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AfricanusCrowther

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  1. AfricanusCrowther
  2. AfricanusCrowther
    Counterpoint: one POI at a top school I was accepted to told he he hadn't read my writing sample. I suspected that was also true of another program I was accepted to. Sometimes it's just the SoP that matters. Although I agree that of course it's more important than GPA and in some (most?) cases it's critically important.
  3. AfricanusCrowther
    It might be easier to get into Berkeley than UCLA, in that Berkeley is not known for African history and you would have much less competition than at a famous Africanist program like UCLA. If Richard Roberts is still accepting students, you should consider Stanford too.
  4. AfricanusCrowther
    You'll want to express your research interest in terms of a specific historical question or questions that you are seeking to explore. You also want to start thinking about sources, if you haven't already. Have you read Graham Furniss' work? His chapter on Hausa print culture in Karin Barber's edited volume Africa's Hidden Histories might be useful for you. By the way, Bruce Hall at UC Berkeley would be an excellent adviser for your interests.
  5. AfricanusCrowther
    You have the credentials. The most important element of your application, however, will be how well you articulate your fit with a potential adviser and your research interests in your SOP. In African history, it is less important to find advisers who would work on your specific sub-region than it is in other fields, but you should be able to make a strong case at least for shared research interests. What are you interested in and who do you want to work with at UCLA?
  6. AfricanusCrowther
    You’ll never know for sure — the field changes, people move around, new networks get established, the sample size for small fields is too meager to make reliable judgments, and the job market can differ radically by type of school. This is why a PhD in history is always a risky endeavor.
  7. AfricanusCrowther
    I don't know your background, but if you are interested in a PhD, knowledge of an African language and experience on the continent are very important for admission to African history programs. Not essential, but generally highly recommended, and I would say more likely to matter than a European MA.
  8. AfricanusCrowther
    Hard won advice: if you even get a hint that your personality or style of work might be incompatible with that of your advisor, consider going elsewhere. A difficult advisor-advisee relationship will, at best, slow your progress and make you want to scream. But I swear I’m not just venting.
  9. AfricanusCrowther
    What kind of American intellectual history? Who wrote your favorite (recent) books?
  10. AfricanusCrowther
    Here's a helpful article on this topic, from an economist's point of view.
  11. AfricanusCrowther
    Agreed re: UWashington. I think you are perhaps being a little hard on UVA. They're not in the top tier and I probably wouldn't go, but they have had some small success in placements recently. See: Bart Elmore at OSU, Philip Haberkern at BU, etc. OP didn't way what fields they might be interested in. When you talk to professors about graduate school, @historynerd97 , make sure to ask about the best programs in particular fields. Africanists will want to consider Northwestern, UW-Madison, MSU, etc., when going onto the PhD (I have no clue about the master's level).
  12. AfricanusCrowther
    Harvard has extremely strong placement in East Asian, Middle Eastern, and modern European history, as well as the history of science/medicine. They're also very strong in 19th century US. Of course, it's a great place to go for most fields
  13. AfricanusCrowther
    Thanks, that's very helpful. I suppose, ideally, one would want to consider program size as well.
  14. AfricanusCrowther
    I'll grant that.
  15. AfricanusCrowther
    The study's ranking always confuses me. Is there anyone with a PhD from Rochester who has been hired for a tenure-track job at a top institution in the past 10 years? More than two or three from Brandeis? Concerning outlier fields, one should mention that the training in some fields at some of the Ivy Leagues is relatively poor, and this affects job prospects too.
  16. AfricanusCrowther
    This is certainly correct most of the time, but I happen to know that I was nearly rejected from a program because the admission committee thought I would probably go elsewhere, even though they liked my application. You often have to state the other schools that you are applying to. I imagine this is only a problem for small subfields like mine, where a couple of schools are famous for a particular specialization.
  17. AfricanusCrowther
    In addition to the advice mentioned, you should take any opportunity available to get experience on the ground and begin learning an African language. These are not mandatory (I only did one), but are generally thought to be important. Regarding MAs, almost all the Africanist graduate students in my department entered with a previous master's.
  18. AfricanusCrowther
    I think you should also pay attention to how far along they are in their second book. It can make a difference if your advisor publishes a landmark book that boosts his or her name recognition a year before you go on the market. On the other hand, some associate professors never seem to get that second book out. i'd also like to point out that some scholars become well known solely on the reputation of their first book. In my department, the most successful advisor in terms of placement has written one book. Sometimes the amount of publication is not a good way to evaluate reputation.
  19. AfricanusCrowther
    Nothing will stop most PhD students from enrolling. But you should Know before you Go.
  20. AfricanusCrowther
    Except that, given what I've seen from placement data, the sub field rankings are just as questionable. And given that, as you acknowledge,the best place for a student has to be considered in light of many different factors, a bad list like USNWR ends up skewing admissions toward the "top" schools in spite all of those other factors, which seems to me to harm the profession by reinforcing arbitrary credentialism.
  21. AfricanusCrowther
    While I appreciate this sentiment, it makes me wish that the rankings were based more on the actual merit of the departments in particular fields. Its ranking of NYU, for example, is totally off base -- a look at placement data suggests it should be ranked much higher. As a result of the USNWR ranking, disembodied "prestige" may at times be valued over the actual strength of the program, which can hurt underrepresented fields (I'm thinking of my own field, African history, where the best programs are not HYP).
  22. AfricanusCrowther
    Does anybody know the best resource for finding a one bedroom or studio apartment for summer sublet in Gainesville? I'm trying to avoid renting a private room.
  23. AfricanusCrowther
    I don't know if you actually did this or if this is a joke, but if you're for real, this is extremely childish. If you don't like someone's behavior on a web forum, you can complain to the moderators or simply stop reading.
  24. AfricanusCrowther
    I do know prospective graduate students who have made poor decisions based on this ranking.
  25. AfricanusCrowther
    Behold. The response rate of the surveys they send out to departments (on which the rankings are entirely based) for history was 15%. (Before you ask, my university's ranking went up. Still nonsense.)
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