I went back to around page 5 looking at threads and this seems closest to what I am looking for, which is some general advice. If this is the wrong place I am sorry. This is my second time applying for PhDs but first for history.
As background I graduated in 2013 from a small-ish state school (6k students in total) with a double major in History and Economics. GPA was 3.5 with a 3.7 in my history major. I took the GRE's and got 169 Verbal 162 Quantitative 4.5 Analytical writing.
I have been working full time since graduation to pay off student loans. Last fall I started applying to PhD programs in economics, with a particular interest in economic history and ultimately working in academia. I was not accepted to any of the PhD Programs. I was told my quantitative score was far too low. I also definitely applied too late and rushed the application process. I was accepted for an unfunded masters which could progress into a funded PhD. I (quite literally) calculated I could not afford the debt of unsubsidized student loans and politely declined.
I had a nice call with my econ advisor, and she asked why I had not also looked into history. Truthfully, I figured Econ, with its heavy mathematics and public policy connections, would hedged my bets better for a fall back to non-academic work (think-tanks, finance, and tech firms) since the academic market is questionable. I reached out to a history professor I took a number of classes with, and who works in economic history. History might be a better fit based on my interests.
His general advice was 1. Find a good mentor, meteors can make or break you. He suggested reading books by people I was interested in working with. 2. Assuming I get to graduate school, publish like crazy. He had 26 papers published by the time he defended his dissertation. Admittedly easier said then done; his mentor gave him a big boost by co-publishing with him at first to get his foot in the door.
That was in May, so I have been looking through programs, starting with higher ranking ones, specifically at faculty, and have been reading books of the people I might be interested in working with. I have only really started getting into this research seriously though, with a shift from more-then-full-time to part-time work. I do have some problems:
1. I know the emphasis placed on good LOR. I was closer to the econ faculty at my school and had 3 LOR from them for the econ applications. My history professor offered a LOR, I might have one other I could ask for a LOR but I only had one class with him. I am not sure if it is better to ask two of my econ professors again and then have my history professor be my third or try to get a letter from a history professor who does not know me as well.
2. My undergrad classes were unfocused, and related, I am still narrowing my topic down. This is a list of what I took:
Early Russia (Kievan Rus), Byzantine History, Empire and Democracy in Athens (Peloponnese War), History of the Czech Republic (while abroad), Framing Pre-modern World History (seminar on how to teach pre-modern history, historiographic in nature), Early Imperial China (ending at the Song dynasty). In addition I was required to take two general world history courses (pre-modern and modern) and a historiography course. For my economics degree I was required to take a intellectual history course in economics.
I did my thesis in history on the Egypt under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, specifically about their westernization and entrance into the world markets, and in econ I did a economic history paper on the effect of British hegemony on global trade in the 19th century by trying to draw conclusions using a linear regression model. It was not a great paper, but got me used to working with historical statistical problems (mostly that historical statistics are hard to find and have lots of holes).
As for a topic I am trying to narrow down but in general my interests fall in the late Medieval, Early Modern, Early Industrial Era in Europe, and in particular economic and quantitative history (maybe eventually complexity theory), demographics, labor history, and the development of early capitalism and global trade.
3. In terms of languages other than English I have one: German and I have not done any primary source work in it.
Other than these problems I have some general questions:
1. How narrow does my focus have to be in terms of time, place, and topic? My inclination is to as broad as possible, but I understand that is not how academia works, so its a balancing act.
2. Assuming I can narrow my topic down and put together a strong SOP, should I be applying for the 2018 term? Would an attempt at a funded MA be better to focus my research?
3. Assuming yes to either of these, are there individuals or programs outside of the LSE which have a strong economic and quantitative history offering, or would be supportive of quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches to supplement more traditional sources? I have found, so far, only Michigan which offers an "Economic / Societal History, Quantitative Methods" focus, and maybe some of the faculty at Berkley, Northwestern, and MIT. I might be looking for the wrong terms though.
4. Does anyone has a reading list in these topics? I have some background from all the world history I took, but I am trying to read as much as I can to get a feel for what questions have been answered and how.
