ltr317

I started the PhD application cycle at the beginning of this month, and just finished cleaning up and rewriting portions of two WS to my satisfaction which took three weeks. I made contact and have corresponded with several POIs while doing my M.A. coursework concurrently. I will be visiting some of the POIs in the next several weeks to discuss their programs. I'm about to start my SOP and GRE prep and will be busy with both for the next month, while still trying to keep up with my coursework. Although I have lined up my LORs, I have to remind them for a timely submission sometime in late October. To top it all off, I am doing an independent research paper of approximately 25-30 pages and after that's completed, have to prep for my M.A. oral exams in January. I knew this would be a long and involved process, but it's longer and more involved than expected. Sorry just had to vent. I will slog through until I finish, but it's been frustrating at times. For some of you who have are currently in PhD programs and even some who have completed their doctorate, did you feel when you were applying that it was a never ending process?

I have been doing just that the past couple of weeks and found out one POI is planning to retire, so I strongly second the advice to contact your POIs early.

Sigaba - Thanks for outlining the tasks at hand during this application cycle. Your advice is most useful.

Yes indeed, especially for the privileged.

He transferred to Penn for the last two years--reportedly helped by a friendly admissions officer who was a high school chum of Trump's older brother. He spent the first two years at Fordham U, reportedly majoring in golf. He was not a good student at either university.

I don't know, maybe a night or two of regret?

One or two apartments in my building had them. Even though the other apartments were bed bug free, everyone had to have their residences treated. That's because bed bugs travel from apartment to apartment through the walls. The exterminator had to actually spray inside the walls through cracks. So even if you treat your apartment they will come back if they are still in other apartments. Since you work in a science lab, ask your co-workers about treatment. If they don't know, they may know another scientist with knowledge of bed bugs.

Scroll down to Professional Programs and the SLP sub category will be staring you in the face. You should be able to get good advice there.

"Don't do that. If you've taken the time to look up the grievances against Manning, then you've seen that she uses feminine pronouns." Thanks. I haven't followed Manning's story closely.

For myself, I would not apply to an institution, only if that institution advocates and adopts an extremist policy--such as prohibiting free speech for example. In Chelsea Manning's case, HKS offered the fellowship and then rescinded the offer. It originated and ended within HKS, not Harvard University writ large. Critics of Manning made a case he/she was a convicted felon. Without additional evidence, it is impossible to determine the HKS' rationale for their decision--whether or not it was warranted. If I was interested in applying to the history PhD program at Harvard's GSAS, I wouldn't care what HKS did. What is more concerning for me is whether the politics or culture of the history department fits with my personality, or whether the program is a good fit. Graduate study within your specialty is a small world, within the larger universe of the university. YMMV.

Sandusky was at Penn State, not Penn.

Thanks for sharing. Who would have thought that AHA annuals were such a hotbed (oops) of dating.

The other answers provide good advice. I want to add though that from your posting you are still young, and aimless--without direction. I think you should forget about any type of graduate program for now and find a job, either in your field of study (leather engineering) or some other type of work just to make money. Work for the next few years and save some money. In your spare time, read what interests you or just read everything until you discovered an interest. Eventually you will come to a realization that you are passionate about a particular topic. This takes time to develop. It is only then you should think about higher education again. You also need to change your perspective in that if you lose interest at the beginning you give up trying. Based on what you wrote, you've given up on just about everything you tried so far. Once you developed some focus and motivation, I back samman1994 's advice, apply for a second bachelor's degree in your region. Hopefully you will be able to get a scholarship, but if not, you will have savings from your job to help with tuition. My assumption is tuition is low in Asian colleges/universities compared to the United States. You will have a head start in the program because you will have read quite a bit when you were working. If you stay focus throughout the bachelor's program, and feel you want to gain more knowledge then apply to a graduate program. At that point, you should do some research about the higher education systems of each country you're interested. You probably know about the educational systems of each Asian country, but they are very different than that of the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Mexico and so forth. Graduate school is all about focus, motivation, and dedication and you don't have any of those things right now, but you can develop them once you have a purpose and direction.

I'm thoroughly enjoying grad school, but that's because I'm a non-traditional older student. The motivation and dedication I have now didn't exist when I was an undergrad or even during my first master's program a long time ago. My interest is at such a high level that I'm applying to PhD programs for next year. Did you recently graduate from college? If so, maybe it's academic burnout. If not, I assume you must have had some interest in grad school if you applied. What reasons are causing anxiety at the start of the semester? Is one of them imposter syndrome? Flip your thinking around to a glass half full. Think that you're incredibly fortunate to be in grad school, as a part of a very small select group vis-à-vis the general population. Motivate yourself by interacting positively with your classmates; you will learn from them as they will learn from you. Get involve in other aspects of the school you're attending. Every college/university has tons of activities for you to participate. If you're working full-time and don't have much free time, then get yourself in a study or project group, or start one yourself. There are academic support services in every program, so avail yourself of that. There are other ways to get out of a rut, but this is a start. Good luck!

One approach I've recently learned is to read a monograph and afterwards outline the questions the author asked and answered. Then think about questions you wanted to ask but wasn't covered in the book. I've used this approach several times and after a while started to think more like an academic historian. Give it a shot. It may or may not work for you but it's worth a try.

Yes typically, but there are exceptions.

Sorry if I didn't make it clear, but the low possibility of applying to NYU is due to personal reasons and not because of the program's selectivity. I want to caution you about NYU's reputation of stinginess in financial aid for their master's programs. I was admitted for the MPA program at the Wagner School, but was offered only a pittance of a scholarship that would have covered the cost of first-year books and not much else. I ended up attending another school in the area. This was a long time ago, but much more recently I have several friends who were accepted in other master's programs and were offered little funding as well. If you're admitted, I hope they will provide you with a better financial package.

Among your list, I'm applying at the PdD level to UMass Amherst and Temple as well. Might end up applying to NYU also since it's located in NYC where I live, but it's a low possibility. I am, though, applying to about 5 or 6 more places in addition to the other two.

It's early September and the application process clock has started! Good luck to everyone who is applying this cycle!

In addition to what Comparativist stated, can't apply practice and real GRE outcomes to every individual. I know some test takers who matched or were very close to their practice scores, while others scored a fairly large difference--either 8 to 10 points, plus or minus.

FWIW, IRT history, I don't agree that you have to define a specific research question. (If a specific question is framed too narrowly, you could send an unintentional message to readers.) IMO, one is better served by demonstrating an understanding of how one wants to engage specific trajectories of historiography. YMMV.s Sigaba - I agree with you about being too narrowly focused. I should have re-read and edit my posting. My professors have advised that there should be some specificity; as in not too broad like "I want to investigate 19th Century U.S. Political Culture" but rather, "I'm interested in researching how the U.S. Penny Press became a politically persuasive tool from the 1830s to the 1860s for example. This sends a signal that the applicant has thought about a possible research question and some knowledge of historiography within the broader 19th c. political climate.

"5% vs. 10% can make all the difference though. For an applicant pool of 300 people, I could be among the 15 additional people that get admitted at 10%." You're missing my main point: good GRE and GPA scores only get you past the initial applicant pool. After that, your SOP especially will determine how well you fit with a particular department. The SOP has to be specific enough to determine if there is a professor(s) that can advise your prospective research. So if the admin committee doesn't think you're a good fit, you won't be included in the group of potential candidates. To go further, even if you were included in that smaller group, there may be an additional 30 or 40 other applicants who are equally good fits, then you no longer have an advantage. The admin committee then has to make the difficult final decisions on admittance. This happens often in top programs, where there are more strong and suitable candidates than available places. At times, it's a crap shoot. Yes, I know the difference between 5% and 10%, but getting into a PhD program, even into less than a top tier one, is more involved and complicated than simply looking strictly at probability in a vacuum. What I wrote is based on the knowledge and experience given to me by my M.A. advisor and several other professors in my department, so you can take it however you like. Regardless, if you're interested in applying for a History PhD, you should focus on a research question you would like to investigate in your SOP, and then check out the programs you're interested to see if there are faculty who can either direct you specifically or broadly in that sub-field. Good luck with your application process!

Your stats, plus an outstanding SOP, WS and LORs would place you in the pool for consideration at most top History and Poly Sci programs. That just gets you past the initial stage, but you will then be in a smaller group with others who have equal or better stats. At this stage, admin committees will determine which candidate(s) have the best fit for their respective programs. Comparativist gave you good advice, check out the two departments at each school. They are generally different in focus and methodology. There are some programs, however, and I'm speaking only about History departments since that's my field, where a PhD student can take a few courses across disciplines as electives. You will have to research which programs have an interdisciplinary approach. Furthermore, less competitive means nothing for top programs. It's all relative, there's really no difference between a 5% acceptance rate vs a 10% acceptance rate. What matters most is the fit your research aligns with a particular program.

Admittance to top U.S. programs in either discipline is extremely competitive, approximately 5% or less in a given year. Since you haven't provided any statistical information, there is no way to even guess your probability.

Yes, since it's a February priority deadline, which is later than other programs you're considering with Dec/Jan deadlines. You have plenty of time to decide, even after applying to other programs. You can email the history department to confirm what I stated.