would be advisable to consider a different path. It doesn't mean you're a failure as a person or a scholar, despite what some academics themselves might think. After all, even those who DO get into top programs, publish a lot, and seem to be "successful" may fail.
  8. Yes! Why is Columbia's Apply Yourself site so strange? It is really odd to have an "Application Status" downloadable form. Meh. Anyway, still nailbiting...
  9. I'm really nailbiting here on Columbia. It looks to me like all fields may not have already gone out. I've been frantically checking the "Application Status" downloadable form on the Apply Yourself page (Columbia's format here is really strange), even though I know that it won't really do anything. Up until now, the upper-right hand corner where it says "Status - At Department" has been blank, and just now it filled in "Complete" over "Status" and "Yes" over "At Department." So that's at least a sign that they're done processing, right?! (I'm assuming that "Yes" means "Yes, it is at the Department," and not "Yes, it is an admit.") Eeek! (Crazy first post, I know)
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